29 June, 2008

Meanderings ...

Well, the sister came over yesterday and we had a pleasant afternoon. I have moved things around in the garage so that I can do my sewing and crafts out there. We sat at the big table the daughter and I had moved from the house. We drank tea in her case, and coffee in mine, and chatted. The kids watched a movie the daughter had rented and then they played happily enough outside.

Today I got in and sorted the rest out, my boiler iron and ironing board, my sewing machine and started a small project. It gets very cold out there at night, or I would be out there now. When the weather warms up some, I will take the laptop out and spend evenings in there as well.

The old person is a bit miffed the car doesn't fit in, but he has better peace and quiet for watching the idiot box. There is less noise as the daughter has her computer in another room and I don't invade anymore. So in most ways it has worked out well.

I will be documenting the small project on my craft blog because I am doing it as a tutorial on a type of quilting not often seen anymore.

I have some news, and that is I am not going to finish my course this year. I have been suffering depression for a while now and it has got to the stage where it is zapping all my concentration. It is why I haven't been blogging as regularly as I had planned. I have not abandoned my studies, just delaying till I move - the course is offered in other states as well. I can finish there, as well as here, but hopefully a move will help put the black dog to sleep. What little focus I have has to go into my job and just generally living. The delay will also give me impetus to keep on and do the rest of the course as I am still determined to do the Diploma as well. I haven't failed any of my subjects, in fact I have a couple of credits and at least one distinction that I can think of at the top of my head.

So there it is, I have said it, make of it what you will ...

28 June, 2008

Aliens ...

I have just updated Alien Thoughts. Wow, totally blows you away what some people can convince governments to do. Creepy to think that could happen here in Australia too.

Labour Government = vested interest and denial of the right to make fun of the lunatic fringe.

'nuff said.

26 June, 2008

Seriously ...

So tonight was last class for the Semester and we had an exam. I had a resit on Tuesday which surprisingly enough, I think I passed. lol. However, one of the other people from my class last year had a resit which the teacher said he could do with our class tonight. He is an Iraqi and a very nice man. He also has a good sense of humour and likes to try to understand Australian humour.

The teacher told him to sit away from us, as we can be a pretty rowdy group. We had to wait for the last remnants to rock up before he would give us our papers, but let the guy start his.

There is a Fijian Indian guy in my class. He takes many liberties "because he can" with what he says, does and believes. Mostly he is just silly and has a strange sense of humour. I have gotten on okay with him, because he isn't dull. But tonight while we were waiting and the Iraqi guy had started his exam, the Fijian guy started going on about Muslims. I don't know if the Iraqi guy is Muslim or not, (although I think he is). What was being said was rude and not necessary. The teacher did not pick him up on this, which I guess he wasn't sure how to react. Anyhow, I just turned around and said to him, do you mind not going on about that stuff here. He said to me, I didn't know you were a Muslim. I replied, I am not, but what you are saying is not appropriate here.

I am probably never going to set eyes on them again, as they had only joined the course to learn PHP, which we have finished now. Next semester we go on to learn Javascript and some other stuff. But honestly, they just made me so cranky.

I have met many Muslims in my time, both in my work, which is in a high Muslim area in Sydney, my leisure - Darley bent over backwards to make me and my horse welcome when we bred Eternal Strangers - and I know Princess Alia of Jordan a bit through one of my forums and a few others. I have never, ever had one Muslim be rude to me or show any sort of disrespect. When I worked in the Automotive section of my TAFE, the young guys used to call me Miss. When the daughter did TAFE courses, her immediate friends in her class were Muslim women, who always were nice to her.

You would be hard pressed to get me to say anything bad about them.

Yeah, it is a while since I last blogged. I have been doing other things, like study and working on my assignments. I will probably be a while before I publish again while I finish of the clearing and cleaning project and the last of my assignments. I shall return. With some news, I think.

16 June, 2008

The Empress' New Clothes ....

