The Neighbours Bus
You may have heard of it, well here it is in the flesh. Spotted and snapped “in the wild” last week on my handy-dandy mobile phone camera… The official Neighbours tour bus, roving the city looking for English tourists to whisk out to Vermont South where they film the show.
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Drycleaning
In my neck of the woods, drycleaners seem to have a permanent “three for the price of two” deal going on. It’ll cost you about $7 to get one item cleaned, but about double that for two or three.
It means when I have an item that is in dire need of cleaning, I’ll pontificate procrastinate over whether or not I have two more that need cleaning too, just so I can get good value for money.
Once the item(s) come back, you have to get rid of the plastic and the flimsy metal coathanger. And of course find the label. If there is one. On the trousers I just got cleaned, I couldn’t find the label… so hopefully I wasn’t walking around all day with it stuck to my bum.
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A visitor
I got home this afternoon, and walked into the livingroom only to spot a mouse in the fireplace. Apparently disturbed from its rodent activities it scurried away.
It peeked out a little while later and had a good look at me. As soon as I moved it did another runner.
As anybody would, I found a comfortable spot nearby and lay in wait… with a camera. (Well what on earth do I have a blog for if it’s not to document such momentous events as this?) It did pop out again once or twice, but as soon as the camera-flash went off, it disappeared and didn’t come back. Obviously camera-shy.
I don’t know if it’s the same rodent that was suspected of making various scrabbling and scratching noises in my ceiling recently. Maybe a descendant or a cousin?
And, given I was home earlier than usual, how long has it been exploring the house in my absence?
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Are you my mummy?
The Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances won the Hugo award for best dramatic presentation, short form, beating other worthy contenders including Battlestar Galactica, much to Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell’s surprise.
So how are we all enjoying the 2006 series? Overall, I’m loving it. And in keeping with my one-year-old tradition, here’s a review of the first half of it. (Matching what the ABC is up to.)
The Christmas Invasion — a fun introduction to the new Doctor. Gotta like any story which has references to Arthur Dent and in which a cup of tea saves the day.
New Earth — an okay romp in the future, but a fairly bland story, and one which doesn’t stand up at all to a second viewing, IMHO.
Tooth and Claw — ah, that’s more like it. Starting with martial arts Matrix monks, a nice exciting claustrophopic big monster chase. Torchwood reference rather rammed down the throat at the end.
School Reunion — lump in the throat stuff. Few TV shows can build such a rich pop-culture history they can draw on decades later. Nostalgia overload and Buffy’s Giles make up for the light story.
The Girl in the Fireplace — first really clever writing of 2006, a genuinely intriguing story in which the viewers (but not the Doctor) see the real answer to the mystery at the end.
Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel — ooh yeah, the Cybermen are back. Terrific visuals with the zeppelins. Amusing Mickey/Ricky bits. Loved the mid-story cliffhanger.
The Idiot’s Lantern — some amusing moments. Some moments that are probably meant to be thought-provoking but which don’t quite get there. Fun nontheless. Notice how even the dog almost falls victim to the alien?
(Previous: 2005 part 1, 2005 part 2.)
Note: If you’re leaving comments and have seen the remaining episodes, be careful to leave no spoilers for other viewers.
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Happy birthday to me
Turned 36 today.
Biggest present: A big framed print of what is probably my favourite painting, Collins Street, 5pm (John Brack).
Other presents: Books to read, CDs and DVDs to listen to and watch, a really nice (and expensive) dinner at Il Solito Posto, a really nice (probably inexpensive) home-made dinner and birthday greetings by email, SMS and card.
And the family sitting in the back garden in the (occasional) sunshine drinking tea, eating cake, chatting and bouncing on the trampoline and pogo-stick. Another great birthday.
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A year in
So, after almost a year of having a mortgage, how’s it all going?
I expected an impact on my spending. Nothing terrible, and I wouldn’t have taken it on if I thought I couldn’t sustain it. But the monthly repayment is about double what I had been paying in rent, and I’m no millionaire, so it has meant a noticeable change in the amount of spare cash I have lying about.
I’m no longer swimming in it. Perhaps wading gently, at least in months when car repair bills or other occasional big expenses don’t come in. Or in the weeks following really busy periods at work (since I’m paid by the hour).
Big outlays such as overseas holidays are off the agenda for the forseeable future, particularly since they not only include paying a lot of money, but lost income.
In the first few months of the mortgage I did manage to make extra payments onto the mortgage, so now I’m about five months ahead. Obviously this means paying a bit less interest, but it also gives me a buffer so I could theoretically not pay it for a little while before there were any interruptions to work.
But as for my goal of paying off 20% of the loan by the end of this year… When I made that goal in January I’d paid off 3.84%. Now I’m sitting at 5.18%… so not exactly rocketing through it. St George will be raking it in from me for a good few years yet.
In investment terms, figures out today show median prices in Melbourne up 4.2%. (In Bentleigh it’s about 5% for houses.) I suppose, now that I’ve bought, it’s good for me that prices are going up. But I do wonder about how my kids will go when, sometime in the next decade, they look for their own homes to live in.
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Grey
I had a haircut the other day. As the locks fell to the floor, it almost seemed like there was more grey than black (very dark brown actually). But maybe that’s because the grey was most visible. At least I hope so.
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Let’s do the timewarp again
The school concert was last night. I’m sure I don’t remember us doing these kinds of full-blown all-of-school proper-concert-hall events when I was in primary school. But the kids all seemed to enjoy it. And the bar was open before the event started, to help the parents… uhh relax.
Danny Katz (whose kids go to the same school) wrote a funny piece several years ago about having to rush home from Moorabbin Town Hall to get his daughter’s recorder for the school concert performance of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Perhaps school management read this article: Moorabbin Town Hall is no longer the venue, The Lion Sleeps Tonight wasn’t on the programme (doesn’t that breach the Education Act?), and the recorders are all transported specially from the school to the concert in special boxes.
The time passed surprisingly quickly, with acts in grade order. Some of the costumes were quite good, especially Adrian, one of the kids’ friends, done up as Gene Simmons from Kiss. Very impressive. Despite cleaning the wax out of my ears especially for the occasion, I couldn’t quite make out some of the song lyrics, but no matter, you expect it at these kinds of events.
Adult crowdpleasers such as Video Killed The Radio Star made an appearance, as did old favourites such as the Flying Purple People Eater. The bit I laughed most at was a play set in medieval times, which featured knights “galloping” around the stage, one of them with banging coconuts Holy Grail-style.
As always the final act was the teachers, prefaced by a rowsing call from the students of: “Teach-ers; clap-clap-clap” (and repeat). This year it was Let’s Do The Timewarp from Rocky Horror. I still find it a bit unnerving to see the staff entrusted with our children’s education being so outgoing, as many of them appear not only to be upstanding citizens, but not quite as extroverted as they appear on-stage. Probably hiding in costumes, masks and make-up helps.
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