That was the week that was.

Mutterings continued.

That's April over, almost.

Got home today to find that Gus has been through her toy box and dragged out all manner of things - three ping pong balls, a toy lamb and several lengths of ribbon. I think she's been having fun.

Scam baiting at 419 Eater - very funny stuff. "So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources. Maybe if you are VERY lucky you'll scam them out of some cash!"

Some time wasting - I'm not very good at it, I'm afraid.

The weekend looms

Mutterings continued.

It's been a mixed couple of days. Not very good news re Mum's CAT scan, they've found more shading on her lungs. I rang her today and she sounds ok, not as tired as she has been. The results from my blood tests were mixed, most good, some bad. Dr not happy with my cholesterol and blood glucose levels so he's put me on Lipitor and given me a referral for another set of blood tests in 3 months.

Bloody CALM has been burning off again and the resultant pollution plays merry hell with the breathing of us asthmatics. M'doctor had a nice old rant about it too.

On the plus side - two parcels were waiting for me at the Bentley distribution depot this morning. One was a salwar kameez I'd bought from India (lovely red and black it is) and the other contained goodies I'd ordered from Oxfam. I picked them up before work and opened the box from Oxfam up in my office. The resultant fall out of packing material has made my office look as though the shredder exploded.

I received an email re the Supanova con in Sydney this weekend. Guests include George Takei, David Carradine (yes, THE David Carradine who is probably sick to the back teeth of people calling him Grasshopper) and John Noble, the wonderful Steward on Gondor and certified loon (the Steward, not Mr Noble).

And the best news of the day is......I got to pat a tiger this afternoon. Dumai was hand raised in Germany and likes female company. One of the keepers introduced me to him - he rubbed his face back and forth across ours hands and stood still for a scratch and tickle. So that's two tigers, a lion, a cheetah and a serval I've been lucky enough to get up close and personal with.

Tuesday, I think.

Mutterings continued.

Spent the day wondering why my boss's Tuesday appointments were being held today and not tomorrow. Silly Poss.

Sir Ian (God2) McKellen was a guest on the Parkinson show last Saturday night. Very interesting gorilla impression. And here are some pics from his appearance on The Simpsons. Spoilers!!

I've just noticed that he's appearing in Aladdin at the Old Vic during the time I'll be in the UK. Yay!!

Amusing story from t'Northerner:

"FASTER, DOBBIN!

This is a pretty intense week for northern sport, as the final positions in football's Premier League get sorted. But that doesn't stop the Newcastle Evening Chronicle highlighting the less stressful side of fun and games. It reveals that racing's Northumberland Plate meeting in Newcastle this summer is going to start off with a... well... exceptional sort of race.

The field will be composed of pantomime horses, explains the paper's Paul Mcmillan, and at least a dozen pairs of front and back legs will try to manage a complete furlong of the course at Gosforth Park. A furlong is 220 yards or 201.168 metres if you didn't know (and I had to look it up on Google), and that is quite a long way for a pantomime horse to saunter, let alone race.

The only spur to a decent, Roger Bannister-type time is that the horses will run without a third participant, a jockey, teetering on top. All profits and stakes are bound appropriately for a charity which looks after injured and exhausted racehorses." And knackered pantomime actors.

Dishmaid's hands.

Mutterings continued.

Not an exciting day as I spent most of it doing housework - vacuuming, dusting, washing the floors, etc, etc. Anyone would think I had a flat inspection tomorrow.

An interesting resource - the Internet Public Library.

Amusing stories about Michael Gambon (known hereonin as The New Professor Dumbledor (TM)).

Mary Jo Pehl is a writer and performer who wrote for and appeared in Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (most notably as Pearl Forrester). A couple of years ago, before I knew who she was, I heard one of her performances on NPR - it was about her experiences of moving back in with her parents. It was very funny and I became an instant fan. How delighted I was to realise a couple of years later that she's actually famous. This is her website.

Warm

Mutterings continued.

30c and humid - no sign of the threatened (promised?) thunderstorms.

