Here's a way to waste a bit of time...

One thing I've been doing is clearing out my inbox. Well, more truthfully, one of my inboxes - I have several inboxes set up in my email program.

I try not to be a packrat with most things. We don't have a lot of storage space in this house (don't even have a linen closet!), so I try to toss out stuff I don't need/want. I'll readily admit I'm not always successful, but I try.

One area I'm pretty bad with though, is my email. I save so much crap! My work email has stuff going back 5 years in some of the folders. Home is not quite so bad - but not by much. So, I've been ruthless and deleted over 1000 emails in the past few days.

On the upside, I found a few cute links from years back that I'd forgotten about. One of them is the make your own snowflake site. I've been playing a bit with it and here's one I like.


You should check out the gallery too. Some people's snowflakes are fantastic!

I am *such* a nerd...

I'm feeling a little nostalgic tonight. I was surfing youtube and found Gary Brolsma's numa numa video again. I have to admit I kinda like the song - it's catchy. So... I searched for the lyrics and I've been singing along with the original clip for the band O-Zone (well it says it's the original clip, I've no idea really).

All I can say is - I'm am such a nerd! Thank goodness I don't have a webcam huh?

You can find the (phonetic) lyrics here.

Happier now

Much less grumpy today :)

Had a way less stressful day yesterday doing our old role, sent off a job application for something that looks interesting (but I'm not too fazed if I don't get it), I have a day off today and my friend had the baby! She had a little girl called Chelsea and everyone's fine.

Another thing I'm pleased about is some cool things happening for Ian at Splendor-Solis (he's the one who took the pictures of the flowers in my header and profile). He tells me that he's had a photo of his used by a local council in a (two story high) sign used to promote the suburb, and he's been approached by a large charity in the U.S. to use one of his photos in an ad campaign. Cool huh?

Here's something I remembered seeing on House & Baby's site a while back and thought it was cute - a word cloud.

grumpy

I'm in a grumpy mood today. Lotsa reasons (well, in my mind anyway), so to get them off my chest, I'm going to write them all down.

In no particular order:

• Chickie woke up half an hour before my alarm this morning (and that was already set for 5.45am). I'm so not a morning person.
• The line faults role we've been doing for the past 8 months was supposed to finish yesterday. I arrived this morning to find the techies hadn't switched over the phones and we had 4 hours more of it.
• The powers that be have decided to redo the roster so that instead of sharing around the loading for Sundays, they're giving us set shifts each week. Mine is Tuesday to Saturday - so in effect, a drop in pay. This will start in a few weeks time, thankfully I do have a couple of Sundays before then.
• Our team won an award a while back and we're having a team event which will be a movie, at a gold class cinema, with all the trimmings. I was really looking forward to this, but everyone else voted for a movie that I'm really really not interested in seeing.
• A friend sms'd me yesterday to say she's gone into labour and I haven't heard anything more yet. I hope everything's going alright - she's managed to make it to 35 weeks (she had to go on bedrest at 24 weeks since she was in danger of giving birth back then).
• Someone reminded me that daylight savings starts this weekend, which means I'll have to adjust to getting up an hour earlier again. Oh and by the way, did I mention I'm so not a morning person?

Ok, that feels much better. Chickie's been trying to get me out of my mood too, by giving me lots of hugs and kisses, which is really sweet of him.

pics as promised - pt 3

The one is red is actually a woman (there were two women on the field that day).



OMG - real swords.



Grand Melee!




The man in green was quite good even though he didn't seem to have quite the same amount of armour as the others (not sure what he had on under the padding though).



You can't really tell just how hard they were going for it, in the photos. We saw one shield get splintered, so there was a fair bit of force going into those blows.

pics as promised - pt 2

J made a comment that this was the medieval version of dance dance revolution.



Zavana dance of Azerbyjan.



Just for Steve!

pics as promised - pt 1

This was a volunteer rifle regiment. They were able to fire the rifles at a rate of about 4 times a minute. Well, all except the second guy from the left. His rifle just made a tiny 'pop' each time. At the end they attached their bayonets and charged (the crowd surrended without resistance).



This was very very loud!

Fun at the farm

Had a wonderful day today. There's a farm not too far away that has an open day every year and holds something like a renaissance fair.

