Random Thoughts of a Geordie Down-Under

Cat on bed

2010-12-02T16:32:00.000+10:00

I would have got to sleep much more easily last night if my big black flopsy cat hadn't climbed on top of me. Big hefty lump weighing me down. Purring in my ear. Little vocal pirrups now and theng. Pushing his cheek forcefully into my hand in the hope that I would give him some attention. Then I felt his pin prick claws on the bare skin of my arm. That annoyed me. I pushed him away. He came back.

Eventually he settled on the bed next to me, some quiet little purrs still happening but otherwise not really bothering me. He looked so cute I just couldn't help myself. I reached over and gave him a little pat.

Big mistake. Purrs got louder again. He sidled up closer and snuggled in once again pushing his head into my hand.

I ignored him.

He got the message. Or got bored and settled down to sleep next to me.

I slowly drifted off to sleep, my lovely cuddly affectionate pussy cat dozing next to me.

Then...

DOOF! Cat fully launched himself onto my head and purred loudly in my ear. Twice!

Hundreds denied vote in UK election

2010-05-07T21:16:00.001+10:00

It seems I am not the only British citizen unable to vote in this historic general election.

There are probably other disorganised and tardy ex-pats who didn't manage to get their registration organised in time. And, as I alluded to in a previous post, there were also those who forgot to register because no one bothered to knock on their door and hand-deliver them a form, as has usually happened in the past^*. More shockingly it seems that hundreds of people who actually were registered were turned away from polling stations at 10pm BST when voting closed.

Some of those people had been queuing for 3 hours!

Imagine that. You get home from work. You make the tea, feed and bath the kids, get them to bed, tidy up and do the dishes, pack the kids' school bags for the next day, maybe have a quick shower, sit down in front of the telly with a cup of tea and then think, "oh I'll just pop up the road to the school and cast my vote." You get there and there's a queue. "Never mind. It's pretty important. I mean, we don't want a hung parliament, do we?" You wait 45 minutes. Someone comes out and says "sorry love, voting's closed."

WTF??

It seems that those with ballot papers were still allowed in to vote but still... I find this absolutely shockingly outrageous. I have NEVER had to queue to vote. I've always just popped up the road after tea or on my way home from work and cast my vote. I think I've usually had a ballot paper, mind.

For a country that whinges at every election about low voter turn-out, that still hasn't managed to figure out a way to allow voting, or even registering to vote, online, this is ridiculous. Especially considering the expected hung parliament.

For the full story see Election 2010: Voters turned away as polls close

^* Strangely, the website with the original story (www.general-election-2010.co.uk) seems to have since disappeared.

Voting in the UK in the too hard basket

2010-04-20T14:24:00.000+10:00

I've given up. I really wanted to vote in this election but besides leaving everything until the last minute I've decided it's just too hard. Actually, it's probably because I've left everything until the last minute that it's too hard.

Basically, I'd like my Dad to vote as my proxy. He's got to go and vote himself anyway so it makes sense. Happy for my Mam to do it too. I mean instead. Obviously they can't both do it, given that we only get one vote each. Anyway, you get the picture.

The other option is a postal vote but today is the closing date for registrations for that, then they have to send out the ballot paper which I then have to fill in and get back to them before voting closes on election day. So, I think it's probably a bit late for that. Although I might still try my luck at faxing it through.

The problem with the proxy vote is that I have to register to vote with the electoral registration office that I was last registered with. This is in London. My parents are in the north-east. And frankly, when I move back to England this is probably where I'll be based. So I'd rather vote here than London, thanks. (I don't even remember which address in London as I moved about 9 months before I left the UK and I don't remember voting after that. But that's not to say I didn't.) There doesn't seem to be anywhere that I can register a change of address. So, if you don't register at your new address before you leave the country you're permanently forced to vote in your old constituency. It kind of makes sense. But not really.

So, it's all been thrown into the too hard basket. Which is a shame as it looks like an interesting election.

I'll do my research anyway and try my luck with a postal vote. So far, based upon looks alone, I think Nick Clegg looks the most prime ministerial, with David Cameron a close second.

So, maybe what I'll do is use this blog as a means to try to influence fellow Brits to vote the way I think I would vote. To summarise, here are the scores at the end of the first round:

Based upon the party leader's prime ministerial looks:

Conservatives 2
Labour 1
Liberal Democrats 3

I need more time Gordon!

2010-04-19T19:38:00.002+10:00

Here's the thing. I live in Australia. I am an Australian. I'm also British and I want to live in Britain again some day. So I have a vested interest in the government of both countries. In Australia, I am forced to vote, with the threat of a fine should I abstain, although truth be told, I know people who have missed many elections and I have yet to see any of them be prosecuted.

Britain, on the other hand, is a different story. I keep missing general elections. Last time I tried to register to vote by post only to realise I hadn't given myself enough time. I vowed that it wouldn't happen again. This time, I figured I'd register to vote by proxy and get my Dad to do it. I have no idea who I would vote for but I am a bit excited by the fact that the Lib Dems are in the running as they have usually got my vote in the past. Except for 1997 when I jumped on the New Labour bandwagon and voted Blair in and then stayed up all night to watch the results come in. Students. Pah!

So, when did Gordon Brown announce the general election? April 6th. When did I find out about it? This weekend. Almost 12 days hence. I think I kind of gathered that there was something of that ilk going on but to be honest they've talked about the possibility of an election for months. Make that years. And then there's all the other crap that's been going on, such as getting over a cold only to be knocked down by a stomach bug. And I'm super busy with everything going on in my life and haven't been keeping a very close eye on the news. So it was only this weekend that I actually looked up when the election was. May 6th. Ooohh... close.

Today I went online to register to vote by proxy. I would have done it sooner only the website didn't work on the iPhone so I had to wait until I had a moment on the computer. Do you know when you have to have your registrations in by? 20th April! That's tomorrow!! That's only 2 weeks after Mr Brown made the announcement. With the international postal service the way it is you have to be darn quick to make that deadline. And there is no other way to register. So, I can't vote.

I suppose I should just fill the forms in anyway in advance of the next election. I'm assuming that I will only have to go through this rigmarole once and not every election. But I can't actually be bothered to read the forms and find out. There's no incentive now that I know I can't vote. Oh well.... live and learn.

Update: Seems I'm not the only one having trouble registering to vote. And this likely lot are living in the UK too so they have even less of an excuse for not getting their act together. As an added bonus, my first name is mentioned in this article. It's always nice seeing one's name in print. Even if it isn't technically my name, it's the name belonging to the borough of East Lindsey. There you go, there it is again. Lovely. It doesn't happen very often for me. Usually it's misspelt. Lindsay or something. Unless you're looking at a website about Fleetwood Mac. Then you might get my first name and a little bit of my surname, Lindsey Buck, thanks to Lindsey Buckingham. Oooh... I almost feel another google me coming on.

There's nothing like a good blog post.

2010-04-16T13:12:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since I bothered with a good random Geordie Down-Under post. Indeed I have sadly neglected my old mate for my younger babies, In Production and lindseybuckle.com. But this was worth sharing.

Brief intro: Tourism Australia have a new campaign. Someone's spoofed it.

This site contains photos, in the spirit of the Demotivational Posters, that basically take the piss out of Australia. Well, someone's got to do it. Some of them are a bit wrong, in my opinion, such as the photo of Lindy and Azaria Chamberlain with the caption "There's nothing like a dingo eating your baby". I mean, the poor love died for chris' sake. But there are lots of very funny ones, such as "There's nothing like an oversized boxing crocodile" or "There's nothing like birds that will eat your face."

Check it out. It's in blog format so there should be some new uploads now and then.

And just to be fair, here's the link to the original campaign. It's not as funny though.

A slightly belated Happy 2010

2010-01-06T19:36:00.004+10:00

Yes, that's right. I've ditched the i today. I tried to think of something witty but it only ended up sounding trite: iHappy New Year; i2010; iSurvived the Noughties... that sort of thing.

2010 is a number rather pleasing to the eyes, don't you think? It's a bit futuristic looking. I finally feel like we have arrived in the 21st Century. The previous years just didn't seem quite worthy of that accolade but 2010, two thousand and ten, or twenty ten, however you say it, is a fine and proud number. Incidentally, I have yet to place myself in one camp or the other and continue to use the two monikers interchangeably.

After having a wonderful early evening barbecue with close friends and our offspring, then arriving home by 8pm to dispatch said offspring to the Land of Nod, I spent my New Years Eve under the Christmas tree, reminiscing about New Years gone by. I didn't go too far back... just 10 years. It seemed appropriate somehow to reflect on the first decade of the millennium, especially considering the entrance into it was so highly anticipated and celebrated. Besides which, I'm not sure I can remember any further back than that and it hurts my head if I try.

So here's a quick rundown of my past ten years New Years.

1999/2000

A highly decadent, indulgent and intoxicated affair. A grand party in London in which the DJ marked the turn of the millennium with Robbie Williams' "Angels", which was enthusiastically sung along to by all present. One couldn't help but wonder if he had selected the wrong track number. Surely he meant to play "Millennium"? The evening was ended catching up with another group of friends and watching the sun rise, no mean feat in London in the dead of winter. Incidentally, the night before was the last time I lay under the Christmas tree, this time with a bottle of wine, four friends (it was a big tree) and garbled conversation.

2000/2001

A rather dull New Year's Eve with my then boyfriend on holiday in South Africa. We went to what could have been a great party if only we'd known anyone else there. I wore a t-shirt proudly declaring "Keith Tweed" in silver letters, after Cherie decided we should all do a Madonna-Britney and wear t-shirts with each others' names on them. Shame all my friends were in London then. I was the only saddo in South Africa wearing one. Still, it did make me feel rather connected to my missed friends.

2001/2002

My housemates and I had no plans whatsoever. My boyfriend had no plans either. Yet somehow we managed to do completely different things. He went to a White party on the west side of London, bloody miles away. Stupid idea to wear white at New Year, especially when you're a red wine drinker. So me and me mates walked to a local nightclub instead. It was crap.

2002/2003

My last New Year at home before The Big Trip. I went for a curry with my parents (arghghghg) before heading to my Gran's for a G&T. Cheryl phoned me in tears telling me how much she was going to miss me when I left. I drank the least alcohol on any New Years Eve since I was 18, possibly younger. Still, we'd had a lovely frosty walk earlier in the day and saw a sparrowhawk catch a finch. Marvellous.

2003/2004

First New Year in Australia. An Australian friend was over from England so we went along to a party in a holiday apartment with his mates, having spent the early part of the evening with Toby's brother and his wife (and their friends), who had to stay at home because they had a teeny tiny baby. We watched some fireworks from the apartment which was quite high up. Surprisingly, it was a bit chilly on the balcony. I started downing cocktails and was having a rather nice time until Toby dragged me home not long after midnight because he wanted to go for a surf at 5am. Bo-oring!

2004/2005

We had just arrived on Lady Musgrave Island for what turned out to be the holiday of a lifetime. After a day of travelling and setting up camp we were knackered and in bed by 10pm. I was a bit sad as this was the Christmas my dad's sister passed away.

2005/2006

This turned out to be the best New Year's Eve since 1999/2000. We were on a beach holiday at Angourie in New South Wales. We had a surprisingly large party, given we were from out of town. Oscar was filming the party scene for Surfer Sutra. I, having already played my part (beach babe, of course), was kicked out along with the other beach babe and the disciples. We took a bottle of gin and a camera to amuse ourselves. We sang 80s songs and took stupid photos. Blue Steel and Angry Pirates were born and haunted us for many years to come.

2006/2007

In UK and I became a godmother for the first time, to my gorgeous godson, Joshua, son of my oldest friend, Catherine. As Catherine and John have kids and we'd been out all day (and John was bladdered) we stayed in that night. We attempted to watch a film but realised we were just staying up for the sake of it and went to bed. Watched the fireworks in bed then slept. Not very rock n roll.

2007/2008

First New Year as a married woman. First New Year in our new home. It was also Scott & Lucie's first New Year in their new home. We celebrated by having absolutely no plans. Ended up having dinner at Scott & Lucie's then headed up to Point Cartwright with a bottle of champagne to watch the Mooloolaba fireworks that never happened because of the terrible weather. Ended up hanging out at Point Cartwright with said bottle of bubbly in the driving, torrential rain. And wind. Gusty, gale-force wind. Lovely.

2008/2009

Humungously pregnant. Had dinner at Libbette's then a few of us drove to Point Cartwright and watched the Mooloolaba fireworks. A spontaneous night that turned out rather nicely.

2009/2010

Another spontaneous "I've got no plans, you've got no plans, let's have no plans together" kind of a night with Scott and Lucie again. These are turning out to be rather good ones actually but I think that maybe next year we should endeavour to actually do something. But, as we have children we probably won't.

If you've read this far, wow! Are you procrastinating or what? Happy New Year me lovelies.

iHate Bloody Government Forms and Bureaucracy

2009-12-29T21:18:00.004+10:00

Frankly, I find it hard to believe I haven't written more angry posts about government forms, but looking back over recent entries I see it is about 15 months since my last whinge on the matter. Which isn't too long when you think about how inactive my blog has been in the last year.

However, I can think of at least one other incident in that time frame, which didn't make it into the blog world.

This was the vexation caused by the crazy decision to place the application for the Baby Bonus and a child's Medicare card on the same form, despite the fact that they are dealt with by different offices. I had no end of trouble with this. To start with, the very first question on the form told me that if I didn't already claim family assistance I must not proceed before either calling the Office of Family Assistance, or filling in a form online. The name of the form was not given and a direct link was not given either so I chose to call instead.

Well, this was back in February/March, just after the Victorian Bush Fire Tragedy and the lines were jammed with people who needed assistance, so after days and days of trying I put some effort into finding the form online. Then, I discovered that I needed to register for Online Services, only the part of the site where you register was down and, it turns out, I needed a Customer Reference Number, which I didn't have because I wasn't born here. So two problems there.

Days later, after having the phone on constant redial, I finally got through to the office only to have some woman try to fob me off by telling me to fill in the form I was trying to complete in the first place. Then she tried to get me to do it online and I told her the website was broken. She wouldn't have it and told me I just needed to get a CRN and to be honest I can't really remember the details but I insisted she help me and she spent 45 minutes getting my details three times. Apparently the system kept booting her out. Then she said that my details would have to be linked to Toby's details but he was in a different location and had to be transferred over and this was as much as she could do to help me today. What?

So, I asked her to send the form that I'd been trying to get online and when it arrived it asked the same bloody question as the first form, and again, told me to phone or get online. Grrr..... I gave up. So Phoebe had no Medicare card and we couldn't claim any of her medical expenses. But that was all sorted out for me when we went to get her jabs and couldn't without a Medicare card. The doctor's receptionist sent me to the Medicare office and the lovely lady there helped me with everything.

This got me my CRN but I'm pretty sure I then had to spend about a day online completing a form to see if we were eligible for some tax benefit thing (we weren't), answering questions about everywhere I've been in the last 3 years (because that's relevant).

And now, I'm going through it all again.

The latest issue is the Child Care Rebate. The lady at daycare told me to fill this form in before my payment was due on Christmas Eve so that I could find out how much I had to pay.

Well, I tried. I spent days doing it again. I had all manner of problems, including the website going down. I had to answer the same crazy questions about all the holidays I'd been on in the last 3 years, and then I had to answer the same for Phoebe and Toby. And this is the bit that really gets me. They asked me which document I travelled on so I gave my British passport because I'd travelled more times with that than with my Aussie one. On the next page it asked me what sort of visa I had, despite the fact I had already answered a question indicating I was an Australian citizen. I assumed this was because I'd given them a foreign passport number so went back and changed it to my Australian passport number. It still asked me the same question. Don't they realise that you don't need a visa if you're a citizen? Anyway, I told them what my last visa had been (it was a mandatory question) but missed out the number (which wasn't mandatory).

When I finally finished, I was told that my claim couldn't be processed before I took proof of my citizenship and my visa into the office. I don't really see how I can show them proof of something I don't have but I'm assuming that I'll be able to explain myself and point out the stupidity of the system to the no-doubt intelligent humanoid behind the counter.

This morning I received a text message saying,

"You made a Family Assistance Online Claim on 22/12/09. Please return the requested documents ASAP if you have not already done so. Do not reply by SMS."

A bit brusque, don't you think? Some might even say rude. And very impatient. Especially given there have been two working days since 22nd and we were only 2 minutes into the third one. Nevertheless, I strolled on down to the office today, thinking that if I went to Medicare instead of Centrelink, perhaps the lovely lady could help me again and maybe explain why Medicare made out my rebate cheques, for bills I'd paid in full, to the doctors, rather than me. Yet another example of federal government department nonsense. As if I haven't paid those rather expensive doctors enough (nearly $300 in one case).

Guess what? Medicare was shut. I hopped on my bike and rode down to Centrelink, which is apparently my local Family Assistance Office. Guess what?! Shut!

So there they are, sending me demanding text messages making ridiculous requests for documents that don't exist and then they aren't even bloody there to receive the damn things. So now I have to go back again. Do you know what? I'm bloody pissed off with the whole damn thing. I suppose I am asking for money but wouldn't it just be typical if they decide we're not eligible for a rebate. I tell you what, if that happens again, I'll be a tad annoyed.

iGoogle

2009-12-17T14:54:00.006+10:00

(Yes, I did recently purchase an iPhone and as such all posts from now on will have a good old Apple iIdiom as its title. It works particularly well when the suffix is a verb.)

I haven't googled myself for a while, and after reading someone's Facebook status warning that Facebook allows your public profile to be indexed by search engines (many social networking sites do by default), it prompted me to wonder what the latest search engine results for "Lindsey Buckle" are.

I was strangely satisfied (and a tad concerned but not really that surprised) to find that the majority of results on the first page were actually me. After all I am the centre of the universe. But then there probably aren't many (if any) other Lindsey Buckles in Australia and Google probably knows where I am and assumes I'd be more interested in local results.

Obviously you can perform the search yourself but just for the purposes of fleshing out this post a bit and helping those of you too lazy to be arsed but nice enough to spend the time reading this, here is a summary.

Firstly, I'd like to complain that Google asked me if I meant "Lindsay Buckle". Jeez Google, not you as well. I do know how to spell my own name you know, even if the rest of the world doesn't.

In the top spot is this blog... but not for the reason you might first think, i.e. that this is Lindsey Buckle's blog (that's the second item), but because once upon a time, quite a while ago, I blogged about there being another Lindsey Buckle in the world. I discovered this the last time I decided to Google myself for fun. You might be relieved to know this isn't a frequent pastime of mine; the previous post was written 2 ½ years ago.

This time I discovered a third and fourth Lindsey Buckle in the world (and I seem to remember a fifth one contacting me on Facebook at some point but I'm sure she was a Lindsay so not the same really). I don't think there are any other Lindsey Buckle Clewetts though.

The third listing is my Facebook public profile, which displays my photograph, lists some friends and rather embarrassingly announces that I'm a "fan of Gi Fernando", a friend who had some silly competition with his colleagues to see who could get the most fans. I'm not sure I really want that piece of information presented to the world. I find my friend list rather random too. It isn't in alphabetical order; it isn't a list of the friends I interact with most often; it doesn't even seem to be in any sort of chronological order. It's just purely and simply random and probably isn't a good representation of my real friendship group. Oh well.

Next is some random from Arizona's Facebook page. She's blonde and is a fan of Michael Phelps. I wonder if her friend list is as random as mine.

Next we have the fourth Lindsey Buckle's Linked In profile, followed by the article in the Sunshine Coast Daily about our wedding webcast, then my Linked In public profile, which doesn't say much about me at all really. Then some PDF about the fourth Lindsey Buckle. You're hogging my Google page, dude! S/he sounds really boring; s/he's a "Senior Actuarial Analyst", whatever one of those is. People looking for me will be extremely disappointed if they find those pages instead.

Next up is a foreign Facebook page and finally a post on Mark Lynas' website discussing whether I should fly home to my family in the UK. It was interesting reading this again as I initially thought not much has changed but ended up noting some stark differences between my life then and now. The sentiment and dilemma persists though but this is a point for discussion in another post at another time.

The Surfer Sutra movie starring Toby is the first item on the second page. I hadn't watched that for years but it brought back some memories, such as the fact that I wasn't allowed a speaking part due to my out of place accent, and the party scene, where the "beach babes" and "disciples" were kicked out of our actual New Year's Eve party during filming so we consoled ourselves on the driveway with a bottle of gin, bad singing and a camera. Thus were born the Angry Pirates and Blue Steel photos, which have plagued every gathering since. I also regained the memory of what my husband looks like without facial hair and how his bald head looks a bit like an egg.

I lost interest after that.

We Wish You A Merry Chocmas

2009-12-04T20:00:00.003+10:00

Or should that be Merry Chocmassive Children with Big Fat Bellies, No Life and a Penchant for Chocolate that will haunt them until they die?

My beef? I want an advent calendar for Phoebe. I don't want it to have chocolate in it.

She's not even 10 months old. She's never tasted chocolate and I want it to stay that way for a fair few months yet. Besides which, I just don't like the idea of chocolate advent calendars, at least until she's a few years older. Eating chocolate every day is not a habit I wish to instill in my child and I want her to appreciate the magic of Christmas, not to expect some kind of gift every day.

The wonder of an advent calendar is the mystery of what is behind the door, not the knowledge that it'll be a piece of chocolate but you don't know what shape it is. Who cares what shape it is? Just give me the goddam chocolate. And then once the chocolate is gone you're left with an ugly bit of moulded plastic which obscures the picture behind it.

Don't get me wrong, when I was a kid I loved chocolate advent calendars, especially (English) Cadbury's. My sister and I would usually share one and we'd take it in turns to eat the chocolate. I seem to remember that I was even days (because my birthday is on 2nd) and she was odd days. But I hated the look of the calendar once the chocolate was gone. It seemed so used up and desolate and yes, ugly. We usually had a card one too and that was always much prettier. Auntie Betty always gave me an advent calendar for my birthday. A non-chocolate one. But we didn't have chocolate advent calendars until we were around 8 or 10 years old. They probably didn't do them before then.

So why am I whinging about this? Why not just go and get Phoebe a non-chocolate advent calendar and be done with it? Well, I tried and you would not believe how difficult, if not impossible that is, at least where I live. I know we're a little way into December but I've asked around a bit and I get the impression that the lack of such calendars is not a result of them having sold out. One shopkeeper told me that the years that he gets them in no one wants to buy them so he didn't bother this year and another assistant told me that he'd never even seen one.

What is the world coming to? Hallmark, what are you playing at?

Why do we complain about childhood obesity and then let Christmas become just one big eat-fest? For a month!! Bring back the magic of Christmas, I say. Be gone, materialism; be gone buying expensive, useless presents for the sake of it; be gone the expectation of a chocolate every day in December. Bring back the wonder of choosing the perfect gift, no matter how small or inexpensive; of wrapping it up and making it look beautiful; of placing it under the tree and admiring it in the weeks leading up to Christmas; of watching the excitement, surprise and appreciation on the face of the recipient on Christmas day; of opening the advent calendar to see what lies behind today's door and to watch it morph from one big picture into a mosaic of tiny little ones.

UK friends and family take note; if non-chocolate advent calendars still exist over there (and I sincerely hope they do or there is no promise for the future of our fat society), please send one over for us next year. Many thanks... oh and happy December!

iZumba

2009-11-29T10:04:00.003+10:00

Finally I get to update my original blog. I have been somewhat quiet of late due to my recent change in status to that of mother. It takes a fair bit of my time and I decided way back when that I didn't really want to harp on about all things baby on this blog. So I set up a new one, dedicated solely to the creation of my family and development of my children, at linsinproduction if you're interested.

So last week I got to do something non-baby related for a change. I zumbared (or whatever the past-tense verb of Zumba is, if indeed there is one). I left hubbie in charge of the tea-time household duties (i.e. putting the baby to bed), although I was a dutiful wife and had dinner cooking in the slow cooker (man, I'm good!), and I headed into town and met me bezzie (who also left her hubbie at home in charge of the baby) and we tried out the latest fitness craze to sweep the world.

If you search google for "latest fitness craze" you'll get all sorts of things, like hula-hooping, can-can dancing, skipping and even inflatable gym equipment. But they're all wrong. The latest fitness craze for anyone in Australia who watches daytime telly is quite clearly Zumba.

So, what is it? Well, without looking up the official definition, my take on it is that it is salsa dancing on speed, with a bit of street dancing or hip-hop thrown in, done to crazy South American dance music in a darkened room with disco lights. Unlike aerobics there is less pressure to conform and you're encouraged to ad lib a bit. Even the instructors ad lib, which is very confusing to a beginner.

"What's that wiggle she threw in there? I missed that. I'll do it this time instead. Oh... she didn't wiggle this time. Now I feel like a fool."

It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Which is exactly the intention. The idea is that you get fit whilst dancing and having fun. Having done, and enjoyed, both latin dancing and belly dancing, this seems to be much better for fitness. I suppose for Lucie and me the novelty of being out at night without our husbands and babies added to the pleasure.

