Today's the Day

Gulp.

4.30 this afternoon the whole shave is happening. My hairdresser has had to cancel on me so I was asking around this morning who I might get to substitute.

Steve sits a few seats down. His reply: "I can shear a sheep, I'd give it a go."

If you're going for the last minute donation, I'm over $1800 now and it would be nice to make a round 2 thousand....

Click here to sponsor me.

Another one of those moments

Another friend's comment just now....

"I didn't get to Maria Island when I was in Tassie. Isn't that where they make King Island Cheese?"

My response:

"No. That would be King Island"

A few things...

1. Yup, we're back.
2. Yup, I'm back at work and drowning under a sea of emails and work
3. Yup, I'll get on here and write something decent very soon
4. Thanks to everyone in Tassie who made the holiday amazing
5. Tomorrow is D-Day for the World's Greatest Shave. If you haven't donated yet, what are you waiting for?

Howdy from the Apple Isle

A quick hello from the happy traveller. Been totally off the grid for the duration of the tavels so far, but popped in to see friends Nic & Mick and Mick was using the internet.

Jacki: Oooh...the internet
Mick: Yep. Would you like a go? Do you know how to use it?

So here I am. Its a public holiday in Tassie so everyone's having a bit of a chilled out day. We were scheduled for a trip to Cradle Mountain, but have been on and off the road for several days in a row and have decided to add that to the rapidly growing "Next Trip" list.

Anyway, we've been having an absolute ball and catching up with lots and lot of people. The person formerly known as the boy (he apparently doesn't like that, but I just asked what he wanted to be called and he couldn't come up with anything better than "the shag") has done very well, but I think is a bit bamboozled with all the new names and faces.

The list of stuff we've done so far....

• Arrived, checked out Anne & Rossco's new pad in Evandale
• Lunch with Rossco and Anne
• Tour of the Cataract Gorge including the chairlift
• Pizza night with Nick & Mick
• Lunch with the Pom
• Dinner at the train with Julie & Richard and Nic & Mick
• A trip to Hobart
• Dinner with Derek & Jo
• Salamanca Markets
• Stopping at numerous midlands towns
• A visit to Maddy & Jon at Ross and dinner at the Ross pub
• A night out on the town in Launceston
• A trip to Seahorse World with Louise and Bruce and a lovely lunch
• A roast with Rossco and Anne
• And lots of other stuff in between

So we've been busy bees and having lots of fun. Back on Wednesday. Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves until then.

The archives are over there ---------------------------->

Almost there....

One thing left on the "to do" list!

The Truth About Cats & Dogs

So, in case you haven't worked it out yet, I'm going on holidays tomorrow. 8 days in Tassie with my partner who's never been.

I'm a bit of a planner and an organiser when it comes to these things. My Partner is not.

So here's how the preparation has gone...

Me:

• Track down cheap flights and suitable dates, months in advance. Book and advise everyone we need to catch up with of dates well in advance so they'll be free.
• List clothes and other necessities and plan all laundry to be complete 3 days before. Only wear clothes that aren't coming on the trip for the last 3 days
• Run down stock of food in the fridge so as to not come back to anything gross and mouldy
• Call all people we need to see in advance. Organise accommodation for each night and a car to drive around in.
• Create a colour-coded spreadsheet for our itinerary. Specifically build in flexible arrangements and alternatives so as not to be too regimented
• Pack 2 nights in advance. List of everyday items that need to be put in at the last minute compiled.
• Cancel the newspaper subscription.
• Web check in the day before, with careful selection of seats to allow for my small bladder and my Partner's long legs.
• Book taxi to get to the airport a day prior to ensure they're free and on time.
• Stock up on snacks, books, magazines and puzzles for the flight, and ensure all gadgets are charged.
• The day of the flight - get up, put on pre-selected clothes, leave.

Him:

• Agree to proposed flights.
• Refuse to look at itinerary and insist that not everything be planned - even if it means sleeping in a homeless shelter.
• Start packing the night before.
• The day of the flight - get up, run around looking for lost socks, shove everything within reach into the bag at the last minute because the taxi's arriving, leave.

Ahhh...fun and games!

Did I mention....

I'm going on holidays tomorrow?

One sleep to go

Until I'm on holidays!

Guest Writer - Lesson 1

My friend Bec, who you may remember from various posts about her wedding last year, the baby shower I'm currently planning, and other exciting adventures, is having a baby. Last night she had her first class...and at lunch yesterday we were speculating abut exactly what might be involved. This morning she reported back for the amusement of me and my readers....


Ok you wanted details, here are the details....

I arrive early due to being anxious about the whole thing. I don't want to pant in a group, practice positions for the 'big show' or have to kneel on all fours in front of anyone. I have been thinking about this as a milestone 'must get to the Birth and Beyond session and then we will be ok'. Its down hill from here and I am now worried. I work myself into a sweat waiting for Luke to arrive. He arrives late, looking dishevelled after being caught in the rain. Not a good start.

We walk in and the teacher greets us and gives us paper work to complete, one for Mum and one for Dad. As I go through the paperwork some of the questions are 'What tests have you been for?' to 'Drs Name'. Now for some people this might not be to difficult to answer but for me with the dreaded 'Baby Brain' I had great difficulties answering these questions. So I put the broad answer of 'Scans' and 'Kent St Medical Centre' just to fill the gaps. The teacher came and took our paperwork and actually marked it off. I saw ticks flying everywhere much to my delight 'we passed!' even ran through my mind....

