Archives for February 2006

I’m writing this with very little sleep – I will not be responsible

February 26, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Adelaide is very busy right now and will be getting even busier from next Friday. The Adelaide Fringe opened on Friday night with a parade and a party (the Adelaide Festival opens next Friday). Luckily the torrential rain stopped a couple of hours before the parade so it went down very well and everyone kept dry. We went to see a friend perform afterwards which turned out to be the highlight of the evening and it wasn’t even part of the Fringe – although the Parade was enjoyable.

We then went back to the Fringe opening party and it wasn’t that great so we didn’t hang around. The Garden of Unearthly Delights had a great big queue which didn’t take long to whittle down after we joined it and it was worth it to get in there as the atmosphere was so much calmer than over the road at the party.

We hung around for a bit checking out the Man Who Breathes Through His Eyes. I saw him last Fringe and he actually does breathe through his eyes but he does a whole spruiking thing beforehand to get people to come into his tent to watch him. It’s well worth paying to go inside his tent and to have a look.

Home about 3am and then Saturday morning I decided that I really wanted to go to the girls night after all. I managed to organise last minute babysitting for a whole 24 hours and went to Waitpinga Beach to camp with 20 or so other women. It was great. We sat around and talked, laughed, talked some more, watched the stars, ate, talked and had a tiny bit of sleep. I’m glad I made the effort to go but I’m suffering from a severe lack of sleep right now. I tried to have a lie down but the phone rang twice so I’ve given up and am blogging while tired.

I finally did remember to book tickets for Bob Log III – can’t wait.

Finally – the work has been done

February 24, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

It’s taken months and months to finally get the new window put in and the rendering around the window and other patches around the house to get done but it was finished this morning.

The window was no problem – that was done with a relative minimum of fuss. It was trying to find someone to do the rendering that was the problem. Last August I think it was I got two quotes and I accepted one. The person whose quote I accepted full-on gave me the run around so I finally got the hint of unreturned calls that he didn’t want to come and do the job.

I rang up the second guy whose quote, I had told him, I wasn’t accepting. He was really nice about it and he’s just finished the work. He rang me when he said he would, he turned up on time and he did a great job. He even put up with JJs continual questioning and enlisted his help.

When I paid him in cash, he handed $10 back to JJ who was absolutely stoked. We’ve put this money into his Incredibles moneybox for him to think about what he might like to spend it on.

I don’t understand why all tradesmen can’t be as reliable. I will extoll his virtues to all my friends who might be in the market for some work like this to be done and he could get heaps of work out of my relatively little job. It doesn’t take much people. A bit of good service goes a long long way.

Have you ever called someone when you were drunk?

February 23, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I have to confess, I have been guilty of speaking to people on the phone after having had a little too much to drink. I also must say this mostly occurred when I was either overseas or speaking to people overseas from here. This means that I wouldn’t have to see the people the next day and try to look cluey about the conversation on the phone the night before.

While speaking to people drunk on the phone I’ve been guilty of telling people I love them, when I would never normally say. The only person I say, ‘I love you’ to is my son. I would say it to a significant other if I had one, but I’m the type that struggles to show emotion like this to just anyone.

I have been a partner in crime in calling someone drunk too – that is – standing in the same phone box when a colleague called another colleague at home. They ended up having a short affair, or they were at the time – I can’t remember. But all I remember is standing in the phonebox giggling.

Anyway, if you live in the States you’d better watch out if you ever ‘drunk-dial’. There is a website devoted to such a thing where people can send in copies of drunk-dialled phone calls for anyone to download and have a laugh at.

The website is – http://www.drunk-dialed.com/. I read about it in Australian IT, although they got the website address incorrect in the article (they put Australian English spelling for dialled).

I saved money today on a new mobile and new glasses

February 21, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Today I went and got my eyes tested as I’ve noticed recently that it takes a little while to focus on some things that I pick up to look at or read. This never used to be a problem for me. I’ve got the beginning stages of turning 40 (or nearly turning 40) disease – Presbyopia. I’ve done a quick poll of my friends around the same age and it’s almost spot on the 40th birthday that this starts to happen. Great!! At this stage it’s not worth me getting glasses to correct this but in a year or two it will be.

Excellent, I don’t have to get new glasses – money saved about $400.

On the way back to work from this I popped into the Telstra shop to inquire about getting an updated mobile phone. I bought my mobile (an LG) five years ago and in mobile phone terms it’s an antique. I hardly use it but whenever I want to text someone I have to write down the phone number to then send a text, I can’t bring the number up on the menu. I also can’t reply to texts I do receive which is painful whenever I do want to text someone. In addition to this I’m on the CDMA network which Telstra is getting rid of in sometime in 2008.

So, I just wanted to explore my options. I could buy a new cheap CDMA Nokia at $80 that will do me for two years or so until I change over to the network. But the new network is apparently coming into play sometime this year so I decided to stick with my clunky antique until then.

I don’t want to go GSM as the coverage is crap outside the bigger centres. Even when we were on Kangaroo Island I had some coverage down where we were and my friends had none on their GSM phones. I also do a lot of driving over to Yorke Peninsula and don’t want to be stuck with a kid and a dog in a mobile blackspot because of the network I’m on.

Money saved $80.

UPDATE – a day later: I got an offer from Telstra this morning to upgrade my phone to a Samsung something or other on the 3G network for a $20/month plan ($10/month cheaper than it would normally be). I reckon I’m still better off waiting, buying a new phone outright, and sticking with my $10/month plan as I don’t use the phone much. Apparently they don’t offer this cheaper plan anymore. Nice try Telstra.

Total money saved today – roughly $500. Not bad ey?