Unfortunately, for a lactating mother still in her first year after giving birth, and with the softened ligaments that come with the territory, it is kind of hard core and a bit hip-wiggly. I spent so much time thinking about the different moves I was "supposed" to be doing that I didn't really pay enough attention to my core muscles and I put my back out. It's easing up now (a week and a visit to the physio later) but I am back to the basics of doing my hip flexor stretches every day just like when I first started physio for a similar injury about two years ago. So this week I'm resting but you can bet I'll be back zumbaring again next week. And if anyone's interested, I'd love the DVDs for Christmas so I can get really good at it.

Here are some Zumba-related links if you'd like to find out more:

Australian Zumba site

About Zumba

Zumba on Wikipedia

Zumba on YouTube

Why I love living where I live... (part 2)

2009-04-26T19:41:00.002+10:00

...because I can go swimming in a 50 metre open-air pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Autumn, with a wide lane all to myself (and no one in the lane next to me) and watch birds flitting over the water catching insects as I breast-stroke my way along. Absolute bliss!

See Why I love living where I live... (part 1).

Buckle has been approved

2008-10-16T10:17:00.005+10:00

I checked my citizenship application this morning and it seems they have finally approved me. I have no idea why it took them so long: almost 6 weeks. How come they didn't just take one look at my application and say "oh she looks like a nice girl; we'll have her. Tick"? But at least they have finally come to their senses and realised they would be proud to call me an Aussie.

To be honest, the thought of dual citizenship is a wee bit strange. I could never give up my British citizenship because I feel British through and through. Even though there may be some elements of the British psyche that bug me, I just can't help it. It's who I am, it's how I was brought up, it's who many of my close friends and relations are and despite its faults (and in some cases because of them) I love it.

That said, I do feel increasingly Australian. You can't live here for five years, immerse yourself in the culture and not let it rub off on you. Obviously there are things that bug me about the Australian character too, but it's much easier to fob that off saying "oh but I'm British" ("and far superior" is the inference there, I suppose). When I return to England I remember my Britishness but my Australianness is also highlighted: that's the bit that makes me different to my fellow Brits. And my Britishness makes me different to my fellow Australians. So, I'm neither one nor the other and I guess that's the way I have felt for a while now.

So, although I can never be constantly 100% Australian, or constantly 100% British, I can now be sometimes 100% either, or always 50% of both. See what I mean about it being a bit strange? I think I will still have to barrack for England in international tournaments, and the "friendly rivalry" between the two sporting nations could very well tear me apart, but I do think I have the best of both worlds.

Now I just have to see if they can squeeze me into the last citizenship ceremony of the year in 2 weeks. I'll practice my national anthem in the meantime.

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've wealth for toil and earth to soil.... no , that's not right
We've wealth and toil and earth and soil... nope
We've wealth and soil and Mrs Doyle
Preparing buns for tea... no hang on, that's Ireland.

I am a pantheist.

2008-10-09T14:10:00.003+10:00

I have just discovered that I am a pantheist. I have often struggled to define myself in religious terms. Sometimes I'm a christian (by birth, not practice), other times I am an entirely non-religious atheist and then there are times when I'm a naturalist/universalist/believe in the inter-connectedness of all things known and unknown spiritualist and why isn't there a word for this? Well, apparently there is. It's pantheism and I discovered this when reading the following passage in Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion:

A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who, in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation. In many theistic belief systems, the deity is intimately involved in human affairs. He answers prayers; forgives or punishes sins; intervenes in the world by performing miracles; frets about good and bad deeds, and knows when we do them (or even think of doing them).

This is what most of the world's religions are: theists. Clearly, this isn't me. Although the small part of me that is Christian, the part that was christened when I was five, which clearly is a very small part of the thirty-two year-old me, still wonders if God knows when I'm naughty and will send me to hell as punishment, and can be known to make a quiet prayer when there's something I really want (or don't want) to happen. But deep down, I know it isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference. But wouldn't it be cool if there were a such thing as miracles?

A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter, and certainly has no specific interest in human affairs.

Now this is an interesting concept, and one I haven't really considered. However, as Carl Sagan said, "if by 'God' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying ... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity." Gosh, how I laughed when I read that. Still tickles me.

Pantheists don't believe in a supernatural God at all, but use the word God as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings. Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts and does not intervene with capricious miracles. Deists differ from pantheists in that the deist God is some kind of cosmic intelligence, rather than the pantheist's metaphoric or poetic synonym for the laws of the universe. Pantheism is sexed-up atheism. Deism is watered-down theism.

So there you go. Dawkins does go on to argue that such "believers", if they can indeed be called as such should refrain from referring to their metaphorical spiritual force as "God":

The metaphorical or pantheistic God of the physicists is light years away from the interventionist, miracle-wreaking, thought-reading, sin-punishing, prayer-answering God of the Bible, of priests, mullahs and rabbis and of ordinary language. Deliberately to confuse the two is, in my opinion, an act of intellectual high treason.

I am happy not to call my interconnecting energy God, but I would like a name for it. However, for now I am happy to put a name to my general belief. Pantheism. I shall now go google and wiki it just to be sure that that's what I am. I'm only up to page 41 of the book so there's a good chance I could change my mind by the end of it but "sexed-up atheism"? I can live with that.

How could I forget?

2008-09-15T15:18:00.005+10:00

Silly me! Of course I have something to report... well not exactly yet but the thing is about two weeks ago I did the Australian Citizenship test and then, after getting 100% (I'm such a girly swot), I applied for citizenship. As part of my preparation for the test Toby kept teaching me the Australian national anthem. It's surprisingly catchy. That's about as exciting and interesting as that story goes.

The website that I applied on is typical of all goverment (or at least Department of Immigration) forms; that is, bloody awful. You have to visit the site a few times in order to know where to find things and even then, when I want to check on the progress of my application I have to go through about 12 screens of the application process to find it.

UPDATE 19/09/08: Richard showed me today that there is actually a link directly to the login section to check my application about one click into the site. It's just the pages are so damn long, and it was right at the bottom, that I missed it. So, still not an entirely user-friendly site but not as bad as I thought. I take some responsibility for that particular problem.

The form itself asks for a Citizenship test reference number. The paper given to me after the test had two references numbers on it but neither of them were called Citizenship test reference numbers so it was anybody's guess as to which was the right one to use. Thankfully, my British colleague, Richard had recently applied so he helped me out a bit, although really he was just guessing too and I don't know why I listened to him anyway as his application was delayed whilst they conducted an "internal investigation".

After I'd applied I was directed to a form which detailed what I had to do next. This involved filling in a proof of identity form and getting someone important to witness it. (I immediately thought of my friend Libbette as she's a teacher and apparently none of my other friends have important enough jobs.) The form indicated I would also have to get a passport-sized photo witnessed. Passport photos are difficult things to obtain here on the Sunshine Coast, lord only knows why. No such thing as passport booths you see. You end up having to go to photograph processing places. I could only locate one place that did them in the surrounding area and it wasn't en route to anywhere for me that day. Richard told me I didn't need a photo because they took one when I went for the test so I phoned them to make sure. The lady who answered said I didn't need to send anything else in, not even the proof of identity form. She did follow this, however, with the comment, "if we do need anything else, we'll contact you," which probably means she didn't really know. Rich had been given contradictory information from people he'd spoken to on the phone so he suggested I send the form in anyway. I got a colleague who's a Commissioner for Declarations (whatever one of those is) to witness it (because I forgot to ask Libbette) but so far I haven't managed to remember to post it.

So that's that. Rich and his wife, Sue have their citizenship ceremony on October 31st. It only seems to be us Brits who are humoured by the fact that they will become Australian citizens on Halloween. I guess it's not really an acknowledged celebration here. It's summer here at that time of year and Australians don't feel the need to break the depression of increasingly shorter, darker days with random holidays such as Halloween and Guy Fawkes. That, and they have no pagan history. Not that Fawkes was a pagan but to say Australia has no history would have caused an uproar and wouldn't have been strictly true. The Halloween ceremony is the last of the year, the next one being the biggie on Australia Day on January 26th. I'm really hoping I can squeeze into the same one, or one before that as I don't fancy making my pledge in front of all those people whilst 8 and a half months pregnant. Suppose I'd better get that form sent off then.

Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free...

'Allo 'allo

2008-09-15T14:02:00.003+10:00

I'm a little surprised at how long it's been since my last post. Work has picked up and has been quite busy and I haven't really had much to say on any other topic. Still pregnant, still painting the house, nothing much to report.

Except, I just have to tell you that there is a South African guy at work who sounds like one of the German officers from 'Allo 'Allo, either Captain Hans Geering (the one who hangs around with the fat Colonel and prounces Colonel as it is written), or Lieutenant Hubert Grubert (the one with a crush on Rene). Either way, every time he talks I have to giggle and when he talks to me it's terribly embarrassing as I struggle to keep a straight face and not immediately burst out with "Ha! Did you know you sound like one of the German dudes from 'Allo 'Allo??? So funny!!"

Bored!

2008-08-27T16:00:00.000+10:00

I am so unbelievably bored.

Apart from one or two notable exceptions, no one has sent me an interesting email in days, and even Facebook is a bit like Scarborough in winter at the moment. Not that I've ever been to Scarborough. I've never been in summer, let alone winter, but I imagine not much happens there in winter. If there is a lot going on in Scarborough in winter then Facebook isn't much like it at all. It's possibly more like the moon. But less cool because the moon has a good view of the earth and the whole low gravity thing going for it.

That said, Facebook did recently go through quite an interesting and fun phase where I got to laugh at lots of old school photos (including class photos from when I was 9 and 13 ish). My sister's friends have started putting old photos on now too so I've been having a good giggle at them.

Work is boring. I've finished off a lot of jobs and those remaining are in a pending state whilst I wait for various colleagues to get back to me. What's the bet they all get back to me at once demanding immediate resolutions?

Knocked up

It's probably about time I made an official announcement on this site that I'm having a baby early next year. Thank god! My pregnancy is the only interesting thing going on right now. It's quite fascinating once you get into it but I think I'm stretching the limits of how much even that can entertain me. (I won't go on about it by the way - I have another blog for that purpose - but I will mention it when it's relevant.) At least I know I'm unlikely to spend my days next year sitting on my arse whinging about being bored. I'll probably be wishing for such days to return to me.

Don't get me wrong, I can find plenty to occupy my time and mind with. I have millions of jobs to do at home (just not necessarily the money to do them), there are a gazillion things I'd like to read and as for things I'd like to do today, well, I've already been to the dentist and I plan to go to the gym but I also need to get petrol, fish and possibly some noodles because I can't remember whether we have any at home. The trouble is that these are not things I should be doing in work time and hence getting paid for.

Laptop battery bingo

I'm fairly pleased with myself at the moment in that I managed to successfully purchase a new laptop battery from eBay. My battery hasn't worked for about 6 months, which kind of made my laptop less of a laptop and more of a desktop, which isn't really what I forked $3000 out for. I tried to do this some time back and was bamboozled by the fact that none of the numbers on the batteries on eBay seemed to match those on my battery. I had already tried to get one from Dell and they quoted me $175 which seemed like rather a lot of money, given my computer was only 18 months old, and surely a battery should last longer than that.

I kept periodically returning to eBay and getting bamboozled so eventually I decided just to buy one from Dell. At least that way I could be sure of getting the right part and didn't have to try and figure anything out for myself. This time they quoted me $290!!!! For a battery!!! A new Dell laptop costs $750 and that comes with a battery! So I did a bit more research and discovered that the confusion is caused by Sony's insistence on measuring their batteries in watt hours (Wh) when everyone else uses miliamp hours (mAh), sneaky devils.

Thankfully, there is one common component on all batteries and that is voltage. Once you know the voltage and either Wh or mAh you can do a simple conversion using the formula:

watt = amp * volt

or

amp = watt / volt

Thanks to camerahacker.com for helping me figure this out.

It's probably a bit more complicated than this but it was close enough. I found a battery with similar power outage on eBay, which I could get shipped from Hong Kong for $87!!! What a bonus. A saving of over $200! At that price I figured I could take a risk as I wasn't able to get full use of the laptop, and I wasn't likely to pay $300 for a new battery. Well, the battery arrived yesterday and I'm happy to say seems to be working well. Kudos to me and ya boo suks to Dell!

Willie Wagtail pursues wife

Just for fun, and to stop everyone else becoming as bored as me, here's a lovely little photo of me and a Willie Wagtail on our wedding anniversary the other weekend (that's mine and Toby's anniversary, just in case that sentence caused any confusion). It was taken at Point Cartwright, near where we were married and the little bird seemed to be oblivious to the fact that I am now a married woman and was following me around rather ardently.

Right ho! I think I have procrastinated enough for one day. I shall go and do something a bit more worth getting paid for but probably terribly boring, and perhaps amuse myself with some Skunk Anansie (that's the kind of mood I'm in) for the remaining hour of the working day.

TTFN!

Do you remember the one with the Dambusters?

2008-08-11T15:27:00.006+10:00

For some inexplicable reason, possibly relating to the deluge of old school photographs that are currently finding their wicked little ways onto Facebook, today I started to reminisce about really bad old music.

It may also have been due to the discussion in the office as to how London is possibly going to outdo Beijing in the Olympic Opening Ceremony and ideas as to what the London ceremony might consist of.

The Hairless suggested:

"I am thinking of Charlie riding in all dolled up in his medals and feathered hat upon his faithful steed Camilla mumbling "I'm here Mummy...where is the fireplace that needs lighting?" sounds like the best option."

Sanchez preferred a cockney theme:

"I can see Chaz and Dave getting a good cockney knees up going and the pearly king and queens performing a dance.

"Then we will bring on an army of chavs to drink 5 pints of stella and have a fight.

"I think the finale will involve the Queen waving her hand as usual.

"Quality...."

I liked the cockney theme but went for something a bit grander:

"I think there'll be a million morris dancers prancing around the stadium with their handkerchiefs and sticks, jangling their bells, followed by a massive 500 metre may pole with lots of coloured ribbons and more prancing around.

"Then about half a million cockneys, accompanied by pearly kings and queens and the odd beefeater, will march in and do the lambeth walk. Then we'll bring in a huge replica of the spanish armada, light torches all around the stadium to signify the warning of the armada's approach, then set the ships of the armada on fire (and they'll be full of fireworks so there'll be a massive firework display... in fact... we might even have a few of them sail up the Thames just to be a bit beyond-the-stadium, like in Beijing) and use that to light the torch before flying off to bomb a German factory."

Before I go on, can I please point out that I do not advocate the bombing of anything German and that reference was meant to be purely tongue in cheek. However, Sanchez picked it up and suggested a Spitfire flyover and some tribute to the Dambusters, to which I recommended getting all of the athletes to dambust around the stadium on their march, to the Dambusters music, arms outstretched pretending to be aeroplanes, or fingers round their eyes as goggles.

This, of course, is what triggered the old memory of the song that used to always get played at parties where everyone did the actions and sang along to the Dambusters theme. I got confused and distracted at first by the Superman song (remember that one? Comb your hair, spray, Superman!!) but eventually I identified the Dambuster one as being The Music Man. Both were recorded by Black Lace to annoy people at parties for the duration of the eighties and most of the nineties. And so, for your delight and delectation, here are some awful YouTube versions of both. Reminisce to your heart's desire.

Randoms doing the Superman song at work:

Black Lace sing Music Man on Top of the Pops or something. Bad copy but it's the best I could do. Dambusters are about 2 minutes 50 seconds in for those that can't bear to watch the whole thing.

And just for a laugh, and to show I'm not proud, here's one of the old photos a school friend put onto Facebook, depicting me and my good friend Bev, her with classic poodle perm and me with scary Michael Jackson-style white-face make-up:

Everything is arbitrary

2008-07-31T15:39:00.003+10:00

We recently had the University website redesigned by an advertising agency. One of the requirements was that the site must conform to Priority 1 World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at a minimum, and that it should also conform to Priorty 2, preferably Priority 3.

On delivery I noticed they had a green box with white text. The green was mottled and graduated and became yellow in places. It was obvious to me, with my reasonably good eyesight, that white text is not easy to read when on a yellow-ish background (it doesn't really take a genius or a blind-man to figure that one out now, does it?). So the Marketing team sent the image back to the agency and requested a new one.

The new one was much better. I could definitely read it. Just to be sure I ran the colours through an online colour contrast analyser. The difference in colour and brightness was still not quite enough to meet the Priority 2 WCAG checkpoint 2.2 regarding colour contrast. However, it was pretty close so I left it up to the Marketing team to determine whether they were happy with it.

They weren't.

The agency sent another image along with the following comment:

"The algorithms are a useful guide to ensuring sufficient contrast and colour difference, but the precise thresholds are somewhat arbitrarily chosen (strange that the human eye works in such neat numbers, 125 and 500 ;)"

Isn't this a bit like saying:

"Hmm, it's a bit strange that water just happens to boil at exactly 100°C, isn't it?"

"How perculiar that 1 Litre of water weighs exactly 1 kilogram."

"Strange, don't you think, that a day is exactly 24 hours long?"

Well, I've got news for you Mr Smarty-pants-Multi-media-degree-don't-you-know-Ad-agency-man, a day isn't exactly 24 hours long. We make it that long so that it's easy to measure. Water only boils at 100°C because we decided that would be a good way of measuring temperature. Time is arbitrary, everything humans measure with is arbitrary. Don't you think perhaps they decided that 125 and 500 were nice, round, easy numbers to remember and developed algorithms accordingly? Dear me...

Grammar Nazi: Gil Mayo corrects "would of"

2008-07-18T11:53:00.006+10:00

One of the reasons I like Gil Mayo (The Gil Mayo Mysteries, ABC1, Thursdays 8.35pm) is that he is a stickler for grammatical correctness. The show doesn't contain much "laugh out loud" material and is at times a bit weird and contrived, but occasionally it hits the right spot and extracts more than a mere chuckle from me.

A classic scene was when Kite, the Welshman, was asking for a code and the others kept asking "a cord?" until he put on his poshest English accent and pronounced code with a long vowel. It's a phonetic joke and hard to transcribe onto paper (or blog) but suffice to say, having experienced a similar encounter myself when ordering a vodka and coke in a London bar ("a cork? What, like just a vodka and er.. a cork?"), which resulted in me also having to adopt my best posh English accent, this scene certainly had me laughing out loud.

Another scene I chortled away at occurred last night and went a little something like this:

Neil, the accountant: I was afraid he'd lose his job.
Clair, the bar owner: Well, he would of.
Gil, the grammar nazi: Have.

Miscellaneous conversation follows, then:

Clair: I resent the implication that he would of.
Gil: Have.

Refer to my previous post, Should have, should've, should of to see just why this tickled me.

Grammar Nazi: The Importance of Order

2008-07-17T12:47:00.006+10:00

Read the following paragraph from the BBC News website:

Mr Rudd issued his landmark apology for the abuse and discrimination the country's indigenous people have endured since European colonisation in February, soon after taking office.

The order of the wording implies that the European colonisation of Australia occurred in February. Colonisation occurred over two hundred years ago; Rudd's apology was made in February. This is a surprising grammatical, or rather semantic, error from an institution such as the BBC. The paragraph should have been worded:

In February, soon after taking office, Mr Rudd issued his landmark apology for the abuse and discrimination the country's indigenous people have endured since European colonisation.

What a massive difference to meaning is made by the order in which those few words appear in the sentence.

World Youth Day

2008-07-16T13:05:00.002+10:00

Crowds at the official opening of World Youth Day. From: www.news.com.au

Had anyone reading this blog heard of World Youth Day before about a month ago? Have the British residents amongst you heard of it at all? I don't know whether I've been sleeping under a rock for the last 32 years or whether an almighty fuss is suddenly being made of it in Australia right now but I hadn't a clue what it was until a few weeks back.

For those of you who are still clueless, it's a massive meeting of young Catholics. It happens about once every three years and it's an international event. Despite the name, "World Youth Day", it actually happens over about five days. (I always was sceptical about the story of creation happening in seven days and now I suspect it was actually thirty-five, which is still quite impressive.)

Basically hundreds of thousands of these young Catholics congregate on a city (in this case Sydney) and party and pray for a few days. That seems like such a strange combination of words to place in one sentence: Catholics, party, pray.

I will probably be flamed for this but I am astounded at the number of enthusiastic young devotees being portrayed on the news (every day). I always thought of Catholicism as the kind of religion that kids were dragged into (often literally and hungover) and given names like Mary and Bernadette and Joseph, because their parents were Catholics and their parents' parents were Catholic and no one ever questioned it. Most of the Catholics I have known stopped practising as soon as they left home, and have felt forever guilty about it, and everything else for that matter. It seems like such an old-fashioned religion somehow and I suppose I imagine young folk getting more into the relatively modern protestant denominations of Christianity, such as Pentecostalism (HillSong certainly seems popular in Australia) or not bothering at all.

World Youth Day is expecting 125,000 international visitors. The opening mass at Darling Harbour yesterday attracted over 150,000 pilgrims and the papal mass on Sunday is expected to address a congregation of half a million. According to the World Youth Day website it is the biggest event Australia has ever hosted, attracting more overseas visitors than even the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and providing Pope Benedict XVI's first ever visit to Australia. The television coverage is greater than the Tour de France and the Olympics combined, although I suppose there isn't too much to report on the Olympics at this stage. Still, I am finding the extent of the coverage of an event I had never even heard of before quite bizarre. Images flash on the screen of young people wearing their national colours and World Youth Day t-shirts shouting, singing, being generally rowdy and happy, fireworks and pop concerts, not the sort of things I ever associated with the stuffy old Roman Catholics.

It's all been a bit of an education to me really. Catholicism can be cool (in a Guy Sebastian kind of a way) and Catholic kids know how to party (as long as it all wraps up by 10pm and involves a few prayers here and there). Sydney must be a crazy place right now.

Oh, and just for the record, I think priests should be allowed to be gay. Unless they're Catholic, in which case they can be gay but celibate, merely because Roman Catholic priestly sex is against the rules.

One last thing, as we're on the subject of religion, isn't this a brilliant headline:

Mormons make missionary position clear

I love it! The best thing is, it's about young (male) mormon missionaries posing semi-naked for a calendar. Brilliant.

Eating soup with a teaspoon

2008-06-25T14:11:00.002+10:00

Today at work I had to eat my soup with a teaspoon.

It was a frustrating experience. It occurred because of a lack of resources (i.e. normal-sized spoons). The teaspoon was an inadequate alternative, particularly because some of the vegetables in my soup were bigger than teaspoon-size. Whilst I achieved my goal of consuming my soup, it was a lengthy experience and my enjoyment was diminished.

Eventually I found a cheap, plastic spoon in my desk drawer. This wasn't as shiny and smooth as the teaspoon but at least it allowed me to get a reasonable mouthful of soup.

I can see this might prove to be a useful analogy some day.

While my ukelele gently weeps

2008-06-18T18:05:00.006+10:00

I don't usually do two posts in one day but this was just too good to ignore.

Driving home, listening to Triple J, the presenter announced a much requested repeat of a hawaiian chap playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps .... on the ukelele! With visions in my mind of George Fornby singing about cleaning windows, I listened on. What I heard amazed me. This guy, known as the Hawaiian Ukelele Wizard but whose real name is Jake Shimabukuro, has a wonderful talent and can make the ukelele take on a whole load of other sounds, such as flamenco and classical guitar. Apparently Hawaiians learn to play the ukelele at school in the same way that Brits and Aussies learn to play the recorder. Most then move onto the guitar but Shimabukuro stuck with the ukelele and made it his own.

Here is a YouTube movie of him performing While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Stay with it, the break about 2.45 minutes in is fantastic and the low res movie can barely keep up with his lightening fast hands. There is a higher resolution movie of him playing this in concert but it's 8 minutes long so I'll let you go and check it out yourself if you're interested. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=3mEqEe-PIC8&feature=related)

It's also worth checking out his website and YouTube site. He has some great original tracks (e.g. Let's Dance) and his version of Ava Maria is just beautiful (navigate to the Gently Weeps album in his audio player). I think I know what my next CD purchase is going to be.

Chunky soup

2008-06-18T15:26:00.003+10:00

What's with all the chunky fancy soup these days?

Ever just fancy eating something from your past? By that I don't mean a 10 year old beef and tomato Pot Noodle, rather something that you used to eat and perhaps don't anymore? I caught a whiff of something in the office today and it reminded me of mulligatawny soup and I thought, "well there's a thing I haven't eaten for a while. I wouldn't mind a bit of that."

So off I trundled down to the supermarket and I found myself the soup aisle but no mulligatawny soup! There was beef and potato curry, even beef massaman soup and Malaysian laksa soup and lots of other fancy foreign ones but no straight-forward mulligatawny, nor, whilst we're on the subject, was there any good old traditional oxtail soup. There were all these "chunky", "hearty" soups but I didn't want an entire meal, I just wanted a nice can of Heinz mulligatawny soup.

Maybe it just never made it to Australia.

I'm happy to say that tomato soup did still seem to be available. That was my mainstay as a kid especially when I was sick (or poorly as we say in the north of England) and I tell you something, it made me feel better every time. Perhaps I should have got some to make me feel better about not having mulligatawny.

Dolphin Watching

2008-06-17T09:32:00.007+10:00

I've been quiet because since about 5th June I've been laid up with a bad back and have been unable to sit at the computer for more than five minutes. Here's a quick summary of events.

