Wet.

Mutterings continued.

It's another of those blue sky, sunshine, sideways rain, grey sky, rain stops, blue sky, repeat, days.  I got very wet walking from Pathology to Diagnostics to get my ultrasounds, then to the doctor's to make an appointment to get the results of said pathology and ultrasounds.  The ultrasound was quite painful (but at least she warmed the goo) and the blood tests boring.  To the doc's on Tuesday to see what it all means.

The quiz night last night was a lot of fun.  It's good to be the judge, people give you things and tell you how wonderful and lovely you are.  They didn't get points for bribery, though they did get points for creativity and making us laugh.  And for insisting that they were a fish.  I was highly amused that the booby prize for coming second last was an Office upgrade for Windows 95.  On floppy disks.

Congrats to Elaine and her table of Gardeners for the Government.

There was an interesting doco on comic book superheroes last night that featured Alan Moore's Watchmen and the effect the stories had on existing comics.  There was also an interview with Neil Gaiman.

I slept very badly last night (staying up late and getting over excited does that to me) but I had a lot of very interesting dreams. One, which seemed to be very long, involved me appearing in a performance of one of Shakespeare's unknown plays.  The set seemed to be a castle and my performance was confined to dancing around a pole with two other women with flowers in their hair.  The other dreams involved taking photos of art deco houses in London, calendars with birds and elephants in them and murderers masquerading as policemen.

Off to Scarbs tonight

Mutterings continued.

It's been a while since I've been to Scarborough for dins with the U.S. (Usual Suspects) as the weather has been agin me.  I have not very good eyesight at the best of times, worse at night, shocking when it rains (I get blinded by the lights reflecting off the wet road) so I've been spending my Weds feeling sorry for myself while keeping warm and dry and safe inside.  Today has been a nice day, albeit a little chilly, so I'm treating myself to a grilled fish souvlaki thing.  I really want Fish and Chips but the pain I feel a couple of hours later from eating such fatty food just isn't worth it.

I've got the ultrasound on Friday morning, to see if it is gall stones, followed by a glucose tolerance test at 10am.  I was thinking of rounding out the day by having a mammogram in the afternoon but they can't get me in until the 13th.  Friday, the 13th.

My mate Ashley in Middlesbrough has been sorting out our itinerary and has booked tickets to see Derek Jacobi in Don Carol at the Crucible, Sheffield.  This will be the fourth time we've seen him in a play.  Have I mentioned before that I once patted his dog?

 

Rent inspection

Mutterings continued.

Well that's that for another 12 weeks.  I always worry that a. they'll leave the front door open and the cats will get out or b. Milo will deposit a hairball in front of them.

Zeuss, our somewhat aggressive wombat, is featuring on Rove Live tonight on the telly.  Rove interviewed my boss a couple of years ago when we first got Zeuss and learned of his ability to leap great distances in his attempts to get at keepers.  He asked Colin if anyone bitten by him would get 'wombat powers' (I think Rove had read one too many Spiderman comics).  We're not sure what wombat powers are exactly and whether you'd really want them.  The ability to dig holes and bite people's feet isn't really that useful and certainly not enough to build a crime fighting superhero career on.

I can't believe I let the 20/21 of July go by without making some comment!  Twentyfive years ago I was a 12 yeard old student, sitting open mouthed at the images of man walking on the moon flickering on a tiny black and white telly.  This would have to have been the greatest achievement in my lifetime.  I don't subscribe to any conspiracy theories that man didn't make it to the moon, it was all a US government/CIA charade or some such bullshit.

S0me evil people on the iinet ng have been talking about their favourite types of Tim Tams and now I'm sitting here thinking, "Want....Tim.....Tam!"  For English readers, Tim Tams are a lot like Penguins.

Comment from MoviePoopShoot about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow:  " The movie is one of the more visually stunning things I’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever seen those old, still awesome, Max Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons from the 1950s, this movie is like one of those shorts come to life. "

Sunny Mundy

Mutterings continued.

