A little bit of fun to make you smile

I was going through some old emails at work and found this so, to lighten the dull news I've been suffocating my blog in lately, I thought I would share it. Beats telling you about vacuum packing duvets anyway. It's best read out loud.


Why Computers Sometimes Crash! By Dr. Seuss.

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort,
and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;
then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, '
cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang.

When the copy on your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk,
and the macro code instructions is causing unnecessary risk,
then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM,
and then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

It's official and here's the plan

This is just a quick update to let you all know what's happening.

Firstly, we have received notice that we have to be out of our place on 4th September. We haven't found anywhere to buy yet so we're packing all of our stuff into storage and staying with friends in Coolum for two and a bit weeks, with a slight sojourn to Yeppoon next weekend for Praj and Tracy's wedding.

Consequently this week is packing hell as we sort through what we don't want, what we want to keep with us and what can be stored in time for the removalists coming at 8am on Saturday. This morning was spent on the phone trying to organise cleaners, carpet cleaners, removalists and insurance, the latter of which is a complex nightmare. I still have to book us a post office box and have our mail forwarded to it and find out when we can pick up the keys at the storage space.

After a couple of weeks of crashing with Bec and Adam we are moving into a pretty expensive holiday apartment. Cheap for a holiday apartment but expensive long-term. Mind, I suppose we don't have to worry about bills and the bonus of this place is that it has broadband access so I can get back into skyping folk. It's on the river at Maroochydore so should be a good base for house-hunting and will be something a bit different to what we're used to. We're there for 6 weeks.

I don't know what will happen after that. It's only a 2 month plan. I'm hoping to have a house by then because things like insurance get even more complicated after 3 months. If not, perhaps we'll just put the rest of our stuff into the storage facility and naff off on a super long honeymoon.

This all means that we haven't been able to have the gifts from our wedding registry delivered so, whilst I have an idea what we've been given, I don't know who gave what. It also means for those gifts we have already received, we haven't really had time to take stock and write thank you notes. So, apologies to everyone who has sent us stuff. We're really grateful and plan to write to you all just as soon as we get settled somewhere permanently and have had our gifts delivered.

I have to go now. There is so much to do. I just wanted to let you all know what was going on.

Almost homeless

Whilst I'm on the computer updating my blog, I may as well tell you that 12 days after our wedding, whilst in the middle of a major bout of homesickness as my parents were leaving the following day and I hadn't seen them for 3 days, we received the news that the new owners of our house want vacant possession. In other words, they're kicking us out. Unless, of course, we're willing to commit to paying them $400 a week for 6 months!!!

Not only that, but these new owners came to view the property 3 days after our wedding when we had specifically requested that no one disturb us as we wished to wind down, enjoy our time off work and replenish our energy supplies after the excitement of the wedding. We were under no obligation to let them in as we had not received a form requesting entry - it's a legal requirement that estate agents give us at least 24 hours written notice if they require entry to the property. However, they told us that they'd taken time off work specifically to come and view the property and, being a nice person, I felt a bit sorry for them and gave them permission to come in. Fat lot of thanks I'm getting for that now.

The real estate agent had even sent Toby a text message the day after the wedding asking if she could show someone round the property that week. When she called the house two days later she said, "I tried to call you on Saturday but there was no answer". Now, I don't want to be horrible about this girl because she's very pleasant and people I know, know her, and she's been as cooperative as she could be (apart from changing the agreed open house time from 11.30am to 1pm which was quite inconvenient) and she even negotiated a 6 week extension on our lease to get us through the wedding period... but there is a limit as to how many concessions I can give someone. Is she stupid? How many people do you know who answer the phone to a real estate agent trying to sell their rental home, the day after their wedding, when they're staying in a 5 star penthouse honeymoon suite, with friends and family from all over the world staying nearby? Not that we were even at home to answer the phone. And before you ask, yes, she was fully aware that we'd been married the previous day. Jeez... I will be pleased to get out of this place and not have to have anything more to do with these people at least for the time being.

What this all means is that we have to be out of our place by the time the purchase settles on 7th September. It's not official yet as they only have to give us 14 days notice (due to the fact that our lease ends on 31st August), plus the new owners are waiting to hear if we're willing to give them $400 a week. I expect we'll receive notice sometime this week. Unfortunately, we're not even going to be here on 7th September as our friends, Praj and Tracy are getting married up in Yeppoon, near Rockhampton, and Toby is a groomsman. So I suppose we have to be out of here the weekend before that. Which is two weeks away. Aaaarrrrgh. We haven't even had our wedding registry gifts delivered.

