Pride morning

A bit of a late wake up for me today, I was knackered yesterday. My first check this morning was to see that the JOY site was still there, mad or what, but with yesterdays experience of uploading it during the night and then it mysteriously getting distributed to only some folk and not to others I thought I needed to check that it hadn't disappeared again.

Yesterday afternoon Dino and I decided to buy tickets for Kaye Sera, Luke Gallagher and Adrian Kirk's 'The Grass Roots Tour' show -

It was the last show of the very short run at Chapel off Chapel so I wasn't sure if we would get tickets so late in the day. We did though, and it was full. It was also another great show by that trio. If you missed it why? Highlights for me was a great vocal mix / battle between Luke singing Kylie songs and Kaye singing Danni songs. Very clever.

Seems we had a bit of a Kylie theme to yesterday as we dropped in to see the Kylie exhibition in the Arts Centre. All I can say is that she is smaller than I thought, having never seen her live, I hadn't realised that she was so little. Not especially a Kylie fan and definitely not that interested in seeing frocks without women in them, I did enjoy the exhibition, there are some great photographs of the very photogenic Ms Minogue. Pity Manchester Boy wasn't there though instead of just Kylie's police uniform.

We had some fun in the lift too in the Arts Centre, but I'm sure Dino will tell ya about that.

Cheers for now, but don't forget, you can now listen to JOY's coverage of today's Pride event over the internet and I'll have shots from Pride up on the JOY web-site tomorrow. If you see us there this afternoon, say hello.

[joe]

BAHHH!!!!

Further to my earlier blog ... I spoke too soon.
Site is up and working, then the JOY Internet service provider server decided to throw a wobbly, so at the moment .. now 7:47 am, there is no site to look at.. pahh!!!

Hopefullythe ISP will sort itself out later today.

A now annoyed Joe..

Poor me.

At Last!!!!.

Morning all,
It's now 5:22 am as I type, I've been up since around 3am uploading the new JOY website and the new features... You better have a look to see what I mean, but hopefully a few folk should be please to see that JOY now reaches around the world (I know its not just me that wanted this.. ...)

Forgot the site? Joy.org.au.

I know there are rough bits on the site, I'll iron them out when I've had some sleep.

EnJOY.. oh and hope to see you at the Pride march tomorrow.



[joe]

Picnic on the lawn

Our neighbour borrowed our lawnmower yesterday, to give his grass its annual cut. The mower went up in smoke, and is now at the garden-equipment hospital.

Who is gonna be joining us at the JOY picnic this Wednesday? Its at Forest Glade Mt Macedon, (see joy.org.au for more details). We're the ones with tattoos and no lawnmower.....
[dino]

All knotted up

Saw an advert today for fireplaces that "add warmth to your room without adding heat". They look like fires but don't heat up, just to have the look of an open fire. In the spirit of 'Not The Real McCoy', we were thinking of some other inventions to add to the NotFire. How about a NotFridge, for those who want somewhere to store food but don't like it chilled. Or a NotComputer, guaranteed not to compute? (oh, hang on, got one of those already)

[dino]

Midsumma Opening Ceremony

Went to the start of Midsumma last night at Federation Square. We were meant to meet up with Trudi, couldnt see her but we did see Mystery Programmer who assured us that she had seen Trudi earlier on. Apparantly she was last seen riding off in one of those white electric chariots (that look a bit like a urinal on wheels to me)

[dino]

Ad Break!!!!

Don’t forget the upcoming JOY events, especially the JOY picnic. I enjoyed it last year despite Dino being away suffering in the cold of a snow-covered UK.

Have a look at JOY WASSUP Dawg!!! for details (Ok the page isn’t really called that but it should be )

Have you wondered what happened to the New Joy website look and feel I said I worked on over Christmas? If not, well yer no mate of mine :) - for the rest of you , my best mates, it should be going live very soon. I’m just waiting for the nod from The Management to flick the site over to the new one.

[Joe]

Trudi's Household Tip No 9928576a

Use camomile tea-bags on your eyes to relax and unwind after a busy day at work.

However, make sure you let them cool down after taking them out of the tea pot before putting them on your eyes (I have a scalded swollen eyelid now)

Podiatry

I went to the podiatrist yesterday. Actually I have never heard of a podiatrist before yesterday either, they are like a chiropodist on steroids (or a posh foot doctor). You see, I've had these verucas on my foot for nearly 3 years, and my news years' resolution was to get my feet sorted out.

