31 May, 2008

Got a life ...

If you have spent any time reading this blog, it might have occurred to you that I do not have much of a social life. By and large this suits me, I am not a social person in that I do not really enjoy going out, drinking copious amounts of alcohol and saying witty things to people I barely know and stuff. However, last night was a bit different.

About two weeks ago one of our old managers came by our workplace, and suggested we all get together the following Friday for drinks and social activities. My first reaction to this is always, erh, thanks but no thanks. But feeling a bit annoyed at the time with some of the things at work,
I changed my mind and said I would go.

So last night, I walked up the street, towards the venue, the Padstow Bowling Club. I did my hair, put on a light jacket that matched the out fit I had on, and a puff of scent and walked in. No one else was there at the time, so I sat on a poker machine and won my self a couple of extra $$$. Chuffed with that, I wandered off to find one of the part time workers who works the opposite end of the week to me, had turned up with her 15 month old baby. So I sat with her and gooed over the baby. We chatted and finally the others turned up. There were also some people from Bankstown workplace. I had met them a few times before, so I wasn't totally lost in the conversations. And I had a nice discussion with the supervisor.

Then one of the teachers came around selling meat raffle tickets. Using my poker winnings I bought a minimum amount and won a meat tray. That was a buzz. It was some sausages, bacon and pork chops. There was another win at our table and everybody was happy for us.

I bought a huge burger and large plate of chips for $5.00 which was a bargain these days. I didn't have an alcoholic drink, but sat on a can of soft drink for the night. I left just before eight pm for the station which is less than 200 metres away.

It was a buzz going, and I had a good time.

But I slept all afternoon today.

27 May, 2008

Quiet ...

Well, after the excitement of the weekend, it has been a bit anticlimactical. Went into Campbelltown this morning and got goodies in Spotlight, then the sister turned up and we came home (yeah really exciting). Sister had some goodies that she wants us to store while she returns to Queensland. So we put them into plastic containers.

Sunnyboy watched a DVD while we yakked some and then they left.

I have decided to do some crochetting and had bought some hooks. I also got some nice "grunge board" shapes that I am itching to colour and stamp. So I wont be bored on the weekend. The old person is pressuring me to go to the races. I don't know about that, yet.

s'all ....

26 May, 2008

Updating ...


The aliens packed up all their goodies and left for the darker reaches of outer space.

I have updated my craft blog with a star book. It has many photos which drive me mad sometimes. One or two like I use on here isn't so bad, but when I load more than three I have to drag and drop, then add a caption. Still, I am pleased with the result I have now. Do pop by to have a look.

We have to get Her Ladyship a new rug. The old one was about seven years old and just not usable any more. The only place we can get them is out at Camden. With the price of petrol these days, it is an expensive venture.

Feed prices have remained high, whereas in the past, once the drought is broken, prices go back down, the cost of transport has kept them high. Once she has her foal next year, she can go onto food that pony club horses eat, not this expensive lah-di-dah Thoroughbred fancy food she gets now.

Last week I went to a shop run by a Lebanese family. The father asked me if I knew the story of the first horse ridden. Well, knowing the family is not Muslim, I had to think. Yes, I said, it was Ishmael. What is the story, he asked me. Ishmael gathered a hundred mares that he had kept from water for three days. He then let them go towards the river, just before they reached the river, he called to them. Only five mares turned around and returned to him. The others all went for the water. So the five mares were selected to form the foundation of the modern Arabian horse.

Chaswyck Calyph (Her Ladyship's next beau)


Yes, he said, this is the true story. All the Arab people are decended from Ismael and all the Jewish (he pronounced it Yewish) people from Isaac. Both were the sons of Abraham. He seemed pretty pleased that I knew the story.

When you retell it to a Muslim Arab, you have to say that it was the Prophet who had the mares and they decend from his five mares.

Spending time on the horse forums, mixing with people from all over the world, including the Middle East gives one a good perspective of what is really important. Cultural differences are all put aside when discussing horses.

that is it for now ....

25 May, 2008

Confrontation ...

So I ran into the alien who left the Port-a-dunny and this was his reaction when I confronted him:


Do you think he was a bit pyst? I was scared of those teeth, let me tell you. But he just made a Worf like roaring noise and walked away muttering about inappreciative women ....

Well, here is what happened at the girl guides grounds today

(Click on the photos to enlarge, 'k?)



We were wondering about the other tent near the Port-a-dunny. It was a blowup thing.



Bungy Trampoline. I kid you not.
There were about 200 people turned up; it was a recruitment drive for the GG's. I hope they did well. Her Ladyship was unimpressed with the Bungy Trampoline and refused to visit the
little girls who really wanted to pat her.
So yeah, a vibrant and exciting day - not for us though.