I was going to phone the Sunshine Coast Daily and give them Chapter 2 in their World Wide Wedding story, a bit of a sob story to go with their fairy tale... the local press love this kind of thing... and I probably still will but Toby and I got very distracted yesterday by a house we've decided to buy. Actually we tried to buy it two months ago but the offer fell through. Fingers crossed it's second time lucky... watch this space!

More wedding photos online

I have just uploaded some photos from my camera and my parents' cameras. You can go directly to this album at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/lindseybuckle/OurWedding or you can go to the wedding homepage at http://wedding.clewett.org where there is a whole host of additional links. Keep checking the wedding homepage as we are still uploading new albums.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...

... or on a fence.

After the excitement of the last two weeks, and the stress of the few months before that, I am now unwell. There's never a good time to be poorly but it's a particular shame right now as it was my last few days with Cherie and my parents and we have just had a party for Toby's extended family to celebrate our wedding. I did a lot better than I thought I would but getting ready for it was a bit of a struggle. Who wants to tart themselves up, make their hair look posh and squeeze into a wedding dress when all you really feel like doing is getting into your slippers, comfy tracksuit pants and snuggling under a blanket with a cup of hot honey and lemon?

But I digress. I really just wanted to share with you this photo I took of a very cute kookaburra who came to sit with us whilst I, Toby and my parents lounged on the grass of Ravensbourne National Park putting off the inevitable goodbyes which soon followed and have left me feeling very sad and far from home.

And here is Mr Burra showing us his best side, with a bush fire in the background.


One last thing worthy of note: this is the 101st post I have made to this blog!!!

Poetry: With You

This is the poem I read out at our wedding on Friday. I wrote it back in January shortly after Toby and I became engaged.


For you I crossed oceans wide and blue.
For you I traversed lands exotic and new.
For you I left those close to my heart.
For you I embarked on a brand new start.

With you I explore a new homeland;
We run across its golden sands.
With you I dive the ocean so warm,
And sail over waters flat and calm.

With you everything is exciting and new,
Your innocent enthusiasm always shines through.
With you the world is bright and alive;
I can do anything with you by my side.

With you I have explored the depths of my spirit,
The good and the bad, everything in it;
And you've opened up your soul to me,
And we discovered together how to live and to be.

With you I have met new family and friends,
And nourished a love that will never end;
And as we embark on a long life together,
With you I know I will be forever.

I'm a page three girl!

Over the course of the past few days I have become a wife, a local celebrity and a page three girl. That's three fairly major items ticked off my List Of Things To Do Before I Die. Not bad for a weekend's work.

Just married!

Many of you will know the story but for those of you who don't, it all started about two weeks ago when I was finalising all the preparations for the wedding. I realised that some of the jobs I'd given to Toby weren't being delegated. Or done. So when I sent his brother and best man, Andrei, the order of events and his list of jobs, I casually mentioned that it would be great if we could web-cast the wedding so that family and friends back in the UK could watch it and feel as though they were a part of it all. If anyone could do it, Andrei was the man, being a network engineer at one of the local councils and an out-and-out techno-geek and gadget dude.

It was never mentioned again. I didn't ask Andrei about it because I knew it was a lot to achieve in a short space of time, that if he was going to do it he'd do it anyway and didn't need me stressing him out by asking every couple of days but also because I was so busy with everything else that I didn't give it much more thought other than to occasionally think that it would be a nice and very cool thing to do and to mention to people that it may happen but it would require them being up and at the computer by 6am.

Before I knew it, it was Friday morning, the big day and all of my preparations were falling into place. I'd spent a lovely morning with my bridesmaids Lucie and Cherie, waking up in time to photograph the sunrise over the point where we'd be having the ceremony later in the day, then going back to bed again because it was bloody early, then popping out for a nice breakfast at my favourite cafe, Raw Energy and doing a bit of shopping. We'd had a relaxing evening the day before, being pampered at our honeymoon suite at Peninsular by the girls from Tranquility. I had a phone call from my friend Sadie in York, wishing me all the best for the day and telling me she was setting her alarm for 5.45am so she could watch it on the web. That was the first I knew that they'd pulled it off and I was so pleased they'd done it without hassling me for email addresses.

As with all weddings we did have a few things go awry. Our friend and videographer, Oscar missed his plane from Sydney because his taxi to the airport was two hours late picking him up. We sort of expected this anyway as there is an ancient gypsy curse which deems that Oscar, taxis and weddings do not go together. Thankfully Jon stepped up with my Dad's video camera to do the deed.

