Not The Real McCoy

pics from xmas day

2009-01-01T22:10:00.001+11:00

Breakie show on JOY radio, followed by pressies in the garden

family photo with timer and impatient cat

2009-01-01T22:07:00.002+11:00

cats' birthday portraits

2009-01-01T21:47:00.004+11:00

Logan
Brad
Its my Birthday!
Its New Years Day and Logan and Brad's 2nd birthday!
We couldnt get them to pose together so had to do separate shots.
They celebrated by having tuna and catching their first bird (which Joe had to release). Also had "happy birthday" sung to them on the radio by two lesbians.

Dino

2008-11-16T20:13:00.002+11:00

From Dino

the zoo

2008-09-16T22:07:00.004+10:00

our second trip to melbourne zoo (the first one was 6 years ago)

cornrows

2008-07-17T21:19:00.003+10:00

today i got my cornrows done!

i'd been saying that i would try them for a while, and being on holiday from work for a few weeks gave me the ideal time to try them out. it feels like i've had a facelift.

this week we have also been planting a hedge of magnolias in the front garden, digging up grass and planting it in the nature strip (joe did most of the hard digging work), went to see hancock at the cinema and went to the JOY rooftop barbeque in the city in the freezing cold.

Cover Stars

2008-06-16T18:07:00.002+10:00

This week we appear on the front page of news magazine BNews, to celebrate JOY 94.9 moving to its new studios in Burke Street CBD. The theme of the relocation is Village People since the new studio is part of City Village. Its just a shame that we couldn't choose who we were modeling with.

The campaign was also meant to run in the Herald Sun, but we have been checking every day and our picture has not appeared yet.

Brad

2008-05-11T12:33:00.005+10:00

Brad ready for his close-up, and with his brother in the garden. These pictures kinda look like Victorian-era postcards.

Logan

2008-05-11T12:28:00.000+10:00

Logan in the garden - May 2008

birthday

2008-04-08T17:12:00.002+10:00

it was my birthday on sunday. it snowed (in london). I thought that was unusual but my parents and mike in england both reminded me of other birthdays in the snow. i dont miss the cold at all - thankfully it was warmer and sunny in melbourne. joe and i went to st kilda and sat on the jetty at the end of the pier. joe also made me a birthday cake with marzipan and icing, but most of the icing slid off the cake. it still tasted nice though.

brisbane pictures

2008-03-24T11:26:00.003+11:00

Pictures taken a few weeks ago on our trip to Brisbane, to see what the Queensland Summer is really like:

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/inkedJoe/BrisbaneFeb2008

Also with new google maps feature, click on 'View Map' to see locations on a map

Nissan Micra

2008-03-19T12:18:00.004+11:00

There is a new model of car released in Australia: The Nissan Micra!

http://www.nissanmicra.com.au/

Funny thing is, I had one of these as my first (and only!) car almost 20 years ago in England.

Mum, do you still have your micra?

heatwave in march

2008-03-18T10:39:00.002+11:00

Last night was Melbourne's warmest night on record. It was an overnight low of 26.7 degrees after a day of 39 degrees, with the temperature not dropping below 30 degrees until 11.30pm.

Meanwhile Adelaide recorded a high of 40.5 degrees yesterday, it's 15th straight day above 35.

Moving the Queensland?

2008-03-11T14:57:00.003+11:00

We are back from our holiday in Brisbane, we went up there in February for 5 days to see what the weather was like in summertime. We are vaguely thinking of moving up to that area for the warmer climate but were concerned about the high humidity in the summer months, so wanted to see for ourselves. Only problem was, after 6 weeks of rain the week that we went it was fine and sunny.

It was a bit sticky on the first day we arrived, but I think that was partly due to us getting wound up with the car rental company. Being regular customers we get a special card and a free 'upgrade' in car. But that means a bigger car (we find it easier driving a small car, specially in the city) that guzzles more fuel. From the look on the employees face, they had never had anyone complain that the car was too big and request a smaller car before. But we did end up with our little Getz, but only in manual not automatic.

We stayed in a serviced apartment in Kangaroo Point which was great, overlooking the river. [Mum & Dad note, we didnt change our room.] We drove over the Storey bridge to New Farm to do some food shopping, then went for a walk along the river in the evening.

The next day we went for a drive to look at some areas around the city we thought might be nice to live. South of the river Hemmant looked nice, big blocks with farmland around but not too far from the city. Then suddenly it turned into housing estates with properties crammed in together against the fence.

