May 31, 2007

Horny Horny

After half a days travel we arrived at Kumarakom Lake Resort on Kerala, almost directly opposite Chennai on the pointy bit at the bottom of India. We had taken a taxi from the hotel to the airport, a plane (were I made a mistake and ate the lunch provided) from Channai to Kochi (Cochin to some) and then a luxury car (provided to the resort) from the airport to the resort.

I saw an elephant, but wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

Kumarakom and Chennai couldn’t be more different if they tried. In Chennai there is little green and vehicles everywhere. On the back of the trucks and auto-rickshaws Sound Horn is written. Hardly any cars have mirrors. They have either been removed on purpose or by accident. So everyone is constantly honking horns to let everyone else know they are there. And boy, do they need to let other know. The horn sounds come many and varied; honk honk, toot toot, blurp, beep beep, oh-e oh-e, tweet tweet, burp burp…I can’t spell the others.


In Kumarakom there is only green. Ohh and the lake. You can hear crickets, birds, the laughter of children (read screaming in the pool) and the constant (but pleasant) drumming of what turns out to be boat builders next door. From our room you can see Cormorants fishing next to the fishermen in their long punt boats and the rain as it comes across the lake. We are here in Monsoon season. It’s 25degrees with 90% humidity and perfect.

Dinner on the first night here was fish in local spices and coconut cream for me and Hubby had Prawn Masala. He was most pleased, it was served in a coconut!

At 2am the mistake on the plane came back to haunt me and meant I spent all of Tuesday very close to the room, sleeping and drinking Gastrolyte.

Farty Party, Table for Two

There is something about having curry for breakfast. Idly (rice pattie) and Samba (spicy veg soup) with coriander paste is becoming somewhat a favourite with me. I’m not sure if the rest of the planet will thank me for the methane emissions though.

By Sunday night the wedding was well and truly over. The families had left and it was just us (from the wedding party) left in the hotel. What to do?

We chilled in the Breeze hotel lobby café while waiting for the restaurant to open. We were soon joined by a couple from Portsmouth and for a horrible second or two we thought we weren’t going to be able to shake them. However, we did, purely by agreeing with them when they asked if the Kane and Able Café was the only place to eat in the hotel.

So at 7.45pm we pottered our separate way for dinner. We went to the Poonamallee Restauant and they, to Kane and Able.

We walked through the door and into Butlins, Minehead circa 1972. Ban-maire along one wall, dimmed lights and families scattered all over the shop. We asked if they were doing a-la-carte. Thank goodness they were, but just for us ‘cause we asked.

We asked for the wine list, we thought a nice bottle of something would help us relax a bit and we were brought the entire wine list. It consisted of a bottle of red or a bottle of white. We went for red, after all it’s very hard to stuff up Cab Sav.

After we had ordered from the International menu, Hubby ordered Crispy Lamb for the Oriaental Feast section, I ordered Seer Fish grilled with garlic and butter. I didn’t fancy curry again and neither did Hubby.

While we waited for our dinner to arrive we had a visit from the magic man. He made a fake bird appear from a coin, he made a king of spades disappear and turn into a three of spades, he made a little straw man stand up on his palm as he straightened out his hand and made the cloth disappear and reappear. For his final trick he made Rs5 of disappear from Hubbys wallet. After he’d left Hubby said ‘I fu*king hate cun…jurors’.

Dinner arrived and at last Hubby got what he’d been expecting from the wedding food. Pete had warned us that the food might be a bit spicy, only it hadn’t been. Now that Hubby was after something other than curry, it turned out his Crispy Lamb was the spiciest thing he’d had all week. He broke out in a sweat it was so spicy. Meanwhile my grilled fish was perfect.

As dinner arrived the musical entertainment started. One man and his Casio keyboard! He started with a rendition of Congratulations by Sir Cliff Richard then launched into a couple of Indian tunes followed by Que Sera-Sera.
This all got us to reminiscing about the worst hotel we had ever stayed at, the most disappointing restaurant and the most overrated tourist locations.
Hotel – We came to the conclusion it was the B&B in Weymouth, New Year 1997.
Restaurant – Had to be the Chinese in Llandudno were everything came out on plates with knives and forks.
Tourist Location – Warner Brothers Movie World. It’s only got four rides and everything else is a shop. We did of course exclude the Dog on a Tucker Box in NSW and the Aboriginal Canoe Tree in Goolwa SA, ‘cause we didn’t have to pay to see them.

May 29, 2007

What does the 0 stand for?

The wedding ceremony was taking place at 0430 on Sunday morning. One of the holy men had decreed that was the best time for Pete and Sara to get married.

Personally I have a theory…and it involves fitting in as many ceremonies in one day so he can afford to pay his mobile bill.

I’m going to try and describe what happened now, based on the snippets that relatives told me in broken English and from what I gathered by watching.