I had the full works, cutting of dead skin with a scalpel, freezing with liquid nitrogen and sanding down with a black & decker ebrasive disc. When I had the liquid nitrogen, the podiatrist said to me "just scream when the pain gets too much", but I just sat there hearing my skin sizzle and a wisp of smoke go up. After a few seconds she took it away, and said "wow, most people don't last that long".

[dino]
ps sorry if thats put you off your dinner, maybe it should have had a warning at the start

building

A bit of an update about the house.... the good news: we have had a quote back from a builder. the bad news: its way way above what we can afford. In fact doing a little research you can buy a 5 bedroom house + land in Langwarrin, twice, for the quote we got for building an extension to our house. Roll on the quotes from builders not living in la-la land.

The funny thing is, the architect got the news before Christmas but didn't tell us so as not to upset us. Then Joe found out last week and took 4 days to get to courage to tell me. Aw, bless.

[dino]

Trudi's Household Tip No 48372561

Buy all your Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations NOW at discount price!

However, do not leave the open bag within reach of Auntie Mary's cat, the evil Mr Fluffy, who will completely destroy your ribbon and tinsel without any qualms.

Predictions

My predictions for what will happen on Carnivale tonight on ABC: The young lad will share a scary dream with the priest, the dwarf man will order everyone around saying that 'management' has expressed his wishes and the plain girl will have an arguement with her mother (the one that can't talk.... how far-fetched is that!?), and the mother will mysteriously slam a door or cause something to fly across the room. Oh, and the woman dancers will pout a lot.

My predictions for the new Kylie Clothes Exhibition at the Melbourne Arts Centre: some impossibly-small sparkly tops, lots of gold lame hot-pants and a set of Carmen heated rollers from the 80s.

Hope I haven't spoilt either event for anyone.
[dino]

...and her 5 daughters

This weeks news: our baby palm tree has spawned its first proper leaf (it had a few single strappy leaves, but this is the first divided leaf with 5 sections). We are naming it frond. We were going to call it Mother Palm but I think that refers to something else
[dino]

Garden And The City

It's 5:30pm and I'm on a 14 hour shift today at work. Instead of telling you that I'm tired, I'd thought I'd describe some of the delights of Garden City. We have The Ironingboard House (the occupants have since moved out but always had an ironing board and huge basket of washing in clear view of the front window), The Caravan House (which really is a caravan on top of a house), and The Pug House (guess who lives there?).

GC Characters include The Rain Lady (a neighbour who when Joe said 'Lovely day isn't it' once replied 'Oh, prepare for rain!'), Ethel on the bus, and The Mad Man (who runs around flapping his arms when its windy - hang on, I do that sometimes too...)

Special mention goes to ROAD! (there is a house with a sign outside that just says 'road' in huge letters - and its not even on a road its on a boulevard), and my favourite Kitty Car Park, where a particularly manky but very friendly cat is often found.
[dino]

Pumping & Polishing (or Sweating & Scrubbing)

Its been so hot over the last couple of days, and I was at the gym running on the treadmill and lifting my post-new-year increased weights, sweating away (the gym owner doesnt believe in putting the air-con on until it goes over 35 degrees) and thought to myself - WHY? Why am I doing this to myself? This can't be healthy! I'm sure one day it'll be in the news that scientists have discovered that exercise is not healthy after all, like they did with red meat and coco pops.

One exercise I've not been very good at recently is cleaning the house. I always seem to forget, and only notice when there are more breadcrumbs on the floor than on homebrand fishfingers. My mum used to have a strict cleaning rota, Tuesdays upstairs, Thursdays downstairs, does that sound weird? Is it over the top to schedule task reminders in my email calendar to clean the toilet?
[dino]

Trudi's Foodie

Gday peoples, Trudi the mute here again, back by popular demand (well, there was a comment asking for more of me).

Spent yesterday with my beautiful girlfriend Velveteen down at St Kilda, trying to spot the locations from The Secret Life of Us, then got involved in a volleyball game on the beach. I thought they were beckoning me to join them, it was only after 20 minutes or so that I realised that they were part of the deaf olympics. At least they did not complain about the noise of my clacky mules....

Much more successful in the kitchen this week. I did my speciality roast: rack-off lamb. Only ice-cream for afters, the tapioca pudding that I had prepared accidently got thrown away by Auntie Mary. I suppose storing it in jam-jars near the pond was a bit silly.
[trudi]

Shopping, sushi & sleep-ins

Had a mad shopping spree today, got a new belt, a book of piano music and 2 CDs - Jay Z vs Linkin Park and NERD. Joe got The Shadows, B52s, Ibiza collection and a Drum n Bass collection. We had lunch in the new QV square place at the top of Swanston Street above Big W, at a place called Oishii Bento - they do all bento boxes. Very nice Japanese food, it all comes in a plastic lined box in compartments with a lid like an aeroplane meal, and the rice is very good mixed with seaweed. It gets the NTRM seal of approval, although I like Gigi even better.