We looked at Manly, Wynnum, down to Cleveland, then drove up north to Redcliffe / Margate / Scarborough. Joe liked the beaches there and it was cooler and windy too, but the houses were still on small blocks. We saw a development of houses at Mango Hill where one house builder said they would build on any land that we got and make any changes that we wanted, but the houses all looked so boring and standard. no unusual features.

On Saturday we drove west to Moggill, very hilly countryside about 30kms from the city. There was a Mirvac development, we like the houses which have a much better standard of finish, but they were not building any more there for the moment (maybe with mortgage rates rising?) and had some lots of land but on very steep hills that they couldnt build their own houses on.

On Sunday we took the river ferry into the city, had a look around the shops and went to Southbank for lunch near the artificial beach.

On Monday before flying back to Melbourne we took a drive round New Farm and Teneriffe. Joe got a fright driving down a steep road that suddenly ended on the edge of a cliff. There was a lot of new building and some nice looking houses. Later when we looked up the prices they were all in the million to squillion price range.

sunnies

2008-02-03T12:42:00.001+11:00

logan in sunnies

dino & dan

2008-02-02T16:10:00.000+11:00

dino and dan will be hosting not the real mcccoy tonight. just thought you might like a visual.

pam ann does ads for BA

2008-01-08T12:08:00.001+11:00

Pam Ann is now doing adverts for British Airways, see them on www.britishairwaysandpamann.com, they are very funny.

greasy

2008-01-07T13:09:00.000+11:00

a question we posed on the show at the weekend, what is the correct pronunciation of the word 'greasy' (eg. this frying pan is very greasy)

a) Greesss-Eeee or
b) Greee-Zee

Joe and I thought (a) but other listeners thought (b)

hmm.

boys' 1st birthday

2008-01-01T20:58:00.000+11:00

Today is Logan and Brad's birthday, 1 year old and so officially out of kittenhood now. Who looks the most relaxed in this picture?

Singapore

2007-12-25T17:19:00.000+11:00

Pictures from our trip to Sentosa, Singapore visiting Dino's Parents. Click on the picture to see more pictures.

alternative link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/inkedJoe/Singapore

Brad today

2007-11-04T19:27:00.000+11:00

Brad, now all grown up

Spring in the garden

2007-10-20T11:24:00.000+10:00

Spring arrives in the garden and the Aloe Vera and Bird of Paradise flower for the first time in the new garden.

heathrow airport

2007-10-11T16:59:00.000+10:00

London's heathrow airport (the world's busiest airport) is also voted the world's least favourite airport in a recent survey by the TripAdvisor.com website, due to cancelled flights and lost luggage. British Airways lost over 1 millions items of luggage in the last year.

See the full article here

great t-shirt design

2007-10-10T15:35:00.000+10:00

this speaks for itself really, very clever

Kylie Minogue - Got To Be Certain (extended remix)

2007-09-18T10:32:00.001+10:00

here is video of a remix of the kylie song featuring st kilda pier, luna park, walking along the banks of the yarra river and dancing on the rooftop of a melbourne tower. Is it the KPMG building? I'm not sure...

eureka

2007-09-10T12:36:00.000+10:00

yesterday we went up the eureka tower, the largest residential tower in the southern hemisphere, or something like that. the observation deck is on the 88th floor, and the lift takes 40 seconds, travelling faster than a sprinting athlete and making my ears go funny.

the views are good, we could just about see our house, but the internal corridors are dark narrow and gloomy, and i felt a bit freaked when i overheard someone else talking saying that the twin towers were 110 storeys - i started looking around for the emergency stairs and couldnt see any, eek. in a way i was relieved to get back down to earth.

see http://www.eurekatower.com.au/main.cfm to see the offical website (and maybe buy an apartment at the top for $8 million!)

spring is in the air

2007-09-04T07:54:00.000+10:00

i am teaching a student at work this week that was on one of my courses about a year ago. they asked me if i am still doing the radio show - i said yep, the spring season of 'not the real mccoy' starts this coming saturday, and explained that we had had the winter season off for a break.

she also asked "have you been preparing much material for the new show?", and I was pleased to be able to say yes (for once!)

melbourne city square

2007-08-24T08:58:00.000+10:00

a picture of Melbourne City Square, next to the town hall, in the 1970s when it was an actual square (before half of it turned in the Westin Hotel in the 90s).

The square was originally installed in 1968, then redeveloped in 1976 as an architectural competition, finally opened by QE2 in 1980, complete with the Yellow Peril sculpture. The most recent change was the addition of raised grass areas in 2003.

do you ride a bike?