The groom was waiting for the bride and shortly after she arrived looking radiant in green and gold he was loaded up with an umbrella (shelter), and fan (?), a cane (support) and flower garlands. He then had to leave the room telling the father he no longer wanted to marry his daughter and the family of the bride have to chase after him and beg him to come back. This is all done the accompaniment of a drum band.

When he comes back in the bride and groom have to exchange flower garlands (this is the equivalent of exchanging rings) then sit in a swing set surrounded by family (mostly hers). Here they are blessed by holy men and have their feet washed with honey milk by various members of both families. Then they have 30 rice balls (15 coloured with turmeric and 15 coloured with the red powder used for the red bindi) moved around their heads three time both clock wise and anti-clockwise to ward off the evil eye. After this is done they move to the stage area again for more blessings.

The blessings are done in front of fire, as the fire is God, therefore any promises made before fire cannot be broken. The whole ceremony was beautiful and towards the end, once again, both fathers had to invite us to eat breakfast ‘cause we didn’t want to miss anything.

After breakfast we were cleared for a few hours, so we returned to the room and crashed! ‘Cause I was wearing a sari I propped a pillow behind my back and sleep in a chair, Hubby took advantage of the lovely hard bed. It was 0730 and we slept til 9. Then returned downstairs as instructed. Nothing was happening til lunch, and it was to be casual. So back upstairs, sari off and bed til lunch.

At lunch, once again curry on a bed of banana leaf, the waiters didn’t bother givning us a spoon and fork. We had been accepted.

The Pre-Wedding Day

Pete and Sara are having two days of wedding. On the afternoon before the wedding (in this case 6am tomorrow) there is an informal reception and a formal reception. During the informal reception, which was two hours long, the bride and groom are officially engaged and are given flower garlands by holy men to prove this. Yes, this takes two hours! On the plus side I got to wear a lovely blue and green sari and bling to match. Sara looked radiant in orange and red with jasmine in her hair and gold around her neck.

There was food and a change of clothes before the formal reception and this involved both fathers and an uncle inviting us to eat. The vegetarian curry was served on a banana leaf and was yummy. We even did as the locals do and ate with our fingers (right hand only, the left is considered dirty), thank Ganesh for poppadums and chapatti. Hubby got told off by the waiter when he tried to eat the lime pickle and of course they felt sorry for us and brought spoon and forks. We struggled, but prevailed in the end.

In the evening there was the official reception. Four hours of Pete and Sara sitting in big chairs wearing red and gold sari for her, biscuit suit with cream shirt and tie for him. When someone came onto the stage to give them a gift they would jump up and have their picture taken. This happened for FOUR HOURS! Maybe this was why Pete was late?

There was music provided by a pair of saxaphone playing, sari wearing ladies who were backed up by drums. They played all the tunes you know, if you live in India, if you don’t they all sound the same after the first three, so you’d better like them. We did.

We had our picture taken with the bride and groom. Twice.

We also smuggled a quick chat at the same time and found out that they were both bored and just wanted it all over with. With all the hassle of the last few weeks, weddingoveritis had well and truly set in, with only one more day to go.

May 27, 2007

The First Three Days - In reverse order

Friday – Rubbish, Rubble, Refuse and Bollywood Dancing

In a bid to mop up the errors of last night we spent the best part of Friday morning getting the bits we missed out last night ‘cause he was running late (‘cause his mum was being a right royal cow, quite apt seeing as we’re in India). We hired a taxi, here you arrange by the hour and agree price up front. Once again we had the White Austin Ambassadour, but the drivers English wasn’t any better. He had trouble finding the bling store, but between the three of us it was OK. Then he took us to Pondy Markets so I could buy blouses for under my sari’s. As they were pre-made, I could only get cotton ones and the silk ones will be made while I’m over the other side in Kochi.

After a bit of shopping we made a stop at a tourist spot. The Valluvar Kottam is a 101foot (31 metre) tall temple chariot. It’s moohoosive! It was in its own grounds proudly created and maintained by India Bank, but Hubby and I could see very evidence of maintenance. The grass was over grown, there was litter all over the place and walls were falling over. The Chariot itself was spotless, but that may have been because of its religious significance. To me it seems that the only things looked after are temples, little temple things by the side of the road (shrines) and overseas big brand name shops. It’s sad really, but the people of Chennai seem to have take Gandhi literally when he said ‘Pride leads to destruction’, unfortunately, if they don’t start having some pride, the town will fall down around their ears…I think it’s already started.

Lots of pictures were taken at the Chariot, and I couldn’t resist being a bit silly and pretending to run over by the wheels. On the way out of the gardens, we spotted a fruit seller and brought a Mango. Usually they sell slices, but having been warned about not knowing how clean the knife is, how long its been cut etc, we just brought a whole one. The lady looked most pleased when I handed over Rs10 without blinking. I’m fairly sure it had the stoopid white tourist tax in there somewhere but ten rupees is only about 30c it’s a bargain!

