Category: Diary

Sitting here wondering why it’s so bloody hot, even after putting the air con on. Finally realise there’s no air coming through the vent (after two hours) so I go and check. Yep, I had turned the heating on instead.

I need rest.

It must be a while. I was watching an ad on telly last night and thought, “oh wow, that would feel great”.

Yes, it was hot and steamy too; the ad was for an iron.

It’s over a year since I left work to be at home looking after the kids and running my own web development business. In that time I’ve attended two weddings so that’s a grand total of two crisply ironed shirts I’ve worn in over 12 months. My daily uniform is now shorts and t-shirt in summer and jeans and rugby tops in winter. I thought the only thing I missed about working was the people, but watching that shirt being ironed I now realise there’s something else I miss; dressing well.

Coping with the mess three young kids make over the course of the day means there’s just no point in going any where beyond jeans and something that doesn’t show up the stains too much but one day when they are all at school and I can concentrate on Between Coffees properly I look forward to moving back to ironed shirts and shoes that need polishing. Who knows, there may even be a tie thrown in every now and then for good measure. Ah, those will be the days.

People. They all annoy me, well, except maybe for you.

I know we all break rules every now and then, push boundaires and play the odds BUT what sort of idiot does that when it’s a red light and they are in a car?

I had pulled up at the lights just as they turned red. I was sitting, minding my own business, looking at the RED disc on the lights opposite me when all of a sudden a car pulled up beside me but instead of stopping it just continued through. Now I have to reiterate, the light was red. Not orange, not just turned red, not just a little bit red but 100% solid-and-had-been-for-a-while red. They didn’t speed up, just kept on going.

What on earth!?!?

What could they have been thinking? What makes a person think that’s an okay thing to do – dicing with other people’s lives just because they feel like it? I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. And don’t get me started on drivers using mobile phone. Have you noticed they always seem to be driving expensive cars, the cars that cost enough to suggest the owner should probably be able to afford a $100 hands free? On the weekend we saw a guy driving a van, holding on to a phone as he went around a roundabout, while a passenger sat next to him. As I said, people!

The things you see out in the ‘burbs. This morning I had to run a quick errand first thing. I walked out side just after 6, dawn still an hour and a half away, and there, sitting underneath the letter box were two large white rabbits. Big, fluffy white rabbits. Just stiting there, staring at me, as if I was the one making the scene surreal.

I just stood there, not sure what to do when you discover two white rabbits sitting under the letter box in the dead of night. They stared back at me and then, with a flick of their ears, they bounded off in different directions.

I don’t know where they got to but just now as I was bringing in the washing one appeared in the back yard. Again, not sure of the magically appearing bunny protocol, but by the time I realised I should do something it had dissapeared again, an odd top and (fluffy) tail to the day.

I had the luxury of wandering around the local shopping centre by myself a few days ago. It was great to be able stroll along, getting to know the new shops and window shopping without having to keep track of Bert or try to manoeuvre the twin pram around people and shelves.

As I was leaving my eye was caught by, of all things, a tobacconist. Now I hate smoking, despise it. It’s filthy, smelly, dirty and having seen the effects it can have when I worked at Cabrini it’s a habit I can’t stand. Sorry smokers but it’s just despicable. The thing, or things, that caught my eye were Zippos. Lovely shiny Zippos.

For such an ardent anti-smoker I have an absolute weakness for Zippos. The touch, the smell, the sound, the perfect engineering. They are things of such beauty. I stood mesmerised as I spun the stand around, trying to figure out where I could find $70 to add another to my small collection.

There’s one Zippo I want above all others though. It must be 20 years ago now but I once saw in a magazine (could have been in the now defunct Sunday Herald, when it was just The Herald) a Zippo that was made to look like a clapper board. I almost got to buy one once, but I was a poor student and the amount at that stage was way beyond my means. I have a funny feeling it would still be the same today, but one day, one day, I will own one.

Just a little forewarning, my web site host will be moving this site to new servers some time soon so things may go a little astray for a day or so. Comments and posts may go missing, fingers crossed it will settle down quickly though.

This photo today makes me so much happier than it could have in the past eight years.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and President Barack Obama

Originally uploaded by Kevin Rudd PM

Time is running out to join up the tipping competition. If you want to win the Tony Malloy Memorial Footy Tipping Trophy head on over to http://www.footytips.com.au/jc.cfm?c=5492 to join Tony’s Tipping.

The world’s ugliest trophy, and a burnt snag, could be yours for the taking.

 

Two bizarre instances last week of ask and you shall receive.

The first was on Friday. I was at the shopping centre, having a coffee with my mother in law and her mum while the kids played on the pirate ship play equipment. Zita mentioned it was odd that she only knew a few people walking by.

Having just moved to the area I said “Well I’d be totally amazed if I saw anybody I knew.” 30 seconds later a guy walks up and says “I thought it was you Tony.” Yep, someone I knew – the father of one of Phee’s friends was just walking by. This guy lives back in Spotswood, miles away.

Then last night Rae and I were lying on the deck, looking at the stars. We were surprised at how, comparatively, dark it is out here and marvelling at the night time show when we both commented that we had never seen a shooting star. 30 seconds later a bright light streaked across the sky.

I then tried “I’ve never had a million dollars fall out of the sky and land next to me without damaging anything.” but it seems my luck had finally run out. Drats.

A couple of weeks ago a great disaster befell the Malloy household. It had been building up for a couple of weeks and then one horrid, fateful day the worse happened – my Krups espresso machine stopped making coffee. The pump was shot.

Until it had gone I had no idea just how much we used that thing. Over the weekend it made our coffees, three or four each day and during the week it would make a couple each day for me. It must have saved us a fortune in takeaway coffees over this time; just two each over a weekend at, say, $3.80 is $15.20 a weekend, $60 a month, add in one a week for me and that’s about $75 a month saved. Wow, that’s a conservative $900 a year.

We tried to do without one, a cheap one was abandoned after two tries, and I only realise now that these two weeks without a machine were the two weeks where everything that could go wrong, did. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Thanks to Target having a massive sale I’m hoping everything is going to turn around. I picked up a good little domestic machine and with the addition of some perfectly ground coffee we are well and truly back in business. I’m hoping that with my first latte this morning the project from hell will magically turn around, my outstanding accounts will be paid, the servers will stop playing silly buggers, my mastercard will pay itself off, the deck will give itself a second coat of oil, the clothes will put themselves away, the kids will nap for two hours in the afternoon, the toys will put themselves away, the back yard will level itself, the cars will do their own service, winter will decide ‘not this year’, the Tigers will win their first game and my office will arrange itself around me.

If anything can do this, coffee can.