Phew, what a busy few days it has been. I had Thurs, Fri and Mon off work. Mum came down on Thursday and we spent the night cleaning and scrubbing my balcony. On Friday night we painted its floor and walls in a lovely steel grey paint called Ironstone. Mum also made so great black velvet curtains for my bedroom.
On Saturday we went to see the matinee performance of Dirty Dancing The Musical. What a lovely show. Good casting and great music. It was spot on line for line the film. A few extra scenes added to round out the mothers character and add some storyline about black vs white issues that were pertinant to the era. The finale was huge and the whole audience was up dancing.
On Sunday we went to the Convention Centre where Harvey Norman were liquidating all of Mega Marts stock - while mum looked at fridges, I queued for over an hour to pay for an LG DVD recordable player with 160 gig harddrive - great reduction in price. Then in the arvo we started to pot up the argaves and mother-in-laws tongues into the fabulous pink (Bouganvillia Magenta) steel planters Mum and Mal built. We were interupted by constant heavy downpours which were not forcast !
Today we went to WA Salvage and got a double pantry and a single broom closet. Then to Ikea to buy a Kajak cabinet/coatrack/mirror thingy - which is now laying in pieces awaiting construction !
So......... everything aches - we must have done about 90 trips up the stairs in 5 days ! I have aches in parts that I didnt know had muscles. Mum has gone home for a rest - taking all the plants that have no homes or have died. I am only keeping plants that live from now on !!!
Oh - and considering we spent two nights working on the balcony till after midnight - the one night we spent inside was the night a huge meteor went over, sonic boom and all. Cannot believe we missed it !!
I will take some photos of the newly madeover balcony soon and put them in my photo albums.
27 November 2005. Sunday.
Cripes its a month since I last diarised. Time flew - November basically came and went. So I thought it was time for a new look round here.
So what was I doing in October ? Hmmmm. Lets see, I spent two full weekends writing an application for a promotion. Thinking up silly guffy words to describe my abilities. The scarey thing is - its far easier to explain your weaknesses than your strengths. But its been submitted so you never know.
Spent a couple of weekends rebuilding the Uncanny X-men website and finally scanning some of the multitudes of articles and pics and uploading them. Last night I went on a building spree and built 7 pages for the Xmaniacs site - full of fan stuff.
Big stunning thunder & lightning show last night - I thought the power would go out during The Bill !!
I dont think we got much rain out of it - just 5 minutes of huge splashing drops. But the thunder was huge and I kept my curtains open to watch the lightning.
Whats my beef ? I am SICK of the way the media is turning criminals in to celebrities. Name the four most discussed individuals in the media this year. I bet you wont name a burns surgeon or the Perth winners on the Nobel Prize. I bet even a genuine celebrity like a singer or an actor isnt the first to spring to mind. No - instead our newpapers have been shoving drug smugglers down our throats. Schappelle Corby, The Bali 9, Michelle Leslie and Tuong Van Nguyen. All mornic stupid pathetic idiots who chose to break laws in foreign countries and should therefor face the penalties of those countries. But no - our media tries to justify their stupidity and turn them into daily front page fodder. And even better for the media - two of the moronic criminals happened to be moderately pretty.
As far as I am concerned - any mind numbingly stupid idiot who consciously chooses to break a law in a country that plasters their airports with ENORMOUS signs pointing out their strict laws on drug smuggling - deserves every single bit of punishment dished out to them - be it a life or death sentence.
There is NO excuse for utter stupidity. Take some friggen personal responsibility for your own actions and quite expecting the Australian Government and its media to get you out of the pickle YOU got yourself into.
6 December 2005. Tuesday.
I thought Dirty Dancing deserved a better write up than what I wrote below - so here is my actual review.
It was soooooooooo cute !! Its been completely written and cast by Eleanor Bergstien - she wrote the original movie. So she has remained faithfull to the entire movie.
The only extra bits she has added are a couple of scenes that kinda round out Baby's mothers character and give her a bit of a background story, and a scene thats an ode to Martin Luther King. Apparently she wanted it in the original movie but was told it was "too political" back in 1987 !! Basically the mature age cast members sit around a campfire singing "We Shall Overcome" - while Baby and Neil discuss him going on a freedom ride etc.
The script is basically line for line - exactly from the movie. The dance steps are spot on. Even the clothes are exact !!
