Update on my fundraising efforts

Woo hoo! Only $95 to go until I hit my target, and since it's payday tomorrow I'm going to cash in on a few pledges. Don't think I'm stopping at $1500!!

If you happen to be reading this and have suddenly though "ooh, that's a good idea...I'll go do my donation now", you can do so on the website here, or if you know me and are in the vicinity I can take cash, cheque or card.

Tassie, you're all in line for some serious begging when I get there next week, so get those wallets out...it really is a great cause after all.

thanks so much to everyone who's already been so generous!

J. (soon to be know as "baldy", "nude-nut" and other rude names for people with no hair)

Happy Launceston Cup Day

to all my Friends in Lonnie....

even though I've never been to the Launceston Cup, for various reasons. Or the races at all. Ever. In my whole life.

Hint, anyone?

I feel a bit dirty...

I admit it, I watched the Oscars last night.

I usually hate awards ceremonies. Actually I always do. I didn't even get any particular enjoyment out of it last night. I think that they're such industry w*nks where overpaid people sit around and pat each other on the back for doing such a good job of failing completely to make the world a better place.

Can you imagine the world tuning in to watch the International Finance Forecaster's Awards? No? Why not? Boring? Hmmm...more boring than the Oscars?

But somehow they suck you in. I was literally just changing channels, waiting for something to start on another channel. I was lured by the frocks and the shoes.

Anyway, since I've already admitted I watched it (apart from the big award at the end, that happened after I fell asleep), and since every other person on the planet seems to have an opinion, here are my expert [sic] opinions on the night....

1. Too much long straight hair, pulled over one shoulder. You look like you have a pet otter draped over there, straighted to within an inch of it's life (or beyond)
2. Far too many fishtail frocks. Not good in it's hey-day, this look hasn't improved just because they made Dreamgirls
3. Kirsten Dunst. What were you thinking?
4. Ellen, I really wanted you to be funny. Pity that only worked out about half the time.
5. Al Gore. Congratulations. If there were an award for funniest moment of the night, I would have awarded it to you!
6. Maggie Gylenhaal - didn't you just have a baby? Have you been living on lettuce leaves and water ever since?
7. Clint Eastwood - glasses can make you look intelligent. Especially when the alternative is looking like you're illiterate.
8. Yep, all that back-slapping "aren't we wonderful" sentiment after announcing this year's to be the most multi-cultural Oscars ever. Doesn't seem like such a good idea when you've got people giving acceptance speeches that are "gasp" not in English (or the US version thereof).

So there you go. I think I'll go have a shower now. For the next three weeks. At least.

An other food brag.

After many year of preparing burritos, a commonly cooked recipe from my repertoire of vegetarian delights, I decided to get all adventurous last night.

I think that I may, just possibly, have perfected the burrito.

Ow ow ow!

Note that that's two less "ow"s than yesterday, and less exclamation marks too.

So I'm a lot less sore than I was yesterday.

but still 3 "ow"s more than usual.

Pre-emptive post

I was going to write a post whinging about the state of my laptop...the fact that it's had the umpteenth bit replaced costing me yet another fortune. The fact that I lost stuff this time. The fact that it came back this time with absolutely nothing on it - no drivers, software or files.

But I've beaten myself to the punch. New laptop ordered today and on the way. Fast and big memory and still under warranty!

Yay! Posts from home will be a possibility once again!

Ow Ow ow ow Ow!!!

I did a Rogaine yesterday. 6 hours of running around in the rain, up hills and down stairs and up stairs and down hills and across streets and along the beach and over bridges and down paths.

All while alternately getting rained on periodically or feeling like we had our own personal saunas happening inside our parkas.

Lots of map reading, a bit of map-misreading, navigation and confusion.

Did we win? Far from it.

Did we get wet? Wet would be an understatement.

Did everything hurt by the time we'd finished? Hell, yeah.

Does everything hurt even more today? I can barely walk. I think "hobble" would be a more accurate description of what I'm doing to get from place to place.

Did we have any fun at all? Lots and lots and lots. :-)

Thanks Danielle and Kate & Andrew

p.s. I'm still going to whinge lots. It really does hurt!

Ummmm..... \:-/

Yep, um, hello to the person who game here by searching for "jacki's videos toy love"

I actually hope you didn't find whatever it was you were looking for.

J.

Oooh....new word!

i love this one.....


apogee \AP-uh-jee\, noun:
1. The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite that is at the greatest distance from the center of the earth.
2. The farthest or highest point; culmination.

Hmmm...is this how it's supposed to work?

Good News: Another 2 items crossed off my list at the end of the day!!

Bad News: Another 4 items added to the list by the end of the day. :-(

Something I've never done before

I'm not referring to the shaving-the-head thing (again)

I'm planning a baby shower.

Do you have any idea how much information and how many different ideas are are there on the internet for such activities?

Well, if you don't, I can tell you: It's a lot.

Anyone have any good stuff they'd like to share? It's for the lovely Bec and I'd really quite like it to be a lovely day.

Hello strangers

Hi all, or anyone still out there reading!

Apologies for the Zen Minimalist posts lately. Serious case of the busies at work over the last week or two.

Have finally gotten a huge piece of work finished that has taken us literally since December , so am now in the process of working my way through the list of all the other stuff that was put on the back-burner since then. 19 entries on the to-do list as of this morning, and I've managed to have a bit of a power day and cross 5 off today so far and counting.

I'm going to try to get a bit further through a couple of items and then head back for a big juicy post. Well, tomorrow at the latest or you can give me a slap on the wrist.

Remember Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books? Any votes on the topic for the next post...

1. For me whinging about my dodgy laptop problems go to page 37
2. For my new favourite recipe go to page 15
3. For my take on Chinese New Year go to page 72
4. For more hilarious stories of Sydney Public Transport go to page 66
5. If you don't like any of these ideas go to hell

"How long is Happy Hour?"

I love moments when people (preferably people other than myself) say things like this.

That whole "maybe I should have thought that through a second before letting it jump out of my mouth as a sentence" type of moment.

by the way - it wasn't actually me who came up with this gem, in case you were wondering.

2 thirds of the way!!!

Woo Hoo!! My fundraising efforts are going so well. I've just passed the $1000 mark!!! Only $485 to go until I reach my target.

Looks like the whole head-shaving thing is going to definitely happen. Gulp!

Another List

In the interests of fairness and equity, I believe another list may be in order.

Things that aren't annoying me at all this morning

1. I got a new pair of shoes yesterday. They are shiny and new.
2. The sun is shining
3. I have had lots of generous donations for my fundraising efforts
4. I have impending holidays
5. I got a new pair of shoes yesterday. They are shiny and new.
6. I'm having lunch with Bec and she makes me laugh
7. Did I mention I have some shiny new shoes?
8. Plus the shoe place is fixing my old ones that I broke when I tripped over last week.
9. Shiny, shiny shoes.

A list of things that are annoying me this morning.

1. My laptop. Stupid machine.
2. Mondays
3. My breakfast shop who put their prices up when they were already overpriced
4. My finger. It hurts. Jammed it when folding up the sofa-bed yesterday. Ouch.
5. The Internet. Well, it's OK now, but we have had no access all morning until now. How dare it be out there with all that information and me not be able to get any of it?
6. Sydney Water. Sending me nasty letters even though they were the one's who stuffed up and had my address wrong.
7. Whoever has been giving out my number as the contact for any number of resourcing issues handled by another area of my team. I don't know about this stuff!!!
8. Unhelpful Customer Service staff who automatically blame someone else for mistakes before even checking their facts.
9. Adobe Acrobat. Just didn't feel like working this morning, apparently. Making it necessary for me to manually produce all 86 reports this morning. A task that normally takes about 10 minutes. I've just finished and it's taken me 2.5 hours.

That is my whinge for the day. That will be all.

A sensational piece of lateral thinking

Check this out

One third of the way there

Thanks to everyone who have made generous donations so far to my World's Greatest Shave fundraising drive. I've crossed the $500 mark this morning!!!

Only $1000 to go.

