Category: Diary

It’s been a couple of days since an email suddenly appeared in my inbox and I should have written earlier but had no idea what to say. Daniel and Ren have both written this morning and I feel I have to say something.

 It was a letter from Sarcasmo‘s sister telling of her memorial service. I didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be true. I found her mum’s blog entry and was stunned. A person as vital, as clever – simply as good as this – should not die so young.

Star seemed to live life in way that we should all aspire to.  

Rae has a tin of pirate band aids sitting on her desk. They were to be a Christmas present for Star (given they are still on the desk, more likely a New Years present) and although we had never met her in person Philly would have been one of the first stops on any trip to America, just to meet this wonderful woman who made us laugh every time she wrote.

….my new PC.

Yep, thanks to a bit of recently completed work I managed to put enough aside to update my 4 year old PC. The 0ld PC was beginning to show its age whenever I played with graphics or video and while a rebuild would have helped a little there wasn’t much more I could do to get the grunt I wanted.

Now I’ve got an Intel Core 2 6300 1.8GHz, 2 GB of RAM and a 320GB sata hard drive as my primary machine. And it’s good. And fast. I am stunned at how quickly it will convert files to DivX – no longer real time it’s about 40% faster and I can continue to use the PC without it skipping a beat so I don’t have to stop work while I convert shows.

I added a TV card too, it’s great to wave the remote at the box and have television pop up and I can see I’ll get a bit of use for it next year when the footy is on and I have to work. Even with this setup there’s room for improvement down the track. I can add a much better graphics card and increase the memory up to 8GB so I’m hoping to get another 4 years out of this one.

Best thing, however, that I did was to buy a silent fan/power supply. Now I can leave a torrent going overnight or we can watch television without an accompaniment of high pitched screeching. The screecher is sitting by the side of the desk waiting for Phee to keep her room clean. Should hell freeze over it’s all hers.

It’s official, I’m a grumpy old man.

Our neighbour had his party last night and when we went to bed all was well. A little music, lots of talking, nothing to be heard in our bedroom. Come 4.30am though this had changed. It seems they dropped a nightclub in and no one in this house was getting any sleep. We both lay there cursing him and listened as the bass faded away, thinking that this was the time it would stop before THUMP THUMP THUMP again. At 5.00, with Phee wandering the house and Bert in danger of waking for the day I dispatched an SMS asking for the music to be turned off.

I should feel like a spoil sport for doing it, but I don’t. Come one. 4.30am is just to not the time to have a DJ at full volume going in a back yard. How old do I sound now? I guess I’m at the age where that doesn’t matter though. What does matter is a family rested enough to get through the day.

I also have to say well done to Chris. Within minutes of pressing send the DJ wound up and a stereo inside the house seems to have been enough for the revellers. It’s seven hours later and they’re still going strong. Now that really makes me feel old.

 

(This is the set up perching above our back fence. If all else had failed I could have gone and pulled the plug.)

I had a beautiful Christmas fairy come and visit me today. She appeared, dropped off a box of A & W Root Beer and she then flittered off home.

What a great way to start a hot weekend, thanks Ren!

The bushfires have covered Melbourne in smoke.

So, tomorrow is supposed to be 37, the day after that 35. For the first time in almost 19 years I say bring it on. As much as we hate this house it has one redeeming feature – air conditioning. Hang the expense (although I think evaporative systems are cheaper to run), we’ll be hunkered down in fresh air comfort all weekend. If the cats have any sense they’ll join us.

Only possible draw back is we may be getting no sleep tomorrow night. Our neighbour over the back fence is having a party and dropped around to tell us as much. At least he had the decency to let us know (although what we’re supposed to do with this knowledge I have no idea) and left his business card with instructions to SMS him if it was too much. That’s neighbourly, and considerate.

I haven’t got Bert’s blog set up in Windows Live Writer on my new PC (ooops, forgot to mention that, there’s a another post) so for now I’m putting his photo here.

Mr Fashion Plate decided an old ice-cream container would make the perfect hat.

Okay, I get the hint.

Sitting at a red light at  the intersection of Kings Way and Albert Rd on the way to work this morning I was listening to the latest G’day World podcast when I hear the unmistakable crunch of plastic and metal.

Centimetres away from my rear right panel two cars had crunched . It looks like the one in the far lane had tried merging left only to be met solidly in their rear wheel by a car in the lane next to me. I watched in the mirror as both drivers sat for what seemed an age staring straight ahead, as if by shear force of ignoring they could make this hassle go away. Sadly for them the cars didn’t magically untangle and they both hopped out, pen and paper in hand. Behind them traffic two lanes of traffic were already banking up.

A police road worthy narrowly missed on Saturday then one car and ten centimetres off an accident this morning. I think someone is trying to tell me something and I may drop in to get my tyres inspected on the way home today.

Generally I complain about idiots on the road and wish they had just stayed at home. Today, for the first time ever I actually thanked one for being out and about.

We were picking up Phee from nana’s when we were motioned off the road by police to join a queue of cars. it quickly became obvious it was a road worthy check. I look after my car well, there’s no problems with it. Only thing is I need to get my tyres looked at. They have a few k’s on them, no way approaching bald, but could probably be replaced if I was being super diligent.

As the cars moved forward I noticed that when it came to okay looking cars the only thing the group of police seemd to check were the tires. Bugger. This had the potential to turn in to an expensive pick up.

Then salvation came in the form of a white late 80’s Toyotta Corolla.

This car, rear bumper almost falling off and missing a rear light, was two cars in front. You could practically see the cops salivate as it ground to a stop. They didn’t take long to pull it over to the side and all of the squad decended on the travelling pile of scrap with great zeal; pads and pens at the ready. We got our turn two cars later, and all the lone policewoman left looking after the remaining cars could do was check Rae’s license and the rego.

Off to Beaurepairs this week I think.