Back at the hotel we had a shower (temp today 38degrees with over 80% humidity) then dressed in some of our new local clothing. I’m sorry, but Hubby just looked daft in a pair of cotton pants and a kaftan (Pete, I know this isn’t right, but I can’t remember everything). On the other hand, my arse looked huge in my amazing expanding drawstring pants and didn’t really look much better no matter how much bling I put on.

The Mehendi party was being held across town near Sara's house and when we arrived (2 hours later thanks to PST, Pete Standard Time) everything was in full swing. The guava juice was following like…guava juice, but the dancing was going off and the henna girls were working like machines in the corner. I suppose applying henna is a bit like icing a cake and with plenty of skill and heaps of practice you get quick. But these girls would do a hand in less than five minutes. It’s amazing to watch, but try standing from a sitting position without bending your wrists or smudging the freshly done work of art.

I danced, not a lot, but I got a little in between having my hands done. Then it was time for dinner. Guess what we had…yeap, curry! It’s was lovely and everyone was kind enough not to expect us to eat with our hands like the locals. A spoon and fork was provided. They had even cooked mild dishes, afraid we wouldn’t be able to handle the true local fare. Hubby was saying it wasn’t hot enough but my lips had that nice curry tingle by the end.

First Night - Sari Shopping

We met up with Peteat about five and he took us to Pondy Bazaar. Both Hubby and I had to buy our outfits for the weekend and we got a chance to take a walk in the shopping area. Our first stop was Jhillmill, a shop on four floors for women only. It’s a bling store! I was greeted by pete’s Mother-in-Law who insisted on showing me around. Consequently, I didn’t have that much time to browse and therefore didn’t get what I would have really liked. But I did get stuff I liked, so it’s all good.

After buying bling, we walked to the sari shop. On the way we stopped at a jasmine seller and brought a string. All day I have been seeing ladies with these beautiful creamy white flowers in their hair. Now I had some. Only I have short hair and no where to pin it, so I’m wearing it like a scarf and really look like a tourist. Ohh hang –on…I could look more like a tourist, Hubby and I are the only western faces I’ve seen all day!

Before we came here, pete was warning us about all the things that would be overwhelming. Traffic, heat, pick pockets, amount of people etc…what he didn’t warn us about and by far the most overwhelming thing so far is the shop assistants. In a shop were everything is price it’s slightly different from a street stall (in so much as no hard selling) but as soon as you pay special attention to one item they grab it from you and put it to one side for review later. In the jewellery shop this meant I ended up leaving with a bangle I have no hope of getting over my massive white knuckles, which is a shame, ‘cause it’s very pretty.



The Sari shop was called RmKV. I saw it a few weeks ago on telly because they have the longest wedding sari in the world, 250metres or something. I remembered the shop from seeing the marble stair cases and walls and walls of neatly folded saris. I was in colour heaven. I desperately wanted to take pictures, but again the not wanting to like a tourist thing got the better of me. I wanted to get close to the silks and breathe them in. I wanted to get close pictures of the swatches of colours, but most of all I wanted the 50,000 colour sari that cost Rs44,000. I figured I just wouldn’t get enough wear out of it. Instead I picked three, a turquoise and mint green, an orange and red and a gold and forest green. I also had to get a salwar kameez (trousers and matching long top) for the Mehendi (henna/hen party) on Friday. I ended up in burgundy raw silk with beading and braid work for a snip at A$75.

Pete was a great help and as usual had impeccable taste. We rolled in late and didn’t waste time falling asleep.


Morning One – Damp Patches

Our Five Star hotel in the heart of Chennai offered us the accommodation that the Road house in Karuah would have rivalled. I know I sound ungrateful, but it’s all so run down. There are huge damp patches on the walls and the whole smells like my grandma pad. The Lobby has that whole 80’s decadence thing going for it, then you step into the lift and it’s like being on the set of Mission Impossible where behind the doors it’s really a warehouse.

We woke up after a fairly restless night sleep on our bed of nails and had a shower without getting any water in our mouths. We cleaned our teeth with bottled water and locked absolutely anything worth over $5 in the safe before leaving for our morning of being driven around. The taxi we were in was a 1950 Austin Ambassador, from the outside it was immaculate, on the inside, its age was beginning show.

We started at the Kapaleswarar Temple, a magnificent structure dating back over 1300 years with over 900 sculptures in all colours of the rainbow. We had to walk from the taxi with bare feet and were welcomed by one of the temple ‘pujari’ (the equivalent of a verger, I think). He gave us a whistle-wind, leaving little time for me to take photos, but I did get a few.

