I was reading the New Scientist this morning and there is an interesting article in it called 'The secret power of things we hold dear' and at the end of this article is a request for 300 word stories of objects that you hold dear. Extract: Human objects have a secret power for their owners. They can help you think better or in a new way. Or they can become such a powerful part of your life that you couldn’t imagine being without them.

In an essay for New Scientist, linked to her latest book, Evocative Objects, MIT professor Sherry Turkle reckons that just asking yourself what they mean to you can unlock a rich stock of memories, associations and insights into your thought processes that you may not be able to get at any other way.

Below I have included my object-to-think-with and I have spent an enjoyable morning reading other people's stories.

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I would not normally call to my pet blue tongue lizard an object, but then neither would I refer to slime mould in such a way. Named Lori, but more commonly called lizard, Mr Lizard or my lizard, he exists in my mind as a tantalising link to childhood curiosity and a desire for scientific exploration.

He has silky smooth skin and a range of unexpected temperatures so that when you hold him you are never sure what kind of mood he will be in – fast and adventurous or cool and waiting. I like it that he sleeps til noon, until the day warms, though am perplexed why he often scratches about in the early hours of the morning sometimes waking me from sleep. I wonder what he thinks about and how strange it is to only be able to digest your food when you are lying on a warm rock. He connects me to memories of metabolic cycles that plastered my university toilet block to aid me and biology classes where we dissected sea stars and worms and understood how fish could evolve into frogs and lizards could evolve legs and then lose them again to create snakes.

He reminds me that when I chose a pet to keep I was reading about witchcraft and fortune telling and questioning my spiritual beliefs. I wanted a pet that reflected my personality – that could be my familiar. Because of this, he seems magical, exciting, exotic and I remind myself that I too can be these things. Even when I glance over at his terrarium while doing the vacuuming, it’s special to see him curled nose to tail; sleeping.

I wonder if all pets are an object for us to confer personalities, thoughts and feelings and think about the world and our relationships within it.

Jill and Ross left today after visiting for a week. It was great to see them and to actually get to know them again. It has been a long time since I have had the chance to spend that much time with Jill and I don't think we have ever spent that long with Ross. They have headed back to Tassie to get to know their new puppy. Hopefully they will have a name for her soon - any suggestions welcome. They have put up some photos on their website. So cute.

We had a great time together - one of the highlights was a trip to see the view from the new Eureka tower. Ross was adventurous and went out in the cube - just glass between him and the ground - 88 floors up. It was a great view - we went up at dusk and saw the lights of the city come out, picked out our street, the Spirit of Tasmania, our work places and marvelled at the vastness of Melbourne. It is quite a flat and wide city.

Claire has tagged me with a meme:
Here are 7 random facts about myself:

1. I have started reading Tim Winton's Shallows. I really like his style of writing and have recently read Cloudstreet and Dirt Music as well. I picked a couple up from a great second hand bookshop on Rathdowne St last time I visited my sister Alison.

2. I like cooking, its creative, contributes to others and is a bit indulgent. On the weekend I made tartlets with three different fillings chocolate, lemon curd with meringues and honey marscapone with poached fruit. They were tasty and were snapped up quickly.

3. My sister Jill and her partner Ross will be coming to stay in one weeks time!

4. My husband Nathan is looking for work in Melbourne and has an interview on Tuesday. He's also been talking to two contracting companies and may end up contracting to where I work! It will be another building but at least the transport options with only one car become simpler.

5. I am writing a novel and have a single polished chapter and many many rough and ready other chapters that require a lot of work. I'm hoping once all the family visits have finished that I will get back into writing. I find that I need to think about it in my spare time so that when I write I have something to say.

6. My sister Alison lives in Melbourne and just came second at the National Salsa Championship for on-1 style. She is fantastic and has great abs!

7. My friends Alison, Anthony and their son Tor came round for lunch a couple of weeks ago and gave me a house warming cactus which is dark green with wispy white hairs and bright pink flowers that are just coming out. It is a marvelous thing.

Here is a photo of my cute lizard who was out and about after a lunch time gathering with a few bottles of wine.

Well we have moved into a new apartment in Port Melbourne, just up from the beach. We can walk our kayaks (currently in the family room) down the beach for a paddle. They are a bit heavy so having wheels will be good. A lot of our things are still in storage and in the next month or so we will have to start paying for them to be stored. We will then be able to get out the wheels that Nathan was given as a going away present from work! They will be great. We weren't expecting to have the kayaks with us at this stage but we were lucky that the apartment is the right shape that the kayaks can fit inside. They take up a fair amount of space but with a few plastic sheets down aren't really in the way at all.

Work is going ok. It is taking awhile to learn the ropes as expected. Nathan is still looking for a suitable position but has a few things that look promising. He has a second interview on Tuesday with an interesting company so hopefully that goes well.

I haven't updated the blog for a while as we didn't have internet at home - while I had it at work for some reason I didn't think to use it for my blog. Just something that I have always done from home! I will try and put some pictures in over the weekend - thanks Matt for lending us your dial up free hours so we have some semblance of connectivity.

