Shihad something to confess to

Something I learnt today: basic spirits are $5.70 at the duke of Windsor
Something that made me laugh today: This blog

I am writing this post at 1:17am Thursday morning, but probably won’t get to post it for a while as the internet is being a bit of a bitch. But it’s been an interesting few hours so I thought I’d write it up while it was still fresh.

At 8:30 I got the boyfriend on the phone. I got dumped. Within ten minutes I had convinced my mother to drive me to Chapel Street so I could go see the Sparrows perform. They were brilliant. They were supporting a band called “British India.”

Now, if you were to take Hanson and let them hit puberty, associating with this a fair amount of teen angst that would lead them to move into the rock genre, give their father a tight-fitting shirt (it buttoned up – that can never look good) and a guitar you’d have something that approximates British India. Only one of them was blond I must admit, but they were all so blond.

But! While you all focus on the stage something is happening in the sidelines. After a little conversation and the all famous “can I buy you a drink” our heroine agrees to give her phone number to Phil, the guitarist from Shihad. Well.

This has all happened in the space of two and half hours. By 11:30 Phil shakes my hand and promises to text me so that we may go out for coffee one day. He leaves quite abruptly and in my mind it seems that I am unlikely to hear from him again.

Walking down my street on the way home (we’re talking like 20 past midnight now) I receive a text message. Who is it from I wonder. I open the thing and look at the sender. It’s a phone number I don’t recognize. How interesting. A little further investigation and ahh yes, it is Phil. He just wanted me to have his number.

I wander home and quite frankly, curiosity has gotten the better of me so I come online to investigate the things my new friend has told me. What I learn is this…his last name is Knight. He is, indeed, a member of Shihad (formerly known as Pacifier but were Shihad before that as well) as can be seen in the photo on the magazine cover, since which, I am in no doubt, Phil has had a haircut. Phil is from New Zealand (which would explain his voice). Phil is also, at the very least, 12 years older than me. I hope he wasn’t after too much more than coffee.

So what has this evening left me with? I’m still lonely, unfortunately (anyone who knew what was going on with me and Justin over the past few weeks will understand my use of the word “still”). I have a headache and ringing ears from the music (this strangely enough, is very satisfying). I have a green smudge on my arm which is advertising “DUKE SATURDAYS” (maybe I shouldn’t wash until then, see if anything good is going on). I have Phil’s phone number. With this, I have the means to annoy Lief (soon to be the brother of my brother-in-law) because I have the phone number of a guy who is good mates with Davey Lane. =P

I also obtained the pleasure of the company of two complete strangers (who I will never be able to say thank you to properly) who dragged me into a bar with them and walked me to the train station in order to keep me away from the drunk and/or drugged up guy who decided to follow me across the road. They consider Justin to be scum and that I should go out with Phil (I did a lot of talking in the five minutes I was with these guys for). Thank you, Kristen (and I’m so sorry I’ve forgotten your name) Beanie guy as well as the two friends we left in the bar, people like you make the world a better place.

Woah, Black Betty

Something I learnt today: A few new Merengue moves
Something that made me laugh today: M*A*S*H

I'm posting this with respect to the last 24 hours. I went to a dance class. Hurrah. The people there were mostly young except for one very old guy that I had to dance with once. Which was bad. One of us were doing all the moves wrong. And if I was doing them wrong then Peter, my previous partner, had been doing them all wrong with me. Hmm. Anyway.

Yesterday I drove myself out to Bunnings to buy wood so that I can begin to fix up a piece of furniture I dragged off Wright street and into the back of my car two weeks ago.

While I was at Bunnings I began enquires as to how to put the handles on some other piece of furtniture that I had been working on at the time. Putting on handles I hear you ask, surely it's not that difficult? But the screws I had been given to apply these handles were 2 -3 times longer than they needed to be. And along the length of them were breaks in the thread that would allow them to be broken off to a more convienient size.

Unfortunately I had not brought the handles (or the screws) with me. I spoke to a lovely man called Earl at the Hire Shop who informed me that he would break them for if I were to present them to him. This meant driving back home (which wasn't as incredibly irritating as one might think...I also needed questions answered before I was able to pick out the wood I would later buy). At home I began pouring through the mess that my garage (my work bench) has become in search for these three handles. I find two. I continue to search, but to no avail. These things cost $5 each, so I'm not incredibly thrilled. But I grab what I can, figure out what length I want them and return to Bunnings.

Back at Bunnings I grab my wood and return to the Hire Shop. Earl's not there. I explain to Nick why I want Earl and then explain to him that snapping the screws will ruin the thread (something I had suspected that Earl had made clear). Nick then takes a screw and a saw and begins to potter around searching for an appropriate place to begin to saw through my screws.

