| Baby Elephant! |
[10 Feb 2010|03:50pm] |
Today is the first day the baby elephant has been on display at the zoo. She is currently on display from 11-12 and 2.30-3.30 daily. The staff reserve the right to not put her on display if the mother seems grumpy or baby uncomfortable or whatever.
I was unprepared for the queue - but I really shouldn't have been surprised. The zoo staff were also apparently unprepared for the queue in the morning session, it stretched back past the tiger area (and if you know the zoo, trail of the elephants, that is a very long queue and they had no staff doing crowd control. So it was chaos.
Some quick preparation later and a bunch more signage (and roving icecream/drink vendors) they have a system sorted out, although its fairly staff intensive. They have staff roving up and down the queue explaining the drill. They allow 100-150 people into the barn paddock area at once, for five minutes, and then move them on, moving the next group through. So it was a long queue - but moving fairly quickly, I think I queued for about 15-20minutes. 100-150 isn't as crowded as it could be, because its a very large space, but it was more comfortable that crushing as many people in as could fit, so it was worth the wait. People are being informed of the rules before the paddock and most people were fairly happy, only a couple of people being pricks about queuing. (I overheard staff bitching) And they have a little spiel about the elephant for the crowd watching - although by the time you get to the barn paddock its all about the ooh and ahh and taking photos...
And the baby elephant you ask - cutest thing ever! Below are photos - they are crap photos taken with my phone camera because I forgot to take the good camera, but its still awesome.
Baby and mother have a drink. There were two keepers in the enclosure the whole time, just keeping an eye on things. I assume for safety and also if the elephant starts acting up they can calm her down or take her off display.
Baby leaves mother by the pool and runs toward auntie.
Little baby is very energetic, running all over the place and rolling in the dust, they have calf proofed the enclosure, lowering the water level in the pool and putting in extra fencing at the lower levels.
I'll head back at some point soon with the good camera, probably not on a weekend, if the queue was that large on a weekday, I wonder how long it will take to quieten down.
I'll probably wait a few weeks before taking Althea - because standing patiently in a queue is not what she does best :)
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| Snorkeling and Forts |
[08 Feb 2010|01:10pm] |
Yesterday I got to try snorkeling. I'd never really tried it before. I've tried scuba a few times - both resort dives, once at Portsea pier and once with the sharks at the aquarium. At Portsea I was so nervous about the scuba diving I was more terrified than excited and didn't relax. At the aquarium was fine, somehow I find it easier in a pool, its the ocean that is scary. And then we talked about trying scuba diving again, but I failed my dive medical, so that ruled that out.
But the stuff underwater is interesting, and I discovered that seaweed is a lot less scary when you can see it. I've never been the sort of person who can open my eyes underwater. So Bear and Tom drove to Portsea to do a dive refresher, while I grabbed one of my favourite water babies - Amber to attempt snorkeling in a non threatening environment. You see, Amber flunked out of scuba training as well but was still interested in underwater.
See diving story by Tom here : http://tomble.livejournal.com/119096.html
I own a small point and click digital camera, one of the factors that made Bear pick this model, is that you can buy an underwater casing for it. We haven't brought one yet, but I picked up a lovely picture book of under port phillip bay, all taken with a compact digital camera while snorkeling - and its lovely. So we brought a disposable underwater camera - just to get a rough idea of what underwater photos are like before forking out $400 for an underwater casing.
http://www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au/category127_1.htm
So we got down to the beach, I changed into my wetsuit - for I am a cold wuss, and Amber got into my rashy - as she is also a cold wuss, but doesn't own a wet suit :) I got my new snorkle and mask - black with red racing stripes! And we investigated Portsea Pier. And played with the disposable camera. We quickly figured out that attempting to focus was useless, between the crappy disposable camera, plastic case and mask, the best you can hope for is point in the general direction and click. So we will have to wait til I get the film developed to see if they are any good. We took about half the film, then gave the camera to the boys to take out to Pope's Eye.
We snorkeled around for a bit, avoiding seaweed and looking at the large variety of fish, getting nervous of fishermen and I saw a leafy sea dragon! I've discovered that because my wetsuit is so buoyant, I might actually need a weightbelt and fins for snorkling - as I found control difficult floating on the surface, wetsuit is fine for surfing :) So I've borrowed Amber's fins to use next time.
