Felicitations and Salutations

Merry 25th December - whatever that means to you.

Apologies {yawn} for the brevity. I'm off to the airport shortly to collect M. Teddy tout nu.

Regardless of any religious affiliations, 25th December means I get to spend 10 days straight with my loved one.  And I'm quite OK with that :)

Hmmm driving to the airport on less than 4 hours sleep - is it love or masochism?

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As performed by the cast of Scrubs.

Needs Sound. Language is not always child-friendly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Of_mna-Rs&eurl=&feature=player_embedded

WTF ???

From the ABC newsletter emailed this afternoon:

"Doctor Who fans are in for a treat when ABC TV screens the highly anticipated 2008 Doctor Who Christmas Special on Sunday January 25 at 7.30pm, on ABC 1.  Doctor Who: The Next Doctor will screen in the UK on Christmas Day, December 25, and will then be fast-tracked via tardis to Australia. "

Fast tracked.  A whole month - 31 days - fast tracked ?????

Maybe 10 years ago?  Maybe even five years ago ?????

But in an era where we are bombarded with stupid shows like Desperate Housewives within DAYS after they air in the States - the Beeb and Aunty still can't manages anything less than a month.

Now I like my Who.  I'm not a fanatic - I don't have Who-related material all over my house nor can I recite entire episodes off by heart .... but I like my Who.  I especially like knowing "what's going to happen".

I *know* I will be receiving cryptic tweets and texts while it is being screen in the UK.   I know Australian friends who will be scanning Peer-to-Peer sites and You Tube within hours of it being screened.

And TV Executives are still heralding 31 days as fast tracked ....

Meh ...

Claire posts mystery blogs where we go and and comment and its organic ....

I wonder if I can post a "cheer me up blog" ??  Any bad jokes? Links to humorous pictures? Anything to get up out of the blahs ...

I'm at work - its three days before Christmas and I'm only here for my paycheck.  My good staff are on holidays and I am surrounded my naysayers and doom prophets and obstinate old biddies who wont do a lick of work and I have no backup from management to force them to pull their socks up.

Its so demoralising and my positivity techniques are just not working.

Any suggestions?  Aside from visualizing said team members becoming acquainted with the myriad of ways to die via interesting weaponry ....

Disemboweled by a spoon?
Having their brain eaten by Claire's slugs with 27,000 teeth ....

And Third One

Heh heh heh !!!

Snuck this one in under the radar didn't I

claireej

 

And this one

Also received a phone call from my Dad today.

"Joe's hanging on the wall"

I suspect this is Dad-speak for "thank you dear - I like him very much".

Phew - two presents received and well-liked.  Three to go :)
 

Present well received

I can post this here now.

Present has been received and apparently well liked.

I beleive hearing an 18 year old coffee addicted Goth Girl going Squee down a phone is a good sign.

I have also been told that I will die a painful death if I ever mention said Goth Girl did anything as un-Goth-like as going Squee ...

She loves the sentiment, the tombstone colouring and the over the top Gothic border.  This thing ending up freaking huge for a small present - its 50 x 65 x 7cm.

It apparently hanging up in her bedroom and she's texting all her friends about it and bemoaning the dead batteries in her camera.

I suspect I did good :) :)

The Power of the Library!

Walking down the local main street today, other people looked through me or didn't notice me at all.

Walking back in the opposite direction 20 minutes later with an armload of library books, I received nods and smiles from the same sets of people .....

I picked up:
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
The latest JD Robb
The latest PD James and
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Now - do I continue making the house ready for guests or do I stop and read.

Decisions decisions .....

It is a truth universally acknowledged ...

Well alright its two truths that are pertinent to me that I always need reminding ....

* Housework is a heck of lot more fun when done to loud rock music

* I am soooo much less stressed in a clean and tidy environment.

This is a general statement about living quarters, kitchen and wok places.  It does not relate in any way to creative endeavors which must appease the Gods of Chaos before anything meaningful can be accomplished.