Some time during the week of 19th May: I ride my bike 7.5km to work, then home again. I get a sore back.

Some time during the week of 26th May: I ride my bike 7.5km to work, then home again. I get a sore back again. I decide that 4km to the beach might be okay but 7.5km to work is too much and that I won't ride my bike to work again until I have one with a smaller frame. Toby suggests that I actually have a virus that he's got and that is going around people at his work. It makes you sleepy and gives you a sore back. I point out that I'm not sleepy and that it's the second time I have had a sore back after riding my bike and that I want a new one.

Sat 31st May: About two hours after getting out of bed everything becomes too much for me and I have to go back to bed today. I spend the weekend drifting in and out of sleep. Toby tells me I have the virus.

Thurs 5th June: I do a first aid course all day at work, which mostly consists of bending over on knees performing CPR on a dummy with no legs and arms, and comforting and administering first aid to crazy imaginary drunken mountain bikers and aggitated electricians. My back twinges. Go to yoga. Tell instructor but do mostly the same stuff as the rest of the class. Back twinges even more on way home.

Fri 6th June: Back still twinging. Go to pilates. Tell physio back is twinging. Do lighter version of the exercises. Then drive to supermarket and over-load basket with morning tea goodies for the team. Drag heavy bags into work and back goes into spasm. Most painful. Spasms all day. Sitting at desk makes it worse. Go home that night and collapse on floor in painful teary heap. Stay there a while.

Sat 7th June: Woke up in pain. Toby gave me a massage. Spent most of the day flat on back on floor on top of my hot water bottle. Toby's mum did the housework for me. Toby did all the cooking.

Sun 8th June: Woke up in pain. Spent day lying around, stretching and massaging back (with a tennis ball). Was convinced I'd be all better in the morning.

Mon 9th June: Wasn't better. Was exhausted and frustrated. Long weekend but just more lying around and stretching for me. Did a teeny bit of gardening but couldn't spend too long doing anything. Went to yoga and this time concentrated on back problems and did lots of gentle stretching. Started to feel much better.

Tues 10th June: Took day off sick and went to physio then for short walk. Then stretched, slept and massage. Still hurt.

Wed 11th June: Went to work. Set myself one task then left when completed which took five hours. Back was seized up a bit by then. Went home and slept.

Thurs 12th June: Same as yesterday only I exchanged my pilates appointment for another physio session, which helped ease things up a bit more.

Fri 13th June: Local public holiday (Nambour Show Day a.k.a. Maroochy Shire Holiday). Went to Straddie for a weekend of camping. Packing was hard work. Back seized up after sitting in car but spent rest of day lying flat on back in sun at campsite. Started feeling much better.

Sat 14th June: Felt much better and even managed a lovely coastal walk with Toby, Scott and Lucie.

Which brings me to the point of my post. On this walk we saw a pod of about thirty or forty dolphins surfing the (rather large) waves, jumping, spinning and all in all just having a jolly good time. It was such a beautiful sight and kept us entertained for a good 10-15 minutes before the dolphins started to head back out to sea again. Toby took some photos but I haven't looked at them yet so don't know if they'd be any good. The next day we spotted plumes from two whales obviously travelling up the coast together. Apparently loads of whales had been spotted that day.

My back still gets a little bit sore after sitting at my desk but it feels so good to be mobile again.

From a seed grows a tiny green thing

2008-05-31T20:02:00.003+10:00

Toby has just reminded me that I should update you on my lovely seeds.

Last week I sowed some aubergine/eggplant, pepper/capsicum and broccoletti. I can only imagine the latter is a bit of a Malcolm, somewhere between a broccoli and a broccolini; a little broccoli but not a tiny one.

My little babies are starting to grow. I have a few red lettuce, one or two green lettuce and loads of broccoletti, keen little devils that they are. Oh and one pepper plant. No sign of the baby carrots yet though, lazy mites.

None of the seedlings look anything like their adult relations yet. In fact they all look remarkably similar. I do hope they're not weeds. Anyway, they're still tiny. A bit like human babies, I suppose they all look the same. Can't wait until they're big enough to transplant to the ground and make room for more.

Is geoengineering a viable solution to climate change?

2008-05-29T09:07:00.003+10:00

With climate change a real and increasing threat, scientists are coming up with more and more bizarre methods of prevention or reversal. Amongst those cited in an article in The Guardian are

putting 1.9 million tonnes of cooling sulphur into the atmosphere, via ballooons;
placing iron particles in the ocean to increase carbon-absorbing phytoplankton, a form of marine carbon sequestration;
using large tubes which will move vertically with waves and pump cooler water and nutrients to the ocean's surface and encourage the growth of phytoplankton;
using giant platforms to re-ice the Arctic by spraying salty water onto ice, thereby increasing its thickness and preventing an onslaught of fresh water when the ice melts in summer, in effect maintaining the threatened Gulf Stream;
placing light refractors between the earth and the sun to reflect some of the sun's rays back into space. (Far out!)

Freaky? I think so. But perhaps not as freaky as the alternative. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. For the full story see http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/29/greentech.geoengineering

Whilst we're on the subject of climate change, one of my favourite topics has raised its head again: the environmental impact of aviation, that is can flying ever be "green"? The London Science Museum is housing an exhibition titled "Does flying cost the Earth?" until November. It looks at the effect flight has on climate change and the new technologies being considered by the aviation industry in an attempt to green up aeroplanes and keep the industry going in a world increasingly concerned by CO2 emissions. I wish I could go. This is one of the things I miss about London. Would someone please go on my behalf and report back?

Coincidentally, perhaps, next week is World Environment Day and the University is hosting the Sunshine Coast World Environment Day festival this Saturday. I had intended to be really green and go along on my bike but a couple of things are putting me off. Firstly, I have recently been suffering from a really sore back following lengthy bike rides, which is a bit annoying as I have been quite enjoying my rides to work. Secondly, the weather is going to be rubbish, otherwise I'd walk. It's only 7.5 km which would be quite pleasant on a nice day. On a rotten minging day, however, it would be very unpleasant so I'll either take the bus or, more likely, drive. If I do make it there, and it's interesting, I shall endeavour to report back next week.

Climate change in Google Earth

2008-05-27T12:04:00.007+10:00

Climate Change In Our World is a new Google Earth layer developed by the Met Office Hadley Centre demonstrating current climate change predictions. It's an excellent tool for communicating what climate change can (and will) do to our world and I encourage all of you with Google Earth installed to download the layer.

There is a time line across the top, which you can either slide to a particular year to see what the temperature increase would be, or which you can play as an animation, watching the temperature rise as time goes by. The timeline goes from 1999 to 2099. There is a second animation which flies you around the earth to areas of specific interest, where you can click on an icon and read stories of how climate change is already impacting the world.

Fly over to the Artic Circle and watch the temperature increase at an astonishing rate. By 2018 it is approximately 8 or 9 degrees (celsius) warmer than in 1999; by 2043 it is around 12°C warmer and by the end of the animation in 2099 it has increased by an incredible 18°C. The data used to produce the layer are based upon a mid-range IPCC emissions scenario.

A second Climate Change In Our World Google Earth layer has been produced by the British Antartic Survey and demonstrates the retreat of the Antartic ice shelves over the past 50 years.

These are great educational tools for both adults and kids with links to resources offering further information and practical advice.

Incidentally, I took this opportunity to update my version of Google Earth and installed the latest beta (4.3). It's great. It has its own browser so any links you click on open in the Google Earth window and it comes with lots of really interesting layers. Those that I have found of interest in the few moments I have spent madly clicking around are the National Geographic Magazine layer (under Gallery) and The Earth from Above with GoodPlanet (under Global Awareness) but there are loads of others.

After rediscovering my love of Google Earth I downloaded another layer which demonstrates World Oil Consumption using data from the CIA World Factbook. Fascinating. Next, I think I shall play with rising sea levels. I mean that from a purely educational Google Earth perspective, not from an evil-world-domination-I-like-to-think-I-am-God perspective.

Sowing the seeds of love

2008-05-24T09:00:00.003+10:00

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

I have sown some seeds. Actual physical seeds, not metaphorical ones, you understand.

I wanted to share this with you all because it's quite exciting. I sowed them last Sunday and placed them in a little seed box thingy which was left at the house by the last owners. I am sure there is a technical gardening term for the seed box thingy but I don't know it as I am a novice gardener.

I placed a few (between two and four because one was too tricky) in each little pot thing and there were about eight of these per small plastic tray. Again, I'm lacking the technical terms here but bear with me. I have two trays of green lettuce, two trays of red lettuce and two trays of baby carrots (yum! baby carrots).

I lovingly watered them every day for the first three days and then I panicked that I was drowning them and haven't watered them since Wednesday. On Thursday night it poured and we were a bit concerned about our other vegetables but my babies... well embryos I suppose... are protected in their little seed box thingy because it has a lid.

The purpose of these seeds is manifold.

Firstly, I'm sick of supermarket vegetables and Toby and I are trying to "go organic". The supermarket fresh produce can be very hit and miss but often it's over-sized and under-flavoured, covered in pesticides and been in cold storage for a few months.

Secondly, food such as lettuce seems to go mushy before we get to finish them. You have to go shopping fairly regularly to always have a fresh supply. It's great to be able to just pop into the garden and pick only the amount of lettuce leaves we need for that meal.

Thirdly, some veg, such as baby carrots, are a bit expensive for what they are.

So we're hoping to have a constant, fresh supply of seasonable vegetables, gain comfort from knowing exactly where they've come from and how they were grown, save a bit of money, and do something practical with our garden. I'm hoping to border our garden beds with red and green lettuce... I think it'll look quite pretty.

I'll let you know how the seeds get on. I'm anxiously awaiting my first sign of green. I plan to plant some more in a few weeks once these babies have graduated to the garden bed. This should ensure a continuous supply of goodies, providing my green thumb develops, of course.

It wouldn't be fair of me to end this post without mentioning what a fantastic job Toby has done preparing and planting the couple of vegetable garden beds we already have. Can't wait to start harvesting.

What gets you through the bad times?

2008-05-23T13:13:00.006+10:00

I was chatting with a colleague this morning about the relative merits, or lack thereof, of retail therapy. He was surprised that neither his wife, another female colleague nor I actually enjoyed shopping that much. It's not that I dislike it but the thought of spending my holiday shopping in Singapore does not exactly fill me with glee. However, on occasion I have been known to splash out on a coveted item, or even indulge in the odd impulse buy in order to congratulate or commiserate myself.

One such occasion was when I split up with last boyf six years ago. I decided to buy a couple of CDs to cheer myself up, including the ever-popular but quite pricey Ministry of Sound Annual (Spring 2002 to be exact. I think the other one was the Karma Collection). To my disappointment I discovered that I couldn't bring myself to listen to either CD - it was just too depressing - so they sat on my desk untouched for a week or two until I started to feel a bit better about things. And then I played Disk 1 of The Annual and the first song couldn't have been better: DB Boulevard's Point of View, about a chick who's going through a really rubbish time but figures that if you change your perspective things really aren't that bad. It got me thinking. Who would expect a dance tune to have such a deep and meaningful message? But it really did make me feel better. It's a nice tune too with a pretty cool video so I thought I'd share it with you. Listen to it when you're feeling down and see if it makes you feel better.

To be sure this girl's situation was far worse than mine. My ex-boyf was a lovely chap but, as time has told, not my lobster. And at least I still had a job, and money, and a nice flat (and lovely flat-mate) and lived in a city where I didn't need a car. (I particularly love the "We have split up" line. Straight to the point; none of this flowery, pathetic woe-is-me poetry.)

I don't have a cent!
Will I pay my rent?
And even my car doesn't work.
Me and my man, he's the one
To die for; we have split up!

Can't you see, life's easy
If you consider things
From another point of view
In another way
From another point of view

I see life and lights
All the colours of the world
So beautiful won't you come with me
I've seen birds and trees
All the flowers of the world
So beautiful won't you come with me

Wise words indeed!

Cool remixes:

Techno-euphoria remix of the song to a boring slideshow with pictures of fast cars: DB Boulevard - Point Of View (DJ Lange Remix)
Awesome remix using the brilliant Gary Numan's "Cars": Gary Numan Verses Db Boulevard - Electric Point 2002... I love this one, but then I love "Cars". Funny, that would have been a more appropriate tune for the boring car video, don't you think?

Stressless Day, apparently

2008-05-21T10:58:00.004+10:00

You all have my most sincere apologies for being one of the tardiest bloggers ever to disgrace the ethernet with her presence. I guess I just let life get in the way but that is no excuse as this is supposed to be a document of my life. What can I say?

Apparently, today is "Stressless Day" at uni. We are approaching the end of semester and this can be a stressful time for staff and students so our very own Student Services team has organised their annual Stressless Day "to promote healthy mind, body and spirit." Activities include:

Free snacks
Group meditation
Comedy and music
Physical activities
Yoga

There is also a celebration next week organised by a group of students to commemorate World No Tobacco Day on 31st May. This includes free breakfast snacks, games, prizes, information and giveaways. How fantastic? It seems you can organise a commemorative day for pretty much anything these days, which prompted my colleagues and I to ponder which celebratory days we might organise and what they may consist of.

For example, Geordie Day might consist of:

Fashion show of Ben Sherman shirts for blokes; short skirts, high heels and strappy tops for the lasses. Although if it's a warm day, as it usually is here on the Sunshine Coast, the lads will probably do away with their shirts and wander around semi-naked.
"Learn Geordie" language workshops.
Newcastle Brown Ale tasting sessions.
Free ham and pease-pudding sarnies on stotty bread.
Singalonga Geordie folk songs, including classics such as "Fog on the Tyne", "The Lambton Worm" and "The Blaydon Races".
Meet a famous Geordie featuring Robson Green, Sting, Jimmy Nail and everyone's favourite, Donna Air.
Free screenings of selected episodes of Byker Grove, When the Boat Comes In and The Likely Lads.
Geordie pub quiz.

I wish I'd remembered this morning that it was supposed be Stressless Day because I ended up stressing more. I'd decided to start riding my bike to work again, and I'd told Toby that he could take my car. He's experimenting with the idea of getting rid of his car and has been riding his bike to the bus stop for a couple of weeks. I was quite excited about it until I got into the garage about 10 minutes later than intended and discovered someone with a big head had worn my helmet. After faffing with the strap for five minutes to get it right again, I ventured out onto the drive and prepared for my journey. I climbed onto my bike but something wasn't quite right. I couldn't easily sit on it. How strange. Further investigation indicated that someone with long legs had been riding my bike and had put the seat up too high for me to ride.

Feeling quite deflated and a little bit annoyed, not least because my bike tools were right in the bottom of my bag, I took my bag off the back of my bike (I strap it to a tray on my bike so I can carry more stuff and not get a sweaty back) and pulled everything out of it. After a few minutes of grappling with the bolt (how much do I wish I had a quick-release seat?) and bashing my knuckles up I decided to phone Toby (who'd already left for work in my car some time prior) and let him know how angry and frustrated I was.

ME: You could have told me that you'd used my bike and raised the seat!

TOBY: Oh no! I'm so sorry!

ME: I don't mind people using my bike but I wish they'd put it back the way they found it.

TOBY: Yes, I realise that's annoying. I'm sorry.

ME: I'm already late for work and I can't get the bloody nut undone. Is there a trick to it?

TOBY: What are you using? If you're using the wrong tool you'll ruin the bolt and then you'll never get it off?

ME: Well what did you use?

TOBY: A switcher.

ME: What's a switcher?

TOBY: It's a brown metal spanner-like thing the length of your forearm.

ME: Where is it?

TOBY: If you go into the garage...

ME: [huff puff... mutter mutter] Right. Great. So now I've got to faff around looking for my keys to get back into the garage.... [mutter... steam from ears]

... PAUSE ...

ME: Right I'm in the garage. Where is it?

TOBY: On the floor there's a toolbox.

ME: Where on the floor?

TOBY: It's just on the floor. You should be able to see it as soon as you walk in.

ME: Well, I can't. Can you be more specific? It's a pretty big room.

TOBY: It's black with yellow fasteners.

ME: You mean the huge camping box [which is on the garage floor and is black with yellow fasteners... but couldn't possibly be what you are referring to as a 'toolbox', could it?]

TOBY: No! It's a toolbox.

ME: Well, I can't see it!!! Where is it in relation to your car?

TOBY: My car? Oh sorry... I meant the shed!

ME: !!!!!!! [steam]

And so it went on. After walking right around the outside of the house and locating the toolbox in the shed but not finding the switcher in the described location, Toby had me looking first on the bench in the shed (not there), then on the bench in the laundry, which required walking back around to the front of the house and letting myself back in again only to find it wasn't there either. I eventually found the switcher in the toolbox, not on top as specified but under some other gear, and discovered that it's actually about 12cm long and is metal with some rust (not brown metal the length of my fore-arm).

I then spent quite a while frustratedly trying to undo first the nut, then the bolt with said switcher and bruised and bloodied my knuckles even further. Thoughts of having to catch the bus were flying through my mind, which frustrated me as it meant changing and re-packing my bag, plus not getting any exercise for the day. I just couldn't figure out how Toby had done it. No matter how I tried there didn't seem to be enough space to get the switcher onto the nut and then turn it. I felt like a useless girl.

I called him back to whinge and make him feel guilty.

And then the bright spark decided there was an even better tool I could use. Back to the shed I went and this time I was instructed to pull out a ratchet kit, infinitely easier to find and the whole thing was resolved in less than five minute. Five minutes!! I could have done it all in five minutes. No faffing around getting my toolkit from the bottom of my bag, or pulling out my handbag to get to my keys, or looking in numerous locations for some enigmatic tool which looks nothing like the picture I had of it in my mind's eye, or bashing up my knuckles and scratching my wedding ring. Just put the bike down, straight round the back and into the shed, find the ratchet kit on the shelf, back to the front, fix up the seat, put the ratchet kit away and off you go. How I wish that was how it had happened. It just goes to show how important good communication is.

At least next time I'll know which tool to use and I'll be able to fix it up straight away without bothering Toby.

As if there'll be a next time. I don't think Toby will dare leave my bike incorrectly adjusted after the hard time I gave him this morning.

And by the way, I still want a bike with a quick-release seat. And suspension. And a smaller frame. I'm hoping at least one of these things will prevent my bum getting as sore as it was on the ride today.

Incidentally, my knuckles are so sore and bruised that I can't get my rings off and I'm paranoid that I left without locking the laundry door but apart from that the day is definitely improving.

A Dad's-eye view: Weddings

2008-04-27T07:42:00.001+10:00

Conversation with my dad regarding my cousin's recent wedding:

ME: And what was Wendy [the bride] wearing?

DAD: A white dress.

Cool slideshow feature: Tasmania

2008-04-17T11:40:00.005+10:00

I have just discovered a cool feature of Google Photos (Picasa) and that is the ability to create slideshows of your albums to embed in a web page or blog post. This differs from the permanent slideshow that I have in my toolbar to the right as I can only display one album at a time here, it's small and you can't view captions. With the Google Photos Slideshow I can choose the size and create a new slideshow every time I post a new album. You can view captions by clicking on the speech bubble. (If you can't see speech bubble and other controls just hover your mouse over the slideshow.)

Of course you can always go and run the full size slideshow yourself by clicking on the 'My photo gallery' link to the right but a cool new toy is a cool new toy and it just begs to be played with. So here is the first of what could be many embedded albums: Honeymoon in Tasmania.

Me, the discerning bride

2008-04-16T21:46:00.006+10:00

Yes, more wedding stuff for your delectation. Many of you will remember my tendancy to drag my birthdays out for as long as possible and now I'm doing the same with our wedding. I don't do it with birthdays any more though; I'm too old for that now.

This time it's The Discerning Bride magazine feature that came out a few months ago. I have finally got around to scanning it and getting it online (after scanning it as PDF and emailing it around, photocopying it and sticking in the post to my grandparents, and handing it around to everyone who'd bother to look at it).

From Our Wedding

In further exciting wedding news (I am obsessed; I have no life) we are now in possession of over 1000 professional digital images of our wedding and in a few weeks we should have our wedding album. I will probably struggle to show this to most of you but I do have digital images of the layout so I may well post that at some point too.

Big Freeze

2008-04-09T13:10:00.006+10:00

So you think you're frozen back in the Old Dart* what with your snow and that? That's nothing! Check out this cool clip where 200 people froze themselves in time at exactly the same moment for five minutes in New York's Grand Central Station.

For more information see ImprovEverywhere.com

* The Old Dart: An Aussie reference to Britain (I'd never heard of it either), the origin of which is a corruption of "dirt", as in the old dirt, meaning the old country.

Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/txt/s1837062.htm
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-old1.htm

To the moon and back

2008-04-08T13:45:00.007+10:00

Wow! What a trip! I LOVE TASMANIA!!! We had a fantastic time and it's a beautiful place. I recommend it to anyone, particularly those people who live in Australia and have little excuse for not having been, but also to those who may be planning a trip Ozwards and may not have considered including Tassie in their itinerary.

I have uploaded our photographs to Picasa and I'm in the process of adding comments to each one. I may summarise them in a post some day but to expedite getting it out there I will leave it at that for now, rather than giving you a lengthy travel journal straight up. I will be continuing to add comments and probably a few more maps, especially for those of you who may be thinking of going and are keen on doing some walking whilst there.

There is so much that we didn't get to see or do, surprising considering the size of the place. I can't understand how people can "do" the whole place in three or four weeks; they really wouldn't be doing it justice. We stayed on the Tasman Peninsular for seven days and that was nowhere near enough just for that one little section. It's definitely on our list of places for a second visit.

Thank you so much to all of the friends who helped make this trip possible. Thanks to Lucie, Scott, James, Melissa, Jillian, Jimbo, Mark, Mindi, Guy, Libbette, Jon, Megan, Pete and Daneale.

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/lindseybuckle/HoneymoonInTasmania

Quote (and word) of the day

2008-03-12T12:53:00.004+10:00

I wanted to share with you this great quote I read last night in the novel Fear of Flying by Erica Jong:

There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.

How true.

I haven't got much else to say really. I just blogged for a chat and because I liked that quote. It's a bit like when you phone a friend for no particular reason but just to hear their voice, say "hi" and have a chat. I don't really do that any more, which is a bit sad really.

Another interesting thing I learnt today is the meaning of the word "nonce". I don't know what I thought it meant but I didn't think it meant any of the definitions I found. I looked it up because it fell into a sentence I was reading at work, about web site authentication. The sentence was thus:

The server sends a nonce to be used in creating a digest of the user's password.

A what? I thought. Now, I think I thought a nonce was a silly person and I did wonder why the server would send a silly person to the browser so I looked it up and this is what I found:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaNonce may refer to:
Cryptographic nonce, a number or bit string used only once in security engineering
Nonce (slang), a sex offender or child sexual abuser
Nonce word, a word used to meet a need that is not expected to recur
The Nonce, a rap duo

Well, I never. Sex offender, indeed. I will never call anyone a nonce again. Not sure I ever did anyway but I certainly won't in future. (Obviously, in terms of the sentence above it means the first definition. I am surprised that it can also mean sex offender but am in no way implying that a web server sends a sex offender to the browser. That would be really, really creepy.)

Dictionary.com also claims it means:

the present, or immediate, occasion or purpose (usually used in the phrase for the nonce).

So there you go. And that's that from this rather random post.

The trouble with blogging

2008-03-11T12:21:00.004+10:00

The trouble with blogging is that you can't always say what you want to say, and what you do say you worry about.

This applies in all forms of writing and journalism, and I guess it applies to comedians too. In fact sometimes I wish I was a comedian rather than a writer. Yes, I consider myself a writer. I have a number of writing projects on the go other than this blog, and one day I'd like to do something other than just write my blog on occasion. I'd really like to make a career of it. This is really just practice.

But back to why I'd rather be a comedian. Anything goes in comedy and everyone knows that it's supposed to be funny. Granted, it isn't always; sometimes it's just mean. But people know what to expect from comedians. Friends and family know that anything they say or do can and will be used against them, in the form of comedic art. I suppose, too, that not many people will be present at a comedian's every show. Take, for example, the popular mother-in-law jokes comedians seem to love. Do you suppose that they tell those jokes when said mother-in-law is in the audience? Or perhaps said mother-in-law didn't really do or say the things the comedian claims; it's all artistic license and she couldn't possibly be offended by that. But, you get my drift.

The trouble with writing is that no one really knows whether you're being literal or humourous, and anyone can pretty much read anything you publish into the public arena. You can't publish a blog post and say "oooh... hope the boss isn't in tonight".

My writing is based on real life. Things in my life influence what I write. Sometimes I exaggerate; sometimes I bring a number of different things together with a common theme. Always I worry about whether the people I mention, or even people I don't mention but who may recognise aspects of themselves in my writing, will be offended by what I write. Much of it is tongue-in-cheek and intended to entertain, not offend, but you just never know. So far I've had no complaints but I have had indirect comments (i.e. via Toby, for example) by acquaintances who think certain other acquaintances mentioned in my writing may be offended by what I've said.