Can you tell I'm focusing on the money. I'm in active denial about the whole losing the hair thing.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me so far. As for everyone else, well I'll be hunting you down this afternoon!

J.

It's pay day

Feel free to share the love around here

Request

I have a real thing going for bran muffins at the moment. A shop nearby sells great ones, but they're extortionately expensive.

Does anyone have a good recipe?

I might even make enough for everybody.

Updated Shavos Info

All my reciept books and stuff arrived yesterday. Well, maybe earlier, but I checked the mailbox last night and it was all there.

Anyone wishing to donate in person please let me know.

Cheers,

J.

The gentle art of throwing your voice

You don't see many new ventriloquists around these days, do you?

I did see a really good one on the telly late last night (slight touch of insomnia drove me to watch a TV show I normally hate).

I must say I was pretty impressed...2 puppets and yodelling, and I never once was able to pick the mouth moving when it wasn't suppoed to be.

How do you get into a profession like that?

What skills do you need to be a good ventriloquist?

I've never given it ago. Anyone every tried it?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone's day is full of warm and mushy feelings.

And Happy Anniversary to the boy.

Cityrail apologises for any inconvenience

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a bit of a change at the station lately?

The electronically copied and pasted together announcements in the dulcet tones of Gretel Killeen appear to have been replaced by a real live person doing the announcements.

Why has this happened? One can only theorise (since a quick search of their website shed no light whatsoever on the matter)

Either...

1. The auto-thingy is broken. It happens to the trains enough, after all. this has got to be a likely scenario
2. It's a ploy to make people feel more empathy towards city rail. The chap does sound rather friendly. Let's see how excited he is after a couple of months of continuous train announcement, though.
3. Gretel's tried to renegotiate her contract. BB is losing ratings every season. CityRail is having none of it.
4. Some train driver's broken his thumb or something and can't drive. He's on worker's comp anyway, so they thought they'd put him to good use and stop him gettnig bored.
5. Nothing's really changed, I've just finally lost the plot and am hearing voices.

what does everyone else think?

Speaking of my mailbox...

Speaking of my mailbox...(were we?) I think that last post requires further explanation.

It's not that I walk past my mailbox several times a day and yet fail to empty it.

I live in an apartment complex with a centralised mail room.

It's actually a bit of a walk to get there from my door. I go in the side gate from the train and directly to the basement if I'm driving, and out the opposite side gate if I'm heading up to Newtown. Hence, I don't actually tend to go past my mailbox very often. Only on weekend mornings when I head down to get my weekend newspaper from the shop of a coffee from the cafe.

And last weekend the boy was up early (due to falling asleep watching telly at 8pm) and went and got the paper and a coffee for me, so there was no mailbox run.

Just in case you were wondering.

Because you might have been.

2 Days until pay day.

I'm counting on a big influx of donations to my big fundraising effort. I seem to have stalled the last couple of days.

Still waiting on the receipt book...maybe I should actually check the mailbox tonight when I get home. Then everyone's in trouble...I'll be stalking people's desks, doing the rounds, and hitting up everyone who comes to my desk to ask for work to be done. It's gonna cost them!

Tee hee. I kind of like that idea.

If you don't need any work done, but want to donate anyway...you may do so here

Is it wrong of me....?

...to laugh at the guy who tripped over the phone cord on the way out of the meeting room near my desk?

Tee hee hee

I've just realised why I have so many accidents. I'm not clumsy, you see, it must be karma.

Better Mood today

It's be hard to be in a worse one.

And I realised when I got home that, even though I am a staunch and vocal fan of summer rather than winter, there are a couple of winter things that are very nice. I got to use them last night.

Slippers. Warm, fluffy, daggy-with-purple-hearts-on-them, comfortable, make-you-feel-better slippers.

Soup. With hot buttered toast. Home-made with chunky vegetables and beans.

Feather doonahs. Enough said.

It's not enough to make me a winter-person. But it's a start.

Some Improvement

I'm now only damp.

My lunch is really tasty. No less than 7 people walking past my desk (yep, tragically, I'm eating lunch at my desk again) commented on how good it smelled. Chickpea & vegetable curry with brown rice. Yum.

The internet seems to be particularly funny today. It started with CheddarVision, and was followed by Personal Submarines and my personal favourite: Psychic Museum Closes its Doors Due toUnforseen Circumstances.

I'd still rather be in a hot bath with a cup of tea and a packet of tim tams.

The whole Sad Story

Firstly, some background - I have a skun knee. Another story altogether...who'd have thought it was a bad idea to walk down the street and read the newspaper at the same time? Anyway, it's quite sore, especially walking. Especially especially walking up or down stairs.

So I get up this morning and get ready for work. It's raining a bit, so I grab my umbrella on the way out the door.

Of course, as soon as I step out into aforementioned rain, deluge begins. Umbrella basically useless in the face of the sheets of water pouring from the sky. Sore knee. Running imposible. So wet that my shoes keep slipping out from under my feet because of the amount of water between my feet and the soles of my shoes. Finally arrive at the station, completely drenched from the waist down, and decidedly damp everywhere else.

I've missed my train. Of course. This is the photo I took once I'd arrived at the station.

Catch the next train. Still wet.

More background - the late train runs around the city circle in the opposite direction to the early train. This makes my journey longer so on mornings when I take the late train, I usually jump off at Central, run down the stairs for my platform, up the stairs to another platform and hop on a train going the right direction.

This morning I decided not to switch trains and to just deal with the whole city circle loop. Sore knee. Stairs hurt. Soaking wet. Already late for work anyway.

Of course. Train delayed. Stuck at Circular Quay. Train delayed. Lovely view of the bridge. Or there would be, if it wasn't raining so hard that I couldn't even see that far?

Finally get to my station. Now it's so late that my breakfast place has run out of scrambled eggs. Still wet. Knee hurts.

Get to work. Still wet. Realise we're about to push a forecast that doesn't contain any of the public holidays I so painstakingly collated for 2007. Hmmm, looks like about a full day of rework to be done. Just what I asked Santa for.

I've been at work for 2 and a half hours now. Still wet. Now also freezing. Wandering around barefoot as my shoes are still so wet that they're making my feet even colder. I put my jumper on, but it was in my bag when I was in the rain, and so is also wet. Not helping.

Grumble, grumble. Is it all over yet? I think I need a hot bath. Maybe a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits.

Some days you just shouldn't get out of bed.

Today's been one of them so far.

If a Celebrity dies and there's nobody around to throw a press conference...

So, Anna-Nicole Smith died this morning.

Tragic. Tragic end for a tragic lady with a bit of a tragic life.

Not funny at all. Kind of sad, really.

I heard the news on Sunrise this morning while I was getting ready for work.

Might have been a bit, funny, however, watching the Sunrise gossip correspondent, Nelson, trying to be diplomatic whilst discussing recent events in the aforemention deceased's life. Admittedly, he didn't do a bad job, considering the complicated and convoluted subject matter.

Tee hee.

My Rock-Star Moment

It's Friday - casual dress day at the office.

I decide on a bit of a Rock-chic ensemble...jeans, black logo t-shirt.

I accessorise accordingly...funky hat, overly-long chandelier earrings with silver lightning bolts at the ends.

I take off for work, walking up the road, feeling pretty good.

The wind picks up, flicks my nice sharp lightning bolts around, which are on lovely overly long earrings just long enough that they can flick me in the face and eyes.

Ouch.

I'll bet I looked pretty cool having my rock-star moment on the street.

An email conversation

I had plans for dinner with my friends Bridget and Catriona this weekend. A true copy of our email conversation:

B: Can I please take a raincheck on our drinks this Sat? I have gone out
way too much the past 2 weeks and I am now paying for it. I really need
a quiet weekend in on the couch resting my old bones.

J: Yeah, actually it's been bloody busy for me lately too, plus my laptop
is in for repairs and is bound to be bloody expensive.
Catriona - are you OK with a raincheck?

C: No worries at all- I have been quite sick the past few days and think i
need a bit of recuperation myself!

