On Spicks & Specks tonight

Adam, Myf and Alan are joined by Mia Dyson, Ian 'Dicko' Dickson, Des Bishop and Heath Franklin.

ABC

8:30pm

It's a little colder today

After wading through the history of the Victorian gold rush era (skipping a whole chapter entitled "The Second Parliament", after failing to find the glee in "The First Parliament") I was inclined toward more of a lightweight trifling distraction for my train reading. So picked up ‘White Elephants and Red Herrings’ which is basically a chatty stroll through some common idioms and their origins in the English language.

This morning I relished the nautical chapter. I am a sucker for the habits and superstitions necessitated by the harsh and precarious way of life that brought Europe to the rest of the world (where she imposed herself quite savagely, for the most part.) Anywho, before I detour into controversial territory, I thought I’d share this little nugget as for some reason, reading it made me think of Mattwa. Which is weird, because everyone knows that Evil is our cabin boy.

Freeze the balls off a brass monkey
The gunpowder for the guns on 18th century man-of-war ships was stored centrally and ‘powder monkeys’ (young agile boys) were engaged to fetch the powder and cannonballls from storage to the guns. The cannonballs were stacked and moved around on brass trays with 16 convex indentations that prevented the stack from rolling away. These trays became known as ‘brass monkeys’. On really cold days, the brass would contract, the balls would not sit properly in them and roll all over the place. Hence, the freezing of the balls off the brass monkey.

Flupdate: episode 3 - We have a nursery!

And week 27 rolls around.... this means about 13 weeks left! and in my head about 6 weeks left of work till I escape, enormous and puffy, to float in Balmoral's cool cool waters......

Fluppy is now about 24 cms long (just to clarify, the measurements I am giving you in cms is from head to bum....legs not included...not sure why, it just seems to be how they do it) and 920gms.

It's all about the weight gain and getting more surfactant in the lungs to help breathing in the outside world. Fluppy has been practising his breathing, but it isn't regular yet, so he needs to keep working on that. His kicking is at Beckham standard, so we're getting the contracts ready for him to sign when he arrives!

This weekend we (I really mean "I") spent an enjoyable few days getting the nursery kick started. We have a fully assembled cot in one corner with a beautiful glider (very comfy rocking/gliding chair) next to it, a fully set up change table with glorious Margaret original painting hanging above it to add a splash of colour. Bassinette and pram sitting in opposite corner ready to go and some fun baby prints hanging over the cot to make the room look loved.

Most of the beer has been put away and the while the weights bench lurks in the hallway, it too will need to one day move back into the nursery till the big day arrives and baby kicks it back to the curb where it belongs!

so for now, enjoy your chocolate, as that's my latest loss, and hopefully one day you will be able to feel the phantom kicking (if you want to, and if Baby allows....sorry John)

Sooooo

As it turns out, Peta's ex-flat mate Amy's fiance Chris' friend is already borrowing Chris' bike and last night's alcohol inspried solution to the Getting to the Gong Crisis '08 fell through.

SO I GOT A NEW BIKE!

And she's blue! And quite quick.

We cut a fine figure, Jemima and me, standing in the driveway. (Even though she's a boy bike, Noodle insists I be riding a girl - i think she might be a transvestite. But don't mention it in front of "her". I think she's sensitive.)

So Noodle and I just went for my first bike ride in about 14 years and it turns out
THAT IT IS REALLY REALLY FUN! Did you know that?! It can be a little bit like FLYING!

But now I'm tired so I'm going to watch a DVD.

The end.

Deans Birthday!

So it's little Deans Birthday this Saturday, so it's time for

That's right LAN Party!!!

We can have it Grandma's like these people:

Or a Dean's new flat:

Ask him for details of when/where at the pub tonight.

Happy Birthday Lady!

Hope you and the Fluppy have a corker... With UNBELIEVABLY straight hair!

TDK

Thought I would share these pics from back home with fans of The Dark Knight, which was filmed in Chicago during the summer of '07 I believe.

This first one is looking east on the Chicago River as it heads to lake Michigan. Marina Towers, the corncob looking buildings, were visible in several scenes. The black building which they're obscuring is the IBM tower, which served as Bruce's office and apartment during the movie. The almost finished Trump Tower poking over the top was the set of the final hostage/fight scene with the joke. Towards the bottom rights, the rectangular silver building is Hotel 71. The ballroom on top was the set of the Harvey Dent fundraiser.





This one's looking down Lasalle street, Chicago's version of Wall Street. This was the set of the police procession.




















The glass and silver building is my office back home at the corner of Wacker and Monroe. In the middle of the street is the ramp, which the batmobile used, going down to Lower Wacker, the scene of the underground chase.

Anyway, besides being a good movie, TDK was fun for me to point out all the local sights I passed on a daily basis. The filmakers left in just about all the business signs and didn't edit out much at all. Maybe the Matrix was like that for you all, I still haven't watched it again since coming to Sydney.

Fantastic Contraption

I found this very simple yet very addictive flash game through a podcast yesterday. It's a physics puzzle where you have to create contraptions out of wheels and rods to move items from the build area to the goal area.

Starts very simple, gets complex pretty fast although they all have multiple solutions.

The game is called Fantastic Contraption, check it out I think you'll like it.

Here are some of my contraptions: Mission to Mars and Four Balls

And lastly, the Friday Flashback

Holy crap were we busy bloggers three years ago today.

Friday Frippery

At the onion. For some fun-yn.

Sunday Fabulousness

So nothing to do this Sunday?