Left - Right : Ganesh _ the elephant god – always carried by mighty mouse, Lakshmi _ goddess of wealth – she just stands there and looks pretty, Brahma _ the creator – well, he just creates and Saraswathi _ goddess of learning – she travels on a lion

The Wishing Tree - where people make wishes!

On to a bit of shopping. We started in a Kashmir carpet place. We were given cardamom tea and shown many yummy hand knotted carpets in a multitude of colours and designs. I had my eye on a red/orange diamond design made of cashmere but at US$1900 it was a little out of my holiday spending budget. I settled on a cashmere pashmina from the Spenser Plaza instead. The price sounded a lot in rupees, but when converted into A$ it was hard to resist for only 50bucks.

Food wise we’re okay. I managed to have curry for breakfast, while Hubby stuck to bread and jam. For lunch we went all out and went to Pizza Hut. Bit odd I know, go all that way and have pizza, but…have you ever had a Malai Seekh Kebab pizza? I have now ;-)

Off to buy Sari’s later…


The First 7 Hours of my Holiday

3hrs and 55 minutes into the flight and I’m bored. And I’ve already slept for 90 minets. This is why I hate flying. I know, I know I could watch the movies, or listen to the music provided, but somehow when on a plane I just can’t get into them. I’ve taken some nice photos out of the window (they don’t call it the Red Centre for no reason) and had a wicked dream. I know that the retelling of dreams can be boring, but …

On a plane, when terrorists jump out of their seats in various parts of the plane with guns (how did they get them on board, they took my hairgel!) so I sit there for a while much girlie screaming and gun waving goes on. After everything has settled down I jump from my seat, and charge the rough looking sort closest to me while his back is turned. Hubby is still in his seat shouting for me to stop and behave. I knock the guy down and use the butt of his gun to break his nose. Crouched low I move forward into the galley and prepare to take on the next. This one sees me coming and raises his gun. I kick it from his hands just before he pulls the trigger, then smashed the heel of my hand into his nose, cracking his nose and snapping his head back. He recovers, but I strike him in the shin with the side of my foot, taking him down. The bloke sat in the seat behind the bad guy grabs him by the throat and flashes an air marshal badge at me. ‘Ma’am you really should do as they say, you know?’
‘stuff that, the bastards at the airport thought it was me with my amazing exploding hairgel, I going to prove them wrong.’
As I make my way forward I can’t see any more bad guys, but I know they’re there, at least two more. In the next galley I change sides of the plane and move forward slowly. There is a young family sat in the seats, cowering and I realise that they are looking at the bad guy. He’s hiding behind the wall, waiting for me to make a mistake. I stop in the galley and look around, I find the coffee pot. Slowly I move forward and swing the coffee pot around the corner in front of me. He screams and jumps out at me. He has me held by the wrists, all I can think of is to bring my knee up and flatten the family jewels. He releases my right hand, I reach behind me a pick up one of the child’s colouring pencils and bring it down into his eye socket. He screams and falls backwards, I jumped onto him and plunged the pencil into his heart….

At that point Hubby woke me up saying we were over the Olga and I realized that I watch far to much Buffy, Alias and Blade!

But to be honest, I like that I can kick arse in my dreams.

May 22, 2007

Pedestrians Don’t Bounce

I did a bit of driving around town today in a last minute dash to clean up a few things before going away tomorrow and found myself wondering why people continue to take on tonne or two of metal and rubber.

I had at least four people step out in front of me while I was driving down the street at 50kph. One girl even ran out in front of the bus that was next to me, when she caught what I said about her actions through my open window, she had the nerve to turn and tell me not to be rude. The silly bit*h ran out in front of a bus!

How many times have you stepped out in front of traffic and lived to tell the tale?


PS. 14 hours til I fly

May 21, 2007

The Park

I had the pleasure of walking through Hyde Park at 1pm today. I also had the pleasure of walking through Hyde Park on Saturday at about the same time. I'm writing about this mostly uniteresting fact 'cause I was amazed how different the energy was today compared to Saturday.

On Saturday, the park was filled from Liverpool Street to the Archibald Fountain with picnicing couples, practising buskers, hungover buddies and people casually reading or chatting. The sun was shining like today so there was even girls sunbaking in the last of the sunshine the season has to offer.

Today it was lunch time on a work day. At the Liverpool Street end the park was the host to bitching birds, lunching loners, runners, sitter upers, bragging blokes and people just passing through in a hurry. By the time I had crossed Park Street and walked to the Fountain the workies had thinned out a bit and there was a bit more weekend action with all the tourists. I even noticed most of the pigeons and ibises had gravitated to this end of the park, I suppose the tourists are a softer touch.

They are certainly softer on the ears and easier on the sress levels.

PS. It's 36 hours til my plane leaves to take me to India...woo hoo

May 20, 2007

Unlike Eurovision

Just like they gave the UK no points in the Eurovision, it looks the Eastern Europeans also give Jodie Sorrels blog ‘Nil Points’.