B: So it's agreed. We are all getting old and soft!

J: That's the same as mature and full-flavoured if you happen to be a cheese
or a wine!

C: and i am totally a cheesy wino!!

The bald truth

It's been quite funny to see the reactions of people to my recent pledge to do the World's Greatest Shave.

It's ranged from people offering to donate money for me not to do it, right up to someone who thought it was so funny they'd happily shell out the lot just to make sure I am bound to go through with it!

It's a funny thing, hair. Quite a lot of how you look and how you feel really depends on it. There's a huge industry built around colouring it, cutting it, shampoo, conditioner, hair masks, treatments, hairbrushes, combs, blow-dryers, hair straighteners, elastics, hair clips, scrunchies, hairbands, gels, mousses, waxes, hairsprays and styling products. God knows, I have a bathroom full of this stuff.

I've always been a bit proud of my hair. It's naturally (yes, really) blonde and straight and usually quite shiny and bouncy.

So from one perspective, I guess that's what makes it such a scary thing to contemplate. Who will I be without my hair? What will I do with no hair on special dress-up occasions? What if I look like an alien?

But then I kind of think about the other hand as well. Maybe it will be liberating. I won't have to brush my hair in the morning and try to untangle the birds nest. I won't wake up with hair in my face and mouth. I won't have to find novel ways of keeping it out of my way while I'm working, cleaning, walking, breathing....

Most likely it'll be a bit of both. Either way, it's still enough to give me butterflies whenever I think about it. Wish me luck.

Tonight I'm Going to....

• Go straight home from work.
• Change into clothes that are stretchy
• Kick off my shoes
• Turn off the phone
• Cook myself dinner
• Sit on the couch and watch telly.

Ahhh...it's been a busy week. A night with nothing on is a luxury. I'll be in heaven.

:-)

Committed

No, not talking about what I should be due to my dubious mental state.

Talking about the fact that I'm now committed to participate in the World's Greatest Shave.

It's a great fundraiser for cancer research.

And I have to Shave my head if I raise enough money. Gulp!

So go on, hop onto the link and feel free to sponser me. It's tax deductible and all.

Gulp.

Good thing I have a lot of hats.

Gulp

I may never leave my computer again

I have a new favourite website.....

check it out here when you have a few free hours....

Cool Link...literally.part 2

Strange Weather Phenomenon in New Foundland

Stairways to doom

what is it with me and Escalators. Trust me there's even more stories about me falling over on escalators than I've mentioned so far on here.

And I just did it again. Absolutely no good reason. Just riding up the escalator with my lunch. Pow. Fallen over. How does that work?

Ow.

Happy Birthday to You...

Aunty Nene!!

21 again.....

Celebrations started yesterday with a lovely afternoon in the sun in Erskineville, drinking a few cold ones (soft-drinks, of course) and the odd cocktail.

Thanks to our (unexpected and highly surprising) restraint....(Sandy's out of town at the moment. Connection?) we are all primed again for the family dinner tonight. (I'm getting an honourary invitation).

Have a great day, babe.

J.

Cool Link...literally

Check it out

I shall say this only once

It's inevitable that there are going to be some songs that you like more than others. It's always been the case and always will be. I like to think of these as "Repeat Songs"

These days it's fairly easy to have your fill of whatever your particular repeat song might be. There's a repeat function on my CD player so that whatever song I've pressed it for loops to eternity. I have the same setting on my MP3 player. If I happen to decide after the song is finished, in any case, I can flick backwards with a touch or two of a button.

Somehow, though, I don't feel as though this is always a good thing. Back when I was younger, and cassettes were the newest fandangled media for music storage, you really had a to work to get your repeat song played.

It involved precision timing and a whole lot of guess-work. Rewinding the tape, maybe counting to 10, hitting play and then possibly having to adjust several times. It really seemed so satisfying and good to be able to play your favourite song twice in a row. Any more than that and you really had to love that song...the effort soon started to outweigh the reward.

These days, being able to easily achieve repetition may have served to cheapen our attachment to our repeat songs. It's the equivalent of having that song put on high rotation on the radio.

I guess too much of a good thing can be a bad thing after all.

Bumped Down the List

I've decided that writing training materials is no longer second on my list of least favourite work tasks to do. It's been bumped to third on the list - right after documenting database structures.

Grrr.

Happy Birthday Bronte!

It was my brother's birthday on Saturday. Hope you had a good one little (big!) brother!

J.

An Excerpt from an email from my sister

My sister has been making me very jealous for the last month or so, doing the free-spirit thing travelling around Central America.

It may have been a little mean (jealousy-fuelled, of course) or me, but I may have laughed out loud when I received an email from her this morning. I have pasted in the first couple of paragraphs.....

"Hi there,

It´s official, I´m a complete tradgedy. Yup that´s right I missed my flight
home. Still trying to fathom how I managed to do it. Wednesday is Thursday
is not Wednesday. Bugger. Guess I was really into the relaxzed holiday
spirit...

And no I don´t need a lecture or smartarse comments from anyone thankyou.
Turns out the LA - Melb route is very popular. No available seats til Feb
24. Yup, a month away. Spent yesterday in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua,
trying to sort it all out. The good news is that I don´t have to wait a
month to get home!"

Tee hee hee.....

;-P

22 things

1. Camping was truly amazing
2. I did get really dirty and smelly
3. Not too much, though as there were showers (20c worth of hot water doesn't go too far though!)
4. I did go for a walk in the bush
5. I didn't go for a swim (sorry, just too cold!)
6. I did get sand in my shoes
7. I did cook on an open fire (with very able assistance)
8. I did cook on a solid fuel cooker (much more difficult)
9. I was more relaxed whilst camping than I have been since my last big holiday (Christmas 2005)
10. I did sleep in a tent, with my socks on
11. I did see possums and wallabies (and just missed seeing a giant goanna)
12. I did get attacked by various flying, biting insects
13. I did sit on the beach in the sun
14. I did hike a long way up a hill to go to the loo
15. I love camping
16. You should always take more water and more tea-towels than you think you're going to need
17. And spare batteries
18. Cups of tea taste much better when they're made in a billy-can
19. The South Coast of NSW is truly beautiful in many, many ways
20. I'm sad that I'm back
21. I'm resolved to go again really, really soon
22. I may have gone tent shopping on the way home....

Woo Hoo!!

In under 45 minutes I'm outta here! It's Australia Day tomorrow and I have Monday off as well. That's 4 whole days off. I'll be camping, somewhere down South. Definitely no internet access. Probably no phone coverage.

I'm going to disappear for a few days. And swim and snorkel and go for a hike and cook over a fire and get really dirty and smelly and sleep in a tent.

I can't wait!

See you when I get back!!!

J.

These are a few of my Least Favourite Things...

Yay. Writing training material. Right up there with researching public holidays. Hmmm. Now there's a word you don't want to make a typo with.

Wild Weather

OK, so it's dark outside and has been all day.

And it's overcast.

And Raining.

And Hot.

And Sticky.

What is going on with this weather? Seriously?

Are you trying to tell me that climate change isn't happening?

Carnivore Part II

Did you know you can stretch out the time it takes to eat a giant chocolate freddo longer than a twin peppermint freddo...even through they're the same size and basically the same amount of calories and fat?

A butterfly flaps it's wings in an amazon jungle...

I'm a great believer in the interconnectedness of things (is that a word?).

Nowhere is this more obvious than within the bounds of a rail network. Apparently a train derailed in Sefton a few days ago. Obviously, that's why it's taking me well over an hour each way to get to work and back at the moment (it takes about 45 minutes to walk!). Plus it's also the reason I get on a train that says it's going a particular way, and discover it switches to a different line with no warning half way through. After sitting stationery between stops for extended periods of time.

Hmph!

I think I'll walk home tonight.

Jacki's Carnivorous Cravings

There's an animal I'd love to eat right now.

Bite off it's head, nibble at it's feet, suck the insides out.

Freddo might be in trouble.

In response to the email chain...