I spent most of today sitting in Emergency at the Armadale Kelmscott hospital waiting for Mum to be seen by a doctor. We were thinking she'd have to be admitted but they sent her home with another lot of pills. One of the problems is she's off her food, and feels nauseous and tired all the time. She's on inflammatories for severe pain in her shoulder and it appears that they are causing a lot of the problem. The doctor and nurse at AKH told her that the type she was taking can cause problems and advised her to stay off them. Her own doctor told her that they would be perfectly ok.

On the way home I called into Bunnings and spent the rest of my birthday money. I bought some Cat Grass for Gus and Milo who love the stuff. I had to get one each as Milo hogs it. I've bought them Catnip in the past and they've ignored it.

Couple of days late, but....Happy birthday, William Shakespeare. Whoever you are.

It looks as though the sleeping medication I've been taking is having side effects again (tingling and shaking in the arms and hands, joint pain) so I've decided to give Valerian a go. So, if the next time any of you meet me I'm crabby, you'll know the Valerian isn't working. 8-)

Saturday

Mutterings continued.

Odd weather. Warm, cloudy, raining at my folks' place, apparently.

No L and R tonight as Leece isn't well. I'll just have to buy the chocolate friands again next week.

The Google ad on my blog is for the Arkangel Shakespeare cd series. I have five of them - they're unabridged and very good. And all feature David Troughton, funnily enough. His Richard III is wonderful.

The Guardian has an interesting interview with Malcolm McDowell, an actor who's made some interesting choices in his career.

And an article on why The Bill is the soap it is today. In the 'Old Days' (TM) actors would go from The Bill to the RSC; now they go from Eastenders to The Bill to Coronation St.

Rik Mayall is in Murder Rooms tonight, interesting.

Another long weekend.

Mutterings continued.

Quite a busy one coming up - Leece and Rob are coming over for dinner tomorrow and I have a flat inspection on Tuesday, which means Sunday and Monday will be spent tidying the place up.

Amusing selection of lousy songs by Blender magazine. I've always hated 'Ebony and Ivory'.

Sky telly in the UK is showing a doco this weekend that I'd like to see, 'Inside Hamlet', a series of interviews with actors who have played the role. Derek Jacobi features, of course. One of his Hamlets is being shown on Ovation on Foxtel next month, along with four other Shakespeares. From the ads it looks as though they are showing a couple of the BBC Shakespeares as well as Olivier's Richard III.

Finally went for the blood tests I was supposed to have in January. There was a queue but it wasn't as bad that I encountered after Easter.

Article by the guest editor of the Guardian's review pages (and one of my favourite actors) - Kevin Spacey.

Pay day

Mutterings continued.

and spent some of it at the dentist's. At least it was just a scrape and a polish this time and he didn't find anything nasty going on. That's usually what happens which is why I've had 3 root canals, a bridge and a ton of ceramic. My teeth will last longer than the rest of me. I mean, even longer than they...oh never mind.

I've signed up for Gmail to see what it's like - with its larger capacity it might be useful when I travel. Most of my Yahoo mail has disappeared which is a shame as it was a good record of my last trip. I'll be interested to see how long it takes for the first spam to arrive.

Amusing research paper title from the New Scientist, "And then there is the paper by Z. Yang and A. D. Yoder noticed by Seranne Howis in Systematic Biology (vol 52, p 705). Howis admits that it begins rather drily, but was struck by the change of mood at the end: "Comparisons of likelihood and Bayesian methods for estimating divergence times using multiple gene loci and calibration points, with application to a radiation of cute-looking mouse lemur species"." Either the journal reviewers are developing a sense of humour or that one slipped by.

scifi.com's Site of the Week - Alan Moore fan site.

Shakespeare....or Marlowe?

Mutterings continued.

Enjoyed the doco "Much Ado About Something" very much. I believe in a concept of 'William Shakespeare' rather than a person, I think. There's not very much evidence that he did in fact write all the plays, going on what historical information is available. Derek Jacobi is in the Richard de Vere camp.


You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Yay! I'm a god! Thanks Fiona (who is also a god).

Cloudy

Mutterings continued.

A nice cloudy, autumny kind of day.

Some bumper stickers:





We had a good evening last night - Muppet Show (with Sylvester Stallone), Firefly and Mstie's Lost Continent (which has a lot, and I mean A LOT of rock climbing).

The weekend - again.

Mutterings continued.

Lord but the weeks are whizzing by!