Nick needs to get back to work. Nick gets another guy to help me. He gets a girl (I gave up on reading name tags at this point). The girl grabs a pair of bolt cutters and happily cuts through one screw, two screws (red screw, blue screw?) On the third the screw goes flying (I had picked up another handle) and is never seen again. The girls wanders off to grab a fourth screw which she cuts and hands to me. It is too long, but only by a few mm, so I cope with it.

Later that night, I go to put the handles on. The screws are too long. I curse a little. I pick up the forth screw because while it's too long, there's room for me to cut it shorter. Which, I should point out, I quite successfully achieve. Perhaps not with the finesse and skill of the Bunnings Mentone staff, but I still pull it off. The screw fits perfectly. The handle smiles at me in that way that only handles can.

My Coles has a very small hardware section. I have bought a packet of nails from my store before. I don my MD player and walk out of the house. At this time it's 20 past 11pm. My store closes at midnight, and it's half hour walk. I get to the store and proceed to explain to Toby (duty manager) why I require screws at midnight on a Tuesday and he helps me find them. I buy a $2.48 packet which is described by my reciept as %JACK NUTS BOLTS ASSTD 1EA. It's 23:48 on the reciept, and I wander out of Coles with a few minutes to spare and return home.

I open my precious find and begin to examine the contents. The screws are all too short, or exactly the same length as the ones I already have. Damn.

But awit! The nuts. I put a nut on one of the screws then try to put the handle on. I've still got room to spare. I remove the screw and add a second nut. Success. My second handle begins to smile in exactly the same way the first one has. This extension of screw heads and nuts is poking into the drawer and I know that one day (one day...) I am going to severly (if not repetitively) injure myself on this mess of metal. But I don't care.

I put two nuts on the third screw (which realistically, is the second one) and poke it through the wood. It's too short. Go figure. I remove one of the nuts and try again. It fits perfectly and a third handle starts to smile at me. Perfect.

All in all, it seems to me, that this was a ridiculous amount of effort to do something that I'm sure probably exists in yellow and red plastic for children aged 3+.

Anyone who wishes to see the final result and those smug little handles can view it at my webpage. It's the one called Black Betty. If you click the broken image link (It's beyond me why that's not working) you may just be able to figure out why I gave it such a name. This link, for your information, is the "before" photo.

Well hang on

Something I learnt today: B's having dramas with his computer
Something that made me laugh today: Dilbert cartoons

I really haven't been awake that long, so it's the best you're getting out of me today.

I returned last night from a few days away with my darling sister, Sean and some of his friends and family. Hurrah. It as a great deal of fun. Cards and booze and star wars and chocolate. I love easter like that.

As soon as I arrived, I was dragged off to see Brett's amazing discovery, the Jammin Jet. What is a Jammin Jet you may ask, well I'll let you know. It's basically a toy aeroplane, made out of styrofoam and covered in what is described by the KidzBiz marketing department as "Radical decals." The term "radical" suggests to me that perhaps this item is a little retro. This idea can solidly be confirmed by the mullet and multicoloured pumps work by the teenage boy playing with his Jammin Jet in the picture on the box.

The idea of this plane is that you give it a half full (or half empty) bottle of water and use a bicycle pump to increase the pressure inside the bottle. By flicking some small switch the water bottle (which should be attached to the plane) spurts out water behind it as it flies off to the amazement of the young boy who happens to own the thing.

I was shown this plane on arrival. Everyone was shown this plane on arrival. Jokes were made, laughs were had. We were all building up to the moment when we would send it on it's (born again) maiden voyage.

The time finally came on Sunday. Brett stood on the end of the porch and let go. Off flew the plane, out dropped the bottle of water. The plane soared a little before falling pitifully to the floor while the bottle landed abruptly on the delicate mechanism that is vital to the plane's success.

It broke. Little bits of red plastic were slowly recovered and the notions of glue flittered among us. Nothing more happened on the front, we simply ate lunch and slowly returned to our respective cars which took us back to our respective homes. Back to real life.

It's looking like real life involves a concert Wednesday night (Sparrows) and another at the end of May (Idlewild). Real life also involves a lot of assessment coming up at uni, so I guess I'll be doing that.

Let me love you, let me rescue you

Something I learnt today: how much easier homework is when you read the question (what am I kidding...I'll never learn that)
Something that made me laugh today: hypochlorite.

It's the 21st today and I still haven't heard from Justin. Ouch. Just because it's our seventh month as of today and all that. Pbw.

