Clumsy Day

Mutterings continued.

Ever had one of those days when you seem to have two left feet and your hands are made of thumbs ("The toenails, on the other hand..." "The toenails on the other hand??")? Went to the supermarket to pick up some bits and pieces - bashed my hand on the till handing over my loyalty card, tipped the contents of my purse onto the floor and managed to drop all the mail, junk and otherwise, out of the letterbox.

Over on the Mausoleum Club website, a thread which started on the subject of the end credits of Top Cat, has segued into a discussion about misheard lyrics, the choicest being:

"from Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody
"spare him his life from warm sausages" "

and

"Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir
So that every mouth and beef head

my ears are alight

My wife and my kids, they buck up and a leaf bee
Darling, cheese head, I was yards too greasy

my ears are alight

Shirk up a tear is a go

I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde

my ears are alight"

Something to be proud of.

Mutterings continued.

Re the Olympics - not only did we come fourth in the medal tally, we came second in coming last.
From the very amusing DFL weblog. Only the host country, Greece, came last more than we did. We only just got in above Poland. Not good enough. Mustn't try harder.

The Oz Federal election is slated for October 9 - I'll be in the UK and nowhere near London. I checked the Electoral Commission website and they accept not being in the country as a good enough excuse for not voting. Apparently they send you a 'Please Explain' letter after the event, you tell them you were overseas at the time and they say, "Ok." I thought they were a lot more strict than that.

Hellboy and Prawns

Mutterings continued.

A mixed day today. Mum and dad weren't very well today.

I've just got back from a movie and dinner with L and R - a second helping of Hellboy and more than one helping of sizzling mango prawns, beef ginger stirfry vegetables and tofu....something. Something nice, had chicken and chilli in it.

No Travesty (aka Thunderbirds) trailer with Hellboy or Garfield either. We did get Anacondas (why did they bother?) and Alien Vs Predator (aka AVP. Or is it PVA?)

Another chilly night coming up. Last night was coolish too - I had the radiator on for L and R. The chicken and rice went down well, as did the fruit pies. We also got around to eating some of the spoils (bribes) from the quiz night. Mmmm, crunchy M and Ms.

I lost the Queen Anne art deco porcelain but I won the Hollyhock set, which is pretty and only $14.

Leece and Rob, if you're reading this - the Bismati rice in the groovy zipped bay is by Sultan and comes from Pakistan where, I'm reliably informed (by the printing on the bag) it was "specially processed colour sorted cleaned and packed in the most Modern Rice Processing Plant Untouched by human hand" It's imported by Spencers, the people who brought you your pappadums last night. And it was packed on 10 March 2004.

And now, for something silly, the same passages with Blogger suggested spellcheck replacements"

I've just got back from a movie and dinner with L and R - a second helping of elbow and more than one helping of sizzling mango prams, beef ginger stripper's vegetables and tofu....something. Something nice, had chicken and Chloe in it.

No Travesty (yaks tenderfoot) trailer with wallop or Garfield either. We did get Anacondas (why did they bother?) and Alien Vs Predator (auk ABA. Or is it PAP?)

Another chilly night coming up. Last night was colic too - I had the radiator on for L and R. The chicken and rice went down well, as did the fruit pies. We also got around to eating some of the spoils (bribes) from the quiz night. Maim, crunchy M and Ms.

I lost the Queen Anne art decay porcelain but I won the Hollyhock set, which is pretty and only $14.

Leece and Rob, if you're reading this - the puissant rice in the groovy zipped bay is by Sultan and comes from Pakistan where, I'm reliably informed (by the printing on the bag) it was "specially processed cholera sorted cleaned and packed in the most Modern Rice Processing Plant Untouched by human hand" It's imported by Spongers, the people who brought you your pupating last night. And it was packed on 10 March 2004.

Cold.

Mutterings continued.

Well, cold for Perth. The kind of cold that makes our northern cousins sneer and say, "Call that cold? That's like a summers day to us." Top temp estimated at 14c; it was 3c when I got up.

