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Here I am in Sydney. Hello Sydney. Got here on Friday and was whisked away to the Aquarium (well, we wandered down there anyway. There wasn’t much whisking.). Saturday was spent at the Zoo. We took the ferry over which was nice. Sunday was Wonderland where I didn’t go on the demon or the bush beast (Penny lost her hat on the Beast!) but did do the snowy river rush and National Race or whatever it’s called.
Today we are off to Bondi, so of course it’s pissing rain. Tomorrow we get the 6:05am shuttle to the airport. Erg. Once in Queensland we are off to Movie World, where i will NOT be riding the Lethal Weapon rollercoaster. not even for money.

I am aware that people have been losing sleep over what is on the mystery film (OK, perhaps not, but it doesn’t hurt to create a bit of tension!). Well, turns out it was a roll I took over at Sugarloaf Reservior last August (the day Girl Dog died - sniff) to test my brand new lens. I think test rolls only really work if you get them developed quickly. Hmm.

That’s my fave from the batch. One of these days I’m going to get a fully kickarse scanner that won’t flatten tonal ranges and so forth.

Got a bill for my internet use today, which is kind of odd as they are supposed to automatically charge it to my credit card. It’s a bright red FINAL NOTICE too, which is also odd as it’s also the first notice! See if I can sort it online.

Also got Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal DVDs which was cause for much joy, and even more joy when I confirmed that my DVD is multiregional. Means I can get some of the better releases from the UK (with added extra features, for some reason Aussie DVDs are often really pathetic on the extras).

Sadly, my Frog in a Sock T-shirt has failed to arrive in time for the trip. Nevermind, perhaps it’ll be waiting for me when I get back to Melbourne and I can then wear it with pride - PRIDE I TELL YOU!

I don’t know how often I’ll be able to update this while away, hopefully we’ll stumble across the odd internet cafe (or, preferably, an un-odd one) and I can entertain and delight you with my entertaining delightfulness.
Hmmm. Better go and pack. Now there’s a thought!

Hanging out to play The Sims Online, but need a 4.7mB download before I can play which is not doing anything at all to make me cheery.

I’m totally spazzing about this trip. Di has proved I am not easy to get on with, and I worry that I’ll cause troubles for Poppett and Peppy.

There must have been a fire somewhere today as the smell of smoke was hanging around when I left work and followed me home (so to speak) but there’s nothing on the news at all, so I don’t know. Perhaps I’m making it up to amuse myself :) 994.1kB down, however many is left to go.

Maybe the basic problem is that I am not a good person. I know I’m a pain in the arse, but perhaps it’s deeper than that. Maybe I’m just not good at being human. OK, so maybe I’m also dwelling on this too damn much, but it always feels like just when I’m feeling OK about myself, something comes along to punch me back down. Like the universe doesn’t want me to get too comfortable. Perhaps not the universe. Perhaps just the planet, I don’t know.

Today was pretty much OK until Di took me into the tearoom and cracked the mega shits at me. Apparently I don’t talk to her and keep her informed with what I’m doing (this stemmed from a young girl wanting to use a computer. I thought she just wanted to print, but apparently she hadn’t even typed her project up yet). Also, apparently, my mouth is too big and I say the wrong things in public. No news there, then.

Oh well, I’ve had my brood on this one and while I don’t know what we’ll be like tomorrow (and am ever so slightly dreading it) at least I’ve only got two more work days until leave, so that ain’t bad at all.

Doctor at 2pm on Thursday, so I’ll ask if I can leave early. If not, I’ll see if I can get a later appointment. Must also pick up the “Mystery film” that I found on the dresser. It’s been used, but I can’t remember what’s on it. It’ll be like Christmas, only without the Jesus connection.

