Anthony Malloy Between Coffees

Oh dear. The iTunes store finally opened in Australia today. I’ve been good and disabled one click purchasing but I had to try it out and I purchased my first song when I got home. Oh dear again, it’s just too easy to do.

For the record, it was ‘Born In The 70’s‘ by Ed Harcourt.

Jury duty.

Bloody stupid democracy.

Sitting at work knowing that Rae, Stink and Bertie were coming to pick me up, and noting it was a glorious day outside I got to thinking how wonderful it would be to reverse the order of dinner tonight and start with an ice cream and a walk around Williamstown in the late afternoon sunshine.

So that’s what we did. Three ice creams, one stroller, three walkers, sea side views and a perfect October day made this the rarest of events - a good Monday.

Want to know a) why I enjoy listening to my hockey games so much and b) what it sounds like when two guys win $20,000?

Look no further : http://images.radcity.net/3289/1181790.mp3

Yes, these two guys are the Canuck’s commentators on CKNW and they really did win that money.

I’m on rations and I’m not coping. No, not the food type, although given the way my stomach seems to have magically ballooned over the past couple of weeks that probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’m on internet rations.

Thanks to the stupid way internet access works in this otherwise magnificent company we are on restricted speed (I’m on 1500K) and limited to a download limit each month. Because network TV has started up again in the States and we want to watch Lost, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars and Rome I am now perilously close to my peak limit of 10 Gig. I didn’t use my off peak allocation wisely at the start of the month and now I’m down to a meagre 250MB a day until Wednesday.

The worse is over, we survived the weekend with both of us being home and with a hockey game on so we’ll make it through. Still, there’s nothing worse than watching your downloads when the net is such an integral part of our lives. So, until the day after tomorrow please don’t post interesting photos, don’t link to interesting videos, don’t post cool podcasts and whatever you do don’t launch the Australian iTunes music store.

Well, today was the day I got to spend my birthday money.

Rob and I went shopping in the city and it took a couple of shops, and a bit of a walk but I got the thing I’ve always wanted. So, what was it?

Here’s the story in pictures :

1. The Box

2. What’s That?

3. A Scalextric Set!

4. Inside The Box

5. Constuction Underway

6. The Joy

7. Even Mum and Phee Get In On The Act

Rob and I played for hours and I still can’t wipe the smile from my face.

And if you want to see the thing in action there’s a 4MB Quicktime movie available.

I had a birthday a few months ago. Thank you, yes, it was a lovely day. My Mother In Law To Be gave me a Tatts 2 ticket as part of my present, with the numbers 4 6 and 70 (go on, guess my birth date) over the week.

The ticket stayed stuck to the fridge until a couple of weeks ago when Rae heard about a multi-million dollar lottery prize in Queensland that had gone unclaimed. This got her thinking and she decided to check my ticket. I hadn’t checked it ’cause I never win anything.

Up until now.

We didn’t know it but we had $740 stuck to the fridge for four months and if Rae hadn’t checked, it would still be there now. Most of it’s going in to our house deposit fund but Rae has insisted I keep and spend a bit of it. After umming and ahhing I’ve decided I will listen to her and this weekend I may finally buy the one ‘toy’ I’ve wanted all my life but never had.

The police helicopter was hovering over our backyard for about five minutes this afternoon. I asked the guy crouching under a bush in our backyard about it but he said he said he had no idea either.