There is a huge screen at the back that plays film or shows slides. Say in the meals scenes - it shows plates of food !! In the driving scenes it shows roads and scenery. In the lifts in the grass and lake its shows fields and the lake. And to make it look like they are really in the field and lake - huge ribbons of material are also in front of them projecting a scene as well - and they do the lifts behind it. There are also camera's aimed at the live performance - showing closeups of dancers and facial expressions. Hard to explain but it was stunningly effective.
Its not like a standard musical where the cast break into song. Its live singing - but most is done from back stage or by the ensemble during the actual dirty dancing scenes. The guy that plays Johnnys cousin Billy belts out a lot of numbers like Love Man and Time of my Life - he has a huge deep voice.
The guy that plays Johnny is not an actor. he was chosen because of his dancing ability - he has the same ballet training that Swizzle had. He has a great bod and nice face. As far as his acting goes - he has been doing the show for 12 months now so he has grown into the role - but his true talent is his dance moves.
The most hilarious scene - you know in the movie when Baby and Johnny first bonk - and when he gets out of bed there is that tiny glimpse of Swizzles nude butt - you know it - we have all paused the VCR or DVD - dont deny it !! Anyway - there they are in bed on the stage and it comes to the moment where Johnny gets out of bed - but he is wearing boxers. A huge sigh then a laugh ripples thru the audience ! Every woman was thinking the same thing - "DAMN" !!!!
In the big finale - when the cast is singing "Kellermans", the big sound of a car reving up and braking is heard. Then Johnny comes walking along thru the audience and climbs up on stage (to big screams from the audience), then he says the immortal line "Nobody puts baby in the corner" and practically gets a standing ovation.
The final dance is a massive number, then the stage bows etc followed by Time of My Life again - this time with the entire audience dancing !!
Mum and I counted exactly 10 men and two little boys in the audience. The rest of the 1500 audience members were females.
As well as buying the dvd recorder thingy over the weekend - I also went to Ikea and bought a KAJAK storage unit for my entry.
I have just spent more than 2 hours building it - still only halfway there but have just discovered its upside down. Well the three shelves are the right way up - but the rest of the unit is upside down !
And one little screw hates the allen key and refuses to turn. I have scratched my fingers raw ! All the other 7 went in fine - just this one persnickety one !
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
And I spent last night reading the instruction book for the dvd hdd recorder and I swear I do not understand a single word of it.
10 December 2005. Saturday.
God I ache all over. I had to ring Ikea during the week and request a replacement screw for the KAJAK unit. It arrived in time for me to start the job all over again today. 4 and a half hours later and it was built. It would have to be the most complicated Ikea thing I have ever built - and a quarter of my furniture is from there. Nevertheless - its built and I ache ! The echidna ornament collection has a new home - finally unwrapped since the house move two years ago ! My shoes, jackets, umbrella's, hanbag, keys and sunnies etc all have a place to live. And finally I have a full length mirror in the house (its on the back of the unit - which spins on a turntable base).
Not a lot happened this week. Only 3 days at work so I was busy catching up with faxes that arrived during my 6 days off, and issuing as many legal docs before the christmas cut off.
There is NOTHING on TV. God I hate non ratings season. I usually enjoy getting my Saturday paper with its TV guide and sitting there circling all the stuff I need to watch or tape. Today I circled 3 things for the entire week and they are all reality shows - The Apprentice, Survivor and The Bachelor. Scary. Thank gawd for DVDs. This week I have been watching all the extras on the 4 disc collectors edition of Titanic. Talk about a lot of extras !! I will spend the xmas break working out how on earth to use my new LG HDD DVD recorder. The instruction book is complex enough !!
17 December 2005. Saturday.
Hmmm I really dont have anything to say today. Nothing interesting has happened - unless you count massive racist riots over in Sydney - but I just dont feel like saying what I really think about that !
There is NOTHING on TV. NOTHING at all. Apparently the entire country goes out every night in summer - at least thats what TV programmers believe. I spent each night watching the hours and hours of special extras that came with the Deluxe Collectors Edition of Titanic. And man there are a lot of extras to watch !!
I am bored ! I made my annual End of Year Message and its probably the shortest one in years - I just didnt do much this year. Anyway - have a read HERE.
27 December 2005. Sunday
Well Christmas has passed. I love how people build up to it for 6 months and then gosh its all over so fast. One of the many reasons why I don’t bother.
I spent the day cleaning windows – more than once ! Each product I used seem to make them dirtier and cloudy. So I went thru every product in the house !