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:50am
2. Diamonds or pearls? Neither.
3. What was the last film you saw at the movies? It's been a while. I probably couldn't tell you.
4. What is your favourite TV show? Anything with ghosts, aliens, super-powers or psychics.
5. What did you have for breakfast? A scrambled egg roll
6. Your middle name(s)? Marie
7. What is your favourite cuisine? Anything so long as it is made with fresh, good quality ingredients, and cooked with skill and care.
8. What foods do you dislike? Vegemite. Beetroot. Bananas.
9. What is your favourite crisp flavour? Chilli
10. What is your favourite CD at the moment? Pink.
11. What type of car do you drive? A Subaru Forester
13. What characteristics do you despise? racist, Liars, cheaters, anyone who's not genuine or who is cruel
14. Favourite item of clothing? My headwear collection
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you
go? At the moment trying to organise a trip to Vietnam
16. Favourite brand of clothing? Brand isn't important, so long as I like it and it's on sale (never pay retail!)
17. Where would you like to retire to? Retire? That's a bit premature, don't you think?
18 Favourite time of the day? brunchtime
19. What was your most memorable birthday? I have to choose just one? I love birthdays! They're all memorable.
20. Where were you born? Prince George, BC, Canada
21. Favourite sport to watch? I don't like any, but my least worst would be the Tour De France
22 . Who do you least expect to send this back to you? I'm not sending it. Sending it back is therefore redundant.
23. Who do you expect to send it back first? As above
24. What fabric detergent do you use? GreenCare
25. Coke or Pepsi? Coke Zero
26. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Night owl. Absolutely
27. What is your shoe size? 9.5
28. Do you have any pets? Yep. Fishies. I actually got some new ones on the weekend.
30. What did you want to be when you were little? an Astronaught.
31. When is your birthday? 17th September, 1975
> **********FAVOURITES****************
Shampoo? Hmmm...I change every time I buy
Soap? Sorbolene
Summer/Winter? Summer.
Favourite Advertisement? The one (i'm not sure if it's on still) where the car eats the sports-cars for breakfast.
NOW*****************


Wearing? work clothes. suit pants, stretch top, work security pass, glasses.
Eating? Just finished lunch - Soy fillets, corn on the cob and a garden salad (with lot of chilli)
Drinking? Water. About to go make a cup of tea once I've finished this.
Thinking about? The Pink Concert - I just booked tickets!
Book: The Beauty of the Beastly. Populr science book all about cockraoches, spiders snakes and nasty creepy-crawlies

> **********THE LAST 24 HOURS**************


Cried? Came close
Met someone new? No
Cleaned your room? Yes. Brand new bed linen and everything.
Driven a car? yes
How many hours sleep? 8


*************DO YOU BELIEVE IN* *************
God? Not exactly
Yourself? Definitely
Your friends? Absolutely
Santa Claus? I did once upon a time.
Destiny/Fate? Yes, although everyone has a choice of what to do with the hand they're dealt.
Ghosts? Yes.
**********FRIENDS AND LIFE**********


Who have you known the longest of your friends? Karen, Maddy & Kate...we all started high-school together back in 1988.
Who do you go to for advice? My girls
When do you cry the most? When I'm frustrated
Do you want your friends to do this and send it back to you? only if they want to.

Sorry

...to the people who got here via a search for hare krishna and lawn bowls etiquette.

You probably didn't find quite what you were looking for....

quick update

I went to some interesting training today - Organisational Politics.

It certainly changed my mind about a few things and gave me a few ideas....

I'm totally plagiarising the course, but some interesting stuff that I learned today was:

• Refusing to play politics is a type of playing politics
• There's such a thing as constructive politics
• I'm an Owl, but I used to be a fox.
• You don't have to be conscious of playing politics to do it.

Great food for thought.

J.

New Toy

Gotta love new toys. Especially free ones.

My mobile phone contract had expired and it hadn't been really suitable since I stopped having a landline, so I spent Saturday morning mired in phone bills and phone company Internet sites. Since it's me, I had to do a full analysis, based on my last couple of phone bills, of exactly what the best deal was for me. Spreadsheets were involved. Formulas too. It was all very complicated, but in the end I got there and found the perfect plan for me.

Armed with this information I headed off to my local outlet for that particular phone company (conveniently located in the same shopping centre as my usual supermarket).

I fronted up, asked a couple of questions that hadn't been clear on the website. The answers were satisfactory, so I agreed to sign up then and there.

All good, I was happy. The next bit of news made me even happier, though...free phone! I wasn't really in need of one as I was perfectly happy with the one I had. But the free phone was the swanky newer model of my current phone...better camera, a few new features, a few of the little things that annoyed me previously sorted out, and it's a 3G so I can make video calls.

If I knew someone else with a 3G phone, that is....

Seriously

OK, so the whole "Jacki's Jabberings" things is doing my head in. It's even falling into one of my least favourite grammatical traps (if you can't pick it, I might get generous and let you know at some point).

In case you're not privy to the complete background of this whole palaver, the name was part of a bit of an exercise I went through some time ago. Apparently my communication skills were somewhat "challenged". Well, maybe "apparently" is redundant in that last sentence. If I'm going to be honest, my written communication skills have always been ahead of my verbal skills...unless, of course, you happen to fancy verbal sparring, logical conundrums and spontaneous condescention (professionally, at least)

Any-hooo....

The whole blog name is just not working for me any more.

I've hinted at this before...here, but seriously, I'm totally over the whole alliteration crap that I came up with for the newsletter at short notice way too long ago.

I'm starting to consider some crazy options...if you don't come up with suggestions you're going to end up with.....

• Interview with a Jacki
• Frog on a lilypad (the random line I just heard on the TV)
• Not the PowerPuff Girls
• The BMX bandit who doesn't have a BMX
• Veronica's Cars
• Bigville
• Vegetarianing the Menu
• The Less Than Amazing Race
• Medium...grade TV
• The Bill..or the Cheque...or la bille (seriously, check the french translation, it;s way funny)
• Chin Chin (translation difficulties are suddenly at the front of my mind...my highschool japanese teacher apparently made this toast in Japan more years ago than I would like to admit, but that's a whole nother story)

Someone, seriously, give me a better option....please???!?!?!?

All opinions gratefulyy accepted via comments..

J

Is it bad?

To try to use your work pass to get through the train station gates?
To try to use your car clicker to unlock your front door?
To have dreams where you're moving around a database universe?

Whoa!

Where the hell did this week go? I'm sure it only started about 10 minutes ago!

Actually, I know where it went. Everyone finally came back from their holidays with a whole bunch of new ideas for what needed to happen at work. I've been building testing and managing pilots for a new tool at work. It's very complicated and has completely taken up my brainpower this week. There's pretty much nothing left, let me tell you.

On the up-side of this week, I'm doing the post-Christmas detox thing. No alcohol or junk food for two whole weeks and I'm 5 days into it. I've even managed to fit in a little bit of exercise! Must be getting responsible in my old age. Ah well, it'll all be over soon enough(the detox, not my old age!) and I'm sure I'll be back to my old tricks in no time.

Next week is full of more exciting things to write about, so hopefully I'll manage to be a tad more prolific.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jacki.

I'm in lust!

It followed me home...please can I keep it?

These are a few of my Least Favourite Things...

Grr...I'm doing my least favourite part of my job ever. Bloody public holidays for 2007. I did this a while ago, but some of the bloody councils didn't gazette theirs until very late (surely, a smack on the wrist would be appropriate?)

So now I'm doing my least favourite job again!

Does anyone have any idea when the Port Hedland Cup is going to be held in 2007?

Anyone?

Anyone?

anyone?

...sigh...

Food of Kings...or at Least, an Earl

All hail the Earl! The Earl of Sandwich, that is. The inventor of one of my favourite lunches. Imagine the leap of logic, the audacity, the pure unadulterated genius of serving up your favourite luncheon meats and salad between two slices of bread!!!!

