Categories
Travel

I’ve been thinking

I’ve been thinking more and more about overseas travel recently. With the Aussie dollar plummetting against the UK Pound, it seems like quite a few people I know are considering zipping over there to work for a bit. This is something I’ve considered many times before, but never quite got organised enough to do. And  ... [More]

Categories
Home life

Now that’s what I call a dead possum

News from the front: The dead possum has fallen. Back in April last year, a possum electrocuted itself and was left dangling from an electricity wire outside our house. It was there for months, gradually decomposing, but still hanging in there. Well, this evening there was a reasonably fierce thunderstorm, and I noticed afterwards that  ... [More]

Categories
General

Pissed off

I don’t think I’m a particularly angry person, but the other day I got really really pissed off. At my mother. Perhaps getting cheesed off at your parents isn’t the most unusual of human experiences, but to get so angry as to hang-up on a person is beyond the normal bounds of my behaviour. I  ... [More]

Categories
News and events

New Year’s Resolutions

To help people all over the world live together in peace and harmony To get my neighbours evicted To tidy up my desk to the point where I can see it To see and take pictures of more of the world To defy the odds and get my driving license, preferably without crashing into anything.  ... [More]

Categories
General

Toilet humour (or “Honey, I broke the toilet”)

Reports are coming in from reputable sources that our neighbour has broken his toilet. Our neighbours in the flat downstairs are an old woman and her son, and quite frankly they can be a right pain in the arse sometimes. Their capacity for watching the TV all night with the volume turned right up knows  ... [More]

Categories
General

Christmas and aftermath

Well, all in all, it’s been a great Christmas long weekend. Lucky next week is broken up by New Year’s Day, otherwise going back to a full work week would be a bit of a blow. On Christmas Day we awoke to the inevitable pile of presents under the tree, and proceeded at a leisurely  ... [More]

Categories
General

Only one more sleep til Christmas!

Last night, the night before Christmas Eve (which could be called Christmas Eve Eve, but it sounds silly) found us enjoying dinner at a nice little (well, medium sized) Italian place in the city with friends from my previous jobs. We had been going to have Indian, but at not quite the last minute, I  ... [More]

Categories
General

Christmas time

Yowsers. It’s almost Christmas again, which means the year is practically over. Quite frankly I’m amazed at how fast it’s gone. We’re all ready for Christmas. We’ve bought all the presents, we’ve sent all the cards. Well, okay, so I personally didn’t do most of it – like most married men in the western world,  ... [More]

Categories
General

Suddenly running

Suddenly, I was running. The tiled walls of the corridor became a blur, as I scrambled towards the end. There were people all around – some walking, some running in the opposite direction to me. And worst, some walking the same direction as me, in my way but oblivious to what was happening, and to  ... [More]

Categories
General

The update

Another busy week. Highlights included: I got a room mate at work. My desk is in a converted conference room, because they ran out of regular desk spots to squeeze people into. After arriving in the morning once or twice to find meetings happening in there (and calmly walking to my desk and settling in,  ... [More]

Categories
General

Bendigo

On Saturday, as part of a gentle introduction to our quest to see more of Australia, we set off for Bendigo. Bendigo is about 150K’s north of Melbourne, in the heart of Victoria’s goldmining district. The train took about two hours to get there, weaving its way through varying countryside – from well farmed fields  ... [More]

Categories
General

My week

I’ve had a pretty good week this week. Not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but pretty good. It began on Monday, when I had a job interview. Despite almost getting lost in the wilds of Doncaster, I managed to find the place, and spoke to the guy. It went quite well, I thought,  ... [More]

Categories
General

How did your Melways get like that?

You sometimes hear stories about how taxi drivers drive like maniacs. Certainly my driving instructor reckons I should be on the look-out for them (as well as people driving company cars from a certain well-known very large telephone company that recently floated on the stock exchange…) My own experience with taxi drivers is that some  ... [More]

Categories
General

The ups and downs of lifts

Well, with my current contract job expiring, ceasing to be, going to meet its maker, etc on Friday, I’m merrily job hunting once again. I wouldn’t have left it so late, but The Perfect Job(tm) reared its head last week and appeared to be the ideal way for me to continue bringing in enough dosh  ... [More]

Categories
Health Melbourne

Great places I have thrown up

Last night I went out to dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s with a bunch of people I used to work with. We ate, drank and were merry, and then walked out onto St Kilda Road to find our various ways home. I suddenly started to feel really queasy, and said so. We were just about to  ... [More]

Categories
General

Driving hazards

Well, my second driving lesson was yesterday. Once again the fatalities were remarkably low (zero). I’m gradually getting used to this driving lark. The steering’s okay. And I’m a whiz with the indicators. Really where my problem is is the clutch. That and the whole gear situation. It’s probably just a matter of practice, but  ... [More]