One of the coolest things that has happened during the move is that in the serviced apartment, our lizard Laurie, was living in a cardboard box which he managed to escape from twice. Possibly due to the close proximity with us or the escapes emboldening him, Laurie has been very adventurous and is now quite relaxed in our company. He will sit on the couch with us and walk over us, sit outside his house more often and generally be more interested in what we are doing. He loves his knew house that we bought before we left Canberra - its very spacious and is much easier to clean due to the front opening pannels. He's much more fun as a pet now and its really nice to have him to interact with.

Well we are definitely moving, I have been offered a job in Melbourne and am transfering as soon as I can. We have been doing a lot of organising, paperwork and cleaning up lately. Nothing exciting to report. Our trip to Melbourne a couple of weekends ago was great. Caught up with my sister and friends, went salsa dancing and did a tour of the suburbs. There are a lot of suburbs that look really nice to live in - it will just depend on what we can afford. We will probably try and rent in Port Melbourne first and then see what is available in the East or south east. Its a bit annoying - but once this first three weeks are over and we have settled in it will be a lot better. The real estate agent said it might take us 3 weeks to find a place to rent due to the market being tight at the moment. Hopefully while we are waiting around for all of our belongings I will write some novel. I won't be able to be distracted by other hobbies. I will just have to keep Nathan off my laptop as he won't have his computer!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes for my birthday. I had a fantastic weekend! Lynne and Roger visited for the weekend and came with us to Skyfire by the lake with a fabulous picnic and friends Matt & Christine, Jeremy and Natasha and Steve & Claire. Great conversation, food and lights. We then had an excellent meal at Grazing in Gundaroo for lunch on Sunday. They have their own vegie patch out the back which we wandered through with heirloom vegetables that they serve up seasonally in the restaurant. It was a hot day but under the verandah we had a leisurely lunch. I had smoked trout and then shared desserts creme brulee, lime curd tart... the highlight was the lemon grass icecream which I will have to try to make myself.

We went to a small local potter and had a tour of his kilns and Lynne had a chat to him about ceramic making. We also went to the Open day for the War Memorial, Parliament house and old parliment house rose garden (beautiful). I had a really great birthday weekend full of friends, gardens, food.

We also recently bought some light fittings.

I went to the show today to take a turn on the Lapidary Club stall in the Crafts Pavillion. One the way there I stopped by the camels for a few minutes to admire their easy confidence and commanding air. They were beautiful with their bating eyelashes and tall elegance, nobbly knees. They were very well behaved and only honked and bared their teeth when a few too many balloons were thrust in their faces by passing children and were not given enough space by preoccupied parents as they meet with their children after they had a few minnutes ride on the wonderful creatures. I took notice particularly as in Chapter tow of my novel the camels are introduced to create an arabian feel for the setting. Now I have the real life experience to invest in the scene I hope that it comes to life. I have seen camels before but due to my poor memory and not having any real need to remember I couldn't really describe them well. They were more gentle looking than I would have painted them if I had left it to my recollections from novels and TV shows.

On another front we are looking into buying a new lizard enclosure and I though you might like to check out the Canberra store Canberra Exoticswho we will buy one from. If you are from interstate they also do online orders :) They have a great store and separate herpe collection in Kamba which is well worth the visit just to see the huge range of lizards, snakes, frogs, turtles, monitors and even a croccodile. We're thinking about a 4foot by 18inches glass and steel tank that we will have to get custom made so that it fits on our buffet where he currently lives. The 4x2 tank is too big otherwise we would get that.

Nath and I went kayaking at the beach south one bay from Batehaven on the weekend. It started off a bit annoying as the wind was up and catching spray in your face every couple of strokes wasn't fun. We headed into a bit more of a sheltered area and after a while in there I had my rhythm up and could tackle the waves again. We headed out to our normal island (this time from the other side) and I spotted two dolphin fins! We kept going in the direction we were headed and by chance managed to see them another 4-5 times before they headed into the bay and we turned back to the beach. It made the trip and we had a good paddle too. We are heading down this Saturday if the weather is ok. Hopefully less wind. Sunday will be spent at the Canberra Show (the afternoon at least) on the Lapidary club stall. Come along and visit I will be demonstrating faceting in among the other crafts people.

Last week I started a new knitting project, a baby cardigan. I know it is a bit premature - since I am not pregnant yet, but I bought the wool about two seasons ago when it was on special. I should be finishing the jumper for myself that I started about the same time but I have run out of the olive green wool. I probably only need 1/4 of a ball :( Oh well I will keep looking on ebay it might turn up. Otherwise when the wool comes into Lincraft I may try to match it with something. I am on the last sleeve.

The blue looks very dark in this photo but it is actually a very nice electric colour that will look great on a baby with blue eyes. Most likely Nathan and I will have a child with brown eyes but you never know. Maybe I will give this away to someone else.

I also have a few baby suits cut out from when I was making clothes for my nieces that still need sewing and I have started on them today. As Nathan has the flu this weekend and it looks like he has given it to me we have abandoned our kayaking trip down the coast. We will have to go next weekend.