We had to trek through the bushes in order to get to the bottom of the aisle and make an entrance. I changed from sensible (but bling) flip-flops to my posh wedding shoes at this stage and we were greeted by Jill and Melissa who took our handbags and warned us the CD player wasn't working. I was scheduled to walk down the aisle to Fleetwood Mac's Songbird, a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics sung beautifully by Christine McVie. But instead I got to walk down the aisle to one of our friend, Pete Wheldon's own compositions. I asked Pete to play at the ceremony a few months back and he asked if we could play a CD for the procession down the aisle. He ended up having to play it himself anyway and he did a brilliant job.

A series of events led to the scheduled order occurring later and later than planned. By the time I arrived at Point Cartwright my friends and family had been logged onto the internet for about 45 minutes. By the time the party kicked off with our bridal waltz that evening we were about two hours off schedule. This all made the day fly by even more quickly.

The ceremony was lovely, so much fun. Anna and Jon did lovely readings for us and Anna looked absolutely stunning in a gold dress with black accessories. We even had an excited peewee join us at one point screeching his approval so loudly we couldn't hear the celebrant. The rings didn't go on very gracefully, due to the heat, which deserves a mention actually because the weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better day really and in fact, it got much cooler the following day so we were quite lucky.

I forgot all about the web-cast until Doug asked me to say hello to friends and family back home. Doug did a great job following us around with the video camera, laptop in a backpack, interviewing all the guests before the wedding. Andrei, lovely brother-in-law that he is, has chopped the recording up and stuck it online in 4 separate chapters so those that couldn't watch at the time can still see it.

Now I think there is a bit of a story regarding how it all came about but I don't know too many details. Andrei used his knowledge and expertise, and possibly some contacts to sort out some bandwidth details. This resulted in Telstra, the Australian equivalent of BT, getting involved. Word got back to a guy that Andrei and Toby know in Telstra about the wedding, Doug made some mention of sponsorship and before we knew it the local press were all over it.

Being interviewed by Channel 7.

During the photos following the ceremony Andrei came over and told us that the local TV station, Channel 7, wanted to interview us for a segment which I think will be broadcast this evening. What a spin-out!!! Then the next day, the local paper, The Sunshine Coast Daily called us and interviewed us over the phone. We made page 3 AND the front page!!! Andrei has stuck links to the newspaper clipping and the webcast on the wedding web page at wedding.clewett.org. This blog even got a mention. You can read the article online. Toby and I both had an absolutely fantastic day and really did feel like movie stars. Thanks to everyone involved.

The newspaper article

Now, I've struggled with this section of the post because I must point out some errors in the newspaper article, which is difficult to do now that they've advertised my blog and may even read it themselves but I just can't let it lie, I'm afraid. The journalist seemed like a lovely man; he conducted the interview in a very short space of time and over the phone, and really didn't have much time at all to write it up before the paper went to print. At times it was quite difficult to hear him so I can see how things might get mixed up or overlooked. So with all due respect to him I have complied the following list of erors. These are minor errors but I am pedantic.

1. As is evident by the URL of this blog, I am Lins, not Linds, but that's okay; it's a common mistake that many make.
2. Coco is a perfume by Chanel and my grandparents are not accustomed to sipping it of a morning, as suggested by the article.
3. I am a geordie, spelt G-E-O-R-D-I-E, not Jordie. This is a common mistake amongst Australians so perhaps if I explain it comes from the name "George" it will help them to remember the correct spelling. Knowing Aussies and their funny little ways, they probably sometimes spell George J-o-r-g-e anyway, in which case that little snippet won't help in the slightest.
   
4. I do not have relatives in York but my lovely friends Sadie and Tim live there.
5. At no point during the day did I have tears streaming down my face. I did have a slight tear in my eye because I'm not completely unemotional but the only thing that was "streaming" was the web-cast.
6. I do not remember hugging the computer. My dad remembers me taking it in both hands and adjusting it slightly so we could see better and I think I put my ear right up to it because it was very hard to hear. I can only guess that this little action was misconstrued as a hug. It makes a good story though... much better than mine.
7. Toby and I did not say that the live cam feed stops at the honeymoon threshold. I only clarify this because I was specifically asked by someone yesterday. It kind of goes without saying though, doesn't it?
   

If any of you out there are reading this because you got the link from the paper than welcome to the wonderful world of Buckle!! Or should that be Clewett? Or Cluckle? Blewett? Bucklett? Any which way, I'm still Lins, I'm still a geordie down-under and I'm now also a wife. Must dash... presents to open :-)