Living in a city

Up until now I have actively resisted living in a large city (well when Sydney is your only reference point - why wouldn't you).

In the last few months I have come to appreciate, with almost childlike glee some of the benefits of inner-city living.

I mean yes there's the "I can get to work in less than 15 minutes" but I'm talking the real fun stuff.

Walking home from work eating a home made gelati from a hole in the wall shop on the way.

Just walking up Lygon Street past all the outdoor cafes watching decor change and nodding with the waiters.

Being able to walked a few blocks closer into town and watch international bike riders do circuits of the Lygon City precinct one weekend.

Feeling the ambiance of walking through a crowd of people on a Thurday and Friday night, the crowd being relaxed and simply looking forward to a night of good food and good company.

Tonight while I was on the phone to a friend I heard Christmas Carols bring played by a brass band.  It was a couple of minutes after 7pm so I thought I had messed up at 2am this morning and set my alarm for 7pm instead of 7am.  No the music was coming from outside.

The Salvation Army was walking around the local streets busking.  Whenever they got a crowd they stopped and played a carol or two and then moved on.

At one point they stopped right at the end of my street.  I couldn't get to them without losing phone coverage :)  so I stood in my yard and watched them and both my friend on the other end of the phone and I listened to them.

I now feel more mellow and full of Christmas spirit than I have in years.

And I have had neither a drop to drink nor any companionship other than the cat.  

I love living here.

MUST READ Blog !!!

http://ursulav.livejournal.com/840106.html

No matter what else is going on I must read Ursula's blog every morning.  I usually have tears of laughter and insane giggling.  There is the occasional pathos and tears of sadness - but regardless. 

READ HER BLOG!  Put it on your RSS feed.  It will gladden your soul!

Oh and her artwork is awesome!  I need more money to buy more of it.
http://www.metalandmagic.com/index.php

Power to the Cookie !!!!

Lust List - Charts A-E

Dark Side of the Moon Designs
http://www.darksideofthemoon.com.au/

OK after 750 pictures in one album I finally broke Multiply. Lust List Charts are now spread over multiple albums :)

Note: Please do not ask me to send charts to you electronically; I respect and adhere to copyright laws, and in so doing, to send you an electronically reproduced chart would put me and you in violation of those laws.

Lust List - Charts F-M

Forever in my Heart
http://www.foreverinmyheart.com/index.htm

OK after 750 pictures in one album I finally broke Multiply. Lust List Charts are now spread over multiple albums :)

Note: Please do not ask me to send charts to you electronically; I respect and adhere to copyright laws, and in so doing, to send you an electronically reproduced chart would put me and you in violation of those laws.

Hey Karen !!!!

Is this Lucy ???

http://www.maniacworld.com/dog-having-a-blast-in-the-snow.html

Christmas - getting there

Finally have all the shopping done.  Everything to be posted has been wrapped and all bar one last box has been posted.  This box will be posted express post tomorrow. 

All that's left now is to wait for one present for S to turn up in the mail and to pick one up off lay-by for A tomorrow.  Wrap both and presents are finished.

Now onto making the house habitable for three people, decorating and buying food.

The above is a treat I bought myself while at the markets this evening.  I bought exactly what I needed to for presents and nothing more - except the treat :)  It is a gluten-free chocolate cake ad I have never seen a gf done up so prettily before.  It reminded me of illustrations out of old Enid Blyton books about fairy cakes and afternoon teas :)

I forgot my phone can take pictures so I brought the cake home through a crowded market then on a very crowded tram - so it got a bit squished.  Tasted delicious though.

Time for bed.

Romance Question

OK I *know* a lot of you read Romance ... so:

This comic has me intrigued:
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1281

The actual books in question are here:
http://www.sandrahill.net/

So .... who's read them and what do you think?

Xmas 2008

Kay sent me such a cute cat card and a gorgeous Erte calendar!