Then I hooked up the new LG HDD DVD recorder. Suprisingly I got it right first go and even successfully made it region free thanks to some codes I found online. Only prob – the remote also wants to control the other DVD/VCR combo unit – durnit. And not the way you expect ! It turns the new unit on – and the old unit it makes the video eject ! I emailed LG and they were no help – they suggested keeping the units apart – DUH ! Cept I bought the recorder to tape all my videos onto disc. So now I need to swap the dvd/vcr combo for the Philips vcr that’s in the bedroom and fingers crossed the LG remote will leave that player alone.
That was actually more exhausting than the window cleaning cos I had to climb into my TV cupboard and try to reach the power points !! So I have a seriously bruised arm now.
I was going to make the most of this unusually cool December break to knock down the planter on the hot water system balcony – but mum wasn’t able to bring down a sledgehammer in time as Malcolm burned his arm badly and needs daily dressing changes etc. We have broken all Perth weather records this month. Its been officially our coldest December ever. Lovely days of 22 – 24 and nights of 12. I am not complaining as I love it !! Specially while the east coast burns under a heatwave and bushfires.
Logged on to the net today to hear media mogul Kerry Packer died last night. I bet Channel Nine goes black all week. The man has been controlling what I watch and read for basically my entire life so it will be interesting to see what happens to Ch9 and the various newspapers when his son takes over.
December 31 2005, Saturday
One last blog before the years end.
Its been a nice quiet peaceful week at home. The weather has been divine - Karina Style - gorgeous days under 25 degree's. The east coast is sweltering in record high temps.
I have spent the week working out how to use the HDD DVD recorder (after borrowing a friends teenager to hook it up to the TV and VCR !!). Have been going thru video tapes finding stuff to save - have gone thru 5 whole tapes so far ! Only about 150 to go - and then I can get started on the old Beta ones.
Its scarey the shit I have kept on tape. Stuff I had totally forgotten about. Like the year long obsession with Gary Sweet in 1993 - egad ! But I am finding some great forgotten treasures among the crap so thats been fun. Next trick is to learn how to burn it all to dvd.
Went into town yesterday and braved the crowds. Target had books down to $19 so I grabbed the newest Colleen McCullough, Ben Elton, Matthew Reilly and Patricia Cornwall novels and also Jacki Weavers autobio. Also got a nice comfy pair of sandals for $30 off.
Having a quiet night at home for this New Years Eve - this time last year I was in Sydney enjoying the fireworks and the richest mudcake on the planet !!
I will be able to watch the trots fireworks at midnight thru my windows. Not as spectacular as Sydneys - but then Perth has always been a bit forgetful about NYE - it spends all its sparkler $$ on Australia Day.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE.
January 2 2006. Sunday.
8 days into a new year. The return to work was a sad one when we discovered our team mate had lost her sister in a tragic manner. Her husband murdered her just before new years eve. This was a shock - despite the fact that we had all heard over the years what a nasty type he was - you never expect something so awful to happen. Our hearts all go out to our devestated friend and her family.
The delightful cool weather disappeared as soon as January came into being. Its been revoltingly humid and hot this week. Friday night it didnt get below 22 before dawn - very uncomfy night. And with a new cyclone brewing in the north it will only getter hotter and more humid. A small storm last night barely wet the ground.
Not much else happening - continuing with the video to dvd transfer project. Its moving merrily along. Spent today uploading a tonne of photos from various holidays to my photo albums. I spent yesterday moving all the furniture around in my bedroom after I realised it hadnt really changed since the day the removalists dumped everything in it in August 2003 - so there are some new photos of it in the albums.
This week I read Jacki Weavers autobiography - Much Love, Jac x. What a great read. She really does have a wonderful way with words - it felt like she was sitting on my sofa talking over a cuppa and relating her life to me. Such a comfortable writing style. And what a life ! She really has done it all, .... and more ! What a fabulous woman. If you are looking for a new read this month - I really recommend this book.
January 15 2006. Sunday.
I have been reading Feng Shui books. I realised that all the moving around of furniture and decluttering, and building things to put stuff inside them - was all happening for a reason. After reading some Feng Shui books I realise I was on the right track. Whatever my subconscious was making me do - it actually knew what it was doing.
Quiet week at work. Nothing really exciting going on.
Spent yesterday with my friend from Sweden and her half swedish half aussie toddler. We had a nice arvo in the park where he played in the water fountains. Oh to be that age where it didnt matter if you got your clothes and nappy soaked !!!
Currently reading Colleen McCulloughs new murder mystery novelOn, Off set it the US in 1965. Its a different genre from her but as usual her attention to detail is standing out. Only thing bugging me is that she has introduced so many suspects and their familys and their houses and pets etc etc - that when the police go to interview one I have forgotten who they were and have to go back to the introduction chapter ! Most murder mysteries have maybe 3 suspects. Colleens has about 32 !