I'm making the experimental curry and rice for L and R for dinner. The rice worked last week, can I do it again?

As I thought would happen, I was outbid on the Shelley Queen Anne stuff on Ebay. Not to worry.

Gus has been digging out her ping pong balls from who knows where. She carried two of them out of the bedroom in her mouth and dropped them in the bathroom. Not together, her mouth isn't that big. I found one in my shoe the other morning.

Fengtek Releases Motherboard Designed Using Feng Shui Principles. Amusing.

I realised yesterday that the Google ads have disappeared from the top of my blog. When did that happen? And why didn't I notice it before? No, don't answer that.

LOTR Con

Mutterings continued.

From the Greater Union website: "You can re-live the magic of Middle Earth by winning two tickets to a special Lord of the Rings Convention. Special guests include John Rhys Davies (Gimli), John Noble (Denethor) Noel Appleby (Everard Proudfoot – hobbit), Evan Morgan (Legolas stunt double) and a Weta Workshop technician. " Sad the technician doesn't have a name. Which one was Everard Proudfoot, for pete's sake?

Lunchtime blogging - Friday.

Mutterings continued.

It's wet. Really, really wet. And the temperature has dropped (I'm tempted to nick my boss's radiator - he's not in today so he won't miss it) so I think a cold front is passing/has passed through. The street gutters outside are overflowing and the cars are kicking up some serious water. Wouldn't want to be a pedestrian at the moment. According to the BOM radar, we're in the middle of some light/moderate rain.

Apparently the UK has had its wettest August since whenever the last wettest August was. They have three weeks to get the weather right before I get there.

sendit.com are having a two anime dvds for 18 quid sale. Some I don't recognise (not that that is surprising, my experience of anime is limited but, on the whole, excellent), such as Excel Saga (which has been my experience with spread sheet software) and Full Metal Panic. They have Gasaraki, which I enjoyed, and some which sound familiar (Leece! Steveg! Have I seen Noir?). The first serious, adult anime I saw was Kishin Corps and the music blew me away. Wow! serious cartoons. (Poss ducks under table and scrambles as far away from the others as possible.)

Still raining.

What goes around, etc.

Mutterings continued.

Went to work this morning with a filthy windscreen - it had been rained on, covered in dust and road grime and then dried. Walked out of the building this afternoon to see that all the rain today has washed it. I always believe that, if you wait long enough, things work out.

For your amusement - Audio Atrocities. "This site is intended to be a constantly growing and changing museum for the study and enjoyment of truly terrible video game voice acting in video games from the very first CD system, the Turbografx until the present day. "

From the "That is obviously a use of the word 'antiquity' I wasn't previously aware of." file - someone on Ebay is selling a...barometer. Not a particularly old looking barometer and certainly not an antiquity. Trawling through the Architectural - House Fittings section of Ebay can be interesting, lots of cool things on offer such as chimney pots, a church door from Glenrowan and an old electric copper (for washing clothes in for anyone who's too young to know what a copper is. You also cook your silverside and hams in them.).

Lunchtime blogging - Thursday

Mutterings continued.

The wind is howling around the building like a howly windy thing and the rain has been bucketing down. A patch of blue sky to the south is creating a false sense of security for anyone who ventures out doors.

The Guardian quizzed a lot of clever people (ie scientists) about their fave sci-fi writers and fillums. In the latter category, Blade Runner came in #1, 2001 at #2. Favourite writer was Isaac Asimov.

Also from The Guardian: "Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win three medals in an Olympics by taking bronze in the madison." I don't know much about sport, but isn't the madison a dance?

My interest in art deco stuff continues. I have a couple of Ebay bids in for some lovely porcelain, one a 1931 Shelley Queen Anne set that is all lovely curves and angles. Shelley ware is very popular and I expect to be gazumped in the next couple of days, which doesn't matter. I don't plan to go any higher than I've already bid and if I get it, fine. If not, never mind.

Lots more wind.

Mutterings continued.

Even the orangs had seen sense and not climbed to the tops of their towers today. Unless of course they've all been blown away and are floating somewhere over Victoria Park.

