Category: General

The gentrification of my little suburb is continuing. The sea-themed paintings are on most of the telephone poles, al fresco dining is spreading, and today the ultimate: the railway station has gained a coffee shop. This is one helluva good idea. After all, since the replacement of the ticket-selling human with machines, the booking office  ... [More]

WarGames – a bit of nostalgia from the 80s Occasionally, just occasionally, it seems that you can get an insight into what makes you tick. What has made you into the person you are. Some event, some experience that changed your way of thinking forever. Or at least, I can. Today, keen to have a  ... [More]

My usual dentist sent me off to another dentist last week – a supplementary dentist, if you like. This guy’s a gum specialist, and vaguely resembles Uncle Arthur, though his actual name is Don, and he wasn’t annoying at all. Apparently my gums aren’t quite up to scratch. Various microscopic organisms are digging around in  ... [More]

My dramas with my credit card took two interesting turns today. The more significant, but slightly less interesting turn was that I called the bank about the continued slurping of my account. They had a look and found that the company in Utah reckoned it was going to claim US$49.95 a month out of it.  ... [More]

(I was going to expand this out into more detail. But I can’t be bothered.) 1. Get into work, lots to do. 5 mins later, fire alarm, entire 40-ish storey building evacuated. 90 mins wasted 2. Production problem, entire system grinds to a halt. Run around like a maniac finding a fix and dodging red  ... [More]

A few little snippets of news… The bank came back to say that the first wacky weird amount of money that got slurped out of my Visa card, the $57.94 that went to Utah, well, they’re unslurping it. They did say they’d have to reconsider if the merchant in question comes up with a signed  ... [More]

Okay, just one last clipping: Meanwhile, it turns out that last week when nobody turned up to my divorce hearing because of sickness, well, they just went ahead and did it anyway. So I’m officially divorced. I’ll get the bits of paper confirming it in July. Yay! I should organise celebratory drinks or something.

I know I’ve put more than the average amount of newspaper stuff in the diary this month, but I can’t not mention this one, clipped from tonight’s freebie paper, MX: I think the guys at MX may be confusing real life with television. IT’S NOT TRUE! The Thunderbirds are just fictional characters! Granted, seeing them  ... [More]

Just a little note to the paper (one of three published today) regarding this stupidity in yesterday’s.

I just saw the oddest thing in MacGowan Avenue. A bloke drove up, got out of his car, had a slash against a tree, then went into the house. Why would you do this? If it’s your house, you should be able to use your own toilet. If it’s not your house, is anybody really  ... [More]

Compensation for it all… The League Of Gentlemen A few minorly crap things happened during the week. Someone sent spam with my address forged as the sender. Wonderful stuff, something I’d like to personally thank the sender for – perhaps with a cricket bat. The spam itself was a pretty heavily encoded ad for a  ... [More]

I just went ten pin bowling for the first time, down at theAMF thingy in Moorabbin. First Nat and I coughed up our dosh and got the funny shoes on, then we went and found our lane. She gave me a quick introduction and demonstration, then I tried it. The first couple of times I  ... [More]

Cover from MX – 4/6/2001 Tonight on the way home I picked up a copy of MX at the station. I glanced at the headline, and thought to myself "Zebra dead? – oh dear, that’s bad news for the zoo". Then I read it again: "Zorba dead" – Anthony Quinn died today. I wonder if  ... [More]

(This entry was written retrospectively, on 20 June 2001) Three and a half days a week, I live without a car. It basically goes where the kids go, for logistical reasons, unless I really need it. Sometimes I worry that the kids will turn into lazy chauffeur driven teenagers, but I have schemes to counter  ... [More]

The joys of the BAS I had one of the most frantic mornings in quite some time (involving trying to get into work by 9:30, with the kids unexpectedly at my place and one of them sleeping in an hour late)… and then, once I had got to work, something terrifying… something that brings fear  ... [More]

4:47am. Argh, it’s stupidly early to be awake. I’m still waking up. 5:15am. Shower woke me up all right. On the bright side, all being well I can go home early. And I bet I get a seat on the 5:27 train… on the 8:21 there’s never any. 5:30am. The suburb is shrouded in darkness.  ... [More]