Bloody cold start to a very nice day.  I've got a flat inspection tomorrow which means I'll be spending the evening washing floors and vacuuming.

The latest Foxtel mag and a cattledog from Lakelands in the mail today.  Lakelands is a very cool (and by cool I mean the kind of place that middle aged ladies in cardies who knit and make their own jam visit) homewares shop in the Lake District of the UK (hence the name).  They sell all sorts of things you just can't walk into K Mart and get.   Like small round plastic boxes that are just big enough to hold two biscuits, or one Lush shampoo soap.  I ordered some of their wonderful lemon curd last time - the box was opened by Customs and a pamphlet placed inside informing me of all the things you can't bring into the country, such as fruit, eggs, sugar.... Hmmmm, all the things that lemon curd is made from, come to think of it.  I think Customs let the curd through because it's processed and none of the ingredients are raw.  It's also incredibly wonderful.  They also sell sticky 'gloves' - they're square and very sticky on one side and you put your hand in and they pick up fluff and cat hair from all kinds of surfaces.  Very useful.

Lots of Poirot yesterday - two eps on Hallmark and one on the ABC, the last in their series unfortunately.  They were showing the four that were made in 03/04, five years after the first lot.  I've decided I want a flat that looks like Poirot's - it's art deco and full of lovely curves and lines.

 

Just call me Nakamura Kumiko.

Mutterings continued. 

My japanese name is 中村 Nakamura (center of the village) 久美子 Kumiko (eternal beautiful child).
Thank you Rob.

Oh dear, reading through Rob's blog it appears that I've contributed to his but not Leece's. Must remedy this.

There are a couple of 'must sees' on the telly - New Tricks on the ABC and David Suchet's Poirot series on the ABC and Hallmark.  I watched The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim last night, a very funny piece it was (though I'm not sure Dame Agatha meant it to be).  A couple of scenes made me laugh out loud, most noticeably that involving a parrot.  M. Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, had promised a friend that he could leave his parrot with Poirot while in Scotland.  M. Poirot opens the door to see a delivery man with a parrot in a cage:
"I've got a parrot for a Mr Poyrott."
"Pwah-roh!  It's pronounced Pwah-roh!"
"Right, Guv. I've got a Pwah-roh for a Mr Poyrott."

Hastings is sticking a finger through the bars of the parrot cage.  Poirot says, "Please do not fraternise with that creature. I've nearly got him trained."  "It's only a parrot."  "I was talking to the parrot."

We watched a beautiful Korean film last night entitled "Wonderful Days".  Synopsis from IMDB sums it up pretty well:  " Civilization has been destroyed by war and pollution, but the survivors have built the last city of Ecoban. As most natural resources have been exhausted, Ecoban is powered by pollution. The citizens of Ecoban need to continue creating this pollution leading them into conflict with the inhabitants of Marr while one man just wants to clear away the clouds and see the sky."

It's a combination of CGI and animation and there are times when you think, "That is real!  That is NOT CGI!"  But it was.

An intriguing electrical thingie has been installed on Manning Rd near the intersection with whatever that street is that becomes Hayman Rd in Bentley.  It looks like a large safety net that has been strung between four poles.  It's next to a transformer, I think, pole.  I've looked for aerial acrobats and trapeze artists overhead but haven't seen any.

Another Friday

Mutterings continued.

They come around with such regularity.

I received my order from Blackstar today - 2 Professionals dvds.  Customs had opened  the package at both ends; given the size of the box I'm not sure why they felt they had to do this.  It's not like it was so big that something could be hiding at the other end.

I've booked myself an exciting Friday next week - 9am ultrasound (Doc suspects gall stones.  sigh), 10am Glucose Tolerance Test.  This means I have to fast from midnight and as the GenghisCon quiz night is on the previous evening, all bribes of food and drink must be to me before then.  It also means I won't have anything to eat until after midday as the GTT takes about 2 hours - they draw your blood every 30 minutes or so and leave you to twiddle your thumbs in the waiting room.

