thribble

What A Difference A Week Makes

2011-08-04T21:39:00.005+10:00

A week ago today I was freaking out at the thought of Pete being away for a week. Eamonn wasn't sleeping (in fact was screaming for hours on end over night) and I was exhausted. I've never been without family for more than 24 hours since Eamonn was born. More to the point, when Eamonn and I went to the UK without Pete, Eamonn woke up every hour overnight for the two weeks until Pete arrived. To say I was a little apprehensive about his sleep patterns changing would be a bit of an understatement.

What a difference a week makes. We sorted the problem with the sleeping (too much cows milk) and I've had a nice relaxed week. The mornings are easier as I don't have to worry about whether or not to bring Eamonn into bed with us at 5:30 or whether to battle him to sleep in his cot. Getting out of the house on time is easier, as Pete is NOT a morning person!! I've taken time out and enjoyed the sunshine, and made sure that Eamonn didn't miss his Daddy too much.

Don't get me wrong, we've both missed Pete and it'll be great to have him back, but this week has made me realise that I can cope on my own, and it's not all going to overwhelm me. Which is good, because I'm sure there will be a next time!

I'll leave you with this poem, by the famous poet "anonymous". I've seen it a lot in the last year, but it has captured my two SAHM days this week perfectly.

I Took His Hand And Followed

My dishes went unwashed today
I didnt make my bed
I took his hand and followed
Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring
My little child and I
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the sun and sky.

We watched a robin feed her young
We climbed a sunlit hill
Saw cloud sheep scamper through the sky
We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was so neglected
That I didnt brush the stairs
In twenty years no one on earth
Will even know or care.

But that i've helped my little child
To noble adulthood grow
In twenty years the whole world
May look and see and know.

One Year Down

2011-07-24T17:11:00.003+10:00

Eamonn turned one this week. I always knew that this would be emotional, but I didn't realise the depth and variety of emotions that it would stir up in me. I have written a lot about Eamonn in various forms this year - on Facebook and Twitter mostly, and often pleas for him to go to sleep. I think I owe him better than that, so this blog entry is for you, gorgeous boy.

A year ago I had no idea what was coming up. I held a tiny baby in my arms and stared in wonder at you. I was astounded at how easily you understood breastfeeding when I had no clue. I loved to watch you sleep. I still do. I hated to hear you scream. I still do.

You always liked to see what was going on - being held upright you would push back and lift your head up to have a look around right from the start. You wanted to lift your head up, then you wanted to wriggle around, then crawl, and now you really don't like even to sit down. You love to hold on to something and stand and look, or even better have me hold you up high so you can see what I can see.

You've always been determined. At first you were determined not to sleep so you could be part of everything, but with the help of the fabulous nurses at sleep school you've learnt that if you sleep you can see more when you're awake. You were determined that you weren't drinking from a bottle, but now you love them. Now I watch you determinedly working out how to get out of a door, or up the stairs, or into a cupboard, or any number of other places you shouldn't be. I love that you want to explore and nothing will stop you.

We've had highs and lows. Lows so low I didn't think I'd come back, but the highs have been so high I thought I was flying. Every second has been worth it in the end and I wouldn't change you for the world. We've grown into a family together. This year has been unexpected, amazing, sad, frustrating, wonderful, beautiful and at the end of it I can look back with a clear mind and say I would do it all again for you.

It wouldn't be fair to end this without mentioning Pete, who has kept me sane and held my hand through all of this year. Thanks Pete. I love you.

And Eamonn, thanks for this year. Let's make next year less extreme but just as good! I love you, baby boy.

Bad Customer Service

2011-04-19T21:02:00.002+10:00

I recently ordered some nappy covers online as Eamonn has grown out of his. I received a single woollen nappy cover, instead of two PUL ones. I emailed the company asking them to let me know how to return the wrong order, and to please send the right one. This is the email I received in return:

-----

Good morning Kristy,

We would firstly like to apologise for the wrong order been posted out to you. We actually had two K Johns purchase in the garage sale and it seems that stickers had been put on the wrong parcels.

We are working on changing our current procedures so that this does not occur again. If you could post back to us the items that you did get as soon as possible and upon receiving these we will post you out your correct items.

Again we are extremely sorry for the inconvenience.

Kind Regards,

Tahnay Fleming

Internet Administration Team

-----

Can you spot the problems?

First up, my name is KIRSTY, not KRISTY.

Secondly, I'm not paying to post your mistake back to you.

Thirdly, just send me the right stuff, it's your fault you screwed up.

So I'm waiting on a response to my request for a pre-paid envelope. I won't pay to post it back. And I won't be using that company again.

AGL - Dodgy Dodgy

2011-04-07T13:39:00.002+10:00

I've just been door knocked by a representative of AGL, an energy supplier here in Australia. Apparently there have been "complaints of over charging in this area", so can he see my electricity and gas bills. I checked his ID, yes, he works for AGL.

Now this is spectacularly bad timing as I'd just started changing the baby's nappy, and I happen to know there's a gas bill on the stairs so off I go to get it. I come back and point out that our electricity supply is actually with Origin, not AGL. He says yes, he wants to check if they're on-charging the right amount. I'm skeptical... Our bill says 21c/unit, he says it should only be 18c and had I heard they're installing smart meters along here. Yes, I had heard that, but what has this to do with it? Well, apparently when the new meter is installed we will get our gas directly from AGL not from a supplier. Quote:

"Your next bill will be 19c/unit, so 20% cheaper."

Really? At this point I am so bothered by the whole thing I ask if AGL can please send me some info in the post that I can read when the baby isn't naked upstairs. He says no, that's not possible. I say in that case I am not doing anything, I will maintain the status quo. He says, quote:

"Either now or afterwards, you won't get from a supplier, it will come from AGL direct."

I have to fill in the paperwork now. I say no thanks, and he asks if I want to pay 20% extra. I point out that I have my electricity with Origin for a number of reasons, not just price, and go inside and close the door.

It seems very dodgy and even if AGL are cheaper, they will not be getting my business. If they can confuse me (alright, baby brain is at a high at the moment) into nearly signing my supply over to them with those tactics, I wonder how many others actually fall for it.

Letter to a Non-Pregnant Person

2010-04-28T06:18:00.002+10:00

Via the email rounds...

Dear Non-Pregnant Person,

I hope you find these guidelines helpful in your interactions with pregnant women, as failing to follow them may result in serious physical harm. If you are thinking, surely she doesn’t mean me – then you should probably read this twice.

1. The appropriate response to a couple telling you they are having a baby is ‘Congratulations!’ with enthusiasm. Any other response makes you a jerk.

2. Through the wonders of science, we now know that babies are made ONLY by the mother and father – not grandparents. Unless the baby is in your uterus or you are the man that helped put it there, you may not ever use the phrase ‘my baby’.

3. On the same note, unless you made the baby as defined in 2, the pregnancy, birth, and raising of the child are not about you. You do not have input. No one wants to hear your opinion unless they ask for it…

4. The body of a pregnant woman should be treated the same as any other body. You would not randomly touch someone’s stomach if they were not pregnant, nor would you inquire into the condition of their uterus, cervix, or how they plan to use their breasts. Pregnancy does not remove all traces of privacy from a woman.

5. Likewise, no woman wants to hear comments on her weight…ever. A pregnant woman does not find it flattering that you think she is about is pop, must be having twins, looks swollen or has gained weight in her face. Telling her she looks too small only makes her worry that she is somehow starving her baby. Making such comments invite her to critique your physical appearance and you may not act offended. The only acceptable comment on appearance is ‘You look fabulous!’.

6. By the time we are 20-30 years old, most of us have picked up on the fact that the summer is hot. We are hot every summer when we are not pregnant. We don’t need you to point out that we will be miserably hot before the baby comes. Nor do we need to know how badly you will feel for us because we will be pregnant during the summer and how glad you are that YOU will not be pregnant this coming summer.

7. There is a reason that tickets to Labour & Delivery are not yet sold on Ticketmaster. Childbirth is actually not a public event. It may sound crazy, but some women really do not relish the idea of their mother, MIL, or a host of other family members seeing their bare butt and genitals. Also, some people simply feel like the birth of their child is a private and emotional moment to be shared only by the parents. You weren’t invited to be there when the baby was created, you probably won’t be invited to be there when it comes out either.

8. Like everything else in life, unless you receive an invitation, you are NOT invited. This includes doctor appointments, ultrasounds, labor, delivery, the hospital, and the parent’s home. You do not decide if you will be there for the birth or if you will move in with the new parents to ‘help out’. If your assistance is desired, rest assured that you will be asked for it.

9. If you are asked to help after the birth, this means you should clean up the house, help with cooking meals, and generally stay out of the way. Holding the baby more than the parents, interfering with breastfeeding and sleeping schedules, and making a woman who is still leaking fluid from multiple locations lift a finger in housework is not helping.

10. The only people entitled to time with the baby are the parents. Whether they choose to have you at the hospital for the birth or ask for you to wait three weeks to visit, appreciate that you are being given the privilege of seeing their child. Complaining or showing disappointment only encourages the parents to include you less.

Sincerely,
All the Pregnant Women in the World

1000th Post

2009-01-20T21:50:00.002+11:00

It seems appropriate that for my 1000th post I tell you where you can actually find updates re my life - after all, it's clearly not here. First up has to be flickr. Followed by twitter or facebook for status updates. To be honest, I'd rather you all looked at twitter - it saves me logging on to facebook and the status updates copy across anyway. So there you are. This may be my last blog post. I can't even remember html anymore. Go find me somewhere else. Or even better, email me or call me on skype!!

