31 August, 2007

The research continues

I'm still no closer to deciding on a new mobile phone. I do have a bit of an excuse though. One of the guys at work recommended I wait until next week as work will have a new lot of handsets on special. If I get it through work, I can get it cheaper (the perks of working for a telco!) - not to mention the staff plans are pretty good.

The down side is that there's a limited range on offer. So I'll wait and see. My supervisor used to work in the mobile department and he recommends either a Sony Ericsson or a Samsung. He doesn't think much of the other brands.

I did go have a look at a few handsets today and I've been asking friends what they have and what they like. A couple of my friends think I should get the Nokia 6110 Navigator. Apparently my knack for getting lost easily is well known!

Hmm... perhaps that's not a bad idea ;)

28 August, 2007

lunar eclipse

Are you in a spot where you can see it? If so, go outside - right now! It's so cool.

If not - take a look here.

--
Edited to add...

Check out my friend Ian's pic, of the eclipse, at splendor-solis.

27 August, 2007

Doin' research

So people, I need your opinions...

I'm looking into buying a new mobile phone. My current one is almost 3 years old now and it's starting to do weird things on me. The latest stunt it's pulling is disconnecting me in the middle of calls and then flashing on and off for a few minutes. It seems to be ok if I turn it off for a while but it's happening more and more now, so I'm looking around.

I don't really need anything too fancy - calls, text, alarm function, a camera and bluetooth are the only 'must haves' (and most of those are standard these days anyway).

So tell me about your current phone or a phone you covet. What do you like about it, what do you hate? What will you never buy ever again? Feel free to rave about various features you use all the time. There's probably lots I could use but have never just bothered with!

Oh and Americans... please don't talk to me about the iphone - I'd love one of those but they won't be available, here in Australia, for quite some time yet... /pout

25 August, 2007

A day at the museum

And nothing came to life. Life is never like the movies , is it...

It was pretty cool though. Our local museum has a giant squid in an old elevator shaft, so you can see it from all 4 levels. There's even a perspex floor at the top to look down on it. For some reason though, no one wanted to stand on it!

J took Chickie to the museum months ago while I was at a friend's funeral and Chickie's been dying to go back ever since. So yesterday I suggested we go this weekend. Turned out to be good timing too, since they were having a science day thing there too - lots of extra displays and stuff to look at. We fluked that one quite nicely.

One giggle of the day... at one point, I sat on a handy chair to re-tie my shoelaces, then looked up at the wall to see a sign labelled 'Antiquities' just over me. I banned J from taking a picture hehe.

One moment I wasn't sure what to say was when I came out of the ladies. Chickie ran up to me excitedly and dragged me over to see something. He pointed to a boy with two artificial legs (not the real looking sort) and said "Look mum, robot legs!! Cool!!". I just said "yeah! Oooh look over here, a skeleton!". I hope the boy didn't hear us. Chickie wasn't mean about it (quite the opposite) but I daresay when you're in that position, you're probably sick of comments at all.

Then on the way back to the car, we checked out one of the bigger book shops and I ended up buying lots of books for myself. I feel a bit guilty since they were all for me - and I could have bought way more, quite easily!

Oh and thanks to everyone who voted for my friend. She didn't win (in fact I think she probably came last unfortunately) but at least she won $1000 and she's our state winner. Plus as J says "that's better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick" (that saying always makes me laugh). I was personally hoping that the QLD entrant would win, if my friend didn't. The other two looked too tarty in my opinion.

20 August, 2007

Huh??

I got yelled at when I went through McDonald's drive thru yesterday. I was picking up a few orders for the guys at work, as well as my lunch, so it took a bit of time for them to hand me my order (probably didn't help that they had some trainees on). There were two cars behind me and one woman started yelling 'hurry up red car!'

Err ok, like got I've any control over how fast they work...

Not to mention it was 11am on a Sunday, so I wouldn't exactly call it rush hour.

Now, if you feel you can spare a vote for my friend in the Triple M Hot Mama's competition - please go visit their website here. From the front page, click on the 'View the hot mum galleries' link, then click on the picture to go to the finalist voting page. My friend is number 4 - Tricia. She's the underdog at the moment, so any votes you can spare would be greatly welcomed! She has a chance at $5000 - decided by a web vote.

I won't link directly to the gallery because it auto-detects my state and I don't want to mess up the link for others. I don't know if that means you won't be able to vote if you're outside Australia, but if someone would like to try and let me know, I'd appreciate it.

Oh and feel free to spread the word, the more votes, the merrier!

14 August, 2007

Cool!

Do you happen to listen to Triple M (if you're an aussie) in the afternoons? If so, you might have heard a friend on the show. One of my mum's group friends has been voted our state's 'hottest mama' in a radio competition. She was over the moon when she called me - particularly since the prize was $1000. She did say she's kinda glad that her hubby entered her now!