Then we got cold and got out just in time to see the boys hopping in and wave to them. Then we drove around a bit and went to the pub. Portsea pub is made of awesome, its got this lovely balcony bit out over the ocean, and a big lawn bit with outside tables that you can get to without walking through the pub dripping wetsuit, you can tell they are used to divers. We were debating whether to order small or large chips when we saw the boys getting out from under the pier, so we ordered large and they soon joined us for a quick lunch before they had to catch the boat. The boat had no room for passengers unfortunately.
So me and Amber wandered off to explore Point Nepean National Park.
http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm
Neither of us had been there before - but the idea of checking out the Fort at the end of the park sounded pretty cool. You can only drive in a certain way, then you have the option of walking or catching the park bus up to the fort. We asked how far the Fort was, and they said not far, 40min walk. I think they lied to us. So we got 3/4's of the way to the Fort, until sunburned, two hours later and out of water we decided to turn back :) That said, it was nice to have a friend that likes walking in warm weather. We are going to go back and catch the park bus next time so we can see the Fort.
After our nice long walk, we went back to the pier, got wetsuited up again and jumped in the water, just in time to see the dive boat land. Luckily it takes a fair while for one to get unsuited and packed up from scuba diving, so we floated around a bit more until they were ready.
Then there was gelati in Rye and a long trip home.
Next weekend I'm going to Rhythm of Africa at Werribee on Saturday, but I might see if me and Bear can go snorkeling somewhere closer than Portsea on Sunday :)
I believe there is more diving planned for the weekend after that.
Now, where did I leave my aloe vera gel, I need to treat my sunburn :)
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| Save Live Music |
[08 Feb 2010|12:42pm] |
SLAM (Save Australian Live Music) is holding a rally on the 23rd February.
http://www.slamrally.org/
There is also a facebook for those so inclined
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=297311591896&ref=nf
Cut and paste from the website:
"S.L.A.M. is a non-politically aligned, independent entity made up of musicians and music lovers.
In a bid to address ugly street violence the State Govt. and Liquor Licensing have introduced some sweeping Licensing changes that have had some unintended consequences for the local music scene. We want the Govt. to be man enough to admit they made a mistake and to make the required simple changes (repeal that amplified music in small venues need double security) immediately!
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On the 23rd of Feb, coinciding with the 34th anniversary of ACDC's famous 'It's A Long Way To The Top' film clip shoot down Swanston St, S.L.A.M (Save Live Australia's Music) is organising a protest in support and celebration of the music scene in Victoria where current liquor licensing laws threaten to pull the plug on live music.
We will meet at 4pm outside the State Library and make our way along Swanston St and up Bourke St to Parliament House in Spring St where we will have guest speakers from 6-7pm.
We have organised the RocKwiz Orchestra with guest performers to lead the rally, repeating the three chords from 'It's A Long Way to the Top' in the back of a flat bed truck as we follow - ALL 10,000 + OF US - holding placards and instruments chanting down these ridiculous laws!!"
This sounds like a fun protest for a good cause - I'll be going - will you?
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| Snake Engineering |
[04 Feb 2010|10:46am] |
So Twist has a hammock at the top of his cage. Its basically a square of material secured at each corner to the ceiling (which is made of chipboard). First we used a staple gun, but Twist got bigger and broke his hammock. Then we used nails, but Twist got bigger and broke his hammock.
Twist is now crawling around his cage looking forlornly at where his hammock used to be, as we decide how to make a new one and what to use.
Twist is now about 3kg+ and 2m+ worth of snake and growing - how would you make a hammock for him?
In this post you can find a fairly old picture of the hammock, so you can see the kinds of stresses it gets used for, just imagine a much bigger snake. Also if pictures of snakes and mice bother you, don't click
http://kitling.livejournal.com/323408.html#cutid1
Last night Bear was cleaning Twist's cage, so I wrapped him around my body and went outside to water the garden. Twist liked watering the garden, he curled around my neck, and then went down the hose into the tomato plants and had a little shower, then he was all wet, so he crawled back up the warm human, then he decided to stretch up and climb the clothes line and spread all the way along the clothes line cross wise, while drying from his sprinkling. I wish I had of got a photo, but handling large snakes requires paying attention :)
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| I'm from the Internet! |
[04 Feb 2010|10:22am] |
Early this morning someone knocked on my door. I crawled out of bed, wrapped myself in a towel and answered the door. A man with a toolbox in an orange high vis shirt was standing here.
