My Grandpa

My Grandpa was

• As tough as old boots
• Cheeky
• Not afraid of anything, as far as I could tell
• A great storyteller
• A farmer...for as long as was humanly possible.
• Old fashioned and sometimes set in his ways
• Handy
• Sometimes not very politically correct
• A slow driver

He could

• Shear a sheep
• Take you to the top of a hill and tell you his farm stretched for as far as the eye could see in any direction
• Catch more fish than anyone else on the fishing trip
• Cook a pig on a spit. Including building the spit. And raising and butchering the pig.

and he used to say "crikey" a lot, long before Steve Irwin made the phrase popular.

He left us this morning, finally giving up after scaring us dozens of times over a good 15 years. I think most of the family thought he'd just keep on coming back from the brink on us until he outlasted us all.

He'll be missed. By me.

Just so you know, there will be a trip to Adelaide for the funeral, so bear with me this week if posts are a little scarce.

There are two funny ones I was going to write when I got to work, I'll have another go at them when I'm feeling in a funnier mood.

J.

Friday Blues

I'm feeling a bit sad again today. This time, though I have a good reason.

My friend Cecilia finishes work today and she is moving far far far far far far away. All the way to Dubai.

And I'm going to miss her.

That's why I'm sad.

Good luck Cecilia!

Getting there

This morning I went to my old breakfast place just for a bit of a change. Haven't been there for a couple of months and just felt in the mood.

So the lady there recognises me (it's always good to be remembered) and tells me she likes my new haircut!

I've had a couple of people in the last couple of days think that I just did this on purpose for a different style.

That's got to be a good thing.

:-)

Drumroll Please....

Well, after a few dramas, the final results of my World's Greatest Shave fundraising efforts are through!

I raised a whopping $2,003!!!! And that's before I put it through the program where work doubles your efforts.

Thanks so much to everyone for their generous support (and not laughing at me too much whilst my hair grows back!)

We now return you to your normal viewing

It's ANZAC day today. For any international readers it's an Australian public holiday that's a tribute to Australia's armed forces.

So I'm at home today and it's not the weekend. And because it's not the weekend I don't have all my usual weekend stuff to do. Plus it's miserable weather outside, so I'm not feeling at all guilty about the idea of staying in my PJs all day and not leaving the house.

I was looking forward to catching up on my daytime TV. Days of Our Lives is on at 2 and I haven't seen it in quite some time. No doubt I've missed out on about 3 days worth of drama.

I'm a little disappointed as there's no Ready Steady Cook due to live coverage of the Anzac Day Service. Luckily I have Saturday's Iron Chef on tape.

Hope everyone has as lazy a day as possible. I know that's my plan.

J.

Never Wear a Seal Hat to the Zoo

OK, I stole this from a chain email...but it was just too funny not to. Why would you...??? ahhh why would....???? Nope, there's just no explaining this one.

Tuesday Blues

I'm having a cranky day. No particular reason. Just am. Well, maybe it's more like a stack of small reasons - the emotional equivalent of the death of a thousand paper cuts.

It must have been one hell of a storm last night. Half my pot-plants were overturned when I looked this morning.

It was still pouring when I left for work.

The entrance to the station was flooded and I had to walk all the way around to the alternative entrance and missed my train.

The train was damp and soggy and stuffy and humid.

The cuffs of my trousers are still wet.

It's still raining and grey, just like it was yesterday and just like it's forecast to be tomorrow.

I'm experiencing a few network problems at work. Everything's technically working, it's just taking twice as long as usual.

On a brighter note this made me smile for a minute.

Plus the thought that tomorrow's a public holiday....

The Wait is Over

Yep, that was probably a bit mean, leaving you all in suspense like that. I'll put you out of your misery now, I promise.

So on Thursday Ronene and I rocked up for our 15 minutes of fame and went to the taping of a TV show. Even more exciting, we were actually ON the TV show. Yes, that's right, we were contestants on Ready Steady Cook!!!

I won't give the game away and tell you who won...I'll update details of when it's being aired when I know them so you can watch and find out...

Instead, here's 10 things you may be interested in....

1. Professional hair and make-up is kind of fun...for the first couple of reapplications. After that I felt a bit like I could have scraped the layer of goo off my face with a spatula. And actually make that just make-up, there still isn't too much anyone can do with my hair (short of a wig or hat).
2. The food on the show actually tastes as good as it looks.
3. Janelle Bloom was always my favourite chef on the show, but now I've met her and discovered she's really nice as well, she's even more my favourite.
4. You can make food look really professional if you just present it right. (Yup, it's taken me 30-something years to figure this pearl of wisdom out)
5. Strawberries are more impressive than apples
6. You get to keep the aprons when you're a contestant
7. You also get special "knife-handling" lessons. After which you have to sign a waiver in case of knife injuries sustained on the show.
8. It's pretty nerve-wracking getting down those stairs. And the rest.
9. Professional chefs can do some pretty amazing stuff.
10. Lots and Lots of fun!

Yesterday

Yesterday I did something very fun.

Yesterday I did something very funny.

Yesterday I did something very interesting.

Yesterday I did something very worthy of a big long blog entry all of it's own.

I think I'll have to sit down and write all about it on the weekend.

Drumroll please.....

Welcome to my Spam

So I've been in this new team a week and and things are going swimmingly. I'm having fun and doing well so far.

But I have to admit I'm a bit disturbed by the behaviour of one new work acquaintance.

To give you a bit of background, I hardly know this person. We have been in meetings twice and I doubt we have even spoken to each other directly.

