you are idiots

At Gladstone Park shops brotherhood bin.

coughin' and splutterin'

I remember Dannii Minogue once telling me that the kids from YTT used to all come down with colds as soon as the last show of the season finished taping. Li'l troupers. I am the same, though not as li'l, as I developed a very stupid cold the minute I stopped work for the year. It is a pissy illness which mainly manifests (god, has that been my word for the year or what, it seems I can't open my mouth without the word 'manifest' coming out, it must be monkey see monkey do) in feeling every morning like I have been working in the hay barn i.e. very dry, sore throat and blocked nose. By later in the day I feel cruisey and have tended to think it will go away. Now I realise it will not go away and I plainly have a truly vile disease which will never, ever, ever leave me. At least till I go back to work.

A couple of days ago Mia and I went to see Happy Feet at Broady plaza. One shock was to see a cinema at Broady Hoyts with actually more than three humans in it. Of course it looked grand on the big screen, I suppose after a few days mulling it over I feel that the actual storyline was a bit compressed at the end and anyway, animals communicate with people all the time to say 'why are you doing these terrible things?' and it's not like humans drop everything and fix it all. Still, pretty great film.

Melbourne weather the last few days has been manifestly bizarre, with the coldest Christmas day on record, and minor rain every day since, not enough to do anything about the water reserves of course. It hailed on Xmas day when we were at my sister's house. It rained at least once in the evening too I think as we were going to my father's. I have finally learnt to spell my niece's name: Niamh. I just think of Mrs. Frisby and the rAts of NIMH and it all manifests. If you think I am thereby comparing my niece to a rat, then I feel sorry for you.

charles schulz was on the money

At least I do recall a Peanuts strip in which Snoopy became unfeasibly relaxed... as Charlie is here. I am still having trouble sleeping, but looking forward very much to the end of the week, year, etc. Did some Christmas shopping which was not soothing at all. JB had a Stones live concert from last year or recently anyway playing full bore at the doorway and it wasn't pleasant. Inside they were playing Prince which was slightly more pleasant (come to think of it, weren't they playing Prince in the cafe at the student union? Yes, yes they were).

I had an awkward conversation with the youngster at the counter re: my pink credit card, which Mia has made me self-conscious about. I was sort of saying I was surprise by it when it came in the mail, suggesting I found it a little de trop, he was sort of praising it I think. But all these conversations are split-seconders not worth analysing, ay.

restless weekend

I spent the whole weekend a half-hour late (or a little more but usually just half an hour). I was late to meet Brad at the railway museum and I was late to the save Harold Holt pool demo. We were kind of late for the Chapter/Trifekta christmas show on Saturday night though saw most of a very good Minimum Chips show and so on. I am about three months late in my christmas shopping though frankly everyone you're probably not going to get much from me at christmas except my fondest wishes and respect. Anyway I didn't sleep well on Sat or Sun and certainly not this morning. Being woken up at 4:30 to take a rat-sized ailing dog outside to piss should be more soothing than it is. On the upside I went to Ceres and bought a japanese tree and a chili plant. One is in the front yard, and one is in the back. I planted them myself.

a very Jacana christmas

We are more sedate and minimalist round our way

a very Altona christmas

How beautiful is this - from front yard of Altona house last week. And god bless you every one.

if I was getting into unfunny standup, I'd start with this

Does this ever happen to you? I keep thinking it's 2007, but at the same time I STILL often start writing dates with '19...' - well, it's a thousand year habit, you can't just break it in seven years. I mean 6.

I was looking at some kindergartens in Altona during the week and a couple had murals celebrating 40 years. I took this to mean they were established in the 50s. The next day I figured it out.

problem solved

I contacted Blogger and they said Beta wouldn't work if there were a disproportionate number of dog pictures if the person operating the blog also had a cat. I said what if they had, e.g., a fish or a bird, and Blogger told me to get knotted! Here is a picture of Bela yesterday recovering from a 41 degree day with one of his favourite behaviours, pretending to be interested in things.

notes and reflections from my time in brisbane (about three days ago)

Well peeps it’s been a heady week here in Brisbane. I have attended three days of a most interesting conference at UQ, seen two owls, had some utterly harrowing driving experiences, taken the ferry five times, and spent time with some most charming people and probably dominated conversations with nonsense but who cares or knows. Or notices probably. Unless they’re on some other head trip.

Today (Friday 8 Dec) is the first day here – and this summer is already notorious even if it hasn’t happened yet – that it does seem really Brisbane summery. It’s only supposed to make 27 (whereas Melbourne has been quite a lot hotter the whole week – the only time in my life I can recall, when a change of location has been in my favour weatherwise). (Later: I think it got much hotter than 27 – I certainly did, anyway).

The college I am staying in for the duration (Mia urged me to get a hotel on the last day and I think this is sensible in some respects but ultimately just too much of a hassle considering I spend almost no time here and moving would also take time) is a full-on dump, I think I am actually the only person in this building (not right now, as there are painters across the corridor) and the first thing that struck me was the similarity between the corridors with their empty rooms like everyone had got out fast and The Shining, which is typical of my hysterical nature, but there were visual similarities. My accommodation does seem a bit like a public toilet. And I don’t think I could even really say ‘at least it’s clean’, so I won’t. They put on breakfast and dinner, I have only attended breakfast (this morning I couldn’t face it) which is stodgy baie marie fayre, I see it as a portent that dinner will not meet my delicate requirements.