Very lethargic and unmotivated today. I could actually lie down and have a nap !
January 21 2006. Saturday.
Yet another quiet but fast week ! Where is the month going !
Spent Monday at home with a migraine. Quite a warm day due to cyclone activity in the north. So naturally as soon as I got up to make a cup of tea and put the air con on - BANG - the sound of a bus hitting a power pole outside my window and PHFFFFUT - out goes the air con - along with the power for the next 6 hours.
I read a book until it was too dark to see indors and then headed out to my balcony to read by the sunset ! Oh I finished Colleens. It was plodding along as a pretty good murder mystery until the final chapter when it became a truly brilliant Colleen twist. So next I read a book called Ship of the Damned. Its based on the Philadelphia Experiment with extra twists. Quite a thrilling read.
Still slowly going thru the video collection and transferring stuff to dvd. Its quite fun - like a lucky dip really - seeing as how most of the labels on my videos say "dont tape over" - rather than what exactly is on the tape !!
I have been fixing this site up - I started rebuilding the BajaBoys and BajaGals pages months ago and then forgot to return to it. So I have finished them off tonight - click on the banners further below on the right and take a wander thru all my faves - I am sure some of them are your faves too. Also rebuilt the Desert Island Survival Pack and it now includes a complete list of all the TV series and films I have in my DVD collection - so far !!!! Always more to come.
February 5 2006 Sunday
Gosh its been a while ! Oops.
Mum came down on Australia Day and stayed for a week. She had yet to experience the fireworks from my balcony so after an afternoon of watching the various airplane displays zooming overhead, we settled on the balcony to watch the massive 30 minute display. They did heaps of portions from the city building tops and it was all round a fab view. Sure beats battling the 500,000 strong crowds of drunks and teens to find a view by the river.
We built the pantries that we bought at WA Salvage in early December. I even used a cordless drill to do the screws up - my first use of a power tool !! It sure saved the RSI on that many screws. So now all the food and miscellaneous junk has a home. Mum also built a set of shelves for my dvd collection and the balcony makeover was completed with the last of the planting.
Am reading The Two of Us at the moment. Its by UK actress Sheila Hancock and is a biography of both her own life and that of her husband actor John Thaw. Its on loan from a friend at work. Its a lovely read so far.
The news of the week - Split Enz are reforming for a tour. I havent seen them live since October 1984 ! I will forgive them for choosing the worst venue in Perth - the revolting "should be detonated" Dome - to play in come June - but I will try for decent seats and see how I go. Just hope Boy From Oz doesnt go on sale at the same time or I will be broke ! Plus I was thinkin of a trip to Brisbane in a couple of months to catch up with some friends. Hmmmmm need to win lotto me thinks !
TV is returning to normal ! YEAY ! Lost started its new season last week - and man what a start to the year ! Most of my other fave shows start up over the next fortnight. Back to having actual things to circle in the tv guide. Now if only the TV stations would start respecting their viewers and leaving the shows in the same timeslot for more than 3 weeks and annialating the seriously annoying ads that run across the bottom of the screen while we are trying to concentrate on the actual show. Cos you know what Mr TV Exec - we all have the ability to buy the bloody show on DVD and watch it commercial free if we wanted to.
The only show I have really enjoyed over the non ratings season has been Surface - a kinda eco sci fi show about new underwater creatures. Some great special effects and a good cast. Gotta love what Ten have done tho - moving it from 7.30 Tuesdays to 6.30 Saturdays - way to keep a viewer ! Why doesnt anyone think of putting stuff on Friday nights - some of us are actually at home then !
February 12 2006, Sunday
Summer genuinely hit this week. Some real hot humid days - yuck. The luxury of the coolest December and January ever was too good to last.
I finished reading The Two of Us. What a lovely read. I never knew much about either actor - other than they were extremely familiar faces in so many British shows. My favourite line was when Thaw was filming Chaplin and director Richard Attenborough was explaining that Thaws character was very drunk in the next scene and would he like a tipple of scotch to get him started and Thaw said "Actually Dickie I thought I might do it by acting". BRILLIANT !!