We saw all sorts of fun things. Lots of different dance troupes - morris, highland, pictish, medieval, colonial, belly, azerbaijani(an) and more we didn't get the chance to see. There were all sorts of displays - military (new and vintage), medieval knights fighting (some with wooden weapons, others with steel), a punch and judy show, and an archery display (with a medieval peasant and a viking). There were also lots of stalls with all sorts of interesting things. Btw, I'm saying medieval but I really don't know what era they're meant to be from.

Overheard quote of the day:

There was a stall/tent set up for the Wildlife Rescue people. They had a display of various lizards in there. I overheard one lady tell her child that one particular type of lizards were "skanks".

Chickie's favourites of the day were the knights fighting (he was practising his fake dying at the end of the day) and, believe it or not, a $1 'magic wand' bought as we walked out (it was a plastic stick with gold metallic streamers on the end).

My favourite was the grand melee the knights put on. I'm betting most, if not all, of them went home with bruises. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

Things I have learnt from my son

During daylight hours, no matter how tired you are, you never ever yawn. Ever! Yawns only ever occur during nighttime hours.

You do, on the other hand, do 'special burps' that indicate how tired you are.

So sayeth Chickie...

Funny!

matrix ping-pong

This just cracks me up!

What is the point?

Earlier today I sent an email to our state premier asking him if there were any way the government could assist with a centre that is closing due to lack of funding. A few minutes ago, I received a (presumably auto) reply asking to provide my postal address for a response.

What is wrong with emailing a reply - since I emailed in the first place??

Its not the first time I've experienced this. A couple of years ago I sent a complaint to a long life milk company because the openings on their cartons were often poorly placed and a real nuisance to open (yes, you'd often see me hacking away at the box and no, I don't know why I didn't just switch to a different brand). I used the online form on their website and received a two line apology by post. Honestly, why bother? What's wrong with using email? Its not like my communications to them were so vital that it required a paper copy that they could file away.

I emailed the premier and said not to bother replying if it couldn't be done via email. I don't see the point in wasting paper, envelope and stamp for (what will probably be) a standard 'thanks for your feedback, we'll consider it' answer.

As my Chickie says 'that's a-diculous'.

I want this shirt!

Friends at work call me the spelling police. Heh, I can't help being pedantic - years ago I used to do a bit of proofreading for book catalogue and newspaper. Spelling/grammar errors etc tend to bug me.

So I just found this shirt from One Horse Shy. I think I'm going to have to buy it. I kinda like the messenger bag too.

On the other hand, the shirt here, makes me twitch just looking at it. Link provided because I don't think I could actually stand seeing the pic on my blog.

Australian Idol

I haven't really been watching this show much. A bit here and there. I did watch the show on Sunday night though and then Monday's elimination show (well, some of it). I was a bit curious to see who'd be eliminated. And it was Bobby.

I have to say, I just don't get the whole Bobby Flynn thing. Everywhere I hear or see anything about him, people are raving about how talented and how unique his 'sound' is. Yeah, he can sing and all, but they all can (have to, to get this far, wouldn't they?).

Honestly, anything I've seen of him, he sounds exactly the same. As far as I'm aware, the show tries to showcase different musical 'styles' (within the pop type genre) but honestly, to me, Bobby always did everything his way. All very well, but I don't think it shows much versatility.

I really am a bit confused as to how he got onto Idol in the first place. In my opinion, his talents (and I'm not denying he has some) don't lie in the pop genre.

And then Mark Holden's reaction, when he was eliminated? Devastated doesn't cover it. I just don't get it...

Note to self:

When Chickie says he's flushed something down the toilet, clarify exactly what it is that he's talking about.

Scene:

Chickie went to the toilet and said "I flushed mumble mumble down the toilet"
Me "What did you flush?"
Chickie "That" and points to the toilet paper holder
Me (stupidly assuming) "Toilet paper? That's ok"

Turns out that, no it wasn't toilet paper, it was the cardboard tube bit in the middle. And yes, the toilet is backed up a bit. Of course it's now a Sunday so getting a plumber out will not only cost an arm and a leg, but a kidney, three fingers, two toes and an ear.

J's about to have a go at it with the plunger - wish us luck!

Update: Looks like the plunger's done the trick. A very good thing, since I really didn't want to get a plumber out on a Sunday!

something new

Another new look. What do you think?