"I'm from the internet" he said.
"Ummm..." said I
"Here to fix your internet" said he
"It's not broken, do you have the right address?" I ask
At this point, Bear wrapped in a towel comes down the hallway saying "it is okay, let him in, I forgot to tell you he was coming".
It is so nice to be informed.
The upshot of this early morning visit - Nekkid DSL!
So hopefully soon we will have a new phone number. I may hand this out to people I actually like, although most of you have my mobile.
Working from home one quickly learns how many times unsolicited callers phone, or knock on the door. So most of the time these days I ignore the phone because I don't want to buy insulation, sell my house, have a new electricity/telecommunications provider, donate to your charity or hear about Jesus. Then my kid sister calls me on my mobile and bitches that I never answer the phone, so I answer the home phone and the cycle begins again.
We are keeping the home phone, but that is because the security system uses it. We may also plug in a phone to call for taxi or pizza. But if you want to talk to us, call our mobiles or ask for the new phone number. That said - I'm pretty sure the only people who call the landline are phone spammers, Halo and family members.
Nigel has got a PBAX server, he wants to set that up to answer the phone, with a voice system. If you are an unsolicited caller press 1, if this is a genuine emergency press 2, if you know our real names, press 3 and type in this passcode. You can all guess where pressing 1 takes you :)
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[03 Feb 2010|05:25pm] |
Halo just knocked on the door and gave me a present
I have awesome friends.
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| I got my new license |
[01 Feb 2010|05:39pm] |
So a month and a half later I finally get my new drivers license, woohoo - I'm a real person again, I have photo ID.
I can finally stop carrying around my passport as ID. How do people without drivers licenses cope...
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| 3, phone spammers and phone security |
[01 Feb 2010|12:51pm] |
So I rang up 3 to yell at them and tell them to take overdue charges off my bill as I can't pay a bill they haven't sent me. See I cancelled my direct debit and flatly refused to tell them my new credit card number. Because I got sick of the direct debit failing and then being charged $16 for failed transaction and a further $10 for being late, because they make absolutely no effort to let the customer know that their bill hasn't been paid. A simply automated email when the transaction fails would be easy. However, since that time they have failed to send me any email (except advertising spam). I checked all my junk filters, I followed all their instructions and yeah, they simply are failing to send me bills, but are still charging me late fees.
So I complained, firmly and she read from a script. Then I asked what the expiry date on my contract was and they fell over themselves to help me. She removed the fee, they asked what they could do to keep me as a customer, wanted a list of all my complaints - which I gave them.
That said - I'm still changing companies as soon as my contract expires. In the meantime I've set a reminder on my phone to check the 3 website on the appropriate billing cycle date so I can pay my bill, because obviously sending out bills is far to difficult for this company to manage.
More bitching about phone spammers.
So I just received a phone call from I think it was Telstra - apparently he wasn't trying to sell me anything, he just wanted to tell me about a deal being offered for cheaper phone calls. He had a thick Indian accent and I explained politely that I was having trouble understanding his accent. He proceeded reading from a script telling me he would send out paper information. Please note: all phone spammers ask to speak to Mr Williams (or Mrs Williams (I tell them she lives in Perth)). He then asked me my name after I said I wasn't Mrs Williams, and wanted me to confirm my address, I said that I wasn't interested in providing personal information, and if we had been specially selected Telstra customers he would have our contact details on file. At about that point he hung up without a word.
That said I also rang up RACV the other day, said I was calling on behalf of Bear, as they had sent a bill for renewal of roadside assist on the Celica, and I said I wanted it changed to my name and the Subaru. I had Bear's account number, date of birth, address and they simply assumed he was my husband, I didn't correct them. And they let me change everything. Which makes me wonder how secure, various call centre security procedures are.
That said, back when Halo lived with us and sometimes we'd forget to pay bills or needed something done with the account, Halo would just ring up the call centre, pretend to be me or Bear, whichever was needed and sort it all out.
