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Monthly Archive: March 2004.
- Old Navy:: Aftershave
- Out:: In
- Indecent:: Rude
- UPN:: Some kind of referencing system
- Pupil:: Student
- Toothpaste:: Colgate
- 1999:: Party like it’s…
- Passion:: Fruit
- Social security:: Number
- Cliff:: Hanger
Hostess Twinkie
Wednesday, 3 March 2004
We have a baby in the house. For the most part he’s very good and doesn’t take up too much room ;o) He hasn’t really had a screaming fit or done too much projectile vomiting. The fact that he’s very cute is also in his favour. (although Mung said that this picture makes him look like a little podge….)
In spite of all the attention Luka needs, Mung and Rach are very relaxed with him and we’ve hit the beach twice, went to Maryborough yesterday and today I’m working (can’t you tell?) and they’ve taken off in the van to go exploring. Poor M is going to be sad when they go, and then I desert him a day later. Fraser Island is possible for tomorrows Grand Day Out. Tonight Rach may be making a chocolate self saucing pudding - and if it turns out well, I may actually just keep her here by force.
Severe Weather Warning
Thursday, 4 March 2004
We were planning to head over to Fraser Island today, but decided not to when we heard the lady at the ticket booth telling a whole gaggle of backpackers that the island was off limits due to impending bad weather, and that all campers and visitors were being kicked off… sorry ….evacuated. So we went elsewhere, swimming in between rain showers, dodging swooping kookaburras and grimacing over mediocre coffee. Went past the supermarket on the way home and everybody is buying up like it’s the day before a long weekend - not to mention the line up and the petrol station. Hervey Bay is taking this weather stuff pretty seriously! Here’s what the Bureau reckon:
A DANGEROUS SITUATION IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ON FRIDAY AS A LOW MOVES TOWARDS THE SOUTH QUEENSLAND COASTLINE AND DEEPENS.
Destructive wind gusts to 130 km/h are expected to develop early on Friday between about Town of 1770 and the Sunshine Coast gradually extending southwards to the Gold Coast during the day. The combination of large ocean swells and the high tide Friday morning will produce water levels above the highest tide of the year between Fraser Island and the Sunshine Coast leading to some flooding of low lying areas close to the shoreline. People should also keep out of the water whilst these large ocean swell persist. Heavy rains are likely with some local flooding. People between Town of 1770 and Coolangatta should secure outside items, take any necessary precautions and listen to the next warning which will be issued at 8pm tonight.
The Age says similar things. Of course this means that the kite surfers are already having abundant fun, using all the wind to their advantage. Haven’t seen any actual surfers yet, but have begun eyeing my surfboard….
Shuffle
Thursday, 4 March 2004
Have seen this around a few different places, but got reminded again by GreenFairy. Here [grits teeth] are twenty songs played at random on WinAmp - they display 1) my need for lyricless music to work to, 2) my new liking of Norah Jones, 3) my recent Piolet frenzy…
Water Water Everywhere
Friday, 5 March 2004
The backyard is slipping slowly under water. Our regular little creek has formed a confluence with another creek that appeared in the night. It’s quite interesting. It also completely validates my plans to sell this house in the dry season… I’m sure some prospective buyers might have a tiny problem with our picturesque creeky things. Will post a picture later. The wind is picking up and we have to take HouseGuests No.6 to the bus station - hopefully they will be able to vacate Hervey ‘almost cyclonic’ Bay for Brisbane without any freak gusts of wind carrying them off. And Toto too.
Wind & Water
Friday, 5 March 2004
This is starting to annoy me. Just before I left for Melbourne in January I planted some sunflower seeds. In the last few days they have grown taller than me and they are now even taller than M! So they’re at least six and a half foot high - they’re amazing. But we are currently getting winds up to 100kmp/h and they have almost been annihilated. M and I were out at the vegie patch in our gortex jackets hammering stakes to try and save them from being blown over. My corn isn’t looking so great either, but at least it’s not top heavy like my sunflowers. I was already pissed off that I was going to miss them when they flowered as I have to head south v.soon, but to have them ripped out by the wind… GRRRROWL. The smeariness of this picture is due to the torrents of rain that you can’t see very clearly.
…and here’s a close up of my sunflowers :o(
Oh. M has just come in armed with his Super8 camera to announce that our little bridge that my dad and Terry fixed up over our creek has just been submerged. Great. More updates soon. OK. I’ve become a meteorlogical geek. The cats are inside, thanks for asking…
The Friday Five 033
Friday, 5 March 2004
What was…
1. …your first grade teacher’s name?
Mrs Carroll
2. …your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Um. the Perils of Penelope Pitstop.
