Month: November 2009

I was reading The Age over breakfast this morning, enjoying my coffee and had just begun a really interesting article when a man appeared out of nowhere and began yelling in my ear. I turned the page. Read an article. Turned the page and began another when the same man appeared and began yelling in my ear again. It wasn’t long before I stopped reading the paper and turned elsewhere to get my news.

Okay. That’s not so subtle all clever but it pretty much describes what its like trying to read www.theage.com.au these days. It seems almost every page now has video or audio that starts automatically or a video ad will pop out and start playing as you try to read. It’s just ridiculous that someone at the The Age seems to think this is a good idea.

They have also allowed ads that expand and obscure the article you are trying to read. Come on – there’s two reactions to this. One is immediately click Close on the ad, which means no one sees the ad, or the other choice is to hit the back button to find a different site where you can get the same information, and this means no one sees the ad and you loose site traffic.

I know times are tough in the newspaper industry but actively going out of your way to irritate and frustrate your last loyal readers is only going to make things worse.

I had to fill up the car this morning so headed out early. Standing in line to pay and wondering what sort of country allows it to be 30 degrees at 6.00am when I noticed that of the 8 males in the servo I was the only one not wearing a yellow fluro top. It made me really stand out.

It was a glorious day today and with a run of hot days coming up we decided to make the most of it and headed off to the zoo. We got to see some of my favourites today; meerkats, crocodiles and my number one – the wombats. The funniest moment was when the twins where excited at the picture of a koala, pointing and yelling, completely oblivious to the fact there was real live one sitting a metre away from them. We’ve used the FOTZ membership three times at Melbourne zoo so far and the kids absolutely love it, so money well spent.

  

 

No more Richo

No more waiting to see which Richo turned up to the game.

No more covering your eyes as he lines up dead in front 20 metres out.

No more cheering as he kicks the impossible goal from the impossible angle.

No more amazed gasp as he still manages to take the mark with three guys hanging off him.

No more watching him prowl the MCG as if he owns it.

No more heart and soul of the yellow and black.

I was doing a silly dance for the kids as I brought them some cake.

"Stop it Dad." says Moo.

The "you’re embarrassing me" was implied.

Today was glorious but I couldn’t tell you what yesterday was like as I spent almost all of it asleep. Woke up yesterday, managed to stay awake long enough to have some breakfast but then the aches set in and it was all over for the day. I slept, slept and then slept some more – I simply couldn’t wake up or get get myself off the bed. Thankfully Rae was home, she got to enjoy a Dad free day with the kids.

The weird thing is that when I awoke this morning it had totally gone. I guess you’d hope this was the case after 30 hours of sleeping but to have absolutely no ill effects….just plain odd. Good thing too as we had to take Bert off for a quick trip to Royal Children’s Hospital today. Everything is fine, and when I tell you we went to see ‘The Prince of Poo’ (as the specialist calls himself) you’ll thank me for not going in to details! The RCH is an amazing institution, we are truly luck to live in a city with such a magnificent hospital but one thing they need to do is redevelop their web site. If there’s one thing in this world I know a bit about it’s hospital websites and the RCH deserves a lot better.

Anyway, after a great appointment (yes, it really was) we made use of our FOTZ membership again and went for another hour walk around the zoo. This time we we got to see the cool animals – gorillas, elephants and tigers – the kids loved them all. Next trip we get to see the crocodiles, the most requested animal of the lot. It’s fantastic being able to rock up and just go for a wander for free. It’s like having a neighbourhood park with really cool animals.

Now if you add an afternoon nap and great fish and chips you have a perfect day to balance the complete lack of a Thursday. Rae’s back to work next week so the fun stops and its back to earning a living full time next week. i don’t know who will miss having mum here the most, me or the kids.

At long last I made prawn and pork rice paper rolls. Delicious. Only problem is Bert likes them so we had to sacrifice two.

This morning I had the opportunity to head in to the ABC and be interview on Alan Brough’s breakfast show. Someone on his production team saw a mention of Our Fading Past and invited me in for a chat. It was great fun, he obviously loves Melbourne and its history and he knew his stuff. It was great watching the behind the scenes goings on, the signals, the messages popping up on screens, the puzzled looks as lines went bad. I felt really comfortable chatting away and there’s no way it felt like the 20 minutes it was.

If you’re interested to hear about the signs, and Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills, check out the segment.

Listen at 774 Melbourne | Right Click to download, click to play)

I wondered if anyone would be listening but I’ve already had several emails and new contributions and I apparently surprised both a sister and uncle when I started talking to them on their radio.

After the excitement of that we headed off to the Zoo. Rae, in her wisdom, decided we should join Friends Of The Zoo. A single trip to the zoo would cost us over $55 just to walk through gates and after spending that sort of money you’d want to stay and wander for a fair while to get your money’s worth, not an altogether practical thing with the young un’s. Having a FOTZ membership means we can skedaddle on over for an hour and then head on home. It’s going to be fantastic for weekend strolls after the market or those Fridays when I have absolutely no idea how I’ll make it through the day.

Today we got to check our the roaring lions, lazy big cats, frogs, bears (Bert was scared!), the giraffes, the tortoises and a few dozing kangaroos before the kids had had enough of their big adventure morning. I can see that we’ll get our money’s worth over the next year, Mr Henry in particular was fascinated and was most reluctant to move on from each animal.

It’s late in the day and with Rae on a weeks holiday a very lazy mood has descended on the house,. I’ve just finished a book so now it’s time to decide which one to tackle next, Iain Rankin’s latest or Shutter Island.