Good Viewing

Just got in from the movies where I saw The Bourne Ultimatum with Trixy and Rachel. This little movie from the Basic had been uploaded while I was watching the other movie, and I liked this one more. (wasn't keen on the hollywood blockbuster for it's vomit making camera work that kinda blotted out large pieces of the story, which from what I could tell, was quite good).

You wait boys, when you get home, a schooner will look like the babies glass of beer.

Mmmm...Trifle

I was called a ‘neurotic fusspot’ today. So I looked up the words just to confirm that it wasn’t me this person was talking about and this is what dictionary.com had to say;

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary
Main Entry: 'neurotic' Function: noun
1 : one affected with a neurosis
2 : an emotionally unstable individual

American Heritage Dictionary
Entry: 'fuss·budget' Function: noun
1 : A person who fusses over trifles. Also called fusspot.

Now, In the current climate I think I would have every right to be ‘emotionally unstable’ but I’m not and never really have been. As for fusspot, yes, I do have my moments, but then who doesn’t.

And in my defense, I wouldn't fuss over a trifle, I'd eat it, especially if it was the sherry type with cream and glaze cherries.

All those that think I’m a ‘neurotic fusspot’ say I.

ANTM - 8:10

Guest Judge : Carissa Rosenberg, entertainment director at seventeen magazine

Challenge : Tell their story by body painting and dancing aboriginal style. Renee won with her tale woe as a child.

Photoshoot : The girls had to learn aboriginal dances and then represent them in the photos. Food Gatherer, Red Breast Robin, Dance of the Butterfly, Willy Wagtail

Judging Panel Question : Who do you think has the most/least potential?
Natasha was voted as the least by all the girls, only Dionne didn’t vote for herself as the one with the most potential.

Bottom Two : Dionne and Natasha

Went Home : Dionne ‘cause I know I could’a did a better job’

Notes : They went to Crystal Bar for a night out and left Natasha (she was fluy) at the hotel then bitched about her all night. Classy!

Season Finale next week when we’ll find out who Americas Next Top Model will be.

Bonnie Would be Proud

- 7.54pm
- 8.36pm - you can see the stars to the right if you look close

- 9.25pm - 9.46pm
- 10.41pm

There was a total eclipse of the moon. The technical details are all in Eastern Standard Time. I tried to take a few pictures but mucked it up by allowing to great an exposure so a couple are a bit hazy, but you get the general idea.

5:53 - Penumbral eclipse begins (Moon begins to dim, very slightly, as the Sun begins to shine through our Earth's atmosphere)

6:51 - Partial eclipse begins (curvature of the Earth becomes visible on the Moon)

7:52 - Total eclipse begins

8:37 - Greatest eclipse

9:22 - Total eclipse ends

10:23 - Partial eclipse ends

11:21 - Penumbral eclipse ends (Moon gets bright again)

Clean T-Shirt

The Basics left Australia to embark on an eight week world tour (Japan and UK) eleven days ago. They have been posting a video diary on YouTube roughly four times a day and it looks like they are have a great time. A bit of business, a bit of sightseeing, a bit of catching up with friends and most of all, a bit of playing of the music.

My only concern is, and this is apart from the haircuts; did Wally only take three t-shirts with him?

Californication

So I went over to Trixy’s place last night for pasta, cheese and a glass or five of wine to watch a new telly show on channel 10. It called Californication and starred David Duchovny. It’s about a writer called Hank Moody…blah blah blah sex.

The opening scene was HM getting out of his car in a church yard smoking a cigarette, he walks up the driveway and puts his fag out in the holy water at the church door. He then walks up to the statue of Jesus on the cross and asks for his advice about his writers block. Out of nowhere a nun appears and says ‘how can I help Hank?’ He says something like it a guy thing to which she replies ‘well clearly only a blow job with help,’ and gets down on her knees.

Later, a friends says (referring to the dream, yes it was a dream but only 'cause his lover was waking him up with a blow job) ‘you’re attracted to unavailable women,’ to which Hank replies ‘Can’t it just be that it’s naughty?’

I loved it, it was witty, sharp, refreshing and it has David Duchovny in it. Strangely though it also had Madeline Zima as a femme fatale who gave DC a black eye during a sex, I’m sorry but it may take a bit of getting used to, isn’t she little Grace from The Nanny?

Anyway I must get a telly arial so I don’t always have to watch at Trixys’ after she going home to the States in November.

APEC

Has anyone else noticed that this also stands for
American President Evacuates City?

What Part Don’t They Understand?

A few weeks ago I did a silly test and as a result have ended up with a profile on a free dating site. As you can image it takes all sorts and I’m sure there are some very fine people on there, but I’m having issues so far. I can’t seem to find a way to take the profile off, so I decided to make it as fool proof as possible.

I haven’t done a very good job so far. Clearly.