I like Analytics, you find out all sorts of totally useless stuff about your readers and non readers.


Sunday in the Country







I love my new camera!

May 19, 2007

The Hen was a Man

As you’ll know by now Sam and Sara are getting hitched next week in India. So in grand tradition of girls getting married we (Edna, Trixy and Rachel) took Sam out for a night on the town. First we dressed him up like a naughty school boy with the addition of a tiara and vale, then we plied him with alcohol then we walked him to Hellfire.

Trixy looked lovely in black leather; Rachel has a fine body for tight denim and what can only be described as Spandex. Corporate tart suited Edna, even if she did forget her skirt and I donned a corset and a red wig. Once inside, champagne was ordered and the groom toasted, many times. He even had his picture taken by the official photographer.


We all got to see the first and second shows of the evening too. The first was Christa Hughes who used to sing lead vocals for Machine Gun Fellatio. She has the most awesome voice, so I’m adding her to my groupie listing for 2007. Later Gypsy Wood (you may remember her from such stage shows and blog entries as Feasting on Flesh) did a little show where she popped all the balloons she was dressed in with large sharp knives. It would also seem that they were filled with blood or red food colouring (I hope it food colouring) ‘cause today I have lots of little red spots on my white shirt.

This morning however, Edna and I tried to forget about the fun had the night before but the brightness of the sun, the party feet and desire to eat a fully cooked fry-up breakfast told us that we’d had a really good night. We had a Doris day, sitting in Hyde Park watching he world go by and eat its packed lunch with a knife and fork, shopping (we even met with Sam for a short time), drinking hot chocolate and eating sushi. We over indulged and Edna brought a polar bear coat. I’m pretty sure I encouraged her, she just needs some rich ‘bloke’ (not her word;-) to take her skiing in New Zealand so she can wear it.

Thank goodness the wedding is dry.

May 18, 2007

My First Restaurant Review

With India only five sleeps away I paid S a visit for de-yetification. Edna came with me so she could have her eyelashes tinted and look like a cow again. She has the most amazing eyelashes, long and curly.

After S had worked her magic, Edna and I grabbed some dinner at a steak joint in Erina Shopping Centre and as promised here’s my review of an eatery ;-)

Seven Eagles Spur
The Hive, Erina Shopping Centre

Only a few months ago this location was another steak place with slightly different décor. Now it's part of the Spur Steak Ranch chain and bright, but oddly welcoming. The seats look comfortable and the booth we sat in wrapped its cow printed vinyl around us.

The menu, presented on printed board, offered the usual steak house fare. Burgers, Tex-Mex, grilled stuff, combos, salad and of course steaks. We ordered a Starter Platter, a Chicken and Guacamole salad and a side of fries to share.

The plates were clean and the food arrived promptly. Most importantly it was hot, which meant freshly cooked. The Starter Platter had on it calamari, crumbed mushrooms and spicy chicken wings. The flavour was good, but the wings looked suspiciously like legs. The salad was disappointing. How hard is it to get a salad right? The iceberg was soggy from all the vinaigrette dressing, the guacamole had either too much lemon or onion in it, making it bitter, it could have been both, but the chicken almost redeemed it by being moist and barbeque tasty.


The service was quick and friendly, they even did a song and dance for the 80 year old birthday girl sitting a few tables away with her whole dynasty.

Entrees $3.50 – 19.95
Mains $14.95 - $30

Poetry Helps!?

A week or so ago while in the office I heard Sally’s’ boss (she sits just over the partition from me) say ‘well done Sally, it’s so nice to know you know what you’re doing’.

My immediate reaction was to flick her a quick one liner saying, ‘Ohh my god, how condescending was that?’
We’d been talking rhyme only the day before and I got back, ‘tis not just you, i felt it too, we did not misconstrue, on the conclusion we drew. I might just say, that it happens every day!!’

I was felling silly so I responded and before we knew it I could hear chuckles coming from the other side of the wall and then the email came

‘We could call this couplet therapy’ Sally said after the 10th email. For an accountant she has a great sense of humour ;-)

Over the past few days we have exchanged such gems as the following four;

why don’t you have a little rest
so when you wake you're at your best
for me ill stay awake
as i have to watch the snake

I had a rhyme for now,
but it seemed the sow
and the odd cow
didn't cut it some how ;-)

off the cuff
is exciting stuff
i'll take her guff
til ive had enough
lets go again
my rhyming friend!

What a witch,
with an itch
who will snitch
to that bitch ;-)

May 17, 2007

The Dangers of Email

I remember in the dark ages before email existed. People had to telephone each other at either the office or at home, ‘cause in the days before there was no mobile phone either. Or a letter had to be written and faxed or mailed with a stamp. Of course computers had been invented but they were as big as a small car and printers had their own rooms.