Today's amusement - lady rang to express her concern that one of the orangs was masturbating and she thought she should tell someone.  My boss was given the job of ringing her back to tell her that it was perfectly normal and that animals tend to do in public what we do in private.  Lord knows what the poor lady would think if she saw the way bonobos act.

It's the blood pressure, dammit.

Mutterings continued.

160/94.  Not good, however the medication I've been on has been making me feel worse so I've been put on a lower dose.  The ringing in the ears is normal - just one of the hairs in the cochlea making its presence known.

Bloody awful day, weather-wise.  We walked down to the cafe for lunch and came back via the African Savannah and past the orangs.  The baby gibbon was incredibly lively, playing with the troops' tails, rolling down the bank, running up trees.  And all the orangs were sitting on the tops of their towers, in the wind, with their blankets and hessian bags wrapped around them.  One of the girls was standing up on her tower with a blue blanket over her head and wrapped around her shoulders - she looked like a very hairy Virgin Mary.

Hellboy is available from Allvcd for US$8.50.  Comes complete with Malay and Chinese subtitles.  Tempting.

Evil Amazon.ca is now trying to get me to buy the Babylon 5 movies for CDN$52 and free postage.

 

 

Sniffles

Mutterings continued.
 
I think I have an ear infection.  Giddiness and ringing in the ears.  Could also be my blood pressure but I'm hoping it's something that can be cured with a few drops of something in the lugholes.   I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to suss out what's up.
 
I had a phone call from the wonderful Paula last night.  She and I have worked together on a few productions and had a ball, most notably during The Taming of the Shrew when we gave each other a fit of hysterics.  She's Production Manager for Class Act's "Hotel Sorrento" -  Season: August 10 - 21 (Tue-Sat) 8pm; Plus 2 schools matinees: Tue 10 Aug & Wed 18 Aug at 10am at the Rechabites in Perth.
 
Ash and I are hoping to see Derek Jacobi in "Don Carlos" at the Crucible in Sheffield.  We saw him there in The Tempest in 2002 (the details of which in somewhere in this blog).  We were hoping to spend some time in York, catch a train to Sheffield, catch a matinee and then back to York but it seems that there are no matinees!  For some years the Crucible was known solely as a snooker venue however they've managed to attract some big names (Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh in Richard III) and have revitalised the theatre.
 
We were planning to visit the Orkneys however they're a touch too far away and crossing isn't always possible so we've decided to spend more time in the middle of Scotland - a few days around Dunkeld would be lovely.
  
 

I paid off my credit card the other day.

Mutterings continued.
 
And you know what that means -  I've bought more stuff on the net!  Two of Leece's hippogryff totebags and a couple of Professionals DVDs going cheap at Blackstar.
 
Only junk mail in the letterbox today.  V boring.
 
There's a very funny Greenpeace ad on the telly - has Eddie Izzard, Jim Broadbent and a couple of other faces I recognise but can't put names to.  The premise is that they are a group of aliens deciding whether to invade Earth or not.  You can see it here.  "What's email?"  "An early delivery system for pornography."
 
Matt and Trey's next foray into films looks interesting. 
 
"The script opens in Paris, where any good MISSION IMPOSSIBLE-esque parody should begin. There's not even too many easy French cracks, although the country does lose its Eiffel Tower and most of the Louvre in the opening sequence. Some terrorists are bedeviling the city, and most of the city is saved by Team America, an “international” peace-keeping force that nevertheless uses the red, white and blue motif on its plane and uniforms, has “America” in its name and even has its own theme song:

Comin’ to save the motherfuckin' day!Fuck yeah, Ame-ri-caaa!

Things go right and then wrong for the team, as some puppets on both sides (French puppets, too!) are violently killed. Something about marionettes cursing and killing one another violently is already inherently funny when you picture this on the big screen, but the ultra-cornball action-flick dialogue makes it even funnier. The chest-beating, flag-waving team of (international) patriots suffers a loss and heads home."
 
 

Another sunny day

Mutterings continued.
 