I have received eight emails from interested parties and seven of them have failed to take into account a key point in the main body of my profile. I have stated ‘if you don’t like cats, don’t bother as mine is very important to me.’ And in the short notes I ticked ‘likes cats and dogs’

So, seven of them have ‘don’t like cats’ ticked on their profiles. D’Oh!



- Maybe pictures of Puss will help clarify the situation a little.

And She Scores

So we have four months left in the year and I have reached my goal of 30 bands to be seen in 2007, in fact it stands at 30 bands seen 44 times.

But I shall endure and continue my quest, so I have a figure to beat next year! ;-)

I Will Go Out Alone

I walked the few blocks from my house to The Hopetoun Hotel just as I have many times in the past, only this time I was alone, not meeting anyone and going to a see a random band. Okay, so the random band thing wasn’t so new but the rest was. I was kinda nice though, the punk with attitude was on the door and welcomed me, as did the owner and a couple of regulars. I wasn’t alone after all.
__________

I walked into the Hopetoun blind. You can image my surprise and pleasure to see Des Miller on the bill. I had already missed Berkfinger and the curiously named If It Bleeds It Can Be Butchered. Shortly after my arrival the Melbourne based Plastic Palace Alice began to play. A six piece band that had driven ten hours to play a forty-five minute set before turning around and going home again. Lead singer Rob wore braces for the occasion and Emily one of the two girls in the band and the percussion queen wore a paper clip to hold her belt in place. They opened their set with ‘Murakami’ followed by ‘Karaoking’, an early Bowie inspired song with Emily also showing her vocal range. It was such a shame she looked so bored.

After the fifth song ‘Carrion’ they finally decided it would be a good time to talk to the audience. It may have been a bit late to admit that they had brought too much stuff with them, we could see that. On the small stage were six people, eight guitars, a drum kit, a harmonica, two keyboards, a xylophone, a tambourine, one of the little shakers that looks like a seedpod and the biggest brass triangle you have ever seen. Despite the over profusion of instruments the music was surprisingly simple with a heavy emphasise on guitar and Bob Dylan sounds. It was an extremely likable set that ended with the very catchy ‘Girl Who Cried Wolf’ and a well deserved and loud round of applause.

After the quickest turn around I’ve ever seen Des Miller came on stage. Now despite the name, none of the band members is actually called Des, unless you count lead singer and guitarist John ‘Desmond’ Miller. With short curly hair and a red cowboy shirt under his jacket, he soon lost his Cat Stevens look in the heat of the room and took on a look of sweaty pop idol, as in fact did the entire band. A full house meant the temperature in the room had shot up to the late thirties and it became very clear to me as sweat dripped from the end of Johnno’s nose why so many performance artists wear those awful sports headbands. The only one looking cool was keyboard player Robbie Moore in his Ziggy Stardust t-shirt while everyone else struggled with western style.

The set started with ‘On the Surface of Solitude’, as soon as it was done they took the time to thank the support bands and praise the talent they were following. It gave the crowd something to relate to and even if Des Miller hadn’t been in full favour before, they were now. ‘Lucy’ and ‘3pm’ showed the bands country Travelling Wilbys style crossed with a little Pink Floyd mixed in with a splash of Buddy Holly. It’s a confusing sound that pulls you in with it hypnotic sound, the lead singer being down on one knee praying to the gods of rock and roll doesn’t hurt either.

The set continued with ‘Borderline on Fire’, before they pulled Lucy from the audience to help them out with a little feminine vocal on ‘Time’. Is this the Lucy they told to ‘close your eyes and make it go away’ earlier? They wound-up the set with ‘Sorry’ and ‘OK’ before playing the finale, ‘Knife Edge’ a really catchy if slightly disturbing tune that had the entire crowd bopping in the aisle. Okay, so the whole place is one big aisle, with everyone dancing and generally having a great time. An encore was requested but kindly declined due to the shear amount of water that had to be drunk to stop the guys turning to dust and I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t want that for a very long time.

8.45 Saturday Morning

Not even a month in my new home and I had my first visit from a Jehovah's Witness this morning. Good job I hadn't been out last night or I may have said more than, 'No point talking to me bud, I give blood every three months.'

The look on his face was a picture. It was as if I had opened my robe and flashed him.

(Let's forget about about the fact that the Australian Red Cross won't take my blood because I might have Mad Cow Disease)

Coming Back

My first attempt at embedding a YouTube video is the video for Gotye's Coming Back. I love this song and the video rocks! I first saw it at the gigs late in July, but now you can all see it ;-)

ANTM - 8:9

Guest Judge : Priscilla Leighton-Clark, director of Priscillas Modelling

Challenge : Go Sees being judged on personality, catwalk walk and portfolio.

Photoshoot : A combination of two. First up was a shoot for a woman’s magazine with a male model with soft girlie poses. Next up was a raunchier shot for a men’s magazine.