What with those days only being a few short years ago (I have to protect my age, you know ;-) it’s understandable that people are still making mistakes when writing email. Although I don’t think anyone under the age of 30 has any excuses after all they’ve at least always had access to email at work (office based jobs of course).

Over the last few months I have been victim (yes, victim is the right word to use) of carelessly or hastily written emails. I even wrote about it in last Editors message in the Alpaca magazine. So, after receiving another one of these ill-considered emails only this week, I thought I would share my thoughts on email etiquette with you, my readers.

Before you press the send button;
1. Re-read it and think to yourself – if I received this would I be upset/offended/angry?
2. On work related email think to yourself – Is this constructive feedback, have I given a solution to what I’ve criticised/said I don’t like?
3. On email where you are being sarcastic, think to yourself – Is it clear I’m being sarcastic by the libel sprinkling of smiles? ( I know I guilty of this one on occasion).
4. On an email where you use acronyms, swear words or anything else that may be considered ‘dodgy’ think – Is this appropriate?
5. Check if you’ve used UPPERCASE, be aware that you’re shouting, do you need to be shouting?

If you go by all of this and it still doesn’t feel right (and I may have missed something, please feel free to comment) get someone else to read it before you press the send button.

I always think about it as if I’m writing a letter (unless it’s someone I know really well and it’s a one liner). Address the reader (Dear, To, Hi, Hey! etc.), the body of the email/letter (broken into paragraphs is required) and a sign off (regards, sincerely, bye, etc.).

Of course, I by no means get emails right all the time, but I do make the effort each and every time I write one. If I make a mistake I like to think I’m big enough to admit it and move on.

And by the way, here’s a few smiles you may encounter if you ever get email from me and you may like to brush up;

:-) – A smile

;-) – A wink (cheeky)

:-D – A wide grin (I’m really happy)

and finally…

A kiss - :-*

May 15, 2007

Moon Shadow

TheOtherAndrew did this test thingy a couple of days ago and I thought I'd give it a go too.



You are The Moon


Hope, expectation, Bright promises.


The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.


The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.


What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

May 14, 2007

Nose In, Arse Out

Over the weekend, Hubby and I stayed in a motel called the Acacia Motor Inn in Armidale; it’s just off the main road into town and well lit when arriving at night.

It was clean, warmish and provided most of the items required when away from home. There was a bed (extremely hard), a shower (chill to scold in 0.5 second), towels (blue, soft and big enough for a baby’s bottom, but not mine) and mini bars of pineapple scented soap. No mini bottles of shampoo, we had to buy that. They also provided a TV that piped SBS, ABC, channels 7, 9,10 and Sky News into the room. But no internet wireless as promised by the website we booked it on.

For the car windows, a bucket of cold water and a squeegee mop was provided.

The sign on the wall next to the bucket has got me thinking though.

PARK NOSE IN!

Why do I have to park my car nose in?
Is it because they’ve had trouble with others stuffing up the reverse parking action?
Is it because it looks neater?
Why do I have to abide by this weird request?

I would love to know the reason, it’s ranks up there with other strange requests that you see on signs about the place, such as;

Keep Off the Grass
Park Rear In
No Mobile Phones
No Picnics

Ok, I can understand the no mobile one, but the others…please explain.

May 13, 2007

Eurovision ROCKS!

More raffle tickets and lucky dips were sold in Armidale before leaving at 2pm and commencing our journey south and back to Sydney with a couple of stops to take pictures of roads... one day I’ll explain.

The rush was caused by our need to get home for the Eurovision Song Contest. Gotta love this weird-arse-freaky-deeki-f*cked up European tradition! Even though it seems it’s no longer purely European.

You get 30 odd European countries who write song especially for this, pick unknowns to sing them, put them in various way out costumes, trial choreography for monkeys, break the budget for big LCD displays and pyrotechnics. Put it all together you have a visual feast that has spawned drinking games galore around the world since 1956.

Skull a shot for every ‘La la la’ or ‘dah dah dah’’
Skull a shot for every song sung in ‘national costume’
Skull a shot every time a country votes 12 (top) points for their direct neighbour.
Skull a shot every time the UK gets points (it’s very rare, so don’t rely on this one for a good night).

If nothing else watch it for Terry Wogan’s commentary. He takes the p*ss all night and still gets invited back.

Congratulations Serbia for winning with 268 points!

UK came last with 17... There’s always next year!

Armidale – Wool Expo

After a quick hop from Sydney to Armidale (500kms) on Friday night then a committee meeting where we happily committed to spend $20,000 on a new trailer, a cal…ohh you don’t care! ;-) I don’t even care and I’m responsible for at least $8000 of that (raffle, cal…once again, you don’t care).

Saturday saw us rising at a stupid hour for a weekend morning and making our way to the Armidale show grounds for Wool Expo. Once there I manned the raffle ticket table all day and entertained the kids with lucky dips. Hubby took pictures of the show taking place at the other end of the marquee.

