Where the Grass is Greener

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    31 March 2007

    101 Uses for a John Howard

    Here.

    Hee hee hee!

    Say no more.

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      30 March 2007

      Guilty Apples

      I have two apples sitting in front of my keyborad at work. They are staring at me. Making me feel guilty. They are the apples that I have neglected to eat with my lunch the last two days.

      The guilt began this morning when husband was collating our lunches - we've both got work lunches on today, so no sandwhiches were needed. He dolled out the little bags of nuts to nibble on, but I've got a couple of spares already at work. He put out the yoghurt - um, actually I htink I have a spar eone of those in the fridge here too... Out came the fruit, which was then the uber guilt trip as I had to admit I actually had two sitting on my desk.

      And now they are staring at me.

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        29 March 2007

        Everything's Coming Up Miffs

        Had a very long and tiring day yesterday, with work hosting the book launch for the new Andy Griffiths book What Bumosaur Is That?. Yes. You read that correctly. Although I've not read any of his work, he also wrote the famed novel (or so children inform me) The Day My Bum Went Psycho. This man has hit upon a gold mine and it is paying big time. Write books about bums and the world is your oyster. Or perhaps the world is your toilet into which you can poo all of your money.

        So anyway, I spent the morning talking to kids, saying the words bum, poo and wee a lot (the launch was held in the old sewerage pumping station), walking up and down lots of stairs as I went from one side of the site to the other. So I was feeling pretty pooped (har har).

        I had some safety training in the High Voltage Theatre late in the afternoon, followed closely by me running training for the public science show I've written for the school holidays (starting on Saturday).

        This show has been a bit of a nightmare to put together, with things going wrong and falling apart all over the place. By yesterday, however, everything had pulled together and the show worked really well.

        The show is about sound effects in the movies, and the idea was to play a clip from an out of copyright film and get kids down to make the sound effects. The holidays brochure had been at the printers long before we even knew whether the show was going to work, which meant we had to make it work.

        The show is in an outdoor theatre, so immediately AV was going to be a problem. Our poxy projector just wasn't good enough. I managed to borrow an absolutely massive projector from our parent organisation (yay!) which I may just forget to return...

        Next problem was the screen. I had the crappest overhead projector screen in the history of overhead projectors, which was both a death trap and looked like shit. So, again it was a case of "hello, parent organisation? you know how you lent me that really spunky projector? have you got a screen to go with it? you do? fabulous? can I have it now? and can you find some way of hanging it for me? excellent." Although the hanging solution didn't actually happen until yesterday, so I was slightly panicking that is wasn't going to happen.

        Last major problem - and this was proving to be the big one - my team's lap top is old. and shite. and old. and shite. No USB port. No LAN port. Every time I'd try to play the movie clip on it something different would go wrong (lots of freezing, chugging, randomly not working for some reason). I couldn't borrow the Marketing lap top as one of them was going away and taking it with them. Woe is me! What to do? Then, magically, some nice little geeks from parent organisation showed up to upgrade and swap over some people's computers. They also had one very new and spanking lap top that was to replace old and shite lappy! And we didn't even know it was coming! This one even had wireless broadband! Yay yay yay!

        Suddenly my life became a lot better, and my show went down without a hitch. Hurrah for fabulous AV stuff, hurrah for nice parent organisation, and hurrah for my fabulous show!

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          26 March 2007

          I beat the hangover!

          Held a small party at home on Saturday night with the girls from work (as one is going OS for 3mths) at which I drank the better part of three bottles of champers.

          Husband did a marvellous job of being Host with the Most as he checked everyone always had enough to drink, cooked us a BBQ dinner and did dishes so that we'd have a head start on them the next day. He was brilliant. And I soon became the centre of a room full of girls who now 'wanted one of those for Christmas' - including the one who prefers women.

          There was much gushing about the loveliness of our house, and much giggling at the smallness of my dogs.

          Then I suggested we play dance mat games on the X-Box, which brought much laughter, sweat and tears (due to laughter, not pain). When we'd exhausted that, out came the karaoke. Yes - for me it was a perfect night. Not sure how my neighbours felt about it though. Although because we started early (4pm) we finished up by 10.30pm, so things weren't that bad.

          I drank about six glasses of water and took some panadol before going to bed and was pleased to wake up hangover free! Yay!

          The whole thing was especially nice because it felt right, and nice, and like I was at home. It also brought to mind all the lovely gatherings we've hosted over the years, particularly in Watson.

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            23 March 2007

            Water Wasters Watch Out!

            Melbourne's City West Water has finally cut off the water supply to a water waster! heh heh, serves him right! Story is here.

            There was much in the way of covert ops going on, and they managed to catch this guy out. He claims to have been using tank water to wash his car, but City West think differently.

            For the next 48hrs City West have restricted his water flow to 2L/minute. A mere trickle. A water saving shower head needs a flow of 9L/minute.

            The story doesn't seem to have got much air time here, and I wish it would. There are lots of people who don't seem to really believe that we could run out of water. I'm glad they've stuck to their guns and cut this guy off.

