Apparently this year’s Salvation Army Red Shield appeal fell short by around $2 million, with apartment block security doors and an increasingly cashless society cited as two major reasons. I think most would agree the Salvos do a good job, so if you had planned to give but couldn’t, now might be a good time ... [More]
I unpacked my sparkly (not really) new flannel sheets last night, and immediately understood why they advise you to wash them before use. It’s not the excess dye that’ll get you, it’s the Pakistani cloth factory smell that comes with them (and at no extra cost). So I carried them to the washing-machine, popped them ... [More]
Okay, three doonas is too much. Might keep me warm on a cold night, but I can’t damn-well move under the weight of them. The third doona is relegated to the cupboard, and I went and bought some flannelette sheets instead. Meanwhile, you know that things are getting desperate in the public education sector when ... [More]
People who wanted their supermarket transaction split-up into separate $30 bills just to take advantage of “spend $30 for 4 cents per litre off petrol” and other such deals would have to queue up again between dockets. The expression “I’ll let you go”, which is meant to sound like the person is doing you a ... [More]
I hate to say it, but school concerts can be just a little… boring. Even when your kid is in it. Seems to me that the teachers push the whole thing just a little bit too far, so it moves from the realm of cute (“oh, they’re playing that well-known song on their recorders!”) over ... [More]
I think it’s safe to say that I live in the Coldest House in the Universe(tm). In fact I’m thinking of getting Guiness to come down here and declare it to be so. This morning, for instance, I awoke just the wrong side of 6am, and despite the double doona deployment on my bed, felt ... [More]
You remember in Day of the Triffids, particularly in the excellent TV version, how the plants would eerily click before attacking. It’s a bit like that at my house, at night when the wind blows. The enormous bush next to the front veranda, the one that defeated Cable And Wireless Optus Corporation, moves around in ... [More]
There’s been a lot of fuss in the blogging world over the last few days about Movable Type, and their new pricing. In a superb bit of customer relations, marketing and logic, they’ve bumped up their prices just a week or so after freebie tool Blogger delivered a big upgrade. I looked around at various ... [More]