Twitter

2008-11-14T11:19:00.000+11:00

Those of you not following my status updates on Twitter or Facebook may not know that I'm in LA. This is because said status updates seem to have supplanted blogging. They're way easier, for one, and I don't have to think too hard about what to say. However, there are times when they just fall short. Like today, when I've done so much stuff I can't fit them all in. So here goes.

Kirsty:

- has rented a convertible chrysler sebring
- has had lunch on the beach - yes, as sandwich!
- resisted the temptation of the "Aussie Special" - meat pie and any side.
- listened to "The World's Greatest Wino" sing "jingle bells, jingle bells, give me some money so I can get drunk".
- avoided buying a CD of "happy Senegal music".
- narrowly resisted buying a T-shirt saying "I need more cowbell".
- had the best value $12 massage ever and now feels a lot less pain!
- got her feet wet in the sea
- drove on the right nearly all the time :O but remembered just in time on the exception!
- bought Oreos, the world's best biscuit. Sorry, cookie.
- discovered that her hotel charges for parking. Cheapskates.

That's all for now, folks!

Sponsor Me!

2008-05-10T18:09:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow I'm running 4km (quite a long way for me at the moment) to raise money for breast cancer research. If you want to sponsor me, you can! Just click this link. If you do, thankyou. If you don't, then please give some money to another good cause.

Open Letter to All Estate Agents

2008-04-30T22:23:00.001+10:00

Dear Mr(s) Estate Agent,

Can you manage my property? I ask only 4 things.
1. Will you respond to my questions and emails promptly and fully?
2. Will you respond to the tenant's requests for maintenance promptly?
3. Will you avoid using bad excuses for non-communication such as dodgy email systems?
4. Will you value both tenant and landlord as a customer and treat them as such?

If you can answer yes to 3 out of 4 of these questions, please contact me! If you can answer yes to 1 out of 4 of these questions, you're already doing better than our current estate agent.

tech update

2008-02-24T21:01:00.000+11:00

The sound randomly came back but only for TV, not skype. Then, as of 10 minutes ago, it's gone again. Still okay with headphones, though. The guide still won't pick up the programming for most of the channels, but htey're there, I can see them! Just a bit concerned I'm going to miss the amazing race because of it. Camera cable has turned up. It's gone on holiday with Pete, to Hong Kong. I hope it's enjoying itself.

Pete's Gone To HK

2008-02-23T19:39:00.000+11:00

Pete's gone to HK, and since he's been gone (less than 48 hours) I've had a techno blip. I worked out how to get ABC back on our TV. I lost all the TV channels. I got them back. The guide doesn't work. The sound on the TV doesn't work. I did lots of diagnostics. It works with headphones, therefore it's the speakers. I'm currently watching TV close up with headphones on. I've lost my camera cable so I can't get the photos off. Life is hard, without a husband!!

Two Little Pigs

2008-01-08T18:02:00.000+11:00

Today I set off to do a very simple thing. I wanted to pay our returned bond cheque into the bank. I handed over the cheque and my bank card, a visa debit. I was told I couldn't pay it in because it's a joint cheque, but my credit card. I had forgotten - this isn't a bank account (despite the fact that we both put our wages into it and we both have cards on it and we both have internet banking access to it). It's a credit card, and Pete has an extra card on it. A somewhat heated discussion followed, ending up with the manager turning up and taking me off to a private office. I pointed out a number of times that we don't have another bank account, we both put money into this one, we both take it out - how can that not be a joint account? Anyway, the upshot was I had to open another savings account with them, a joint one this time (we already have one, but because I opened it it's just in my name). And because they had Pete's details on file he didn't need to sign anything, and I could pay the money in straight away. Same end result, no extra permission from Pete, utter waste of 30 minutes.

I was so upset and angry with them they gave me a pig for my pain, so I now have two, one from the first savings account I opened, and one from today. If I keep going I'll have a family!

New Year

2008-01-03T16:34:00.000+11:00

There was so much I wanted to write about - our trip to Glenrowan and the substandard animatronic show (so bad you want to go back in and check it really is that bad), our boxing day barbeque and Keith's amazing uke playing, new year and the ridiculous temperatures, our walk around the shrine of remembrance - but somehow I just can't be bothered. Therefore I have pinched an idea from Mad, and whichever forum she got it off, and will just try and take a photo a day to illustrate what we're up to. They're all on Flickr, and I'll try and post them here too.

1st Jan - failed photo of midnight fireworks. We went to the shrine to watch them, with what seemed like most of South Melbourne. From where we were we could see most of the city fireworks, and the Albert Park ones aswell.

2nd Jan - Muffins. Now that I am officially lactose intolerant, I'm finding it quite hard (my love of cheese and chocolate milkshakes is a problem, as is the desire for ice cream that goes with the current temperatures). For new year my resolution was to stick to the healthy diet and not make myself ill, so I treated myself to a book entirely full of lactose and gluten free recipes. These were the first effort out of it, and they taste nice. The chicken and herb risotto last night was good too. However, the sweetcorn fritters are not that exceptional.

3rd Jan - roof of part of the NGV gallery. It's beautiful. I went in for half an hour as it's air conditioned and free, and tracked down the Turners. A nice relaxing way to kill time.

My Australia

2007-11-17T13:56:00.000+11:00

I love Australia. I may have mentioned this in the past, but I just love the colours, the freshness, the diversity. Melbourne alone gives me endless opportunities just to be, but the rest of Australia blows my mind. I have tried to capture it photographically, (the colours, the dust, the clouds you can reach out and touch, the sunsets, the big rocks and of course, Melbourne.

But I certainly don't do it as well as these guys. Take a look. It's my Australia.

Fly Me To The Moon

2007-11-17T10:12:00.000+11:00

There are no words to describe the feeling when I discover that Popbitch has linked to this on a Boro page. PG. (talking abou the video, not the betting!)

It's All About The Rugby

2007-10-20T17:08:00.000+10:00

After 3 days on a safety in design course I've come away with some great ideas, enthusiastic about setting up the company system. So why is it all I can think is that I don't mind if it's ugly, I don't mind if it's brutal, I just want a win. I don't even care if all the points are scored by Johnny Wilkinson, as long as there are points. I can take the teasing about him being the only player on the England team. Just let England make history. My year would be complete and I'd not ask for anything else. Just one, little, tiny victory. How hard would that be?

That was a rhetorical question. All you non-England fans out there, please don't feel obliged to answer.

Blog Action Day

2007-10-15T08:26:00.001+10:00

I wondered what to write for this. I thought about it a lot. Then I thought, hey, I work in the industry, I must have lots to write about! And at the moment, sustainability and the environment is a hot topic.

The project I'm working on finally pumped recycled water up the pipeline last week. We've done our bit to bring back sport and community events to the city. It is, after all, why I stay in this industry, even if I started by accident. (Yes, I did fall into a job I love entirely by accident - if you're after career advice, this is the wrong place to look for it!) After almost 10 years of drought there is no outside watering allowed at all (including public parks, gardens and sports grounds) and reservoir levels were down to 6% at the worst of it. The town I'm working for was created because there was gold there. Unlike Europe, where towns grew up around rivers, this is not uncommon in Australia - gold mining towns where there's no constant water supply. There's no outside watering simply because there is no water. This is the new reality of living in Australia, in areas which were once fertile but are increasingly dry.

One of the problems we have to contend with is that water isn't looked at consistently. Groundwater is somehow seen as separate to rivers and lakes. Rivers divide states and in some cases, like the Murray, flow through them too. State governments have a lot of power, and each one wants the most, or the best, for it's residents, which usually means more water. They don't always (or ever) agree on the best way forward. Here, the Murray is the lifeblood, and everyone's hopes are pinned on it. The federal government has worked very hard to pull the Murray Darling basin back into it's control, which makes sense from an environmental perspective. They will rationalise the irrigation allowances, give a coherent policy. Unfortunately, it just seems to mean that all the "spare" water created by this will be piped to Melbourne, or Bendigo, or Ballarat, along superpipes. Lifeblood to the cities. And the difference in lifestyles between a rural city and the capital is easy to see. The voters are concentrated in the capital - so increasing the water restrictions there impacts almost directly on the polls. No wonder the rural residents feel hard done by. Water is the big political issue of our times. Climate change comes second, only at the top of the consciousness because of the drought.

Sometimes what I do sucks. Sometimes I love that out of all the jobs in the world, this one chose me - I get to do what I'm good at and not destroy the environment, or work for companies I disagree with. But sometimes it sucks. Because if you're doing it for the good of the environment, then sometimes you have to ignore your career prospects and just stand up and be counted.

Mashup

2007-09-29T17:40:00.000+10:00

I love mashups. Always have. And this one is great. Appeals to both my two major loves of cheese and rock.

Blog Action Day

2007-09-25T21:45:00.000+10:00

I've just signed up for this. Now I just need to think of something to write!

Excellent!

2007-09-22T21:25:00.000+10:00

You may or may not be aware that I'm working on a huge project at the moment. And have been since March last year, not due to finish finally until March next year. 2 years of recycled water joy. Happily on Thursday night the hard work of everyone was recognised when we came "Highly Commended" in the Victorian Engineering Excellence awards. I am over the moon that we beat some really big projects, and the winner really deserved it.

A friend once told me that the best place to come in Crufts was 2nd in class - you get the glory, the recognition, but you don't have to stay down for the finals which is expensive. I think this is similar - we get the recognition, the publicity, but we don't have to go to Canberra for the finals. Which, given my love of Canberra, can only be a good thing.

I have photographic evidence which I will send to anyone who emails me, but it's not going on Flickr!