How about Yum Cha



Followed by a stroll through Hyde Park, past St Marys on to the Domain then to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Monet exhibition.




Then is the Day remains fine as forecasted continue the stroll around Mrs Macquires Chair, Botanical Gardens, Opera House and Circular Quay.

You know you want to!

Flupdate: episode 2 - Burnin' down the house!

So Saturday ended week 24 for the Fluppy and myself - it worried me slightly to realise there were only 16 weeks left till a screaming, naked ball of Flitcroft fury entered this world via... well...me.

This week I have mostly been suffering from heartburn!

The list of food and drinks I am able to consume is slowly decreasing as each week passes. This last week I have lost:

• soda water
• white wine
  
• certain salad dressings
  
• cuuuuurrrryyyyy! (well a full curry at least, if I eat very slowly and only eat mild ones then I am ok...for now)

Apparently this will continue as Fluppy grows and continues to squish my internal organs up! so life continues on with it's little challenges....

We now however have bought a pram and today I ebayed ourselves a lovely new bassinette! very chuffed!

Fluppy is about 22.5 cm long and weighs about 720gms. Fluppy could survive outside if born today (fingers and legs crossed THAT doesn't happen!) Pretty much all her systems are formed and functioning, from now on it's all about the weight gain...Oh Joy!

She's still kicking away happily and Jules has had a few chances to feel the karate going on in my tummy. Usually she starts kicking just as I'm drifting off to sleep or in the middle of important work phone calls and catches me off guard...I guess it goes to show what kind of a child we'll have later in life.

Other than all this, it's getting harder to bend in half and anything with shoe laces fills me with dread. I should probably make a list of things to look forward to when the baby comes, such as putting on my jeans without having to have a rest half way through!

Very Modern

So I am really trying to get my head around this working environment. My Boss walks in at lunch and announces that since Monday is a Public Holiday everyone should finish at 4pm.

He is managing a Cinema Company and doesn't want to crush his staff - I don't get it...

Narky Sarky Wednesday

or
Why I Can't Join Mattwa on the Wagon

Because my ongoing project for today is an assignment report for Hong Kong, which I would normally really enjoy but am finding very dull probably because I'm looking at a 4 day weekend, I am diversifying my usual methods of procrastination with a cranky burst of bile.

We have a very dull, poo-brown product which we only sell to the Australian public sector. The transaction is always made with a sniveling little public servant who considers themselves to be a highly important customer because we overcharge so much for the product that it’s probably the biggest thing in their puny little budget. It also happens to be the smallest thing on my pricelist and lowest scorer of care factor. (Is my haughty self important tone coming through yet? Do I even have to type out how much I feel I am above this menial task?) The product itself is FRAUGHT with DISASTER and makes my fingers BLEED whenever I have to even type the name of it, thanks to our good friends at DFAT and their association with this product. And sadly, now that Michelle is gone, I AM THE ONLY ONE LEFT to handle this itchy little piece of business, at least until Marina Manson starts on Oct 22.

A call comes through this morning from, um, let’s call her Rebecca C, because that is her name and she can tell it to you with the greatest of competence, explaining quite importantly that she needs me to send her one of these urgently. Today. I tell her to calm down (I don’t actually say to her “calm down” because that would be rude, but it is definitely implied in my patronising tone), give me her email address and I will send her the subscription form and details and blah blah blah. She does, I do, and it is rejected by her system for one reason or another. Let the 20 minute phone call commence in which I have to hover over my inbox awaiting an incoming from her that she tries to send over and over again, this time for sure, now is it working, I must have it now, no she doesn't want a fax, haven't I got it yet…. Then after ONE MORE TIME reading out my email address, it seems she doesn’t believe in hyphens in email addresses and has been persisting with a fullstop instead. Replying to her email still does not stop mine from getting rejected by her system.

So I finally get the form to her by fax, she faxes it back, then emails me to tell me it has been faxed back. Then, 20 minutes later, as I studiously ignore her fax sitting under my right elbow, another call from Rebecca to double check that I have received her fax. Which I have, I tell her. But as she failed to send in the second page, I am not sure what country she wants this for. If she tells me on the phone, I will jot it onto the front page of her fax ready for when I benevolently action it, in many hours, when I get a free minute. She wants South Africa but she will fax it to me anyway. She does. And emails me to confirm that she has sent page two, confirming that she wants South Africa, as notified by phone. When I do not reply to the last email, she phones again to confirm that I received the confirmation email regarding the fax confirming what she told me on the phone – that she wants South Africa. Using as few words as possible while still technically speaking English, I confirm receipt of all things related to this shitty little purchase.

The fax then gets moved over to the farthest most point on my desk, because I have had 1 too many dullards on the phone today and I make myself feel better about it by being petty and more ridiculous than the perpetrator of said dullardery. I mean, doesn’t this woman understand that I have a lot of important, big profit work today that I need to shirk with blog posting and facebooking and emails about lunch club?

Until the last phone call. From Rebecca. Asking me to confirm if she will indeed get the product by COB today. And with that last master stoke of brilliance, my will to fight buckles under me, my resistance tumbles away like a house of cards and the burocrat has bested me. In one last fastidious, i-dotting t-crossing transmission, Rebecca C from the NSW Department of Incompetence and Fuck-uppery has unwittingly worn me down. I can’t get that damned fax off my desk fast enough.

Hopefully she’ll pay her invoice one Aussie dollar at a time, by a series of ambiguously labeled direct deposits and faxed remittance advices with scan-and-email-back receipt confirmations.

Happy October

31 days left to lodge your tax returns!