At long last Mark Knopfler is going to tour Australia early next year!
I never made it to a Dire Straits show & the last visit was in 1992, so we've missed out on the tours for three solo albums. I suspect the shows will be limited to the Eastern states, so a trip to Sydney will be an added diversion.
The tour comes after the issue of Mark's forth solo album "Shangri-la" released on Monday. I've hunted it down, held it in my hands, but I still haven't bought it. My reasoning is due to the various forms the album has been released in. The limited edition is the copy I'm hunting but it is beginning to look like it won't be released here as in other countries. There is an official blurb stating that "all formats will be released in all territories, however it is up to the territories on which versions they place on their shelves."
My other problem is I just know there will be a fancy tour edition released early in the new year. I already have multiple copies of certain cd's due to similar circumstances. I think my only option is to buy the edition I want from overseas at great expense!
I'm just pumped that Mark is finally coming back to Australia. The Dire Straits tour in 1986 was one of the biggest tours ever with over 200 shows & 20 on consecutive nights at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. In 1992, the "On Every Street" tour didn't fair so well, which is probably why MK hasn't returned. The last Album tour was cancelled all together after Mark was hit by a car whilst riding his motorcycle in London, which in my books, a pretty good reason he never turned up here!
Since I was in the vicinity for both Monday & Tuesday, I thought it was only appropriate to continue with the demise of Magic Mountain at Glenelg. The camera phone photos are crap, but with the overcast skies, they were always going to be!
Of course the demolition site is all fenced off, but this little road led right up to the big fun park, It's been a long time since that anyone saw that pine tree in the distance from where I was standing.
This is the view from Sol Bar at the Pier Hotel. The demolition had to be done with the objective of saving all the pine trees which were surrounding Magic Mountain. There was also a surf life saving club which was between the hotel & the mountain. It was virtually destroyed within an hour with the area to be used for a new apartment block around the same height as the Pier.
The red & blue poles you can see were the pylons for the skycycles which was basically a pedal powered monorail inside & out of Magic Mountain. I have no idea why, but they are now the only items standing which are yet to disappear!
I've been quiet for a couple of days (Not having access to the internet will do that to you!) & because I just can't be bothered making shit up, I'm just going to thieve from Jenny (where I saw this first, then realised a whole heap of others had done it as well... so Jenny gets the credit!)
Here's the list with the my achievements, or lack thereof, being those in bold!
01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it 09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease 11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise 15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game 17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg (glacier, yes. iceberg, no)
20. Slept under the stars 21. Changed a baby's diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne 25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill 31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster 42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days 44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day 46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment 48. Had two hard drives for your computer 49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced 52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends 54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales 56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing 60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach 62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love 65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records 70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke 72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain 79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it 81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog 83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class 88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have 94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest 100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on 103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place 107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage 110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music 112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off
120. Been on a cruise ship 121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report 126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. ...more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking 137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived. 140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone's heart 146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone 150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat 168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi 171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about 174. Gotten someone fired for their actions 175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read,
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. ...and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch 185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions (not on purpose)
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196: Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested
So there you have it... I am a boring old fart & not even 30!
Well, those nerds down in the Microsoft labs did a good job didn’t they with those Windows XP updates in SP2!?!
That is sarcasm (as if it wasn't obvious!), because since I installed the updates, I’m getting hacked like crazy & the worst part is, they are getting through!!
I’m using Sygate Personal Firewall which has the odd crash, but I normally re-open it & it’s fine. However, I would have thought the new SP2 firewall would have done the job in the interim & kept the nasties out! Instead, my attention was rased when the virus checker started popping up & scanning outgoing emails….. which I wasn’t sending!!
I spent a fair bit of last night, updating, scanning & solving various virus issues which might still be sitting on my hard drive. I keep getting a remote server trying to access a particular file, which I have since found to be a key-logging virus! I’m watching its transmissions very carefully.
Considering this is the latest & greatest of updates, I am rather nervous that it’s letting so much stuff through without question.
In other news, I went down to Glenelg to watch the big Footy Grand Finale. It was a comfortable win by Port, who is responsible for destroying my ability to hear without an irritating, ringing sensation. I was surprised at the number of Lions fans which decided to venture into enemy territory & let everyone know about it!