The fine weather looks like continuing until Tuesday.  19c today, 20 tomorrow, 21 on Tues.
 
Having run out of Firefly, last night we watched Cadfael's Morbid Taste for Bones.  Quite co-incidentally, so did my folks!  I made low GI Chicken Biriani from a recipe in my diabetes cook book which has a lot of yummy ingredients, including cumin, cinnamon, ginger, curry paste and vegies.  Dessert cancelled out the Chicken, however.  Mmmmmm, flaky pastry with cream and custard and cinnamon.
 
Odd headlines (and even odder news items):

• "Missing rugby player found in fridge"
• "Mrs Slocombe shocks US.   US TV bosses have banned Mrs Slocombe as too shocking for Americans."  The moral here being - violence good, Mrs Slocombe's pussy bad.

From The Guardian: " Stage frights.   When theatre-phobic Lynn Barber claimed recently that no straight men go willingly to see plays, she was surprised by the outraged response. So she took up the challenge and went to the theatre herself. Would her prejudices be confirmed?"

From Poop Shoot - somebody didn't like I, Robot.  " I'm amazed that a majority of critics out there are giving thumbs-up or respectful passes to I, ROBOT (20th Century Fox, opening today). I'm assuming that somebody out there would like to hear what the experience of watching it is actually like, apart from its value as a semi-thoughtful sci-fier.

 The straight shoot is that I, ROBOT is a generally underwhelming sci-fi eye-candy thing with too much cartoonish CG to give it texture or visual gravitas. The other downer is a supply of totally rote performances (the dominant one, of course, delivered by star Will Smith) that affect the flow of this film like Xanax. The more you see, the snoozier it all gets. " He doesn't like Will Smith either.

 

 

 

 

Friday. Again.

Mutterings continued.

Busy week at work full of bits and pieces - research on baboons (which have exotic names like Papio anubis and Papio sphinx), memoranda of understandings, annual reports, board reports, death reports, expressions of interest... no wonder my eyes are glazed and my shoulders sore.

It's disconcerting, to say the least, to see the face of a theatre buddy glowering at you from the side of the road. The Lovely Stephen "Ariel" Whiley features in the Enough is Enough anti-drink violence campaign of the Alcohol and Drug Authority and I've spotted a couple of large posters with his phizzog on the sides of bus shelters. Goes to show how good an actor he is as he's such a sweetie and deserves to get paid well for his talent.

More cat strangeness during the week. I was watching telly the other night, with Milo sitting next me. He was staring intently at me with a quizzical look on his face that was most odd. I was sitting on the bed yesterday, putting my socks on, when he poked me in the head with his paw. This morning, in the shower, I looked down to see Gus's furry black and white head poking through the shower curtain, watching the water go down the drain.

Trawling through Ebay, I found this little gem:
"ALBUM DESCRIPTION: Why do celebrities feel the need to record themselves singing? Let's take Greg Morris from Mission Impossible, for example. Apparently being an actor of a hit TV show just was not enough, so Greg found the need to cut a singing album. Unfortunately there was one problem: Greg can’t sing. But why should that little road bump on the Ego Highway stop a Hollywood actor. The solution: well if you can’t sing the lyrics why not just speak them. The end result: The Greg Morris For You LP. It's soothing and relaxing and best of all it's like having Barney Collier of Mission Impossible in your own living room trying to sing for you. As the instructions on the back cover recommend "[this album]…be heard in a quiet room with the lights dimmed low. Better still, listen to it with an arm around your favorite girl". No truer words have been spoken since laughter is the best aphrodisiac!" - FADETOBLACK.COM

Oh dear.

Tired

Mutterings continued.

Slightly headachey. Sore eyes. Too much time in front of the monitor today, me thinks.

Amusing news item: " A BRITISH druid was in court today charged with carrying a ceremonial sword, used for casting spells, while on a shopping trip to a local hardware store.

Druids were the pagan priest class in early Britain, particularly for the Celtic tribes from around 600 BC, and are associated with sacred stone circles such as the famous site at Stonehenge, southwest England.