And this pioneering step paved the way for more and more adventurous permutations...the toasted sandwich (one of my personal favourites) and the salad roll. I reckon we could even trace the origins of the hamburger (or, in my case, the veggie-burger) back to the auspicious Earl. There's also the Turkish and foccacia varieties, multitudes of bread-choices in fact...white, wholemeal, grain, rye, gluten-free, crusty, seeded...the list is endless.

In fact, when I was a kid, and we always had make-your-own sandwiches together as a family for Sunday lunch, I went through a faze of making what I called a "lettuce sandwich boat". (I thought that was a cool name at the time, OK?). I started with a big lettuce leaf and tossed all my sandwich ingredients inside (including the bread), then wrapped it up and ate it. There was a sort of random surprise in which ingredients you ended up with in each mouthful!

In my humble opinion, there is something sublime in discovering a good sandwich shop with a multitude of fresh ingredients and a careful sandwich hand. One of these slap-em-together, only order off the set options on the menu (sandwich?) board-type people will never do.

I'm quite particular about my sandwiches (in case you can't tell). The ingredients that need to be available, the condiments on offer, the order and proportion of fillers are all vitally important to a good sandwich.

I'm quite lucky to have discovered at least one good sandwich shop nearby to wherever I've worked in the city, and I have a secret spot where I'm based now (shhh...I'm not telling or it'll get too busy).

I have also, however, discovered the mecca of sandwich shops. A little franchise I visited in WA called Mr Bird's MYO. You go in and choose your own bread and wander round an obstacle course filled with fabulous sandwich fillings and you literally make your own sami as you go! You get weighed at the end of the course (well, your sandwich does, not you of course. That would be silly) and pay for you lunch by weight.

It's sensational. Pity that they're in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, but haven't made it to Sydney as yet. anyone feeling like they'd like to set up a franchise? I can guarantee at least one loyal customer!

J.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Welcome to 2007 one and all. I hope all festivities were festive and all celebrations were celebratory.

As for me, well I had a great time.

On Saturday I went to the Peat's Ridge festival up north of Sydney. It was a fantastic festival...all sustainable principles and rubbish monitors to advise you whether your mango pip goes in the compost, recycle or landfill bin.

I swam in the river in the mud and ate Hare Krishna food and slept in a van (quite a comfy one, too, actually) and got really dirty and had to line up for toilets. It was certainly a return to my hippy roots and I loved every minute of it! (Well, except for the lining up for the toilets bit!) Especially the Hare Krishna food.

Then on Sunday I raced back to the city for a shower and some glam (half an hour's worth was all I could manage, but I think I did OK all things considered) and then headed off to a swanky New Year's

Eve party with a view of the harbour and the fireworks on the bridge and Veuve Cliquot and sensational red and gourmet pizzas made by the trusty team of Ronene, Jacki and Sandy. Thanks to Dave for the sensational night. And to Simon for the entertainment (ever seen ET dance?)

for those who've noticed the fact that this isn't the first, nay: even the second, but the third time that I have appeared in a photo on here in the same frock, well bad luck. Who do you think I am? An Australian Princess?

Was I or wasn't I?

Situation 1: Pretty much let the manners go. Wrote a list of complaints on the back of the bill and presented it to the owner. As an explanation of why we weren't really willing to pay the full bill.

Situation 2: Rescued from the dilemma of deciding. Smelly man got off at the next station. I moved seats anyway.

How'd I do on the collective polite-o-metre?

Where do we come from?

I love checking the keywords of people's Google searches that lead them to this blog site. Just ilke when you search for something and get results that are unexpected, sometimes the searches that people use to get here are suprising because of how little I've thought about the different ways things I write about may be able to be interpreted.

A quick google search has shown up that there is actually quite a bit of debate about the top search terms people use. Everything from God, Sex, Paris Hilton, Jobs, Politics, to far ruder subjects.

Ha - notice that I've managed to slip all of those common search terms into one post? I guess this will be my own little test! I'll let you know if my readership explodes over the next few days!

And to the mysterious "alternative phrases for the best things since white bread", I'm glad you stuck around for a read and I hope you found what you were looking for!

Jacki

I am Sailing...I am Sailing...

Bugger, now I'm going to have Rod Stewart in my head all day!

Last Friday I went sailing. The photos are here.

I have to tell you all, I had a bloody sensational day! What's not to love about sailing? You're out and about on the water (lots of sunscreen is definitely the order of the day), the wind ruffles your hair, you hang on for dear life as the word tilts sideways and you're sure you're going to end up on the news...

then you get where you're going and sit and drink wine and eat nibblies (my favourite) in the sun.

then you do the same thing to get home and you get home exhausted and happy and sleep like the proverbial fairy-tale princess. Good company, good fun and a really great day. I could get used to a sport like that!

J.

Limbo (not the kind with the Carribbean drums and the stick)

We're currently in the middle of that limbo period...those couple of days between Christmas and New Year's. It's a funny old time, where the world doesn't quite work the same way it does the rest of the year. As with anything out of my usual routine, there are things about this period that I love and things that drive me bonkers.

Love: Work is quiet. You can tinker away on ideas that you've been wanting to invest some time in for months, but never seem to get free time to do.

Hate: The city is impossibly crowded. People everywhere with nothing to hurry for and plenty of time to wander, stroll and browse. Out of my way, people!

Love: Work is relaxed enough that you can actually get time to go out for lunch instead of grabbing take-away and eating at your desk as usual....

Hate: Public transport. Limited services (ie not even as many as usual), the usual train gong the wrong way around the city circle loop, tourists with suitcases who have no idea how to get on or off a train. Or a platform for that matter. Seriously, this is my everyday thing. You're the ones in the way...MOVE!!!

Love: Knowing that I'm saving my holidays for a big trip next year (almost this year!)

Hate: Knowing half my friends are on holidays now. And half of my team.

Love: Even without taking any holidays, I still get a 4 day weekend followed by a 3 day weekend.

Hate: Skeleton staff for support staff. I'm sitting here writing this because the normal fortnightly report that I produce, instead of taking the usual 10-15 minutes, has now taken 4 hours. I logged a call with tech support yesterday, but nobody seems in any particular hurry to help. ARGH!!!!!

so if you're working like me, I hope you're not working too hard, and if you're on holidays, well, I don't want to hear about it! See you Tuesday!

Jacki.

To Be Or Not To Be...

I like to think of myself as a pretty polite person. My parents certainly raised me to have good manners and I really think that was a good thing that I adhere to whenever I can.

The question is, though, when is it OK to stop being polite? What does it take for a reasonable person to be pushed beyond the limits of polite tolerance?

Today two things happened. Both of them brought into question the appropriate application of manners.

Situation 1: Today I went out to lunch with 3 friends. Admittedly we went into the nasty part (read: the mall) of the city right in the middle of the post-Christmas sale rush. This was obviously a mistake. (gotta love hindsight)

We went to a small café slightly out of the way. Apparently it wasn’t out of the way enough, however. Firstly the only table that was available was one that had been recently vacated. So the previous occupant’s dishes remained on the table.

Next we weren’t offered menus. Fair enough. It was quite busy. We borrowed one from a neighboring table.

Next we eventually had to go ask the waitress if it might be likely we would be able to order soon. These things happen. Annoying, but I can live with it. In response, she came over and cleared the table then disappeared for quite some time.

Eventually she returned. We managed to order. With effort. I’d be willing to bet that she was a temp brought in just for the Christmas rush period, based purely on the fact that she seemed completely unfamiliar with any item on the menu and made us point them out for her before after stating what we wanted before we could have our lunch requests committed to the notepad.

After a ridiculous amount of time the food started to arrive. Not only was it not the food that we had ordered, but it was also awful. Some time after this we thought maybe it would be a good idea to go find our absent waitress again to see if we could track down the mystery of where our drinks were.

The drinks were also not what we ordered. Mentioning the fact that a bitter lemon (as per the menu) might actually be different from a lemon, lime and bitters was met with a raised eyebrow and a “that’s not the way we do it here”.

Needless to say, by the end of our (semi-inedible) lunch, nobody was impressed.

What would have been the appropriate response to this situation?