Indeed I have left out many an amusing story from this blog because of concern that others involved may be upset. Right now I am busting to tell you a funny story about a conversation regarding cooking breakfast with one saucepan, possibly only funny because of my perception of the conversation. I'm aware that the other participant of the conversation may have a different, un-funny view of it and may think I am making fun of them so I have refrained from telling my side of it. Unless, of course, that person reads this and gives me their permission to tell the story.

To all of you reading now I say writing is my passion. I hope you are entertained by it. Should you one day find yourself, something you have said or done, or perhaps just a caricature of yourself, parodied, or indeed literally represented within this blog, or any other work of mine, please do not be offended. Just know that you are all fair game.

Generous listening

2008-03-06T14:21:00.009+10:00

This morning I endured one of the most excruciating one and a half hours of my life in the form of an immensely boring department meeting, during which I was trying my very best to "listen generously".

During the meeting a young colleague, whose wife has recently had a baby, commented that the start of semester had gone very smoothly for IT Services. Eventually, after a lengthy soliloquy, the IT Director replied that she was pleased that this young chap had made such a comment, upon which she mentioned his name. I do not think that her comment warranted a response, yet when he failed to do so she brought it to everyone's attention, asked if he was off in "babyland" and told us all that we must be aware of the difference between "generous listening" and "stingy listening".

An hour and a half later I had decided that those who wish others to "listen generously" should also speak generously, which in fact means the opposite of how it sounds, that is to speak succinctly. Such speakers should remain aware of the time that these generous listeners are investing in their listening, place the appropriate value on that time and respect it accordingly. As such, I have combined my own guide to public speaking, or speaking during meetings.

Do not use more words than is necessary to convey your point.
Most writers understand this one. However, it is a little more difficult to put into practise during speech as you can't really edit your words after you've said them. Perhaps just put a little more thought into what you wish to say before you've said it.
Do not give your listeners more information than they need.
Be aware of who your listeners are and what their viewpoints and roles are. Keep this in mind when deciding which information to impart to them. Time is precious and they have important jobs to do, and if you happen to be their manager then you really want them to do those jobs. So don't waste their time by telling them little side stories about the politics of your last board meeting. Don't tell them about all the effort you've put in to get a particular result; they expect this from you anyway. They only need to know the facts.
Do give them the opportunity to find out more information if they are interested.
This might be in the form of questions following your presentation or speech. In a large group, however, this might only interest a small number of your audience. Be respectful of the others, particularly if they are the majority. This is especially pertinent if the meeting is a mandatory one and the attendants are not necessarily there by choice. If you are presenting a document, don't read it to your listeners. Give them the gist (a verbal executive summary) and make the document available to them to read in their own time.
Don't talk about all the things that could have or would have happened; just talk about what has or will happen.
Whilst I'm aware of the potential irony here, this is really just another way of saying points 1 and 2 above but with a specific example.
Don't use a long word if a short one says the same thing.
Long words and flowery language do not make you sound clever, just really boring. This makes it much harder for people to listen generously.
Do not interrupt the main speaker, even if you are his superior.
Interruptions and interjections make the speaker's speech longer, which in turn makes it more difficult for people to listen to. If the speaker makes a mistake with a relevant detail, then correct him in a non-condescending tone. Do not interject just because you like the sound of your own voice and think the listeners might too, and do not continuously argue an irrelevant point with him just because you hate to be wrong and think he should respect his superiors.
Assign approximate portions of time to each of your points before you start speaking.
Before the meeting decide what it is that you wish to talk about. Then prioritise each item. Take the length of time that you will have to talk, being mindful of possible interruptions and divide it proportionately amongst your items, allowing more time for the higher priority items.

For example, let's say you have four items you wish to discuss during a one hour meeting, one of uber-importance and three of lesser but equal importance. You know the Director will also want to speak for a short while, and each team leader will give an update. Let's assume this leaves you with approximately 35 minutes. Take away between 5 and 10 for interruptions and corrections from the Director, and questions from those of your listeners who are actually listening generously. You have 25-30 minutes. You could speak for 10-15 minutes on your uber-important item and approximately 5 minutes each on of your remaining items.

Do not present your listeners with a document consisting of approximately 18 items (although the exact number is unknown to them) and then proceed to spend 6 minutes on the first item, no matter how uninteresting or irrelevant. This will only serve to fill them with despair and they will stop listening generously in order to plan their escape from the room.
Spreadsheets and Word Documents are not interesting material for display on a projector.
This applies even if the spreadsheet has coloured lines.

If anyone has any further suggestions, please leave a comment.

Movie: Fool's Gold

2008-03-05T11:52:00.003+10:00

Last night I went to see Fool's Gold, starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. I haven't been feeling too well lately and Toby was away in Brisbane, so when a friend said she was going to see it and invited me along I decided that rather than stay at home on my own feeling sorry for myself and watching crap TV, I would go. This film has had terrible reviews. Awful. I didn't read any of them before I went but I did watch the trailer. I thought it looked worth the $8.50 on cheap-arse Tuesday.

Seriously though, what do these critics expect? Matthew "shirt-off" McConaughey, Kate "rom-com" Hudson and a movie (clearly in the "chick flick" genre) about treasure hunters. I was expecting nothing but pure unadulterated cheesy entertainment and escapism. And that's exactly what I got. Was it predictable? Yes. Was it believable? Not in the slightest. Were the actors convincing? Not really. Did any of that matter? Absolutely not.

So here's the thing: Dumb-blonde action-man Matthew and bookish-but-outdoorsy Kate are married but about to get divorced because Kate is sick of Matt getting into debt for his obsession with treasure hunting. Turns out though that he's not particularly good at finding treasure without Kate because he's stupid and she's clever. So, when he finds a clue she agrees to have one last look around, using her millionaire employer, Donald Sutherland's equipment. There's a bit more to it than that. Obviously you have to have the obligatory bad-guy and the mentor-turned-rival, token gays and some other bits and pieces not really worth mentioning. The basic gist is there is action, a bit of violence, wonderful scenery (the highlight for me, especially the underwater stuff) and Matthew McConaughey looking hot with no shirt on and being all tough and brave.

Matthew McConaughy: Hot
Kate Hudson: Gorgeous
Alexis whatsherface: Cute and annoying
Donald Sutherland: Donald Sutherland. 'Nuff said; he's totally wasted in this film. What is he even doing here?
Ray Winstone: Hmm... I do like Ray but I prefer him as a cheeky east-end likely lad. I didn't find his American accent particularly convincing but who cares?
Acting: Not great, but who cares?
Direction: Was there any?
Script: Pretty bad, a bit cheesy.
Laughs: a few, mainly of the slap-stick variety rather than the intellectual witty sort.
Cinematography: lovely.; beautiful underwater scenes which made me want to jump right on a plane to some remote island on the Great Barrier Reef and don a BCD and scuba tank.
Action: yes. Oh... the best bit which made me hold my breath and feel a bit sick was when Kate was stuck in a blow-hole. That chick has balls.

Would I recommend it? As long as you're not expecting anything too deep, yes, go see it. It's fun. Would I see it again? Probably not. Maybe in a few years I'll watch it on DVD. Would I have gone to see it if I'd known what I know now about it? Absolutely. It was perfect for my mind-set. Pure escapism. Is it good? Define good.

Some people think Matthew McConaughey looks like Toby. Well, I don't know about that but he is hot (have I mentioned that?) and obviously I think Toby is a bit of alright. Well, one scene in particular made me laugh as he was wandering around in baggy knee-length shorts, a bad t-shirt and no shoes. That is so Toby. And maybe Kate's character reminds me a bit of myself; quite happy reading books and writing and being all intellectual but can't really say no to a bit of adventure as long as there's a hot, strong and brave man to look after her. So perhaps for me, the escapism was all the better because I could actually imagine Toby and I one day cruising around the Carribean (or Great Barrier Reef) hunting for treasure together. One can dream. Just so long as I don't get stuck in a blow-hole.

Teenage Song

2008-02-27T11:38:00.004+10:00

Sorry for the recent lack of communication but things are a bit crazy in my life at the moment. Work has been busy, life is busy, and I haven't really thought of much to blog about. But this, I just had to share, it's so funny. For those of you reading this on email you may need to visit the site to watch this youtube movie but it's worth it.

Apology: Historic day for Australia

2008-02-13T14:16:00.004+10:00

This morning Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, formally apologised to the indigenous people of Australia for a policy referred to as the "stolen generations". In an emotive and carefully worded speech Rudd apologised on behalf of the government for past policies that resulted in generations of aboriginal children being taken from their families, homes and communities and forced to integrate into Western culture.

The policies started in the 1860s and continued until 1969 and involved primarily mixed-race children. They were based upon the belief that aboriginal society was dying out and that integrating the children into western society would be for their benefit. Later on it was thought that mixed race children were at risk of abuse and neglect within their communities and they were removed for their own saftey. It is clear from personal accounts that this wasn't always the case. One such account was published as a book called The Rabbit Proof Fence and a film of the same name was released in 2002. Some children never saw their parents again.

After ten years of the previous Liberal government, led by John Howard, refusing to formerly apologise, this is a momentous day in Australian history. The apology was broadcast outside Parliament House and watched by thousands. I felt quite emotional watching it as Rudd told a story of a woman remembering her childhood before the age of four, sitting around campfires and dancing, before being taken from her mother whom she never saw again. I imagined being taken from my parents as a child and how losing them was the subject of a recurring nightmare I had when I was young. I'd worry about being abandoned and I'd dream that I'd come downstairs for comfort after waking from a bad dream. I'd see my parents sitting on the settee watching television. When I walked around the front of the settee though, I'd realise they weren't my parents. They looked like them but they had different faces. It was terrifying. Then I'd realise they were wearing masks and rip them off but they'd still have different faces underneath. Then I'd realise that the new faces were also masks and so it went on until I woke up.

Imagine living that nightmare. Okay, so maybe the authorities didn't dress up as aboriginal parents and start ripping off their own faces but the feeling that I felt, of not knowing where my parents were and wanting nothing more than to find them, would have been very much how those children would have felt. I can still remember the way that dream made me feel and it makes me want to cry when I think of the 100,000 children being taken from their homes to a completely different culture.

I think it's great that the Prime Minister has apologised. I'm amazed at how many people are against it; 30% I read on one website. It means so much to the indigenous communities to have it said; does it really mean that much to the white Australians? Why do they so passionately believe that the government shouldn't be sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not saying I'm responsible but I'm sorry that it happened. The apology was more about understanding and acknowledgement of the hurt caused than about admitting responsibility. How can anyone not want to say to someone who was taken from their parents, "I understand that this must have hurt you and I'm so sorry this happened"? We say sorry to people who are bereaved but that doesn't mean we are admitting responsibility for the death of their loved one.

The opposition leader Brendan Nelson, possibly the most uncharismatic party leader in the world, also stood up and formally acknowledged and backed the apology and made a speech that I lost interest in. He went on about the problems in aboriginal communities today, problems of alcoholism, violence and drug abuse. Granted, these are problems that are rife and need to be dealt with but did they really need raking up on this day of celebration and reconciliation? Talk about killing the party. The crowd outside Parliament House turned their back on him, clearly unimpressed with the leader of a party that has had the opportunity for ten years to say sorry and yet pointedly refused. Nevertheless boring Brendan kept droning on. Seriously, the Liberals are never going to win an election with him as their leader.

If you want to read the apology, check out this website: http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/apology/text.htm

To read Australians' comments on the apology go to http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23600,23206140-2,00.html

Reasons I love working in IT - No. 1

2008-02-08T13:38:00.001+10:00

What was my colleague talking about during a meeting this morning when he said (and I quote):

I played with it again this morning and tried to get it up...

Cracked me up as it did a few of my less mature colleagues; or maybe just the ones who were paying attention.

The Shift: A movie about an evolutionary shift in the collective consciousness

2008-02-06T09:33:00.000+10:00

I stumbled across this film clip this morning on a blog called We The Change. I thought it was pretty cool and that it should be shared. Unfortunately it seems the film-makers are still raising funds to finish the movie so I don't know when it's likely to be released.

If you have some spare cash lying around and you're in the business of supporting independent film-makers then you can make a donation at The International Documentary Association website. Visit the film's website at The Shift Movie.

If you don't behave yourself I'll take you back to the shelter

2008-02-04T13:59:00.000+10:00

I don't think I've ever actually threatened the cats with a trip back to the shelter but Zadie has been behaving a tad strangely since her visit there on Friday.

I was taking both of them down for various things. Monty ceased his days as the full monty and had his balls taken care of. Zadie had the injection the shelter should have given her back in November before we took her home. They were both microchipped.

Having experienced the joys of taking Zades to the shelter previously, when she went to have her stitches taken out a few days after she came to live with us, I insisted that Toby stick around to help me get them in the car. Monty was no bother. We only have one pet carrier so we stuck him in a cardboard box. He seemed quite happy. Then we tried to get Zadie into the carrier. We couldn't put her in a box as she's incredibly vicious in her attempts to escape. I tried to coax her into the carrier head-first. Her legs went the other way. We both tried. She refused to cooperate. She's surprisingly strong. We took the top off the carrier and Toby placed her in (still with stiff-you-can't-make-me-go-there-legs) whilst I struggled to try and clip the top back down and re-attach the front, her pushing her head through the side, front, top, trying to make a bolt for it, whinging at us. It took so long that Monty started trying to escape from his box so we had to parcel-tape him in. Then he tried to escape through the view-port I had kindly cut out for him so we had to parcel-tape some cardboard over that.

Eventually, with both cats securely in their respective carriers, I began the 20 minute journey to the shelter. Monty's head and one paw were permanently squished as far as he could get them through the now-mini viewport (more like a breathe hole really). Zadie yowled and scratched and bit at the bars of her box and attempted to dig her way out.

Once we got there they were a bit better behaved. The lady that looked after Zadie for a while before she was our cat was pleased to see her and fussed over her, and they got to sit in a cage together. When I went back later that day to pick them up Zadie was sitting in the litter tray and had been all day, the vet told me (weird cat). Monty was drowsy after his operation but Zadie perked up as soon as the vet and I tried to get her in the carrier again. And again, it took two struggling adults quite a while to get one small (but strong) cat fastened in. Yowling and biting ensued for another 20 minutes on the way home.

Zadie didn't eat for two days after that. Monty didn't eat much either but that was expected after his anaesthetic. She has also been more affectionate than usual. I'm sure she thinks we took her there to show her what would happen if she was naughty. Monty slept most of Friday but had almost fully recovered by early Saturday morning, which he celebrated by jumping on my feet with his claws out at 5am! Nice! I think he's forgotten the whole thing ever happened now and in a week or so, when his wound is healed, he'll be able to come and go as he pleases during the day rather than being stuck in the house all the time.

One sad thing about the trip to the shelter was the discovery that two of Zadie's kittens were still there. I wouldn't change my cats for the world but it did feel a bit strange, given that we'd originally been going to take her and one of her kittens (but Monty insisted we take him instead). One of them, Morgan, was being desexed at the same time as Monty. He seemed so much younger than Monty although there are only a couple of weeks between them. He was incredibly cute, with Zadie's beautiful face and Monty's colouring, and over a kilogram lighter than Monty. I only wish I could have taken him home and fattened him up but two cats is enough.

It's been a while since I last checked in here, over a month in fact. I don't know about you but that surprised me. January has flown over and here we are, a little over a twelfth of the way through 2008 already. I must be getting old because time is speeding up. It's been a very social month, what with 30th birthdays, our house-warming party, a baby shower.

Toby and I realised yesterday that it was our "demiversary"*. Six months since our wedding day and we still haven't been on honeymoon or got our wedding album. But let's not speak of the have nots; at least the 'moon is now booked and the album is with the photographer so it's out of our hands. We celebrated by drinking beer with the neighbours.

We now have our top wedding cake tier back in our own freezer; it had been staying with Lucie since the period of homelessness. The fridge situation is still a little odd in our house, in that our fridge sits in the garage not doing anything, not even plugged in (and I'm a little concerned this is bad for a fridge) and some big, huge, old oddly-shaped thing that lived in our house before we did is in the kitchen keeping our food cold. It's deep and wide until you open the doors because the fridge and freezer are side-by-side. It has an ice and cold water dispenser which we never use (and which doesn't work when you do want to use it, such as at a party) and which merely serves to take up room in the freezer which seems to be missing a basket anyway and consequently is a bit of a rubbish freezer. It's good for parties though because you can load bags of ice into it. The point I'm trying to make is that the cake is now residing on a jaunty angle because it doesn't actually fit into the freezer.

I'm not sure how we're going to get along with decorating and choosing furniture if we can't even sort out our fridges. I spent yesterday cutting the nasty colours off green paint colour charts. White and pale green is about all I've narrowed it down to for our living area. I can't decide between mint and lime but I don't want a yellowy-tone. I'm not sure how pale to go and I've no idea whether to paint the dado green and the wall white or the wall green and the dado white. I attempted to calculate how much paint I'd need but that was too hard. I think I'll just paint the whole thing white and take it from there.

Interesting DIY note: polyfiller is called spakfiller over here.

* I'm not convinced this is a real word. I thought I'd made it up but a quick search on Google uncovers plenty of other people who believe the same thing. Dammit!

Forgotten Christmas spiders (and Happy New Year)

2008-01-02T20:51:00.000+10:00

Warning: if you're scared of spiders don't scroll down

I had to go back to work today. I happen to think that January 2nd is far too early in the year to be going to work. The year needs to settle a bit first. Like a fine wine it should be allowed time to breathe, it is not the sort of thing that should be rushed. But anyway, I digress, as usual.

New year's eve was quiet but fun. We went round to Scott and Lucie's house for a few drinks and some nibbles, plus a game of that entertaining Peruvian dice game, Perudo. Toby didn't drink much so at 11.45pm, with a slight break in the fairly consistent rain we'd been having most of the day, he suggested we drive up to Point Cartwright and see the new year in there. Which we did and which was rather nice, it having been the location of our wedding back in August. We took a bottle of nice sparkling wine, popped the cork and got merry on the bubbles. The wind was howling over the headland at a rate of about 30 knots and then the rain started again. As you can probably imagine it was nigh on horizontal. We sought shelter behind the big water tower. Eventually the rain subsided and we strolled down the hill to get out of the wind. Then the rain started again, really heavily and we ran back to the car through the forest track: partly because it was a short-cut and partly because it provided some shelter from the rain. We were soaked by the time we got back to Scott and Lucie's. And that was our new year's eve.

I realised that I forgot to share some Christmas highlight photos the other day. We went for a walk (another wet one) with Scott and Lucie through Mooloolah National Park and most of the tracks were spanned by massive bright yellow tough and sticky spider webs. Often we had to duck our heads (particularly Scott who is 6'7) to avoid getting tangled in them. In the centre of the webs were huge golden orb spiders. Here is a series of photographs I took:

A golden orb spider and its yellow web

A golden orb spider which has caught a cicada and wrapped it in webbing so there is no escape and is now devouring it.

Huge puddles (not shaped like Australia)

Hairy shoes: our shoes became covered in thick sticky mud and hairy twigs which proved to be incredibly difficult to remove and rather awkward to walk upon.

The biggest big spider we saw, and Scott's hand for perspective.

Toby and the biggest big spider we saw.

Reflecting on 2007 (plus highlights of my Christmas)

2007-12-31T18:11:00.000+10:00

Well, tis the final day of 2007, possibly the most exhausting and exciting year of my life, so far. Clearly, I can't let such an occasion pass without re-capping the events of the last 12 months and remarking, once more, upon my astonishment of how one family can fit so much in. But first, a pictorial review of the highlights of the past week of Christmas:

Crazy cats playing with their new toys...

...and each other

Possibly the smallest dog in the world...

Scott and Lucie's new puppy, Rocco

...and perhaps the largest

Brent's dog, Big Red (wonder how they came up with that name) with Lucie and Brent for a bit of a perspective on his size.

My first ever attempt at a Christmas cake

not bad either, if I do say so myself

Christmas at the beach in 25 knot winds

Toy aeroplane racing

New tablecloth from my Gran and Grandpa

which fits our giant patio table, and matches my beautiful Christmas centrepiece.

Cute cats

Lazy cats

Crazy weather and big surf

Riding bikes in the rain

And now for the year in review

This time last year Toby and I were spending the night at Catherine and John's house in Cramlington, Northumberland (UK). Catherine and I have known each other since we were four which makes her my oldest friend. That day, the final day of 2006, I became a godmother for the first time to Catherine and John's eight month old son, Joshua. Toby and I had been living together for almost four years and, after wondering if we'd ever wed, I'd decided that it didn't matter and that I didn't mind either way. We were planning to start looking for a house to buy when we returned to Australia in January. We'd just spent Christmas with my family, the first time for me since 2002 and the first time ever for Toby. My sister and her husband, Alan had just moved from their first flat into their first house and had been on an exciting holiday to America. A month or two earlier I had finally passed my driving test at the age of thirty.

The following day, the first day of 2007, whilst driving back to go for a brisk walk in Durham with my parents, Toby let it slip that he wanted to marry me but made it quite clear that this in no way constituted a proposal and that I was to wait until he'd mentioned it to my parents. And therein began the rollercoaster ride that was 2007. A week later we were engaged and beginning talks of the wedding. A few weeks into January we decided to get married that August. We had an engagement party on Australia Day, January 26th, which was the same day that my sister told us she was 6 weeks pregnant (and unfortunately wouldn't make the wedding).

To cut a long story short (because you can probably get the majority of the long story from previous posts) I now have a beautiful engagement ring which Toby and I designed together, we're married, I have my own car, two beautiful pussy-cats, a gorgeous 3 month old niece and finally, our own home. We're local celebrities and currently have a beautiful double-page spread in The Sunshine Coast Wedding Guide in the form of our photographer's 2008 advert. It seems I will soon become a godmother for the second time for my lovely niece, Lucy. And Toby is now working for a different local council (it's all a much of a muchness though as they are soon to amalgamate into a "super" council).

Wow! What can 2008 bring? Hopefully, it will bring more sleep, more stability, a honeymoon, and a trip home so I can become Lucy's godmother in person and finally get to give her a cuddle. And with that in mind, I'm off to end the crazy year of 2007 in the company of good friends, Scott and Lucie who have shared the craziness with us this year, having been heavily involved in the wedding, neighbours for a while, bought their first home together and recently got a cute King Charles spaniel puppy.

Christmas is coming, my brain is going splat...

2007-12-19T13:55:00.000+10:00

... please put a penny in a poor Geordie's hat.

In which I discuss the joys of summer ('cause I forgot last time), the stresses of Christmas shopping over the internet, and the cultural mashup that is the Aboriginal Zorba!

Christmas seems to have come way too soon after my dear husband and I ventured into the world of joint finances. Toby keeps telling me he's "not a presents person" which is his way of saying "I think you should do all the Christmas shopping". But I have not yet come to grips with the fact that my money is no longer my money and that I can't just spend what I damn well like on what I damn well want to. I don't know what to buy for half of his family, and I don't know what is a reasonable amount to spend, coupled with the fact that I'm still not sure how much we have to play with once our mortgage and credit card has been paid, having only had one such set of payments which, in the case of the credit card, wasn't a full month anyway.

The good things about summer include Christmas and Australia Day

Nonetheless, I am, as usual getting into the Christmas spirit, although I missed the IT Christmas party when I went to Cudge's 90th birthday party last week, and then I missed the IT ladies' lunch yesterday because of my splattered brain. Clean forgot, went home instead, will explain why in due course. See, I realised that after whinging about summer I forgot to tell you what is so good about it. Well, Christmas is one thing. Another thing is that we get all the non-public holiday days between Christmas and New Year off work for free which is a real chance to wind down. Christmas doesn't seem as mental here as it is in the UK which I didn't like at first but am now beginning to appreciate. The other great things about summer are Australia Day where everyone gets together to listen to the best tunes of the previous year, drink beer, have barbies and generally celebrate becoming a federation. Crikey, what will they be like if they ever get to be a republic? And also being able to swim in the ocean at any time of day and the water is warm. Lovely.

What isn't so wonderful is Christmas shopping over the internet and I'm never doing it again if I can avoid it. Usually I shop a couple of months before Christmas for some lightweight items which I then lovingly wrap, stick in a huge box and send to my Mam and Dad's house, posting by the end of November or beginning of December. I used to think about Christmas only once my birthday was done with so it took me a couple of years to get into this new routine but now I quite enjoy it as it helps me get into the Christmas spirit. Plus, once you hit thirty, birthdays are less significant. This year has been so crazily busy though, and what with being homeless and moving house all around the time I would usually be doing my Christmas shopping, plus having a new niece and a friend's wedding to shop for, well it just didn't happen.

Online shopping craziness...

"No worries," I thought, in the manner of a seasoned pommie-living-in-Australia, "I'll just buy everything on that wonderful super-information-highway known as the internet. I shall enter the web 2.0 world of easy, interactive online shopping from the comfort of your own armchair," which may well have been the case had I settled for buying everything on Amazon. And I might well have been able to do this if I'd spent a little more time in the gift section - what doesn't Amazon do these days? But I had it in my head that I had to go to Boots or Marks and Spencer for my grandmothers. So I set about visiting a number of online stores, browsing for ideas, and constructing a list of potential gifts for every member of my family, of which there are ten that I buy regular gifts for.