            Apparently warning letters have gone out to several households who have been reported to City West as water wasters (including the guy who got cut off).

            Is it wrong to have a gleeful giggle about this?

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              22 March 2007

              The New Miff

              Not really 'The New Miff' so much as 'The Better Shod, Cuter Earrings, Nice New Tops, Better Supported (thanks to Bras n Things), Shorter Hair, Redder Hair, Cheque Depositing, Post Office Visiting, Car Wash Visiting, Clothes Washing, Dishes Washing, Dinner Making, Gym Visiting, Dentist Loving Miff'.

              I worked last weekend so had Monday and Tuesday off. I got lots of stuff done and had a small shopping spree. Car was taken to a car wash and given a good going over (she's so pretty again!) while I went to the post office. Nice new hair cut was followed by a visit to the dentist.

              Shopping was delightful and I had a nice feeling of satisfaction afterwards. The pleasure shopping gives me may be an indication of a shopping addiction. Maybe I could buy something to remedy that? Hmm, need to go check out the mall just in case.

              Dentist was less delightful, but not as long and expensive and yucky as I thought it would be. I hadn't been to the dentist in a long time. So long I'm not really sure when it was, but I told her it was about five. Thinking about it it may be more like eight. The dentist was very lovely and said my teethe were in good condition considering how long it had been since my last visit. Much plaque removed. Ew. And a little bit Ow. And now I have to be a good girl and start flossing.

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                16 March 2007

                Lots of laughs, lots of blood and gore, and still somehow more laughs

                Last night hubby and I saw Hot Fuzz (same guys as sean of the Dead). So funny. So so so soooo funny! And so gross. So much blood and bead bodies. And some scary bits. But sooooo funny!!

                Big city cop meets small town. Small town contains much death. Small town attributes all of these to unlucky accidents. Hilarity ensues.

                I enjoyed it so much I'm contemplating seeing it again. Lots of stolen moments from other movies which even I, non-movie-buff-girl, can appreciate.

                Suffice to say when I grow up I want to be a policemanofficer.

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                  15 March 2007

                  Some people are like slinkies...


                  It has been very tempting to try this on one of my colleagues of late.

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                    07 March 2007

                    Canberra Surprise (with cherries on top)

                    A couple of weeks ago husband and I decided to to take a trip to Canberra to see my pop, who has just had surgery to remove a lump from his lungs (which has proved not to be cancer, phew!) and is at home with my parentals. Secret squirrel plans were made in collusion with sister, Nellstar, and we were all set to drive up on the Friday.

                    The Saturday before we were to come up I received a call form my mother to say she was about to book a trip to Melbourne for the coming weekend - I stuttered and made vague "no you can't!" noises and in the end had to admit to our plans. Dad was in the room and so had an inkling that something was going on. When we arrived we gave my grandparents a big surprise which was very nice!

                    We then managed to surprise husband's mum at work. She was looking very frazzled and it took her a moment to recognise us as we were lined up waiting to order a coffee.

                    Lots of reminders as to just how small Canberra is. I recognised lots of random people just because they are from Canberra (not necessarily anyone I've ever met, just people I see around). The best moment though, was when we pulled up to have breakfast at Tilley's and saw Lan's car in the car park (who we'd been planning to surprise after breaky) and yes, she was breakfasting at the same place as us - so that was a surprise all round!

                    Following breaky we went to the Canberra Centre in the city. A few nights before the city centre, ANU and CSIRO had been host to an enormously crazy hail storm (about a foot of hail I'm told). Hello climate change!

                    Canberra Centre, ANU and CSIRO were closed for a day afterwards (the glass houses at CSIRO were all smashed up) due to water damage. The Canberra Centre stank like a wet dog - or wet carpet to be exact.

                    A lazy afternoon in Ngunnawal hanging out with Natnou (or Nat-flu, as she had been home sick) and then on to the pub to meet the boys.

                    The lads had been there since 1pm, and we arrived about 4pm. Things didn't really get too messy, although I do remember a lot of those "I love so-and-so, they're the best" type conversations. I don't have a very clear memory of the whole night, but I have lots of photos on my phone to give me some clues. Brother-in-laws licking brother-in-laws. The three of us girls all trying to stick our chins out to avoid the dreaded double-chin. Lan's boy looking extremely nervous as I made them kiss for photos... the list goes on.

                    Six hours and many, many pints later we left the pub. I walked home (thanks to my chaperones Lan & J) and drunkenly sat around waiting for the room to stop spinning.

                    A hung over morning hanging out with the fam was quite relaxing.

                    That afternoon I had the pleasure of finally meeting four month old baby Fitzy, William (who is the spitting image of his dad). He left me with a little present of a lap full of vomit (the baby, not his dad). Thankfully it hasn't made me too clucky and I will maintain my resolve to keep my legs crossed for a few more years.
                    A long trip home in the car on Monday in which we listened to Ruddy Gore a Phryne Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood, which lasted the whole trip.
                    All in all, a tiring, drunken, but altogether lovely and fun weekend.



                    Also wanted to put in a pic of spunky hubby showing off his guns at the pub. mmmm, husband-a-licious....