At risk of being dull, my off desk time was pretty much faffing about with two public PCs (Opacs). They needed reimaging (a process that wipes the hard drive and reinstalls everything in the perfect configuration. Used when things go wrong to save mucking about). This takes, on average, about 20 minutes per machine, but these ones decided that the floppy drives wouldn’t work anymore (this is a recurring theme with the new Opacs. The drives are dropping like dodgy floppy drives) so the deal involved the slight and temporary dismemberment of a staff machine to plug it’s floppy drive into the opacs. It’s taken all day to do two machines, so I’m hoping like a nutter that other other floppy drives are tickety boo. Alicia had the nerve to suggest I was pinching PC bits to take home, but sadly the memory in the opacs is in once stick, so I couldn’t accidently halve it at all ;)

On the upside, I’m rostered on desk for only 45 minutes on Wednesday. I have a feeling this off desk time is a kind of “For God’s sake make sure everything is working before you leave!” which is OK by me. Nice to be needed.

Really must pack, or something. Need to sort a doctors appointment for Thursday arvo (nothing serious, but I hate it eating up my day. They say 4:00pm, you don’t get seen until 6:30…). Three days to go. Poppett sent the final listings of what’s what and when. I am seeing many mornings where a person doesn’t get to sleep in. Many many mornings. There’s a 6:30am now? One of these times is 4:45 am, which I’ve only ever seen by not sleeping at all, which may be an option LOL.

I’ve realised even my Sim is a bit of a homebody (which is odd, considering I just bulldozed and rebuilt her home, leaving her with no stuff and $1000 in the bank.) She only has three friends on her friends web after two months. This is a sad state of affairs indeed. OK, I’m just pissed ‘coz no one has hit on my sim yet. LMAO :) Mind you, you get to know people, and worry about them if they aren’t on at the usual time etc etc. It’s nice to know people.

Today was again uneventful. Stitched, watched a bit of Men Behaving Badly (the TV show, not family members going off) and played TSO as usual. I’m thinking an extra phone line would be handy for internet purposes, but on the other hand if I had a line of my own I would never leave TSO, which would only serve to increase my lack of social graces, really. It’s something to ponder.

Four more work days until i jet off. Alarming.

Just discovered there is a Melbourne band named “Frog in a Sock”. I think I’ll sue them for pinching my journal name (yes, OK, before I even set the journal up. Do you think a lawyer would pick up on that? Damn.). I thought breifly of changing the name of the journal but simply cannot be arsed, so that’s that.

I’m about to go into The Sims Online and kick my roomie. I feel 7 kinds of mean for doing this, but she is a pain in the arse. That’s two arses now, lets see what the next paragraph brings.

Oh, not a lot.

I think this entry might just push me into Archive territory. Or maybe the next one will. I don’t know. It’s gamble, but when it happens, I’ll feel like I’ve made it.

One of the more disconcerting things about working at the library is that all of a sudden I am “The Lady”. No just “A Lady” but “THE Lady” and I’ll thank you to remember it. The term is generally used by mothers talking to their kids: “GIve the card to the lady” “Ask the lady” “The lady is nearly finished.”
It’s only ever annoying when they say “If you don’t behave, the lady will be cross”. Well, yeah, the lady is kinda cross (but it’s more about political matters than another 5 year throwing a flaming wobbly when not allowed a freddo frog) but the lady would also appreciate it if you could pull your finger out and tick your own child off from time to time, thanks. All the staff get this, and conversations reveal we all find it annoying that we’re expected to be the bad guy all the time. You think your child is behaving badly, tell them. Tick them off, whatever, don’t expect staff in libraries, supermarkets, cafes whatever to be passive parents.
But! If we do tick a kiddie off (usually a kiddie who has been dumped in the kiddie area while Mummy or Daddy wanders off for a while) the parents usually get incredibly snotty, even if it’s a safety thing (our security gates look very much like climbing frames and a lot of kids, understandably, can’t resist. However, the gates tend to lean alarmingly. This is just one example, there are others). It’s a “How DARE you tell my child he/she is in the wrong!” while if we did let them go ahead and they did fall it would be “How COULD you allow my child to be in such a dangerous situation!”
And! Some unattended children wander out the doors. There’s been a couple of kids I’ve ended up carrying about, looking for a parent or responsible looking person. The looks you get and “Why have YOU got MY child?”. So you say “Sorry, but YOUR child was running towards the road” and get snubbed totally.