I've booked my hotel in London - went with the Luna and Simone, which sounds very nice.

The letterbox was jammed with junk mail and a letter from the Estate Agent complaining that someone is parking where they shouldn't. Lot of cattledogs, all wet and stuck together.

What a lot of weather we've been having.

Mutterings continued.

Rain, gale force winds, and the cheery forecast for tonight: "Severe storm fronts are expected to again lash Perth tonight, with winds gusting at up to 100kph and periods of heavy rain." Two trees down at work, no animals harmed, though, thank the small gods.

More silly name generators - this time it's to find your goth name. I'm Glitter Girl, or Liquid Dreams, or Heavenly Demonic for short.

I think I've found a hotel in London. It's 50 quid a night, en suite, with breakfast, and it's got great reviews on tripadvisor and in the Lonely Planet guide. It's in Pimlico, just down the road from Buck House, which is nowhere near Earls Court. It's 15 pounds more than I'm used to paying but it looks nice and I think I'll treat myself.

Another day of mixed fortunes.

Mutterings continued.

That seems to be the way it is, these days.

Mum visited her oncologist this afternoon who doesn't want to see her for another 3 months. Which I take to mean he believes she'll still be here in 3 months.

(Gus has just been attacked by the toy fish onna stick monster. Now Milo is killing it for her.)

Came home to a $145 rebate cheque from Medicare, which should just about cover my credit card debt (just checked, nope, I'll still be $10 in the red), and a parcel containing Poirot vids on the doorstep. A friend popped in at work and we had lunch and coffee and a visit to the baby baboon (Taye was climbing on and off a branch, using his mother's head as a ladder).

On the negative side, I got a call from the Breast Clinic saying they want to me to go to the Royal Perth Hospital clinic for more tests and possible ultrasound. The nurse who rang said there was some thickening in one of the breasts that they want to have a look at. She said that, as I've never had a mammogram before, they don't know what is normal for me so they want to check it out. She also said that 120 women a week get called in for a second set of tests.

Poor Leece and Rob are still laid low with the lurgi. Get well you two.

Ok, back on the positives. I got an email from Ashley in the UK and she has been working on our itinerary. Two days in York, four nights at gorgeous Birnam Wood House in Scotland and a night in Sheffield with Derek Jacobi. Well, we'll be in Sheffield and so will he. And in the middle visits to Barters bookshop (the one in the Victorian railway station in Alnick) and anywhere else that takes our fancy (within reason).

From the "Where does the time go?" department - this blog in nearly 12 months old. I started it on Sept 15 last year as a response, more or less, to Simon flitting off overseas last year.

Experimental curry

Mutterings continued.

Poor sick Rob is even sicker so he and Leece won't be coming over. I'd promised Leece a curry from my new cookbook - I'm glad I got the opportunity to test it out on myself as the recipe called for Pilau rice and I'm not terribly good at rice. Ditto pastry, scones and sponges.

The marinade for the chicken has yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic, tumeric, chilli powder, cardamon, cumin and paprika. I've just realised that I forgot to put garam masala on the end product. Oh well, there's always the left overs. And the pilau rice has cardamon pods, cinnamon quills, fennel seeds, garlic, onion and basmati rice. All the spices etc get cooked up, the uncooked rice is dumped on top, then water to cover. Boil rapidly for 5 minutes and turn it off, leaving it to steam for 20 minutes. The chicken is marinated for several hours, then the bits are fried in vegetable and olive oil.

Both the chicken and rice were yum Very yum. Am well pleased, and surprised, and will try it again.

Poorly drawn cartoons inspired by spam. Lots of giggles, especially "Where did you go?"

I was playing around with my mobile phone (aka The Toy) this arvo and discovered some of the other things it can (besides being a radio, camera, torch, etc). There's an entertainment section where you can bookmark favourite cinemas and access film screening times. Apparently you can also send emails but I haven't worked out how to do that. Telstra has an online simulator to show you how it's done, however if you don't happen to have a Sony phone, it's not much help. Finally worked it out! Trial and error but we got there.