Situation 2: I finish work and hop onto a fairly crowded train to get home. I notice with delight that there is a large area with nobody sitting in the seats, and, assuming it is due to the reduced number of commuters during the holiday period, take a seat.

I soon discover why the seats are empty. I’m sitting next to a guy smelling strongly of urine. Apart from that fact he seems reasonably sane. He’s not doing anything wrong. Do I move seats? Do I get up at the next station and pretend I’m getting off and get on at another carriage? Should I care? Don’t I have the right to move seats on public transport whenever I feel like it? What if he gets offended and I hurt his feelings? What if he doesn’t know he smells like wee? What if he does and he’s trying to cause trouble and he yells at me for moving?

What do you do?

….Answers (at least to what actually happened, not to what should have happened) in tomorrow’s installment….

Photos, photos and more photos

I've finally gotten a little organised (mainly due to the fact that we're havinga few network issues this morning) and started sorting my way through my photos from the last couple of months. I've been working my way backwards, so have managed to get the following events on...

Christmas Day at Sandy's
Christmas Eve Eve at Danielle's
Sailing Adventures
Welcome Home Drinks for Kogi
A couple of Work Christmas parties
The PA Offsite dinner
and Karen & Anthony's Wedding

Whilst there are defniitely still more to come (including a whole buckload of photo diary), if you're interested, just pop on over and have a sticky-beak.

Jacki

A bit ridiculous

OK, I know it's that quiet period between Christmas and New years when only the people with no famililes or different cultures end up working.

And I know that it's 4.30 and pretty much even those people have jumped ship and buggered off to do something more exciting.

but seriously? The cleaners are vacuuming around me! I feel l ike I'm at that last table at a restaurant at the end of a long night!

don't they know I'm trying to sort through my Christmas photos?

;-P

And then it was over...

Well it's Boxing Day. The big one is over. The food (or a small portion of what was planned) has been eaten. The wine has well and druly been drunk. The presents have been opened and the tree is ready for disassembly to be put into storage for next year.

Thanks to Sandy for hosting orphan's Christmas and thanks to Edel, Kogi, Jonathan, David & Ronene for sharing a beautiful day.

Hmm, guess I should get out of my pajamas and off the couch and go collect my car.

Soon.

Soon-ish anyway.

Hope you all had a good one.

Jacki

Count down til santa's visit

Given my penchant for countdowns, you may be wondering why I'm not counting down to the big sparkly shiny day coming up next Monday.

Well everyone else seems to be counting down to that one so I thought it might be a bit redundant. I was downstairs on level 28 earlier and the boys down there have a litte blackboard with Santas and stuff that you write in the number of days to go until Christmas.

So if you want to count down, you could go get yourself one of those. Or an advent calendar (maybe one with chocolates?). I'll leave you to your own devices on this one.

J.

Chocoholism

Now let me start this post by stating that I'm usually not a big chocolate person. I may have been when i was younger, but my taste buds seem to have matured (read: aged) a little since then and usually I'll head straight for the cheese plate without so much as a pause by the chocolate bowl.

This year, there seems to have been an awful lot of chocolate around. I've received some as gifts, had them handed out at work and been given them as after dinner treats at the various Christmas functions I've attended this holiday season.

So in the interest of not appearing rude (of course! What other reason would there be?) I have partaken of more chocolate in the last couple of weeks than I probably have all year.

But somehow now that I've jumped on the chocolate bandwagon, I seem to be having trouble getting back off. I've started looking for something sweet after lunch and dinner and a piece of fruit is not longer making the grade.

So what's going on? Have they started making chocolate more addictive? Or was it always like that (that might explain my teenage years, I suppose)? Do I need help beating the demon dessert?

And so this is Christmas...

I received the annual christmas letter from my Uncle yesterday. this year it was in pdf format and received via email, so I guess things have changed a bit from when I remember Mum getting organised with the photocopying and the personal writing on the bottom of each one and then an enclosed photo of the family sent off months in advance (my Mum's a very organised person) to reach teh overseas friends and relatives.

Anyway, I'm digressing. I thought it might be a good idea to do my Christmas letter on here. These annual events always prove an interesting time to reflect on the highlights and lowlights and to take stock of the previous year to clear the air in preparation for the next one.

So what have been the features of 2006 for me?

• My brother Bronte's wedding to Bec
• My sister Mel's wedding to Brownedog
• Alison & Steve's wedding
• Bec & Luke's wedding
• Karen & Anthony's wedding
• Travelling all over the country to attend weddings: Perth, Melbourne, Port Douglas, Perth, Launceston. Whew.
• Learning to Bollywood dance
• Buying and moving into my apartment
• Mum & Dad visiting me in Sydney
• lots of other visitors now I finally have a spare room
• Sandy moving to the inner west
• Seeing Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz
• Bloody missing Beth Orton in concert again!!
• Sadly farewelling my Grandma
• A dodgy flatmate and freeloading swedish backpacker experience
• Moving into the shiny new office building
• And I started this blog!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!

Jacki

New Year's Resolution

I've decided what my New Year's resolution is going to be so I'm declaring here, openly for all the world to see...

In 2007 I will get better at remembering people's names!

Anyone have any ideas how?

Dirty Little Secrets

I enjoy watching Grey's Anatomy.
I really like the new Pink Album.
My favourite social activity is playing board-games
I love Coke Zero
I'm really clumsy and really forgetful
I'm very bad at remembering names. Really bad.
I like playing with databases. For fun.
I buy movies on video or DVD because I can never return them on time when I rent them and they end up costing me more in fines.

So there.

My new Favourite Word

neologism \nee-OLL-uh-jiz-um\, noun:
1. A new word or expression.
2. A new use of a word or expression.
3. The use or creation of new words or expressions.
4. (Psychiatry) An invented, meaningless word used by a person with a psychiatric disorder.
5. (Theology) A new view or interpretation of a scripture.



The word "civilization" was just coming into use in the 18th century, in French and in English, and conservative men of letters preferred to avoid it as a newfangled neologism.
-- Larry Wolff, "If I Were Younger I Would Make Myself Russian': Voltaire's Encounter With the Czars", New York Times, November 13, 1994
If the work is really a holding operation, this will show in a closed or flat quality in the prose and in the scheme of the thing, a logiclessness, if you will pardon the neologism, in the writing.
-- Harold Brodkey, "Reading, the Most Dangerous Game", New York Times, November 24, 1985
The word popularizing was a relative neologism (the Review boasted five years later, "Why should we be afraid of introducing new words into the language which it is our mission to spread over a new world?").
-- Edward L. Widmer, Young America


The French word neologisme, from which the English is borrowed, is made up of the elements neo-, "new" + log-, "word" + -isme, -ism (all of which are derived from Greek).
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for neologism

Smug

Can't help but feel smug about articles like this .

And as I sit here eating my lunch....home-made pizza with fresh basil, baby spinach, mushrooms, capsicum, capers and pine-nuts...I can't say I'm feeling like it's much of a chore being veggie either.

Yum.

Shame on you, chocolate thief!!

In our office, we have one of those charity chocolate boxes offering enticing treats sans guilt since you're helping out with fundraising.

Someone in our office has been stealing from the charity chocolate box.

I hope they get the karma they deserve. :-(

Weird World

OK, this has got to be the strangest media story I've read for a while.

Wear sunscreen

Ouch. I had a nasty looking mole cut out of my back yesterday. It's very painful (despite being very small and not looking too impressive at all). I'd prefer not to have any more pieces of me cut out, so my summer's resolution is to always wear sunscreen.

slip, slop, slap everyone...that's my advice for the day.

Work - vocation or job?

I was at a discussion forum the other day, and we were taling about career development. Kind of a dry topic, you'd think, but things took a bit of a philosophical turn, and we ended up contemplating some questions that I thought were kind of interesting.

I thought that I might share them with you. You can contemplate them on your own, ignore them completely, or if you feel inspired, you could even post up your thoughts.

If you weren't getting paid, would you still come to work?

If you were getting paid to either sit at home all day or work, would you still come to work?

If you could get paid the same to do something else, what would it be?