I would like to here add some positive buts but there aren’t any, except I suppose, I’m not paying for it. Oh, there is air conditioning, which ironically hasn’t been all that important. Well, anyway, there’s no particular need for me to express on this subject. I am OK with it.

Yesterday I rescued a beetle on its back which was showing a great capacity to propel itself around despite its obvious problem. The UQ campus is great for wildlife, and a couple of nights ago while walking two colleagues back to their colleges (I had been disturbed to discover there is a ‘safety bus’ operating at night on campus, which indicates that walking around is an unsafe activity, so once my colleagues were returned to their quarters, I felt most uneasy by myself, but you know what? I lived) we saw two owls of different species in the one tree, and by myself I saw some unusual and unafraid herony birds poking around in the bushes, also there are literally (measurable) tonnes of ducks, geese, etc.

Later Friday – What a day of strange happenings. I saw a Dutch architecture lecture, was ripped off by a second hand record dealer (the swings of my yesterday roundabout when I scored an immensely valuable [and not just to me] album by Procession for cheap) and destroyed the computer catalogue at the State Library of Qld out of pure malition. I took a ferry and ate a felafel roll with cheese in it. I had a peach and apple juice and bought some socks (didn’t bring enough but you know me, any excuse to buy socks – the only thing I envy about Prince Charles is he always wears the best socks and he only wears them once). I took some photographs of the former Toowong library and drank three coffees.

I have good things to say, as you know, about all the state capitals. I was driving in Brisbane on the first day and that took years off my life, literally years. But it is a beautiful city, and some of its people are exceptionally charming. There is too much good food (I have doubled my mass since Monday) and also, too much bad food (nevertheless…). The Courier Mail is not to my taste, and I have read the Australian all week, and it's not either. But overall, it’s been a cool week in a hottish place, and I aim to be back within six months looking for more good times.

Saturday morning – well I went up to the South St Lucia shops, which has become my very familiar hang this week but which I imagine I may never visit again, and read the Australian and had a coffee. I had two dumbarse conversations going on either side of me. Family at next table all enlightened, mother father three kids under 10, father ‘I shouldn’t read the paper it’s very antisocial of me’ middle boy (around 7/ 8) ‘it’s very, very antisocial! Even though I don’t know what that means… (plaintive) what does antisocial mean?’ they all laugh, ugh. On the other side 40 year old boy with chick’s voice, slender figure grills friend about how much he reads. Boy obviously struggling to make conversation (friend clearly just wants to read the paper!) on a topic, reading, he is not that clear on. ‘Did you really read all those newspapers you had yesterday? And now you’ve got more!’ etc. Wife/ partner presumably of friend comes to table, early middle age, a fixed grimace smile on her face that looks like she’s put rubber bands around her head, has now to make conversation also with the boy, it is excruciating. Meanwhile, people, I am trying to read an unconvincing 2/3 of a page in the Australian magazine about Mike Brady’s 1980s battle with alcoholism, and Ruth Ostrow’s delightful unintentional counterpoint about irresponsible drunken youths.

I had gone out with no shoes on and a shirt with a pineapple on the pocket. I thought this would make me blend in with the natives but apparently they don’t let their feet touch the soil here, and nor do they pledge their allegiance to growable fruits so obviously. I mean who the hell do they think they are. I am about to check out of this dive forever, and am sitting at a table with a view onto a quite ugly courtyard, a procession of young women wearing shorts and with very muscular legs goes by, muscular I think because whatever else they’re doing here they’re rowing too. Many of them also have laptops and no I am not going to lapse into some froth a la that great character played by Warren Mitchell in the tv adaptation of the Glen Tomasetti book Man of Letters. But most interestingly I just saw the second Iron Maiden t-shirt I’ve seen in 24 hours. Are Iron Maiden the new Ramones (in this regard)? Golly. Or is there just a local fanbase of youngsters?

As mentioned, this dump is presently being painted/ refurbished – a staff member, while getting me an iron, told me this had to happen at the end of every semester. This morning I heard one of the painters saying to a couple of others (I don’t know who this was regarding, I choose to think not me, he certainly was not looking at me), ‘they’re the kind of people who look at their own shit’. Something else that obviously isn’t done in Brisbane society.

why?

Why can't I post pictures on my blog anymore? Were they too stupid?

Hey hi there I'm in Indooroopilly!

I have 59 seconds left at this internet cafe - make that 47 seconds - and just thought I'd say hi, and, is that how you spell Indooroopilly?

mum, turn around

Overheard/ seen at the entry to Gladstone Park Safeway. Three women walking in single file. The young woman at the rear says, 'Mum, turn around!'
Mum (at the front of the 3) turns around.
Woman at rear: 'You've got no boobs'.
Middle woman: 'You're so mean!'