Category: General

I must have looked out of place. I must have looked like a tourist, looking around with too much curiosity. Yesterday afternoon I was in Springvale, a long way from my usual neighbourhood. I was approaching the bus stop for Nunawading, walking slowly towards it, looking up at the funky (and not quite working) electronic  ... [More]

When I moved house, I took the opportunity to up my level of anonymity just a notch or two to match some mild paranoia. This was to tackle two main problems: telemarketers love me. Because I have a telephone. Conversely however, I’m not so keen on them. While some of them have been put off  ... [More]

Well I think I’ve got my new neighbour at work housetrained. Now when he makes a speakerphone call, he closes his office door beforehand. And everybody’s happy. The guy who is in Mr Speakerphone’s former office seems very quiet. No booming laugh, no loud meetings with the door open, and no speakerphone calls. He does,  ... [More]

"Number 61! Number 61!" The girl paused, looking around. "Number 61!" Number 61 was AWOL. "Number 62!" Number 62 stepped forward. I looked down at my ticket again, to check the number. Number 64. A bloke came forward. He didn’t take a ticket from the dispenser, but went right up to the deli counter, well  ... [More]

Instant movie review: Shaolin Soccer. On the way to meet the others for the movie, I was waiting to cross Lonsdale Street when a bloke behind me spoke into his phone. "Yeah I’m almost at Village. I’m just walking down Little Bourke now." I felt like shouting LIAR! into his phone. I mean really. I  ... [More]

Click. Beeeeeeeeep. Someone pushes the door open and we pour out of the train, onto the platform and start towards the exit, a narrow gap between a ticket validator and the wall. Stop! A lady is entering the platform to get on the train. She passes and the throng continues on, somehow orderly squeezing ourselves  ... [More]

I’m trying to organise a housewarming. At this rate, the house will already be warm by the time it happens, but what the hell. However, it presents a number of quandaries. Can I manage to invite the right mix of friends who are social enough that they can keep conversations rolling along through the night?  ... [More]

Mr Speakerphone departs tomorrow. Part of the big re-org that’s happening has meant the company no longer require his services. As you might recall, his services (at least as far as I can see) involve mostly leaving his office door open while he shouts into a speakerphone. This has been curtailed recently. Since he’s known  ... [More]

  Decorative poles, Carnegie On Saturday I cooked up some rather delicious chicken tikka masala, and watched the Fellowship of the Rings DVD. Now this is a movie for which it is definitely worth fiddling to get the TV and DVD player into 16:9 mode. I haven’t seen it properly since in the cinema in  ... [More]

This morning was cold, wet and windy. The perfect day to stay indoors, preferably in bed, but if not in bed then by a roaring warm heater, reading the paper, and listening to the rain outside. But alas, it was not to be. Work was calling, and more temptingly, after-work drinks were calling. So I  ... [More]

As of this morning the Not Unpacked Boxes Count (NUBC for short – the number of boxes still full of stuff that are sitting around the house) was 20. And that doesn’t count a couple still in the boot of the car. This is expected to drop over the weekend, when an unpacking and/or purging-the-junk-I-don’t-need  ... [More]

I have discovered that the coldest place in the universe is not Ballarat as I once thought, but is in fact my new place on a winter’s morning. Heating is something you never quite appreciate when it’s good… until it’s gone. At my old place, due to a design fault, the downstairs neighbours had central  ... [More]

I am somehow surviving on dialup. Until last night I didn’t even have a phone cord long enough to reach from the phone point to the computer. In desperation on Thursday I moved the computer into the kitchen just to update my diary. (Must set things up so like checking my e-mail I can update  ... [More]

Catch up time. With the move, the computers have been in bits for a few days, so here’s what’s been going on… Monday 15:00. Having excused myself from work with a Sir Humphrey-esque e-mail “In order to further facilitate a successful conclusion to the aforementioned relocation venture” I go home early. Mr Effing Arsehole Builder  ... [More]

How to dispose of an old unwanted computer… drop it off the upstairs balcony into a bin. Not as elaborate as the VCR, but fun nonetheless. Make sure your sound is turned up – the thump as it lands is particularly satisfying. So, here I am in the dying days of this eight year old  ... [More]