No Boots for Buckle

Boots was a write-off right away. I didn't even really bother such was the effort required to merely navigate my way around the site. But eventually I managed to compile a list of prezzies from a handful of other sites.

Early last Monday morning I set about purchasing them, thinking it would take about half an hour. After five minutes I decided I was tired and had a headache and would call in sick. I planned to finish my shopping, then go back to bed before having a nice relaxing day, getting myself better and finishing some of my jobs around the house. No such luck.

Firstly, thinkGeek wouldn't take me to the payment section but I called Toby and he managed to do it from work (which is about all he can do with his work internet connection). Then to Prezzy Box where I had a few problems getting my voucher code accepted. No big deal really as it as a free £5 off.

Marks and sparks of frustration

I then trudged along to Marks and Spencer and keyed in the URL for the present I'd chosen to my sister; added that to my basket. Then I keyed in the URL for my Nana's gift. Added that to my basket. Discovered my sister's present had disappeared from my basket. Then looked into the basket and Nana's present was gone too. Strange. Added them again. Same thing happened. It was like someone was following me around the shop taking everything from my basket as soon as I put it in there. Tried a number of different ways around this; made sure scripts were enabled; used IE instead of Firefox; only went to one URL at a time. I think eventually it was this latter one that worked. I had to key in the product ID instead of the entire URL but you know... it's so long since I started writing this post that I can't be certain. Either way, Nana's gift then wasn't available in her size so I had to look for something else; the site (or the internet; or perhaps both) was excruciatingly slow; I kept adding things that turned out to have lead times of 4-6 weeks or be out of stock.

Back to the front

By far the most annoying thing about the M&S site was the fact that when I added something to my basket, it threw me into my basket too, with no obvious way of getting back to where I was. When I clicked on Continue Shopping I ended up back on the home page. It's the web equivalent of picking up a pack of M&S knickers, and being forced on placing them into your basket to look at everything else in there (just in case you wanted to throw anything out or get more of something; I don't care what else is in there, thanks, I'm just thinking about the knickers right now!) before being frog-marched to the front of the shop. What the?
-But I was in lingerie, take me back to lingerie.
-Sorry, you'll have to find your own way back.
-Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

EVENTUALLY, after many hours, I made my purchases, only to discover that I would have to pay £3 per item for wrapping! There were eight items for three people!! I didn't even calculate it because it would have been painful before converting to Aussie dollars. So I sent them to my Mam for wrapping. Thanks Mam.

I felt a bit bad about that so I decided her gift would be wonderful. I'd already picked out a beautiful blouse from Debenhams so I got on with purchasing that. Or at least I would have done had Debenhams not refused to authorise my AmEx card when using Firefox. And my Mastercard. And both when using IE too. Aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh.

Next! Don't bother.

Over the road to Next to find an alternative blouse. Found a nice one, went to buy it, not ready for 2-3 weeks. Found another one; nice piece of jewellery to complement it; through to check-out. I asked if they could gift-wrap it for me but they pretended not to hear. It doesn't seem to be a service they offer. So I decided to send it to my sister to be wrapped. But then something in the terms and conditions suggested that I had to be a UK resident. I thought about trying it anyway, with Clare's address but then thought of the heartache I'd feel when it rejected my credit card because the delivery address didn't match the card address. By this point I was unbelievably stressed and tired and had spent about seven hours at the computer doing what I thought would be a thirty minute job. I gave up. I was so distressed.

Eventually Mam's present came from Amazon because I have absolutely no complaints about their service whatsoever. I've used them for years and, unlike the other shops, this is what their niche is and what they set out to do and boy do they do it well. If ever I have to do my Christmas shopping online again it's all coming from Amazon. It's just so disappointing that I couldn't get what I wanted.

To top it all off, Debenhams made two $2.35 transactions on my credit card which led to it being blocked. Still trying to sort that one out. Internet shopping is like drugs (but far less fun): just don't do it.

Well, it's been a crazy week and I don't know where my head's at. I'm really looking forward to a bit of a break... the 2007 reflection post will come soon I'm sure but this isn't it. I'm going to leave you all with merry Christmas wishes for your festive season. I hope you all have a great time and that Santa is very kind to you.

To close, I'd like to share with you this YouTube movie that's very popular over here at the moment. It's an Aboriginal dance group performing traditional dance moves (traditionally used to communicate and tell stories), with a few updated steps thrown in, to modern music, often incorporating music from other cultures. Here, they dance to the Zorba! Brilliant. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

Summer bloody summer

2007-12-13T09:47:00.000+10:00

The gist is back as I discuss summer and its various merits and downfalls, plus, of course, an update on my lovable pussies. Once more, I am enduring the season of mosquito bites and sleepless nights as I get used to another hot Aussie summer.... read on for a classic Buckle update, the likes of which you haven't seen for a while.

Ah summer! That glorious time of year when the pool covers come off, the bbq heats up and Queenslanders sit back and take life easy; when the humidity and mercury rise to almost unbearable heights, the sun beats down when it isn't obscured by rain clouds and storms, men start wearing shots and sandals for work and I get covered from head to toe in red, swollen, sore and itchy welts from the man-eating mozzies. Just as my immune system was getting used to those few and far between beach-side mozzies, I am now introducing my poor pommie skin to a new breed of mozzie; the silty-forest mozzy (or something). So far the skin appears not to like it much, but then I was subjected to a few mauls.

Little black cat ruins fly screen

Thing is, I shouldn't really have any bites because generally I'm quite careful. I went for a walk after work last night and covered my exposed skin in Mosi-guard. However, I did then go for a dip in the ocean which probably would have washed it all off. But I already had some of the bites, and I suspect I got them whilst sitting in our supposedly mozzie-proof covered-in outdoor patio. Actually I know I did because I killed one, and felt another one biting me. When we moved in I did notice a few gaps in the insect screen. I think these have got much worse as Monty (the little black one) likes to climb the screens in an attempt to chase moths and geckos on the other side. Stupid cat - doesn't he realise they're on the other side of the screen and he can't get them anyway? I now have approximately 8 bites on the left-hand side of my body, mainly my arm, including one incredibly sore one right on the tip of my elbow. My right side is better off, with only one or two. Somehow I managed to get one on the tip of my right elbow too. I am fueling my sleep with antihistamines as I know I'd be awake itching all night otherwise. Plus, when I have this many bites my immune system starts to struggle and I feel unwell. God knows my immune system has enough to worry about at the moment with all the stress I've put it through lately. (Oh poor immune system! What about ME?)

Itchy bites aside, summer often brings sleepless nights anyway thanks to the heat and humidity. We finally took our duvet out of the cover and stuck it in the top of the wardrobe (walk-in, yah!) the other day after a particularly hot and stuffy night during which I barely slept and woke up like a bear with a sore head. I think we have our room sorted now but also thankfully a cool south-easterly weather system has come through bringing rain and cool breezes. Ah! Bliss!!

Large grey one leaves hair on floor

The other unfortunate side effect of summer is sinusitus, thanks to the humidity, and probably some dust and pollen in the air too. I had the worst headache thanks to my sinuses the other day. Even Toby has suffered from it this year. I vaccuumed all the tufts of grey fur the cats lovingly leave all over the floor whilst we're at work, just in case that had anything to do with it. Yes, Zadie's a moulter. Although they chase each other all over the house like wild fire they do have a preferred spot for their play fights, which is very considerate of them as this is where the majority of Zadie's hair ends up. However, as soon as I vaccuum the little grey tufts I discover that there's an almost imperceptible film of fine grey hair covering the rest of the carpet.

IT men are slobs

I would like to digress on the subject of my domestic life and adaption to summer for a short while to tell you of the downside of working in IT amongst a load of men. Some of the men in my office, and by no means all of them, I assure you, but some of them are actual slobs. They really are. You know when you cook something in the microwave and you don't cover it up and it goes SPLAT and when you open the door there's sauce or whatever over the inside? You know how if you're quick enough it's still uncooked and comes off really easily when you wipe it over with a cloth? Well, the majority of the men in my office appear to be unaware of this. Every time I have to clean sauce off the inside of the microwave I find myself spending 5 or 10 minutes scrubbing really hard to remove somebody's well-cooked stubborn muck from god knows when. And they leave dishes in the sink, coffee granuals and water all over the bench. They obviously are very lucky men with lovely wives who do absolutely everything for them but it annoys the crap out of me. I just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for indulging me. If you're still reading, that is. (Well done if you are!)

The secret to a long life is....

There may have been more I wanted to talk about. For example, I probably wanted to tell you how I was late for work this morning because Monty insisted that I give him a cuddle by climbing up my back (whilst I was kneeling on the floor) and sitting on my shoulder purring into my ear; or maybe I wanted to tell you about how he climbed into the bathroom cupboard today and wouldn't come out so I shut the door thinking "ha! that'll teach him, I'm going to go and feed the other one whilst he's in there and he'll soon learn not to climb into cupboards then refuse to leave" only to see him bounding down the hallway towards his feeding place. He's a regular Houdini; the other night Toby got very cross with him for roaming around on the bench so he locked him in the laundry (which is where they sleep). As there is a cat-flap from the laundry to the patio where we were eating dinner, he got the heavy doormat and laid it against the cat-flap. First Monty tried to pull the cat-flap open (clever!) but eventually through sheer persistence he managed to move the mat slightly by repeatedly pushing the flap with his nose, until there was less pressure and he was able to pull himself through.

But anyway, I wanted to end by telling you I think I may have discovered the secret of a long life. On Saturday night we went to Cudge's 90th birthday party, Cudge being Toby's paternal great aunt. Although she had a health scare about three years ago (in which the doctors gave her about 3 months to live; pah! what do they know?) which has left her somewhat frail, she still lives alone (with some hired help, friends and family popping in now and then) and is totally switched on. The family gave her a digital photo frame which we stuck a load of photos onto and she wanted to know where the photos where stored and how, what digital meant, and what would a USB stick look like if she cut it in half? She has an amazing interest in a diverse range of subjects and has friends within many age groups, including my own. So, obviously that is a large part of it: keep up interests, occupy the mind and, for as long as possible, the body; but be gentle with the body and don't push it too much. She also has a faith in God, and whilst I'm not religious myself I think looking after your spiritual health and having some kind of faith definitely contributes to a long and happy life. However, I think the key is the fact that she never married and had children. That's the real secret to a long life. (She seems really happy too, by the way!)

Rainbow over Sydney Harbour Bridge

2007-12-07T09:26:00.000+10:00

I was looking back through some really old (well, four years) photos and found these ones that Toby and I took down in Sydney when we saw a rainbow over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a really solid intensely coloured rainbow. I figure it's not often you see something as spectacular as that. This was before the days of my supa-dupa Olympus camera though, so the pictures aren't of a great quality.

The jolly Sydney Ferries man

We could see the other side of the rainbow too but we couldn't find a pot of gold unfortunately.

Herding cats on Groundhog Day with IT cowboys (or catboys)

2007-12-04T12:15:00.001+10:00

Do you ever feel like you're going round and round in circles? Do you often get the sinking feeling that you're in some kind of sadistic extended real-life version of Groundhog Day? Do you ever find yourself repeating a task you completed months before only to have been told that "actually we don't need it after all", only to then months later have the same request made, only to then be told that it is no longer a requirement and so on and so forth? Do you work in IT?

I never would have thought that my work in IT could be likened to trying to get the cats to bed at night but then my boss showed me this YouTube movie, which she used to communicate to one of the University big-wigs how it feels for us poor IT folk when requirements keep changing, conflicting requests come in, processes are by-passed and communication is poor or non-existent.

Perhaps we need to start enticing the University executives with biscuits. Works with the cats.

Things you don't see every day - and that's a good thing - No. 1

2007-11-29T09:56:00.000+10:00

Ever see something that makes you think "that's the stupidest thing I've seen all week"?

Yesterday whilst driving through Mooloolaba to meet a friend I noticed a lady trying to cross a road next to a roundabout. She was on a traffic island and between her and the roundabout were two cars. The third car had very kindly held back to allow her to cross the road. This lady had a white stick which she was waving around in the vacant patch of road ahead of her. This led me to assume that perhaps she was blind, or had some visual impairment. Fair enough assumption I think. Not according to the driver of the third car who was sitting behind the wheel frantically motioning for the lady to cross the road. Hello!!! Which part of waving a white stick vaguely into the air in front of you did you think was done just for the fun of it? I only hope he didn't go onto to beep at her; how confusing a situation might that have been?

Cool new slideshow feature

2007-11-28T11:12:00.000+10:00

Check this out! I was going to blog about the election but instead I thought I'd draw your attention to this cool slideshow feature on the right-hand of the site. Very handy for those of you who can't be arsed to actually go check out my web albums yourselves. Not so cool for those of you who rely on the email updates. You'll have to come to my site to see the slideshow. Only downside is you can only set it to look at one album. Currently that's the wedding album (which you're all probably really bored with by now) but I'll change it every now and again. If you hover over the slideshow you'll see a toolbar which you can use to pause or go to either the previous or next photo. Clicking on the slideshow opens the photo within the web album in a new window. Pretty nifty.

Little furballs

2007-11-22T16:11:00.001+10:00

Once one grows up and buys one's own home, one must also assume the responsibilities of an adult and do such things as gardening, DIY and home-baking. One must also start considering the very serious subjects of procreation and, more importantly, pets. Usually what one does in these circumstances is get a dog. You see, dogs require quite a grown-up and responsible attitude. They need lots of love and attention, and many breeds need to be walked twice a day. A dog is a big commitment and to be seen walking one's dog is to be seen as a committed and responsible grown up (who likes the outdoors). I am a committed and responsible grown-up (you don't get much more committed than a marriage and a mortgage) and I do quite like the outdoors but I don't think I could give a dog the attention it needs. I always feel a bit sorry for dogs whose owners are out at work all day, then do things in the evenings, and then pop off to a friend's place for the weekends. And, if truth be told, I am a cat person.

Most of my old buddies from the UK will be well aware of this but it may be news to some of my antipodean friends. In fact, I surprised some very good friends last week by announcing that I intended to have a cat. James responded with, "I didn't know you were a cat person" and for a split second I was prepared to defend myself and humour his love of dogs until, to my delight, I discovered that both James, and his wife Melissa are also cat people. This is a marvellous thing to discover about two people you already love. See, most people in Australia are dog people, and not only are they dog people but they actively hate cats. They see cats as evil, arrogant creatures (the point being...?) that pose a threat to their wildlife. As if white man clearing the land so his hungry cows can graze, digging big holes in the ground and pulling out coal and gold, concreting beach forests so they can build ocean-view high-rises, and flooding rivers to make dams isn't any sort of a threat to the wildlife or the environment that supports it. Evil? Arrogant? Threatening wildlife? Pot? Kettle? Black?

Anyway, to cut a long rant short (too late, Buckle), I received an early birthday present this year in the form of a cat. Well, actually two! Toby and I visited the local animal shelter at the weekend. I had decided I'd like two cats (even cats get lonely if their family leaves them alone all day), and that I'd like a male and a female. Toby wanted one kitten. We had to walk past two enclosures of adult cats before we got to the kittens so of course I stopped by for a chat.

Because all of the kittens were boys I chose to take a beautiful Russian Blue (cross, I think but I know nothing about pedigree cats) 15 month old Queen home too. We have named her Zadie (because her name at the shelter was Mercedes, which is terrible, but shortening it to Cedes (or Sadie) didn't work because I have a good friend called Sadie (hi, Sades) but then Lucie misheard me and thought it was Zadie and it kind of stuck). She's a little chatterbox who loves attention but isn't particularly cuddly. She's still quite playful and is a lovely addition to the household.

The kitten is 3 months old and his name is Monty. He's a mentalist and gets himself into all kinds of scrapes. He's a bit greedy and probably should have been called Wolf because he wolfs his food down and then starts on Zadie's. He goes nuts when the food is being prepared and tries to climb up on the bench. He'll find the highest thing he can sit on to get as close to the food as he can and today he suffered for it when his tail got caught in the drawer his food is kept in. He loves cuddles and will sit on any part of you that is available.

They get along very well together and chase each other round the house like Tasmanian Devils. Zadie frequently reminds Monty who's boss by pouncing on him and pinning him down. They both rush to the front door to greet us, purring, when we come home.

There are more photos here: CrazyCats , although not too many because they're both hopeless at staying still for the camera and are far too interested in whatever it is I'm doing resulting in lots of black and gray blurry photos. I'm sure you'll be hearing many more stories of their craziness in weeks to come.

Sexist, me? Shut up man, woman!

2007-11-14T14:39:00.001+10:00

I have so much to tell you all (like, we moved into our new house - yay!) but things are so hectic at the moment. However, I read something on the web today that tickled me so much I just had to share it.

The "Ernies" are annual sexism awards, now in their 15th year, voted by women for the most sexist remarks uttered within the public arena. Some of them are downright insulting and unfunny (such as Australian senator Bill Heffernan's comment that opposition deputy leader Julia Gillard was unfit to lead because she was "deliberately barren" which, incidentally won the Gold Ernie of 2007) ; I won't mention them here.

Others however, are so unbelievably stupid that one can't quite believe that the men (as it is mainly men who win these awards, strangely) who uttered them were in the slightest bit serious when they did so (hopefully many of them weren't). It is these comments that I wish to share. Don't worry too much about who these people are - I haven't a clue about some of them - just bear in mind that they are all men who are, to some degree, in the public eye.

Industrial Relations minister, Joe Hockey, on his wife's pregnancy: "It's exhausting for me, her being pregnant. I don't know why, during the birth process, they only focus on the women."
Warwick Capper: "Expectant father Darren Jolly needs to get his priorities in order. The birth of your first child is special, but if you're a machine like me, there's more children to be had than premierships."
An advertisement by Ingham's for chicken: "Breast awareness week" (Love it!)
Mufti, Sheikh Taj Aldin Alhilali accused Australian women of being "uncovered meat".
P&O advertisement: "Seamen wanted" (Come on, girls, get a grip; these are FUNNY!)
Totally unfunny and inexplicably wrong, I almost daren't publish this one but I'm embarrassed to say it made me giggle, until I considered the context and then I was horrified, of course. Rene Rivkin's driver, Gordon Wood made an unusual request to a morgue attendant whilst identifying his girlfriend's body: "Do you mind if I look at her tits?" (Maybe it's fair enough that he wanted to sneak one last peek?!)

To see more (and see the photo of Warwick Capper that has me suspect he could have been serious) check out the Nine News' photo gallery.

Excuse me, is this your life?

2007-10-19T12:05:00.000+10:00

Well, well, well, how things change. Since my last post I have bought a car and a house and gained a niece. That is a lot of new things. Big things too (except for my niece; she's quite small, although a big concept, being the first of a new generation in our family) and it's only been a month.

I've been meaning to tell you about the car for a while and in fact asked Toby two weeks ago to take a photograph of the two of us but somehow we didn't get around to doing it so you'll have to make do with a photo her previous owner, Linda, sent to me:

As you can see she's a lovely little three-door Mitsubishi Mirage, born in 1998, which is a modest age for a car. She's just the right size to run me around the coast pretty quickly and is so much nicer than the bus, although not necessarily more comfortable; my sciatica copes better with an upright position on the bus than the car seat position and associated leg work. But I'm working on that too, and my dodgy shoulder which has plagued me for years, with a comprehensive remedial exercise program in the gym. I'll be right as rain again in no time. We even took a trip to Brisbane, the big city, together at the weekend with Lucie and, thanks to our inability to get to anywhere we wanted to go without going to a few other places on the way, we got to see a fair amount of the city known as Brisvegas, or just Vegas as Aussies love to shorten everything... even names they've nicked from elsewhere.

So, that's the car. Nice colour, don't you think?

Now, the house. You have no idea how happy Toby and I are to no longer be homeless. We move to our new home a fortnight today, and here it is:

It's a lovely, medium-sized three bedroom house, which is actually quite large for us, with a double garage, en-suite, walk-in robe, decent sized garden, two living areas and lots of cute little features, such as a spa bath, a covered outdoor area (to fox those damned mozzies), an in-ground sprinkler system connected to bore water (that's water that comes from under the ground and smells like rotten eggs, which basically means we can continue to water our garden in a drought but the house is in an area of high rainfall anyway so we may never have to use it, which is good because I hate the smell of rotten eggs), a vacu-maid system (some weird sci-fi thing they use in hotels, where you plug a tube into a wall and it automatically vacuums stuff up for you, or something), a walk-in pantry/larder with light (my favourite thing after the walk-in robe, I think) and a wood fire - very useful in winter as it's quite a cool house.

More photos at OurHouse.

Actually, being homeless hasn't been as bad as I thought. It's more of an irritation than anything else really. I think being homeless and unemployed would be a bummer but it's not too bad when you're employed. The extra rent we've been paying for the convenience of a short-term rental is helping us get used to not having some of that extra money we'll be paying towards our mortgage, and we haven't had to deal with bills etc. The first couple of weeks we spent staying with friends until our short-term rental was available. That was fun, but a bit more stressful as we didn't feel like we had our own space, and no doubt our friends felt the same, plus they live quite a way from where I work and so does everyone else it seemed, which made my drive to work long and at times stressful as I sat in traffic moving about 2kph in first gear. Our friends had their house on the market so the place had to be kept spotless most of the time. Most of my clothes were in boxes which kept getting moved into the garage, which couldn't have been further from the room we were staying in. When I found myself traipsing to the garage one morning to get some knickers to wear, I knew things had reached a new low. All in all, it's been fun getting to know new areas but I can't wait to settle into our own place. And get a cat. Then my life will be complete. Until I think of something else I want. Like a widescreen plasma TV. Or a new light-weight aluminium hybrid bike.

Do you know what the best thing is? Until we come to rent our house out, if indeed we ever do, I don't have to deal with another rental real estate agent ever again!!! You don't know how happy that makes me.

And last, but by no means least, my beautiful niece. Born at 4.10am BST on Wednesday 3rd October, vastly overdue and a little chubber (8lb 15.5oz!) as a result, she was named Lucy Grace. Or Lucy-lu as I have dubbed her. Clare has gone one step further and started calling her Lulu. She's also known as "sick machine" as she has a very upset tummy and has perfected the art of projectile vomiting, something which may come in handy in eighteen years when she goes to university.

I think of all my new things I'm especially pleased with my niece and can't wait to get back to England so I can play with her properly. I'm very proud of my clever little sister, Clare, who seems to be settling quite well into motherhood and is obviously "stoked" with her lovely daughter. Well done, and congratulations to Clare and Alan. Can't wait to catch up with you both in person.

Now, to wrap it all up I'd like to share with you an interesting photograph and story I read today, of a man who crashed his aeroplane and managed to destroy the entire cockpit except for the bit he was sitting in - fortunately. Amazingly, he came away with only a few broken bones.

For the full story see The Age: Please remain seated for landing

Things you see every day but don't really notice - No. 2

2007-09-17T09:08:00.001+10:00

Sign above the window next to a colleague of mine's desk:

"Place items for storage into the slot below and push"

The humour of IT folk - ya gotta love it.

Making the world a smaller place

2007-09-12T08:59:00.001+10:00

Okay, so I'm supposed to be working but I just had to share with you all the following email forwarded to my mother from the Sunderland Echo. (Yes, we made the Echo too!) Perhaps I am in some small way making a difference in the world. Okay, so I didn't actually do anything technical, but I did get married.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 05 September 2007
To: Echo News
Subject: news item on 'wedcast' australian wedding-echo sept 5th

I was very interested in the above news item as parts of my family are similarly unable to attend a family wedding, to take place in Perth Australia in February next year. The groom is British and is my nephew and the bride is Australian. The idea of being able to participate in the way described is very exciting. I wondered if you might be able to pass on my contact details to the person who managed to arrange this to see if it might be possible to set this up again and what the cost might be. I would be most grateful if you could help in any way.

We spoke to a copywriter from Telstra last night. They're planning on writing a testimonial to use for publicity and advertising purposes. Perhaps they should get together with BT and produce a "How-to". Anyway, it's nice for us to see emails such as this, as the wedding seems like a lifetime ago after all of the house hassle of recent weeks. Incidentally, tomorrow night we're off to see our official photographs with our wonderful photographer, Tanya (who, by the way, has chosen our wedding for her double-page advert for 2008!!). How excited am I?

Addicted to Facebook?

2007-09-10T12:49:00.000+10:00

Are you addicted to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? Do you spend more time online than you do working? Do you find yourself checking your email, looking at friends' photos, reading your Facebook wall and then suddenly realising it's coffee time and wondering where the morning has gone?

If so, I have just the cute little application for you. It's called Notworking, a little counter that tells you how much time you're spending networking, or not working, when you should be working. Of course, we can always justify at least part of our time online, such as checking out the Answers section of LinkedIn for your industry and when you're in the web field, such as I, there are many, many excuses ("I'm just evaluating Facebook to determine it's usefulness as a marketing tool for the University. Honest!"). So, to help out with such situations the Notworking counter can be paused as necessary. It can also be reset, useful when the truth becomes embarrassing.