24 May, 2008

UFO...


This is what the aliens left us in next door at the Girl Guides camping ground. No, it is not a green TARDIS. (Alas). It's a Port-a-Dunny. And you can see it directly from the kitchen window. What a thing to wake up to of a morning and go to rinse your cup to make your morning cuppa. I think there is going to be a gathering of the clans in the next 24 hours or next weekend. Bell will be so happy, she just loves the little girls and will be hoping a few will have brushes, combs and ribbons for her mane and tail. I guess if they do you will know that they really are prepared.

The sister came again today with Sunnyboy. Her computer has died. It looks like it died a horrible death too, with bits missing. We tried to see if it would regenerate Dr Who like, but alas it does not have a Eye of Harmony. I guess for the price she paid for it, it would have been asking too much. She is going to try and find her reboot disk, and if not or, if that doesn't work I shall have to give it to one of my teachers. They love that sort of thing. The challenge, the gauntlet, the despair ....

Ooo Oooo I nearly forgot. EzyDVD will order in Forbidden Planet for me, if I go in and pay for it in person. Coooool.

So back to the drawing board ...

20 May, 2008

Anniversary

Yesterday, Alien Thoughts went on line one year ago. I still have till the 10 of June for my anniversary for this blog. Thought I might just mention it.

Update ...

I have just added an opinion piece to Alien Thoughts. After all this time. It is just a small piece about a couple of stallions and just musing about something they both did.

Not alot is going on at the moment. My night classes on Monday is just preparing a project that is going to involve me actually designing a website and getting it hosted on the internet. If it is any good, I will provide a link.

I will write more later on.

19 May, 2008

More DVD's

Aaaargh! The old person took an extended nap, so I thought I would watch Solaris. While I finally got the point with Blade Runner, Solaris is just awful. The movie isn't really all that SF, other than the main plot is based on a space station orbiting a thing (one gathers a star, although even that isn't stated). There are flash backs to the guy's life on earth, and after a while you realise he has become one of the entities. But the entities remain anonymous. So you are left wondering - are these aliens or are they the sub atomic particles left over from a previous life and Solaris is where they spend "eternity". I guess maybe that is the point of the movie, you don't know.

This is also the premise behind Peter Hamilton's trilogy. Although it is explained by him how the entities came to be, even who they were prior to death. But speculation about death in this manner (both Solaris and Hamiltons works) is not really useful SF. It crosses over into religion and becomes a bit pontificating, whether this is intentional or not.

So these SF writers postulate death. They feel that the subatomic remains after death go somewhere (neither being the religious concept of Heaven or Hell). They don't necessarily get reincarnated, but the potential is there for them to do so. Afterall they are just hovering, in, I guess, some sort of limbo waiting. That is even more pointless than atheism's death is the end of life and there is nothing more.

It seems to me to be a sort of grasping at straws. The rejection of the atheist version of death, but also the rejection of the religious "afterlife/reincarnation" as well. They try to postulate another way through but at a more earthly body human type way. Undead and zombies.

Another genre is related to this, and it is vampirism and undead/zombies. Although they appear more to be fantasy stories rather than speculative Science Fiction. I don't mind a good vampire movie.

I watched Blade, a vampire movie, which both my grandsons had seen before and insisted on watching again with me. At the gory bits, I tend to look away. But my younger grandson said "Granma, you have to watch this bit, it is so cool..." so I did. One character took a huge sword and slashed the other character in half with it. The top of the slain character jumps up into the air and all blood rushed from his body. It was disgusting. But my grandsons insisted it was the coolest scene in the whole movie. They left after that. Goodness only knows what sort of psychological damage that sort of thing does to wee boys, but for those two, it is just cool. They do insist that I don't take it so seriously (the blood thing) - "it is only a movie, Granma".

seriously ....

17 May, 2008

Classic SciFi ...

So I have just finished watching Blade Runner for about the forth or fifth time in my life. Until now I have sort of not got it, but I think now I have. It is a strange sort of movie in that it is raining the whole time.

Now since the story is set in the year 2019, and scientists are predicting global warming, surely the rain is an anomoly, right? And how come the internet is nowhere to be seen? Harrison Ford is kinda not the best person to have played Dekert, he just isn't brooding enough and obviously the part should have been played by someone who was "brooding". (Although this is a funny word - one always associates anything 'brood' with breeding, eg broodmares, broodie chooks), yet for the sake of mood, the word brooding is used to mean, well not a happy character. Harrison Ford, to me is Hans Solo or Indianna Jones. Gung ho as all getout. Not the dark, seedy character he is supposed to be in this movie.