Hellboy is cool.

Mutterings continued.

Last night Leece left poor sick Rob at home. We had a mooch around Belmont Forum - Big W looks like a typhoon has gone through it, picked up the different items and dumped them somewhere else in the store. They had an extensive, albeit difficult to find, DVD section where Leece secured a series 3 set of B5 for only $49 and a bit. She'd bought me Series 1 so now I just have Series 5 and the movies calling to me from Canadia.

We had a meal in the food court and a wander around Reading Cinemas, not a lot to see. A coffee and a pot of Earl Grey later (I tried to wander out without paying. Good thing Leece called me back! Tres embarrassing.), we hung around the foyer with other SwanCon type people. I was surprised at the size of the complex; I had thought it was a small place but there are 10 cinemas. #1 where Hellboy is being screened is a nice size, the screen is a nice size but the place hadn't been cleaned after the previous screening.

We were fully expecting a preview of Thunderbirds (more later) but didn't get one, thank the small gods. Ron Perlman, as others have pointed out, is perfect as Hellboy. He's done a lot of good stuff, and some not so good. His most memorable performance for me was playing a very big, very butch, bent copper in Happy Texas. And when I say 'bent', I don't mean corrupt.

I'm pleased to see that Hellboy 2 has been announced for completion in 2006, which I'm not so pleased about. For anyone who hasn't seen HB (or Big Red as he's known to his friends), there's an easter egg about half way through the end credits. It answered a question I asked at the beginning of the credits.

I was hoping to post a comment from Gerry Anderson about the travesty that is the Thunderbirds movie but scifi.com seems to be down. In essence he said, don't blame him, he had nothing to do with it, the reviews have been awful and it's not his fault.

Amusement from The Guardian's The Northerner:

"The Liverpool Daily Post has discovered that the entrepreneurial

spirit that made Britain great is not dead, and that some people are

prepared to push themselves to the limit to succeed in what appears

to be a task that would make lesser men and women tremble.

"It is a huge challenge, it's like climbing Mount Everest, you do it

because it's there," Brian Radam told the paper.

Radam is leading a team that Brunel himself would have been proud of:

they want to build a 100mph lawnmower and so set an invincible world

record.

The team are all based at the British Lawnmower Museum in Southport,

of which Radam is curator. He is also a former northern lawnmower

racing champion.

"We want to reach around 100mph because anything lower would be too

easy to beat," he told the Daily Post. "The biggest problem is not

the speed, it's keeping the machine in a straight line for that

distance, because they aren't built to travel that fast.

"Ideally you would try to get an aerodynamic shape, something that is

low and long, but the racing rules state you can't change the shape -

it must be recognisable as a lawnmower."

The Americans have already topped 100mph, but British enthusiasts are

sniffy about their achievements.

"The Americans are not using real lawnmowers, they just take bits of

lawnmowers and stick them on a big engine," said John Gavin,

president of the British Lawnmower Racing Association. "It's like

having the world's fastest fried egg or the world's fastest wig. If

it doesn't power itself then it's no use."

I find the concept of the world's fastest wig rather disturbing. A museum for lawn mowers even more so.

I discovered why I couldn't do a spell check on Blogger with Mozilla - it automatically blocks pop-ups unless you tell it not to. And I hadn't. Silly Poss.

Chippies!

Mutterings continued.

I've just been having a chat with Maureen (hello Maureen!) and the discussion came around to things we can't, or rather shouldn't, eat. For me, it's chips, aka crisps. There's a website called Treats from Home which caters to ex-pat Poms and they sell loads of varieties of crisps, some of which you couldn't get me to eat if you paid me. Marmite flavoured, anyone? How about Roast Lamb and Mint? I love Walkers' Cheese and Onion and Salt and Vinegar (that's two separate flavours, BTW) but there are even things I won't eat.

There's a bit of a discussion going over at the Mausoleum Club about people's most memorable top ten tv moments. I could only come up with three - the moon landing in '69, watching the second plane fly into the World Trade Centre in 2001 and the last episode of Blake's 7.