You can estimate your hourly rate and stick this in. It then calculates how much money you could have earned during the time you've been procrastinating online. For example, I could have earned $4.63 during the time I spent writing this, working out my hourly rate, and creating my screen shots. Trouble is, I did earn it and it really isn't that much money so this is much more useful if you're working for youself and earn big bucks. The other thing to bear in mind (in fairness to myself) is that I am only doing this because I had to restart a development server that stopped responding, so for at least $1 of that time I would have been sitting twiddling my thumbs anyway. As it is, I have been doing a service to industry by spreading the word about this FREE application and making others aware of their wasted hours.

If you want to get this little app for yourself then you can download it from Website Repairs. It even floats over your other windows so there's no ignoring it.

Total time spent on this blog: 00:18:55
Total cost: $7.30

Yes, we really did get married!

2007-09-05T09:32:00.000+10:00

With all the usual stress of moving, and the added trauma of not having anywhere of our own to go to, along with the fact that we don't have a moment's rest because we're still house-hunting, it's easy to forget that just a month ago we were celebrating our recent nuptials. The day went by in such a blur that I have to keep looking at the photos to remind myself it really happened.

Well, I had another reminder today. Grandpa called last night. He turned 80 on Sunday and was phoning to thank me for his birthday present. But there was more. Gran told me she'd taken the Sunshine Coast Sunday clipping of our wedding webcast story down to the office of the local paper where she lives in South Shields, The Shields Gazette, thinking they might be interested to see it. Were they ever! As Gran put it, she "opened up a hornet's nest". My grandparents, parents, sister and brother-in-law, were interviewed and photographed on Grandpa's birthday. Gran said they had a hoot and everyone was laughing so much she was worried about how she might look in the photographs. But I think she looks great in this one. Mam is worried about what her mother, my Nana, might think when she returns from her cruise and finds she missed out on all the action. I think she'll be a bit miffed but hopefully she's having a good enough time on holidays not to mind.

If you are interested in the article you can find it online at Shields bride makes cyber-history, which makes me sound a bit like one of the cyber-men from Doctor Who (back in the 80s). It fails to mention that the streaming is only really believed to be a world first due to the use of mobile technology but there are a few other little-known facts in there that you may not have realised.

For example, the aisle I walked down was 10,000 miles long. This amazed me. The walk up the long path from the car to the park, and then scrambling through the bushes took a while but I had no idea it was that far.

You may also be surprised to discover that my pregnant sister was sipping champagne at Aunty Betty's house. I thought she was at home in Newcastle being tee-total, the naughty minx.

I love the fact that they mention the friend in York that let it slip. You know who you are. Kidding! It wasn't a big deal that I found out that morning and in fact, I think it was a good thing. It actually slipped my mind until Doug said "Wave to all the people in Newcastle" and, had I not known, I probably would have frowned at him and said "What you talking about?" which wouldn't have looked anywhere near as cool as the clip Channel 7 used of me waving at the camera.

According to Mam they made the front page (see this screenshot of the website), page 5 and an editorial. I'm sure we'll get to see a copy just as soon as we have a house my parents can send it to.

A little bit of fun to make you smile

2007-08-28T10:38:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-27T20:00:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-19T17:26:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-19T13:45:00.000+10:00

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...

2007-08-12T19:00:00.000+10:00

... 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

2007-08-06T14:11:00.000+10:00

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!

2007-08-06T08:03:00.000+10:00

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.

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.
Coco is a perfume by Chanel and my grandparents are not accustomed to sipping it of a morning, as suggested by the article.
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.
I do not have relatives in York but my lovely friends Sadie and Tim live there.
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.
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.
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 :-)

Things worthy of note from a quiet Geordie bride-to-be

2007-07-27T12:26:00.000+10:00

Sorry for the silence folks. I've been a bit pre-occupied. I have noticed a few things worth blogging about but just never quite got around to it. Facebook might have something to do with that but I prefer to blame the wedding. Anyway, here's a summary of thoughts I have recently had.

Our house went to auction last week but didn't sell. Still, it was strange having lots of random strangers wandering through our house. We met the landlords. They seem nice.
I have had a hen weekend and a buckette party, both of which were lots of fun. The photos of the hen weekend are on Picasa at My Hen Party. The buckette photos will find their way up there just as soon as I get the chance. Those of you on Facebook will have already seen them.... the handcuff photos will be joining them soon but unfortunately the Hairless is attempting to ban the ones of him perching on the Buddha's head whilst taking a photo.
Cress is a really strange thing to serve as garnish with a crusty croissant and jam at breakfast, don't you think?
Writing wedding vows is one of the most challenging aspects of wedding planning.
Heard of Blackle? Any thoughts? The jury is out over whether this is a reasonable attempt to address some power conservation issues, as the research was based upon the use of CRT monitors, which have mostly been replaced by LCDs these days. One of the arguments I have heard against Blackle is that light text on a black screen is not so good for the eyes. Apparently that research was done back in the early 80s. Other arguments against Blackle are that it is not actually created by Google and is a commercial product, which uses the Google search engine and is designed to earn the site money from AdSense. They certainly seem to have attracted a lot of attention through a chain email campaign - who hasn't recently received an email explaining the virtues of Blackle? I've had two. Alternatively there is actually a Black Google. I wonder if they released this in response to all the hype surrounding Blackle. Personally, until Firefox and Google update their toolbars, or the whole of the Google suite, and LinkedIn and Facebook and many other websites follow suit, I fail to see the point. I really don't sit on the Google search engine interface that much. Just my personal opinion.
Facebook is addictive and is taking over my life. But it's a great way to keep in touch. If you're not on there, get on there... especially if you're one of my lovely friends who I never get to see. Go on, I'll buy you a drink.
We still haven't found a house to buy but we have at least until the end of August in our house. Until it sells (or doesn't sell) who knows what will happen after that. It's all very up in the air. Am I bovvered?
I'm about half-way through reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and if anyone dares tell me the ending I will never speak to them again. And if they happen to be a total stranger who doesn't care whether I ever speak to them, I shall hunt them down and haunt them before dividing their soul and sticking it into a horcrux (please look beyond the fact that you have to kill someone to stick your soul into a horcrux, you HP die-hards). I was about a third of the way through before I got really into it and last night I actually got a bit freaked out and couldn't put it down even though my eyes really wanted to close and send me to sleep. Oh damn the release of this book coinciding with my wedding. I think I might have to write to JK and complain. The nerve.
I hope all of you in the UK are not having to swim to work and have not suffered flood damage to any of your personal property and have a full and working supply of tasty tap water. Crazy weather.
Is this rude?
I was in the hairdresser's last night for my final colour before the wedding. My hairdresser was really busy which was disappointing as she seemed distracted which is not what you expect as a bride-to-be. In all the films they're made such a fuss of that this is what you think is actually going to happen in real life. At least she did a good job of the colour, as always.

However, she did decide to tell me that the woman she had recommended to put my hair up for the wedding was not a qualified hair dresser. She asked if it bothered me. I said not really, it's not like she's cutting it or colouring it. She's just putting it up. My mam used to do that when I was a kid and she's not a qualified hairdresser.

Anyway, towards the end a different hairdresser rinsed and dried my hair and we got onto the subject of the wedding. She asked who was doing my hair and she actually pulled a face at my answer as though I'd just offered her a bowl of tripe as a yummy treat.

Is that rude? I thought so. She then went on to tell me about a wedding a year or two ago where she did the bride's hair and this other woman did the bridesmaids and how it was "disgusting" and messy. Is that a bad thing to tell a woman a week before her wedding? A bit rude and insensitive, I thought. A weaker girl than me, or one more concerned about her appearance would have gone home in tears, freaking out, wondering if she had time to find someone else. As it is, I am a tad concerned but I'm more affronted that she had the nerve to be so rude. Comments?
I am getting married in one week and one and a half hours.

Apparently this is our house...

2007-06-23T15:13:00.000+10:00

... it looks like our house. The proximity to the beach is about right and I don't know many other people with such an awkward 90 degree-angled driveway. And the sign is on our front lawn so it must be our house. But what confused me were the following words:

Layout allows easy movement between the formal living, three double bedrooms and bathroom off the main.
The dining area opens onto the generous kitchen that extends to a covered outdoor area.
If you want to be acquainted with the long days of beachside living, this is your chance.

What the....?

I think what they might actually mean is

House quite small so all rooms are quite close together.
There is a separate lounge-room so you don't have to try and squeeze your sofa into the dining/kitchen area.
If you're lucky you might get a double bed into each of the three bedrooms, although you won't get much else in the third room so I wouldn't bother.
The bathroom has a door leading to the main bedroom. Don't be fooled into thinking this is an ensuite. It isn't, and in fact can get very confusing when people come to stay or if there are more than two people living there. In fact, unless there are only two of you I fail to see the point of this additional door.
The dining area and kitchen are basically in one big room with patio doors. You may find that although the kitchen looks big, it is actually quite small and poorly designed, with lots of wasted space, awkward corner cupboards and most of the cupboards squeezed into the corner where the stove is so that if one person is cooking you can forget about getting much else done, such as putting the dishes away or grabbing a glass of water. And don't even get me started on the stove; I have three words: rip it out.
You will enjoy a reasonable amount of shade from the covered outdoor area but don't expect to stay dry in rain as it leaks really badly. And it flaps around in high winds. In fact, you may as well just replace the whole thing.
Er... really not sure about the "long days" business. The days aren't any longer because you live at the beach, in fact they probably seem shorter because it's so nice but to be fair, if you can afford to buy this house you're probably either rich and retired, in which case the days may be very long, or you work all the hours God sends to pay off your mortgage, in which case the days you get to spend at the house will probably seem very short.

So if anyone fancies buying a beach house and renting it out to us, come along to the auction on 21st July and bring a spare $600,000. I'll be the one in the bed, clutching my head and moaning "Get out of my house and leave me in peace, you evil, evil people" as the boys from work are treating me to a Buckette's party the night before - how nice of them. Thank God the new Harry Potter book is released that day. It may be my only salvation - if I can get my eyes to work.

Caveat: I'm not dissing the house. It's a very nice house and we would be very happy to stay here a while longer. A little overpriced perhaps, but everything around here is. I just find real estate agent speak quite amusing and the positive spin they've given this property is very impressive.

Poetry: Angst of a poet

2007-06-23T08:28:00.001+10:00

Last night as I was in my bed,
I wrote a haiku in my head.
This morning when I woke back up,
I found the haiku thought had fled.

I thought I was a decent poet,
I thought I'd make a laureate,
But when it all came down and to it,
I found that I had clean forget.

Running with soup

2007-06-18T13:33:00.000+10:00

What a day! What a [insert chosen expletive, descriptive word or noise here. I'm going with Ngrnganggh!! which I think is similar to a Marge Simpson frustrated growl] day!

It started quite nicely. I achieved my objective of getting out of bed before 7am for the first time in so long I can't remember when. I then went for a run/walk/photographic mish. Note to self: Running with a camera does not constitute effective morning exercise on account of the fact that one sees the world from an entirely different perspective when one has a camera, and becomes fascinated by the merest thing that one would not normally spare a second glance. It results in something akin to this: run for 100 metres; spot something interesting; investigate further and take photo; change exposure and take another photo; experiment with flash and take another photo; walk for 20 metres whilst reviewing and critiquing photos; run for 50-100 metres; spot something interesting; and so on.

On my return run/walk/photo mish I intended to do some shoulder rows and chest presses using the funky machines in the new grown-ups' play gym the council recently installed in our local park but thanks to the camera I instead became distracted by rainbow lorrikeets and blue-faced honeyeaters. Then I got chatting to a woman from Dubbo who was house-sitting for her sister. I've always wondered what a place called Dubbo would be like but it doesn't sound like the kind of place I'd want to visit in order to find out. It sounds like a place often mentioned but never visited on Neighbours or Home & Away, or the nickname of the local bevan (chav/hoon/scally/bogan). Anyway, she was very nice and obviously pleased to be in Buddina and not Dubbo. All in all it was a pleasant start to the day.

Grown-ups play gym. Just like the real gym but free.

It was when I got home that things began to go horribly wrong. The following actual email thread I sent to work over the next few hours pretty much sums it up:

From: "Lindsey Buckle"
To: "Dion", "Daniel", "Elaine", "Greg", "Linda", "Lindsay", "Matthew", "Peter", "Richard"
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 8:36 AM
Subject: Averting disaster - will be in late, if at all
Hello team,

I returned home from a run this morning to discover a terrible leak and a slight flood, mainly outside the house but also inside. I have had to switch the water off at the mains and currently have no way of showering, brushing my teeth etc. etc. I'm waiting for the plumber to arrive and have no idea at this stage when I'll make it into work, if at all.

I'll keep you informed.

Have full electricity so if anyone can think of anything I can be getting on with at home I'd be happy to oblige. Currently all I can think of is how smelly I am and what damage has been done. Bugger.

Lindsey.

>>> Lindsey Buckle 06/18/07 8:44 AM >>>
UPDATE

Plumber arriving in approximately 30-45 mins. Depending on how long it takes him to do the job and get the water back on, I am hoping to be at work around 11am.

Hopefully see you then,
Lindsey.

>>> Lindsey Buckle 06/18/07 10:14 AM >>>
UPDATE

Plumber been and gone. Burst pipe. All good ('cept for flood on toilet floor I have to clean up). Water back on - yay! Will be in at 12. (Not enough time to make the 10.30 bus unforch!).

Lindsey.

>>> Lindsey Buckle 06/18/07 1:27 PM >>>
UPDATE

I think I might be having the worst day ever. After grappling for about 15 minutes with the garage door, which refused to let me lock it and which I'd had to open for the plumber who didn't end up using it anyway, I legged it to the bus stop and then realised I'd left my bag containing money, keys, phone and bus pass at home. Legged it home again, remembering that there was a door I hadn't checked when I left home because it never used to unlock but has recently started to. Halleluliah it was unlocked so I raced back to the bus stop, this time with bag. Bus wasn't there but another turned up and told me it was only 34 past - mine due at 35. After 20 minutes of waiting I figured I'd missed it and took a bus down Nicklin Way to get a different bus. That one didn't turn up either so I called the bus company and they explained the first one had been 30 minutes late and the second one doesn't go that way any more - had a route change three weeks ago, apparently. Was well advertised, apparently. By this time I was on a bus back to Kawana Waters arguing over the phone with the guy at Sunbus who tried to tell me the bus drivers don't use a centralised system yet so just because one guy said it was 34 past doesn't mean it was, and whoever told me that Sunbus will pay for a taxi for you if they've screwed up was wrong and by the way, if I'd continued south I could have got the next 607 from Caloundra.

Anyway, end result is I am MAJORLY stressed out and probably not going to get to work before 2pm anyway and have an appointment at 5.45pm so am questioning the worth. Do you think this much stress constitutes sick leave? Because I do actually feel like I could vomit right now.

Tomorrow has to be a better day and I hope to see you all then. Probably best you don't mention this to me... I might breathe fire at you.

Lindsey.

Running with soup? I hear you ask. Yes, today was not the best day to be running for the bus as I had a tub of soup for my lunch. Turned out okay but I was paranoid nonetheless.

Anyway, you know they say every cloud has a silver lining and everything happens for a reason etc. etc? Well, I've figured it out. After returning home I decided to sit outside and have some lunch and discovered that the patio door was unlocked, and not even shut properly. So, had I not forgotten my bag then I would have left the house with two doors unlocked. Had the bus company not completely screwed up my entire day I would have left the house with one door unlocked. Still, I need a car.

Am now completely exhausted after all the disaster averting, route reorganising and generally floundering around on buses not really getting anywhere. I think I need a nana nap.

When the going gets tough.... play with your photographs

2007-06-17T21:42:00.000+10:00

The view from the surf club where our wedding reception will be, across the bay towards Point Cartwright, the headland where we will exchange our vows.

Okay, so I've been a wee bit quiet of late. That's because I've been stressed with a capital S-T-R-E and double S!!! Most of you will have heard the incredibly unfortunate news that not only are our landlords a bit dubious about us sharing our home with some beautiful pussies (cats for the filthy minded of you) but they're also not too sure about actually keeping the house and have put it on the market. Our lease ends two weeks before the wedding. They only need to give us two week's notice to move out on that date. This is not good news.

After two or three intense weeks of house-hunting, for a house to purchase nonetheless, and vacating our own home every Saturday morning between 11 and 11.30pm so that the real estate agents can let randoms into our home to do what they will without any protection for us from the law or insurance because technically it's not breaking and entering and we have given our permission (yeh! right!!), followed by an angst-ridden loooong weekend (bank holiday, sweetie, 'cept they call it a public holiday here... don't know why. Ask anyone who works in a shop and they'll tell you it's the banks, not the public that get the holiday) wherein we put in an offer on a house we loved but which was massively over-priced and entered negotiations only to be told, after more than 24 hours of waiting for a response to our final offer, that the seller wouldn't budge from his first, rather ungenerous counter-offer, after all that we've come to the conclusion that there is nothing on the market that we want to buy. We were about to reconsider what we might want to buy, reluctantly as one does not enter into debt of almost half a million dollars simply because they wish to move before their wedding because their landlords have the sensitivity and good-timing of a nuclear war, when we heard the rather good news that we MAY be permitted to stay here until a few weeks after the wedding. It's not in writing yet so nothing is guaranteed but purleease everyone cross their fingers, toes, arms, legs and roads for us.

So, other than getting completely distracted by Facebook and getting back to organising the wedding (we now have suits for the boys, shoes for the bride and are well on the way to a veil), I have decided to create a few albums of some of my favourite photos to share with you all.

Firstly, I created an album of shots taken in my garden. I love getting out there and taking photos of birds, flowers and insects. Usually I'm out there doing something else, like gathering fruit from the veggie garden, or hanging the washing out, and I'll see something that will make me run indoors and grab the camera. I then generally spend about half an hour to an hour wandering around taking photographs of things, entirely distracted from the task at hand. You can see this album at http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybuckle/MyGarden.

The second album I created consists of photographs of Buddina Beach where we have lived for the past four years. I have always loved, and been inspired by this beach but I'm feeling particularly nostalgic about it now that I know we may be leaving to live elsewhere in a few weeks. This album is at http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybuckle/OurBeach.

Lastly, I created an album of Point Cartwright, the headland 3 kilometres north of our home and where we will be getting married in 7 weeks. Obviously this is a very special place for both Toby and I. We have had some great times up there, it is a beautiful spot with a positive energy. Anyone who ever visits me on the Sunshine Coast will be treated to a tour of Point Cartwright and I'm confident you'll all fall in love with the place. Check out the album at http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseybuckle/PointCartwright.

I have commented on most of the photographs so if you have the time, click on each one and read about its background. Each of these albums will be constantly updated when I take relevant photographs that I'm particularly pleased with, either because they're good pictures or because they hold special memories for me. Save these links as favourites and check back on occasion or subscribe to the RSS feed on the bottom right of the album page.

I've discovered Facebook...

2007-06-07T12:25:00.000+10:00

.. and it may be about to take over my life.

It all started quite innocently. A young chap, whom I used to reside with, sent me an invite. At first I ignored it. I have tried the odd social networking site before but they turned out to be just that - odd! After a while I grew curious, or perhaps just bored, and as it is my job (kind of) to keep abreast of web and internet technologies I decided I should really investigate this further so I signed up with my spam email account.

It was okay. I managed to converse a little with said chap, and look at some photos of him and then I got Facebook to check my address book and discovered another old London pal was on there. This particular girl has been incredibly difficult to keep in touch with since I left the UK. We've chatted on occasion over MSN but the time difference has keep that to a minimum and she NEVER answers her emails. So obviously, I was quite pleased to re-establish contact. Her comment so glad you are on facebook, I live on here! hehe disturbed me somewhat. What on earth could she possibly be doing on there? I wondered.

Then I forgot about it for a week or so until Friday came around again. With the Rugby Super 14s done and dusted I was at a loss of what to do, given that Friday afternoons were generally spent planning my team and making trades, so I ventured back into the world of Facebook again. What a surprise when I discovered that some of my York Uni and London buddies had added me as their friends. How did they find me? But how wonderful! I spent the afternoon trying to figure out how the whole thing worked, reading their banter and checking out their photographs. I invited a couple of people from work and we had fun writing on one another's walls, although admittedly that wore thin pretty quickly.

Then I forgot about Facebook again. Until the following Friday at which time I decided to get Facebook to check my address books again. This is a kind of creepy, yet cool feature, whereby you stick in your email address, be it Yahoo, GMail or Hotmail, and your password, and armed with this information, Facebook trundles off, logs in and looks for email addresses in your address book that match any it has in its own database. If it finds any matches, it lets you know and you can add those people to your list of friends. I've done this a few times now and each time, Facebook has found more people that have joined up. You can invite people too but so far I have refrained from doing this (unless people have specifically requested) just to avoid being too much of a pain.

My facebook profile

So, my network is growing and I'm in touch with a lot of old friends from the UK who I never get around to emailing. It's great. People ask me what's the point of Facebook, and I admit that I wondered that myself, but one thing I really like is that when I log in it gives me a summary of recent events, such as "So-and-so and Mr Bloggs are now friends", "You have one friend request", "You have 1 message in your inbox", "Thingumyjig has added photos" "Whosit has tagged you in 2 photos" etc. etc. etc. Basically it's a one-stop shop for communication. Somehow it seems easier than emailing people and remembering a multitude of photo sites and blog addresses. That said, obviously I'm still blogging and I'm still uploading photos to my Picasa site.

And in other news...
Some of you may have noticed that the link to my photos hasn't been working properly. I am investigating this and in the meantime I have replaced the link with one to my Picasa album. It doesn't have all the photos up there but there are some recent ones for your perusal.

Oh yes, I knew there was something else.... for those of you who don't know I am now the proud owner of a beautiful diamond engagement ring (thank you, Toby, photo to follow) so I guess this makes it all official (good thing given the wedding is only 8 weeks away) and our landlords are selling our house from under our feet (great timing, you [insert appropriate expletives here]).

New look

2007-05-18T15:32:00.000+10:00

I have finally got around to upgrading my blog template to the groovy Google way of doing things (I just knew it was a Google day today) which basically makes it much easier for me to add things (other than posts) to my blog and change the way it looks. I'm experimenting with different looks so what do you think of this one?

Poetry: August Buddina

2007-05-18T13:04:00.000+10:00

Here's another of my poems. It's about the beach again and I wrote it back in August 2003 when I'd been on the Sunshine Coast only a few months.

Rushing to the shore, urgently whispering;
Onward forevermore through the atlas of history.
Sparkling diamonds, a gift from the sun,
They bring along with them as they rush along.

A surge of aggression, a pure show of power,
Untamed by time, crash with a shower.
Perfect formations, a beauty to behold;
Always a new-born yet so wise and old.

Constant forever, yet never the same,
This wild beast of nature can ravage and maim.
Bubbling and beading then rushing away;
Pushing and pulling, filling the bay;
Calmy lapping the sands of the shore,
Coming and going forever more.

Registry of complaints

2007-05-16T11:22:00.000+10:00

The gist: Australia's department stores are backward technologically and I have had no end of trouble setting up an online registry. I feel like I'm living in the pre-information-age ages. Warning! This is a long post because I'm quite irritated and feel like I've spent all year trying to sort this out. I probably have.

The wedding is drawing nigh with less than 12 weeks to go before the big day. Plans are going fairly well although we're about a fortnight late sending out invites. It turned out to be quite difficult to get the envelopes we wanted due to the fact that textured paper isn't "in" this year. Who knew there was a fashion scene in the stationary world? Thankfully we did manage to track down some retro, last season envelopes and are now awaiting their delivery, which buys me some additional time to finalise our wedding registry.

The anticipated joys of a registry

Oh yes! The wedding registry. Back in January, when all the fun and excitement of planning a wedding started, the realisation that there would be presents dawned on me and I clapped my hands in glee at the thought of all the fun we, or rather I , would have picking out gifts for use in our married life. Finally, the opportunity to have some decent towels that don't leave fluff all over the bathroom floor, or really nice bed linen that doesn't go bobbly after a couple of months and has matching accessories like cushions and throws; or a matching set of pans in varying sizes with sturdy handles and lids that fit; and beautiful table cloths and place settings so we can cover up our disintegrating table and still put on a good-looking spread at dinner parties; and a matching toaster and kettle, where the toaster cooks the toast instead of burning it, and gets warmer and cooks more quickly the longer it's on, rather than the less obvious alternative which results in having to turn it up after the first couple of uses; and the piece de resistance, a beautiful fine-dining dinner set to stun and spoil anyone lucky enough to come round for dinner over the next 50 years. Back then it all seemed so exciting and full of promise.

Then came reality.

It's possible that I have made things more complicated than necessary. We do plan to have a wedding reception in the UK just as soon as we can gather the funds to get over there but nevertheless I thought an online registry would be easiest for everyone. I was disappointed to find that the major department stores in Australia, both Myer and David Jones, do not have online registries. I remember going to a wedding with a Myer registry and getting irritated because we had to actually go to the shop to view the list and then couldn't purchase a lot of the things on the list because our local Myer is small and the list had been created in Brisbane. Then we had to take the gift home, wrap it and take it to the wedding which meant the bride and groom then had to get it home from the wedding. Now I know some people like doing it this way and that's fine but it just seemed so backwards compared with the way I was used to doing things back in the UK. I didn't feel that would suit my guests, especially with many of them travelling from UK, Melbourne and Sydney.