3. …the name of your very first best friend?
Alison.
4. …your favorite breakfast cereal?
Cocoa Pops - for the wickedness of the chocolate/sugar combo. No wonder parents hate it - not only does it cause serious fights when there’s only one in the Variety Pack - but the kid that finally gets it spends the rest of the day on some psycho sugar high.
5. …your favorite thing to do after school?
Eat cereal, watch cartoons and bounce on the trampoline.
Shoes
Tuesday, 9 March 2004
Super pointy shoes peeking out the bottom of bootcut trousers. It baffled me on the tram this morning, three times, and it baffles me still. It just doesn’t look right. Maybe it’s just me.
Grammar Queen
Tuesday, 9 March 2004
You are the Grammar Fuhrer. All bow to your
authority. You will crush all the inferior
people under the soles of your jackboots, and
any who question your motives will be
eliminated. Your punishment is being the bane
of every other person’s existence, because
you’re constantly contradicting stupidity.
Everyone will be gunning for you. Your dreams
of a master race of spellers and grammarians
frighten the masses. You must always watch your
back. If only your power could be used for good
instead of evil.
What is your grammar aptitude?
brought to you by Quizilla
Ratty
Wednesday, 10 March 2004
As so often happens when I depart for the grey climes of the south, M gets a huge burst of energy. I think it’s from being solitary after a solid month of three different lots of visitors. Anyway. He made his own humane rat trap. We think they are bush rats and they have been dancing Irish reels in our roof for months. We compromised on the bait (or so I’m led to believe - I’m so far away he could have put anything in there and I would never know) - I suggested peanut butter and he suggested cheese. It worked. He put the cage thing in the roof and caught a mofo rat a few hours later.
So then the second stage of his evil plan went into action. M and the rat (still in it’s cage) jumped in the Humber and went for a long drive. They stopped near a large lot of land that had quite a few kangaroos hanging about and M set rat free. He thought that would be his last sight of rat - running gleefully out of the wonder-cage, but no, he waited a few minutes and glimpsed rat again, bounding over a log. He doesn’t think rat was running in the direction of our house.
Sleep
Wednesday, 10 March 2004
 |
I don’t think my bad sleep last night was anything to do with the futon mattress that I sleep on which is on the floor of my mother’s study. I’m not sure what it was - maybe the soy chai that I made with my new chai syrup (trying to make my own Hudson’s Coffee Chai Latte) - anyway, whatever it was, I had weird frustrating dreams. I dreampt that my mum and Christine had organised me |
| to play ten songs on guitar at this little venue near where I’m staying. I thought it might be kind of fun, and was feeling OK about it because I thought I’d be playing my acoustic guitar. But when I asked Chris whether this would be OK, she said I should definitely play electric. That’s when I got worried, because I haven’t played for a while and my hands were stiff. So in my dream I began to practice. Chris was there. I couldn’t remember any of my songs. So she suggested I play Like It - a Bidston Moss tune. So I kept beginning it, and kept beginning it, but couldn’t get past the first verse. It was starting to drive me nuts and by this time I was half awake, unable to comprehend why the hell I couldn’t get any further in the song. Then my mum knocked on my door to wake me up. I lay there for a minute and then it jumped into my head: Take off, my dress, it’s not, dirty, don’t mind, windows…I’m not ashamed. But just as I typed this I realised the other reason that I may not have known the words - I don’t sing them. Chris does. *sigh* |
|
Telephony
Thursday, 11 March 2004
Plagued by phones. My boss has a new one that I’ve been playing with all morning - it’s v.snazzy. Finally figured out how to put a midi file of a ‘old phone ringing’ ringtone on it. I await his rapture…[tapping foot expectantly]
Here’s a link to the page - if you’ve got a phone that does those kind of fancy things. The site is free - as opposed to the crap ones that charge you megabucks.
Pizza should fix my state of mind. Am meeting Mr Crime who has offered to shout me lunch! It’s a crisp sunny day and last night I ate some cherry pie with cream. Sparked up my morning with the chai latte. I’m off to escape the office now…here I go….!
The Friday Five 034
Friday, 12 March 2004
1. What was the last song you heard?
Something by The Shins - the other person in the office has it playing.
2. What were the last two movies you saw?
God. It’s been ages. Moulin Rouge (on DVD) and Intolerable Cruelty.
3. What were the last three things you purchased?
An engagement present, last nights dinner and lunch today.
4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Wrap a present, buy a card, borrow some money and dress up pretty.
5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
My boss, my two co-workers, the guy in the cafe and the lady at David Jones.