I left for home soon after the Game’s end, avoiding the build-up of intoxicated Port fans who decided to block Jetty Road & jump on cars as they went through. I imagine it’s quite an ugly scene by this time of night!
I’m not a huge follower of Aussie Rules football. I tried many years ago to learn a few players' names, a few of the rules & get fired up for the local team, but it was all in vain. Football just doesn’t really “float my boat”.
However, I’m already making plans to watch the Grand Final between Brizzy & Port tomorrow & support the local side. It’s all about the atmosphere of a big game, with hundreds of supporters glued to a giant screen, all of which will be silent on Sunday after straining vocal chords. I’m trying to find a pub which will have a good, non-bogan crowd, which I can get away from with relative ease, without getting caught in any parades or riots.
Of the two local teams of the Crows & Port Power, I must admit to favouring Port, merely because they became the underdogs when they entered the National Competition. When the Crows won the Premiership in 1997 & then again in ’98, Adelaide was not worth living in. The first & last ten pages of the local rags were purely stories about the team. I remember the days when the Crows lost a couple of games in a row, the coach had to come out & apologise to the public! It was all rather pathetic.
When Port came along, there was an internal rivalry, which gave those of us who hated the Crows, a team to get behind. The following has always been smaller & if they win the Final on Saturday, a few of those “other” supporters may just swap sides!
I would have loved to have snapped a photo of the two inflatable players in Victoria Square this morning, but I was a bit wary of sticking my arm out the window holding a mobile phone, trying to take the shot whilst driving behind a Police car. Probably wouldn’t have been wise!
Petrol has skyrocketed in anticipation of everyone driving over, not that there is any collusion from the oil companies (cough, cough!). Flights from Melbourne will be cheap tonight & tomorrow morning & to the Victorian Capital on Sunday. Since there isn’t a Melbourne team playing at the MCG, they’d be crazy not to take advantage of flying cheap around the country.
All in all, whoever wins the AFL Grand Final will make no difference to my existence, knowing full well that as the football season comes to an end, summer is just around the corner & cricket will spend more than it’s fair share of air time on the TV.
I scored a nasty little migraine yesterday. A number of pills & a walk along the Torrens River helped a bit but when they do finally go, you’re left rather shagged!!
For years I’ve had headaches of varying degrees, caused mainly from my refusal to wear glasses, but I never thought I was getting the dreaded “migraine”. I know people who claim they get them & that they would rather be dead rather than suffer though it, but as I’m finding out, that’s what I’ve been getting all along.
The fact that my head will pound, my eyesight go blurry & have an insatiable need to hurl stomach contents, I’ve never thought they were migraines. My common cure is to just curl up & fall asleep & it doesn’t need to be for very long, usually five to fifteen minutes. Of course when you wake up , you feel pretty ordinary, because the headache takes so much out of you & you wake feeling incredibly tired, but with less head pain.
That works fine during a weekend or at night, but during the day, closing the door, turning off the light & sleeping on the office floor is deemed unacceptable behaviour! Therefore, drugs become the only option, but not necessarily the cure.
Of course, I could get rid of most future migraines by going & having my eyes sorted, but that would be too easy wouldn’t it!?!
I’ve been toying with the idea of upgrading to broadband, purchasing a domain name & basically, doing things properly.
I’m currently connected to an Adelaide ISP called SeNet. These guys have been around since for a long time & from what I know, one of the first major providers in Adelaide. Their services & rates were good until they were bought out a couple of years ago by OzEmail, who has sucked the life out of them. Just recently they introduced four hour time limits, (which destroyed a couple of my larger downloads) & they double charged my credit card for which I would have to apply in writing to get it back (I was told this after spending 40 minutes in the phone queue (the on-hold chick kept telling me how much they cared! (insert warm fuzzies here))). (I’m going hard on brackets today!).
Anyway, I’m now noticing that my web page is struggling & sometimes bringing up a “page not found” sign. I suspect this has led to my site being removed from the “Aussie Blogs” website. I did have a second instance there which was never linked properly, but I can’t work out what is going on.
Therefore, I’m in the market for a new provider, preferably broadband if I can get a good deal! While I’m at it though, I wouldn’t mind them throwing in the hosting of this site, so I can purchase a domain name, rather than using the current ugly URL. It will be the first time I’ve spent anything in relation to “one before unlucky” (I’m an accountant, what did you expect!!), but after three years, I can’t find any reason to shut it down or move on.
