Strange Avian Behaviour

Some of you will know that in our house reside two creatures of the avian persuasion. They are both lovebirds. The male of this pair, shown in the picture below* is insane and very bitey. He also likes to frequently display his fondness for fluffy toys. I believe he is a plushophile. One disturbing aspect of this bird's fetish is that he seems to enjoy showing his love for these objects when we are in the middle of meals.


* Okay, so the picture in this blog entry is probably not displayed in the range referred to as "the visible spectrum". This is mostly because I just realised that the photos of the birds are on mum's computer, and it's late, so I can't be bothered switching it on to find one. Hopefully I'll remember soon to add a photo.

If only I had a front door...

There are so many cool things available for home decorating. This would be hanging from my front door. If I owned a front door. I know I could buy a door, but that would be pointless as I don't have a house to which I could attach the door.

Some interesting links:

If only I had a bathroom in need of a shower curtain.

For Star Wars nuts: 75 things we love and hate about Star Wars. I agree with all of them.

It's been a while since my last post - over 7 days, in fact! I've been a little busy and also not in a generally blogging mood, but now I'm here, I'll fill you in on the events that have occurred since my last post:

On Friday night, I went to Rowan and Klaus' place for dinner and movies. From there, Ro, Nat and I headed to the Globe theatre to watch a double feature of Vixen! and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! which are both films directed by Russ Meyer. Both films were fantastic, and I recommend watching them if you can. I won't tell you what either film was about, as I'm not really too sure myself.

On Monday, I started a new job, which may or may not become long-term, or permanent. At the moment I'm on a casual, trial basis, but it seems to be going well. I'm working as an ESL teacher at an English School in the CBD (which is great for transport when one doesn't own a vehicle). The students are all foreigners, mostly Koreans, Colombians and Brazilians, as well as from other Asian and South American countries. As far as I know, there are only two Europeans, one from Hungary (near Budapest) and one from Switzerland (Geneva). I was initially hired as a substitute teacher for one week, but that week has ended and I've been asked to work this coming week as well.

It's spam Jim, but not as we know it...

I received this spam email recently, but I don't know what it means, or what it's trying to sell:

nonsense they babble! They flip out over the landscape or they express their
Fletcher turned to his instructor, and there was a moment of fright
wrong with its trajectory. I couldn't explain what was wrong, but I sensed
"Would you feel better if we left, Fletcher?" asked Jonathan.

(note: that is the entire body of the email)

Help with windows' nosy character.

Does anyone out there know how to tell windows to permanently* stop configuring my wireless networks?

The last wireless network (aside from the network here) with which my computer was required to liaise required windows to configure my wireless networks. The problem now is that my home network requires windows to stop configuring and mind its own fucking business, but windows persists in reverting back to the interfering mode every time I start my computer. It's not such a big problem, but it is annoying to have to change the settings each and every time I start or restart my computer.

* I know that technically I just split that infinitive, but I don't believe it's the terrible sin that some do.

Oh Rocky

You scored as Columbia. You are Columbia! You are a fiery redhead who can dance pretty well in really ugly shoes. Columbia 88% Magenta 63% Eddie 63% Dr. Scott 50% Rocky 50% Riff Raff 50% Brad 38% Frank 13% Janet 0% Which Rocky Horror Character Do You Identify With Most? created with QuizFarm.com

Things I want:

I want this rug. The light "shade" on the page above the rug is cool too.

I also want these bean bags.

And this skull sponge.

I spy with my little eye....

And I can!

I had an eye test today. It turned out okay; apparently I have eyes.

I have been noticing a slight decline in my eyesight over the last few months, specifically on my focussing abilities so I went along to an eye-witch-doctor (aka optometrist) just to check. I went to OPSM because they bulk-bill and therefore it was a free exercise. I was told that my eyesight has waned slightly, with both eyes receiving a rating of -0.25 which is the smallest amount of degradation possible (without having no degradation at all). This means that it's too small a prescription to worry about and I don't need to wear glasses, which is good. I'm not against the idea of having and using glasses, but they seem a hassle (they often get misplaced) and I have a certain face shape that makes it near impossible to find glasses (inc. sunglasses) that look inoffensive on me, much less actually suit me.

My word I've been busy!

Well, I haven't posted for a while because I simply haven't found my round tuit yet.

Last weekend I went to Noosa/Sunrise Beach with Aggie and Sylwia. We spent Saturday shopping in Hastings St and Saturday night playing Monopoly, eating stuff and drinking other stuff. Aggie won. On Sunday we went 4wding on the Noosa North Shore, up past the Cherry Venture wreck and cut through to Rainbow Beach. I enjoyed the beach driving and now I long for a vehicle that would enable me to do it more often. I think the Terios would be fine for most of it, but I haven't given it a trial yet, as I'm a bit concerned about the lack of low-range and the tiny engine.
The following photos show the wreck of the Cherry Venture (it was a boat), a real 4WD (Aggie and Simon's) and Aggie & Sylwia, wearing their pretty hats, in front of the hot dog stand next to the Cherry Venture from where I'll never purchase a hot dog again. Mine was ick and Aggie's was still partially frozen.



The next photo shows the three of us standing behind the car, with Noosa's main beach in the background. We are all squinting into the extremely bright sun, which should explain our facial expressions.


Last night I went to La Kasbah with Kat, Nat, Amanda, Ro and Klaus for Kat's going-away dinner. The food was good, although I didn't really love my meal, but my dessert was fantastic. I had Crepes Algeriennes, which were semolina crepes served with ice-cream and cream, in a delicious sauce made of honey, caramel and extra sugar. The sauce was extremely sweet, and therefore delicious. My meal was a Pyramid of Goat, according to the receipt, but a Pyramid of Goats' Cheese and Smoked Salmon according to the menu. It sounds like it should have been great, but there were too many other things in there, all fighting for attention. I definitely want to go back there one day, as other meals looked really good too.

Dziękuję Poczta Polska

My 13kg package finally arrived on Monday morning! I had begun to believe that it would be lost forever, as it was 2 and a half months late, but better late than never as many old people say.

This is what it looked like before I removed the string and sticky tape to liberate its contents:

Note: I am responsible for the large amount of brown sticky tape, but the parcel somehow acquired the white string somewhere in its travels.

There were several things inside that I was relieved to finally have in my possession and a couple of other items that I'd forgotten about entirely, so even though I packaged it myself and posted it myself, to myself, it was still a surprise to wade through the countless items to see what was on the slab. One item I'm glad to have with me is my collection of European sugar sachets to go with my collection of Australian sugar sachets.

I'll post some pictures of the contents when I get a round tuit.