Free Associate
Sunday, 14 March 2004
…from here
Glug. Sniff
Monday, 15 March 2004
My bloody boss came into work last week with a hideous cold. Obviously it took advantage of the fact that our office has no ventilation (J stuffed a pillow in the vent just like I did last year, because it gets so cold in here that we all had to use hot water bottles and scarves - in the middle of summer) and somehow it weaved its evil way into me. And percolated quietly all weekend. And then decided to emerge today with sore throat, endless sneezing and an increasingly smuffy nose. I don’t have time for a cold.
The thing is, I was declaiming last night to my mum and my nan how I haven’t eaten fruit for ages - nice fruit seems to be in short supply in Hervey Bay. My nan went into shock: “You have to eat fruit.” I shrugged. Ate an apple to placate them. And then another, because it was nice. All to no avail. So now I have to choose my anti-cold drugs. I generally don’t take them, but, like the ad says - I have to ’soldier on’. (Not being eligible for sick pay has something to do with this.) Your anti-cold drug of choice? Anyone?
Boots & All
Tuesday, 16 March 2004
Meant to post this on the weekend, but am too scared to use my mothers antique laptop. I mentioned a while back that I was hugely impressed by the Australian Story that profiled Peter Brocklehurst. Basically the whole thing was rehashed in print in the Good Weekend magazine last Satruday. It’s a great article - and you can find it online here. Now I just have to get his album while I’m down in Melbourne. Did I mention he left a comment on my blog? He did. Huzzah! Now, if David Gedge would like to drop in and leave a small hello…?
The Friday Five 035
Friday, 19 March 2004
If you…
1. …owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
Oysters.
2. …owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Tea and things for making it. And books.
3. …wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Crime.
4. …ran a school, what would you teach?
Literature and writing.
5. …recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
Done it. Guitar pop. Maybe with some samples and stuff.
Country Air
Sunday, 21 March 2004
After a large roast dinner at the House of Crime on Friday night I headed to Chris’s house to stay in her spare room. Having eaten a meal two times the size of my own head, I crumpled on to the bed and passed out. To be woken around 2am by drunken giggling from downstairs. They were home. After taking about ten minutes to get themselves through the back door I heard N bellow “B is upstairs in bed, Lets go and see B!!” I lay quaking as Chris and N cantered up the stairs, burst into my room, N straddling my supine, face down figure (clad in only PJ bottoms) and played some rapid percussion with her hands on my bare back, while screaming “She’s so warm. Chris! Feel how warm she is! Warmer than a Hot Cross Bun!!”
Cheshire
Monday, 22 March 2004
The Cheshire Cat! You’re a sly cat who grins on the
outside, but schemes on the inside. Even your
best friends don’t realize that you may
actually be their worst enemy!
What kind of cat are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Goodbye & Good Luck
Tuesday, 23 March 2004
Said goodbye over spaghetti marinara and risotto to the fascinating Claire last night :o( she is disappearing on an odessey of mythical proportions on the 2nd of April. Included in her travels is *gasp* a ticket to see the Pixies play. I almost swallowed the table when she told me. I am consumed by envy. I donated her my ten US dollars that I have been carrying around in my purse for forever, and I got a laminated Hawaiian poster with my name on it in Hawaiian in return. Claire disappears to the US, Canada, and then London…with no particular date of return *waves* Byeeeeeee!
This morning I had the choice between a train that looked like a bale of hay promoting help for erection problems - the connection? A ‘roll in the hay’. *wince* As a discerning public transport traveller I chose to wait for the IPod tram - if I can’t afford to have one, at least I can travel in a tram that screams it’s name. Soon I will write about the trials of Spain.
Divine Dinners
Thursday, 25 March 2004
After very nearly reaching the end of my tether in Melbourne I finally made it home on Wednesday afternoon. The last day in the office for a month or two is always fairly fraught, and Tuesday was true to form. I had to check out the Super-8 video clip (that doesn’t sound right) for Cheese over at Dylans and agree on a final cut. Dylan was very nice and drove me to my mum’s where I aimed to clear out my gear and get to my sisters place where I was staying the night. But I was greeted by the familiar sight of my mother, sniffling dramatically from the cold ‘I gave her’ and wringing her hands over her unresponsive printer. *sigh* After 30 minutes spent in a frenzy of reinstalling the printer drivers and packing I was seriously frazzled and headed to Williamstown.
Oh wondrous family. I’d missed dinner - but for once it was to my definite advantage. My dad (glory glory) had bought oysters and there were eight EIGHT left for me. So I ate them. Lasciviously. And it got better. My sister had made a kind of berry/plum compote crumble kind of thing that almost made me weep. It was made from blackberries, plums and pears from my dad’s country hideaway. So I ate it. And licked the bowl.