Started reading Jeffrey Deavers A Maidens Grave. 10 pages in I thought "hang on I know this storyline." Positive I dont already own the book (I have been known to buy repeat dvds so why not books) - nope checked my bookshelf and its not already there. Then as the FBI agent is being described I can see him so clearly in my head - its James Garner - I just know it. So I check IMDB.com and find nothing using the title. So I google away for a while and bingo - it was turned into a telemovie called Dead Silence ! No wonder it was all so familiar - and yep it had James Garner in it. Fortunately - while I am totally aware there is a twist at the end ala Deaver - I have totally forgotten what it was ! So back to the book !!
A moderately stressful week at work. New person in the team has a few personality clashes going on - not with me so far but the atmosphere in the team has been affecting me. I generally just stck to myself and get my own job done - but the people I have to go to for support in my job are upset and stressed at the new persons actions and it makes it harder for me to approach them. New person is very young and very gung ho - and busy telling older more experienced people how to do their job. I dont stand for it and neither do many others.
Watched the Winter Olympics opening ceremony last night - very pretty. Italy in winter looks so nice and very much worth visiting. Torino seems like a very historical city.
February 18 2006, Saturday.
So yesterday on the spur of the moment I decided to visit an optomitrist that I walk past on my way home from work. I came home with contact lens's - well make that 1 lens. For my shortsighted right eye. I have always known I had a very long sighted eye and a very short sighted eye - thanks to parents who donated one of each !! I wore glasses for a short time in my teens but they exacerbated my migraines so I gave them up. So mostly I have just tolerated the problem and over the years my eyes have adapted to taking over from each other when required.
I thought about contact lens's over the years - ok shit I am a Libran - I thought about it for 20 years !!!!! The two factors that put me off were the whole getting them in and out of the eyeball. So yesterday I discovered they were far more affordable than I realised. So the idea is to bring the shortsighted eye up to the speed of the longsighted eye - and hopefully reduce my daily migraines.
So for 4 hours this morning I have been trying to get this obstropolous bloody lens into my eye without success. The closest I got was to have it leaning on my lower eye lid folded in half ! ARGH. And it freaks me out that if I finally get it in - I then wont be able to get it out !
It cant be this difficult ! I am giving my eyeball a few hours rest as its now red raw from the multiple attempts !!
Have been watching the Winter Olympics and it finally occured to me why I enjoy them so much more than summer Olympics. Basically - every single winter olympic sport (except for that wierd bowls on ice thing with the sqweegies) has the potential to kill you ! As I watched the Aussie female snowboarded dislocate her shoulder on the tube, the chinese figure skater practically split herself in half and bend her knee backwards (and still win a silver pairs medal), those friggen insane luge sliders do 120kph just hangin for a crash, well lets just say - it was death defying viewing !! And the summer olympics just doesnt have that excitement factor - walking races ?? give me a break.
3rd ep of season two in Lost this week - god it was bizarre - the show gets slightly more bizarre each week. It really keeps me on my toes. I spent half the ep in anticipation of Hurley finding the food stores !! And when he did - his reaction was hilarious. You could feel his taste buds come alive at the sight of it all.
Feb 18 2006, Still Saturday, 5 hours later!
An update ! It took hours, and a suggestion from netbuddy Mindy to look up not down - but finally the contact lens is in ! It was friggen difficult but I am told it gets easier !
February 25 2006, Saturday.
So a week later and I cant say I am an expert at inserting a contact lens just yet. I have mastered the art of removing it - but still take half an hour to put the bloody thing in !!
This week I read a disturbingly good book. Land of the Living by Nikki French. I have read a few of her (OK "them" - the name is a pseudonym of London journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) books and they are always a good thrilling read - but this one really hit me.
The main character - Abigail - awakens on the first page, bound and gagged and having no idea where she is or what has happened to her or how long she has been there. Its a story about survival and amnesia. Its written in first person so you feel Abigails frustration the whole way along. When she realises no one has actually reported her missing and everyone assumes she is on holidays it really hits home about how little we all know about even our closest friends on a day to day basis.
If no one heard from you for a week or two would they simply assume you are out getting on with your life ? Who would go out of their way to check up on you ? Who would actually report you missing if you didnt show up at work or your irregular coffee meetup ? Who actually knows what day you definately left on your holiday and what day you are due back ?
This weeks episode of Lost was one of the simplest and emotional so far. Its officially the first Lost episode that has left me in tears. The ending - featuring Sun and Hurley making secret sacrifices for the benefit of everyone else - was so touching. I sobbed the whole way thru. And while we are gradually learning more secrets about the island and its people, it just leaves us with even more questions. That why I love it so much.
Still glued to the Winter Olympics. Love the footage of the ski fields getting snowed out by blizzards !! Wish I was there.