The lines are a bit pathetic as well. Although I guess overall the movie makes its point. It is much of the point of Astro Boy as well, and I guess finding an anology there means I watch too much stuff and not read as much as I should. lol.

Well, now I have to try to get through Solaris. It is supposed to be one of the five classics that you must have in your really geek SF collection, with the aforementioned Blade Runner, Star Troupers (you have to be kidding me right?), Gattica and I think the other one is Forbidden Planet. Now, I saw Forbidden Planet when I was a child. I vaguely remember it and it was a creepy movie then. I have never seen it on Amazon or any other DVD online seller. I have seen it mentioned, but not as for sale as a DVD. But I would love to have it. It was apparently one of the first ever SF movies made of the more psychological genre, and not the monster/alien movies. I only have Solaris on Video, so it may have to wait a couple of weeks till the old person is at the races and the sister not visiting. He doesn't like the movie and I find it somewhat annoying myself. But I haven't watched it all the way through yet, so I intend to do this.

Well whatever SF powers that be that decided these were the classics, the best SF movies, must be fairly limited. I would like to see more Asimov as movies, and there are books out there I read years ago and have since passed on to others, that I need to collect again and reread. SF is good because perhaps one day it could be possible.

But not with a Labor Government.

till next time ...

15 May, 2008

The Budget

Well, seriously, what did you expect? He had to reward all his little mates for voting him in, now didn't he? All those "rich" folk who voted for him have had their eyes opened, and all the not employed people who thought their time had finally come. Well, hello, reality. I did try to warn you. Even the old person is not impressed. He who told me only idiots do not vote for the Labor Party. Now who is the idiot? The daughter has also been extremely vocal.

This budget seems to be deliberately aimed at causing the inflation they were touting it to fight. Raising the Medicare Levy means many people will drop out of private insurance causing extra pressure on the system which isn't coping all that well with present levels. Making the top bands that come to Australia have to have a lead in of a local band is going to mean the big bands wont come here. Just because Elton John does it, doesn't mean the gangsta rockers are going to do it. Thinking it is going to be some sort of leg up for wannabe bands is not going to happen. Appeasing the arty farties is going to backfire when the big bands don't come here. We are still a long way away from anywhere, it is expensive for bands to come here and to find out they have to support wannabes is not going to encourage them to come. Oh, Peter Garrett ordered it, so it has to be done.

I think the biggest chuckle I had on Tuesday night watching Swannie do his thing was seeing PG in a suit. That was just so funny. And if you saw the half face of KRudd in the background that was funny too. The lady sitting behind them was like a puppet with a hand up her back. It is often more telling to watch these sort of people than the actual speaker. I had the feeling the woman had not an idea of what was being said. I don't think she realised she was on camera. She joined in a few "here, heres" rather belatedly as well. Do you think PG uses anything on his head to make it that shiny? I know old guys use stuff called Cherry Wax. Hmmm. PG is a nature lover I don't see why he wouldn't.

Maybe I will get a little extra with the tax cut and all, but with prices skyrocketing, I doubt it will do much. I shouldn't be ungrateful, I suppose. And my union is going to e-mail me with rave reviews about it all (cringe). Ah well, such is the way of things I suppose. You all did vote for the dears.

Why don't all those guys have balls and do something ballsy with their time in Government? I guess 'cause they don't.

so much for politics...

10 May, 2008

Dinner ...

I am cooking a meatloaf tonight for dinner. Maybe I will photograph it and you can see for yourself how it looks. I am not a cook. You put stuff in front of me on a plate, tell me it is food and I will eat it.

Reading through my last lot of blogs, I have done alot of really negative writing. Putting thoughts on, well, not paper obviously, but you get my meaning. lol.

The sister came over with Sunnyboy. We chatted about this and that. We debated the merit of keeping ducks. Ducks quack at rooster times and do not impress me anymore than a rooster would. She likes ducks, mostly from the critter perspective and I guess there are uses for them.

She blogs about them, and the other birds she sees around. I do not find birds all that interesting, although we have many here at Unicorn farm. I wish I could photograph some of them, simply because they are of interest to other people. We have had a tribe of rosellas take up residence in the weeds at the bottom of the paddock. I think, although I don't know for sure, that they might nest in the bushes next to the weeds, but in the next paddock. There are some native bushes there that the seem to fly off to occassionally. And the magpies. I think they are the descendants of Cody's Friend. He isn't around any more, been gone for almost a year, I think. He went not long after Cody. I haven't talked to the other ones. Since I am leaving, I don't want them getting all human friendly that others can take advantage of them and kill them.