However, little is known about their activities and modern druids are sometimes dismissed as fantasists with a fondness for dressing up and no genuine link with the activities of the past." The image of a Druid rummaging through the nuts and bolts tickles me - you think that's where they got the equipment for Stonehenge?

And speaking of ancient bits of rock, Ash and I are planning to visit the Orkneys when I'm in the UK. I've been looking at ways to get from Scotland to the islands - there are a number of car ferries that look interesting and leave from ports with names like Caithness, Scrabster and John O'Groats. I've just done a couple of searches on map sites - Expedia and Maporama - and both have different routes and driving times from Middlesbrough to Scrabster. The difference is over 2 hours! Maporama has the amusing note, "Impossible to calculate an itinerary by subway. Maporama suggests the vehicule transport mode."

Some observations

Mutterings continued.

No matter what they add to tins of tuna - soy, honey, lime and ginger, salsa, etc etc - it still ends up tasting like cat food. Like cat food smells, that is; I've never actually tasted cat food.

Some headlines give me a smile - Pamplona bulls 18, humans 0.

Re a report on missing silverware from the Queenland Parliament building: "Mr Hollis said it was not certain whether all the items were permanently missing and he expected some of them to turn up over the coming year.

"With stocktakes of this size, it could be that a lot of that is up in parliamentary bedrooms, it could be in other areas from where they stock take, we don't know that," he said outside the hearing."

Parliamentary bedrooms?? Why don't they just sleep in the chamber like normal politicians?

Well that's been a horrible couple of days.

Mutterings continued.

Saturday good. Shopped, had yummy food for dinner, watched Mistie and Firefly (last episode, sadly), good company.

Sunday, at about 6.46am, was staggering back to bed from the loo when the phone rang. It was Armadale Hospital Emergency - Dad had been admitted with breathing difficulties and was fretting that Mum was left alone. Didn't have time for a shower ("That explains the smell." says Mum when I told her), got to her place at 7.30, spent the day with her, took her to visit Dad in hospital, made her dinner and then felt incredibly guilty at leaving her alone. I'd spoken to her visiting nurse from Silver Chain who said Mum was much better than she had been and that could probably be left. I rang her at 4pm, having left about an hour before, to have the phone answered by my brother who was not pleased with me for leaving her alone. They took her to their place to stay with them until Dad was coming out of hospital.

I rang Dad in hospital this afternoon and started worrying when he didn't answer. Finally the phone was answered by the cleaner who told me he'd been discharged and was waiting to be picked up.

Long story short, he's home, Mum's home, they've both been so well fed by my sister-in-law/Gallier Private Hospital (he's a returned soldier so he gets to stay in nice places like Gallier and Hollywood) that they don't feel like any dinner. Dad's chest x-rays confirmed that there's nothing wrong other than severe bronchitis and a couple of cracked ribs. The cracked ribs he's had for over a year - because of the bronchitis and emphysema, he coughs a lot and this could have caused the problem.

And I'm feeling as guilty as all hell. Only daughter, eldest child, etc. *sigh*

And now the good news, there was a parcel on the doorstep from Nick, my recent visitor from Huddersfield. It was a copy of Tim Winton's Dirt Music, a book Nick loves. He was delighted to discover it has a soundtrack, which he bought over East when he was in Oz.

Sort of good news, I got what I thought was a bill from HBF for my ambulance contributions. Turns out it was a letter advising I can claim 30% on my tax return. It's only $14 but every little helps.

Here come da judge. GenghisCon Quiz Night - July 29. This is the event that Rob, Leece, and myself (with the help of sundry others), have won the last two, or is it three?, years. This year, we're not competing. No, we're going to be judges. Re bribery - let me say this here and now, I have never and will never, be opposed to bribery if it a. means we're going to win, or b. means I'm going to get stuff. I def. can't state that bribery will help quiz contestants win but if you do wish to consider laying tasty comestibles at our feet, you will be looked upon fondly. And that's all I'm going to say. Except this, I don't like Maltesers but I do like Mars Bars.