With all that said, I’d love to know what sort of deals fellow bloggers are on & is it better to have the site hosted by a someone other than the ISP & what traps I should look out for!
After numerous experiments under controlled conditions, I have discovered that the strawberry Wonka Nerds dissolve in spring water faster than the grape flavour!
Hmmm. Does this give an indication of how much this day is dragging?!
It's really frustrating to have one subject which is all consuming, which you really want to blog about & which if you did, you can write yourself off professionally!
There should be some law introduced allowing people to blog about work issues with complete immunity!!
What an awesome day for a bit of a road trip up to the Barossa Valley. I headed off about 9:30am, got caught in road works on North Terrace in the city (bad choice of route on my behalf!), then onto the freeway, which can I say was f#@%ing dangerous. I tend to sit just above the freeway speed limit of 110kph, of which a legal tolerance is allowed, but did someone turn it into an autobahn recently? I was getting passed like I was standing still from all directions, at ridiculous speeds & no police were spotted during the entire journey! Crazy stuff.
Through some amazing countryside & then into Tanunda, I arrived by around 11am.
The Barossa Music Centre is one of the states four Fender dealers & by far the best for service. They asked me to come by & have a bit of a noodle around on some 50th Anniversary models in their auditorium. I did & they are very nice guitars to play, but I didn't hand over the credit card. As much as they attempted to coerce me with resale values, collectability, trade-in figures for my current Strat, I wouldn't budge.
I don't particularly want a collector's piece. I want a guitar I can play, knowing that it will last 40 years without worrying about fading or fine scratches which will reduce it's value. Mine has virtually doubled in value over the last ten years anyway!
If I had copious amounts of coin, it would be a nice fetish instrument to have. The finish & workmanship is second to none & the embroidered case is a work of art in itself!
After an hour or so, I departed, driving through Tanunda, up to Nuriootpa & then back down to Gawler. Along the way I got a bit snap-happy & ventured off down some obscure side-roads to see if I could capture some of the countryside.
I love side-roads to “who-knows-where”. I’m addicted to turning off & just following a road to see where it’ll take me. Sometimes it’ll be crap, other times, it’s just perfect & you end up with some great photos. Of course, you pull out a proper camera for these!
Click on each to enlarge!
There are a few more shots in the gallery if anyone's interested. The peacefulness of being off the normal roads was a good contrast to the volumes of noise from the Marshall Stack earlier on!
I walked to work yesterday morning, well…. from half way down Pulteney Street to the hotel North Terrace anyway. It only took sixteen minutes & was actually quicker than driving through the centre of town!!
The reason for my early morning expedition was taking my little car in for a check-up. It’s been eleven months since its last service & it’s been through the wars since then, so I think it would have enjoyed a bit of TLC. I was having a few issues like stalling when putting in the clutch at higher speeds. Changing gear at 80kph & seeing all the lights on the dashboard come alive is not the greatest feeling. After the service, all is fine again!
I’ll have a quiet night tonight instead of getting out on the town as I have been doing. It’s a shame because it’ll be perfect weather for sitting outside with a beverage. Tomorrow however, I’m going to drive out to the Barossa & play a few very expensive guitars while they’re in stock. Even though the Barossa Music Store is well aware that I’m not intending to purchase anything, they keep calling me in regards to the 50th Anniversary Fender models. I just hope I don’t like any too much & consider spending the $3,500 asking price!
I’ll keep the camera handy on the journey just in case any photo opportunities arise. From Happy Valley, it’s a four hour round trip through some really stunning scenery. Travelling with someone to share it with is always fun, but getting out on little adventures by yourself can be even better!
I’m doing a bit of recording again, mostly acoustic, but using the internal microphone of the Boss BR-864 (Off-topic - Since I’ll most likely forget, I must remember to ask about a Studio Projects B1 microphone while I’m at the Barossa (I do hate leaving music stores empty handed!)). The quality is actually pretty good, so I’ll do a bit of mastering & then drop them to CD. I’m also toying with the idea of starting a band over the next few months. My first move will be to post some info/link in the sidebar giving my influences & what sort of “muso” I’m searching for, as well as the recordings. This is purely an experiment, with unforseen results, but since I’m not earning any money from what I love at the moment, I’ve really got nothing to lose!