On to other things. Please go to Mike Moore’s Website and read his letter to Dubya.

In a week exactly I shall be in Syndey, hopefully not doing anything too taxing.

Oh deary me. Tried to book into the same place as Poppett and Peppy for the Melbourne leg of the trip (on the basis that I am unfond of midnight train rides home) and have been told that they are fully booked. This is a pain in the bum, especially if I can’t find a place to stay near the Nunnery. I am almost as unfond of walking through the dark streets of Melbourne alone as I am of late night trains.

John Howard has just done another address to the nation, which doesn’t bear thinking about, the creepy little shit that he is.

Not a lot else to say, really. Today was spent working on the cross stitch that I had to stop awhile ago when my dog ate the threads. I could give you a stitch by stitch account (started with the off-white, moved onto number 986 under the wings…) but I won’t.

We are having a dust storm whipped up by a combination of strong winds and exceptionally dry soil. Here in the outskirts of Melbourne it is not too bad:

On the left is what the view from the paddock normally looks like, on the right is what it looked like at about 6:30pm this evening. Even things only a few feet away had the reddish brown tinge of much dust. In other parts of the state, traffic stopped because of zero visiblity. That ain’t good. For us here, it’s not nearly as bad as the storm of ‘83 (I sound like such and old person when I talk like that). I remember sitting in the school bus and everything outside being almost black except for headlights from oncoming traffic.
The dust gave everything an eerie light, and the evening sun was reduced to a white disc that could be looked at. It was all very spooky indeed. I hope it’s all blown away by tomorrow.

Lets see now, what else is worth saying. Not very much. I read in a magazine today (Oh, OK, it was a trashy women’s mag) that the bloke that embalmed Marilyn Monroe didn’t reckon it was murder and that at the end she looked like a wreck (hadn’t dyed her hair, shaved her legs or washed in a while) and that all indications were of suicide. He says that people claim that because autopsy samples were thrown away (heart, liver etc) there was a cover up going on. His answer to that is throwing away samples is standard as once tests have been run, there’s no point in keeping them. Bit logical.

Staff meeting tomorrow has been cancelled, so can I hear a whoo and also a hoo as it means I don’t have to go to work at all. Hurrah!

Last night I went over to Cafepress and made a t-shirt. It’s for Frog in a Sock, on the basis that by the time I come to wear it (this is me allowing 4 weeks for delivery) there might be some actual content here, which would be fun. In a fun way. While the t-shirt is technically available for anyone to purchase, I suggest you buy one from Whitehouse.org first. Not only because they have content, but because they are good.

Let’s see now. Got a radio stream happening at work for Dubya’s declaration of war, which, to be honest, was nothing unexpected. I am still opposed. There’s a section of this community that says “Oh, you’re against this war? So you support Saddam?”. No. I don’t support Saddam. I agree that he needs to be removed from power, I don’t agree that people should die to do it. I don’t agree with Dubya’s views or stance on this, and I don’t agree with John Howard full stop. I have yet to see adequate reasons for this war. Dubya says it’s because Iraq is a threat, but won’t go into details. Little Johnny said last week that those people worrying about casualties should remember the 88 people that died in Bali. Iraq had nothing to do with the Bali bombings, and it’s about time the leaders admitted it is about oil and power, because hiding behind terrorism is just plain evil.

Let’s say Saddam does have weapons. America invades. OK, I don’t see why Australia needs to come into it at all. As far as I can see, all Johnny has done is make us a target. I am not unsupportive of the troups that have been sent. I don’t want to give that impression. They are about to do a difficult job and put their lives on the line and no one is in a position to belittle that. I wish them all the best and a safe return.