Yup, we finally got Her Ladyship a new rug and a new halter. She looks so chuffed. She didn't like the smell of them when we first took them out to her. A carrot soon fixed that. She was happy enough to let the old person and the daughter put it on her and do up the straps. Then she was miffed that no carrot was forthcoming to reward her for just standing there.



Where she stands is where she can see everything from all angles, the road, the house (there might be a carrot) and the stable area out the back. She can see our comings and goings, even pegging out the clothesline and the boys when they go out and play. She sincerely believes it is her duty to watch them. She will stand for hours, not grazing, not moving, maybe swishing a fly with her tail. She dozes off. Even if we go out in the car she does not move.

It is somewhat neurotic behaviour, partly having been a stable horse since she was very young and partly because she has no other equine company.

We were lucky, as the horse equipment shop was having a sale at the time we go it, and it was quite inexpensive. Her name is Blue Bell Babe, so a blue rug is quite fitting.

Work has been much the same, although I have hardly seen the Boss for the past two weeks. He has been off on personal matters for one week and doing work related things off Campus the other week. I have been to classes but skipped one. Lucky for me that I did, as there has been a virus going around the IT section computers that kills USB sticks. All my classwork is on mine, and I have not had enough sense to have backed it up recently. When they ran mine through the detector program, it said mine was clear, yet everyone else in the class had it. I was away for one class and that was when they got it. Still, it gave them a closer time period for the onset of the virus and now they are able to treat it. Actually, I think it might have been a Trojan. Creepy. The weird thing about it all, was that until I had my USB stick checked, I felt as though I had some disease. Not to a great extent, just a bit of a grubby feeling. lol.

I get my sewing machine back tomorrow, and I have been madly doing the last of the cleaning up. There are still large boxes to check what goodies they contain, but I have a feeling most of the stuff is junk we can toss. The recycle bin has been full every fortnight it has gone out. I still have things that I am working on that need a temporary home till they are finished. But so much has been done that I don't mind having to wait a couple of weeks to get the other storage units for them.

Before I moved here, I salvaged about 10 shoe boxes and covered them with Contac. I filled them with ornaments and glasswear. Now there are some trades in them, stuff I have received in trade for stuff I have made and sent to other people. So those will have to be rehoused to so I can repack my ornaments and glasswear. We moved here in September 2003 and so it will be over five years when we leave at the end this year.

It is a lovely location and I would have loved to have lived here longer, but the place is not maintained by the "Landlord" because eventually the place will be bulldozed to make way for a highway. They have been talking about this highway for over 20 years, so the locals tell me, so whenever it will be. The place is also full of termites and may fall down before it is bulldozed. We have asked repeatedly for work to be done - basic maintenance and it is never done, so we have little choice but to move on.

So that is all for just now ....

09 June, 2008

Clearing and Cleaning ...

One day on one of the yahoo groups I am in, we posted photos of our work space to see who had the messiest. I was convinced I would win, because I just move things around till I work on a space barely six inches square, at times. No, they told, me. You have nothing on your chair, you can still sit down. Yes there are people who have a worse mess than me, but not many.

So the day came I decided I had better do some slum clearance. The daughter has offered to have my sewing machine serviced for me, so I need to get in and sew. I am actually excited at the prospect. I joined a fabric craft network recently and feel that it will help me extend myself a little which is what I need.

So the table is getting cleared and cleaned. I had to layby some drawer units to enable that. I have loads of things for my papercrafting and scrapbooking so having a nice neat, clean place to keep it is a necessity really. What I need is a similar thing for my sewing ephemera, and I saw K-mart had some nice units for around $80. They are only plastic and for a few $$$ more I could probably get some nice chipboard/wooden ones. I would love to see Ikea, but getting there is more trouble than it is worth. Randwick or Homebush, both involve train and bus trips so I couldn't exactly carry heavy stuff with me. The old person, will drive to Randwick for the races but will not drive there for any other reason (go figure). But who always moans and complains about the mess?