The flower is a photograph done by a friend over at splendor-solis. I think his flower photography is just lovely. Thanks heaps for letting me use it, Ian!

search hits

In the last week or so I've been getting quite a few hits from search engines using the terms Big Brother Australia and turkey slap.

It's quite funny what can come up sometimes. If you read Tom Reynold's Random Acts of Reality, you'll see he has a little comment that he's the number one search result for womble porn (I wonder if by mentioning it, I can be number two?? heh). I've also seen other bloggers talk about their search hits and how mentioning sex tends to get some really random hits. Makes me wonder if I should just add in some random sex-related terms to see what comes up.

Now, I posted about the turkey slap incident on our Big Brother months ago, so I don't quite understand the sudden interest in it now. The hits seem to be mostly coming from the U.S. but I have had some from Europe as well. Can anyone enlighten me at all? Is the Australian Big Brother being shown in other countries? (and if so, WHY??)

Excuse me while I rant a while...

I hate hate hate it when other drivers sit right up my backside. Take this afternoon:

I'm finishing work and, to get home, I have to merge with a very busy main road. There's a set of traffic lights right on the corner and I have to use the slip lane to get into the traffic.

Now usually it's busy, so most of the time you have to wait for the traffic lights to get a gap. Sometimes you can get lucky but as it's in a 80km zone (with a 100km speed limit just up the road a little) traffic is usually travelling pretty fast - and my car is not the biggest or the gruntiest (0-60 in two weeks is the usual joke).

Then this idiot, in his minivan, gets right up my butt. Given that I don't have a big car and his is huge, you may not be surprised to hear that I don't move out into traffic immediately when a gap emerges. Mainly because I can't see a damn thing past his van!

So, I hear you ask, why didn't you just move forward a bit so you could see? Well, I did - several times, in fact, until the slip lane ran out. Unfortunately this guy immediately filled the gap.

So a break in traffic happens, I still can't see it so he zooms out - honking his horn at me! Then to top it off I can see him ahead of me and he's weaving in and out of traffic, causing other drivers (in both lanes) to brake suddenly several times.

Bloody rude drivers!

Summer is coming - I can smell it!

J, Chickie and I went to the supermarket last weekend to do the weekly grocery shopping. We chose a trolley and wandered into the fresh fruit and veg section and I said "I can smell mangoes". I looked around and saw the paw paw and pineapple next to me and felt disappointed. I figured it must have been these that I could smell.

J went on ahead while I got some apples, then he called me over and waved a mango in the air. I nearly danced for joy! I adore mangoes. In my mind, the smell of a mango means summer.

I remember, when I was a kid, we'd go visit our cousins who lived in Queensland. They had a mango tree and we were able to eat as many as we liked. We'd have fun throwing the overripe ones at each other (our parents must have hated doing the laundry) and we'd climb the tree and just hang out. We had so much fun in that tree.

It was such a long time ago now, that my memories are a bit hazy. I do remember the feelings and smells though. This is why the smell of a mango represents summer to me.

So, a question for you. What smells do you associate with summer? For those in the northern hemisphere, what about winter? What smells mean winter to you?

A health update

J took Chickie to the doctors again - basically as a follow up for the pneumonia that Chickie had.

Chickie's still coughing so the doctor's given him another round of antibiotics and we need to take him back once that's finished. J, on the other hand has bronchitis and he has antibiotics too. Once those are finished, he needs to go back and if he still has symptoms, he'll need a chest x-ray.

I'm the only one healthy!

A very good thing to hear from Chickie...

a few minutes before my alarm was due to go off (at 6.30) this morning:

"Hey mum! I stayed in bed until the sun came up!"

So what do you think?

This is going to be a work in progress, I'm sure.

I like this template but it's not perfect. It feels a bit squished in the middle to me. What do you think? What do you like and what don't you like about it?

Oh, and no - the girl in the picture is not me.

Opinions requested

I've opened another blog - mainly just to fiddle about with templates and things. You can find it here.

The template there is a premade one that I'm thinking of using here. I plan on adding my title to the picture eventually, but otherwise I think I like it. What do you think?

Eventually I'd like to play around and create my own, but at this stage I'm just learning. I have a friend who is an excellent photographer and he's going to let me use one of his photos here. If you'd like to see his work, please do go visit!