Presents, cards, Zombie tree etc for Christmas 2008

When is a crisis a crisis?

As M. de Ours Nus is aware I've been battling a few mini-crises in the last couple of weeks.

1. My new iphone broke and I was informed it would take 4-6 weeks to fix.
2. My electricity was turned off last week because after 2.5 months my service provider had not connected my account.
3. One of my stitched projects came out a bit bigger than anticipated and the initial postage/courier quote was over $200.00

1. Was, thanks to an Apple retail store, fixed within 15 minutes the next day I had off work.
2. Was, thanks to the Energy and Water Ombudsman's office, reconnected at 8:30pm the next night.
3. Was, thanks to some advice from Australian Air Express, posted for $11.50.

So my crises have caused a slight panic and many many hours on the telephone getting the right advice and all is now well.  I kinda felt a bit silly about getting overwrought by such issues that were ultimately, resolved in a short period of time and quite to my satisfaction.

Then I get to work today. We have a whole of unit afternoon tea scheduled for this afternoon.  We meet, the manager tells us we did good, we eat.  Everyone brings a plate.

The place is in an uproar!  Person X bought their food instead of making it!  Persons P & Q both bought chocolate cakes !!!  This should have been planned better - there should have been a spreadsheet !!!!!

Huh?  I work on the assumption everyone brings what they themselves want to eat.  So if all 30 people turn up with packets of Tim Tams then I assume every one of those 30 people want to eat Tim Tams ....   How?  Why is this a crisis?

Do I need to give my section more work to do?  Less work?  Are they that overwrought with "Getting it RIGHT for Christmas (tm)"?

Hmmm - in the spirit of reducing overwroughtness this season I will no longer fret about Hector II the Zombie Christmas Tree.

Hector didn't make the transition interstate too well and most of his needles died.  He's been re-potted and fed fertilizer etc and he's starting to get new shoots.  Frankly he looks ghastly!  This is the very best picture I could take of him - all the other pics were worse.

But I'm not going to stress.  I'm not going to fret and compromise my principles and buy a cut tree.  Instead, on Christmas Eve I will bring Hector inside and pretty him up as best I can and laugh with my Christmas Day companions on how appropriate it is for us to be sharing a Zombie Christmas Tree.

I wonder if we could get Jonathan Coulton to write a song: Oh Zombie Tree, Oh Zombie Tree ...

WIP - Vienna Ball

Cover pic. Need to change the background fabric.

Group files started first of December 2008. Kit arrived early January. Thanks for help in fabric selection.

Mel's Sunday Update

Not much stitching at all done this week I'm afraid.  Busy at work, Christmas things, power outage and migraines all conspired against me :)

The only stitching I did this week was this cute little small.  After all of the gift stitching I thought I'd add one tiny piece in for myself.  I actually stitched just about all of this on Thursday afternoon/evening sitting in my front garden waiting for the electricity to come back on.

Good?  Is in my 2008 Finished Album.

Also in there are the framed versions of Coffin Buzz and Verdi.

Zoom in on Coffin Buzz - I am quite pleased how this monster came out.  It is huge by the way - 20" x 24".  I had no idea this little piece would frame up so big.

The framer was fast - he framed all four pieces within a week - but I left the other two pieces there until next payday so I can finish paying for them:)

Only other news is I'm now subscribed to this and Debbie so very kindly RAKed me with the kit minus the fabric.  Mariann - want to SAL with us on this one? 

This week I'm back to BoInk trying to stay ahead of the pack while getting through a full workweek, preparing the house for visitors and doing the last of the Christmas shopping .... arrrrgh!

Now back to your regularly scheduled serenity ....

Logistics - yer doin it wrong

The picture on the left is Verdi for my Dad.  Framed it comes in at around 8"x11".  Standard size for a gift.

