Chicken Pox update:......Day 16, no spots, should now be clear. That said, young Kristy here in the office had a headache yesterday & a sore throat this morning. If she gets them, I have another couple of weeks to wait before I'm clear again!
I just downloaded the relatively new "blogBuddy", & I'm typing in it right now. Everything seems pretty flash so far with it. Cool program.
I have done the unthinkable & changed a blog from yesterday. It took probably half an hour to type & review but I never published it. After looking at it the morning, the majority of it was scrapped, to remain in my head only. The circumstances surrounding information received on the evening of Friday 26 still have me tripping. The odds of someone giving me this kind of info out of the blue is by my calculations, a few thousand to one. I'd love to write more and fill in the details, but when you don't understand aspects of it yourself it's a bit hard to put into words.
However, some things can be put into words, for example, how pissed off I am right at this moment. Patience is a virtue, but it's one that's running well past empty. No names are mentioned here unless it's wholey innocent & they'd get a kick out of being posted here. Where people annoy for the mere sake of ticking someone off, their names won't be mentioned. Thankfully, there is a good result awaiting, it's just a matter of time. If you have the talent (albeit an only talent by the looks of things) of causing grief and constantly complaining about menial circumstance, the realm will eventually extend to include the majority of those around. Eventually it all catches up when the final straw is broken in front of the wrong person. Luckily, due my high level of tolerance & complete lack of care, that person will not be me. I know a few that are already waiting in line.
It's been while since I blogged & a lot has gone on in that time. Well, not not a lot in terms of work etc, but I've been in "think" mode since Friday night. This mode is going to continue for a while but I'm not prepared to detail it here.... yet.
The rest of the weekend was okay. The CART series fired up the Gold Coast after being washed out on the Friday. Saturday was blinding sunlight & the qualifying matched it, except for a few expensive mishaps from the group 2 session. Sunday again turned it on with Christiano da Matta taking home the gong & Gil de Ferran wrapping up back to back series with the Fontana race to go. Poor Casey Mears tasted rubber on the first chicane to end his race & Paul Tracy coming home in comfortably in fourth cycled the last corner & lunched his engine, belching white smoke across the line to eventually roll over the line in fourteenth!
Friday at last! It's been a long week for some reason. A couple of late nights didn't help.
I'm sorry to report that the world's bird population has decreased by a couple purely through my doing. Twice on the way to work (Tuesday & Wednesday), I've managed to assassinate a pigeon and some other long necked bird. They just flew into my path with no regard for their own existence. This was complemented by yet another bird flying head-first into our lounge room window (black bird this time), leaving a bit of blood from it's beak. After about ten minutes sitting in shock, away it flew good as new (well, maybe a bit sore). Why is it that birds fly into windows? I've heard the glare freaks them out, which is fair enough but only if the sun is shining in the right direction. As for the reflection making it look like the continuation of an open expanse, you need to wonder why they would continue to headbutt the their identical twin flying from the opposite direction.
Spoke to a good friend on the way home last night. I used to work next to young Niki when we were both as a chartered accounting firm. She has finally quit after 4+ years slaving away & now works for a smaller company, less income & loves life again. It's really hard to work for someone where the expectations are beyond any other industry, overtime is considered mandatory so their firm gets value for money from employees and you watch as colleagues sink deeper into depression being continuously told it's good for career advancement. In the 18 months I worked for this particular firm, 16 people resigned. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out only 34 staff were employed! I know of at least another 7 since I left. They even had a hat trick over three days. That's all in the past now thankfully & as a credit to the firm, the people I worked with there all keep in touch, though if we had met under other circumstances, the result would be the same.
Again, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Australia gets their slice of the CART series (indycar, champcar or whatever way you refer to them) around Surfers Paradise, which is always a good show. They have a laid back party atmosphere like Adelaide once had with the Formula one circus. Good luck to Paul Tracy & to newcomer Casey Mears.
I was going to write here yesterday, then forgot. This may therefore be longer than normal.
Very mixed weekend just gone. Saturday saw day 3 of the Classic Adelaide Rally through the Adelaide hills. Sat & watched from Measdays Lookout, which organisers thought would be packed, but they closed the surrounding roads an hour or so early which meant I was one of four (that includes an event safety officer), that turned up to watch. Nicely turned out cars from before 1975. It's good to see cars which are now collectibles being used in the way they were intended rather than perishing in a museum.
Picked up the "3D EP" from Betchadupa. Five track EP from a band containing Liam Finn. Liam would be known by most Neil Finn fans because; one, he is Neil's son & two, Liam was heavily involved in Neil's first solo tour for the "Try Whistling This" album. From the sound of the EP, Liam certainly does have his father's talent albeit a fair bit heavier in a grungy kind of way.