The sister and I were discussing how when we first came here there was a small group of plovers. The lived in next door for a while, and we thought they might have been nesting. But there was a man who came by with a ride on mower and mowed everything.

Then the plovers moved into our front paddock. The horses didn't bother them too much. They would come and go, as plovers do. Wander down the middle of the road so that the old person had to toot them along so we could come or go ourselves. But even then, when the drought got even worse, they left. Probably in search of permanent water. They never entertained the idea of the horses' bath like other birds did. They appear to be waders of some sort and I guess they need different type of water to the land birds.

The cockies have gone and wont be back till about the end of August/September.

Well grandson1 has signed on to help junior kids at school with their reading. He has to go early on Tuesdays to do this. It is a pretty decent thing for him to do. I think it is also pretty responsible of him. The students have to volunteer to do it, and make a commitment to get to school early and do it every week. I don't mind that we have to leave around 8:00am to walk to school and I might have to sit for a while with grandson2 till the teacher turns up. Means I will be home earlier as well.

I am trying to keep my walking up to about 15 miles per week. I did it last week, and I aim to do it again this week, but it leaves me a bit tired and hungry all the time. Weird. But I guess over time I will adjust to it and I will actually have more energy and wont need to eat all the time (grazing - lol).

Well, that is my lot for just now.

adieu ...

09 May, 2008

My week so far ...

The old person will be home tomorrow as 1. he has run out of money and 2. It is a stand alone Saturday for Hawkesbury Racetrack. This came about when the Olympic Games were on in the year 2000 and the racing fraternity decided not to hold a city meeting for the Games Week. So Newcastle was given a stand alone day. There were dire predictions that it would be a doomed meeting and no one would turn up (because they would all be at the Games, right?). Ha. It was one of the best race days ever. All the city folk who normally went to city races went up to Newcastle and had a rip snorter of a day and declared it a success. So the city group grudgingly said they could have one day a year for a provincial stand alone Saturday.

Hawkesbury Race Course has its own train station. It is directly across the railway and road from Richmond Airforce Base and it probably one of the most beautiful racetracks in the Country. If it wasn't for the fact that it takes an hour and a half to drive there I would probably go more often. I guess the real sentimental value of it is that it is where I first got to meet Bell and pat her and see her actually run, even though she didn't race. They had only just bought her for the Derby Club and it was the first time we saw all the horses together. They had only just got Russian Romance as well. RR looked like a doll, and being chestnut was just a shiny red horse. Bell looked, and still does look, very utility. She never had the exotic looks of Night Whisper or the bread and butter guts of Measure of Luck. She never had the gumption that Wave a Wand had for busting up a field to win. Gumption is not her style.

But I was concerned in those days of the fact she was by Citidancer. Citidancer had sired a horse that had been a bleeder. That was in the days when they thought bleeders were a genetic thing, and I didn't know any better. Bell never bled, neither did Goldie when she raced. Bleeding is not a genetic thing but a condition caused by the horse not being fully fit for racing. It comes about in a similar way to shin soreness, running a horse not really ready for that level of work. Why they have to ban a bleeder for life isn't something I fully understand. They don't do it in the US. At least a bleeder mare doesn't have to be excluded from breeding.

Well, yesterday at work was another time the Boss decided I and another woman needed a bit of "reminding" about our work. I just thought it was that perhaps I didn't have the right attitude to my work and was nothing major so I just agreed, listened to the new work load I was to be given and let it go.

But the other woman, who is a really hard worker and good at organising was appalled and very upset by it. She came in distressed this morning and when the Boss was out of the office began telling us why it upset her. The others joined in and it turns out that another woman who only works part time at the opposite end of the week to me had complained. It was unfair on the first lady. Anyhow, I suggested that she needed to give herself a "get out clause".

She had mentioned previously she was interested in doing MYOB so that she could help her son in his business. The classes are at night and it is a good step to another job. I told her, " I wont beat around the bush, night classes are a bitch. But in the end you have the stepping stones to go on to a better job and work with better people." I told her about having to repeat this semester, but that I was learning more and will be in a good position to become a Web Designer with the stuff I was learning.

Besides, I told her, your son wants you to keep his books because he can trust you. If he has to send them outside, he risks the outsiders cheating him, but if you do the books for him he doesn't have that worry. So because I know she would do anything for her son, I think she will seriously consider it. So in the end, the "talk" may have turned into a good thing for her.

I seriously thought about finishing up there and then as well. If I was really as bad as they say I am, they wouldn't still give me work to do, they would complain more frequently and the Boss, now that I know him better, would be alot shittier towards me than he is.