The picture on the right is Coffin Buzz, a present for Jane.  This comes in at 5 times the size of a normal present.  Now I know I know I went overboard with framing but Jane is a coffee-addicted 18 year old Goth Girl and I deliberately went over the top with the frame and keeping the colours somber.

But this thing is HUGE!  Its 50cm x 63cm.  Or 19.5" x 24".  I took it to Australia Post and their response was to back away with admin speak for "no fucking way".

I think I'm going to need to courier this thing.

Now the framing of this little present did turn out to be one of only two expensive presents I bought this year ... but it just seems to get more expensive every time I think about it.

I think I need to think presents through more in future .....


Oh PS, better pictures are in Finished 2008 folder and are zoomable.

Tantrum - feel free to ignore

http://europeanxs.com/online.html

I WANTZ IT !!!!

OK I know I've put myself on a self-imposed stash diet ....

I missed seeing this one before and I REALLY want it.

Not buying the kit really hurts ....

I have the money this pay but it needs to go on other things to reduce my debts.

But I REALLY want this one.

Wonder if its too late to ask Santa for a Christmas present? (hmmm no chimney, no stocking ... no belief in anthropomorphic Coke advertisements - could be an issue!)

If any unexpected and therefore unbudgeted money comes through in the next few months - the cash is going on the kit for this.

I've broken my promise already by subscribing to the chart ....  I'll collect the chart pieces for now.

{pout}

Cat Porn .....

http://www.thecatshouse.com/index.htm

I am never showing this to Trubs ....

She'd probably go and hunt down a builder .....

Big Cats and Pumpkins

via my beloved's LJ:

http://nakedteddybears.livejournal.com/386214.html

Awww - this really made my day :)

Family

Yes I am an Auntie again apparently.

I sent a gift and it was very much "squee-ed" over.

Christmas presents sent for both offspring.  Auntie duties over for another year.

Meme - Scattergories

SCATTERGORIES. ..it's harder than it looks!  

Have fun -  COPY all , PASTE it in a new form, erase my answers, enter yours, send it on.  
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up!   
 
Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. 
   

 

WHAT IS YOUR NAME:	Mel
BOY NAME	Matthew
4 LETTER WORD:	Mate!
GIRL NAME:	Melusina
OCCUPATION:	Mechanic
A COLOR:	Mauve
SOMETHING YOU WEAR:	Mittens
BEVERAGE:	Milk
FOOD:	Melon
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM:	Masking Tape (what else do you hold light fittings together with)
A PLACE :	Melbourne, Australia {grin}
REASON FOR BEING LATE:	Making Out
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT:	MOVE!

  -its harder than you think!!

No - not really ....

This is ridiculous !!!

It's December. Why is it cold enough that I'm wearing a jacket to work and wishing for the umteenth million time that I had bought gloves this winter? I'm freezing and my hands feel like blocks of ice.

One for the crochet people

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17297175

Have a look at their other dolls too ....

I really need to get this pair - and send one up to Sean - whenever we discuss Mythbusters he takes Jamie's side and I'm with Adam :)

Phones AGAIN

Just heard from Dad.

His phone has died - so he's asked for my old one.  He doesn't know the saga of the new phone yet.  So I've cleaned out my old phone and I'm posting to him today.

PLEASE DELETE THE OLD PHONE NUMBER FROM YOUR LISTS!

Unless you WANT to talk to my Dad.

I can still receive txts and phone calls on my new phone - I just can't reply or ring out until tomorrow when it gets fixed.

Male dominated Retail

I wasn't going to blog about this but I just had to.

As some of you know I've been having hardware issues with my iphone.  We bought it Monday, the touchpad developed a dead strip on Friday and I've been trying to find where/how to get it fixed since Saturday.

We bought it at a retail outlet, not direct from the Telco.  This was a retail chain that both Mr Bears and I have used before on a regular basis and quite appreciated their levels of customer service.

When we bought the phone on Monday in Perth they were their usual wonderful service.  I flew home that day.