In terms of paid work, everything is just chugging along. I’m being audited at the start of October from the 4th, which just happens to be a public holiday (grumble, grumble!!). The auditors fly in from Singapore to cause us grief, so hopefully I can get everything up to date by then! There was a prospect of a move employment to another hotel out in the South Pacific Islands of Vanuatu! There is a property just sitting & waiting but at the moment it doesn’t look like it will happen. I’ve got the passport on the way & my fingers crossed however!
Nothing has really been happening that I wanted to blog about until all the loonies climbed out of their trees & mental institutions to cause havoc to the unsuspecting public.
Yesterday, we had Batman on the Palace in London & some religious git climbing into the lions’ enclosure at the Melbourne Zoo.
What is going on!?! At what point do you actually think that risking your life is worth it for the cause & that your actions will change the world.
The simple fact is for these individuals is, we all look, think “what a nutter!” & move along. I’ve never seen one of these freaks & thought “Gee, he’s putting everything on the line to make a point so I’ll either support his efforts by giving a weirdo copious amounts of money or… I’ll put my own existence in jeopardy & get up there with him!”
Whilst some of them are doing their acts for really good causes, doing something stupid isn’t going to help. Batman had a valid point, that fathers do get a poor representation in the family courts, but pulling on the lycra, climbing up a landmark & then getting dragged off to the funny farm probably isn’t the smartest protest. Would you let this guy have custody of his kids in the future? No, I don’t think so!
Maybe it will take one of lunatics to get killed for others to come to their senses. God sure didn’t save the Zoo guy, but some clever animal handlers did. Four lions ripping into an evangelist may have been a worthwhile event for the world to see & may have just prevented those contemplating stupidity as a career!
On Sunday morning, within fifteen minutes of opening my eyes, I was placed in a position of choice which would have been seriously life changing. The decision I made at the time was probably the right one & my actions following those moments have reverted everything back to normal.
I’m not going to state exactly what was said by a particular individual, but it was over-rated, panicked & I doubt whether the person actually remembers in detail what went on. If they do remember & what was said was an authentic belief, then all I have done was delay something more inevitable.
I wonder though, if I’d taken the other option, what I would be doing at this very moment. It could literally have ended badly, with life ending consequences. I suspect that if I had been more reactive & bitter, that today may not have found me going to work, rather than fleeing indefinitely to who knows where, totally shattered.
Hearing a particular phrase, spoken by someone so influential, which is soul crushing, has been forgiven this time. A flippant comment aimed at clearing personal distress rather than in disregard for those in their presence can be accepted only once.
The second time around, if I ever hear those words passed again, will confirm their intention in the first instance & I will ensure to never be in their presence for the third time is crosses their mind.
I don’t often get flamed, so when I do, it’s worth showing off.
In reference to your August 26th and 24th comments....I have previously played representative levels of Basketball, Netball, waterpolo, touch football and rugby and I can say that your comments about Handball are not warranted.
I am now a part of the QLD Handball team and can only say, that it is an awesome sport to play. Not as much contsct as rugby of course but more than basketball. It has a great deal of pace and skill. It is the largest sport in Europe, 2nd only to soccer. It is also one of the oldest sports in the civilised worlds and is one of the fastest growing sports in Australia. (How can so many people play and love what you call a 'stupid' sport?) Until you have had a go, until you have played the sport, I suggest you keep your ignorant comments to yourself. Stupid!
Moe
Ouch! I didn’t realize I would hit such a nerve with a group of athletes whom I didn’t know existed in Australia! Am I ignorant, well… yes, most likely. Back in Atlanta & Sydney, I do remember Handball being mentioned, but gee, it didn’t get much coverage did it! Australia actually had a team for the Sydney Games, but only because the host nation is allowed to enter a team or competitors in all events.
If Handball is one of the fastest growing sports in Australia, I’m perplexed as to why the only sport which will not be contested by Australia is European Handball!
Let’s remember just how well we did in Australia’s last Olympic Handball campaign.