Mobile Phones Don't Create Privacy Bubbles

2007-09-17T19:38:00.000+10:00

It's a simple bit of information, but something that a lot of people don't get. Not quite on the same scale as the conversation the whole tram overheard a couple of months back (a man discussing his impending sexual harrasment case with his lawyer) but pretty good, today I overheard the following:

"I haven't been laid for 3 years. It's grim."

World Cup Fever

2007-09-09T21:54:00.000+10:00

So we've wired up Foxtel, and discovered (well, I say we, I mean Pete!) that we can't get it to record through our HP easily. So this morning my alarm went off at 1:55, and I was there in time to see the national anthems. England USA. Very disapponting performance, and I have a sneaking suspicion that by the end of this competition I won't be able to say to my Australian and New Zealand colleagues "so who has the world cup?" with quite such a smirk.

The great debate at the moment is... will Pete get up at 4am to see Ireland beat Namibia, or is it a foregone conclusion and therefore pointless.

You Tube

2007-09-08T12:18:00.000+10:00

Star Wars on a banjo. Lord deliver me ;-).

It's Here!

2007-09-08T11:39:00.000+10:00

The nano's here. It's small, shiny, red, and full of music. Yay!

And even better, we have Foxtel. Not that I'm too excited about that, but it means that the rugby world cup is here. We only had Sky in the UK because I got it the day before the previous world cup for ITV2, and the same applies here. It got its first run at 5am this morning for the France Argentina game, and it'll get another go at 2am tomorrow morning for the England USA game. Too exciting!

There's an advert running on Ten at the moment. It shows the pass to Johnny Wilkinson, and him kicking the drop goal. Slo-mo Australian players turning to follow the flight. Cut to a black screen with the words "remember how it felt?". Back to the flight of the ball, the drop goal through... Yes, I remember how it felt. And I still get tingles down my spine whenever I see that moment. I love that advert. Thankyou Ten!

Faith

2007-09-04T21:34:00.000+10:00

Those of you who know me well know that one of the things I rarely talk about is religion. Those who know me even better know that this is because I have some strong opinions, and I hate to get riled up about them. The Association of Interchurch Families was part of that - supporting my parents through the stages of their marriage, and helping my sister and I realise what was important to us. Ellen Bard and I were two of the founder members of IFYAG, the Interchurch Families Youth Action Group. We had grown up beyond the kid's activities at the annual conference and realised that children of interchurch families have their own issues to deal with. We wanted somewhere to talk them through, and maybe get some things changed.

I learnt that you can't change a big organisation, certainly not from the bottom up, but you can work around them, and in the end what matters is that you believe in what you do and how you do it. One of the people who helped me realise this was Reverend Canon Chris Bard. It's incredibly difficult to learn of someone's death and have nothing to give to the people who loved him and were close to him. The only thing I can offer is my sincere sympathy, and my undying respect for a man who loved life and was a true christian. Despite being a member of the clergy for "one side", he saw, and helped others see, that there weren't sides. Just people. Thanks Chris.

Joining the Apple Age

2007-09-02T19:55:00.000+10:00

You hear that, readers? That is the sound of inevitability. That is the sound of Apple's coffers ringing one more time as I have just succumbed and bought an iPod. It's a nano, 8GB, red (so it's okay, because it's for charity). There will even be an inscription on the back, and kudos to anyone who can guess what it is. I'll give you a clue - it's not my name, and it was said by a fairy tale writer.

I'm very excited. Now I just have to work out how to use itunes...

Holiday Catch Up

2007-08-25T18:58:00.000+10:00

It's been a while, to say the least. As I was chatting to my Mum earlier, I realised that I had been remiss in my postings. This is partly because I've been spending a lot of time going up and down to Bendigo, and to be honest, it's not that exciting. However, last weekend I got the opportunity to use my new camera in earnest. We went to Hobart with some friends for a long weekend, and it was lovely!

When we arrived at the house we'd rented we discovered that the lovely people who own it had left us breakfast - two loaves of bread (but no fish), jam, honey, vegemite (of course), cereal, milk, coffee (real and instant!), tea of various sorts, and a couple of packets of biscuits incase we were really hungry. That kind of set the tone for the holiday - nothing went really wrong, and we had a lovely break.

Day 1 was a trip to the Cascade brewery (thankfully our designated driver doesn't drink beer) followed by a trip to the Lark distillery for whisky tasting. We rounded it off with a good Thai takeaway back at the house.

Day 2 was Salamanca markets (a new hat, hair band and chilli oil for me) followed by a trip up Mount Wellington. We were all very excited to see that it was covered in snow. I was Des that day, and was a little nervous going up the windy road with snow on the side! We cooked ourselves a big roast that evening, with veggies from the market and pre-roasted chickens from the amusingly titled "Legs and Breasts", and rounded off the day with a game of Cranium. Which I won!

The final day was the most sobering. We started well, with a trip to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park (v. cute until they open their mouths and crunch through bones), then headed down to Port Arthur. When convicts reoffended after they were transported they were sent to Port Arthur, a prison town where hard work and religion was supposed to rehabilitate the convicts. It's a pretty dismal part of Australia's history, but even more so was the memorial to the victims of the massacre there in 1996. We drove away very quietly. I would recommend it though - an interesting day, and a really beautiful part of the world.

Since then I've been back to Bendigo (I know, you can hardly contain your excitement) and now I'm back! And I'm hoping the photo links in this post work, or that's all my hard work up the swannee. You can judge for yourselves if my camera is any good!

I hate having a cold!

2007-07-29T16:31:00.000+10:00

I finally got around to buying a new camera to replace the borked, stuck-on-sunset, Minolta Z2. I searched the internet, read reviews, did the research. Then I snapped. I went to a good camera shop and asked their advice. They gave me two options - a Panasonic with 10x optical zoom, but still pretty small, and another one, which I now forget, that had 5x zoom and was smaller. I also looked at an Olympus, the FE 200 or 240. I went away and got confused again. When I went back into the shop yesterday I realised that I would miss the 10x zoom I'd had, and didn't want to give it up. So I'm now the proud owner of a shiny new camera! And at some point, you'll get to see some of the photos from it. When I find some interesting ones to take!

Also this weekend I've bought a pair of hair straighteners (the new hair cut demanded them!) and some foundation. Having not bought any foundation since I bought the tinted moisturiser from Boots about 7 years ago, I was a bit confused. I wandered over to a nice looking lady, had a chat and a demonstration, bought some, and then checked the reciept. $96. Phew! Apparantly Chanel is pretty expensive. Who knew!

Looking Good, Billy Ray!

2007-07-15T20:48:00.000+10:00

Feeling Good, Louis! On Tuesday morning I got within spitting distance of the sea. On Wednesday I reached the sea. This morning I reached the sea and ran for 3km beside it! Which gives me a total of 8km ran this morning, which is pretty good.

Quite apart from that (Mum, stop reading now!!), I've been on a bit of a detox this week, after our party at the weekend. No booze, no meat, just fruit and veg. I had my first proper meal last night when I made a chilli. The rest of the week has been all carrot sticks, kiwi fruit and soup. Still, I'm 2kg lighter, and, as I say, feeling good!

So I'm celebrating with a glass of shiraz. Seems wrong, somehow!

In other news, I've seen two movies this weekend - Ocean's 13 and Pirates. Both number 3 in a series. Johnny Depp wins hands down. I lauged out loud and cried a bit too. Keith Richards was fantastic. Skip Ocean's 13.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

2007-07-15T17:05:00.001+10:00

I'm thoroughly enjoying ABC2's presentation of the Great Global Warming Swindle. Particularly I'm enjoying the interview with the director and the rebuttals. However, the scientests don't always come over at their best. For example:

"The idea that the quantity of something stops it being effective is clearly silly".

Fabulous. It's silly.

"Yes they are."
"No they're not"
"Yes they are"
"No they're not"

And so on ad infinitum. Loving it!

Niceness Pays Dividends

2007-07-10T21:03:00.000+10:00

Forbes.com have a lovely thing where you get a story in little pictures. This one caught my eye this evening. My personal favourite tip was

At Starbucks, the CEO and president, Jim Donald, limits one-hour meetings to 45 minutes--and tells employees to use the extra 15 minutes to call someone they usually don't contact every day.

Although the previous one about never speaking for more than 60 seconds in a meeting is one our "CEO" could learn from.

Run to the G

2007-06-17T20:14:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned, I'm planning for the half marathon in October. Today I ran to the G, along with half of Melbourne as far as I could tell. And the other half were out cheering! I'm not sure what time I did it in, but at least I ran 5k, which was the point. On track, so far!!

On the downside, my trousers still don't fit.

Oh Please

2007-06-05T17:05:00.000+10:00

So the new logo for London 2012 has been revealed. At a star studded ceremony. And El Tonito's comment?

"When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life.

Oh pur-lease. I saw it and wondered what it was. It did not make me immediately desire a new life, a new job, a new level of fitness, a new family, a new home or even just a new computer. Except for perhaps the new computer could come with a bull-o-meter to warn me when not to read news articles.

Edit: Oh yes! (Courtesy of paj)

Being Both Crusty and Demonic

2007-06-04T07:42:00.000+10:00

Yesterday afternoon we witnessed the show that is "Crusty Demons Unleash Hell". Three hours of motorcycle madness. Well, actually, about an hour and a half of motorcycle madness, and the rest made up of freak show acts and Crusty Babe action. I was pretty terrified by "the rest". This is, remember, a family show, and yesterday afternoon we witnessed a man in womens underwear have his backside trapped in illegal man traps, members of the audience spanked by scantily clad women, a dwarf "audition" for the Crusty Babes, and to top it off a kiddy dancing competition, in which one of the kids (aged about 4) was trapped between two Babes and had to "spank" one of them (helped by the other). Mum was probably in the audience with her head in her hands whilst Dad suffered extreme jealousy. And to top it off, the kid won a 50cc motorbike. I can only imagine the family's joy! "Oooh Dad, I've just been to this great show where they turn the motorbikes upside down and now I have one I can try it on myself. Cool!".