I've been looking at Paris hotels online, tying to find one I can afford, and I've just realised that I've been reading them in French without realising it. I mean, I didn't have to consciously translate from French to English, I just 'knew' that "1 personne avec bain, douche, WC" means "1 person with bath, shower, WC". The French lessons finally paid off! Just found a hotel in the Latin Quarter, near Notre Dame, for 55 euro. Not bad! And I've just noticed it's off the Boulevard Saint Michel - where you keep your Rolling Stones records, and a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you do, yes you do.

While we're on Peter Sarstedt, I love his "Frozen Orange Juice". It's one of those evocative songs that take me back to the 60's whenever I hear it.

I'm a superhero.

Mutterings continued.

"Which superhero are you?

You are Bat(wo)man, dark and mysterious, operating outside the rules in a film-noir landscape you know like the back of your hand. You scowl a lot and look great in leather. Colleagues regard you warily. You're not much fun at parties."

Explains a lot.

Double cat looniness this morning. Both Gus and Milo were sitting in the shower recess, alternately looking down the plug hole and up at the pipes above. The last time Gus pulled something like this a picture fell off the wall. I was expecting to come home to find the bathroom flooded after she telepathically caused the pipes to burst. Still don't know what was up with them. Gus has been known to lose her ping pong balls down the hole in the floor in the toilet (no, I don't have a French toilet - it's the plug hole but the grating thing disappeared years ago leaving a hole in the floor which attracts ping pong balls). I have to suck them out of the bend in the pipe with a vacuum cleaner.

Fun stuff on the doorstep - a box from Cafe Press with a Leece designed travel mug (with unicorns!) and a Get Fuzzy journal.

I had another fantasy-ish dream last night that involved lifts that turn into planes (I got into a lift on the outside of a building and instead of it stopping at the floor I wanted, it just kept going and started to fly. One of the other people in the car said matter-of-factly that it's the new flying lift). I landed miles from home near a huge second hand furniture store. They had hundreds of washing machines which they were...washing. I was looking for bar stools for Mum (which I was) but ended up buying a lovely small wooden box which was marked at $47 but I was only charged $39. I then had to work out how to get home. I dream a lot about lifts and I don't know why. I also dream a lot about second hand or antique stores. They usually have a lot of cool stuff.

From the "Oh dear" files:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Hyde Pierce, Tim Curry and Hank Azaria were named on Wednesday as the leading trio for next year's Broadway-bound production of Monty Python's "Spamalot."

"Spamalot," to be directed by Oscar and Tony Award winner Mike Nichols, is billed as "the musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture, 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,"' the 1975 comedy directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones.

It tells the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail. A chorus line of dancing divas and knights, flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and one legless knight are featured.

Pierce, who was Dr. Niles Crane in the long-running U.S. sitcom "Frasier," will play Sir Robin. Curry, known for his star turn in the cult film, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," will play King Arthur. Azaria, best known as the voice of Moe the bartender on the animated series "The Simpsons," will portray Sir Lancelot.

The corresponding film roles were performed by Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and John Cleese of the British comedy troupe.

Idle wrote the book for the new musical and collaborated on the music and lyrics with John Du Prez, whose film scores include the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series and the hit, "A Fish Called Wanda."

The show is scheduled to have a world premiere engagement in Chicago from Dec. 21, 2004, to Jan. 16, 2005, before beginning Broadway previews on Feb. 7. "

I do like David Hyde Pierce and I do really like Tim Curry but ....

What a lovely lot of rain!

Mutterings continued.

Over 36mm in Perth in the last 36 hours or so, which is good. The weather that's accompanied the rain has been a tad hairy however.

Milo had another attack of the loons tonight, only it was the chess table that bore the brunt of his furry body being hurled at it.

