Published on
26th of September 2003 in
General.
Off I went to the grand final parade. I was in my workboots when I met the wif at Parliament station. We walked to the corner of Exhibition and Collins Streets and got a front row position…well, being a gentleman I gave up my spot for a dear old lady. I thought I might as well make use of my 182 centimetres and let a frail old thing watch the parade. 79 she was, and had been to every parade since 1933. I shouldn’t have given up my spot really. I’ve only seen 5 parades in my 31 years.
Anyhow, my lovely wife looked the part in the new Brisbane guernsey I bought for her birthday last month (with a #11 on the back for good measure). $109.95 from the Lions’ official shop in Bulleen. They don’t miss do they? She got a few waves from the Lion fellas and was the loudest I have ever heard her. Her inner Kevin came bubbling to the surface today.
I love Melbourne. It’s days like today that make me appreciate this city. The people of Melbourne are generally very outgoing and friendly. The barracking was good natured and everyone was cheerful. I say have a parade for something-or-other every single day.
Watch out for a strange new drink that poisoned me last night. A Lilijana. Champagne and vodka. Danger, danger, warning, warning.
Published on
21st of September 2003 in
General.
My previous post definitely gave the kiss of death to Port Adelaide and Sydney. Oh well. This week will be unbearable around Melbourne.
All in all it was a very sporty weekend really. Williamstown winning the VFL grannie, Melbourne Storm getting walloped and Lleyton pulling his finger out to get Australia into a Davis Cup final.
Arsewipe of the Week goes out to the American soldier who, while drunk, shot dead a Bengal tiger at a zoo in Baghdad. Idiot.
Published on
19th of September 2003 in
General.
Yes. It’s the end of the working week (not for everybody though). I can hear Graham shouting “Happy Consumer Friday” even though I am 280kms away from Albury. The AFL preliminaries are happening this weekend. The MCG will be packed with rabid Collingwood supporters. When they lose to Port Adelaide tomorrow evening, expect a few murders around town. Sydney will beat Brisbane at the SCG later tomorrow night and the Swans will have heaps of members for the next season or two after they win the grand final, that is of course until Sydneysiders forget about the Swans, go back to the beaches and find another trendy thing to follow for a few months.
So there’s my predictions for the next 2 weeks. By 10pm tomorrow night I’ll most probably be proved wrong. I tipped 101 out of 176 this year and came in 10435th place in Optusnet’s AFL tipping this year (out of 28000) so don’t go putting on any bets at Sportsbet relying on my finals tips.
S’not all about footy though. Pete Costello (officially our next PM) has been trying his hardest to be a statesman. God bless ‘im.
Most importantly today marks the passing of David Kirkpatrick, aka Slim Dusty. There’ll be a few country pubs without any beer by the end of tonight.
Published on
18th of September 2003 in
General.
I had a 2 very strange dreams this morning in between waking up to turn my alarm off at 5.45am and actually geting out of bed at 6.30am. The first involved myself and my wife preparing for landing on a Qantas flight to Bangkok when the plane was shot down. The funny part about it was that I recall watching all the action ( missiles, flames and explosions) on the plasma TV built into the seat in front of me. Huh? The second was amusing. I dreamt that I was at a Metallica gig when the entire crowd started throwing blank CDs at the stage. I don’t know which dream could be considered a nightmare, being in a plane crash or willingly going to a Metallica show.
If you’re like me and have Verisign as your domain name registrar, think about shifting. Melbourne IT might get my mula as I’ve had enough of Verisign’s dirty tricks.
Published on
16th of September 2003 in
General.
Crikey! The CSS designs at CSS Zengarden are getting good. The works on the site are under a Creative Commons license but some of the designers who submitted CSS designs aren’t happy with people copying them. Copy-let’s-get-this-right!
Published on
13th of September 2003 in
General.
Brisbane easily. The ominous final quarter goalfest appeared for the second or third time this year. Watch out Sidanee! And Melbourne surprised the side formerly known as ‘The Green Machine’ in that other kind of football. Nice one.
Two years and a couple days ago I was trying to fall asleep before an unusually early 6am start at work. I was contracted to spruce up the front-of-house gardens for the Grand Hyatt Melbourne so a good night of sleep was pretty vital before a hard day’s work. At 10:48pm on September 11 I was listening to ABC Newsradio broadcasting a relay of BBC’s World News and heard that a ‘commuter aircraft had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York.’ My ear pricked up thinking that this was highly unusual and I had an inkling that I might not get the sleep I needed. I briefly thought about a picture I’d once seen of a plane crashing into an upper floor of ‘The Empire State Buliding.’ I got up and turned on the television after 5 minutes of listening to a reporter describing on the radio the sight of clouds of black smoke billowing from the World Trade Centre. Every single channel (5) had live coverage. I flicked through them all to check that what I was seeing was real. A few minutes after I finished flicking I saw the second jet smash into the other building. Minutes later an image of the Pentagon in flames was on my television. One of the towers collapsed an hour later and then my mother rang from Brisbane saying “Holy shit, it’s like WWIII is going to happen.” I sat up until 4am watching the dust clear from Lower Manhattan and wondering whether my mum’s fear was valid. It wasn’t, thank grud (sorry for using your god’s name in vain Graham). I went to work at 6:30am that morning. For once being half an hour late didn’t matter. Everyone was shocked. I was shocked and tired. Hereisnewyork.org is worth another visit to see what really went on with average New Yorkers. The images captured during those few hours were amazing.