Off to see Hellboy tomorrow night - I'm looking forward to it. We're going to the Genghis Con screening in Belmont.

Potential goodies

Mutterings continued.

There was a card in the letter box from the PO advising they have a parcel waiting for me at the distribution centre. Could be vids, could be stuff I ordered from Peters of Kensington (they do nice homeware, stationery, etc etc stuff).

Sunny day, cold morning.

Mutterings continued.

A friend called into the Zoo this morning so we had lunch at the cafe and a nice stroll back through the Savannah in the sunshine. Watched the baby baboon for a while - he looks like a Benedictine monk with his bald head. Fortunately the hair seems to be growing back. He was poking his father with a stick, not a wise thing to do to a large male baboon with teeth that could tear steel.

The lions were asleep, of course, and one of the girls was lying on her back with her legs in the air.

There was work going on in one of the orang enclosures and all the other inhabitants were on the top of their towers keeping an eye on things. It's a good thing that orangs have so many hands as it must be difficult climbing up a tower and across ropes carrying food, a blanket and a hessian bag.

From Ananova:

"World's first restaurant for cats

The world's first restaurant for cats is about to open in New York.

The Meow Mix Café opens next week on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, reports the New York Post.

But the cafe, a promotion by the Meow Mix cat food company, will only be open for a week.

But company boss Richard Thompson it could re-open permanently and sprout franchises around the country if it's popular.

The café features tables where cats can try out six varieties of Meow Mix - and where their owners can snack on people food."

Does anybody really think that the cats will eat what is put in front of them in a restaurant? The more expensive the meal and the surroundings, the more the mogs will turn up their noses. It's sod's law when it comes to cats; what they love and will kill for today, they will completely ignore tomorrow.

And from the Oh FFS! file:

"A businesswoman has been banned from asking for 'hard-working' staff in a job ad because it discriminates against the lazy."

Whoops! "British Olympic swimmers are to have their modesty protected after discovering their swimsuits are see-through in water." You really would have thought they'd test them first, wouldn't you?

A day of mixed fortunes.

Mutterings continued.

A lovely sunny day today. The max is only 16c but the sun is shining and it feels warmer. The temp got down to 1.7c overnight and 2c is forecast for tonight.

Mum's not the best, she was in bed during my visit at lunch time. The Silver Chain nurse had been out and advised her to rest. Mum had taken some morphine earlier in the morning and the pain that laid her low had gone. Mentally she was very bright which was good.

On the way home I called into a pet shop to look for cat enrichment items. I'm on the behavioural enrichment committee at work and feel guilty that I don't do more for my own mogs' enrichment. I was looking at the carpet and plywood, multi-level towers (some of which are priced in excess of $500!!) and came home with a small scratching post thingie. It's an inverted V on a rectangular base and has a plastic ball with a bell on it. The carpet covering has obviously soaked up some of the pet shop smells as Milo spent a lot of time sniffing it, doing the old flehmen (sniffing with mouth open to get a really deep snort) a few times. Gus looked at it, sharpened her claws a couple of times and hasn't been back.

Dins and movies night last night. L and R made tacos, mmmmmm, and left me some of the fixin's. We watched Peter Ustinov star in the Muppet Show (I had such a crush on him in the 70's! I thought he was a genius. He probably was.), then Les Triplettes De Belleville (yum, frozen frog onna stick) and MST3K's take on The Invincible Man. Who wasn't so much "invincible" as "slightly hard to kill but still vulnerable to electricity". I'd borrowed the D Gen's second Best Off from the local library and Rob got to see the famous "International Pizza" Thunderbirds sketch. "pull some strings. Arr arr arr."

Gus has been watching the television. Yesterday she was engrossed, for a couple of minutes, in a doco about gibbons - she was watching a couple of white-cheeks brachiating and I think she could see the contrast of the black fur against the green trees. And last night she watched a few minutes of Les Triplettes until Bruno starting barking and she ran away.

Another Silly Test Thingie

Mutterings continued.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmmm, and according to another of their tests, I'm 70% schizoid. So watch it!