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| Bogan ahoy! |
[01 Feb 2010|12:06pm] |
So - we've booked tickets to go see Thunderstruck! - and AC/DC cover band at Zoo Twilights.
Now the real question is - bucket of margarita or vodka UDL's? :)
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| Gardening, cooking and houses. |
[29 Jan 2010|11:07am] |
It occurs to me I should download my small point and click camera more often - lots of photos I'd forgotten about.
I am actually planning to post some garden photos.
I received a lovely bunch of fresh herbs for my birthday, so I wandered down to Bunnings to pick up some new pots and planted them yesterday. I'm beginning to think ahead with my garden, I've bowed to the fact that we aren't going to stay here forever and I've started planting stuff in pots so that it is portable when the time comes.
You see we have a plan to buy a house, but all the houses in our price range in the areas we like are crap. So we have another plan that involves buying a house with Carla and Thorfi, as four adults paying down a mortgage actually makes it look affordable. So plan A currently is that we trying moving in with them - or them moving in here as we already have a big house and see if we can live together happily.
Last night we made lemon chicken. I'd never actually battered and fried anything before, so that was a fun cooking experiment. The end result was very tasty and looked good as well. I love cooking and yet I get lazy, cooking the same old recipes because they are easy and require little thought, but I like experimenting and maybe if we do all move in together - I will experiment more.
My garden is coming along beautifully, as promised - garden photos!
( garden photos )
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[22 Jan 2010|09:26am] |
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For my birthday Bear brought me a margarita in a bucket.
This is basically a bucket full of premix margarita ingredients, you just add tequila and stick it in the freezer until it turns into a slushie.
Obviously this gift is an indication of how totally classy Bear thinks I am. So the real question becomes, do I drink it at my party on Saturday or save it, to take to Zoo Twilights when me and Megan go see Thunderstuck - an AC/CD coverband.
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| Bday on Saturday |
[20 Jan 2010|11:39am] |
It was my sister's birthday yesterday, she made me play Singstar, predictably I sucked really badly at it. However my sister seems to feel that my friends might enjoy Singstar, so has left all the bits here in the theory that people might like to play with them on Saturday, would you play Singstar with my sister Lee?
I still haven't really forgiven her for listening to Nigel's DJ set and coming running up to me, "I know all this old music, its from Singstar!"
Kids eh.
For my birthday, I got a baby elephant!
Anyway - party at my place on Saturday.
I'm going to have a BBQ to celebrate my birthday - its on a Saturday, and yes, I realise it clashes with lots of things - but this is just a casual relaxed thing I won't be offended if you don't attend :) I'm thinking simple, fire up the BBQ and the DJ decks and relax in my backyard.
And actually - given it's me holding a party - probably watching the rain :)
When: Saturday 23rd January, from 7.30pm
Where: my place, call me if you need the address.
BYO: Booze and BBQ goodness, I'll provide some bread and salads.
RSVP: Because it is polite.
House rules: Respect the books and cats, clean up after yourself and don't leave your cigarette butts in my garden or I will get grumpy.
I won't be calling for kitchen wenches to show up early this year. I have a previous commitment and will be GMing for Fi at Arcanacon from 1-7, so I'll be doing food prep in the morning. This means, if you show up before 7ish, we won't be home :)
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| A note on donation |
[19 Jan 2010|11:06am] |
When you donate to a charity organisation its best to donate money to their general fund, rather than a specific cause, because that gives them the ability to best decide where the money goes.
Many organisations are currently soliciting donations for Haiti, and rightly so, as aid is desperately needed.
But when an emergency happens, such as bush fires and earthquakes, aid organisations don't wait for all the donor cheques to clear, they use their general funds to finance an immediate response on the ground and wait for the cheques to clear to finance the longer term efforts.
Most people only tend to donate a set amount to charity each year, or a once off donation inspired by something they have seen on TV/media. For example, a huge amount of money gets donated to the Red Cross for the bushfire appeal last year and that means the other Red Cross projects and aid agencies run short of money for other projects as money donated for a specific cause is required to be used for that cause.
MSF is currently using its general fund to run operations in Haiti, and while thousands of people will donate money to assist the Haiti fund, the general fund will need also need refilling to assist in their next project.