Next week she'll be running against the winners of the other states for a chance at $5000. It'll be a website vote, so if I find out the link I'll post it, in case you can spare a vote.

Funnily enough, I talked to my sister (in a different state) tonight and she said she heard my friend's chat and thought that she seemed to be the only one who didn't sound 'up herself' and was planning on voting for her - even before she found out we were friends!

12 August, 2007

hodge podge post

So I've been a little scarce lately. Things are very busy at work so I come home mentally wiped out. Found a good little diversion though. Anyway, here's a hodge podge post of what I've been up to lately.

A friend asked us to download some patches for World of Warcraft, since he was throttled and couldn't grab them himself, and gave us his guest account to play with. It lasts for 10 days so J and I have been having fun killing monsters etc. It's a good way to work out some frustrations of the working day (particularly when you get to deal with some very nutty customers - must post about some of the more bizarre customers one of these days).

J fixed the curtain. Just in time for when a friend brought her kids around to play with Chickie. It appears that school might be giving him more confidence. When he's played with these friends in the past, he's been kind of quiet - more a follower, than a leader. This time he was downright bossy!

Oh he's received another certificate at school - this time for organisation. The last was for persistence - these are two skills I wouldn't have thought were his strengths so perhaps they're trying to encourage things in those areas?? I'm all for it though :)

We went to a quiz night on Friday night. It was to raise money for the netball club that J's mum coaches for. We usually do ok (usually 2nd or 3rd) but this year we came equal last. We were down in numbers a bit though since we had half the numbers of the other tables (due to illness). It was fun though - we were feeding Chickie wrong answers and having him say them out loud. He thought it was hilarious! We won a couple of cool prizes in the raffles though - including a remote control car for Chickie.

Saturday, J and I went and saw an Indian movie - Chak De! India - loved the scene in the McDonalds. The rest of the crowd in the cinema were quite amusing. They were cheering and clapping at various parts.

Well, spose I'd better get off to bed. Another busy day at work tomorrow. Night all...

05 August, 2007

Grrr..

We only have half a curtain hanging in our lounge room tonight...

In our lounge room we have a rocker recliner chair. Chickie has a very bad habit of jumping on it and into it. He gets told off and put in time out for doing it. Still he keeps doing it. He's started losing privileges lately.

So tonight, he was doing it again. This time he did it when the chair was pushed up against the curtain, so basically pulled on the curtain and pulled the screw out of the wall and down came half the curtain rod and curtain.

Not happy Jan...

I feel so exposed. Even though we have canvas awnings covering the front verandah, so we're not completely visible from the front yard, it just feels wrong.

03 August, 2007

Time and place, people, time and place!

No sleep in today unfortunately, as J had to go on a trip to Brisbane for a meeting. I got to get up and take Chickie to school.

As we're getting out of the car just outside the school, we can hear two people having an absolute screaming match across the road. A man and a woman, several cars apart, yelling at each other about their kids - so presumably a former husband and wife. Thing is, the poor kids were right there, looking absolutely miserable. Chickie was a bit scared by the yelling as it was, so I just got him into school quickly, after reassuring him it was just an argument. He hasn't really experienced that much though, J and I don't really argue much.

Then after I'd dropped him off I was walking behind a lady who called out to a friend who was across the road and she commented that she was off to visit a shopping centre nearby. As a joke, the lady across the road called back "Don't do that, you'll get stabbed" (there was someone stabbed to the hands the other day when someone tried to steal her bag, at that shopping centre). Now this was right in front of the school - with kids still going in. For pete's sake people, 5 year olds do not need to hear that - even as a joke! Gah!

After that, I went and caught the Simpson's movie - gave me a laugh. If you haven't seen it, stay for the credits.

If you've visited House & Baby lately, you see she's doing a Flashback Friday. I've been feeling in the flashback mood today, only not with photos. I've been surfing YouTube for 80's music, so if you want to check out some of the songs I liked in the 80's, go visit my other blog Visual Parallax.

02 August, 2007

Is there something I'm missing here?

Ok, for those of you who are women and exercise, perhaps you can explain something to me...

What is the point of those 'shelf bras' in work out shirts?

Are you supposed to wear a bra with them or are you supposed to use the shelf bra only? I would have thought that a shelf bra wouldn't be enough support during exercise, even for the under endowed. But then, wouldn't you get too hot and sweaty having that extra layer in that area, if you're wearing a bra as well?? Or am I the only one who 'glows'* copiously in that area?

So what's the point of them - can anyone enlighten me?



* My mum always said 'horses sweat, men perspire and women glow'.