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

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.

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. Cress is a really strange thing to serve as garnish with a crusty croissant and jam at breakfast, don't you think?
   
   
4. Writing wedding vows is one of the most challenging aspects of wedding planning.
   
   
5. 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to address some power conservation issues, as the research was based upon the use of CRT monitors, which have mostly been replaced by LCDs these days.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.
   
   
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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?
   
   
8. 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.
   
   
9. 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.
   
   
10. 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?
    
    
11. I am getting married in one week and one and a half hours.
    

Apparently this is our house...

... 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

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

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

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...

.. 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

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

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

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!!!

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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?

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

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/