Category: personal

This is viv, our cat, with his tail up in defiance despite being well out of his comfort zone. You see, we’d just gone down the park for a quick kick of the football and he followed us all the way. I tried to catch him to take him back to the house, but he’s quite good at staying out of reach.

Anyway, he ran around alternately looking fierce and terrrified – way too much excitement for a little boy. We headed back up the hill making sure he could see us and hoping therefore that he would follow.

At first, he stayed down among the trees, but in a stroke of good fortune a Crow decided he was either a bit of a threat or possibly an entree, and it swooped him with a loud caw. They were out of view just over the brow of the hill, but I think they actually engaged for a moment, before another crow came and Viv rocketed out of the trees and up the street toward us, straight under a parked car for shelter. He meekly followed us the rest of the way home – panting from either stress or tiredness. Naughty little boy!

Why, why, why? What is it with golfballs and beaches? This photo of Point Cook beach takes in a group of eight golf balls. The nearest course is Sanctuary Lakes, some five kilometers away.

I often find golfballs when snorkelling off Williamstown, but at least there you’ve got some nice grass and a large population, so it’s conceivable that someone has just had a bit of fun belting the odd ball out to sea. Here though, there is some cut grass roughly 80m away behind a huge stand of trees, nearer grass is very heavy ‘rough’, it would take a pro to group the balls like this with no other obvious strays.

Ok, so it’s not one of the world’s great mysteries, but it has me flummoxed… why are they there?

This pic is of a rich, comfortable armchair overlooking the Royal Arcade. On the table is my (sadly) empty coffee cup. The lucky ones among you will recognise Koko Black.

A couple of times recently we’ve found ourselves in the vicinity of one of Melbourne’s Max Brenner shops and have braved the inevitable queue to order, then the long wait for the ‘goods’ to arrive. Not bad when they come, but it’s a real machine.

By contrast, on the weekend we dropped into Koko Black – it was busy and yes, there was a queue to be seated, but only a short one after which we were ushered up to the coffee lounge where we sank into these fantastic chairs and watched the comings and goings in the arcade below. The drinks are fabulous, probably not better than Max Brenner, but the service, the place, the whole scene is another world. I shouldn’t be touting for them – it’s busy enough as it is! Go to the one in Lygon Street instead!

I have absolutely no idea what they’re saying, but they obviously enjoy the game immensely and they’re wearing the right colours!! Komazawa University Magpies.

Oh, wow!! three of my favourite things in the one place! Food, Alcohol and being Trivial!! Not only that, it’s local – just a few minutes away. gastronomica

Now all I need is a babysitter for the next eight Monday nights! Any offers?

What was Australia’s illustrious Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer trying to say in parliament the other day? Apparently, a video of Douglas Wood and his Iraqi dissident captors was delivered to Australian officials by “message stick”. Does this implicate Australian Aboriginals in the sorry tale? (perhaps in retaliation for not saying sorry!), have the ancient ways of transmitting information become TCP/IP compliant? Certainly a challenge for hackers to crack that one!

Alas, I think not. I don’t even think he was referring to a Sony trademarked Memory Stick, but instead to a generic, USB flash drive. Seems the digital world is moving too fast for Al, so for his benefit (and any others for whom the confusion persists), I have prepared this small picture… on the left is a Message Stick of Central Australian origin. On the right are the Sony branded item and a generic Flash drive.

Oh, and that’s Alexander in the middle. As he seems to be losing his memory, I thought he’d appreciate a picture to help him remember who he is.

I was telling a story today when someone at the table said “that’s the sort of thing you should have on your blog!”, so I thought I’d better follow through with it.

I can’t remember why, but a while ago I found myself looking at a totally insane video on the interweb showing a couple of deranged frenchmen hurtling on their cycles down loose, stony hillsides and across logs and creeks. It would have been extreme stuff on mountain bikes – but these were UNICYCLES! That’s right – one wheel! It pushed the whole thing over the line into complete and utter madness.

Anyway, apart from a deep admiration for their complete disregard for life and limb, one of the videos had a wild, alt/french/ska soundtrack… a perfect match for the action. I followed the credit in the movie to the website and they are now my new favourite band! Marcel et son Orchestre – give them a try! I only understand the barest snips of their rapid fire french, but it’s so upbeat and infectious that it doesn’t matter at all. The only problem is buying it: I’ve only found the albums on amazon.fr.

Sadly, it seems the website where I found the original video [www.monotrail.fr.st] is no more, but!! magpie that I am, I must have decided to save a copy of the video. It’s a 3.1Mb wmv file (not my choice!). I hope they (Tom, Jeremy, Ludo and François) don’t mind me posting it here… let me know guys!

It’s not politically correct to admit it, but I hate public transport. It’s bucketing rain this morning so I didn’t ride my bike (powered or unpowered), I caught the tram.

I don’t like the waiting, the fact that when I do, it’s usually cold and wet is a bummer, but I can put up with all the logistical problems, what really bugs me is the other passengers. There’s always someone with a new and surprising way of annoying their fellow passengers.

This morning’s nutter was armed with a mobile phone. It’s annoying enough listening to half of someone’s conversation on a tram, but I’m not such a grouch that I let it bother me any more. This morning, however, the woman with the offensive communication device had it on speakerphone! That’s right, we got both sides of the conversation! I believe it was her sister, I wonder if she knew she was being broadcast to the other 60 or so passengers within earshot? I think not, if she’d known, she would have tried to say something intelligent.

Actually, not to diminish the story, but it reminds me of another recent and disappointing encounter with the new breed of mobile phone. We were sitting in a cafe next to a trio of young lads, when one of them pulls out his mobile and starts playing music through it like it was the world’s smallest ghetto blaster! Imagine it, the 5mm speaker going beserk as Nirvana’s Teen Spirit squeezes it’s way out of the overloaded circuitry with so much distortion that it seems likely to explode – we should be so lucky!

Yes, I’ve been busily consuming… spending money. I confess to being a bit of a technosucker. I’ll usually find a justification for some gadget or another if I really want it.
I never could justify an iPod. Not heavily into my music, not really in need of a portable hard disk or even an organiser, but Mrs woo bought me a shuffle for my birthday, so I was naturally delighted.
Firstly, the shuffle is fantastic – I’ve turned into an avid music listener… exploring parts of my music library I haven’t visited for years. BUT… the earbuds are (literally) a pain! They fall out unless you jam them into your ear so hard they hurt. Never mind the 12 hour battery life, one or two was all I could stand. Until I found Griffin Earjams. Believe me, if you have an iPod G3 or later or Shuffle, you owe it to your ears to get these. They only cost me $18 over at centre.net.