Then in the dark hours of the morning (daylight saving ends next week and Queensland is again in sync with Victoria…yay) me, my dad and the huntsman in his Cressida drove to the airport, where I had a final Chai Latte before boarding. Oh how I hate to fly. Then I enetered the now well worn trail of Brisbane Airport, Brisbane AirTrain, Roma Street Station and the Tilt Train… From Melbourne to Brisbane I worked on raising my literary credibility and read (for the first time) Catcher in the Rye which I had thought would be much longer than it was. Thank god the train showed Finding Nemo to drown out the last 90 minutes of my seemingly endless journey. It’s so nice to be home. Pesto for dinner, cats are happy, back in my own bed and M has done wonderful things to the kitchen. Bliss.
My Sunflowers
Mow - Relaxed about my Return
Saf - Limp with Relief
Sleep Deprived
Friday, 26 March 2004
After having one of those ‘thank god I’m back in my own bed’ sleeps on Wednesday night, last night I slept for a total of about three sporadic hours. I’m sure it was mostly to do with pasta salad overload combined with some red wine, but there was another factor. For about three months now M has sworn he has another bat friend that makes regular visits. Unfortunately the only other person to see this phenomenon is Rachael P who has not confirmed or denied. I have my doubts. Apparently Bat is quite small and visits (via the bathroom window) whatever room M happens to be in and does two sedate laps with all his little sonars snapping. And then disappears. So last night I’m lying there half asleep and I hear batwing noise. (I’m not sure how I knew it was batwing noise as the closest I usually get to batwings is via my gothy friend, but… I digress…). I heard it go by twice, naturally. M flicked on the torch but we couldn’t spot it.
After that, I couldn’t sleep. And one of the worst things when you can’t sleep is being ultra-conscious of the other person in the bed every time you want to turn over. So here I am. Typing baggy eyed and smeary. Blisters on my hands from raking grass yesterday.
Oops
Monday, 29 March 2004
When ones mother is coming to stay, one becomes somewhat preoccupied with the state of the house. Thus we have been painting, cleaning and (wait for it) TURNING THE HOT WATER ON…for the past three days. Yes! First hot showers since June! Astounding. I have vast amounts to write about - my zen experiences mowing the lawn that were rudely dismantled by M, the stampedes of M through swathes of his family’s disapproval, trips to Spain…. But as it is, I have no time. My mother (and her mother) have been installed in our house since yesterday and as well as that, today is M’s birthday - and his plans for a Fraser Island foray have been thwarted by continuing downpours. So I’m kind of juggling trying to keep everything rotating nicely through the air… despite the fact that everything M and I own is on the washing line and has been soaked consecutive times (this wouldn’t matter for normal people who tend to own more than two towels).
One Day a Year
Monday, 29 March 2004
I just fought off a cockroach so large that it could have qualified as a dachshund. It was in the sink. Ewww. I survived M’s birthday today; more importantly M survived and seemed to have a good time. It feels like no time and an eon since this day last year when we all gathered in the cafe at the end of the pier in St Kilda - which promptly burnt down three months later. M coped manfully with my mother and my nan today - even when my mother out-talked him at lunch and turned him into a shadow of his loquacious self. Thank you to those who sent and called up with birthday greetings - it made us feel less like we’re living in the arse end of nowhere… M is now filled with mud cake, coffee and is watching ‘24′ in a state of semi smug sedation. I think his new minidisc player/recorder is a happy addition to his existence…
Banana Bird
Tuesday, 30 March 2004
There is a huge banana tree outside our kitchen window. I had never entertained the thought that it would actually banana for us, but about three weeks ago the covering of some pods fell off and there were about thirty little green bananas hanging there. I felt momentarily like I was marooned on a tropical island and had to make a cup of tea. In addition to the green bananas we have inherited a banana bird. We have never seen him before. He’s of medium size, brown and white, with a blue band around each of his eyes. He sits just above the bananas and sings his guts out at least twice a day, and then, his job done, disappears.
Off We Go
Wednesday, 31 March 2004
We’re off in a few minutes to Fraser Island. It’s a beautiful day - so hopefully it won’t matter that we are without transport. We should just be able to swim on the beach and in the pools. M and I are fast running out of funds… and as the case every second Wednesday I wait feverishly until after 2pm when my pay finally comes through (to be eaten mostly by rent and bills…but hey, at least there’s a bit left over for beer). M is strumming the guitar, despairing of us leaving on time. My nan is waiting patiently. My mother is sniffing at things and slathering herself with suncream. I’m sorted - can’t you tell? ;o)