The second half of the weekend included the long overdue paving of a part of the backyard, behind a shed which will be used as a patio/barbecue area. Started off by collecting the pavers which was soon overshadowed by the unexpected impact of motor vehicle versus a half wine barrel pot plant. The plant was always going to win. Needless to say, dad who was driving at the time, was somewhat peeved. Temper is an ugly thing. Temper which results from damaging something always tends to result in something else getting damaged, mainly one's ego.
Today at the club we have the Ladies annual meeting. Thank god it only happens once per year. Basically the run down is; they play golf in the morning, have open sandwiches (an open sandwich is defined as two slices of bread which are then piled high with toppings. Therefore they get more value for money! Tight-arse I say!) for lunch, meeting in the early afternoon, then hardcore drinking till stumps. Won't be a pretty event & certainly won't be quiet.
Got a call at work on Tuesday from a guy that is usually sitting about three metres away in the office here. He went home on the Monday after seeing the Doc, but went back on Tuesday to find he's got Chicken Pox for the 2nd time. Everyone here has had them before, but that's no guarantee that they're not going to come out in spots. Apparently there are a few new strains doing the rounds. When I say that everyone here has had chicken pox before, I unfortunately exclude myself. I had myself jabbed with vaccine on Tuesday evening, but the Doc's don't know if it helps after a potential exposure. The waiting game begins...
Aussie troops had the call-up yesterday. Bush called Howard & 1,550 of Australia's military personnel will be flying out to Afghanistan as soon as possible. It's been said that they could be on the ground & in combat in just a few days. All the best to those going in & hoping for a safe return.
Mentioned the other day about the numerous anthrax scares & hoaxes throughout Aus over the past week. Taking it to a new level was a stupid woman in Queensland who delayed a flight after alerting staff of a white powder which was sprinkled on top of some pastry to be served on the trip. Thankfully, a man aged 46 was arrested and charged with one anthrax hoax where he sent letters filled with something like talcum. I'm not sure which of these two dimwits they should shoot first!
I'm still battlin' with the Blogger! Using templates are a great idea, but the hassle of getting them to work correctly each time is a pain in the butt. This can be evidenced by the crappy sizes that can be seen in earlier posts. Dragging this code into Dreamweaver shows how much of a mess it actually is. Might try a big update soon & start from scratch.
Looks like these terrorists have been successful. So much for standing up to them & not looking scared. I think there were 18 separate cases of anthrax scares yesterday! Nothing has been found at all in Aus, but tension is high nonetheless with every letter with a US postmark being treated suspiciously.
You have to wonder about what this anthrax business is hoping to achieve. If it's terrorists, why are they going after reporters and well known anchors? They've also targeted big business like Microsoft and now a senator. Word has just come through that strange letters have been received by 80 clinics of the National Abortion Federation. This is such a contrast from the September 11 acts. Sounds more like those nutty S11 supporters that hold such peaceful protests against globalisation, you know, the ones where everyone gets hurt!
This is a bit of a quiet week here at the club (so far). Even the ladies (Tuesday is ladies day) are quiet at this stage. They might get a bit feral later once they've hit the turps, but we'll savor the peace for the moment!
Okay, still battling this Blogger thing. I've had it running in the background for the last few days, but it seems to be operating alright (fingers crossed) so it's now live if you can see this.
Having a bit of a downer today, being narky to a few people, especially those on the phone that correct everything you say & won't accept pure logic. It'll get better as we go, nearly the weekend.
I've just been told there are 11 weeks till Christmas. That's pretty scary, just got over the last one. Decorations are going up in a few department stores which will give my sister some shopping pleasure. If it's pink, she'll own it, that's the rule.
Now Florida has a third suspected case of Anthrax. The time it takes for incubation is the most worrying part but hopefully these are isolated cases. I hate dwelling on this sort of stuff, but ignoring the numerous sources carrying this info is rather hard.
I decided to try a journal manager called Blogger. It looks pretty professional so it can't hurt. Adding entries in normal HTML is a bit of a hassle & since I'm a bit of a newbie, every now and again all the coding gets muddled.
Congratulations to Mark Scaife & Tony Longhurst for a good, hard fought win in yesterdays Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama. No luck for Jason Bright or Craig Lowndes who both ended up getting caught out by some very dodgy weather.
On the darker side of things, word came through this morning of the attacks on Afghanistan. It's sad to think that so many civilians will get caught in the cross-fire & then coldly called "casualties of war". Not too many other choices though, something had to be done.