I did really enjoy the bikes. There were some great moments where they actually took the time to explain the progression of the sport, and some great all-the-bikes-in-the-arena-together-going-mad bits. I was a little concerned by the theme running through of "last time I did this trick I broke my arm/leg/neck/brain and the doctor says I shouldn't be riding right now, but if you cheer loud enough I'll try and hospitalise myself again for you", but overall, worth the trip just to see the upside down athletics. These boys must be very very fit.

Define Yourself

2007-06-02T15:47:00.000+10:00

Kirsty --
[adjective]:

Pretentiously academian

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Day 20

2007-06-02T15:41:00.000+10:00

Still no real excercise. I tried to get up and go in Bendigo, but realised I had no key to the house, so I couldn't get back in if I'd gone. I'm still very bunged up, which is incredibly frustrating. More than that, I've put on that kilo. Part of that is that I'm packing to move, so it's hard to get enthusiastic about cooking well right now. I'm running a 5k race in 2 weeks, so I've got to get back out there and fit.

I've also struck a pact with a friend. The Melbourne Marathon races this year finish with a lap of the MCG. How often do you get to do that? Not very, let me tell you, so we're going to sign up. As doing a 5k seems a bit of a cheat, we've decided that the run round the MCG will be the reward for a half marathon. I've worked out a training schedule, and the Run to the G is the end of the first week - a kind of benchmark. So I will definitely be running next week, or I'm going to look really stupid on the 7th October!

So if anyone's thinking of a trip to Aus this year, I can guarantee a really big comedy event on the weekend before my 31st birthday - me, struggling to look like an athlete as I hobble round the MCG, before heading straight for a bar. Come witness!

Day 16

2007-05-29T06:31:00.000+10:00

Silence is golden, apparantly! I haven't done anything for a few days, I'm afraid. I went home from work ill on Thursday, struggled through Friday, was in bed very very early on Saturday, so I've executively given myself a few days off to recover from this cold. It's really knocked me out, and there's so many people off work really ill that I don't want to be one of them! This morning I'm off to Bendigo, so I got up 15 minutes early and did various excercises. Not too bad. Still no running (I'm so bunged up it's hard enough to breathe normally!) but at least I felt like I was doing something.

I aim to go for a short run tomorrow morning. Everything starts later in Bendigo, so I won't have to get up as early. We shall see.

Full Volume Whitney (or Day 10)

2007-05-23T18:12:00.000+10:00

I finally did it. I got down to a 6 minute kilometre. Admittedly I did it by running the other way round the park to usual (i.e. down the big hill, not up it!) but none-the-less, I shaved 1 and a half minutes off my time. Go. Me.

I also dropped a kilo, so for the record, my white cotton wrap around top is off limits if I put weight on. Not that most of you know what that is, but Mum, you were there when I bought it!!

In other news, our neighbours are currently subjecting me to full volume Whitney. And I-eeee-I will always love you-oooo-oo-o-o-o. Somebody get me out of here!

Drivers Licence

2007-05-22T06:42:00.000+10:00

In answer to a query, no I haven't re-sat my driving test (hallelujah, for I don't think I'd pass!). I turned up for my pre-booked appointment, handed over my passport and UK drivers licence. They punched a hole in my UK one, took my money, took my photo, and handed back a brand new VIC licence. I should add that my photo on my UK one is awesome. The photo on this new one looks like a criminal, or at the very least trailer trash, and I certainly wouldn't let me drive! However, I can't imagine that the DVLA are that efficient - all in it took 15 minutes (an hour each way to get to the office, but that's not important right now!). I'm willing to stand corrected though, if anyone has a good experience with the DVLA.

And now I'm off to get showered and changed and go to work. This morning I'm being audited for our ISO9001 renewal. Goodie!

Day 8 & 9

2007-05-22T06:35:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I didn't do anything. This is mostly because of Sunday afternoon. I met up with a friend and we walked the route of the Run to the G, and then walked back to my place, so all in it was about 8.5km. I, of course, forgot to stretch, and could barely walk yesterday having pulled a muscle in my thigh. I was due to go out at lunchtime with a bunch of colleagues, but pulled out. Obviously this had nothing to do with the fact that the heavens opened around that time.

This morning the muscle's still stiff, but I managed to run 2.5 km, and it feels like it might last the day, so that's good. Tomorrow I'm again due to meet the same people for a run, which will probably be about 5 km, so I'd better be careful not to pull anything else!

Day 7

2007-05-20T09:29:00.000+10:00

You may have guessed (or even asked me in person!) that yesterday was a rest day. The original reason behind chosing Saturday was that I had planned to go dragon boating this morning. However, in the eventuality, it turned out that at heart I haven't changed in the last 20 years. I didn't go because I wasn't sure if anyone I knew would be there. So I went for a run instead. Boring. But I did manage to shave 15 seconds off my previous best for that route. Still not quick enough, but getting there.

Day 5

2007-05-18T13:53:00.000+10:00

This morning it was chucking it down. Overnight the site we're working on in Bendigo had 40mm of rain in 2 hours. Places around the country are celebrating as the drought seems to have broken (although we still need months of this - isn't that a great thing to look forward to!). I got up at 6am and went downstairs to the little gym, rather than go out in it. At some point I'm going to have to get wet, but not this morning... I did star jumps and lifted weights and sat up and dipped.

In other news, I now have a Victorian drivers licence. I no longer have a UK one. The photo's shocking on my new one, but at least I'm legal!

Geek Toys

2007-05-17T19:10:00.000+10:00

Think Geek have a load of new stuff on their site. I just have to share with you my top three, in no particular order.

1. DIY Mario Bros Game. Too cool for school, make your own game plan.
2. Doomsday Device USB Hub. Blow up your colleagues, one switch at a time.
3. Build Your Own Stonehenge. It's like, totally Spinal Tap, man.

It's just a public service I give!

Day 4

2007-05-17T07:02:00.000+10:00

Thanks for the comments yesterday. I didn't quite do double today, but I did at least get out of bed, which was entirely due to the thought of the embarrasment and shame I'd go through if I didn't! Plus, in altering my route so I could go past a water fountain, I managed to do 4.8km. Admittedly, I did therefore stop for a minute or so to get some water, but I still managed to come in at under 7min/km, which is alright. I need to get under 6, but I'll be happy with that for now.

I've also concocted a way to motivate myself to lose weight, another thing I'm really struggling with (fat and fit, that's me!). Every time I get under a kg point I'll designate a piece of clothing that I can't wear if I go over that point. And not rubbish clothes that I don't wear anyway. If I do something really good, like get under a 5kg marker, I'll treat myself to a new piece, and then not let myself wear it if I go over that marker. This all came about because I'm coveting a new running top at the moment, but I don't want to buy one in the size I am now! Does anyone have any more, better, suggestions?

Day 3

2007-05-16T07:42:00.000+10:00

I am a lazy sausage roll. Today I did not run. I did get up and do 30 push ups, 50 sit ups, some leg waving things and some side-ab hurting things. But that was it. If I'm hit with a fit of enthusiasm I'll go for a quick run this evening. The reason behind my laziness? Sheer exhaustion. I couldn't get out of bed. I don't have to go into work this morning - I'm veiwing a house at 8:30 - so I felt very little guilt. Oops!

Day 2

2007-05-15T06:49:00.000+10:00

It was hard work getting up this morning. Only the thought that I'd have to confess on paper (well, virtual paper, anyway) that I'd given up on the second day got me out of bed. That and the fact that in turning off the alarm I accidentally moved the clock forward an hour, so momentarily thought I was going to be late for my lift! But get up I did, and run round Fawkner Park I did, which is about 2.5km. I tried to run really fast, but (as happened yesterday) it turned out I ran at exactly the same speed I always do. Quite depressing, in a way. I then did some sit ups, squats, push ups, dips and a weird leg excercise that involves lying down and doing complicated manoeuvres that hurt. No pain, no gain, eh?

Right, I'm off to the shower then Bendigo.

Day 1

2007-05-14T06:52:00.000+10:00

I got up and ran 4.27 km (according to the wonderful resource that is online interactive bike maps of Victoria). I thought I'd only do 3 but I got carried away. I then got even more carried away and did some squats, dips and push ups (15, 15 and 10, sorry, I really hate push ups!!). I'm pretty impressed, but I need to increase that distance by about half a km this week.

Motivation Please!

2007-05-13T11:39:00.000+10:00

I've finished my 6 week excercise programme, and it definitely showed results. Last Monday I ran 4.5km - 6 weeks ago I'd have struggled to run 45m! As an example, when I started I did 16 push ups in a minute (and really struggled). On Friday morning I did 34, and could have gone for longer. However, the maintenance programme is run by a different person, who I had the displeasure of one session with this week. He made me cry with pain. Now don't get me wrong, I know there's no gain without pain, but really, was that necessary? Surely there's a point a bit before that where I'm gaining things but not actually wanting to die.

So here's the deal. I need some motivation, and I'm hoping you lot will give it to me. I will post every day what I've done, and if I'm rubbish, you're all to roundly abuse me please! I am allowed one day off a week, which will generally be the Saturday or Sunday - everyone needs a lie in, and once it's past about 10 here I'm not going out running in that heat. So starting tomorrow I'm officially "in training" for the Run to the G on the 17th June, and I want to get under 28 minutes for the 5km. Wish me luck.