No online registries for department stores

This was a few years ago so I thought maybe times have changed but no! Both Myer and David Jones cater for overseas guests by providing an email address. Email? This means, in the case of Myer, that the guest gets a list of the items on the registry emailed to them, then has to place their order by email, hoping that the chosen item, which they presumably haven't even seen a photo of, hasn't since been purchased. And as for payment... well having not gone through the process I can't say for sure how this works but one thing I will say is that due to my experience in IT there is no way I would expect a guest of mine to send payment information via email. It is hardly the most secure method of data transfer.

So that pretty much ruled out what would probably have been the easiest option for us. The next option was to look at online registries and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few of them out there. The downside with these are that we have to do all of our shopping online which is quite difficult when you're choosing things for your house and can't quite tell what colour they are, or feel the fabric. It also means that those guests who do like to go shopping and pick something out themselves can't really and it relies on everyone having internet access. Anyway, I looked at three or four of them, compared prices and ranges, gave Toby the gist and chose Home Couture. I then began what I assumed would be the fun task of adding items to our registry. I was immediately disappointed with the bedding (mostly white) and towel ranges which were limited and then I couldn't find battery-powered kitchen scales which take up much less space than the gorgeous retro-look ones Home Couture had in stock. I was also disappointed with the range of kettles and toasters. Eventually I ended up opening a registry with Wedding Gifts Direct as well to fill in some of the blanks.

Two registries on the go

Home Couture had much better prices so anything I couldn't find there I'd add to my Wedding Gifts Direct registry. I found the Home Couture website really frustrating to use, not least because at any one time approximately 40-50% of the items seem to be out of stock and it always seems to be the thing I want. The website itself was badly organised with one long drop down list of categories which is really difficult to read and incredibly haphazard. They really need some help cleaning up their data. My eyes hurt as I scan through the long list looking for something I want, there about three categories called Accessories, some categories are empty, others seem very random. All the items, no matter how many there are, are listed on one page which can become extremely long. There is a category called Cake Stands but there is also a cake stand in the category called Platters. There is a category called Knife Blocks but there are knife blocks in the category called Knives. I even found a salad bowl in the Computer Accessories department. "How on earth did we think this was the best website?" I found myself wondering.

Meanwhile, Wedding Gifts Direct wouldn't send us invite inserts until we'd finalised our registry and approved the terms and conditions which stated that once we'd finalised our registry we could only make changes in writing and were limited to three changes. All of the other registries I looked at allowed us to continue adding and removing items until the wedding day, provided the items haven't been purchased. Not only that but after charging each guest $10 for delivery (I seem to remember delivery being free in UK) they only deliver Mon-Fri and if you're not there to receive the delivery they charge you to redeliver. I told them I didn't accept either of these conditions so we got rid of that registry after I'd already spent a considerable amount of time adding things to it.

Back to one registry, and a less than satisfactory one at that

Home Couture didn't have the dining set I wanted (which I'd removed from the registry anyway after Toby pointed out that no one was going to spend that much money on us and we'd be lucky to get one plate) so I set about looking for other nice things and then I realised why I was surprised at how difficult I was finding this exercise. The online shop, which we'd browsed around whilst choosing our registry, is actually organised. There are three departments: Cooking, Dining and Living which are broken into subcategories, all nicely organised, sensible categories containing just the king of items you'd expect them too and multiple pages so you don't go blind trying to look at everything at once.

I sent a message via their "Chat Live with Customer Service" link which actually just sends them an email and asked if I couldn't just browse the online shop and add items to my registry from there.

No, they said, but why don't you browse the shop and make a note on paper of the items you'd like, then sign into your registry and list all the products by that vendor and find your items that way?

Hello? Make a list on paper? Kind of defeats the purpose of having an ONLINE registry, doesn't it? I tell you what.... instead of all that why don't YOU sort your website out and tidy up your data?

So here I am with the invites already a couple of weeks later than planned and still no satisfactory resolution to the registry issue. We've decided to ask our guests for money too so that we can buy all the things that aren't available or are "out of stock" on the Home Couture registry. I'm very tempted to spend Saturday in David Jones setting up a new registry. They don't have a local store which was why we didn't consider them in the beginning but I'm in Brisbane anyway this weekend. I'm also tempted to open a registry with one of the other online companies I found but I have spent so much time on this already and it hasn't been that fun, that I just don't think I can bring myself to do it. Besides, experience has shown me that just because the website is good it doesn't mean the bridal registry is.

Who would have thought that setting up a registry would end up being the most stressful part of planning a wedding? Bring back the days of 10 sets of pink sheets (if they're 1000 thread Egyptian cotton who cares what colour they are?), two toasters and ugly ovenproof dishes... so long as I get my Waterford crystal champagne glasses too.

Another Lindsey Buckle!!!

2007-05-15T14:54:00.000+10:00

There's another Lindsey Buckle in the world! Found him/her when googling my name in an moment of boredom and self-obsession: http://www.bctrust.org/Tshirts.html. This other Lindsey Buckle is obviously a bit younger than me - about 11 by my calculations - and American but we can't all be perfect and s/he's a good artist.

I did come up on the first page twice actually, once for being on LinkedIn and again for a comment I left on the BBC website after the solar eclipse in 1999.

Then I tried putting my name in quotes and found the movie Oscar made whilst we were on holiday over New Year 2006. It's the first time I've seen the final production, starring Toby. Check it out: http://www.switch.tv/videos/598

On the second page of that search is a link to an article which appeared in the Evening Standard newspaper six years ago where I was randomly interviewed on the street about my salary and spending habits. That was a bit of a blast from the past. I remember that period of my life now. It was back when I was the centre of the universe and well on my way to being famous. I was approached by a model agency on London Bridge to fill in for a model who hadn't shown up... had to pretend to walk past a red London bus for an ad for a mobile phone company, so that I would be in focus but the bus would be blurred. Trouble was we had to wait for a bus to come past and then the sun went in and the photographer had to change the film in his camera (remember the days of film?) and in the end I had to leave for my dental appointment. There was also the time I was filmed by BBC News walking across London Bridge. I think they still drag that one out of the archives occasionally although I've never seen it. Oh yes... and then there was the time Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen serenaded me on camera in one of the tunnels of Bank tube station whilst I ran away in horror on my way to the theatre.... ah! Those were the days, when fame and fortune were at my fingertips.

How can I change the world?

2007-05-11T08:28:00.000+10:00

Often I wonder if I'll ever get around to doing anything that will make a difference to the world, no matter how small. For a while there I dreamed of becoming a climate change educator and even used this blog to reach the few people I felt I could. I don't know if I made any sort of impact - I didn't get many comments indicating as such - but anyway, matters seem to have been taken out of my hands on that one, which is a good thing as the world couldn't wait for me to become an expert. A few years back I considered voluntary work, and eventually settled on reef research, but I didn't get myself organised in time and wasn't willing enough to change my plans to fit it in.

More recently I have taken it upon myself to write irate emails to the local bus company, complaining of a deterioration in the service I catch to work. I am very happy to report that a positive, albeit small, change has occurred as a result of those emails and I can only hope that the long-term outcome is a general improvement in public transport services on the Sunshine Coast, leading to greater use and thus fewer cars on the roads, ironic when you remember that I'm considering the purchase of the car in the next 6-12 months. And I was so proud to be belong to a one car "family". Unfortunately, experience tells me that people only start using public transport when the traffic or parking gets so bad it is no longer viable to use the car, and by then the Sunshine Coast will be just like any other noisy, dirty city. So maybe I should go back to the climate change education and encourage people to stop using their cars for reasons of environmental pollution, rather than personal pain. At least in the short term, a few more students will arrive in time for their 9am lectures, although they're probably so used to the buses being late that they have by now arranged alternative transport and settled themselves into a routine.

I've wondered whether I could use my enjoyment of writing to change the world. To be honest, I don't think I do enough with it, I don't practice it or make efforts to improve in any way. This blog gets an update every now and then but I'm always a bit too concerned with boring or offending people to completely let go. I wonder whether in years to come people will read it and get an idea of what it was like to live in the new millennium, the information age, the dawn of social networking and web 2.0. (Have you noticed how everything seems to be 2.0 these days? What is that all about?) Yes, I quite fancy myself as a bit of a latter day Pepys. But there are so many people "blogging" these days, what's to make Random Thoughts stand out beyond any other? Perhaps I should be harnessing my unique perspective on life as a Geordie down-under. That would surely narrow the competition down a bit although it does leave me with Ross Noble who has the edge on me with both wit and randomness.

Will chocolate cake change the world? I like to think so.

Perhaps for now I should just settle on making a small difference every day. Today I am going to make a difference for 10 people I work with. Every Friday we have a meeting and "morning tea" together. I never really heard or used that expression in England and I was trying to think of a translation. All I could think of was "coffee" or "tea-break" or maybe "cake" but that doesn't quite convey it. Morning tea is a drink plus snacks. It can be used in a range of contexts. For example, our team has it with a meeting. The university is really big on morning teas and every fortnight one building hosts a social morning tea for the rest of the uni. It's a chance to meet and greet folk from other areas who one may not normally work with, an opportunity to put names to faces. We also have celebratory morning teas for birthdays and events, such as International Women's Day a couple of months ago. When people leave we'll throw a morning tea or afternoon tea to see them off and every Christmas HR throws a morning tea on the last day. This is my favourite morning tea because we're usually allowed to go home straight afterwards so effectively we don't have to do any work.

So anyway, today is my turn for the weekly Corporate Information Systems morning tea. Some folk go to the supermarket and buy a load of stuff, usually really naughty stuff full of preservatives, with some grapes thrown in for those who want to be healthy. Others go all out and make their own dips and cakes, and some guys even have wives who bake for us every 10 weeks. It's always an exciting moment, approaching the table and discovering what delights have been brought unto you. Well, I was baking all night last night so I think the boys (and girls - there are three of us again, yay!) are in for a treat this morning. Whilst simultaneously making the tea, I managed to bake Delia's very naughty Chocolate Beer Cake. This is such a yummy cake and lots of fun to make but I grew increasingly horrified at how naughty it was - so much sugar - that I decided I would also bake some healthy, low fat fruity muffins. I then made tzatziki dip. Hopefully these delights, and the effort I put in will make a difference to the kind of day the rest of the team are having.

Tomorrow I will make another small difference by passing on a life-changing book to a friend. But I'll tell you about that another time... maybe.

Something inspirational

2007-05-02T16:46:00.000+10:00

A couple of years back I read a quote in a book called Affluenza: the all-consuming epidemic by John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor, which I found so inspirational that I photocopied it and stuck it on my wall at work. As often happens with things you put up to inspire you on a daily basis, I got so used to it being there that I forgot about it. Today, I was having a bit of a declutter and rearrangement and as I was sticking up a new daily thing to remember (33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity by Steve Pavlina for those who are interested... very useful), I noticed it again and now feel compelled to share it:

"People don't need enormous cars, they need respect. They don't need closets full of clothes, they need to feel attractive and they need excitement and variety and beauty. People don't need electronic equipment; they need something worthwhile to do with their lives. People need identity, community, challenge, acknowledgement, love and joy. To try to fill these needs with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never-satisfied problems. The resulting psychological emptiness is one of the major forces behind the desire for material growth."^[1]

Wise words indeed.

I'm glad I put that quote up because it is easy to forget all that in our society, forever striving for more, always being tempted by the newest sparkly gadgety thing, especially when planning a wedding. It's nice to be reminded that these things aren't necessary, that life only really needs to be as complicated as we choose to make it, and .... oooh... look! New shoes!!!

[1] This quote is attributed to Donella Meadows in Beyond the Limits

Games to play at work - No. 1

2007-04-27T13:25:00.000+10:00

For any waitresses out there, here's a mean (but funny) trick to play on your customers.

Wait until another waitress has seated said customers and presented them with menus. Monitor the expressions on their faces. Be diligent in this - it's all in the timing. If they're looking particularly excited by the menu selection then this works all the better. Just as they look like they're about to come to a decision approach their table, as though you're about to take their order, and announce, "Er.... the kitchen's closed now".

Watch the expressions on their faces as they try to understand whether that means they aren't going to get their food and wonder why they were seated in the first place if that is the case. Hilarious!

This actually happened to us last night. Oh how we laughed! Thankfully it turned out to be a case of waitress miscommunication... or so she told us.

Things you see every day but don't really notice - No. 1

2007-04-26T15:04:00.000+10:00

Sign outside lift on ground floor of my building:

"Do not use lifts if there is a fire"

If I was more prepared I would have taken a photograph but you'll just have to take my word for it. I can understand why you might place such a message on any of the other floors but the ground floor? It begs the question, why would one be entering a building (because that's the only thing you're likely to be doing if you're accessing the lift from the ground floor) if there is a fire inside said building? Unless of course one is unaware that there is a fire in said building, which then means that one would ignore the message anyway, which kind of renders the message pointless, obsolete and a waste of space, wouldn't you say?

Australian speed limit: 60! No, 20!! Wait!... best make it 50

2007-04-23T15:12:00.000+10:00

After a weekend travelling to visit Toby's parents in Highfields, near Toowoomba and back, encountering numerous signs for roadworks that never quite seemed to eminate and getting stuck behind cattle movers and road-trains doing 40kph on 100kph roads, I thought it was time that I shared with you this fascinating example of Queensland road management I snapped on our trip to Bargara, near Bundaberg last June. It tickled me so much at the time that I made Toby reverse back down the road so I could lean out of the car and get a photo. I hope it tickles you just as much and helps ease the Monday maladies.

Should have, should've, should of

2007-04-11T14:38:00.000+10:00

It's easy to see how the mistake could be made. I mean if we take time to think about it, it's obvious that the correct way to say you should have done something or you might have done something is just that: using the word "have". For example, if I'm talking about how I should have taken sugar on our recent Easter camping trip to Girraween National Park, I'm not saying I should do it (because it's clearly too late), I'm not saying I have done it (because that would be a lie), I'm saying I "should have" done it. But I probably wouldn't say "should have", I would shorten it to "should've" which sounds like "should of". I'm not even sure if "should of" makes sense, never mind what it means.

People that know me also know that whilst I'm not particularly good at grammar, I love reading and writing and I am a bit of a stickler for correct spelling and correct usage of the English language. I'm one of those people that bought the Eats, Shoots & Leaves book [see footnote *] and read it thinking "oh yeah, that really peeves me too". (Apostrophes in plurals particularly get my goat, e.g. Fish and chip's. Grrr.) In recent years, probably since moving to Australia, I've noticed more people saying "should of". At first I figured it was probably due to a difference in accent or pronounciation but then I started to notice it a lot. I've even started correcting Toby and I hate that in myself. I sound like an angry school teacher but it just seems that I'm hearing it more and more and if I can in any way influence the masses to stop making this annoying mistake I will do so.

Then, a couple of years ago, I read a book which actually had "should of" there in writing. There was no way that could be mistaken for accent or pronounciation. I think the book was "The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay, an otherwise excellent book. Every time I noticed it was in dialogue so I thought that maybe Courtenay was presenting it as slang, something the South African characters might say in error. I decided to let it slide. Now I'm reading another book, a classic, some may say: "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey and again, littered throughout the book are references to how one or another of the characters "should of" done something. I can't bear it. This is supposed to be literature. We give these books to our kids to read at school and does anyone ever think to point out to them that it is grammatically incorrect to say "should of" instead of "should have"? Again, in the book's defense, it is written from the viewpoint of a native American who is a patient in the mental asylum so perhaps it is an error that the character makes as opposed to the author. One can only hope. How are people supposed to learn correct grammar if our literature is riddled with bad examples of it?

I am right though, aren't I? This error seems so prevalent that I'm beginning to question myself. Does anyone else get annoyed by this kind of thing or am I turning into one of those grumpy old women on the TV show?

* Footnote: Please note, I "bought" this book. To say I "brought" it has an entirely different meaning and this is another really irritating mistake I have noticed a few people make lately. (Perhaps I should become an English teacher).

Yawn! Is it bed time yet?

2007-04-03T14:16:00.000+10:00

Hello. I just thought I'd pop by and say hi as I haven't written an update in over a month. I've been somewhat fatigued over the last couple of weeks and today I feel like I could crawl under my desk and have a good old-fashioned snooze, or "power-nap" as they are called in professional circles these days. I've had quite a few days off work lately thanks to some mysterious virus... possibly the same mysterious virus that I had this time last year as the symptoms are similar. The doctor has put me on iron tablets and ordered that I go on holiday. Who am I to argue? Anyway, due to my recent sick leave I currently feel like I should just struggle through the day as best I can which is why I'm here and not at home having that old-fashioned snooze.

I'm not the only one mind. Toby has also been struck down with very similar symptoms and has been unwell for even longer than me. He has a potential name for his illness though - Dilbert Syndrome or something. It's a genetic illness which is triggered by spending too much time working or at a computer. I suspect he has inherited it from his father. Dilbert Syndrome affects the liver so together we're on a good liver, high iron diet. I'm not really sure what a good liver diet is but it's low in sugar and fat. A high iron diet also means avoiding certain foods that prevent the absorption of iron and these include some of my most favouritest things unfortunately: coffee, tea, red wine (ouch), chocolate (double ouch) and ice cream. I think though, that you only have to avoid them whilst you're actually trying to absorb the iron so a cup of tea and a bar of chocolate between meals should be fine.

On top of all this, not a day has gone by for about a month now when at least one person from my office has not been absent due to sickness. We're thinking of blaming the building we work in because it's horrible and must be responsible for something bad. The worst thing is the windows. When you're sitting they're at about eye level, maybe slightly higher. For those of us on the fourth floor this means you can just about see the tops of some trees that are about 1km away and lots of sky, maybe a couple of clouds if you're lucky. The windows are about a metre high and apparently this doesn't restrict our vision quite enough because there is also a metal grid on the outside of the building so in fact you can only just see the tops of the trees between the bits of metal. Our manager and section director don't have grids in front of their windows though... I swear the windows are lower too but that could just be because I'm usually standing when I'm in their offices.

The second worst thing about this building is the air conditioning. It's always really cold and some days are colder than others. Some days there is a perceptible draft. Today is one of those. So not only am I tired but I'm also cold. I was going to give you all a quick update on my wedding plans but instead I think I'll go make a cup of tea... iron disabsorber or not!

Tune in next week for wedding plans, car hunting and my Easter trip to Girraween National Park.... providing I get around to actually writing about it all, that is.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing American Honeybees

2007-03-01T07:22:00.000+10:00

I'm a bit worried about the bees. Apparently, all over America, honeybees have been going for a bit of a jaunt about the countryside and then never returning home. One poor beekeeper estimates that half of his 100 million bees are missing. Imagine that!! 50 million bees! That's a lot of bees to count. Must have taken him quite some time. Perhaps half of the bees thought "Stuff this for a game of monkeys, life's too short. We'll be little old women-bees by the time he's finished and then we'll all die of starvation! I'm off out to get me some pollen."

So that's one theory. But other theories are far more worrying. They range from the effects of pesticides to bee-stress caused by beekeepers' tendency to roam around the country with their hives stashed in the back of a lorry. I can relate to commuter stress. The buses and traffic near where I work have been nothing short of shocking lately. My usual bus is now approximately 20 minutes late every day, sometimes more, which wouldn't be too bad if they ran more than once an hour. I've missed a few gym classes due to the bus being trapped in the car park for 20 minutes because all the damn students drive to uni. It wasn't like that in my day. There have been a few angry emails, I can tell you. I just hope I don't go the way of the bees and disappear - although some days I do feel like not bothering to even try to get to work. So perhaps the bees just got sick of those long boring drives in the back of a lorry and decided on a sea-change. Perhaps at the first chance, they escaped to a nice sleepy town for a cruisey life. Stuff the honey, they're choosing lifestyle.

Strangely, no one seems to be considering climate change as a factor. Perhaps that's because the beekeepers are able to move their bees to more appropriate climes. It must be the only thing in the news at the moment that isn't being blamed on climate change.

But what's most concerning is the impact this decline in honeybees is having on crops, in particular California almonds. I don't even want to entertain the idea of a world without almonds and my wallet can't cope with an increase in price. Not to mention the thought of no honey, both staple ingredients in my morning muesli.

For the full story see http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27bees.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp

IE7? Why?

2007-02-22T16:40:00.000+10:00

Amidst all the wedding planning that has become my life, I decided to download and install IE7 at work today. I only did it because an online application at work suddenly seemed to develop a bug in Firefox that was seriously interfering with my ability to get on with my work. I prefer Firefox for this app anyway as it actually opens Word documents in Word as opposed to some weird Word-browser hybrid.

After waiting what seemed like an age for the damn thing to install it finally asked me if I wanted to reboot now (recommended apparently) or later. As I had lots of applications and documents open I decided to shut everything down manually so I selected to reboot later. The installer didn't seem convinced. It double-checked and reminded me that it was recommended that I reboot now but I stuck to my guns. IE then got it's own back by giving me the blue screen of death when I restarted and rebooting again anyway. Then, as if to prove its point, it refused to open. I rebooted yet again but IE still wouldn't play nice. I had no choice but to reinstall it again and after being unable to find the original download file I also had to download it again. Given that IE wouldn't even run it was lucky I had Firefox installed, wasn't it?

Eventually I got everything working quite nicely but you know what? I really can't be bothered with IE. I have been using Firefox for so long now and have lots of extensions installed that help me do the things I need to do. I particularly like my GMail Notifier that sits in my toolbar and lets me logon at the push of a button and then lets me know whenever I get a new email. I also like the Google Notebook extension that allows me to add to Notebooks using the right-click and to view and edit mini notebooks using an icon in the bottom of my browser.

I haven't tried very hard to find the equivalent add-ons for IE but I have had a quick look and I don't really see why I should try hard. With Firefox it's just easy. Now I'm sure this is because I'm used to the Firefox environment and I just need to take some time to reacquaint myself with IE and it's add-ons but when I have a browser that for the most part will do what I want with no effort, I just can't be bothered to spend the time looking into it.

There are some useful features of IE, such as the Web Developer and Web Accessibility toolbars that I use for work and obviously I'll continue to test websites in both IE and Firefox. IE7 certainly looks great and has lots of great features. For those peeps who have put up with IE6 for so long it's a great replacement and everyone should be encouraged to move to IE7 right away - it's so much better. But for those of us that gave up on IE years ago and moved to Firefox, I'm sorry Microsoft but it's just too little too late.

Stevie baby: Croc hunter meets his match

2007-02-07T12:46:00.000+10:00

I just had to share this movie of Steve Irwin with "Ross the Intern" whomever he is, some camp dude that doesn't like anything touching his face and freaks out at the mere sight of a tarantula. It's absolutely hilarous. Made my day.

Those of you reading this on email will have to go to the website to view the embedded movie: http://linsdownunder.blogspot.com/

Engagement party on the beach

2007-02-01T15:21:00.000+10:00

Hopefully I've given you long enough to get through my very long post about our trip away. There were a few days left out but they mainly consisted of driving down to London, celebrating our engagement with friends Karen and Steve, who have also got engaged since we last saw them, celebrating our engagement again with Barbara and Ian and walking in the rain (always seems to happen when we're with Barb and Ian and their little King Charles Spaniel, Millie!).

Since arriving back in Australia we've been settling back into our routine, inspecting the furniture donated from the neighbour's house (yes, there was more than just the sofa-bed), trying to get our beach bodies back again (no mean feat after six weeks of covering up and eating rich foods), catching up with friends and family, trying to cope with the intense heat and humidity that we've had over the last week or so and, of course, planning a wedding.

We had a few friends round last Friday which was Australia Day and took the opportunity to celebrate our engagement (again!) - on the beach, drinking champagne. What a life. I do love Australia Day. Almost makes me want to become an Australian citizen. The weather is always good, everyone is in a good mood and you don't have to go to work. To have it on a Friday is the best luck... wonder what will happen next year when it falls on a Saturday?

Diary of our holiday (more appropriately referred to as a "trip" or "visit home").

2007-01-17T14:44:00.000+10:00

Warning! This is a long post to make up for the lack of blogging whilst I was away.

Day 1 : Saturday 2nd December 2006

My birthday. Ran round the house all day in panic with sick feeling in stomach feeling very anxious, not sure why. Unpacked half of the case I'd started packing the day before and shoved the extra clothes in bedroom cupboard. Quick afternoon tea with the family before leaving house in absolute mess for Toby's parents to clean up whilst we're away (not intentionally, understand). Ended up in neighbour's house trying to avoid being given all of her old furniture - goodness knows what we'll have when we get back. Had nice champagne dinner with party hats and balloons in the airport and the gay barman gave me free chocolate mudcake. Boarded plane still feeling anxious.

Day 2 : Sunday 3rd December 2006

Arrived in Dubai early morning and went straight to Nyc and Gerard's place. Spent the day trying not to fall asleep in Wild Wadi Waterpark. Toby hurt his neck.