What have we had to put up with since then? A war for control of Afghanistan (which is far from over), a war for control of Iraq (which is far from over), improved airport security, a dickhead trying to set his shoes on fire, innocent people of middle-eastern background having their homes raided, the centre of a peaceful Indonesian city blown to bits, political parties banned, religious beliefs misrepresented and most importantly, no REAL efforts to understand WHY the events of 2 years ago happened.
What’s that silly law that my physics teacher taught me in year eight? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction…
Published on
11th of September 2003 in
General.
For god’s sake go and get yourself one of these…a snip for only 3500 Australian dollars a piece. If I could afford one I’d use it to hang my keys on in the hallway, or maybe as a hatstand or something.
Why? (via The Pudding Bowl)
Domain name of the week – rubbernun.com
Published on
9th of September 2003 in
General.
Four Corners had an interesting story to tell last night. That is, if you find the subject of waste recycling interesting. Mediawatch was in fine form last night as well. Channel Ten’s lack of shrunken genitals amused me. Yes. I am back in the world of free-to-air television. No more cable television because my street is not cabled (due to heritage restrictions apparently) and I need to apply for a planning permit to install a satellite dish. As if I would bother. Suddenly I have found that there is an extra 1½ hours in each day to do something constructive (although I would’ve liked to have watched the English beating South Africa in the fifth test at The Oval on cable).
As far as the eBay lawnmower saga goes, someone has bid $40 less than I bought it for (and what you can still buy it for). It seems to good to be true. Back in May 2002 I thought I was descending into a downward spiral of suburban hard labour by purchasing the thing. Maybe this weekend I can shake off the shackles and get rid of the bloody thing. Have a look, and bid even higher if you want…
Published on
7th of September 2003 in
General.
Yep. I reckon someone would buy pocket fluff if you put it on eBay. Bidding for my lawnmower, as mentioned in the last posting, has almost reached what I paid for the thing over a year ago. There must be too much money floating around out there. I’ll have some of it!
Some Egyptian TV presenters have been banned from wearing their veils on air. I’m sure certain stalkback radio presenters will have a field day with this story.
Published on
5th of September 2003 in
General.
eBay is a site I swore I wouldn’t use. However, I have given it a go to sell my Rover lawnmower which I bought a year ago for $400. The most any second hand store would give me was $80 and they weren’t interested at all that I had a reciept from Bunnings to prove it was mine. After a little research I found out that much like cars, lawnmowers halve in value as soon as you buy them. Fuck! So that’s when I thought about listing it on eBay. Bidding has been furious for my lawnmower (nicknamed McManus). I started it at $100 thinking no bastard would want to pay more than that for a one year old mower. It now stands at $180. Not bad. So if you’re short of dough, give the online hockshop a try. Forget about all those dodgy pawnbrokers. Buy directly off dodgy people like me. I think people are bidding well for McManus because I have mentioned that I will give the buyer my Bunnings receipt when they buy it from me. That way they are covered by the 5 year warranty if anything stuffs up. Anyhow…
A couple of servers walked out of Australian Customs’ offices at Sydney airport. You’d hope there’s no doggy pr0n on it wouldn’t you?
Published on
3rd of September 2003 in
General.
The move is over. There’s not many boxes left lying around the house. Since I’ve moved to a terrace house we have less room for keepsakes. Certain things must go. Fr’instance, my huge collection of early to mid-ninties Juice, Spin and Rolling Stone magazines. They will be put out on the street for recycling next Monday so if any music buffs want them you are quite welcome to them.
The other interesting thing about the ‘hood is parking. There’s no garages in my street so all parking is on the street. The dynamic of this is incredible. The previous residents had no cars so when I rolled up with my white van I could see in the corner of my eye the dirty looks of residents. There is even one old dude who puts out orange traffic cones to save his precious parking spot. It seems I have been successful though. In the evening there is a van sized gap in the line of parked cars just for me. Maybe I have been accepted into the street by the others. Ahh,I’m all warm and fuzzy now.
The other thing I check is the amount of drinking that goes on in the street. I always check out recycling bins to get an idea of the household life of others. My recycling bin is usually 50% beer containers, 50% juice containers (a yin/yan thing). Happily it seems for once I am a small time alcoholic beverage consumer in my street. Most bins were packed to the brim with stubbies or cans of VB. Nice one.
Since I’m typing this at universty and I have an exam in 1½ hours, I’d better hit the notes for some last minute cramming (not really needed but hey, 10% is 10% isn’t it).
Said…