The History Boys

2007-05-06T11:49:00.000+10:00

Last night a friend and I went to see Allan Bennett's play, The History Boys. I knew a little of Mr Bennett, as my sister had done some of his stuff for GCSE English, but didn't really know what to expect from last night. I was hooked, and when the lights came up for the interval I was really disappointed, I just wanted them to keep going.

I'm no writer, and I'm sure Fran or James could come up with amazing words to describe how I felt, but I can't. I can just try. I was blown away by the emotional intensity on the stage, particularly in the second half. For part of it I simply couldn't breath. The actors were superb (particularly astounding for me was the quality of their accents) and full marks go to the set designer for making the scenery changes part of the play so we weren't distracted. If you get the chance and happen to be in Melbourne, go and see it. If it's in London, go and see it. I'm now really looking forward to seeing the film.

On the subject of film, if you're expecting good things from the new Spiderman movie, you'll be disappointed. Go along expecting a chick flick with a bit of action and some good CGI and you'll be happy.

That's all from your art monitor for this week.

Online Shopping

2007-04-16T18:37:00.000+10:00

I find that having a UK bank account still is a great advantage when it comes to buying presents - I just go to Amazon, or any one of a gazillion other sites, buy something and get it delivered to the person's address. I realise that us being in Australia, and those in England having no Aussie bank accounts (lucky you!) the same doesn't apply in reverse. But don't despair! If you want to buy me a present, then this site may help!! Not a lot on there at the moment - I'm still waiting for M&S and Dorothy Perkins to decide to deliver over here, then I'll be well on my way to true happiness!!

Back...

2007-04-15T16:50:00.000+10:00

We're back from Brisbane, after a week of relaxation. We flew out on Sunday afternoon and got back late last night. In that time we managed to fit two theme parks (Movieworld and Dreamworld). Of the two I think Dreamworld is likely to get my repeat business, as we didn't have time to do everything there, by a long chalk. However, the rides at Movieworld, whilst there were less of them, were better. Superman was amazing, the Batwing was very good, and best of all, the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster was surprisingly fantastic. As we sat there going, yes, this is it, this is pretty obvious, blah blah, we were shocked to the core by what came next. And no, I'm not telling, because it would spoil it for you!!

Dreamworld had some fantastic retro rides (Wipeout, The Claw, Cyclone (a genuine roller coaster) and the Vortex (like the cages at Yarm Fair!)). However, their big ones (Tower of Terror and Giant Drop - and finding the links is an exercise for the reader!) are a bit disappointing. I enjoyed the view from the top of the Giant Drop, and I did scream on the way down, but it wasn't particularly exciting, just that we dropped a lot longer than I thought we would. Tower of Terror left me going, "is that it?". However, as I said, there were a lot of things we just didn't get to. An added bonus was the tiger show (I know, keeping them in captivity is wrong, etc etc etc, but they're there already, 3rd generation captive) which was informative, interesting and very impressive.

We also spent some time walking around the city, along the river, through the botanical gardens, and over to SouthBank and the museums. The botanical gardens feel much more like a big park than anything grander, but are lovely. The mangrove boardwalk is worth it, though. The man-made beach at South Bank is impressive - full of kids having a great time, and not for us!

Sadly, due to my camera still being borked, and me not getting my act together to get a new one yet (considering this, this and this, or dropping down to 4 or 5x optical zoom) there aren't many pictures to show for the trip. Even sadder is that Dreamworld don't have a camera on their log flume. And apparantly Pete had given me a lovely pair of moose antlers in anticipation. We'll never get to see it!

It's been a hard day's night...

2007-03-25T20:35:00.000+10:00

I really have been working like a dog. So hard that I stomped my little foot a couple of weeks ago and declared I couldn't do two jobs any more. My little helper has been fantastic since then (thanks Ricky!!) and I've calmed down a bit. So what else has been going on?

I signed up Stone Fitness to be my personal trainers for 6 weeks. I've had my first three sessions (cardio and core, upper body, and lower body) and ached for the whole week. I'm hoping next week will be better! I also have "homework" and have to run 3 of the 4 remaining days. I'm hopeful for a new me!

I've been out and about aswell. It's the world swimming championships in Melbourne at the moment and last week I watched some water polo (disappointingly one sided, as Australia beat Puerto Rico by at least 22 points). Next week we're going to see some of the swimming finals. And this evening we've been to see the new Cameron Mackintosh production of Miss Saigon. Which was excellent. The Engineer was played by the same guy who played him when I saw it in London in 1999 - he was as good as he was then, and I really wondered how he keeps it so fresh. There were other highlights (including, for the ladies, Juan Jackson's six pack!).

And finally... I've booked flights and a hotel for a week in Brisbane, so Bris Vegas, here we come!!

how?

2007-03-09T18:31:00.000+11:00

How did I not know John Inman died yesterday??? How??? How did I miss this?! I mean, I know I'm pretty much having a breakdown over here, but really... HOW?!

RIP. I just hope he's being served lots of nice things.

Yikes!

2007-03-05T21:46:00.000+11:00

I've decided to look into getting a personal trainer (you can all stop laughing now!). Basically, I don't want to go back into a gym - one of the things I enjoy about being in Australia is the opportunity to be outside more. So this morning at 6am I found myself talking to a guy about my fitness and health. We talked about my goals and why I wanted to do this - I'd said on the internet questionnaire that I wanted to get rid of some of the depression. When he asked what I meant I told him that I was fed up of worrying what to wear in the morning.

Next came a lesson in how to put things in perspective. He told me he'd used exercise to battle the depression that came following his 10 years in the US military, 2 tours of Iraq, 1 year unable to walk and being told he'd never walk again, and the death of most of his comrades. Somehow my wardrobe isn't seeming like such a big deal...

However, I'm not sure what he's offering is right for me (a 6 week intensive thing, rather than an ongoing commitment), plus, to be honest, I find him a little bit scary. As paj put it, "I came out of the bedroom this morning and thought Mr. Motivator was in the house." Not that that in itself is a problem. I just don't know if it's the way I want to go with this, so watch this space...

Mad World

2007-03-03T11:28:00.000+11:00

I've had two strange experiences this week. Firstly, we went out for dinner on Thursday night. This in itself is not strange (although the fact that we went out because what I'd made was inedible is), but after dinner the waitress came up to our table, carrying a slice of cake with a candle in and singing happy birthday. You will realise, of course, that it is not my birthday in March, either official or unnofficial. Nonetheless, I still got the cake on the house, and it was the best chocolate cake I've had in years. I nearly had to take Friday off sick from eating too much of it. So if you're in South Yarra and you want chargrilled meat followed by amazing cake, go to Squires Loft!

The second strange experience was much, much, well, stranger. Last night we went out for some drinks to say goodbye to a colleague of mine. After a few beers at work, we went to the Belgian Beer Cafe and were joined by paj and one of his friends. We left about 11 as the lack of food was showing in one of us! As we crossed the road to get home after the taxi had dropped us off, a motorcyclist pulled across the pedestrian lights behind us. I turned round, wondering what was going on, and as he pulled off his helmet I recognised him. I haven't seen Malcolm in 5 years. I used to work with him in Redhill, but he moved to the Edinburgh office about 6 months before I left the company, and we didn't stay in touch. Imagine the surprise when he said he lived not far from us, had been there for 4 years, was an Aussie citizen, and worked on the same road as me!! It really is a small world, aswell as a mad one. What's even stranger is that he has got an old friend of mine, who I lost touch with about 3 years ago, a job over here, and he might be arriving in Melbourne this year!

I'm going to leave you with a few links. It's been a while. First up, banana bunker, for all your banana protection needs (one size fits all). Secondly, from the ever-wonderful you tube, I give you kiwi, and kiwi, the mad world remix. It's a mad mad world.

A-Ha

2007-02-04T13:16:00.000+11:00

After months of enduring the taunts from my Kiwi and Aussie colleagues (England couldn't beat a junior side, England were whitewashed in the Ashes, England even lost to New Zealand in the cricket, etc etc etc) this weekend has given me something to throw back at them on Monday. England beat Australia on Friday at the day-night match (I know this because at the end of the Roger Waters gig on Friday night he thanked Australia for letting England win!). And of course, very early this morning England beat Scotland at the rugby, finally giving me some hope that we may not make complete fools of ourselves at the world cup. Hoorah!

I'll still have money on Johnny Wilkinson not making it to the world cup through injury, though!

Stuff

2007-01-13T21:37:00.000+11:00

First up, the internet addiction test. In which I proved that I was average. Yay!

Second up, the lyrics to Mick Harvey's song, One Man's Treasure. "One man's fish is another man's poisson". Oh, please. Stop it.

And finally, I'll leave you with this, from Eddie Izzard:

"The National Rifle Association says, 'Gun's don't kill people. People do'. But I think the gun helps."

rant

2007-01-10T16:15:00.000+11:00

I shouldn't read the news. It makes me say/think things like: Idiot, "Trying to get in my good books are you?", "Really? You didn't just want to blow shit up?", and "Ha,yes, violence, but what about the corruption that means it's all in Swiss bank accounts?". I fear I may be beyond help.

Borked!

2007-01-08T15:27:00.000+11:00

My camera is broken. I've taken it into the shop and it'll cost just to find out if it's repairable. Last time it was a debate - this time it's a no-brainer. Things will just keep going wrong, and this time it sounds expensive. It's stuck on sunset mode, which leads to everything being slightly orange.