Friday I discovered that my touchpad was developing a dead zone, where the finger pressing wasn't working.  This went straight over the settings button and the keypad, so I couldn't text or type in new numbers etc etc.

On Saturday I went to a local outlet of the retail store and was told "you didn't buy from this outlet, we can't help you".

I went straight to my Telco's outlet, who told me they couldn't help me, I had to put all my enquiries through the retail outlet, as I didn't buy the phone direct from the Telco.

I came home, rang the Perth outlet.  The manager apologised and said he would find me a friendly Melbourne outlet and call me straight back.

Saturday came and went.  Monday came and went.  I rang three times in Tuesday, twice the Manager was not in yet, the third time he was in but informed me his computer network was down.  He would ring me as soon as it was back up.

Tuesday went.  Wednesday came and went.  I skipped lunch today because I was in back to back meetings, so I left early at 3pm and visited another outlet of this retail store.

Waited for over 30 minutes while the two lackeys couldn't help me - I had to talk to the manager apparently. He was too busy chatting up the just out of high school lollipops.  Every time I said "excuse me, I've been waiting here" I got a got a "you will wait. I will get to you".  I was patient.  I waited  and endured this treatment for another 20 mins.  Then I blasted him.  I completely told him exactly what I thought of him and the way he ran his store and the way he treated his customers.  He shrugged, turned his back on me, and continued chatting up the lollipops.

I seethed all the way home.  Rang the Head Office who listened and then said "we'll put your through to Melbourne Area Manager".  That's it. Not apology, no explanations, nothing.

I went through it all again with the local area Manager.  His only response was "well those are the only two stores on your side of town, which one do you want to return to?"  He also informed me that I needed to return the phone to them. They would post it to the Telco to check and fix and then it would be returned to me.  It would take 4-5 weeks and I would not be getting a replacement phone.

I hung up and rang my Telco.

The first operator could barely understand English and kept asking me to repeat myself, so I asked to speak to his supervisor. He hung up on me.

I rang back and got a different operator.  After to-ing and fro-ing for over 30 minutes, me pointing out that I've been a customer for over 10 years, I will be writing to the Telecommunications Ombudsman and the local news media, I was pushed up the chain to someone who told me that I should go to directly to an Apple authorised repairer.  This operator gave me his name and extension number, and he's waiving the contract costs for the time I am without a phone.

I rang a local Apple Authorised Repairer who informed me that he can repair and service every single Apple product except the iphone.  Apple will not let their authorised repairers repair or sell iphones in Australia.  This is an Apple US decision and he gave me Apple Australia's number so I could confirm this for myself.  He did offer to look at my iphone free of charge tomorrow morning  and at least determine for certain that my problem is a hardware issue.

I rang Apple Australia and went through to their iphone support centre. It transpires that all iphone purchasers in Australia automatically qualify for 90 free service direct from Apple.  Gee the Telco's never mention this !!!

He talked me through restoring factory settings on the handset and other limited diagnostics (difficult when I can't access half the buttons because of the dead zone - including the Settings button!)

He then determined it is definitely a hardware issue and made an appointment for me to see a Mac Genius (yes that is their official title) at the Apple Retail store on the other side of Melbourne on Friday morning.  They will test my phone and confirm the diagnosis and replace my phone free of charge then and there.

So I've gone from "Sorry can't help you" to "send it to Perth who will send it to the Telco and it will take 4-5 weeks" to "we'll have you back up and running within 15 minutes of you being able to visit the Apple store".

Now if I could just get over my unreasoning desire to castrate the managers of the retail outlets, I think everything would be fine.

Moral of this story:  Never go into an outlet of only male staff without a great looking woman beside you.

Fact -gathering information:  Every iphone purchaser in Australia is entitled to 90 days free iphone support direct from apple.  If your phone plays up within the first 90 days, ignore the telco and go straight to Apple!

It only took me 2.5 hours this afternoon, five days after the phone broke, four days after we bought it, to discover this.