Category: General

Feel much better now, though I didn’t get much sleep last night. I remember going to bed about midnight, and trying to get to sleep, and every so often looking at the clock with increasing frustration… 1:00… 2:30… 3:30… 4:00… and thinking oh, this is getting ridiculous. What caused that? Surely not the few squares  ... [More]

2:05pm. Oh FFS, Mr Speakerphone’s office just got invaded with one of his colleagues and his entire family. Come to admire the view. So, the 28th floor is a fucking tourist attraction now? Am I the only one doing any work here? (Well, apart from stopping in anger to write this, that is.) Time for  ... [More]

Busy busy busy. So, what have I been up to? I’ve been disorganised. A pile of mail grew steadily over the last week or two on a chair in my study/spare room/computer room (whatever I’m calling it this week), and – not for the first time – the pile included a credit card bill that  ... [More]

MX’s Showdown with Saddam page bar. Over on the other end of the bar is a little aeroplane. With the war continuing, I thought it interesting to look at what the various media outlets are calling it. Some have gone for something of a neutral title (mostly the purely geographical "War in Iraq"), and some  ... [More]

Winter must be on its way – for the first time this year I saw some bloke in Lonsdale Street actually wearing a scarf on Friday night. A real scarf that is, not just a footy scarf. I didn’t think it was that cold. But maybe he was on his way to an all-night candlelit  ... [More]

9:45am. You know what’s funny? This morning as I left, three blokes were snooping around the car park, obviously planning what havoc they can wreak during the forthcoming renovations. What walls they can knock down without the whole place falling down, etc. And parked outside? A BMW, of course. 4:08pm. Mr Speakerphone is at it  ... [More]

I got home on Monday afternoon to find wall-to-wall BMWs parked outside. Which could only mean one thing: inspection time. My landlady is bowing out of the real estate game. Evidently at 81 years old she has better things to do with her time and money. A fair bit of money apparently – a word  ... [More]

The major supermarket chains are engaged in a new battle – to reduce the number of plastic bags issued. A laudable goal, certainly – the reduction of land fill and hazards to animals are worthwhile benefits. My local supermarket has risen to the challenge in a number of ways. On those little conveyor belt divider  ... [More]

Why is it that the guy with a corner office next to me is also the loudest guy on the floor? I mean, even when measured from outside his office. Loud music has been my saviour in the past few, deadline filled, stressful weeks. If I put my ear plugs in and pump up the  ... [More]

Twelve years ago a bloke in Sydney and I conspired on a cartoon about the last Gulf War. It seems timely to dig it out again now.

The theme of the clash of western vs. (other) culture continued for me on Sunday night when I watched The Year Of Living Dangerously on DVD. Why this movie? Well, because it turns out that my Dad knows the author, Christopher Koch. And (wait for this) Koch apparently admitted when it was pointed out to  ... [More]

Age Green Guide, 20/3/2003. Why is it whenever I get hooked on a show, they take it off air? (The Sopranos finished this week, too) If ever a portent of doom from the impending war appeared, it was yesterday’s weather around Victoria. Bymid afternoon a huge duststorm blanketed much of the state, providing an almost  ... [More]

Well I told all the people at the blog meetup tonight that I’d post this. So I’d better do so. A message to the bloke sitting opposite me on the train this morning: Hey mate, you may find it effortless to look terminally cool sitting there, but it all went out the window when you  ... [More]

Last night, after lazing much of Saturday, I headed into the city to soak up some Moomba atmosphere. Okay, so I really only got off my arse to go in because of the freeWhitlams andPaul Kelly concerts, but any excuse will do. Neither disappointed. I haven’t seen The Whitlams play before. When I first saw  ... [More]

On Thursday night I went through the small pile of stuff from the insurance people. Most of them were bills for the one amount, the last couple with increasingly desperate and/or threatening sounding cover letters. The last one was for $110, and claimed that debt recovery procedures were about to commence. I finally paid their  ... [More]

I discovered today that the block of flats I rent in is up for sale, by way of that most subtle of indicators, a "For Sale" sign nailed onto the front garden wall. The damn landlady must have been planning this for a while, as I seem to recall a month or two back spotting  ... [More]