Then this person, who shall remain nameless so far, especially as I would have been hard-pressed to remember her name if I'd run into her in the communal office kitchen, sent me an email this morning.

Yep, it was one of those horrendous chain email "funnies" (yes, that's in inverted commas for a reason). 14 meg of inbox-clogging wav file titled "keeping the kids quiet".

Needless to say, that hit my trash just as quick as any other spam email crossing my path.

Does anyone else think this is just ridiculous? Shouldn't you at least know someone properly before you start bombarding them with crap?

Update

Several Hours later, this arrives in my inbox.....


"Hi All,
Just letting you know I will be away tomorrow and Friday on annual leave.
This is especially for the coffee run.
Have a good weekend!!!
See You on Monday.
Another short week, I could get used to this.
Cheers,
Annoying emailer*"

*Not their real name

So I was going to write a whole post on all my laptop dramas from the recent past...I thought a bit of an explanation might be in order after my unexpected blogging hiatus. Then I decided to follow through with the old adage about how many words a picture's worth....the whole sorry story's below:

Oh Happy Day

I'm quite excited today. With some coercion, my hair has actually agreed to sit vaguely in a direction, instead of all just fuzzy and sticking directly out of my head.

Sometimes it's the small things...

A Butterly Flaps its Wings in the Rainforest...

Yesterday a Jetstar flight attendant in Maroochydore took a sick day.

After many efforts on behalf of the airline, a replacement was unable to be found. due to legislation regarding the ratio of flight attendants to passengers, 25 people needed to be taken off the flight.

the process of asking for volunteers, finding none, and then deciding who was getting the boot, then getting them and their luggage off the plane took quite some time. As a result, the flight took off quite late, and was then late to arrive in Sydney.

The point of this whole story is that my sister and brother-in-law were on that flight, and although they made it to Sydney, it was far too late for them to get their connecting flight to Perth.

This was lucky for me as a got a surprise second helping of visitors last night.

Last thing I hear today at lunchtime, their flight had been delayed for about 5 hours...

The novelty factor

Ooh...posting on a Saturday...what a novelty.

So I'm sitting here doing my usual Saturday routine stuff. It starts with waking up way too early. Can anyone tell me why every single weekday when the alarm goes off I have to snooze about 18 times just to work my way up to dragging myself out of bed, but come the weekend I'm wide awake at the crack of dawn and there's no way I'm getting back to sleep?

So just for the novelty of it, I decided I might do a bit of surfing the Internet, put up a post, you know the kind of thing. Despite all the dramas it took to get here, I quite like having the Internet on at home again.

Have a great weekend.

Not quite quote of the day

but I think that written error of the day counts too...loving the way that using "exasperate" rather than "exacerbate" can change the meaning of a sentence....

Friday the 13th....Ohhh, spooky!

Here are some really spooky things that have happened to me today.

1. I missed the train when I was running late.
2. My breakfast place had run out of mushrooms. Which I'm sure has nothing at all to do with the fact that I arrived there later than usual
3. I'm feeling tired and sluggish after eating a big filling lunch.
4. When I got to work our network drives were running slowly. Again.
5. I broke a fingernail

Coincidence? I think not.

Day 2...

It's Day 2 of the new job and things are still going very well.

I have definitely started on that stage where you've had enough of reading and being shown stuff and you really start itching to get in and get started.

I know, intellectually, that it's better to do all the groundwork first, and that I should be patient, but I can't help that I'm a bit of a do-er and that's the way I usually learn new stuff.

Or that could just be me making excuses for the fact that I'm impatient.

Well then, back to the induction notes, and the product information and getting the accreditations I need...I'm sure they'll let me do some hard stuff soon enough (and I'll be whingeing about it in not time flat, too)

Catch you soon,

J.

The Flip Side of the Coin

SO, after spending the last couple of weeks working to train other people to do stuff that I know how to do, the shoe is now on the other foot, and I'm spending time getting trained in stuff that i don't know how to do.

Yep, it's the first day of the new job. I've managed to turn up on time, remember almost everybody's name, move my desk in record speed, and not embarrass myself. So far.

I'm feeling a little disoriented and know I'm not exactly taking in everything that's been thrown at me just yet, but as far as first days go, this one hasn't been too bad.

anyway, must get back to work - don't want to be seen blogging for too long on my first day...

J.

She's baa-aack!

the hiatus is finally over...blogger seems to be working from both work and home (no thanks to the hugely underwhelming Vista). Would you believe I'm now running 2 different laptops at home, both with different stuff on them, to make sure that I can actually do all the things I want to???

Anyway, It's been a busy Easter with a visit from my sister and brother-in-law from WA who popped in for a few days on their way to Noosa for a wedding. We had an absolute ball - full of the kind of nonsense that it seems only family can inspire!

So I've taken the day off today. The family left this morning and I start my new job tomorrow (Analysis and Modelling, thanks for asking), so I needed a bit of time to get my head on straight.

Most importantly for you, however, I have used the day as an opportunity to get all my computer problems a bit organised!

So, thanks for your patience, and stay tuned for more regular posts coming up!

J

Alrighty then....

I'm back online...at least partly....

It's my last day in my current role, though, so I've been flat chat trying to finish handovers, going to for farewell lunches, getting flowers and presents....and now I'm getting prepared to go out for my farewell drinks.

Don't worry, though, I'll be back in full form very soon, and let me tell you, I've have heaps of things to whinge about.....

See ya soon!

J.

Testing.....

having some technical issues at the moment...both work and home computers, believe it or not. I'm testing out this method for posting via email which may, or may not work. Bear with me just a little longer...I promise to be back online next week by hook or by crook....

J.