In the evening we left all the wool people, both of the alpaca and sheep kind to their barn dance and went to the movies. We saw Spiderman 3. both Edna and theotherandrew were right, it good for eye candy and it is 16 hours long.

Sorry Edna, but I like Tobey Macquire, but as we have established on many of our evenings of cider + over analysis…I like dorks!

But the highlight of the evening was getting back to our hotel and watching the qualifying round of Eurovision! Hosted by the traditional - she who wears a hot pink fish tail dress and he who dons a whiter than white suit. Edited highlights below…unlike SBS…

Viva La Eurovision!

Countdown in Finnish! (most certainly spelt wrong three, two, one in Finnish)…
Goalme
Gooxie
Uooksie

Bulgaria – Bondage chain mail outfits with kick arse drums and lots of red
Iceland – I know you’re Europe but when did this turn into the Imitate your favorite 80s hair rock band Contest?
Switzerland – When did Bonnie Tyler do vampire chic?
Albania – When did Andrew Lloyd Webber start writing songs for Eurovision?
Denmark – Ohh my god! Priscilla eat your heart out?
Serbia – Androgynous opera with big heavy glasses.
Czech Republic – ZZTop when they were 30
Portugal – Euro pops in really short ruffled white PVC
FYR Macedonia – The mirror trousers blinded me to the music…and they qualified!
Norway – The amazing ripable dress, just like Bucks Fizz circa 198something
Malta – ‘Loving you gives me vertigo’ with lyrics and shirtless violin player/gong banger was gob smacked!
Hungary – A bus top sign and suitcase helped the song how…and what’s with the Sandie Shaw ripoff by going barefoot?
Estonia – ‘we’re sitting in the rain and sipping cold champagne’ was the stunning opening line to a wind machine on overdrive, and they didn’t get through…shame!
Belgium – described a cross between Mika and Huggybear in gold lame and a back up playing piano/guitar wearing a turgoise wide collar with white tie, sh*t, but really excited.
Slovenia - Looks like Mortica Addams in a leather bodice and rag skirt. In her right hand she had a panel of LED’s that she used to light her face. Sounded like a nice song but I couldn’t understand it.
Turkey – ‘Shake it up, shake in, tell me what you’re thinking’ sung by PT Burham
Austria - The more interesting thing about this one was the back up dancers dressed in red feather boa and sequins and the fact the singer emerged out of a a giant boa and the pyrotechnics.
Latvia – the guys were wearing top hats and carrying white roses… It was the Six Latvian Tenors in Denim! Weirdly enough, it could be a winner.

May 9, 2007

New Band

Edna and I went out for our usual Wednesday night dinner at Sushi Train followed by drinks at the Brighton tonight. Sushi Train did us proud again with plenty of our type of $3 plates sailing past us along with the pickled ginger and wasabi.

The Brighton (corner of Riley & Oxford Street) was quiet, only half a dozen patrons nursing beers and smoking. When someone decided it was time to play rap on the juke box we decided it was time to move to the Macquarie (corner Goulburn and Wentworth) for some real band action.

Our Wednesday night consist of a few ciders accompanied by much over analysis of boys, work colleagues and anyone else who may cross our paths. We also reminisce about past loves and debate about the merits of future ones. Anyway, to night we were talking about email flirtations and past loves in great detail.

While we listened to the new resident band I remembered and told a story about a fella’ I had around for dinner when I was about 17 or 18. I though Edna was going choke. She certainly released some cider back into the world via her nose…Anyway…I invited this guy (can’t remember his name) around for dinner, I cooked a salad with grilled chicken and boiled egg…practically a Caesar without the funky sauce. He arrived for the dinner bearing gifts. A large pot of yoghurt. Blackcherry, my favorite.

After dinner we had yoghurt for dessert then took the dog for a walk. When he lent in for a snog he put his hand on my boob. That was my cue to say ‘so time for home then’. I never saw him again.

Ohh… the innocence of youth and how times change!

The Zion Band - The Wednesday night May residents of the Macquarie Hotel lured the customers tonight into a false sense of security. In the first of three sets of forty minutes they played a cool mix of reggae and jazz. A nice soothing sound that allowed you to continue your conversation while enjoying the sounds coming from the corner.

The second set hotted up and let the members of the band show their true talents. The lead singer/bass palyer had a voice that would challenge Shaggy, but only on a bad day, while the saxophone player was the true virtuoso. During the set I saw him play at least five instruments, the Sax, the flute, a fife, a trumpet, a tambourine and the maracas. At one point I had a flash on Ron Burgundy from Anchorman playing jazz flute but it soon passed.

They played their own songs with a touch of Bob Marley and Lou Reed. Their happy joy joy music had the toes tapping and the shoulders bumpin’. Titles like Amnesia , Liberty and Satellite had a touch of rap, but not enough to drive away. In fact it possible that we’ll be back for more Shadow play.