The question now is not which camera to replace it with (although I'm sure my readers are, even now, composing massive emails telling me why their particular choice of camera is perfect for me). It's about which type of camera. I have a 10x optical zoom on my Minolta Z2. Do I replace with something similar, but not particularly easy to carry around (hence the breakages, methinks) or do I drop back to the compact and lose most of the zoom (which will probably annoy me). I could upgrade to a DSLR, but I would never be bothered to take it anywhere, or do anything more than point and shoot with it. So here's your challenge, camera mad folks. I want 8x optical zoom, at least, in something that's as small as a compact but gives at least 3MP photos. Possible?

This Life

2007-01-05T17:22:00.000+11:00

Gaargh! Come on ABC, get with it and get the repeats off the BBC please.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T16:38:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year, everyone. We may have hit it first, but we certainly didn't hit it hardest. I'm sure some of you hit it harder, and certainly the people who were still partying at 11am this morning did! We went for a barbeque with some friends, had a few glasses of wine, played with some kids (and a 6-month old puppy who struggled with traction on the laminate floors), then played Articulate. Which was a lot of fun.

Today we've been to the botanical gardens (photos will go onto flickr when I'm bothered!) and generally relaxed. The main reason for this post, though, is to share a couple of new years resolutions. I'm not a big fan of them, but sometimes they work. And they definitely only work if you tell people (or that's the case for me).

1. Run a half marathon - I've found a training programme which reckons it can get me from 6k to 21k in 12 weeks - we shall see, but I'd like to give it a go.
2. And in the run up to that I'm thinking of spending a month without the booze. It must be good for me!

So that's it. Now you can all harrang me in December if I haven't acheived them. I'm looking forward to it!

Out by an Innings!

2006-12-29T09:56:00.000+11:00

We went to the cricket yesterday.

Now you've all picked yourself up off the floor and stopped laughing, I'd like to share some of my amateur observations:

1. The lower order batsmen are much better to watch than the top order batsmen.
2. Our wicket keeper was the 2nd best batter we had.
3. Panesar got two 4s - two more than most of the top end batsmen
4. Australian insults are the best in the world.
5. The barmy army aren't that barmy.
6. England can't run - can't run to make a catch, can't run to get an extra run (particularly the top order batsmen!)
7. The MCG only sells light beer at the cricket incase we get roudy. I needed whisky. 8. "Extra" scored more than most of the batsmen.

I can't complain - it was a nice day, the sun came out, we had front row seats, the security guards kept us entertained by popping up from their hiding places at the end of every over towards the end of the day (maybe they were as bored as us) and generally it was worth $51 for a day out. Photographic evidence is on flickr. Just don't mention the actual cricket...

mmmmm

2006-12-19T22:01:00.000+11:00

It's Christmas. So can I have one of these please?

Weekend Hi Jinx

2006-12-17T19:37:00.000+11:00

We finally got away to Ballarat this weekend, on a long awaited trip (well, long awaited for me, anyway - we postponed in October). The reason was that Pete's bass teacher, Rob, was playing in a gig (which he doesn't do too much since he stopped playing professionally) with a blues player that I wanted to hear. So we booked into the hotel the gig was in and layed our plans.

Which of course were destroyed on Thursday when I was told that a friend who's been travelling was in Melbourne for one night only - Friday. We delayed heading off to have a barbeque with them, so we didn't arrive in Ballarat until 10pm. By which time the hotelier had headed off, so we crashed a 21st birthday party and made the bar staff get in touch with him. By the time we got to bed I had written a long list of things that would mean I was never ever going to stay at the Eastern Station Hotel again. Looks nice on the website, doesn't it? HA! The only saving grace was that due to being guests we saved $30 on tickets to the gig. For your interest, a few things that I hated:

-- the all pervading smell of cigarette smoke and greasy food, which made me feel ill
-- the lack of glasses in the room which meant we couldn't open the bottle we'd taken and take the edge off the pain
-- the lack of toilet roll (and this pretty much clinched it - there was none when we arrived and it didn't get replaced until around 10pm on Saturday night)

I shan't go into the little things that annoyed me (like not being told we had to get there before 8...)

Thankfully Sovereign Hill was fantastic and we spent a happy few hours poking around there on the Saturday. It's kind of like Beamish (for those who that means anything to). We watched a sweet making demonstration and had a school lesson, aswell as just enjoying the sights and sounds. We didn't go to the candle dipping, wheel making, underground mine tour, gold panning, or any number of other things that were available. We'd seen a lot of them during our travels, and I wanted to get into town and buy some toilet roll!

The gig was fantastic, so by now the good well outweighed the bad. Geoff Achison is an amazing guitarist and musician, and the rest of the band were pretty phenomenal. Watching his first set, an acoustic set, I was close to tears. Only one person has made me feel quite as inadequate a musician - given me the knowledge that I'll never, ever, however hard I try, be that good - and that was Maxim Vengerov. I swear there were four people playing guitar, and I have no idea how he got some of those sounds out of that instrument. He does tour the UK, so if you get chance, go see him.

Even the hotel didn't seem so bad after that!

Today we've wrapped Christmas pressies, sent off the last of the cards (hopefully) and tried to tidy up a bit. I just can't get the enthusiasm up for Christmas yet. Maybe next weekend will be different!

Burning Hot

2006-12-13T21:22:00.000+11:00

Last weekend we did our Christmas shopping. Why is this of note? Because the reason we did it was the weather - 40 degree heat and "smoky" - was best avoided by being in an airconditioned shopping centre. The 40 degree heat is pretty self explanatory (I think it peaked at 42). It's smoky here because of the bushfires. I went out on Saturday morning to discover an eerie haze in the courtyard of the block of flats. Outside-proper was equally smokey, with a distinct smell. Everything seemed very strange - the horizon changed, noise was different. Weird.

Saturday we spent hanging round the house, writing cards, tidying up and stuff, as it was too hot to go out. Sunday we went to church, had a coffee with friends then headed off shopping. By Sunday afternoon the cold change had arrived and as we were heading back the smoke was clearing and it was about 22 degrees!

Today the smoke was back. It got worse through the day and we could smell it in our office from about 10am. My throat is sore, and I didn't run as I didn't think it was healthy. But I have got used to the look of the area.

The fires are burning pretty strongly. There's no rain forecast for the summer, and they say the fires will burn all summer, albeit contained and reduced. It won't take much to flare one up again. This pageis useful if you're in the country. Looking tonight compared to earlier the situation seems to be improving. The CFA do amazing work. If we lived somewhere more appropriate I'd definitely be involved. I just keep donating to the collecting boxes, and sending good thoughts...

I guess the scary thing is that they keep picking up water and dumping it on the blazes... in a country with no water anyway. And added to that there's the regrowth, which next spring will use twice the water a normal spring growth would have done, leaving less in the waterways. I can't see my job tailing off any time soon. Good job I love it!

Excitement

2006-11-30T21:17:00.000+11:00

I have two things that are very exciting. First of all, Ganguly is recalled to the test squad. That's all I know, but I'm sincerely hoping his/her first name is Gin.

Secondly, I saw my first explosion today. I was stopped on the highway for 10 minutes so they could do it. Normally I'd be traumatised about being late to the meeting, but I was in plenty of time, and lets face it, how often do you get to see a blasting take place?! Lots of dust and a very big bang shouldn't make me that happy, I tell you.

Oh, and by the way, tomorrow is officially the first day of summer. It's been over 30 degC here today, so it's going to be a long and hot one, methinks.

I don't blog much, do I?!

2006-10-30T21:42:00.000+11:00

I've just realised it's halloween. In the UK that would have been impossible - for weeks I'd have been walking through aisles full of plastic pumpkins, witches hats with green hair attached, bin bag capes and happy halloween cards. Here, I've managed to get to 9:34 pm without realising what day it is. (Well, I knew it was Monday, don't think I'm completely stupid!) It's a nice feeling.

Completely counteracted by the huuuuuuge fake Christmas tree they've put up in town. Some day I'll take my camera up and show you the true monstrosity that it is. But at least they waited until after my birthday.

Emergency Music Help Needed

2006-09-17T19:54:00.000+10:00

For those of you who don't know, my brother in law is trying to break into the music business. He's had some nibbles, and recently they've completed a remix of Xpress2 - Kill100 which will be available on Fatboy Slims record label SKINT. It's available for preorder and if they get a lot of people pre-ordering the track it will get a full release and promotional campaign from the label.

So if you want to help them out order yourself a copy! Either:

Text XP2 JPPHILLIPE to 81330

and youll recieve a code to download the track from 7digital online record store SMS purchase costs £1.50 plus standard network rate and is only available in the UK, which is the same price as buying one off a digital record store, or:

BUY DIGITAL DOWNLOAD Only 99p

(Bargain!)

You can preview the track at their Myspace page. So go on, you know you want to! It's only 99p and you'd have my eternal gratitude. Think of it as helping little baby Emma have a big future ;)

Shameless begging over now!

Kangaroos

2006-08-24T13:00:00.000+10:00

So the Aussie's are looking at controlling the kangaroo population via the contraceptive pill. And the animal lib people say it's unacceptable to kill them as it's a national symbol. Why not? You can buy kanga-bangers, kangaroo steaks, and various other concoctions commonly. You can even buy emu sausages, the other national symbol. I would have thought they should be protesting at that, not the odd contraceptive given out?! Or maybe my perspective's all wrong.

linkage

2006-08-20T21:27:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since I posted any really good links, but here, try this. Tap out a song on your space bar and it'll (try) to tell you what it is. Although I don't think that Dancing Queen is the same as any T.A.T.U. song.

