Anthony Malloy

Truck parked in the emergency lane of the Westgate Freeway this morning, hazard lights flashing and exasperated driver leaning over the wheel looking for a saviour. Plastered across the sides was the name of the business.

“Melbourne On The Move”

It’s a revelation. Over 9 years of dial up, from the then lightning fast 14.4, though a brief flirtation with 28.8 up to 56k, ended last night when my ADSL kicked in (three days ahead of schedule, thank-you Telstra and Netspace) last night. The joy of not waiting for downloads and being able to talk on the phone and surf at the same time (even though I do it all day here at work) is wonderful. As god is my witness I shall never go dial up again!

It actually came in very handy last night as I tried to organise getting Mum, Dad and I up to Sydney to see Uncle Geoff. I could organise everyone and check flights at the same time. It seems Uncle Geoff will be going home soon so we’ve decided to head up as soon as he leaves respite care. It’s going to be tough on Dad, I’m not sure how I’d cope in his situation.

My Uncle Geoff has been placed in a respite home.

My uncle Geoff who everyone says I take after in many ways – I could only wish. He is such a great man. The kindest, gentlest, warmest man you could ever wish to meet has dementia, is almost blind and almost deaf.

My dad, his sole surviving brother, only found out today because Geoff made his wife promise not to tell dad. He didn’t want dad to worry.

I love my uncle.

Hi Mum.

I know you have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention ADSL so here’s a simple explanation.

It’s how I’ll be connecting to the internet soon.
It uses the phone lines but in a special way that means I can be on the net and you can still get through on the phone.
It’s a lot quicker. To see how quick go to this page : http://www.freshwebhosting.com/speed_comparison.html. I’m currently on 56 – I will be going to 512.

There you go.

Love
Your Son.
PS – Sorry about the Saints on the weekend.

Woo Hoo. The bi-annual phone update just happened. After signing my life and first born away to Optus for another two years they give me a shiny new piece of plastic to play with. Tomorrow morning they will deliver to me a Nokia 8310. Between that and and the new ADSL modem that turned up this morning it’s going to be gadget overload. Sort of like a sugar rush for nerds.

Saturday night was marked by two screaming fits.

1st Fit – Phoebe.

In a lovely move Veronica and Steve invited Phee to their engagement party. After a very slow start Phee began to warm up and all was going well until she got an eyelash in her eye. Then the screaming began. She was screaming so loud as her mum tried to help you could here it over the great 80’s music the DJ was playing. The screaming continued outside, but for no reason as by now the associated tears had well and truly washed the eye lash away. The screaming kept going as we marched her to the car and drove home – all under an hour in to the evening. Poor Veronica, her family must be wondering who the mad people were abusing their child at the end of the table. We’re sorry we didn’t even get to say goodbye Veronica, we were having a good night and the last thing we wanted to do was leave – I’d just discovered the chicken too. Thinking back we could have handled it better and stayed but we were so embarrassed and didn’t want to cause a scene we didn’t think and just ran.

2nd Fit – Me

Back at home and after we calmed down we turned on the radio to listen to the footy. The Tigers were playing Melbourne in an incredibly tight game – until half way through the final quarter when the Demons got two goals up. Being the optimist I am I declared the game over and left the room. But the Tigers, in a season defining move, fought back. They were behind but never mind, they fought and fought and won. The scream from me when the siren went would have woken the dead, or made the people enjoying the engagement party on the other side of the city think that Phee had returned.

For those of you who remember the great rooster hunt of 2002 you will know how much Rae and I value our sleep. We now have a metal rooster – some people call them cars – to contend with .

RevHeadBoy from the place in front of us has a hotted up car (Don’t ask me what sort, that’s Rae’s domain). He and a like minded group of youths had spent several weekends installing a $2000 (!) sound system in it. On the nature strip. In plain view of any one walking by. Surprise, surprise when the weekend after the installation was complete someone smashed a window and nicked it.

Mr RevHeadBoy now parks his car next to our window. The car that now (too late she cried!) has an alarm fitted to it. An alarm that goes ‘BEEP’ at 5.30 every morning just before he revs it down the drive. When asked to stop doing this The Boy told us he was “waiting for a permit from the council to park on the nature strip instead of the street.”.

Idiot.

Between the Beep and the revs we’re awake and this early morning wake up call is going to be the death of us. We’re just about ready to kill each other through lack of sleep (we would go out and kill The Boy but that’d take too much energy that early in the morning).

To make matters just dandy there are only three units, there doesn’t seem to be a body corp and the other two live in each others pockets. No one to complain to, nowhere to go, no place to hide or sleep.

Suggestions anyone?

YES!!!

We’re moving baby – Telstra have checked our phone line and will be installing ADSL within 4-5 days. WOO HOO! No more phone lines tied up by me, no more logging on, no more dial-up speed downloads or uploads. At last we’ll have the net as it’s meant to be – permanently connected and fast. God bless you Netspace.

Oh happy day, oh happy day!

Ever have that feeling that as the phone rings you know you shouldn’t answer it, even without knowing who the caller is, that no good can come of the conversation that is about to happen and yet you answer it anyway?