A quick blog....

Mutterings continued.

...before tackling the housework. How can one female type person and two cats make such a mess??

This morning I picked up my air tickets. Whee! Surprisingly, there were no vouchers, etc for duty free stores - in the past there have always been ads, vouchers, etc for at least 2 duty free establishments in town that I never go to. According to the itinerary, I'm on a non-stop flight from Paris to Perth, however it seems that I'm booked on one of the big jumbos that stops in Singapore for a quick refuel and then home. I have a 3 hour stop in Singers on the way to Europe - this is much better than my last trip when I landed at 10pm and didn't fly out until 6am.

If an infinite number of monkeys....

Mutterings continued.

In this case, it's an infinite number of cats. The Infinite Cat Project. Cats watching cats watching cats ad infinitum.

Leece called by work today, which was nice, to drop off my Gus-inspired mug. I showed it to Gus, who sniffed it, but as there was no food in it she soon lost interest. It's lovely and matches my Milo of the Forward Facing Whiskers-inspired mug.

I saw a recipe for lavender linen water - something the Body Shop used to make but no longer seems to be available. Lavender is good for calming and making things smell nice and I thought I might give it a go. The recipe is as follows:
100 drops lavender essential oil - bit tedious having to count 100 drops but never mind.
5-10 drops peppermint, spearmint or rosemary essential oil (optional). Ok.
2 oz. 80+ proof vodka
24 oz. distilled water

VODKA?? What a waste of a good libation! I think I'd rather look at the lavender and drink the vodka, much more soothing.

A rather amusing Ebay entry. As someone on iinet.general put it, truth in advertising.

Over 4,000 served.

Mutterings continued.

The visitor counter has clicked over to 4006. Thank you one and all for stopping by.

The day was spent in interviews, this time for the two positions of Supervisor Exotic Mammals. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision on who to select, I'm just the scribe. I must say we have some damned good people working at the Zoo. And some of them have suits.

Bucketed down with rain at lunch time. I went to the Zoo shop for a mooch and got trapped. They were doing a roaring trade in plastic ponchos and raincoats with visitors who had come unprepared.

Hellboy - coming soon

Mutterings continued.

Soon being August 15.

There was a message on the answering machine from 'my' travel agent advising that my tickets and vouchers are ready to be picked up. Yay! Ashley has found some lovely hotels and B and B's in Dunkeld, the Birnam Wood Guest House looks so nice.

On November 1, the Region 2 disk of Ardman's Creature Comforts is being released. Lots of goodies:
Creature Comforts - Complete Series 1; Momentum; £19.99
Extras: Creating Creature Comforts featurette; Bringing Creature Comforts to Life featurette: follow characters from storyboard, character stills, LAV tests to finished footage; Who's Missing?; Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo; DVD-ROM section including posters, soundbites, wallpapers and much more; Favourite Bits - the director's choice of best clips; TV Extras - ITV1 channel idents and National TV Awards clips; Who Said That? - a game; Downloadable Wallpapers - for your desktop; Say That Again - downloadable phrases from favourite characters plus Weblinks.

Things

Mutterings continued.

Opened up the mail box to find what looked like two exciting magazines in there - turned out to be a David Jones and a Myer cattledog. Walked upstairs to find three, yes three!, parcels on the doorstep. And I'd received an email from Leece today saying that their order, which included a Gus mug for me, arrived today. Good doogs! (I've decided to revive this archaic Oz saying. I haven't heard it for a while and think it needs saving.)

Cool underwater things from the Mar-Eco exploration of the mid-Atlantic ridge. Includes possible new species of squid.

Mutterings continued.

I've just come back from seeing Shrek and noshing dinner with Rob, Leece, her mum and uncle. I know people not a million miles from these pages have said how much they dislike the film, but.....I liked it, so there! Film Reference Spotto was a lot of fun (as was watching Ariel the mermaid being eaten by sharks) and I really, really liked Puss in Boots. Being the mad old cat lady I am, or plan to be, I couldn't help but like him and cheer when the annoying poodle was flattened by a stage diving Shrek.