No blog yesterday as the Blogspot server spat the dummy apparently. All better now (obviously). The religious Google ads are back - free Easter resources for my church or ministry (better late than never) and 'Why was Jesus crucified?'.

Guests for dinner and I'm making potato and leek soup and Spanish vegetables.

One of the trailers Grant and Simon showed at Swancon was for a movie called Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It looks very promising from what we saw. I read a comment that "It looks like a cross between the Fleisher Superman cartoons, the illustrations of Hugo Gernsback's SF magazines, and of course movie serials." It certainly made us go "Ooooohhhh!"

The poltergoose is back.

Mutterings continued.

First it was the Aust Geo calendar in the kitchen, then the Servant of Two Masters poster in the bedroom (at 2.20am, thank you very much!). There was also the strange case of 5 $2 coins lining themselves up perfectly on the kitchen table - I dumped them on the table, went back a little while later and they were all lined up. Might have been the poltergoose, might have been the fact that I straightened the table cloth under them.

The religious Google ads have gone and been replaced by ebay.com.au, which is a bit of a coincidence as I've just won another auction.

I'm proud to announce I'm a Googlewhacker! I have two entries in the Whack Stack - upscale monotreme and numbat harmonics.

I wasted some time at lunch doing an online IQ test (since doing IQ testing as part of my Psych course I've had real problems with this kind of measure of intelligence. If being able to answer a series of questions correctly indicates how smart you are, how brilliant does it make the person who makes up the test and knows all the answer cos they wrote them??). Apparently I'm a Facts Curator - I collect trivia and stuff, which probably explains why I tend to know a lot of really useless stuff but occasionally forget my name.

Interesting article about the Nobel Prize winner sperm bank set up 25 years ago. It wasn't a success.

Trying to tell me something?

Mutterings continued.

Today's Blogspot Google ads are for religious items - Sinai Shades (which I gather have the 10 Commandments printed on the lenses in case you forget them. I hope one of them is "Thou shalt not read thy sunglasses while driving lest thou drive into a lamp post".) and free 10 Commandments software ("Thou shalt take the name of Bill Gates in vain at every opportunity", "Thou shalt pine for the days of Windows 3.11".)

A short but busy week this week at work - lots of reports to do, a presentation for the boss to create, yada yada.

Only boring stuff in the mailbox today - shop cattledogs, rent receipt, pizza vouchers. I did get an email from dvdsoon saying that one of the Cadfaels I ordered is on its way and the other is 'on order'. I emailed Blackstar to say that the second Cadfael set I didn't want (just a replacement for the broken box) has arrived and what should I do with the first.

An article by Simon Callow on the centenary of John Guilgud's birth.

Best laid plans and all that....

Mutterings continued.

I had the morning planned out : 8.30am - visit Sth Perth hospital for the blood tests I should have had a couple of months ago and then on to Spotlight to spend my birthday vouchers. I had to fast for the blood tests so I had to forego my morning coffee (not a good thing). I got to pathology just before it opened at 8.30, walked into the waiting room, saw 8 people already waiting and no chairs so I walked back out again.

Headed down Manning Road to go to Spotlight in Cannington and was turned down a side street by police at the lights before Albany Highway. Judging by all the flashing police lights I guess there must have been an accident of some sort. Got onto Albany Hwy, did a U-ey and headed back towards Spotlight, where I spent ages deciding over which new sofa covers and cushions to buy. Came away with cream covers, deep maroon cushions and an espresso coffee maker. Happy Poss.

Looks like I'll have to find another day to go to pathology, but.

A second copy of the Cadfael DVD turned up today and I'm not sure what to do with the first one.

If life were more like cartoons.....

As Agony Aunts go, Ann Widdecombe is not the most sympathetic of people (goes with her being a Tory, I suspect) however she does say things that we'd like to say people, occasionally.

The Stickability of Songs

Mutterings continued.

A long and, in all probability, ultimately uninteresting story. Over the years I've let slip from my hands a number of LPs that I really loved. Chief among these were Manfred Mann's As Is, the original Mission:Impossible soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin, Guess Who's live album, Axiom's Fools Gold and the soundtrack from an obscure Australian musical from the early 70's called Manchild. Scouring of second hand record shops has meant that I've managed to replace MM and Guess Who, I won't say how I got Fool's Gold and M:I is available on cd. A plea on the rockandroll.scars forum brought me a clue as to where to find the Manchild LP - a store in the East owned, I think, by Glenn A Baker.