Rumbled

A few weeks ago I made a boo boo on this here blog. Since then I have been chatting to someone under my pseudonym who has met me at the gigs, hoping that sooner rather later they would figure out who I am. I couldn’t tell… it had gone to far.

Now it’s all out in the open…my identity has been revealed through a sequence of deductions and carefully place questions.

I can breathe again when I go to pub gigs that I’m not going to say something to give myself away. I had no idea how tight my shoulders had got from the tension. I can even listen to the music again without thinking…ohh sh*t!

May 8, 2007

New Sibling

My mum emailed me today to tell me I have a new baby brother. His name is Freddy and he’s seven weeks old.

I don't think my other 'brother' Percy is that impressed. 'Cause Freddy keeps chasing him and trying to bite his tail. Boy will be boys and cats and dogs will fight.

A Town Where I Lived

I went into Analytics today to check my stats and saw that I’d had a visitor from Guildford in Surrey, UK.

Say Hi please, if it’s you, I grew up there!

May 6, 2007

A Trip to Cutesville

A brief visit to Taronga Zoo today resulted in me seeing a somewhat rare occurence.

A koala awake!

Koala sleeps well
awake for only sixty
then asleep again



May 5, 2007

Butcher Art

On Thursday I went to see an alpaca being processed into back strap, rump and neck joints, among other things. It was fairly confronting to see four of the fleeced animals sans fleece, but in the line of duty as roving reporter for the alpaca magazine, I needed to finally put all the bad rumours t bed.

I have to confess, the worst thing about the whole experience was seeing the butchers use the ban saw without any sort of guard.

I took heaps of photos, but only the following are suitable for publication on a blog.

Ohh yeah...and they gave me a hat!

May 4, 2007

My Angel comes up Trumps, Again!

My friend Edna, I may have mentioned her before, has just given me the key to her success…and I always thought she had magic dust!

Technology Humour

I heard something on the radio last night during my drive home (only time I listen to FM) from an American comedian that made me giggle. He was talking about new technology and about how sometimes it just doesn’t make life better. He started by saying he had had a call from his mobile phone service telling him about the benefits of text messaging and they went something like this…

Do you find it’s just too convenient to talk on the phone?
Do you find you need more areas in your life were you have to type?
Do you like the convenience of not being able to see or hear the emotions of those you are communicating with?
Do you like to make you short communications long and laborious?

If you do you should use text messaging!

The Evil, that is DIY Furniture

A long time ago, in a land far from here a little man, or woman came up with the concept of furniture that you put together yourself with the assistance of some dowels, screws and glue…ohh, and a hammer.

My friend Edna, required some of this furniture last weekend and we took a drive out to the rather large store, wandered round, picked up some other bits (not quite so necessary items), a bookshelf (she’s literary), a bedside table disguised as a five drawer filing unit, and a rather funky little lamp table for the lounge.

I should also mention that that have a little Swedish food shop and they have Dime Bars in various forms. I got the Bar form, the mini bar form, but Edna drew the line at the Dime Nuggets. Spoil sport! ;-)

Edna, I believe doesn’t really like Ikea ‘cause she has trouble putting the items together so they look like the items on display, but Newk, found the bag they provided highly amusing.

Stereotypes and Driving

Towards the end of another 400km of driving last night I got to thinking about driving in general (this may have been prompted by the guy in the Toyota Landcruiser tail gating, but I’ll let you judge that ;-)

Anyway…there are many stereotypes when it come to driving and cars that I have heard, at least one I believe to be fairly actuate, others I think are a lot of old tosh!

For instance, I think the one about women being bad drivers is true. Yes, Yes, I know I have just let down women kind (myself included) by saying this, but I have a little evidence to back this one up.

In general, women do not drive as many k’s as men, they tend to drive larger cars (read 4WD that never see dirt) ‘cause the feel safer in them (what about everybody else?) and more often than not are looking at what’s happening on the back seat rather than looking at the road. I have witnessed this, here the tally for yesterday alone.

Women so little they could hardly see over the steering wheel, let alone the bonnet – 1
Women looking over their shoulder, swatting the kids playing up in the back seat and hence lane drifting – 2
Women driving 80km on a freeway in the middle lane, hunched over the steering wheel with eyes the size of saucers – 2
Women chatting to their girlfriend so much they go 20kms out of the way, opps… that was me and Edna, last weekend on the way to Ikea ;-) - 1
Women chatting to the girlfriend in the passenger seat and lane drifting – 1

Women to scared to change lanes, so indicate, then don't move, then indicate agian. A girlfiend from work calls them 'Twitchers' - 2 (Thanks, Sally).

On the other hand, it was a man driving up my backside so close he could have opened the boot and climbed in.

Self Portrait