I finally discovered who is playing King Arthur in t'movie of same name. It's Clive Owen, an actor I quite like. He was in Gosford Park and Second Sight. I saw a doco on the making of Harry Potter 3 the other night which featured a short, but funny, interview with Dawn French. She was describing how important her role as The Fat Lady is and that they're going to change the name of the film to The Fat Lady. Is it me or does a non-Lupined David Thewlis look a lot like a young John Lennon? Is it John Lennon I'm thinking of?

Eeep!

Mutterings continued.

It's blowing a gale out there! The palm trees next door are near horizontal (as opposed to mostly harmless or nigh invulnerable). Rain bucketed down this morning but I don't think we got the storms and hail that were forecast.

Milo is acting like a looney and I'm not sure if it's the wind that's doing it or the fact that he's just used his litter tray and he tends to go a bit potty (potty! Geddit?) afterwards. He hurled himself at the kitchen table and nearly took everything on it with him.

It's been a funny day.

Mutterings continued.

Busy, work-wise; satisfying webcrawling-wise. Over on the right hand side there, under Other People's Mutterings, I've added a blog that is written by a chappie who's a paramedic with the ambulance service in London - it's called Random Acts of Reality. Fascinating stuff. I discovered him in an article on the Guardian website.

And I also discovered a hoot of a site called the Department of Social Scrutiny. They have a series of very funny forms, one of which is to determine your ethical standpoint. There's a comment which I will steal and use at all possible opportunities - "Feng shui is not a system of belief, it's merely a storage solution".

Their Serf Assessment page has a survey to "help us to not only match you with potential employment but also enable us to oppress you in a much more scientific and matter-of-fact manner".

I am an Uncivil Servant:
You've got it, baby we want it. You are a nasty piece of work - a faceless, shadowy, psychiatrically challenged festival of seemingly random violence. And that just turns us on. By day, no one knows your true identity. By night, it turns out, you don't actually have one. But you can't hide from us for long."

I found them on the London Underground Diary (also over there on the RHS).

This internet's a wonderful thing, you know. I wonder if it will catch on.

Movie Mistakes' count of Harry Potter 3 boobs - 31. It's just not trying! Spiderman 2 is up to 31 already and it's only been out a few days.

Damn cold!

Mutterings continued.

I had the radiator on in my office most of the day. Brrrrr.... And with cold, dry days comes our old friend - static electricity. Got bit by the filing cabinet a couple of times this afternoon.

Great quote: a friend (hello Kim!) had lunch in a restaurant today that was overrun by unruly ankle biters. The waiter commented, "I know they're necessary to continue the species but why do they have to come here?"

I've been unable to get the ITA website for the last 2 days. Not happy.

For all my webauthoring needs, I use Arachnophilia. It's a freebie created by Paul Lutus at Arachnoid and is a beaut. Read his note about Freeware - I think he's as tired of the "world owes me a living" mentality as I am. "Users of freeware must not forget that they didn't pay for the software, and therefore they cannot demand the satisfaction of an imaginary contract between the programmer and themselves. The usual adversarial relationship between a vendor and a consumer simply doesn't exist. I find that users below a certain age never grasp this fact, and invariably it is the youngest users who think they have the right to demand absolutely anything, and who expect satisfaction of any arbitrary whim."

Soggy Sunday

Mutterings continued.

Just helped the parents move into their new home. My brother and sister in law did most of the work, I just helped move a few pot plants and boxes. I hope they'll be happy now - the retirement village was such a disappointment and ended up being more like a bad boarding school.

The new place is a 3 bedroom villa in Gosnells, with a kitchen, which Mum missed. She hasn't been able to do any cooking for a while but at least she now has a kitchen if she feels up to it.

We saw the penultimate episode of Firefly last night. Not the happiest of story lines. I suggested we camp outside the movie studio and whine at regular intervals, "When's the movie coming out? When's the movie coming out??"

The Muppet Show featured Bruce Forsythe and a laugh out loud sketch with the Snerfs 'blowing' "In a Little Spanish Town" through their noses. And Veterinarian's Hospital. "Duck!"