We've both been tired this week, probably the shock of being back at work after the nice break. I couldn't get used to having to get up early and overslept a couple of times. I was also teaching a new course, and the students kept me on my toes asking some quite technical questions, two of them had far more IT networking experience than me so I just let them share their experiences with the rest of the group, which I think is what they wanted. We've both been back to the gym too.
[dino]

Rudey Trudi

G'Day, Trudi here, just arrived back from my stay at the beauty resort in wop wop where I had the full "bottom half" treatment: cellulite-sanding on the hips, aqua-salt knee polishing, toe exfoliation (scraping) and acrylic tonails fitted. I can't walk very well now but I look fantastic.

I'm also reading a great book at the moment, called 'The Astute Mute'.

On Christmas Day I was being very adventurous with the cooking, trying to poach salmon in Auntie Mary's dishwasher. All was going fine except I had put a Finish Power Ball in by mistake. Tasted fine though. Did you know you can also do fairy floss in a top-loading washing machine!

[trudi]

Back to school

well, back to work at least. I didn't sleep very well last night, it was very hot and there were thunderstorms. If you're wondering why theres suddenly been lots of rain in Melbourne its because I decided to water the whole garden yesterday. The water evapourated and formed rain clouds.

Tony at work told me that he'd been involved in a 6 car pile-up over Christmas. I think that the road toll figures are shocking (344 people died over the past year in Victoria alone), but he was given some advice from his father: if you get breath-tested by the police, drink some vegetable oil cos that means it won't be detected. So his dad thinks its ok for him to be driving over the alcohol limit, as long as he is not caught....?

On another topic, I'm listening to Eminem's new album Encore. Do you reckon he hates or loves gay people? It must be a topic close to his heart to appear so much in his lyrics. Here is a verse from 'Rain Man':
"I gotta question if I may? (Yeah)
Is it gay to play Putt-Putt golf with a friend (Yeah)
And watch his butt-butt when he tees off? (Yeah)
But, ut! I ain't done yet
In football the quarterback yells out hutt-hutt
While he reaches in another grown man's ass
Grabs on his nuts but just what if
It was never meant it was just an accident
But he tripped, fell, slipped and his penis went in
His teeny tiny little round hiney but he didn't mean it
But his little weenie flinched just a little bit
And I don't mean to go in into any more details but
What if he pictured it as a females butt?
Is that gay? I just need to clear things up"

Easter Eggs in the supermarkets today!

Yes folks, Coles in Port Melbourne has got easter eggs on their shelves as of today, leaving plenty of time for them to develop that nice whitish-mould on the surface of the chocolate before Easter arrives.
[dino]

Cyclepath Psychopath

Had a great day today. Cycled from Garden City to St Kilda along the cyclepath by the sea-front, then had a picnic (lunch on a tablecloth, not the chocolate bar variety). There was a couple of seagulls with us, then some other people threw some food for them, then suddenly there was about 3 thousand of them, giving us the beady eye. Joe says they are scavengers and will eat anything. One of them was trying to devour an old typewriter.

We saw lots of people flying kites and surfboarding at the same time (they must be very busy people that just don't have the time to do them separately). Joe wants to do that now, taking kiteboarding lessons.

On the ride home people seemed to keep stepping out in front of us on the cyclepath, putting prams with small children in the way etc. I must learn how to use my brakes.
[dino]

(All is quiet on) New Year's Day

The massage: I (dino) was a bit disappointed, mainly because I'm sure the woman that massaged me had long fingernails which scraped me occassionally. Joe said he enjoyed his far more, he got extra shiatzu stuff that I didn't. Both of us had achy necks this morning. Its funny you know, its painful getting the nodules out, then painful the next morning!?

The pug: We managed to fool a few people into thinking we had a cute little pug with us for the Pug's Day radio show. In fact it was just a tiny fridge magnet (that Joe's mum sent us from England), but very close to the camera. And it doesn't have a name yet.

The bike: We are now a 2 bicycle family. I bought myself a bicycle yesterday, and we have been lording it over our neighbours riding around the area, they are green with envy stuck in their Mercedes Coupes.
[dino]