Day 3 : Monday 4th December 2006

Went shopping in Ibn Battuta mall. Impressive themes, particularly the Persian tiled ceiling. Chinese junk a close second. Have nothing nice to wear to go out so bought nice top from River Island... think it was cheaper than UK but at least I have something nice to wear whilst I'm here. Looked unsuccessfully for boots as only have hiking boots and flip-flops. Went for very expensive food and drink in the very cool Buddha Bar. Should have worn new top but Nyc said just go as I was so ended up wearing jeans, hiking boots and nice woolly pink jumper. I am the height of cool and style. Had the first gin and tonic of the holiday and a very good one it was too. Was impressed to see there was a gin menu but was disconcerted to see that Plymouth Gin was on there. I chose a cool smooth Tanqueray.

Day 4 : Tuesday 5th December 2006

Visited the museum and old Bastia Quarter. Saw old wind towers. Much better than shopping. More cultural and picturesque. Had late lunch by the creek and wandered through the fabric souk. Toby has started saying "Excuse me, Sir" to everyone.

Day 5 : Wednesday 6th December 2006

Checked out Emirates Mall in the morning. Looked for boots again. Was unsuccessful again. Toby saw some shoes for himself though. Went on a four wheel drive desert safari. Dressed up as Arabs and rode camels all of about 10 metres and back - getting on and off was a thrill though. Belly-danced and then had to purchase spangly dangly belly dancing scarf and jingle around. Also purchased useless sand picture in bottle. Will only serve to weigh down luggage but was relieved to hear Nyc and Gerard were also persuaded to part with cash for such a pointless souvenir. Smoked sheesha (or hubbly bubbly). Tasted nice to start with but hurt my lungs after a while.

Day 6 : Thursday 7th December 2006

Woke up with sore throat thanks to the sheesha. Went shopping in Emirates Mall again. There's a ski slope there which we were thinking of checking out but we were possessed by the shopping demons. It was hell. I'm sick of shopping and never want to see that mall again. Looked for boots all day and eventually settled for a pair to tide me over and give me something to wear in UK. Have birthday money for boots though so will definitely get some nice ones in UK. Am rethinking style I want now and have gone from square toe and heel to pointy toe and heel. Can't have them too high though or I'll fall over. And must be reasonably comfortable. And UK size 7. Not too baggy on the leg - definitely want to wear them under jeans rather than over but must also look good with a skirt. Want them to come to somewhere between my calf and knee. I mean IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK????? The worst thing about not finding any boots is it means I have to go shopping AGAIN when we get to UK. Also had to purchase toy guns so we could dress as jungle AWOL commandos for a "jungle fever" house party that night. The party was really good but perhaps we stayed up rather late considering we're leaving tomorrow. Got back around 4am and got straight onto internet to reserve our seats on the plane.

Day 7 : Friday 8th December 2006

Broke one of the elastic packing straps inside my suitcase. Silly cheap suitcase. Was sad to leave Nyc and Gerard but had a great time in the airport. Bought some perfume - a rare luxury I'd decided I'd do a few weeks ago even though I ended up then getting some from Toby's dad for my birthday. Also bought a CD of local chill-out music recommended by Nyc_Ger and three books, one of which was recommended by Nyc, another about the history of Islam and the third about a woman who was held prisoner in one of Saddam's torture jails. On the way to the perfume counter the Bombay Gin caught my eye and it was only about $20!!!!! So I bought that too. $20!!!! Absolute bargain. Arrived in London in evening and went to Cheryl's place for a quiet night.

Day 8 : Saturday 9th December 2006

It's cold!!! It's bitterly cold AND sunny. It's crisp, fresh and perfect. Maybe we will get snow after all. Woke up feeling like I might have a cold coming on - haven't quite recovered from the sheesha. Toby, Cheryl and I went for a walk over Wandsworth Common and back up Northcote Road markets. It was really nice being back in the buzz of London. Bought feta stuffed chillies in the markets for some silly price. Can't quite get my head around UK prices. Everything looks cheap until you multiply it by 2.4. My concept of value is out of wack. It's very Christmassy. All the florists are selling Christmas wreaths and the streets outside them are lined with trees. We keep seeing people walking their trees home. Got home and drank cider with Scotty and Ben before the lads went out to the pub and bonded. Went out that night with all the old uni gang and some other really good mates too. Wore my new top. And the fill-in boots. Had a great night catching up with people but hope to see everyone again before I leave.

Day 9 : Sunday 10th December 2006

Have a cold. Feel rotten. Everyone else is hungover. Got up before Cheryl and Scotty and went for a coffee with Toby. Dozed on settee this afternoon watching Planet Earth. Was nice even if I did feel nasty. Cheryl cooked a nice roast dinner and I had an early night.

Day 10 : Monday 11th December 2006

Still have cold. What a rotten way to start my holidays. Can't be bothered to do anything. Think will just stay in and stick my Dubai photos onto the web.

Later: Stayed in and stuck my Dubai photos onto web. Also, went for a coffee with Toby and then for a walk despite Toby's protests because it was raining. I mean, I'm already sick - what's the point of staying in. Got kitted up in my bestest outdoor gear and wandered round my old neighbourhood returning only when my water resistant trousers started letting the water in. Toby's going for a Brick Lane curry with James Farr tonight but I'm not up to it so I think I'll go visit Cherie.

Day 11 : Tuesday 12th December 2006

Feeling much better. Still sniffly but head cold is clearing. Had a lovely roast beef dinner and some nice wine with Cherie last night, talked nonsense and watched Buffy. It was just like the old days. Toby stayed at James' and I met him at Victoria this morning. We headed over to the Google offices to meet Cameron, an Australian friend who works there. Quite impressive. Had a go in the massage chair which was really nice except for the bit where it feels like it's going to squeeze your legs til they burst. Got a free lunch. There are fridges everywhere with free drinks. Also, free chocolate and snack bars and fruit. Stocked up for the afternoon. Scored a free t-shirt each too. Mine's cool - one of the Google "o"s is the female symbol, ♀. Went to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2006 exhibition at the Natural History Musuem. There was a Christmas fair on at the front of the museum. Had a brief look in the Victoria and Albert museum next door and checked out an amazing sculpture in the garden made of columns that light up different colours to music and react to the movement of people wandering through them. Forgot camera. Gutted. Met up with Nina in the pub. Haven't seen her since I moved to Australia as she moved back to Germany for a while. Paul and Dan, who Toby and I worked with in Investia joined us followed by Paul's girlf, Christine and we headed back to their place for food.

Day 12 : Wednesday 13th December 2006

Weather is getting much milder now which is severly endangering our chances of snow whilst we're here. Went to Covent Garden. Looked at boots. Think I've seen some I like in Jones The Bootmakers but they're £90. Don't even want to think about what that is in $AUDs. Then went to my Israeli friend Sigal's place. She cooked a wonderful meal and it was really nice to see her again. We stayed the night.

Day 13 : Thursday 14th December 2006

Walked round the park near Sigal's place then headed back to Cheryl's place in Balham. Returned to Covent Garden. Looked at those boots again. Still think they're quite nice but expensive. Met up with my old chum, Gi, recently married and one of the first friends I made in London back in 1997. Gi's wife, Jo joined us and we went for dinner in Wagamama's. Had a great night.

Day 14 : Friday 15th December 2006

Got up early and prepared breakfast for Cheryl and Scotty to say thanks and goodbye. Scotty went out last night on a works do. He was listening to U2 on his iPod when he got home at 1am. I know because I could hear it quite clearly until Cheryl made him turn it off. He couldn't understand what her problem was. He didn't make it for breakfast this morning. Packed up after they'd got off to work and got the train back to the airport to pick up a hire car. Spent most of the day on the M25. Finally arrived in Cambridge at about 4pm but got lost. Bought a map but got stuck in rush-hour traffic and made it to Aileen's way after 5pm. After a quick catch-up with Aileen and Jonathan we met up with Sal, a friend from the Sunshine Coast who is also living in Cambridge, and went for curry. Then met up with Sal's boyfriend Dan and his workmates for drinks.

Day 15 : Saturday 16th December 2006

Decided to spend another day in Cambridge. Aileen and Jonathan went away but kindly allowed us to stay in their house another night. Toby and Dan went on a bike ride. Sal and I went shopping and had a much more successful trip than previously. Still didn't get the boots though. Have seen some other possibilities but the ones from Jones are still looking like they might be the best. So expensive though. Was lovely spending the day with Sal and she's a great shopping buddy - that must be a compliment coming from someone who's not that into shopping. Had a nice meal with Dan and Sal and an early night.

Day 16 : Sunday 17th December 2006

Got up early and drove to Mam and Dad's. Didn't hit any traffic surprisingly although did almost get lost on a detour and ended up doubling back on ourselves. Is nice to be home. Mam's new kitten is adorable. My case is now so heavy that Toby broke the handle on the top of it whilst carrying it upstairs for me. Silly cheap suitcase. Toby slept and I went round to Gran and Grandpa's to catch up with my uncle and some cousins who won't be around for Christmas. Surprised my Nana and Granda with a visit too. Had a chilled night. Still haven't opened that bargain gin I bought in Dubai airport. Have a bottle of vodka in my collection too, a gift from Cherie. Have some serious drinking to do.

Day 17 : Monday 18th December 2006

Spent half a day in the loft looking for my dressing gown. Didn't find it but did find some old but still good winter clothes, a box of photographs from my university days, my old mini-disc player and the disc of songs Cherie and I recorded together some years ago, some books, including one I wanted to take back to Australia and my Nintendo GameBoy Advance and games. Spent some time looking through old photos and playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Took my old winter coat to the dry cleaners. Tried to sort out some photos and blog stuff but mysteriously my wireless card is not picking up any signals.

Day 18 : Tuesday 19th December 2006

Toby has started saying "Brilliant" all the time. Went to the Metro Centre to do some Christmas shopping. Looked at boots again. Was there all day. Eventually got the ones from Jones' even though they're expensive as was sick of shopping. Then walked past Dolcis and saw another pair, similar but cheaper and possibly a better fit. Bought them too. I now have three pairs of boots. Saw a dress I wanted for a christening on New Year's Eve. Toby offered to get it for me for Christmas but has to transfer money into his account first.

Day 19 : Wednesday 20th December 2006

Drove down to York to stay with Sadie and Tim. Was a beautiful day at home but turned all wintery on the way, all frosty and when we hit the outskirts of York, fog so thick it was like driving through pea soup. It is the nearest we've got so far to a white Christmas. My hopes for snow are returning. Navigating the country villages in the fog was tricky but we made it there and amused Sadie and Tim's three children for a while before having a nice meal and drunken catch-up with the grown-ups.

Day 20 : Thursday 21st December 2006

Was rudely awoken at 8.30am by the children. Had to politely ask them to leave us alone for a couple of hours or we'd be very grumpy later. The girls obliged but the toddler came back periodically to launch himself onto Toby. It was a slow start and everyone felt rotten but eventually we all managed to get up, stomach some food and even take the kids for a walk. It was a nice walk except Alex, the toddler kept either stopping or turning round and walking in the wrong direction. I really don't think we went very far at all. Tonight was a lot more chilled out than last night.

Day 21 : Friday 22nd December 2006

Left Sadie's in the morning and called into York to check the Minster was still there (it was) and a do bit more Christmas shopping. Tried to get my dress but they didn't have it in the York store. Then drove back to Mam and Dad's.

Day 22 : Saturday 23rd December 2006

Toby went to the Newcastle-Chelsea game with my brother-in-law, Alan this afternoon. I hung out at my sister's place with her. We went for a bit of a walk and drank some vodka before getting ready to go into Newcastle. Decided we'd give each other Christmas stockings. Met up with my best friend, Catherine, plus Dan and Sal who are spending Christmas in Hexham, north of Newcastle. Toby and Alan were supposed to meet us in the pub too but strangely, they didn't turn up. Met up with the rest of the gang for dinner and eventually tracked down the lads who were a wee bit drunk. Another good night catching up with friends.

Day 23 : Sunday 24th December 2006

Did some last minute Christmas shopping in Newcastle on the way back to Washington and ran around picking things up for Clare's stocking. Please say this is the last time I have to go shopping. I know it isn't as I still need to take the boots back to Jones' (wore the Dolcis ones last night) and there isn't one in Newcastle. Went to Durham Cathedral for Carol Service. Saw the Bishop and everything. Thought I'd better make an effort to look nice so wore my new boots and nice long winter coat. Was so packed had to stand. For over an hour. Boots hurt. Got hot and had to take coat off. Nearly fainted a few times. The Program of Service was 30 pages long. Thirty pages!!!!! Was good though. Felt holy afterwards. Ready to do some more sinning now. Went home, drank mulled wine and wrapped presents. Can't believe it's Christmas day tomorrow.

Day 24 : Monday 25th December 2006

Christmas Day!!! No snow. :-( Not even cold really. Slow start to the day, followed by present opening, bucks fizz, arrival of family, more present opening, beautiful roast turkey and pork dinner with Christmas pudding and brandy sauce for desert, then games, including hilarious play station karaoke game Mam got for Christmas. Mam's sister, Barbara loved it. Wasn't particularly good at it but could we get her to stop? No. Got a digital photo frame from Mam and Dad. Copied some of our holiday photos onto it and noticed that wireless card was suddenly working. Great - can get some blogging and photo stuff done now.

Day 25 : Tuesday 26th December 2006

Headed to Seaburn in Sunderland early this morning so Toby could do the Boxing Day Dip. This is where people dress up (or not) and then jump into the sea all in the name of charity. Toby wasn't really prepared but he paid his money and jumped in (three times, AND had a body surf) in his boardies. It was good fun, quite cold though but not frosty or icy, and there were some great costumes. Then more family stuff. Round to Gran and Grandpa's to see my cousins. Much fun was had with some weird liquid balloon making kits we'd brought over from Australia. Probably the cheapest present they'd had but it entertained them for hours. More present opening and game playing.

Day 26 : Wednesday 27th December 2006.

Even more family stuff. Round to Nana and Granda's for food before the entire family, all 19 or 20 of us went to the Pantomime. It's an annual thing, a very small local show. This year was Babes in the Wood with a Robin Hood song with actions we'd seen some years back. We thought we were quite clever, remembering all the words and actions but it seems the same people must go every year as they didn't even tell us them this year - just assumed we knew. Afterwards some of us went for a pint and curry. Yum.

Day 27 : Thursday 28th December 2006.

Went for a swim this morning and then to the Metro Centre to take my spare boots back and also a jumper that had a hole in it and a couple of other bits and pieces. There's this thing now where the sales start straight after Christmas and it was hell. The worst shopping experience so far. Met up with Bev and her two year old, Charlotte for a coffee which was nice but then had to take my jumper back to Next and it was just awful. Couldn't find a replacement for the jumper (Next take all their non-sale stuff out of the store during the sale) so picked up anything in my size which looked okay, including a shirt I'd thought about getting when I was in Dubai. Then headed to the changing rooms to find them closed but that's okay apparently because you can take stuff back for 28 days AFTER tomorrow. Grrrr.... So tried to throw a couple of things on over my clothes in the shops but people kept trying to make off with my swag. Wanted to get something as the jumper had been bought with birthday vouchers from my sister so eventually selected a couple of shirts including the one I'd seen previously. Took them to the counter to be told that they don't do refunds on sales days but she'd make an exception - how nice!!! She was doing ME a favour. Well, I should damn well think so given that they'd sold me faulty goods. Really hope the shirts are okay. Can't stand the thought of going back.

Day 28 : Friday 29th December 2006.

Was very windy today. Went for a great walk along the Lees at Whitburn. The wind was really cold so it blew the cobwebs out. Really enjoyed being on cliff tops in the cold, windy weather - so energising. The beaches were quite sheltered in comparison. I love the coastline here. Back to Mam and Dad's this afternoon for another family do with my grandparents and cousins. Played the karaoke game again. Was highly entertained by my grandmothers' renditon of "It's raining men". Wireless card stopped working again! Damn. Mysterious.

Day 29 : Saturday 30th December 2006.

Headed up to best mate, Catherine and John's this afternoon, via St Mary's lighthouse, which is on an island connected to the mainland by a short causeway exposed at low tide. Went for a pub meal with Catherine and John and their two kids, Jessica and Joshua.

Day 30 : Sunday 31st December 2006

Joshua's christening. I am now a godmother. Another Sunday in church, that's two weeks in a row. Should make up for the next year of sinning then. Was an early start to the morning then Toby and John stayed at the club where we had the reception til quite late. John was very drunk when he got home and went to bed pretty early. The rest of us sloped off around 11pm, although I refused to go to sleep and watched the London fireworks on telly in bed. Could have been anywhere really. Is possibly the most boring New Years Eve ever. Very disappointing. Apart from becoming a godmother of course. That was exciting and Joshua is a very cute baby.

Day 31 : Monday 1st January 2007

Have we really been away for 31 days? There's so much we still haven't done. Christmas has really got in the way of our "holiday". Went for a nice walk in Durham with Mam and Dad and the to the Durham Light Infantry Museum for 2005's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Day 32 : Tuesday 2nd January 2007

Spent a day just hanging out at home and chilling, reading, looking at old photographs. Went to pub with Alan and Clare for dinner.

Day 33 : Wednesday 3rd January 2007

Another boring day. Sorted some stuff out in Mam and Dad's loft.

Day 34 : Thursday 4th January 2007

Very windy day. Walked a couple of miles along Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. Was beautiful although tough in the wind, especially coming back. Had a lovely hot beef and gravy sandwich in the pub before driving to Penrith in the Lake District to stay with Nic and Ian.

Day 35 : Friday 5th January 2007

Lazy day. Eventually ventured out and went for a nice drive. Beautiful day and saw some great views but couldn't really be bothered to walk after yesterday. Drove through some lovely little villages and round Ullswater up to the Kirkstone Pass where we had a pint and a jacket potato and befriended a crazy woman who is obviously going stir-crazy up there and now wants to house swap with us. Decided if we ever come back to England we'll move to the Lake District. Took Nic and Ian out for a yummy tapas dinner. Drank lots.

Day 36 : Saturday 6th January 2007

Today wasn't quite so nice weather-wise. We went to Aira Falls which was lovely although it was raining. It has rained a lot in Cumbria lately so all the falls are full and they gush quite randomly down the sides of mountains. Then headed to the villages of Amble and Bowness on Windermere followed by a scenic drive past Grasmere and Thirlsmere. Headed back to Washington in time to go out for a "posh" Indian in Newcastle to celebrate both Dad's and Alan's birthdays. Drank lots again and went to a cheesy bar and danced and sang.

Day 37 : Sunday 7th January 2007

Caught up with some family friends this morning then pottered around trying to sort out my packing and figure out what to do with the stuff that's taking me over weight. Most of it that is. Would you believe I haven't even opened my bargain Bombay Gin and have hardly touched the vodka. Will probably have to give it away now as can't really take it as carry on with the new rules. Gutted! Toby and I tried to figure out the best way to get home the very heavy (!?!) magnetic dartboard that my Nana gave him for Christmas but we got as far as hanging it on the back of the bedroom door and playing darts whilst discussing where to put it when we get home.

Day 38 : Monday 8th January 2007

Knackered. Winding down now. Can't believe this time next week I'll be back at work. Am trying to figure out how to get upgraded to first class (no guaranteed recipe apparently) as that will save me lots of trouble when I get home. Dad's birthday. Mam had to go back to work unfortunately but the three of us headed up the coast to Holy Island. Weather was minging: overcast, damp and cold wind. Toby asked Dad if he could marry me. Dad said of course he could, he'd been living with me for three years. Blue sky came out as we were leaving. Drove past Bamburgh Castle to Seahouses and had fish and chips with bread and butter, mushy peas and a cup of tea. Nice scenic drive home then back to packing hell. Decided to work on blog entry instead. Toby and I used bathroom scales to try to determine the weight of his case. Bathroom scales broke. We then used kitchen scales to try and weigh the stuff we're thinking of posting back. Was a bit tricky and possibly inaccurate. Eventually determined that Toby's case is under the 20kg limit but still have some bits and pieces to shove in there. Family came round to see Dad: all four grandparents and Clare and Alan. Toby followed me around the house until eventually he managed to corner me in the bathroom doorway at about 11pm and asked me if I would marry him. I said yes. Cracked open a bottle of champagne and had a late and quick celebration with the grandparents and Mam and Dad (Clare and Alan had already gone home). Thought about wedding plans then decided it was too hard. Couldn't sleep for thinking about stuff left to do here, then getting back home and back to work.

Day 39 : Tuesday 9th January 2007

Even more knackered than yesterday. Got up to have breakfast with Mam and Dad before they went to work. Everyone moaned about how tired they were. After they'd gone Toby slept on settee and I returned to packing hell. Stuck some of my old stuff back up in the loft then went to visit grandparents on way down to London.

Dubai photos online

2006-12-15T20:40:00.000+10:00

This is an extremely quick post to let everyone know that I've started putting our holiday photographs up at http://snapper.cvsdude.com/gallery/linsb/v/UKDubaiChristmas2006/. I've also started a bit of commentary on the Dubai photos but that's not finished yet. I started writing a very informative post on our shenanigans in Dubai whilst I was there but after four days of rewriting I gave up. There just hasn't been the time. We really enjoyed Dubai though and I'll give an update just as soon as I have time to scratch my feet. London has also been great although hectic. We've had lots of fun catching up with old friends and every evening has been filled up with something. Unfortunately I caught cold when we first got here and wasn't quite on form for the first few days but now I'm just a bit sniffly and ready to party.

We're leaving London now and heading back out to the airport to pick up a car (crazy I know but it's cheaper that way as that's where we want to leave it and every pound saved is $2.40 saved) and swap it for a couple of arms. We only need our drinking arms whilst we're here anyway. Then we're off to Cambridge for an evening before heading north and catching up with my family.

The first travel hiccup

2006-12-01T14:41:00.000+10:00

We haven't even left yet and already things aren't exactly going according to plan.

We leave tomorrow and I'm in the midst of a packing frenzy. Why is it so hard to pack light? I really don't want to take much but at the same time I keep thinking that I want to look good whilst I'm away. Not that I will anyway as most of my warm winter clothes are donkeys old. So I really should just take the bare minimum and buy stuff when we're away, but I can't really afford to do that so it's tempting to take what I already have. But then what I already have isn't that great and I can't decide whether the brown jumper is better than the pink jumper. The brown jumper is smaller to pack but the pink jumper is so snuggly and warm and it's my favourite winter jumper so I think I'll take both. But I'll have to buy something when I get there anyway because neither of them are really that smart and I need something to wear when I go out. Am I going around in circles here?

And then of course I need t-shirts to wear under the jumpers because it's going to be REALLY cold. I think I've gone overboard with the t-shirts. So far I've packed three plus a thermal and that's not including the stuff I'm taking to wear in Dubai. I mean, no one is even going to see them. Or will they? See I really can't remember what winter in UK is like. I vaguely remember some of the clothes I wore to go out on various birthdays and, apart from the big winter overcoat, they really weren't that warm, snuggly and wintery at all. I think I'd freeze if I wore them now.

Anyway, amidst all this deliberation the first potential major hiccup has just occurred. On Monday I finally decided to transfer funds from my savings account over here to my UK bank account. I filled the form in online and then sat back waiting for the bank to call and confirm. Trouble is they said they'd get round to doing that within three working days. Last year when I did this they were so quick to get back to me that they took me by surprise. But it wasn't long before I realised that I'd given them my mobile number and I'd left my mobile at home. I quickly sent them an online message with my other phone numbers and the times they could contact me. I heard nothing so I logged on again the following day to check my messages. Nothing. On Wednesday I logged on and checked my messages. Again nothing. On Thursday, the third business day I checked again. Nothing. I thought I'd better wait until today to chase it up as I wasn't sure which time zone they were operating in. So today I logged in and lo and behold there was a message saying they'd tried to contact me and couldn't get through so they'd cancelled my request. AAAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh.

What I don't understand is that they tried to call yesterday. I had my phone at work with me yesterday and there was no sign of someone having tried to call so I'm not sure how many times they tried or what went wrong but there you have it.

I've submitted another request and in a panic called them up and warned them that they mightn't be able to contact me after today to confirm the transaction. Not knowing what went wrong with my mobile last time I've given them my home number to call. They said they'd contact me within the day, whatever that means. So now I'm house-ridden until they call, which is a real bummer as I'd been hoping to go for Christmas/birthday/goodbye drinks with some friends and colleagues this afternoon. Why they couldn't have just said to me, whilst I was already on the phone to them, "So, Ms Buckle, I understand you wish to transfer some money to the UK. Can you just confirm that amount to me please? Aha, yes, now you do understand there's a charge for this transaction, don't you?" I don't know. Probably some weird security reason but given that I called them and gave them a different number to the one I entered on my online form I don't really see what difference it makes whether I call them or they call me. So I'm very confused, house-bound, potentially skint whilst I'm in the UK and to top it all off I now can't see my cursor which is making typing this post a bit tricky. So I'm going to get back to the packing now and wait for the bank to call. Ho-hum.

The Great Netherlands Horse Rescue

2006-11-28T14:50:00.000+10:00

I first saw this video on Google but it isn't very good quality so I'd recommend viewing the YouTube one. It's an amazing story which brought tears to my eyes and a shiver down my spine. A must-see for horse lovers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4584913278289860160

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n9wd7P5Apw