Having seen some of the publicity for the movie "King Arthur", I think I'll give it a miss. The posters seem to feature Kiera Knightly, wearing very few clothes, armed with a bow and arrow - I'm not quite sure where this fits into the Arthurian legend, perhaps it's not. I haven't worked out yet who is King Arthur. I take it this is a version of the story of which I was previously unaware. Orlando Bloom is probably in the film somewhere - he's in every bloody thing else.

Well that was an expensive morning....

Mutterings continued.

$400 car registration, $300 travel insurance.

WHAT DOG ARE YOU? ? "There's a dog inside all of us, waiting to be let out. This game is based on a computer called SUKA built in 1975 by Russian scientist Mikhail Volkonsky and now housed in the London Science Museum.

SUKA is powered by CATS (Canine Algorithmic Transfer System™) which is able to determine what kind of dog you are. Simply answer 10 questions about yourself, being as honest and accurate as possible. CATS will examine the data and calculate which breed you resemble the most. "

I'm a Field Spaniel and I help people kill animals. Not something I'll be putting on the CV.

Coolness

Mutterings continued.

to quote Parker Lewis.

It's been a cold, wet, def. the middle of winter kind of day today. The kind of day which makes you glad you've got a desk job (as you laugh heartlessly, "Ha ha ha!", at the poor sods from Maintenance and Horticulture as they huddle together under the verandah before venturing back out into the elements; their jackets dripping and their legs red and blue from the cold.). Hail and thunderstorm were forecast - none of either eventuated but there was a lot of wind.

More coolness, interplanetary this time. Raw photos from the Cassini Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan.

I'm a sucker for photographs taken by satellites - dunno what it is. Here are some of Perth on the Space Imaging website.

Another bill arrived, this time a membership renewal from the RAC. On the other hand, the book I ordered from Angus and Robertson, "Dear Boy - the life of Keith Moon", also arrived. I hadn't realised it was so big - 576 pages!

I want my own plane, preferably a jet but a prop job will do. I was watching an episode of Mission:Impossible the other night which was set on a private plane. The passengers could smoke (not that I do), walk about, go to bed (there was a bedroom), sit sideways on lounges with their backs to the fuselage, etc and it really made me want to be able to travel about like that. Sure, it would probably take twice as long to get to Europe but who cares?! It would be a great way to see the world.

I've just learned to my dismay that Richard Clapton's "Girls on the Avenue" was released 30 years ago. Bloody nora, where has the time gone?

Noises above

Mutterings continued.

Either someone upstairs is moving furniture or it's a damned heavy body they're trying to shift.

My blog counter has clocked over to 3400 and according to the page referrer thingie-whatsit, four people have visited from the MSN search page. I wonder who is looking for me......

From one of the gossip newsgroups:

"Alf's Hit Talk Show" will rely on the tried and true format of a late-night talk show with monologue, banter and guests — with one significant alteration: an alien from a popular `80s TV sitcom as host.


Alf will be joined by guests Dennis Franz of "NYPD Blue" and comedian Drew Carey, with special appearances by Joan Rivers and Henry Winkler." I'm not sure if this is serious; if it is, it begs the question, "Why?"

A game. A very funny game. And a translation thanks to a kind soul on iinet.general. "Mit gerdrunken has been drinkenbeeren.

Vis your mouse you are clicken starten and gerdrunken walken, swaying left mit right vile he his groggenschlurpen. If drunken say left you moven mousen to ze right and vicky versa.

Ze objective ist to get zedrunken ze longest distance before keelenovern and snorenmaking.

Not a perfect translation but there you have it." I managed 48m.

I've just discovered I can pay my car registration on line. I visited to site only to be told the thing's closed for renovation until July 5, the day after the licence is due. Damn, looks like it's the old fashioned way - a trip to the Post Office and a long wait in a queueueueue.

It's the time of year for bills, of course. Today I paid the phone bill, the credit card and the electricity account - I'm expecting the gas bill any day. The rego (Aus for car registration) comes to $400 so it's an expensive time of year. Hurrah for credit union mid-year accounts.