They had it! And it was only $20. Today I dragged out my turntable and hooked it up to the speakers to have my first listen to the album in over 30 years. The stickability of songs in this blog's title comes from the fact that I found myself singing along to songs I haven't heard since 1973.

Gotta love a 70's quasi-spiritual rock musical.

Still on a musical theme, I saw an "infomercial" last night about a series of cds that looked at first glance pretty interesting. It was one of those interminable Time-Life series about singers and songwriters. Hmm, Joni Mitchell, Janice Joplin, America....this looks interesting, I thought, until I realised that not only do you get the songs but a very annoying commentary by some guy with a dodgy Southern American accent named "Bart John". It seems that the Australian actor, who appeared in such memorable examples of Australian tv as Skyways, known as Bartholomew John, has metamorphosed into someone who sounds vaguely like a porn star.

And to continue the musical theme even further (at the risk of flogging it to death), I could never understand the reaction a lot of young kids (one of my nieces included) had to Kurt Cobain. Being a baby-boomer I guess I don't have the slacker mentality that made a hero of, what to me, was really a pretty uninteresting guy. Looks like I'm not the only one - Caroline Sullivan of the Guardian writes an interesting article on why the anniversaries are unhealthy.

And just to make sure that musical theme of today's blog is well and truly battered into submission, a quote from last November by Robbie Williams. "On the subject of Ye Robster, these were his thoughts on President Bush's UK visit, when queried about it last week, at a press conference at a screening of his new DVD, What We Did Last Summer: "I hope he arrives safely and leaves safely, and nobody gets hurt while he's here. I like tits and beer." At least he's honest.

Sunday

Mutterings continued.

Back from lunch with the folks - Mum made braised steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and silverbeet. Mmmmmmm.

A most enjoyable evening last night. Dinner and The Legend of Sloppy Bottom....Soggy Bottom?...Boggy Creek! That's it. Boggy Creek II (only it's really III). Yet another of those films whose cast and crew are all related and whose only other entries in IMDB star and are crewed by relatives.

Grant and Simon and Dave's panel at Swancon was a hoot. There are some very, very bad films heading this way (it's not too early to hide) and some very good ones. The latest Harry Potter appears a lot darker and scarier. We saw the trailers of a couple of somewhat incomprehensible Japanese movies that look very beautiful. And less said about I Robot the better. It just makes me mad.

It was nice catching up with some blogging buddies, some of whom I'd never met before. And hello Jocelyn!

Another mystery

Mutterings continued.

Whatever happened to Coconut Rings biscuits?

Day 1.5 of a five day break. It's Swancon this weekend and I'm off to Leece and Rob's hotel room for food and Mstie and then a panel discussion by Grant and Simon on movies.

I watched the Concert for George on the telly last night. Dhani Harrison looks like a younger, more delicate version of George. The music was great and Ravi Shankar's composition for George was lovely.

More Earworms

Mutterings continued.

There was a report on Newsradio this morning about the 5th anniversary of the Abba tribute-play-whatever Mama Mia and the bastards just had to play Waterloo. The damn song was stuck in my head and if, like me, your musical tastes were formed in the 60's by the likes of the Masters Apprentices, Chain, Max Merritt and Meteors, Steppenwolf and Led Zepplin, having Abba in your head is very, very bad. I managed to clear it once I got to work by listening to some Steely Dan.

And speaking of Masters Apprentices, Live at the Basement on Aunty last night featured Jim Keyes, Darryl Cotton and Russell Morris - unfortunately it was on after sleepy bo-bos time so I set the vcr. Or rather, didn't. I realised this morning that I'd set the Foxtel box but not the vcr.

I read on the Mausoleum Club forum that several BBC Shakespeares are being released on DVD in June in the UK, the most exciting, for me, being Derek Jacobi's Hamlet. No word on Richard II, however, so I'm hoping that some time down the track. The DVDs have been available in the States for some time but are hideously expensive.

"CELEBRITY chef Jamie Oliver has brought a whole new meaning to overdone meat and two veg, burning his "crown jewels" while cooking.