Eurgh

2006-08-20T20:19:00.000+10:00

Pete got me onto this, and I now feel the need to share, in a confessional way... A better one would be this one

Queen of the Lake

2006-08-10T21:15:00.000+10:00

A little while ago I posted about the Run to the G, and commented that I might do the Queen of the Lake. I'd hoped to do the 10k, and I would have done if I hadn't been off injured for a couple of weeks. I changed my entry to do the 5k, and set myself a target of beating my Run to the G time. Guess what? I succeeded! You can check my times here if you know my name!! I did it in 31 minutes 14 seconds. And last night I ran for 55 minutes non-stop, so I'm back on track.

In the deep midwinter...

2006-08-05T18:42:00.000+10:00

It's August here, which means midwinter. Which is strange, as the weather's actually picked up in the last couple of days. I've worn my summer jacket twice (albeit with scarf!) and today I even felt the need to get my sunglasses out of storage. I've been pretty busy, but I am trying to make time to walk out at lunchtime and keep tabs on what the weather is doing. Even better, on Thursday night I walked home at 6pm and it was light!!

I've learnt a lot about how the Australian medical system works over the last few weeks. I pulled a shoulder muscle (or so I thought), and was in absolute agony, with it clicking every time I moved. I discovered that over here you don't have to register with a doctor, you can just turn up and make an appointment with whichever one you choose. I chose one and went along. I got told to rest the shoulder, and he gave me free drugs (anti-inflamatories, nothing too exciting!). I rested and took the drugs. No running, no housework, no lifting files, no doing anything. Bored. Bored. Bored.

When I talked to the running club guru he told me off for not going straight to the physio. Lesson 2 - apparantly most people skip the doctor and go straight for treatment without recommendation. So off I went to the physio. A first for me. Apparantly I have very bad posture (duh!) and it's not my shoulder it's my back. So after thumping my back and trying to press my ribs through the front of my chest for half an hour he told me to come back next week for more of the same, lest I grow into a hunchbacked old woman.

I started running again at that point, but I'm only up to 6km, not the 10 I wanted to race tomorrow. I had another physio session yesterday, and it seems to be okay, but I'm still a big sloucher!

Work's been good - we're 90% sure we'll get the go ahead on the $3m increase in fees, so it's pretty busy. I'm enjoying it though.

And in weight-loss news, I now have a pair of trousers that fall down on me. You won't recognise me next time you see me! (Well, maybe except Andy, who we'll see in 2 weeks).

It's been a heck of a week...

2006-07-09T16:50:00.000+10:00

It's been a long week this week. We had a very important meeting on Wednesday, so everything we've been doing for the previous month had to come together by Tuesday night. Which meant that Her Maj was in a bit of a stress, which fed off onto me. I struggled to get motivated to go to running on Monday night, because I felt like I ought to be working. But I went, none-the-less, and ran up hills for most of the night.

After a communication breakdown I finally managed to get one chunk of work finished on Friday afternoon. A major resourcing crisis solved, and 4:30 pm (or beer-o'clock) has never been more welcome!

I had a minor running milestone on Wednesday night - I ran for 40 minutes without stopping, which is about 6 more than I've managed so far. I didn't run as fast as I sometimes do, so I didn't even make the 5km mark, but I was happy. Today I got up and met a couple of the girls from the club at 9am for a 50 minute run. As the object was time, not distance, I didn't push myself to go twice round the tan. I did work out afterwards that I'd run 7.5km, which is the most I've ever done by a huge chunk. That makes today a great finale to the week.

Which is about to be capped off by going through to the living room (and getting out of bed!) to watch the final episode of this series of Dr. Who, before I find out what happened accidentally. TTFN!

Run to the G

2006-06-21T21:33:00.000+10:00

Well the times are out, and I managed to run 5km in 32 minutes, 26 seconds. Go me! It took me a while to find, as the paper helpfully lists them in time order. As I couldn't believe I would have gone faster than 33 minutes, I spent ages scouring the 33 - 39 minute band, before finally finding my name whilst looking for a colleague's (who did it in 29 minutes).

Although it wasn't really about the time, more about just finishing, I found that I was really excited to know how I'd done. I was pretty dead by the time I'd managed it - I'm still not fit enough to really be a "runner", more a "saunter-er". Still, it's a good benchmark for next time. Perhaps I'll be Queen of the Lake in August!

The End of an Era

2006-06-21T21:31:00.000+10:00

For Sale: The Beast

Running

2006-06-15T20:41:00.000+10:00

So many of you were being supportive of my running and weight loss and I didn't know. An update is due, I feel. I'm running 5k this Sunday morning as part of the Run to the G. I'm a bit nervous, but last night I ran just under 5k in 32 minutes, so I know I can do it. I nearly threw up from the effort, but I'll just take it a bit slower next time!

Monday night was my first night at my new running club. I've signed up with Sporting Spirit for their beginners 10k 10 week sessions. Monday night was strength training. Shall we just say I haven't got any? The plank, for those who don't know, is an excercise where you support your body in a straight line, or plank, on your toes and forearms. Ow. Ow. Ow. Trainer says, "try for a minute". I reckon I lasted about 10 seconds before caving. And pushups. And squats. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Wednesday was better. Just a run. I tried to push myself by running with someone a bit quicker, and it worked for about 20 minutes, until I had to slow up. Still, pretty good going.

I put on 0.6kg a couple of weeks ago at Weightwatchers. Entirely due to having to weigh in my shoes now - I asked her to weigh them and they were 0.6kg. In total now I've lost 3kg, (but really 3.6!). I reckon I'll be pretty near goal by the time I reach the dreaded three zero.

That's if I don't do what I did this lunchtime too often, and have a footlong meatball sub, cheddar cheese and all the salad and eat it all in one sitting!

Apologies

2006-06-15T20:24:00.000+10:00

I'm not going to reply to all 48 comments. But here's some hellos:

Matthew On... hello and welcome. I don't know what the significance of the cookies is, I'm afraid. I only know that they taste good!
JayKay (not the cat in the hat, I assume) thanks for the link. I'll be investigating ausrun when I finish ploughing through the comments!
Sarah Kay!!! Wow!!! Hello. If you find the mail me link and, well, mail me, it'd be good to catch up. For those of you who don't know (most of you) I went to school with Sarah until we'd finished GCSEs, at which point she disappeared!
inw, I know the post above is the sign of a diseased mind, don't tell me!
Mum, I could make the font size bigger, but my html isn't up to that. You'll just have to get a bigger computer screen ;-)
Hello FrogBox. I have your blog now, there's no escape! Come to Oz with your handsome prince.
Everyone who commented re St George's day - I knew that would get you, and was disappointed when I didn't get any comments. Wow, was I wrong about that!

Comments

2006-06-15T20:14:00.000+10:00

I am, apparantly, a muppet. I commented to paj the other night that I wasn't going to blog anymore because nobody read my posts (or at least, they didn't comment). He said that he'd commented. I retorted that nobody had, because I hadn't had any of the emails I used to get to tell me when a comment had gone up.

Solving the problem was delayed by our telco, who cut us off for no reason, and it's taken them 2 days to fix it. However, tonight, I'm back on line. I looked at the blog. No comments. paj says that the computer told him they had to be verified by me. I logged into blogger. I discover a number of comments, waiting to be moderated.

So to those of you that left those 48 (yes folks, forty eight) comments, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I just didn't know you existed!

Gimme Gimme Gimme Fried Chicken

2006-06-03T23:39:00.000+10:00

Damn all the opticians. I've been tired, crabby and headachy for a couple of weeks now. Initially I put it down to jet-lag, but that excuse ran out pretty quickly. I finally realised, when I squinted at the computer screen with my eyes watering, that there may be a problem with my vision. I went to the opticians and yes, I'm officially short sighted, with astygmatism (a stygmatism?). Apparantly my eye is shaped like a football - which means a whole different thing over here!

The upshot is that I'm wearing my old glasses at the moment, because apparantly they have the a/stygmatism correction. I've paid out an inordinate amount, and on Thursday I'll have some shiny glasses to be worn lots. Harumph. I am notoriously bad at remembering where I've put things down. I've already lost (and found) this pair of glasses today. I have no chance!

On the bright side, eye checks are free here - well, they're covered by medicare, anyway.

Websites as Graphs

2006-06-02T21:19:00.000+10:00

Okay, I know it's taken a while, and I wasn't going to blog it, it was just for interest. But it's taken so much effort I wanted to share.

For example, did you know that Paint doesn't (seem to) have an easy crop facility? I had to download picasa, which I quite like, but also hate.

Picasa has some great functionality. It allows me to do cool fixing things to my photos, like make them straight. However, it does weird things like not letting you save the file that you've changed, having to save a different file with the changes in. I know I'm now going to get a storm of protests that I'm just inept, and it's not Picasa's fault. But I'm pretty tech savvy for a non-geek, so I should be able to make things work how I want them to. If I can't, it's not good.

Surreal Day

2006-05-25T20:54:00.000+10:00

Surreal items from my day, in no particular order:

Lying on my back in the main meeting room with an "eye bag" on
Realising that where Aussie and American accents meet is the same place as where my accent sits.
Asking where Byron Bay is and having it described in terms of towns in the North East of England.
Looking to my left right now and seeing a giant marshmallow on the computer screen

So there you go. That's what my life is like... and it's not that unusual.

Hamlet of Horrors

2006-05-19T07:42:00.000+10:00

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this story. I read it through in growing disbelief until I got to the last paragraph. Surely the playing of Carmina Burana is pushing the case a little bit? Poor old Orff!!