This will leave me with more room so that I can cut and sew to my heart's content, and use the papercraft stuff when making art dolls. I have several ideas I am itching to try.

The other cleaning out was my RSS Reader, on Google. For whatever reason, it does not read properly on the Daughter's computer and will reinsert items I have already looked at. I have gone through on my laptop using up some wireless time to do it, so that I know they stay "read".

The entire house could use a bit of a scrub and I might get in and do some vacuuming tomorrow if I feel in the mood.

ciao ...

06 June, 2008

Unethical ...

So the daughter got phoned to say she had a job, as I mentioned in my last post. So she is very excited and hopeful of a new life for her and the grandsons. You can imagine her utter despair when the woman rang back to say that because the old boss is leaving, they are not able to put her on after all. Is that not the most pathetic and incredible brainless thing you have ever heard in your life (well, maybe the second most brainless)?

Disappointment and anger do not begin to describe how we all felt.

There isn't anything to be done, either. Placating words, of "oh, she will get another job", etc., will not get her another job. Neither does it alter the fact that we are leaving at the end of the year and some work experience would have been such a confidence builder for her new life.

I have endured another three days at work which does not put me in a better mood for blogging. So I had better go ...

02 June, 2008

Moving right along ...

The daughter finally got a job! She is so excited. It is working in a shop selling things. The interviewer said she wanted someone with no experience so that they could train the person to their way and not have to untrain them, if you get my drift. She doesn't start for another month, but it is a good step in the right direction.

Dramas :

After the major fiasco with Telstra and my laptop, I now have one brewing by Optus and my ancient mobile phone. We have decided in the family to all use Vodaphone. So the sister got a new phone and went with them from scratch, the daughter has been with them for a while and so I thought I would do it as well. Should be just able to go buy a Vodaphone SIM card, plonk it in and away we go?

You have got to be kidding. The SIM card was rejected. Phone Optus and the voice recognition software does not work very well. So I ring a local branch, but no, one is required to ring the voice recognition software. At my age, this is not a good thing. I do not have the patience. So the daughter knows how to trick this stuff into connecting to a real person. In India or some other third world call centre. I have to push keys on my phone, give them the serial number. Okay, not exactly rocket science. If he has it on his computer, he can give me the code over the phone (yeah, right) otherwise I will get an SMS message within 10 working days. Does anyone seriously believe their number is on his computer?

Now, the thing is, when you are in a Third World call centre, you are not going to give much of a shit about the problems of a person living in a First World country, are you? So it is the 2nd June today, let's just see how long I have to wait? Who is betting against 10 whole days?

It is raining ...

So Her Ladyship was really annoyed I was late with breakfast this morning (imagine looking at watch and going "What time do you call this?"). She has a choice of three dry stables and she was sopping wet. Stupid horse. It wasn't really all that cold out, so I imagine that didn't bother her all that much.

Fairly quiet weekend. My DVD for yesterday was Event Horizon. I had seen it before, and I do not know what possessed me to borrow it again. It isn't a bad movie, and the FTL theory is okay, (ye kenna break the laws of physics) and it starts off well. Even the idea of the ship having gone beyond the universe is okay, but to Hell? That is where I think they lost the plot. Why couldn't it have some nice/positive connotation just for once? Why do SF writers bother with this religious stuff?

Sam Neill is a delicious baddy. He is a superb actor and brings quality to anything he is in, so with a plot like that, it looses credibility very quickly. But then, you would also have to ask yourself, Why would such a good actor take on that sort of role. Oh Well. I should have stuck with the daughter's DVD, Predator, with the Governator in it. (lol). It didn't even pretend to be something it wasn't.

I did seriously try to watch Gatacca again, really I did. No amount of talking will ever convince me it is a classic or even worth watching again. Anyone who wants it can PM me and I will post it to you. Solaris is on video and once the VRC dies, that is it for Solaris as well. Whoever came up with this list has their brains in their undies.

Gotta go do something ...