Bottom Two : Dionne and Brittney

Went Home : Brittney ‘I never been the emotional person’

Notes : The cab driver got blamed by Brittney for her being late back from the challenge and for once a Sydney cab driver wasn’t at fault. She had a tantrum.
Episode 8:8 was a recap episode.

Pictorial Trip to Work

I like my new home, so I thought I’d share a few pictures from my trip to work each morning. I cheated yesterday and got the bus most of the way, as I have most mornings since I moved in because it was raining AGAIN!

Will this Winter never end?

- My Street, I'm sure it looks much nice in sunshine

- These tree seedpod are everywhere. I have still to identify the tree.

- Crawford Place, Is this the most boring street in Sydney?

- The Bike, someone was brave enough to leave their bike outside chained to a fence.

- An innocent row of terrace houses? I'll give one guess who lives behind the door of 99.

- Shot from the hip, and example of the cafe on my way to work.

Geeks and Nerds Rock!

This morning Edna sent me a link and asked;

How many do you fancy? And be honest! ;-)

My response was six, with one of them being a girl. But I was horrified that Tom Cruise is now being listed in Geek halls of fame. How can they lower the standard so much.

Tom Cruise never has and will never be a geek or a nerd. He is and will only ever be an actor that happened to have an amazing scene in a reasonably good movie a long time ago and only ever plays Tom Cruise. He just happens to be ‘good looking’ (if you’re into that kinda thing) with the charisma of a snake (although I think that’s being unkind to snakes)

I shall step off my soapbox now and give you my list of six;

David Tennent
Louis Theroux
Daniel Radcliff (although not that picture, it’s not good)
Alyson Hannigan
Jack Black
Paul Rudd
Finally, I ask you the same question Edna asked me. How many do you fancy and who?

House Guarding

A few months ago I agreed to housesit for the Alpaca Lady that agists Wispa, Arabella and Bertie. She had to take a business trip to Perth and it is the least I could do seeing as she is so good to us.

On Monday I left work at noon to drive up to the Central Coast. It was raining, so I drove with my usual care through showers and pelting rain to the road that was to take me to the house I was due to sit in. The rain was still hammering down and a phone call to the Alpaca Lady told me that the road was blocked and that she couldn’t get out, so I had little chance of getting in. So I had time to kill. I went shopping. I got a nice little nest of tables that could double up for stools. Anyway I digress.

- a bird rests on a cows back on the way to the house

- What can I say, I like cows.

I drove in and came across the water she was talking about. Rain had burst the banks of the Ourimbah Creek and flooded paddocks on either side of the road. The water was flowing in a torrent across the road to the lower paddock. Looking at it I would guess the water was about four to six inches deep, nothing my Subaru Outback Bessie couldn’t handle, but I wasn’t happy about how fast it was flowing. I’ve seen pictures of cars being swept sideways by rushing water so I took a picture and turned the car around. After killing four hours it was decided that it wasn’t going to stop raining anytime soon, so I drove back to Sydney.

- The Flooded Road

After an early start on Tuesday I got to the Alpaca Ladies gaff just after 9am. She showed me how to mix the alpaca feed, how many biscuits of hay the boys got, where to collect the eggs from, how to stop the alpaca breaking into the hen house and nicking the food and how to and when to feed the dogs. She has sixty odd alpacas (including my three), thirty odd chooks and three dogs. The dogs are Bonnie, an aging Golden Retriever that shuffles around but rarely leave the house or porch. Pepe is a little grey poodle thing with really sharp toenails that doesn’t seem to understand ‘Down!’ Cossie is another small dog, in fact he looks like a Labrador who’s been put in a dehydrator and shrunk to two thirds his original size. He’s very cute and does understand when he’s being told off. He gets that look in his eyes that could melt butter and the stoniest of hearts.

- The Cockerel that woke me at stoopid o'clock for a couple of mornings

I spent the morning reading some stuff for work (after all I was ‘working form home’) before falling asleep on the sofa at one. I woke at three and turned on the telly. There was something on about digging up bones in the West Country and Baldric was hosting it. I pressed the up channel button. Snow, snow, snow, red snow with a foreign accent, more snow. So I went down through the channels. Snow, snow, blizzard, more snow. I ended up back with Baldric and his Roman bones before realizing she only had ABC. I was stuck in a house with three smelly damp dogs in a house that only received the ABC, had no DVD player and no internet access!

I turned off the telly and started reading again. When I woke up at six, it was dark and I had no idea where the light switches were. After a brief hunt the house was illuminated and I decided to cook dinner. Mushroom and Spinach Omelette. I was in the country with fresh eggs, I had to have an omelette. Only I couldn’t find any pepper or tomato ketchup, so I had a rather bland dinner while watching The Bill surrounded by the eager faces of begging dogs.