On to lighter matters now, the launch today was about as expected. Rachel Berger was good indeed but didn’t get the laughs she deserved (bit of a conservative crowd). The rest was pretty same old same old. At the venue is a mini gallery with paintings and whatnot for sale. There was a display case of tiny little soapstone carvings of primative style figures with wire and beads around their waists. I checked the catalogue to find that these sell for about $375 each. Some have sold. i am now going to carve soapstone for the rest of my life.

The thing about my job is that I work in the area I’ve lived in my entire life, so from time to time someone will come in (it’s a Library) who I’ve not seen in ages. It can be very odd at times (and enlightening, for example an English teacher from my old high school only ever borrows Mills and Boon). Today was one of the oddest, when I served a woman named Stacy X. I said “Have you got a twin sister named Lisa?” she looked at me like I was a nutter and said “Yes.”. I last saw Stacey in about grade three. Her family moved to Perth and Stacey moved back to Melbourne about 6 months ago and now works at the council office next door (along with Megan who was also at the same Primary School).

Tomorrow I’m going to the swanky launch of some internet thing the library is doing. On one hand, this means an early knock off (which is never bad). On the other, it’s at some winery which must be costing a packet while HQ cries poor if you ask for an extra box of rubber bands. Hmmm.

Wish the heat would bugger off. Apparently it’ll be 17 degrees c on Thursday - roll on Thursday!

Was incredibly norti last night and revisted Blackstar for DVD buying evil. Found out by accident recently that my DVD player is multi-region, so when I saw Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal on special offer, well, let’s just say the Bad Fairy bound and gagged me and entered those magic credit card numbers. Labyrinth was a major factor in my Bowie devotion (although he’s not over keen on it himself) and a major factor in the friendship of Deb and I. The Dark Crystal is the same, but without Bowie. Look at Crystal and you have to understand the huge undertaking at the time. Not a cartoon, but not starring any actual human people (except in puppet costume). It’s amazing, it really is because they managed it perfectly. I’m such a Henson junkie :)

The above subject was a line I read in a copy of “The Jest Book” printed in 1864. It was an interesting read, although I have to admit not terribly funny. Perhaps it was easier to raise a laugh back in the heady days of the 1860s.
Today we went over to visit my grandmother in her new flat. She’s moved from a 2 acre block in the country to a two bedroom flat in the city and seems to be loving it, although clearing out the stuff that simply wouldn’t fit in the flat was a long and tricky process!
She’s now right in the middle of everything. The tram stop is a two minute walk away, the shopping less than 5 minutes walk, so it’s all good on that front. Also, the apartment block has the most fantastic garden in the middle of it which is shady and lush (rare in these drought times). Betty’s flat also has it’s own private courtyard, not too big to manage but big enough for a table and chairs (or “breezy summer entertaining” as they keep waffling on about on those backyard makeover shows).
Betty also pressed books upon us (not that I need much encouragement to take books). I have some poetry books, The Canterbury Tales and a little book called “Freedom” that, according to the note in the cover, was “Presented to Millie McPhearson for collecting for Missions - 1891″. For some reason i always go for the old books :)

Speaking of which, a columnist in The Age bought a copy of “Anatomy of a Murder” in a second hand bookshop. When he opened it, he found his name in his handwriting. Yup, it was the copy he had bought 40 years ago after seeing the film. Now c’mon, what are the odds?

It is now less than two weeks until I fly to Sydney and I’m excited and nervous at the same time. Only 8 and a half work days to go (the half a day is a staff meeting that means i have to go in on my day off, now tell me that’s not just rude!)

Well. Well well well well welly well well. This journally thing began as a pure whim last Sunday evening. It’s taken a week to get working. For all i know there may well be bits that aren’t working. If so, i honestly do not want to know. LOL

Here in the wee small hours of Sunday morning (and about to return to the Sims Online) I can only wonder what interesting, witty and thought provoking items may end up in the journally thing. Oh, no. Wait. I’m thinking of someone else’s journal. (Yes, that’s the standard of wit. Feel free to run away).