It's definitely that season again!

Hmmmm. The big company Christmas Party was on last night. great fun, a whole (open) bar to ourselves, lots of networking, food and wine.

Lots of sore heads this morning. A few fuzzy ones too. And lots of sighs and bottles of water and trips to the coke machine. Quite a lot of big greasy breakfasts this morning. A few people taking an early mark today. The odd scandal and person looking a little embarassed today. (Not me, in case you were wondering, I was suprisingly well-behaved!) My boss reckons that our team is operating with one brain-cell between us today.

It's definitely that season again.

Team Christmas lunch tomorrow....
Christmas Lawn bowls for the greater team next week....
Then there's the big day itself....
and New Year's Eve....

I definitely know why they call it the "silly season".

Still, back to my regular job on Monday so I'll try to get in a few more regular posts.

Where did the week go?

Do you ever have weeks like that? I'm sure it was Monday morning about 5 minutes ago and suddenly I've been in this weird time-warp and it's Friday afternoon.

Seriously, I've had such a great week. I've learnt some amazing stuff and had a ball doing all sorts of nerdy things.

And I've had a great workout in the process. sounds odd, I know, but it's true. All due to the fact that I've been working on level 28 and still doing stuff on level 31 and transferring all sorts of stuff around between desks. I'm on my record today...9 trips up and down those 3 flights of stairs!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

J.

Woohoo!

Woohoo for 2 things....

tomorrow it's SUMMER!!!!

and congratulations to Dave who finished his last exam today. We're off to have a bit of a beverage to celebrate!

Yay!~!

J.

Where's Jacki?

Apologies for the paucity of posts...I'm doing "work experience" with a different role this week and next week (sounds like I'm in year 10 and deciding whether or not I want to be an astronaut or a hairdresser!), so am busily trying to get my head around all the new stuff.

It's very interesting and exciting in a nerdy sort of way (is there any other kind?) and I'm enjoying myself immensely at work and really trying to get the most out of it. Hence working flat out during lunch and other assorted times when I'd normally muse over blog entries.

So hang in there...I'll be back (as the governor once said).

J.

MP3 Ettiquette

Is it ever okay to sing along to the song playing on your MP3 player? What if...

• The song is really, really good?
• You've been drinking? (actually cancel that...probably not such a good idea now I think about it)
• It's late at night?
• You sing quietly?
• There's nobody else around (or you think there isn't)

And what about dancing? Do the same rules apply? Can you push the envelope a little further? Or tapping your feet? Nodding your head?

there's a whole world out there and I really don't know the rules. Can anybody help me? Or am I going to be left to my own devices...could be embarrassing......

J.

Update from the fast-fading weekend

I had a lovely weekend, and would like to thank everyone who contributed...

Thanks Jess for the Gazpacho party
Thanks Jonathan for making it to the Gazpacho party
Thanks Marti for the lift home from the Gazpacho Party
Thanks Ronene for being my co-driver to the Blue Mountains BBQ on Sunday and for assisting with every one of my needs...drink bottle management, DJing, plugging in phones and more.
Thanks Danielle for being the Hostess-with-the-mostest. She managed to cover everything from my labelling needs (take that! Junk mailers!) to improptu surgery with a pair of Ikea pliers (don't even ask).
Thanks Bec for finally telling everyone your exciting news so I don't have to worry about slipping up and letting the cat out of the bag anymore.
Thanks to everyone who was great company at both parties and especially to the Scattergories competitors.

Hope everyone else had as good a weekend as I did!

J. :-)

Jacki's Jabberings Gets Another Facelift

As I'm clearly someone who can never leave well enough alone, you'll notice that there have been a few new bells and whistles added to the left hand side-bar of the blog.

I thought they looked like kind of fun things to have on there, a bit of added entertainment. I am a little concerned, though, that I shouldn't have added every bell and whistle I could figure out how to add. What do we think? Is is too busy now or am I just turning paranoid?

So, loyal readers, it's over to you to let me know what you think. Due to the overwhelming law of inertia (read: laziness) if nobody responds, the changes stay, so if you don't like them you'd better get typing. All suggestions will be dutifully considered, and all decisions are made by me and considered final.

J.

Update to the Breakfast Dilemma

Back at the start of September I had a bit of a whinge about my breakfast situation. After moving offices I've never been able to find a suitable place to have breakfast and had pretty much resigned myself to inferior alternatives.

this morning I'm in a great mood, because the breakfast dilemma has been solved. A huge thank-you to Sophie who directed me to a whole new shopping area I didn't know existed in search of somewhere to replace my flat watch battery. In the course of going there I discovered a fantastic new breakfast place that does exactly what I like, even better than I used to get at my old place (they put parsley in the scrambled eggs and all!) for the same price!!!

Yay! That's totally made my day!

Mmm...scrambled egg and mushroom rolls are the best!!!!!!

The Weather Girl

It’s a bit of an accepted fact. I remember when I was at school teachers telling me that windy days make kids a bit crazy. Full moons are worse, but a rainy day always means the blues. Sunshine makes us happy and people are affected by SAD – Seasonally affected disorder. There are summer people and winter people, hotties and ice-queens (or kings), just like (seemingly arbitrarily) there are dog people and cat people.

So the weather has a big affect on us. Weather that suits us has a positive affect on us, and weather we hate does the opposite. I suppose there are universal exceptions; I can’t imagine anyone really enjoying getting stuck in the pouring, freezing rain whilst our walking a long way from home, and I doubt that Bourke and Wills enjoyed the fine weather they experienced.

But I guess the old cliché “mind over matter” holds true, whether it’s a conscious decision or not.

Today was one of those days which consists of the best that Spring in Sydney can throw at you. I’ve gone from stinking hot and sweating, to freezing and fighting the wind and sleet in one long day[1].

I met up with a couple of friends after work for a quick drink, so headed home an hour or so (maybe 2, if I’m going to be honest here) later than I usually would. I hopped off the train and headed down the short stroll to home. I couldn’t read my book, and the flimsy cardigan I grabbed this morning (just in case) seemed as useless as a chocolate teapot[2].

I made it down the road and through the gate into the yard…feeling a bit sorry for myself and grumbling internally about the unpredictable weather and getting stuck out in the cold at this time of year. Then all of a sudden, something clicked. I looked around me, and somehow my perspective changed. I saw the trees and the bushes flying around, and the spring jasmine revoking its right to lazily exude its heady scent in favour of a wider-ranging more adventurous dispersion.

Somehow, without warning, the wild weather made me feel alive. A grin spread across my face and I unfurled my foetal pose to embrace the storm. I looked around a few minutes in wonder at the passion and the fury and beauty of it all. And then I headed inside to the comfort of my warm home, encouraged by the contrast between cosy shelter and the formidable fury of Mother Nature outside.

[1] And I’ve just had the weird weather reports of snow and hail around the country pop up on the late news, so I guess, relatively speaking, on the weired-o-metre things really weren’t that bad here
[2] OK, so it’s one of my favourite sayings at the moment, but I have to admit that I stole it from some show on the ABC a while back

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the Plain

Rain is rain. End of story, right? And Hail is something different, snow and sleet are other categories again. Or so you might think. Apparently the Eskimo have dozens of words for “snow”. And I heard a story once of some guy who did an experiment and isolated himself in a cave for some ridiculously long amount of time and ended up being able to recognize various different types of water drops solely from the sound of them falling.

Today it rained in the city. It’s always a spectacle to watch a storm roll in from the upper floors of a tall building with lots of windows, but today’s rain was something else altogether.

The wind was coming in and gusting in a dozen different directions, and the cold change was right on the verge of freezing the raindrops. Flakes of almost-snow almost-rain almost-hail were swirling and dancing, up and down and across and over and under and around.

It was beautiful. Enough even to have the jaded office workers lined up pushing their noses up against the glass in awe.

Training dynamics

If you’ve been reading along recently you’d know I was on training for a couple of days last week. And if you’ve been reading along a bit longer you’d know that I quite enjoy coming up with my own little Jacki-philosophy version of categorising the world around me.