There was a trailer for the travesty known as Thunderbirds. Ditto Garfield - couldn't the film makers at least have Odie look like Odie??

We had a good night last night - I made beef and mushroom casserole (not happy with the meat, I think I'll be giving gravy beef a miss in the future) and L and R brought pear and walnut tart and Lindt choccie. Mmmmm. And we watched Mstie, Muppets and Storyteller.

I spotted an ad for a 'stay young and beautiful' cream, part of which reads, "A breakthrough phyto-complex, Boswelox™ combines Boswellic extract and manganese to specifically target lines caused by muscular contractions." I guess a Boswellic extract would be something like, "Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.", which is an extract from The Life of Samuel Johnson.

Some interesting links, thanks to Newsradio:

• The Museum of Hoaxes
• A Harry Potter Convention . Ok, this one isn't so much interesting as rather....sad. Methinks they are taking the books a little too seriously. Mind you, the topic "Severus Snape: Romantic Byronic Hero or Unredeemable ‘Greasy Git’?" is rather amusing. "Prisons in the Wizarding World vs. Prisons in the Muggle World" isn't.
• Stephen Hawking's website.

Amusing Work Buzz words, courtesy iVillage:

Blamestorming: A group discussion about why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
Seagull Manager: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

Assmosis: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by sucking up to the boss rather than working hard.
Salmon Day: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

Generica: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.
Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realise that you've just made a BIG mistake.

There goes another week.

Mutterings continued.

Can't believe it's Friday already.

According the What Social Entity Are You Quiz (thanks Leece!) I am:

"Category V - The Lone Wolf
Though you'd be welcome in most groups, you prefer a more solitary path."

Woof.

Speaking of doggies, amusing and heartwarming story from The Guardian's The Northerner:
"Baz the one-toothed wonder"

Although he has only one tooth, and at 14 is a doddery pensioner of a

Jack Russell, Baz surprised and evicted two burglars from a house

near Prestbury, "snapping and snarling at their heels as they fled

from his home." Not content with that, he then jumped into their

getaway car and mauled them - insofar as you can maul with just the

one tooth - for over a mile.

"He's very elderly and a bit of a wreck really. But he's terribly

loyal and territorial," Baz's 66-year-old owner Janet Terras tells

the MEN. "If he likes you he will roll on his back with his legs in

the air, but if he doesn't he will try to kill you."

Sounds like quite a few northerners I know. But he earned his keep as

a watchdog - the panicked burglars only managed to steal an

unexciting 300 yards of yellow garden hose.

Mrs Terras is now helping Baz get down anti-shock and painkiller

tablets with his favourite apricot-flavoured Stilton cheese, and the

police are working out how to get the burglars' DNA off him. The

blood's there, but every time forensic try to get it, out comes that

fang."

And one for Nick in Huddersfield:
"Bad news in the Examiner for thousands of Huddersfield people whose

nice new wheelie-bins are being withdrawn for "modification" and

replaced in the meanwhile with those grotty, cat, fox and Baz-ripped

black plastic bags.

The glitch, according to Kirklees council, is that the bins are

toppling off dustcarts when they're tipped to be upended into the

mashing machine, an exciting process which my children used to watch

for what seemed like hours.

Someone should be writing a history of the wheelie-bin, which has

earned a place beside the pillar box and milk bottle as a strangely

loveable part of the British urban scene. The best story I remember

doing involved alleged mayhem in Pontefract, where pensioners were

said to be leaning too far into the bins when dumping rubbish.

I'm not sure evidence was widely produced, but the claim was that they

then fell in, and a combination of windy weather and the hills down

from Ponty's elevated town centre sent them whizzing away on their

wheelie's wheels." My mother once nearly fell into the freezer cabinet at Coles reaching for something at the bottom. She's only 5' tall, you see, and she leaned in a little too far.

I notice that the ABC shop has slated the Goodies 2 DVD for November. No details so it will be interesting to see what's on it.

Shopping

Mutterings continued.