Jamie and Jools have two children, but still find time for fun in the kitchen.

In what was supposed to be a saucy Valentine's Day treat for his wife, Jools, Oliver had decided to cook a feast in the nude.

The Sun reported that Oliver, 28, was happily getting through his romantic culinary display when it all went painfully wrong.

"I was naked in the kitchen and burnt my penis. I really ruined my evening - and my night," he confessed to the newspaper."

Now, I'm sure it hurt as burns are a terrible thing, but......BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

"THE first 10 commandments were written by the finger of God and handed to Moses on Mt Sinai, the 11th has been sent to the Methodist Church in Britain by text message from a pub.

The church announced the new commandment - "Thou shalt not worship false pop idols" - today after holding a contest in the country's pubs aimed at sparking an ethical debate among young people." My particular favourites are "Thou shalt not consume thine own bodyweight in fudge.", "Thou shalt not dance like your dad", "Thou shalt not dump your lover by text" and, "Thou shalt not hold loud conversations on thy mobile phone in a public place".

A short week - awaiting the Easter Bilby

Mutterings continued.

Good night last night - the pies were a success (albeit a tad burnt on top and we had to eat the innards with a spoon ) and we watched a very OTT ep of the Muppets with Mark "Putting the 'ham' into" Hamill, HeeBGB, Chewie and C3PO; Firefly and MST3K's The Touch of Satan. I made the comment during the credits that this movie stars people whose only entry in IMDB is this movie. "Emby Mellay? That's not a name, it's a bad Scrabble hand!" -Tom Servo.

Called into the post office on the way home to pay my driver's license. I thought it had expired but discovered that it wasn't due until the 14th. Did my hair, put on the lippy, in readiness for the horrible photo, only to discover I didn't need to have a picture taken. And I'd forgotten to sign the license in all the right places. I also had a parcel to post to friend Ashley in the UK and realised that I hadn't actually written her address on the box. Or my return address either. I tell you, it's getting to the point where I need a carer! Still, my license is paid, Ash's birthday pressie has gone off and there was a parcel on the doorstep and a card advising of another parcel waiting for me at the PO.

Creepy album covers and very funny comments about them.

There's a bit of argy bargy going on over at the Mausoleum Club as to who is and who isn't (and who should/shouldn't) be in the HHGTTG movie.

Sticky Saturday

Mutterings continued.

32c in April, hmmmm......

The plumber has finally been and cleared out the drain in the shower recess. Nothing worse than watching water that isn't yours coming up the drain, into the recess and out onto the bathroom floor. Urgh, and indeed, ewww.

Leece and Rob are off firing rockets today so they'll be over for dinner tomorrow night. I'm cooking individual steak pies, served with a green salad. I played them my recently received Gjellerhorn CD and it had the same effect on them that it had on me when I heard it on Classical FM: "Got to have it!" The CD has video clips, something I discovered when I put it in my PC DVD player.

From Ananova: "Vibrating condom is top draw at inventors' fair

A vibrating condom and an anti-haemorrhoid chair have become the stars of the show at an inventors' trade fair in Geneva.

The condom with an inbuilt vibrator created by a Taiwanese man has proved a top draw for hundreds of visitors to the fair." The mind boggles. The boggles boggles.

The BBC Cult site has an interview with the New Dr Who (TM), Christopher Eccleston. There's also an interview with Paul "Avon" Darrow.

Friday again.

Mutterings continued.

What's On:

"KADS is presenting Dennis Potter's "Brimstone And Treacle" opening for the general public on April 23 and running Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until May 15.

This dark drama stars the exceptionally gifted cast of Robert Whyte, Joy Northover, Rayann Condy and Alex Jones. I'm thrilled to be working with these guys and watching them pour heart and soul into this intense script.

Tickets can be booked at Nightingales Pharmacy Kalamunda (9293 2621). Prices are $13 full/$9 conc. All tickets for Saturdays are $18, and this includes fish and chips. " Directed by the annoyingly talented Eliot McCann.

I've been watching a group of loonies called Storm Chasers on the telly. While tornadoes may be exciting to watch, I doubt the sanity of anyone who actually wants to drive through one. "We drove through the funnel. We drove through the funnel!!" squeaked one guy.