We start to browse through the brochures and workbooks. I come across some painful looking diagrams and feel myself getting flushed as my heart rate rises. I show Luke the diagrams and then look at him and start to giggle like a 12 year old in the PE van at school. I then mutter under my breath 'I don't think I can do this....'

The teacher then moves us into the other room, I charge off. Firstly wanting to get out of the claustrophobic room and secondly wanting first pick of the seating arrangements. I find that there are mats, bean bags, pillows, towels and chairs arranged in a circle. I pick the off centre position and plonk myself down on the bean bag and Luke parks himself in the chair and we wait for the games to begin.

I eye off the other bellies and feel strangely comfortable in this group. They all look different but there is something strangely comforting being in a room with people that are going through the same life changing event. We do the ice breaker and I successfully remembered peoples names. There are some people - a young couple, that live right near us which is nice to know. We finish the ice breaker and then start the learning phase of the class.

We are confronted with a life scale female pelvis and shown how it moves about. Now really, do we NEED to see it changing shape? Then we see how the baby (yes again to scale) passes through the pelvis and also how it can get stuck if it comes out the wrong way. The room is rather quiet during this show and I look around at the fearful faces, the brave faces and the red faces. Its good to see that there are all sorts of reactions, means I am 'normal' in this group.

We then stop for a break which gives us a chance to mingle with the other expecting parents. It seems that we share the same fears, thoughts and questions which is good. I think that we will be able to find some support in the group.

After the break we go back to our places to find a sheet of paper for Mum and a sheet of paper for Dad. We have to complete it without discussing our answers or questions. They are questions about the birth, pain relief and roll of support person. I go through and answer the questions. I then sneak a look at Lukes page and see that its similar questions but designed for him. To my delight he answers the same way as I do. I don't know why but I feel like I have passed an exam. We had never really talked about the 'birth' bit and how we would cope and knowing that he is thinking along the same lines makes things allot more easier to deal with. Feels like safety in numbers.

Over all, the class was good and informative. I think that it really helped Luke to understand the whole roll he will play in the process. It helped me to know that we are not alone and are not in isolation going through this. We have 6 more weeks of learnings and I am sure they will get even more confronting then last night but hopefully it will help for the grand finale - Meeting Mr Baby Bean.

Bec

Bob's your Uncle

Well, Bob's my uncle at least.

And he was in Sydney this weekend and he was very sweet and took me out for dinner last night (just for the record, I didn't cook because I'm going on holidays and have been runnign down the food in the house).

Thanks Uncle Bob!

Faster than a Speeding bullet

Recieved a call from my friend Nic in Tassie today. I was in the middle of a conversation so asked if I could call her back.

I tried serveral times over the next couple of hours, but all I could seem to get was a busy tone. Given that I didn't really think she was quite that popular, I emailed her. Here's an abridged version of the exchange...

(email)
J : Trying to call you but can't get through as your phone's engaged.
(phone)
N : What number are you trying to get me on?
J : xxxxx
N : you've got 2 of the digits around the wrong way. How have you managed to get that wrong all morning??
J : I've obviously got it wrong on your speed dial.
N : I have a speed dial? Nice to know I've made it to the speed dial list.
J : We have these new VOIP phones. You get 100 of them.
N : I don't feel quite so special anymore.
J : Well you're pretty high up the list.
N : How high?
J : Number 19.
N : 19? That's not very special!
J : But I obviously have to put the everyday work numbers on first. They take up 1-7.
N : So I'm, like, 12th then?
J : ...Plus most people have more than one number on there. You're actually both 19th and 20th...

The rest of the conversation takes place.... A few minutes elapse.

(email)
N : RING ME! I need to talk to you again and now you're on voicemail.
(phone)
J : Sorry, I just logged out of my phone to get your speed dial to update....

If you can hear it, you're already in danger...

I had a very enlightening day yesterday.

Actually it was a very lightning day.

I watched a documentary on lightning that I'd taped from earlier in the week yesterday morning.

Then last night we got this.

I'm a bit of a fan of a good lightning storm, and this was one of the best I've seen. I was also very lucky to have a sensational panoramic view of some of the best bits of the storm. I spent yesterday evening sitting out on my balcony oohh-ing and aahh-ing at every big flash and boom.

I wasn't, however, prepared to go as far as some storm fans, who could be seen climbing to the bare top of the hill in the park across the road from my balcony. Especially after having just watched a documentary replete with lightning-strike victims....

Fundraising Update

Woo Hoo!!

A huge day fundraising!!

I've not only made my target of $1500, but have raised almost $200 above and beyond!!

Thanks to everyone who has been so generous!

Another Countdown

I'm going on holidays next Wednesday.

That's 5 more sleeps.

Or two and a half work days.

Yay! Trip to Tassie with the boy. Gonna go do all the tourist things that you never do when you live somewhere (ever notice that?)

Bet my laptop arrives while I'm away. Go on, I'll bet you anything. guess there might be a bit of a hiatus for Jacki's Jabberings...still hate that name. Might go do something about it right away. Let me know what you think...

But I'll only be gone for 8 days.

So that makes it...12 sleeps until my holiday is over.

that is a far more depressing countdown.

Technology breaks the speed of light barrier...

So my new laptop is apparently obsolete before I've even received it.

Them: "Bzzzt!! Try again!"

Me: Grumble, grumble. Grumble grumble.

Them: "Ok, we'll give you a better one for the same price"

Me: "OK. Less grumbles. Not a bad solution"

Them: "You have to fill the form in all over again"

Me: "Grumble grumble"

Them: "And you're back to the start of the queue for delivery"

Me: "GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!"

Why is nothing ever easy?

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.