- Cossie, not a good model, he doesn't keep still for long enough

The second night I couldn’t bear the idea of more ABC. So I went to the movies and saw I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry. Not a bad movies, but not a good one either. It’s typical Adam Sandler with a serious underlying message about gay rights. It did of course have a plethora of men in fireman uniforms so it wasn’t all bad. I would say see it, but don’t rush to see it on the big screen.

When I got back to the house, the dogs all decided they had been missing out on some affection. Cossie and Pepe climbed all over me on the sofa and Bonnie curled up at my feet. I tried to read, but arm movement was severely hindered, so resorted to the final option. Yeap, you got it…the ABC. At ten thirty I went to bed and the dogs followed me (unlike the night before). They watched me do my nightly abolitions, then curled up around the bed after I turned of the light. I drifted to sleep.

I was awoken by the most god awful smell five times in the night. Each time I ushered the dogs out, and each time they snuck back in to wake me up again. I swear these dogs could power a methane power plant.
- Feeding happens in harmony down on the farm

The whole experience reinforced that I am a city girl really. I like to think I can do country, but I can’t really. I like my city comforts too much and even more I require outside stimulus to keep my brain firing. I’ll house sit again, but I will make sure I take more entertainment and an industrial sized can of air freshener!

ALPACA ULTIMATIUM

After a great night out on Friday/Saturday morning I dragged my butt out of bed at 8.30 to drive up to the Central Coast and mingle with alpaca people in order to get them to volunteer for a display that I have ended up convening.

I’m not quite sure how it happened but it did, and being a woman of my word I find myself in a position that I have been in at other times, but this time, for some reason it seems to be worse. It was a beautiful sunny, winter day but I found myself feeling physically sick, deep in the pit of my stomach. Despite not having a lot of sleep, I wasn’t suffering a hangover, so it wasn’t that. I feel like, for the last two and half years I’ve only spoken to these people to ask for stuff.

Will you advertise in the newsletter?
Will write up that great story you just told me?
Will you be a volunteer at this and that display?
Will you host a meeting?
Will sponsor a month on the calendar?
Will you sell/buy a raffle ticket?

Granted, most of the time they’ve said yes. I seem to have the magic touch and I’ve been told I could sell sand to the Arabs, but I hate being like this. It all started as trying to do good marketing for a growing industry, but I am well and truly picking up my ball and going home. I’ve had enough!

Being around people who could have once been called friends now makes me feel ill, drained and exhausted. The negative energy that emits from a certain few (those mentioned in other posts mostly) effects my well being to such a degree that it starting zapping my lifeforce before I even get close. I feel the Carnations eyes boring into me. Now, I understand that this in purely physocologically, but you know what? I don’t need this type of shit, ever!

I have just one more thing to do (because I said I would, actually I never said I would, but it’s only two weeks away so a bit late to bale) and that is take a week of work (without pay) and run the alpaca display at the Australian Springtime Flora Festival in Gosford on the weekend that George Bush is turning Sydney into his own little fortress aka APEC. Then I will have nothing more to do with the alpaca industry except to enjoy the beautiful majestic animals it claims to want to promote.

Wish me luck!

Muppet Mad!

Whilst looking at Wikipedia today I happened upon a link to the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while, except ice cubes and the condensation on a champagne bottle of course.

Kermit T. Frog has got a myspace page!

Gotta love the green one.

School Dinners

Why do people insist on bring leftover dinner into the office for lunch? I can understand if there is a kitchen with a bench for you to eat at, but I have a guy who sits over the barrier from me who’s wife must work for the airlines.

Everyday he comes in and heats up what smells like a long-haul flight meal. It always smells the same, unappetising and old. I’ve never actually seen him eat, but I can visualise the grey plastic tray with a miniature glass, wrapped cutlery and little rectangular bowl full of something that resembles food, be it chicken of fish.
And the smell always appears at 12.30 on the dot. This is OK if I don’t have a lunch date, but when I do, like today, I have to sit here until 12.55 when I will run from my desk to flee the smell.

Yes, it will still be here half an hour from now!

Maybe one day, I’ll get him back…but I have a hard time thinking what I eat that could possibly smell that bad the next day.

Husband for Hire

So, those that read on a regular basis will know that I have moved into a new place and last Tuesday I brought some new bookshelves from Ikea.

Yesterday, I Hired-a Hubby to come and put them together for me. Not because I couldn’t do it myself, you understand, but because these buggers are so heavy they broke the trolley in Ikea by flattening out the wheels.

Anyway, he came round late last week to price the job up and put up a few picture hooks. When I went to the website I was presented with this image.
You can image my surprise, actually not really surprise but disappointment when man in his sixties turned up with an arse wider than mine and more sweat than a man who'd just run a marathon.

False advertising I call it.

On the plus side I do now have three new bookshelves so I can finish unpacking.