Not that I critically had to be in at a particular time, but I did arrive later than intended at work this morning. I could have blamed the late train. I could have blamed the previous train that I just missed. I could have blamed the crowds of tourists walking slowly in the arcade from ... [More]
John Howard commented over the weekend that he thought parents were taking their kids out of government schools and moving to the independents because state schools are “too politically correct and too values-neutral”. What a crock of shit. Too politically correct? Values-neutral? What does that mean? That schools that don’t conform to Howard’s nostalgic vision ... [More]
Everyone who has a speakerphone apparently understands not to use them in an open office. People who need to talk hands-free all have headsets. Some of the womenfolk have fluffy toys on top of their monitors. One bloke came in on Monday and accused one of the new people of stealing his chair. “Not so!” ... [More]
If you get the chance, check out tonight’s MX, page 17. If you missed it, here’s a scan… See it bigger here. They edited it a tad – the “We’ll all be old or pregnant one day” bit originally added “Okay, maybe not pregnant.” So it sounded rather more bizarre than intended. But fun stuff. ... [More]
The mowing kids from D&K Mowing were back yesterday for their second round of battle with the grass and weeds. A week early according to my diary, but they reckoned we’d agreed it would be brought forward. Whatever, the jungle-like area at the back of the garden needed to be attacked at some stage, so ... [More]
It seems Christmas is over.
We moved offices yesterday.
Following on from some of the entries from recent days… What kind of person are you? Dog or cat? Tintin or Asterix? Tea or coffee? ABC/SBS or commercial? Humanities or technical? Milo or Ovaltine? Concession or full fare? News/talk or music? Manual or automatic? Blogger or… not?
Saw something being filmed at Richmond station platform 1 today. When a train pulled in, a woman in a suit walked along beside it in front of a camera, several times until the director looked satisfied and they packed up and went home. Probably an advert or something. Also seen at Richmond station, posters for ... [More]
The Australian 2004 Blog Awards are on, and happily this humble diary has been nominated in a couple of categories by some poor deluded fools who think it’s worthy. I’m certainly not holding my breath on winning any of them, because there is some staggeringly good competition among the other nominees. But I’ll certainly be ... [More]
The coffee industry is huge these days. Gone are the times when ordering a coffee meant a polystyrene cup full of vaguely coffee-flavoured brown gloop. These days you have to look hard to find that gloop. No, in the western world’s big cities in the 21st century, there is a world of choice, there are ... [More]
Tintin turned 75 on Saturday, and he still doesn’t look a day over 16. The Belgians, ever eager to remind the world where he’s from, have issued a special 10 euro coin to help celebrate. Upon reading about this in the paper over the weekend, memories of the books came flooding back, and a flick ... [More]
We had cats when I was growing up, a series of them, many of whom lived to ripe old ages. The most memorable were Hepzibah, Sooty (mine) and Mischief (my sister’s, who was later renamed Eric by my mother after my sister moved out. Why Eric? Cast your mind back to Monty Python’s pet licence ... [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]
As with any telecommunications method whose usage balloons out beyond all expectations, SMS is subject to its share of wrong numbers. Last night a most intriguing one for me. A very spiffy picture message of an aeroplane arrived from a number I didn’t recognise, with the message (lack of punctuation preserved): Im leaving tomorrow Great. ... [More]