Mens - GROUP B
Sweden 44 Australia 23
Spain 39 Australia 23
Slovenia 33 Australia 20
Tunisia 34 Australia 24
France 28 Australia 16
Womens - GROUP B
Brazil 32 Australia 19
Norway 28 Australia 18
Denmark 38 Australia 12
Austria 39 Australia 10
Okay, that might explain it! From the above results, I'm pretty sure Australia didn't make the finals & is probably the reason not too many Channel 7 cameras were pointed in the Handball direction.
I have no doubt that Handball is an awesome sport to play, hell, I love badminton, (yet another sport with very little coverage) but if I went around heckling everyone that bagged it, I’d have a full time job commenting on other people’s blog! I also hope that all those Handballers have also taken action against Roy & HG during their broadcast of The Dream in Athens. They gave Handball a bit of a flogging & I recall a distinct lack of defence from its players all around the country.
In essence, my apologies go out to Moe & I place my stupidity back in the drawer.
I do hope Moe informs me as we head towards Beijing, on Australia’s involvement in European Handball. I promise to be there, watching on, trying desperately to determine what rules, if any, govern the passage of play!
Hmmm, the Winter Olympics are on their way. There’s a little sport of Curling I might have a few things to say about!
Don't let those sunny blue skies fool you, it was cold today!!
With nothing happening around the house (nothing good anyway. (take that as you will!)), I decided to take a bit of a drive around & ended up at Glenelg. A few people were also venturing & finding it hard to stand upright in the blustery conditions. The Pier Hotel is on the right in that second shot. I didn't go & chat to anyone, though I did get a wave from the car-park. I find it difficult to go back there, especially to socialise. A lot of the old staff have moved on, as they do in hospitality, so lurking around through the outlets trying to find those I do know disturbs me!
One of the newer apartment blocks is nearly finished. Liberty Towers (above) is a bit of a dog apartment block. The location was fantastic, until the Pier & other highrises were approved to go between it & the beach. Now there won't be much of a view, but the prices are still exorbitant. That might explain why no one is buying!
The Glenelg landmark of Magic Mountain will be completely gone by Tuesday. I wasn't the only one taking photos of the rubble. Quite a few Adelaidians have a soft spot for the giant concrete turd & are sorry to see it go, but having more green space in its place will be a nicer touch.
By the time I'd driven to Marion, the clouds had come across & a bit of intense rain later, they were on their way into the hills leaving a double rainbow in their wake.
As I type this, the temperature has fallen to around 7 degrees & my right hand is going purple from using the mouse, so let's leave it at that then, shall we!
Azahari Husin is the prime suspect in yesterday’s bomb blast in Jakarta. During the 1070’s, Husin attended Adelaide University studying Engineering. He failed the course, but obviously learnt enough to sustain his chosen career path.
Why is it that all these criminals & nasty types have a link back to Adelaide. We know we are the murder capital of the world, that title is dear to our hearts. It’s the only thing Adelaide is really ever going to be famous for!
However, instead of just having a bit of local notoriety for our killers, we’ve diversified by training criminals worldwide!
What gets me going though is the way in which these terrorists are discovered so soon after they commit a deed. Hours after the WTC disaster, Bin Laden was the suspect, after Bali it was Amrosi & now Hasin. There is all sorts of information known about these terrorists which comes out immediately after an incident, which begs the question, was anyone hunting them beforehand??
If these people are so well known by authorities, they should issue the dossiers of any known terrorists on the internet & let the citizens of the world do the chasing! A few of these attacks might well be stopped before they happen, rather than the typical response of “this terrorist act looks like the handiwork of …”!
“NASA planned to appoint a "mishap review board" within 72 hours, which could take two to four months to determine why the six-year, $260 million (U.S.) mission failed re-entry.”
I love this quote from Reuters in relation to the Genesis crash. Wouldn’t it be good if whenever you stuffed up in your job you had to face a “Mishap Review Board”.
Shhhh! I shouldn’t type that too loudly, someone might hear & force me to make changes! I could sit here & bitch about all the crazy stuff that has happened to slow down the process in the last 24 hours, but all it would do is frustrate me, so let’s not speak of it again!
What I will bitch about is all the dodgy people in the world & the fact that they continue to find new & inventive ways to “put one over” as it were.