Anyway...other news. My inbox is being flooded by two girls from Costa Rica who are sending me all their forwards. And they send me the same ones at that, which makes things just a little silly.

I went to sticks yesterday and got thoroughly beaten. Well, not really. I was struck twice. But it hurt both times. One hit bruised a knuckle and the other has messed up one of the muscles in my forearm.

Dad came down from NSW to have dinner with me, try and make me feel better about everything. Isn't that sweet. I've apparently struck quite a note with him and made him feel guilty about a few things and just whoops. That wasn't my intention. It's sweet that he cares though, and it was so nice that he apologised. I like it when people do that. Is it just me?

What else? I went out drinking with my sister and the Cooper boys on Friday night. I didn't actually quite reach the drunk stage (but no one did, so I woulda looked a fool), but I had a good time none the less.

I'm going elsewhere. I'm too tired to make sense.

This is our last goodbye

Something I learnt today: The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) are interested by my findings...
Something that made me laugh today: Tara's phonebook

I always come on here the day after I've spent a whole day laughing and as such never have anything to report for my last question. Silly me.

I saw the House of Flying Daggers last night. By the same director (or something) as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I thought it was a very good film. It was a bit soap-opera esque in terms of the plot development, which kept me interested. The imagery (and especially the use of colour) was fantastic.

What else has been going on in life? Things are all a little weird with Justin and I'm currently sitting and waiting. Oh joy.

I freaked out my father on the phone last night. Whoops. Gave him a fairly large piece of my mind (not in the normal sense of the expression). I told him, honestly, what was going on in my life. I don't know what inspired it, but it just all (almost all at least) came out. And now he's all worried and wants to help and stuff...which is nice.

Fencing nationals are today and I really want to be there. If for no other reason then it'll mean Adrian won't know I'm having problems with Justin. I probably shouldn't be writing that on the off chance JB reads it. But he really shouldn't be reading this at the moment. That ain't fair.

What else? One flew over the cuckoo's nest is not nearly as good in picture. They left out some of the best bits. It was no longer about Chief Bromden, it was about Mac. Who, in my opinion, shouldn't have been played by Jack Nicholson. I saw him more as a dwarfish figure. Not in te height sense. But in the Scottish, merry, red-haired sorta image. And they let out so much that was important about the friendship between Mac and the Chief. Bah.

I gotta get ready for work.

With God on our Side

Something I learnt today: the whole life history of some guy at work
Something that made me laugh today: Downloading jokes. Lano and Woodley.

My internet is being so demented tonight. I still haven't managed to convince Outlook Express that I'm connected to the internet. Stupid thing.

Well, Mum met David last night. Still haven't heard any report on the issue. Why are so many people unable to comprehend the difference between what other people do and don't want to know about?

I was informed today that I had a good etiquette while dealing with disabled people. I thought that was nice. Some customer at Coles who it then turns out volunteers at McHouse as well.

My cold is getting worse. bah. I'm starting to suffer the fever and all that now. I want to be healthy again. poo bum wee.

Lin threw a small birthday party last night. Just people over at his place. There seemed to be two or three huge circles of friends that didn't want to intermingle so Lin proposed a contest where he'd try to force us to learn everyone else's names. If we got the question wrong we had to take a drink. It was really quite funny. Poor Lin. He was all worried about people not getting along or not having a good time or something. It's annoying how you get like that on the nights that you are supposed to be having fun.

Winter lovin'

Something I learnt today: Melbourne Uni means well, but is essentially useless
Something that made me laugh recently: Se and Eddy in prac classes. Crazy in ze coconuts.

I overheard someone talking about that line the other day. Made me kinda sad due to memories of who else used to say it and coconut songs and things to that extent.

I figured I should post an entry on here because it means I get a few e-mails saying "these people cared enough to post on your journal" which sorta means that someone cared enough to read it. And I can hardly leave all my beloved fans (all four of you) waiting.

I spent five and a half hours at McHouse today. I feel like I achieved nothing. I had envisioned finishing both the Newsletter and House Happenings there. But I only did House Happenings (newsletter for the volunteers/staff) and printed and photocopied a few things. But Jenny was impressed with my efforts at least.

I had an 8am lecture today. And nothing else. Other than an appointment at 10.30, which realistically could have happened on another day. The worst part was that after draggin myself from bed for a stupid lecture, EVERYTHING lectured to us the entire class should have already learnt in the PREREQUISITE SUBJECT!!! Why don't lecturers take these things seriously?

In another subject I did all the pre-reqs. I didn't do a subject which is not a pre-req, but most people have and everyone is assuming that we know everything from it. It's really not fair.

My internet is screwing around. And my CD ran out. Find to find other things to do. Farewell, sweet readers.