We used to be dressed the same and we are not twins

February 19, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I’m guessing I was about 10 when this photo was taken – around the mid-1970s. I’m with my sister and you can probably pick the non family member – she was a family friend and I am envious of the pink trousers.

Notice how myself and my sister are dressed the same? This used to drive me insane when I was younger.

Mum used to do a lot of sewing and I guess once you’ve churned out one particular pattern it’s so much easier to make another one the same, even if it is a different size.

We would go to the pub or the football club for dinner fairly regularly and I would get dressed for the occasion and then my sister, usually the one next down from me (I have two sisters) would put on her similar outfit.

I would then have to change mine which usually meant wearing something that I didn’t really want to wear.

When this photo was taken I hadn’t yet realised that I wanted to look a bit different to my siblings but I remember when I was an adolescent I know I didn’t want to be dressed the same as my sisters. I know they say that when someone copies you it’s a form of flattery but for me it was just damned annoying.

Even though he tests me, I’ve probably got it quite good now

February 17, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

This morning JJ and I went to the local shopping mall to get a few things including groceries. While were in the hairdressers the shop assistant told JJ that he was really cute. He is very cute but with just about everyone telling him this he’s saying it himself now and he thinks that only small things can be cute, therefore I can’t be cute – although sometimes he tells me I’m beautiful.

This same shop assistant said that she wished her son was young again. I said, ‘Do you really?’

‘Yes’, she said so I had to ask her why.

She said, ‘The other night my son was over for dinner and at the beginning of the meal he informed us that he’d been done for driving while under the influence. By the end of the meal he told us that his girlfriend might be pregnant and they’ve only known each other for two minutes.’

‘Ok’, I said, ‘I’ll enjoy my son while he’s young then.’

Off we went to the supermarket whereupon I was nagged every half a minute to buy something that he wanted. When he finally realised I was not going to cave into his demands he thumped me on the back and not long after kicked me in the leg.

I don’t know what made him think that physical violence was going to help his cause at all. I was very pleased that I remained calm throughout all of the nightmare supermarket shopping episode and wondered about whether news of breaking the law or getting a girlfriend pregnant would be more stressful than this?

At the checkout he demanded a lollypop when we got home. I have used this device in the past to try and bribe him to behave himself in these situations where it’s not easy to discipline. I told him, no, he wouldn’t be getting a lollypop and told him why this was.

He tried to tell me it was an accident. Mmmmm, I don’t think so.

He did not get a lollypop but he has been better behaved since we got back home.

So we had some adventures on Kangaroo Island

February 14, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

This time four years ago JJ, myself and Monty went to Kangaroo Island. It was hard work being totally responsible for organising and getting us there and doing everything for a seven month old baby by myself. All the while everyone else there was childless and therefore stayed up late and got up late. By the time they were getting up, JJ was getting ready for his first sleep for the day. Consequently I didn’t have a great time.

Four years later I was ready to do it again. My friends that organise do this holiday every year now have a three year old son so at least there would be someone to play with JJ. They got on fairly well most of the time but their son is going through I’m going to hit everything in my path and pull their hair while I’m at it stage so there were some tears from JJ and telling off from parents during this time.

There were some good times too and overall we had a damn good holiday. The place where we stay is just superb. There are two shacks. They are pretty basic in that the beds could do with some updating and the shower at our place didn’t drain its water very well, but all other facilities are there minus a tv and phone but that’s a good thing – or so I hoped as I sometimes rely on the tv as a babysitter.

The shacks are very near a river which you walk along for a short way and you’re on the beach. The beach is on the south coast of Kangaroo Island so it’s a bit cold and windy but it’s not busy at all so when we did see an occasional person or two we weren’t happy to see them on ‘our’ beach.

It turned into Monty’s beach too and it was as much a holiday for her I think as it was for the rest of us. She had a great time popping into the river or sea for a quick swim.

The week we were there turned into one big long adventure, mainly for JJ. There were a few things he did as a first. He caught his first fish. My mate took his fishing rod and I bought JJ a very inexpensive fishing rod that he could use. Unfortunately the fish that JJ caught were too small and had to be thrown back but JJ had told me that’s what he wanted to do if he did catch a fish. My friend eventually did catch two bream that we ate – and that was it for freshly caught food.

The highlight of the week was going to a wildlife park called Paul’s Place. It’s only open four times a week and you can only do a tour once a day but it was worth it. Paul who took us on the tour is a bit of a character and you’re launched straight into the experience when he passes around a kangaroo like a baby and you feed it it’s bottle of milk. We did note that he only passed around the kangaroo to all the women. The men had their own fate in store later on when they were pecked on the head by an emu getting seed from the tops of their heads.

Paul did hold on long enough at each animal for people to get photos though.

Here’s a photo of Louis the koala who was very patient as he was handed around to everyone to have a hold. I loved the look on JJ’s face as he held the koala. He wasn’t quite sure about the whole thing but he knew it was something pretty special.

The echidnas eating their termites was great. I wish I had an echidna around here to keep an eye on the potential termites at my place.

I knew there was a snake at this park too and when Paul brought it out I walked as far away as possible while he was passing it around. A baby possum was brought out at the same time and while I was holding it the snake (a python) was put on the back of my neck. I’m totally phobic about snakes and while I know a python won’t hurt me I still don’t like the thought of it. I stood there totally still and with my eyes closed while I felt its weight on the back of my neck. It eventually got taken off and JJ had a go. He was fine with it and seemed to enjoy it.

The first few days of the week went slowly and then all of a sudden our week was up and we were back on the ferry coming home.

There’s more photos of our adventures.