I just got off the phone to a supplier who is always chasing money. They have set terms of payment set with us & we follow those terms. Calling on a daily basis to ask for a favour might have worked the first time around & it can be beneficial to be helpful to others, but when I find out that they’ve called various members of staff to try & “arrange” a deal, I get a bit narky! Even though they get rejected, they call a different department & have another attempt. When they finally speak to me, it’s not pretty, but when they realise that we are their biggest customer, they eventually accept the original agreement terms. It’s amazing how apologetic people get once they’re caught out!
A colleague just back from overseas had a call the other day asking whether they had been to Malaysia recently, only to find someone had swiped their credit card details while they were transferring between flights at the airport terminal. It only took a few seconds while buying some duty-free chockys, for the shop owner to swipe the card a second time through a card reader on their hip, hidden under clothing. The police caught the person trying to use the details, but of course a new credit card & the obligatory paperwork needed to be filled out by the victim!!
The final dodgy story of the week is another colleague transferring money between accounts. They fill out the paper work, submit the forms, then get a call from the company’s manager stating the forms need to be signed by a “Justice of the Peace”. There is no way such a transfer needs a JP’s signature, but the manager stated they wouldn’t have to get the forms signed by a JP so long as cheap accommodation at the hotel was arranged!
I have little pussy prints from the bonnet, over the windscreen, the roof, the boot, back over the roof, little sliding marks back down the windscreen & plenty of dirt where it finally settled down to sleep!
Cats are supposed to be incredibly clean, so why do they always deposit so much sand & dirt when they sleep on my car bonnet?!?
Well, it's that time of the month again! No, I'm not having a period! That would require my whole life as a male to be a lie!
I'm talking about "End of Month" which is a different sort of unavoidable irritation, but lasts about the same duration!
Getting reports out before the end of the week is the aim, though staff which have worked here for nearly six years now, still come up & ask if they can have a copy of final figures on the first day of the month! I suspect that a certain somebody is going around encouraging others to ask for them, in the vain attempt for me to rush them. I think I know who might be the trouble maker, because they have asked me to do the same against other people! Hmmm.
I actually want to go for a walk, but the weather is shocking, with rain, rain & more rain. It hasn't stopped all day, so I'm stuck in the dungeon, slaving away & listening to a bit of "Something for Kate" on my Palm. I am pretty lucky to have made it to work at all after battling with morons everywhere on the roads. Add a bit of rain to the normal mayhem & it gets more... umm.... mayhemic or manic? Something like that anyway!!
Adelaide bus drivers are the worst of all. On King William Street, the centre of town is where if your car is in their path, good luck to you. In order to turn onto North Terrace, you have to merge into the turn lane after any parked cars. If there aren't any parked cars, you have to be merging by the time you cross the Hindley Street intersection or someone will dive up the inside & not allow you to get across. This morning there were no parked cars, so I merged as far as I could to the left & watched a bus come up behind. Instead of waiting behind me, the driver has positioned the bus between the curb & myself & proceeded along the side of my car & rubbing the side mirror in the process. I had to back out otherwise paint would have been the next thing rubbed!
Sometimes Adelaide just shits me! It's getting really tempting to move away to a proper city!
I knew there would be a bit of a novelty factor of owning a phone with a camera in it & it is yet to wear off. Over the last year, with my SonyEricsson T610 in hand, I’ve picked off all sorts of subjects, but being the quality that it is, a whole lot of shots are, put simply, crap!
However, some of those crap ones do present a level of creativity which was entirely unexpected & since I can always download the photos to my computer, here are a few of the strangely cool shots!
Being the responsible voter that I am, my votes in previous elections have been carefully thought out, weighing up the values of each parties policies & determining who would lead the country fairly & honestly.
As we approach October 9th, I’m throwing my method of responsible voting away. This election was brought about to cover lies & betrayal by the Government in power. The opposition is just as screwed up, so neither party actually deserves my vote.
What pisses me off most of all about elections is the amount of blatant advertising which is now hanging from every tree, signpost & stobie pole around Adelaide! It’s beyond stupid. On some roads there are posters for the same candidate every couple of metres. Either, they are spending a ludicrous amount of tax payer funds on advertising or the lackey employed to disperse them just couldn’t be bothered walking very far!
Therefore, the candidate who is in my face the least throughout the election campaign, proving they have wasted the least amount of money, will get my mark in their box on polling day!