Over the course of my working life I’ve attended quite a few training courses and for some reason the group dynamics of that sort of environment always seem to bring out some stock-standard personality types. Last week was no exception, so I thought I’d share my observations with you…

1. The instructor: Essential part of any training. Usually starts with such gems as “This is interactive training. Please feel free to ask questions at any time and please speak up with the answers to any questions I ask of the class” Closely followed by deafening silence after every questions.

2. The Know-it-all: For some reason this class member is sitting through a class, the syllabus of which they are already completely and intimately acquainted. They sit looking bored, answering questions and rolling their eyes when everyone else in the class is completely and hopelessly lost.

3. 2-step Charlie: The one person at the back of the class that’s perpetually 2 steps behind the rest of the class. Pipes up with answers to questions that the rest of the class completed 10 minutes ago.
4. The Spanish Inquisitor: The incessant questioner. Can’t leave any detail unanswered and clearly will not be satisfied unless they leave the class with every aspect of the application of the course content is clear in relation to their particular job. Whether anyone else in the class is interested or not.

5. The literal thinker: this classic class member doesn’t seem to be aware that the examples used in class are there for the purpose of illustrating a concept. They’re not true. For the sake of showing relevance, I’m sure the course-writers try to base them on believable scenarios, but they’re never supposed to taken as seriously as the literal thinker considers them. Can hijack the course work by holding up the class picking holes in the examples rather than actually learning what they were supposed to teach in the first place.

6. The wall-flower: Sits quietly up the back. Seems startled and incoherent when addressed. Could potentially be the next Einstein on the topic, but who would ever know?
So how did I do? Recognise anyone? Recognise yourself? Recognise me?

Who do you think I was last week? And am I always that person? Hmm…I think that’s another post altogether….

Where's Wally?

Actually no idea. But if you're wondering where Jacki is, she's in training for a couple of days. Luckily, however, she has internet access there and will still drop a post or two in if she can manage it. She's also collecting material for an exciting new post.

Jacki (aka the database demon)

Horsing Around

Last week was the Melbourne Cup, those few minutes each when Australia stops whatever it's doing and watches a horse race on the telly.

This year work made a bit of a big deal of it...champagne breakfast and then lunch at one of my favourite restaurants. So in the spirit of the day I decided to take the plunge with my first ever flutter.

I picked 2 horses and put a couple of bucks on each for a place. Luck was with me and one of them came in second for me. Woohoo...I felt like a winner.

So, of course, being such a numbers person, I had the whole thing figured out. With the odds on the horses I chose, I absolutely planned on the win on one horse winning me the same amount as I...um..bet on the other horse...and...umm..lost.

Yep, that was the plan alright. Break even. Maybe I should go quitting my day job just yet, huh?

Superheroes galore

I made it to the Walk against Warming on Saturday, despite the rain, and it was fantastic. Great to see so many people standing up to be counted and showing they care. I've never seen so many people crammed into Martin Place!!

Good work fellow superheroes!

Luke…."<"inhale…exhale">"….I am Your Father…

You may have noticed that on Planet Jacki there are superheroes. Mostly this consists of people I admire and readers who listen to (and act upon) my rants about saving the world (like the Walk Against Warming this weekend).

As Einstein’s taught us, however, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And for every superhero in the world, there is an anti-hero; a villain, or nemesis if you will. Equally, on Planet Jacki, there are people out there from the dark side.

For your reading pleasure, I have outlined the sorts of people who fall into this category below:

The morning person: People who try to talk to me on the train in the morning
The premature embarkation: People who try to get onto the train, before exiting commuters have finished getting off.

The tosser: People who litter. Especially with cigarette butts (somehow they’re exempt?).
The glass nazi: Over-efficient bus-boys. Would you believe the other night we had to rescue our empty glasses 4 times before Sandy returned from the bar with a fresh bottle?

The Chatterbox: People who talk through the movie while I’m at the cinema.

The time-bomb: People who are really late when I’m waiting for them.

The perilous pedestrian: When are we going to introduce tickets for dangerous walking? People who stop suddenly, right in the middle of the walk-way, groups who walk slowly and in random directions several people wide thereby stopping anyone from getting by.

The fickle pricing policy: When you go to the same place all the time and buy the same thing, yet the price mysteriously changes every time. I’d rather be overcharged right from the start! OK, so it’s not exactly a person, but I blame every single person who works in places like that.

The know-it-all cab driver: Yep, I know it’s their job to drive around and know where they’re going. But at the end of the day, I’m heading to my house and I go there all the time. I'd like to think I know the best way to go at any given time or circumstances. In particular, I may want to go a slightly longer way because I know what traffic is like a particular time of day. If I’ve specified a particular way to go, I’d like to go that way without the snide comments. I am the one paying, after all. If I take them a longer way, surely that just means a bigger fare?

Anyone else have any anti-heros in their life?

Communication Generation

Yay! I have my phone back, and working like new! It’s amazing how you can get so used to things.

Believe it or not, I used to be one of those hold-outs to the onset of the new technology. I had a home phone and answering machine that I could dial up and check my messages on from a public phone if it was really necessary ….

And then I gave in. ostensibly it was originally just going to be for when I was traveling interstate, and maybe for emergencies. Initially it was. Then I started using it a bit more. After all, it was there, and handy, and it was useful for a few things. Then there were text messages, and then using the gadget a bit more. Then I swapped my dad for his swanky silver cover and had my first experience of the phone as something trendy. My first upgrade was to a kind of strange sideways phone with a full keypad. Great for texts, but impossible to use one handed, and also impossible to tell one end from the other, so guaranteed you’d always put it up to your ear the wrong way up. After that one disappeared (mysteriously…), I renewed my contract and was delivered a shiny new top-of-the-line phone. One of the first ones to come out with a camera in it. I thought I was in mobile phone nirvana. Photo diary evolved out of the funky purple phone, and by this stage I was well and truly hooked. When that one was pinched I even took the grand step of changing brands to my stylish and versatile Samsung slide phone. I may whinge about difficulties charging it occasionally, but the last couple of weeks while it’s been on the fritz have certainly made me realize how much I’ve integrated it into my life. I don’t even have a home phone anymore, let alone an answering machine.

I was organizing for Ronene to pick me up to go to dance class. Our custom for occasions such as this is for Ronene to ring as she’s leaving the house, and she’s at my place by the time I get downstairs and out the front of my building. It took us 3 goes at coming up with an alternative plan (making a time, and having to be there btw).

And let’s not even discuss the impact this had on plans with the boy…who for all his good points can have a bit of an issue with punctuality at time…

So, phone’s back. I feel like I’m myself again. Yay!

J.

Dancing Queen

I started Bollywood Dancing classes last night. I love dance classes as a great way to get some regular exercise, blow off a bit of steam, and have a lot of fun doing it. Just for the record it’s certainly not because of my natural talent and coordination (as any friend upon whose carpet I’ve spilt red wine will tell you). I’ve done several Salsa classes, Hip Hop Dancing, Belly Dancing and the enigmatically-named Solo International Dance Excitement. To continue with the hobby, I was talked into Bollywood dancing this semester.

Now just to get this straight, I’m not a Bollywood fan. Not to say that I’m not a Bollywood fan, it’s just that I can’t remember ever actually having seen anything even remotely Bollywood related. Unless “Bend it Like Beckham” counts. I just went along for the reasons outlined above, along with my fellow dancing queens Ronene and Bernie.

Well, let me tell you…Bollywood Dancing is shaping up to be the most fun of the lot. I really think in these cases that the instructor can make or break the class. Salsa was instructed by a hot-blooded latin lady who was an absolute hoot (and occasionally her very attractive assistant…mmmm). Hip hop was the young funky slip of a thing who turned up early to practice all the moves and took things quite seriously.

With this new class, the instructor is an absolute hoot. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard and so long. You’ve got to love a class that starts with jumping in the deep end – no instructions! We did get to a bit more structure later in the class. There were more classical moves…like “picking apples” and “pointy fingers”.

Bring it on, I say…and namastase!