Fair enough, some people may only want to donate money to help people in a specific area and that is your choice, and most causes are worth donating to.
But I urge those of you inspired to donate, to donate money to an aid organisation with ethics and principles and practices you admire, not a specific fund, as then the money can be used where and when it is most needed.
FWIW - me and Bear tend to pick an organisation and donate a set amount of money each year, then we wait til that organisation stops spamming us, before we donate to them again :)
This financial year, its Lort Smith and Medecins San Frontieres, last year it was Red Cross.
Survey says - because I think it will be interesting - who do you donate to and why?
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[18 Jan 2010|02:23pm] |
Today I had a diving medical, I failed. Curiously enough it was my arthritis and the associated meds I'm on that failed me, rather than my ears. This surprised me, as I've done several resort style dives and while they have mentioned the ears and the breathing - they didn't mention the inflamatory diseases.
Oh well, no diving for me.
In happier news - I finally got some AAV site card forms accepted! I've been struggling with these since early December, because they are really complex and the instructions are past vague and obtuse and out the other side.
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| Would people like to see photos of my garden? |
[14 Jan 2010|11:14am] |
I have tomato's coming ripe in pots, with bunches of fresh basil surrounding them. My strawberries are the freshest and nomiest. My mystery plant seems to have resolved itself as pumpkin - let me explain - I planted zucchini, pumpkin and watermelon - but was never sure which one had actually managed to successfully grow. We fight a war in our garden with snails - and we don't often win. My spring onions are growing well, the brocilli looks like the snails are winning, but still keeps growing. The roses are alive, the lemon tree is covered in proto lemons, the blue berries and red berries are struggling a little - but are plenty green and leafy.
And surprise of all surprises - yes, we have a peach tree in our back yard, but it never actually fruits.
I spy a peach! I wonder how long before the possums get it. We will also have plenty of figs soon.
Penny brought me a Digger's club membership for Midsummer and it was an excellent plan.
We went looking at houses for sale yesterday.
We picked one we could afford in Coburg
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?a=o&id=106200378&f=0&p=10&t=res&ty=&fmt=&header=&cc=&c=67688631&s=vic&tm=1263086177
The experience was depressing. Lovely location, big sized block, even the sun room in the house was quite nice, but the house was tiny and stunk of cigarette smoke and had an old ethnic (Mediterranean) woman screaming abuse at her son, while people inspected her house, the house was so run down it would cost thousands of dollars to make it livable.
Also - today's cakewrecks is full of baby cakes - and is taking disturbing to whole new levels. I did warn you.
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2010/01/labor-of-love.html
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| Hot but Good |
[09 Jan 2010|03:32pm] |
I'm sitting here drinking a refreshing drink made from a mix of rum, mint, muddled limes, ice and soda. Megan left a bottle of rum in my safe keeping you see. I can now guarantee it isn't poisonous :)
We've just made a refreshing salad out of watermelon, lime, tequila, kiwi-fruit, apple and mint. That is for taking to Shakespeare this evening.
This morning I made orange and blueberry cupcakes - at our house we call them muffcakes - a purely innocent mix of muffins and cupcakes, but I can see how that term might be misunderstood.
I saw Avatar 3D last night. I didn't have as much trouble with 3D as I expected - Every 3D movie I've seen has left me feeling sick, dizzy and headachey. I still felt like I was watching a movie slightly out of focus and all blurry around the edges - so I think I'd prefer 2D - but the effects were awesome. The planet was pretty (and a lovely depiction of Zangarmarsh and Nagrand) and I loved seeing the warship blow up with the giant mech leaping out of the explosion. The story - yes a fairly cliched storyline - but still entertaining - plus flying dragons and realistic looking mechs. I also liked the bit where the main character dinged 70 :)
Today I booked tickets to see Cats - something I've always wanted to see and never managed before.
Life is pretty good.
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| xkcd |
[08 Jan 2010|02:53pm] |
So I'm buying Bear a few t-shirts from the xkcd website.
Two questions - does anyone have an idea how accurate the sizing it, is it fatty american, so a L equals an XL here? Have you ordered and if yes - what size?
I'm not quite sure on shipping yet - but if someone else wants something - it might be worth adding to our order. Yah - shipping to Aus appears to be $21 regardless of quantity. So iffen you want something.
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