It may be the Christmas party season, but I’ve managed to miss two in the last couple of days. One on Friday night that I was just too tired to contemplate attending (sorry Tony and Anna). And another on Saturday, but a bout of Bowen Belly struck me down for the night. Not nice. (Sorry ... [More]
Smoke has descended on Melbourne, from the bushfires elsewhere in the state. Down in the shopping centre this morning, the haze over the street was noticeable. Marita commented on how bad it was. “Yeah”, I replied. “It’s like a mix of smoke and fog… they really should have a word for that.” Later I had ... [More]
1. I’m turning right. You’re turning left. But I got here first and my car is bigger than yours, so I’m going to go first. 2. Sure, I can park here on this corner. Why not? 3. Sure, I can park here. Why not? Pah, pedestrians, school kids? Who cares?
The innanet connection was down this morning. It put something of a dampner on the morning’s blog/check news/check email/check blog comments activity I’ve become used to. Having had either cable or ADSL for some years now, it’s always a rude shock when this happens, a bit like getting no signal on the television. And it’s ... [More]
OK, what git stole my recycling bin? I’ve only had it four months, and it’s not like anybody would have taken it accidentally, not with the size of the street number I painted on it. Blargh.
It’s Christmas party season. But with increasing numbers of parties and bookings, some of them are creeping backwards into November. My major work function was a full month before Christmas. Apart from the usual dinners and so on, the word on the street is that lawn bowling is the new boat cruise. Perhaps the Crackerjack ... [More]
Sometimes I despair of the human race. Yesterday morning I was lazing in bed when I noted an advertising supplement that came with the newspaper, called something like Christmas Essentials — 64 pages of totally stupid gift ideas. Admittedly some of the featured items were okay, but it also included some of the most useless, ... [More]
One of the better sides of globalisation is the huge range of literature of all types is available anywhere in the western world. Amazon and their ilk have meant I can (for example) order that obscure Beowulf graphic novel my sister craves for her birthday — even if the result is that Amazon now believes ... [More]
At some point after the mouse in the garden incident and a notable increase in rodent activity around the house (twice I saw them scurrying around the laundry) I put down some rat/mouse poison a few weeks ago. What I found several days later was a huge, dead rat next to the side gate. ‘Orrible, ... [More]
As I think I mentioned once before, TV news often record a “walking shot” to use for editing purposes. They’ll get you to back away from the camera 10-20 metres, then walk past it, without looking at the camera, and hoping no huge swarm of people comes around the corner and walks in front of ... [More]
So I was waiting for a train, while reading the geek history “On The Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore” (which — in my humble geeky opinion — really is excellent). The station host lady looked at it, and (given its lovely hardback binding and olde booke looke when it’s out of its ... [More]
I’ve lived in my suburb just over a year now, long enough that I’m getting to know the local Bentleigh shops a bit more now, and a few of the shopkeepers know me. For instance, the drycleaner lady recognises me, though like a TV news captioner, she misspells my name, and I can’t be bothered ... [More]