I'm now the proud possessor of a copy of Noises Off. It took a bit of finding at Target; I ended up having to ask, after having trawled through all the shelves, only to be told the $17.99 DVDs were up the front. I was a little disheartened when I saw the nearly empty stand (that I'd walked right past as I entered the store) but there were 3 copies of Noises Off so I'm happy.

The Bureau of Met. radar map for 5.14pm shows some yellow stuff (moderate falls) and purple stuff (heavy) heading our way. I don't think this is what Prince (or whatever he calls himself these days) meant by purple rain. A very useful notice on the "oh my god, what's that? we're all going to die!" page of the Met - "Please be aware, wind gusts can be a further 40 percent stronger than the averages given here, and maximum waves may be up to twice the height." And things in your rear view mirror may appear closer than they are.

I knew I should have bought petrol the other day when it was still 93c/litre - it's now gone up to a shade under $1. Bugger.

There's a very high brow discussion going on at the iinet.general ng about which cereal tastes best when eaten without milk. General concensus seems to be Nutrigrain ("It's reel bute!" for those of you who remember the Tony Greig commercials). I only eat healthy cereal these day (mostly stuff with lots of bran and little taste) but I would have to say that Coco Pops are pretty good for noshing straight out of the box.

Some lunch time blogging

Mutterings continued.

It's raining. It's almost at that point where you think it can't rain any harder. My car is getting a lovely wash under the Morten Bay fig tree outside, though I am worried about falling branches. Oooh, it's now at the point where you think it can't rain any harder. Oh it's stopped again. A group of us had to go to a meeting at the other end of the Zoo just before 11am and got trapped on the verandah and we couldn't get to the car.

I noticed in the Target cattledog that they have the DVD of Noises Off for sale for $17.99. Bargain! I'm hoping the local store will have it in stock. Of course, it won't be as good as the GRADS version and it won't star Patrick Spicer, but it does have Michael Caine and Denholm Elliot.

My poor head

Mutterings continued.

What a couple of days it's been. Yesterday was spent transcribing interview responses for 6 hours; I spent this afternoon discussing Business Continuity Plans - what to do if the worst should happen. Oi!

On the medical front - I don't have diabetes and my cholesterol is down but could come down a bit further. The doctor thinks this is due to the medication I've been taking, which he has increased. I didn't tell him I haven't actually been taking the medication. Ahem. I also don't have gall stones, but I do have a probably benign.... something or other. Angiomyolipoma. It's a growthy thing near one of the kidneys that isn't anything to worry about. Apparently. Ooh! and I also have a 'special' liver. It's called a Riedel's lobe, which is "a projection of the liver from the inferior surface of the right lobe. It is a normal anatomical variant." So there you go.

Nice little parcel in the post yesterday containing the limited edition (I think I have the only ones in existence), Leece-created Hippogryff totebags. They are very cool and will be worth a lot of money in a hundred years or so. 8-)

August

Mutterings continued.

Downhill slide to Christmas - official. The last month of winter is making its presence felt - it just went very dark, I had to put the lights on, and the rain is bucketing down. It sounds like a hurricane outside at the mo.

Just got back from lunch with the folks, Dad cooked the mains and Mum made bread and butter pudding. She also did the dishes, something she hasn't been able to do for a while. It looks as though the right mix of medication is working. Her failing eyesight is still concerning distress but I'm hoping the Assoc. for the Blind will be able to offer practical advice on how to best cope with what she has left.

I've just noticed that all the posting options are now on the Blogger posting toolbar up above - I'm using Mozilla and this is the first time I've seen them.

Trailer for HHGttG.

I love trains and think that the London Underground, when it's working, is a great way to get around. It's not always a great way to get up and down as the escalators are often out, but getting around is fine. Tom, from Random Acts, and fellow loons, have just run the Zone 1 Challenge - visiting every station in Zone 1 on the Tube in the shortest possible time.

The Google ad on the Posscards page was for Tim Tams and the purchasing of same on Ebay. What the....? I just did a check on Ebay and they don't have any Tims Tams at all! Wide range my eye!