Later when another, third woman, took his secretary aside and told her what had gone on, she said that if the Boss was really serious about telling us off he would have taken us into his office alone not with each other and certainly not with the supervisor as he had. She claimed it was only an appeasement to the other woman. She seemed to think he had only said anything to me at all because he didn't really want to say anything to the first woman so had generalised for us both.

I just said if there is a problem, perhaps the Supervisor should just say it to our faces.

I also noticed discrepancies over what was said and what is the actual true position of things and I am wondering why there are lies going on? If another person had not been involved, I would just think, they are picking on me and leaving others alone. But both of us?

Next time I will involve the union. It has got to the stage of being ridiculous.

Well, that is my moan and groan for the day.

The sister is coming tomorrow and we will have a good chat. The old person will go hide in his room and listen to the races. It will be good, because the boys are going to watch the Youtube episode of Dr Who from the BBC on the daughter's computer. That will keep them all out of mischief. It is pretty decent of the daughter as she does't particularly like her cousin Sunnyboy.

so till next I gripe ...

06 May, 2008

Hmmm....

I have been thinking seriously about making one of my blogs commercial, probably the Craft one, as craft on the Internet seems very popular. Or I could do the horse one. But that means a daily commitment to blogging and interacting with other bloggers, leaving comments and researching. It isn't that I am not capable of doing these things, it is just the commitment of time that would be required to do it.

I never blog from work, even though I will read blogs at work when there is no work. I don't think my boss is paying me for that, even if reading is done on his time. The onus is on him to give me enough work. I can't just sit there twiddling my thumbs. Also, I am fairly certain that from time to time the IT department reviews what gets done on the computers, just incase that, despite their really onerous nanny filter, someone might look at porn. I know a couple of blokes that were in trouble for forwarding on inappropriate e-mails. Funny how it is always the guys, and never the girls. I have received plenty of questionable e-mails from female staff. I just delete what I don't really like. I don't have time to be that petty.

Once I have finished work, the commitment wouldn't be a problem, it is just that I would really like to set it up before then. Still, making decisions like that usually end up with "I am sorry I didn't do it sooner". lol.

I also have some ideas for a couple of other blogs, that I am thinking about. However, I often wonder if I don't just think these things up as amusing thoughts just for the sake of being amusing when I should be thinking about other things. I guess my middle name should be procrastinator and just get on and do it.

Pencil and paper on the weekend.

adieu ...

04 May, 2008

The Forces of Darkness ...

are gathering. Yes we are.

Why is everyone so interested in a wannabe like Danni Minogue? She always seems to me to be riding on Kylie's fame, and can't quite make it herself. But I guess she is more accessible to the journos than Sis, so she makes good copy. I guess we should be grateful she isn't as batshit crazy as Britteny Spears ...

I am breaking one of my own rules here, if you don't pay them any attention they will go away.
Eventually, I suppose.

Everywhere you go, someone is commenting about some looney, wannabe. Maybe I am just old and cynical, but I don't remember them being so talked about when I was in my teens and early twenties. The big raves then were all the scandals the famous groups were getting into, like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. One of the girls wouldn't invite me to her birthday party because I wasn't a hard core Rolling Stones fan. In the end no one turned up anyhow, and it was supposed to be the birthday bash of the year. She came to school about two days late and was very contrite. Funny what sticks in your mind after all these years.

Now, of course, we are into Jazz and more classical music. My daughter is talking about taking the boys to Paint Ball, and I am trying to talk her into getting them taught music. I guess she wants them rough and tumble so that they grow up as men and not effeminate. Being a single Mum is not easy when you have boys. I don't think the boys care either way other than they will be doing something better than being at home.

This is our Oleander bush growing outside the front of the house and near the front paddock. I like Oleander, because it is so pretty, but it is poisonous to animals if they eat it. But none of our
animals are ever that hungry. We have privet and Lantana as well which will make animals sick
as well. None of them show the slightest interest in eating any of it.

What you must do next ...

I was going to make this into a grand political rant, but really, I can't get up the enthusiasm. What sounds good in my thinking doesn't translate so well into blogspeak. lol.

Anyhow, since we have a Labor Government, just to remind you, the following are important:

Global Warming - that is what is making it so freezing cold around here. Understand?
Villification - the only people you can villify anymore are white people.
Standardisation - a mediocre education is better than a good education.
Atheism - is the new black.
Gay people - are the next step forward in human evolution.

And if you do not toe the line, you are a card carrying member of the forces of Darkness. Do I make myself clear?

Ah, the joys of social democracy ...