End of the Century

2006-05-18T20:36:00.000+10:00

There's ants in the carpet... Well, not actually the carpet. paj got up this morning and discovered them in the kitchen. After a thorough clean we couldn't see any at all. But we got back this evening, and guess what? They're back. We'd left some dirty dishes in the dishwasher and they were all over them. What do you do in that situation? Well, I'll tell you. Have dinner, fill dishwasher with more dirty dishes, slam door shut and turn it on. Hot.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Sunny England

2006-04-30T16:39:00.000+10:00

You should be able to hear this post a lot more clearly, because I'm back in Blighty. I've been asleep since about 7pm last night - the final straw was church, when I nearly nodded off a couple of times, and have no idea what the sermon was about because I was trying not to snore! I've done pretty well - finally woke up at 6:30 am, so hopefully the jetlag won't be too bad.

The mission for today will be to stay awake beyond lunchtime - already my body is telling me I'm a lazy cow, and why have I stayed in bed so late! I'm going to confuse it by going for a run... as soon as I work out if I'm going to set off a burglar alarm by leaving the house this early. Well, burglar alarm, or small-sister alarm!

Last Night

2006-04-27T20:22:00.000+10:00

So I'm all packed. Unbelievably everything, including all the presents, has fitted into my small backpack, which shall henceforth be known as the TARDIS. It's weird to think that this time tomorrow I'll be at the airport, and paj won't be. This is the furthest I've flown on my own, and while I know I'm capable of doing it, I'm not looking forward to it. I shall have to keep a tight reign on my credit card in Dubai, lest I accidentally buy a porsche or something.

While I was googling for something, I came across this site, which I felt the need to share with you all. Not least because it has the Red Dwarf scripts on it. One of my favourite comedy shows ever.

I have to go now. I'm looking forward to seeing some old friends, and there's an old android saying which I believe is peculiarly appropriate here. In binary language it goes something like this: 001100111011000111100, which roughly translated means, "Don't stand around jabbering when you're in mortal danger."

ANZAC Day

2006-04-25T10:18:00.000+10:00

Today is Anzac Day here (and in NZ too!). To quote from this very informative site,

ANZAC Day - 25 April - is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

It goes on to talk about the Gallipolli campaign, 25th April being the day the troops landed there. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed, and many here believe that the action started the beginning of Australia as it is today. I've done a lot of reading since deciding to come over here, and among the things that always comes through is the importance of Gallipolli. It started the doors opening into Australia, as they realised that to cope with any perceived threat, people, and quantities of them, were very important.

I guess, in a roundabout way, if it wasn't for what happened today, I might not be sitting here, in Melbourne, now. For Australians ANZAC day is incredibly important. It's not like the 4th July in the USA - there's no big parties or fireworks. It's closer to Remembrance Sunday in the UK - but the day is sacred, and the public holiday is never moved off it (and they actually get a public holiday!). The most important thing is the dawn services. There was one near us, and even one on a beach in Gallipolli. There's a special service format approved for ANZAC day. All the ex-servicemen parade (then go to the pub to reminisce).

It's a fascinating day. For me, though, the thing that marks the difference between the UK and here is that in the UK you buy a poppy to show your support. Here you buy and Anzac cookie. A much better idea - you can buy the cookies all year round!

€

Weight Loss

2006-04-22T10:34:00.000+10:00

There wasn't a weightwatchers meeting last week, due to Easter, so this morning was my first weigh for 2 weeks. And I managed to lose weight, which is pretty incredible for me (I wasn't very good the first week, as I knew I didn't have to weigh!). I lost 0.3 kg, which is just under a pound. Not great, but better off than on!

Now I just have to cope with 2 weeks in England!

Link

2006-04-21T07:45:00.000+10:00

From Popbitch this week: David Bowie is very disappointed in you. Fabulous. Apparantly Gary Coleman is too. I await new people being disappointed in me with eager anticipation!

New Blog!

2006-04-19T22:06:00.000+10:00

For the first time in years I've changed the format. I like it, and feel free to tell me if you do or don't. Just don't expect me to change it back, because I've realised that I've completely deleted the previous template. D'oh!

A few votes of thanks - blogger templates for the template, vim for the editing facilities, and paj for the answers to my three questions. Or four. But not too many!

One for the Lib Dems

2006-04-19T21:01:00.000+10:00

One for the Lib Dems
Originally uploaded by Biscit aka Simon J.

Spotted on Biscit's flickr page - one for my mum, perhaps?!

Big and Tiny

2006-04-19T20:51:00.000+10:00

This evening we went up to Federation Square. The intention was to watch something at the Tiny Top and soak up the atmosphere. There wasn't a lot of atmosphere - the Big Wheel was going round with only 2 people on it (although some Japanese people were having their photo taken infront of it). We did, however, go to a show. Ruby Rubberlegs, no less. I can safely say that tonight was the first time I've ever seen anyone dislocate their ankles, hips and neck in order to fit in a very small box. In fact, it was the first time I've seen anyone dislocate their ankles, hips and neck for any reason at all, including by accident. It was very impressive, but I'm really hoping it's my last time to see anyone dislocate anything.

Still, go along and see them if you're in Melbourne. For $5, the shows promise to be excellent value for money. Next on my list to see is All Mouth and No Trousers. Although, given that Ruby actually did have rubber legs, maybe that's not such a good idea!

Keep On Running

2006-04-18T18:41:00.000+10:00

I've just got back from running 2.5 km. Yes, I was sad enough to sit down when I got back and measure it out from the Melways. The instruction for this week is to run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, and repeat for 20 minutes. I actually ran out of route so I didn't do the last walk, as I was outside my front door. I'm really chuffed, though - this means I'm half way to the 5 km I need to run. Well, less than, as I need to run all of it, but don't rain on my parade just yet please!

On another note, the guy from my office who went to the Stones gig on Thursday had a fantastic time. Git.

Things I Have Learnt About Melbourne Today

2006-04-14T18:07:00.000+10:00

Today I have learnt that:
1. Rod Laver (of Rod Laver Arena fame) was a tennis player. He was quite good in the 60s, winning all four major grand slams in the same year. Twice. Once in 1962 and once in 1969.
2. St. Kilda is not a saint. The area is, I assume, named after the St. Kilda that is northwest of North Uist, and a UNESCO world heritage site. Information from Wikipediastates that

The name St. Kilda is believed to be derived from the Norse word skildir, meaning "shields". One suggestion is that a mark on an early map made the Norse word "Skilda" look like "S.kilda" and a previously unknown saint was created.

So there you are!

Running Blog Update

2006-04-14T18:00:00.000+10:00

My ever-correct husband points out that, somewhat dissappointingly, I don't get to run into the G, just around it then back to town. When I married Mr. Right, I didn't realise his first name was Always! On the bright side, the company is putting on a barbeque, with beer, so at least I'll have the scent of that to run for.

Running Blog

2006-04-14T14:23:00.000+10:00

I've started running again. My ankle is still sore, and I'm having to be careful, but after a 4 month lay off I'm glad to be back at it. The problem is, of course, that I'm back where I started, at the beginning of the programme not the end. So to inspire myself to get off my butt, I've signed up to do the Age Run to the G. The G is the MCG, the location of the athletics part of the Commonwealth Games, and the closing ceremony. Which means that I get to run into it, just like a real marathon runner. Very exciting. However, unlike a real marathon runner, I'll only be running 5k. Depending on how you look at it, this is either the sensible "baby steps" option, or a wuss option. Either way, now I've told you all about it, I'm committed. It's not quite up to Andy Bailey's efforts, but he's a braver man than I!

If you are even remotely interested, then you can look at my running log on cool running. My user name is Thribble, and the password to view the log is Melbourne. The times are best guesses at the moment, because I don't have a watch. Sadly my trusty Middlesbrough FC watch has given up the ghost (I hope this isn't a symbol of how their season will finish!), and I'm waiting until we pass through Dubai duty free to buy another one. So until then, I'm counting seconds in my head, which probably isn't the best way of measuring time! Maybe I should run with an egg timer.

Weight Loss Blog

2006-04-10T19:41:00.000+10:00

In a blatant attempt to get support and cheers, I'm going to post my weekly weight loss. After 3 months of holiday, and a lot of stress prior to that, the weight has gone on. Weightwatchers here work in kilos and it means this is a very academic excercise - there's no emotion at the moment.

So here you are. This week I lost 2.4 kg. About 5 lb, I think. Go me, go me, go me.

Footy Singing

2006-03-31T12:55:00.000+11:00

The BBCs post on the selection of the new world cup song is great, and you should read it. I particularly love this comment:

Even winger John Barnes, who had committed one of the worst pre-Vanilla Ice raps of all-time on Liverpool's 1988 Anfield Rap, came out looking respectable by rapping over the middle.

Fantastic. Poor old Vanilla Ice. One of the worst pre-VI raps of all time is a pretty harsh endictment of his rapping! I liked that tune!

I'll get my coat.

Footy Tipping

2006-03-30T20:59:00.000+11:00

Tonight is the first game of the Aussie Rules Football season. St Kilda, which is just down the road from us, play someone called West Coast (I think). I'm watching, and finding it no worse than any other televised team sport, because I've entered our office footy tipping. When I was first asked, I wondered if it meant sneaking into football grounds in the dead of night and pushing over upright-sleeping footballers. Apparantly not. It's like fantasy football, which is less fun. However, I have St. Kilda, so c'mon those, erm, stripes.

As a footnote, I now call football "soccer". I struggle to type " and @ because they're in the wrong places on my keyboard, not on the work's keyboard. I feel a little like Australia is the Borg. It's very good at assimilating people!

Flickr

2006-03-25T15:27:00.000+11:00

Weird groups abound on Flickr. My current favourite is this one. One for the girl guides out there!