When you’re out to dinner in a group at a nice restaurant… and you get the bill… and the organiser says she’ll pay the balance of whatever everyone else puts in, as she’s also paying for others who had to leave early… and everyone else decides to put in $30 each — which is a ... [More]
Junk mail with a difference arrived in the letterbox last week. A piece of weatherboard cladding, about 30 x 5 cm, merely a sampler of what the manufacturer promises is a new generation in cladding. It’ll solve world hunger, it will bring peace, it’s a permanent solution to maintenance, it won’t chip, split rot or ... [More]
This arvo I went down to the local electrical warehouse place and bought an evaporative cooler. So far I’ve tried it out only to the extent that I can on a day which is patently not hot. And my conclusion is… well, it blows out a heap of cold air. Which is a good thing. ... [More]
Too damn hot yesterday. And last night. I’m going to go evaporative cooler shopping. There’s a parent at the school who looks like Billy Connolly when he was in his beardless phase, complete with the windswept and interesting long grey hair. But he has an Australian accent. There’s another parent at the school who looks ... [More]
Spellbound: documentary following 8 fourteen-year-old American kids getting to the national Spelling Bee finals. The tension mounts as the competition goes on, and along the way there are some genuinely funny moments (well done to the Hooters restaurant people for cheering their local competitor with a big "CONGRADULATIONS" sign) as well as providing an insight ... [More]
It has come to my attention that there is someone I know, someone who is a Gen-Xer like myself, who… and I’m not sure there’s any easy way to say this,does not have a mobile phone. There. I’ve blurted it out. Now I’m not going to reveal who this person is, because they have made ... [More]
Over the years, my taste in clothing (as well as other things such as food) has improved immeasurably. Various influences – in particular certain girlfriends – have led me to try and take a little more care of my appearance. I’m not quite up to the standard proffered by The Age recently of the "Metrosexual", ... [More]
Guest House Paradiso 5:45pm. I have just returned home, my pockets bulging and my arms stretching from the weight of, in no particular order: 2 litres of Apple/Blackcurrant juice 2 litres of milk 2 potatoes of the ilk that the supermarket describes as "Nadine" – one moderately large, and one absolutely fucking enormous – as ... [More]
The state and federal governments have been splitting up government businesses and selling them off. To introduce competition, they say, to improve services. So now the Victorian police are having problems responding to crime. 45 minutes to get to a burglary, that sort of thing. So I was thinking… they should do the same thing: ... [More]
Have you ever noticed how in the supermarket the check-out chicks/ blokes sometimes have to ask the customer what a fruit is so they can enter the code? Okay, to be fair, I don’t know what half the stuff is, especially those really bizarre fruits like the star shaped ones and the small round hairy ... [More]
I think I’ve hit the jackpot. Just about every morning I walk to work from South Yarra Station, a location frequented in the peak hours by the Yuppies who live there and catch trains to the city, hordes of kids heading for a multitude of schools, and people who work nearby, like me. In the ... [More]
Well, the Grand Prix was pretty impressive. Especially that crash in the first lap. The advertising puzzles me. Billboard cigarette advertising’s been banned for years in this state. But the rule appears to be "if it’s the Grand Prix, it’s okay." Hmmm. At least the government warning has to be proportionally increased with the size ... [More]