Happy birthday, Canberra

It feels like Monday today, because yesterday Canberra had a day off to celebrate its 95th birthday. I took some of the day off to have a bike ride with B and BB. We didn't join The Big Canberra Bike Ride, because we stayed in bed and had pancakes with yogurt and maple syrup. But we did a ride around the lake, popping in on the Albert Hall's birthday celebrations, cruising past the Navy Day activities, pausing to watch the dragon boat races, and gaze at the very weird Navy divers floating in a mobile tank (extra weird for me, having seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly the day before), and having a major break at the budding Celebrate Canberra Concert in Commonwealth Park, alas too early for any good music.

It was a gorgeous day. I left the boys in the park haggling over carnival rides and rode over to the art school where I spent the afternoon batching book covers. Batching means that I don't go through the whole binding process; I'll cut 20 spines, 20 spine strips, 2 sets of boards, and do each stage 20 times. It's laborious, but eventually time-saving, as any time-and-motion study will tell you. The problem is that you have to concentrate at the beginning of any batching stage, because if you make a mistake then, you'll make it 20 times.

I've become a devotee of a digital radio station called Gimme Noise, with a tagline that says 'New and Classic Indie and Punk Rock'. It's like the hits and memories station for the 30- to 40-somethings who used to hang out in the uni bar next to the juke box, playing pool. You know who you are. I wasn't one of you, but I lived with a few of you, and I'm enjoying the chance to catch up on the music without having to be trashed. And you can make requests, which is a lot of fun. The only downside of the station is that it's American, and the only Australians I can find on their playlist are the Go-Betweens (not a bad thing), but that's their problem, and the rest of the music is excellent.

Damn, my whole week is going to be out now. I keep thinking my students should be showing right now, but instead I have a long quiet day of batching ahead of me. Not as sexy as printing, but all part of the book editioning process.

I didn't go nuts at Lifeline this time; I think my total expenditure was about $60, and only two bags of books all up. Probably a good thing for our poor overloaded house, which is groaning under the weight of book piles. One of my students did show up this morning, to show me the big bag of books he found at the Fair (his first, and by the gleam in his eye, not to be his last). He's working with fairy tales from a boy's perpective, and his desk is now groaning with old Boys' Own Annuals and other such lovely jolly tomes. O wot fun!