Suburban Recovery

I know I should be posting about the ski trip but I couldn't let my lovely wife's attempt to park the car in the garage go un-commented.

Perhaps we should let the pictures tell the story:


Ended up ripping a 10cm gash in the tire wall. These are armored tires mind.

Back in a month

Married for 10 whole years so we are off on a long long holiday - Fiji without the kids and then Skiing with them (if there is any snow left).

Don't do anything I wouldn't do whilst I'm gone.

Chores

Just cleaning up again this weekend. Gardening, cleaning windows and bugs out of the outdoor lighting, replacing bulbs - that sort of thing. Entirely unremarkable.

A bucket of prawns in the sun.

New Years Eve was spent with mum, Alex and the kids enjoying the tunes belted out by a local chick in the beer-garden under the country club. It has a casual beauty, sandwiched as it is between the bowling green and the golf club car-park it overlooks the ocean, dunes and lakes, kangaroos pause in a mob around the t-off just below the fence and a strong sea breeze brings a briny haze. A few locals are trying to make a go of a burger business, barbecuing up the scotch fillet stakes for filling the local fresh "still warm from the oven" focatcia style buns, the local market gardens providing the salad so fresh it still drips sap.

Entree is a bucket of prawns, literally. Enjoyed with a chilled sav blank and a Coopers or three.

It's a picturesque 3k walk back around the lake to mums house.


This is country.

Quote of the day

"See, the problem was [long pause] that everything I tried on - fitted so well !!"
- so that't why she spent over a grand on dresses.

Time

How will our kids see their childhood? will they know how much they were loved? will they remember the simple pleasures of kids playing on the beach?

Automatic

I just observed a bloke trying to dry his hands using these dryers.
He was holding his hands underneath waving them around fruitlessly trying to get the little infrared sensor to detect his hands.
A - these are manual dryers. You have to press the button.
B - Automatic ones are useless at any rate as they never detect you hand when it is in the air flow - to get then to turn on you have to put your hand closer to the sensor, and inevitably that is not where the air is directed. The moment you move you hand into the airflow they stop.

Business time

The students are finishing up their last exams and now it is time for us to roll up our shirt sleeves and get cracking on some IT work that we couldn't do when they are here in force.

Meanwhile I'm trying to write some web pages to replace a bunch of paper forms and reduce our data entry requirements. For the most part it looks as if it will work, but I'm doing some cheeky screen scraping to read other peoples web pages to get the info I need. The uni is comically inefficient at making that kind of information available.

Alex (wife) is heading off to the US for a whirlwind visit, mostly the mid north east and Chicago with a day in Memphis. She's looking at some gas facilities for a big project she is working on here. She wont have time for sight seeing tho. :-(

That of course means that I have to look after the kidlets by myself for a week. Think I may need a few wines to get through that one.

Selling a boat on ebay

Interviewing next week for one of my System Administrator positions - give me a call if your a smoking hot linux sys admin who knows PERL and can install and manage open source apps such as media wiki. A unix ticket would be a plus.

Found them - you can stop looking everybody

In the gym bag. I must have vagued out after the 2h spin / pump back to back gym marathon on Monday that left me gasping and feeling as if I had bled out. I usually cope with being a scatter brain by attaching my keys to my belt loop via a 'bina - oh so high fashion I know but that's a price I'm willing to pay for being able to open the front door when I get home.

In other news I'm having more trouble deciding what to wear today than figuring out what to wear to a swingers party. I've been invited to a graduation for one of my staff; to tie or not to tie, that is the question. French cuffs or dress down?

I need your help people.

So, did I ever tell you about the time...

I'm not sure whether to tell you about the new gym instructor, the one way glass windows or the girl whom I accidentally disrobed..

Reverse order then.

So, did I ever tell you about the time I accidentally stripped a complete stranger out of her dress?
No, well OK then..
It seems like it was only yesterday, which is not a complete surprise as it was in fact, only yesterday.
I was on my way to a meeting in another part of the uni. The building is about half way across campus and, unsurprisingly, the room is up a long staircase.
About halfway up said staircase I encountered a young(ish) woman walking down the other way. Normal people move the the left, just like driving, it's the basic collision avoidance mechanism, part of the social contract - I move a bit out of the way, you move a bit out of the way and we all get along together.
But no.
Not this lass.
Tall, kind of skinny, browny blond hair, alternate rustic hippie look - cheese cloth blouse and long ankle length flowing Balinese batik thin cotton skirt and sandals.
I noticed the silver toe ring.
I noticed it because she was coming right down the center of the fucking staircase.
I moved so far to the side my left arm was against the wall. I uttered something like FFS. Then there was an almighty 'rip'. I had trodden on the train of her skirt. Quick look down. two bare legs and in a pair of daggy nickers. Eyes back forward I said something like "Jesus lady, it's not like you made it easy, I couldn't get any further out of you way.. your bad - not mine. I shan't look down, and how about next time you have the courtesy to move to the side on the footpath like every other living human, (perhaps excepting the yanks)".
She said nothing.
I walked up and took the next left exiting the stairs and quickly stepped up to the window to see if she exited the building... nope.

Sick kids

Gastro from Jupiter I do believe.
Sorry, got to go and clean more vomit off the floor.

Life is not here for Sombody else to live

Alternate title: So what if you lack confidence, suck it up and get one with it.

There is a profusion of gen X's and Y's out there in blog land with anxiety and confidence issues. Nerds, geeks, dags, the overweight / underweight and generally people with issues.

Life is not here for Somebody else to live. This time, this place, your 'now' - it is yours.

Live it

Don't put barriers around yourself that are not there.

It is not for the beautiful people and all the other imaginary creations of the media out there. It is for the 12 year old Mexican kid playing soccer with his friends. It is for the retired Roman Soldier with some mundane task in his shop. It is for everyone who has ever been human and you have as much right to experience and be here and be you as anyone.

If you like him - tell him, ask him out for coffee. If you want to dance with her it won't happen if you stand there. You know what - you may fail. And the downside of that is???? Go out there and be audacious. There is nothing wrong with failure or being introverted or a bit of a dag or the kid who was bullied at school.

That said - If you have depression or you feel you have an anxiety disorder - go and get professional help. See your GP.

comments are open so long as nobody is nasty