2007-08-22T16:13:00.000+10:00

Monday, we went to take the hire car back. On the way, we stopped to get petrol.

Joe was driving the car, I followed on my motorbike so that I could give him a lift home. When we pulled up at the petrol filling station, we both got fuel, then both went in to pay. I was wearing my bike helmet and bike jacket. But the guy working behind the till still asked me "which one?". i said "the bike". he said "the car?"

back from queensland

2007-08-19T14:49:00.000+10:00

just back from our holiday to the sunshine coast, queensland. had some great weather, 25 degrees and 7 hours sunshine a day, and thats mid-winter. i kept saying to joe that we should move up to qld someday.

lots of people seem to have retired up there (ie lots of oldies) esp compared to the gold coast.

had a relaxing time, swimming, taking hot spas, shopping and looking at show homes. we hired a car and drove up the coast from coloundra to noosa. we were staying at alexandra headlands near mooloolaba beach - great name that!

logan and brad (the cats) stayed at the purrfect cat holiday home in williamstown, we have just collected them from their holiday and they seem a bit subdued. jet lag maybe? or too many cocktails and late nights maybe.

having hired a car today to pick up the cats, we also were inspired by the tropical flora of south-east queensland to go and buy 4 palm trees for our garden. at least we can pretend its tropical when we look out of the window now.

we like the pandanus trees (shown in picture) that grow all along the queensland coast, but the one plant we saw here was very small and sorry looking after a melbourne winter.

Winter Logan

2007-08-05T10:33:00.000+10:00

Here is a picture of our Logan in full Winter regalia - his coat makes him look bigger than he really is.

cold weekend

2007-08-03T12:53:00.000+10:00

the forecast for the weekend here in Melbourne is a bit dreary: high of 12 degrees, hail and rain.

when will summer come back again? all is forgiven (except the mosquitos, humidity and 40+ degree days)

and mum & dad taunt me with their tales of a mediterranean cruise, visiting Vigo, Lisbon, Cannes, Barcelona , Rome, Naples and Gibraltar saying its just too hot....

sunshine coast

2007-08-02T20:17:00.000+10:00

neither of us like winter time, and the cold weather has us looking forward to our holiday on the sunshine coast.

we were looking up some information, and found this web site: http://www.sunshinecoast-australia.com/100583.php

it says that "the weather on the Sunshine Coast undergoes mild fluctuations in extremes". what does that mean. it also says "During the winter months the temperature along the coast can average around 200C". Do they really mean 200 degrees?

warmest night for 25 years

2007-07-26T07:47:00.000+10:00

.....or something like that i just on the radio news.

the last couple of days in melbourne has been warm and sunny, last night we had the doors open to the courtyard (much to the delight of the cats leaping around after the flies), and the lowest temperature was 15 degrees C.

Meanwhile fruit and veg has tripled in price due to the recent drought/floods/frosts around the country. and interest rates are set to rise too.

coldest day in 10 years

2007-07-18T08:03:00.000+10:00

just heard on the radio this morning that Melbourne had the coldest day in 10 years yesterday, with a top of only 9 degrees in the morning, which then dipped to 6 degrees for most of the rest of the day.

logan's tail

2007-07-06T08:13:00.000+10:00

might have been a false alarm with logan's tail. he has been lifting it up in the mornings, but keeps it down at night. maybe it gets tired as the day goes on?

just had confirmation today that we will be back on JOY with not the real mccoy for the spring season in september.

dans not broken anything, logan might have...

2007-07-02T15:52:00.000+10:00

we went to visit dan in hospital on saturday and sunday. he's awake and alert, only major complaint is double-vision. it was good to see him up and about again, he kept trying to trick us into taking him downstairs to get a pack of cigarettes. didnt work though.

when we got home we noticed that logan was not picking his tail up at all, and theres a slight bump at the base of the tail. then looked up on the web and it could be broken. poor kitty is only 6 months old to the day and has already had a broken foot and now a damaged tail.

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

2007-06-30T10:32:00.000+10:00

Just stumbled across this funny website: I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? showcases bizarre pictures of cats eating cheeseburgers and other stuff with mis-spelt captions

dan's awake

2007-06-29T16:26:00.000+10:00

good news, dan came out of his coma yesterday, is awake and eating. he's out of ICU we are gonna go and visit him this weekend i think.

we're also going to look at new TVs. Our little 12" screen is not good enough any more.

whats been happening

2007-06-27T16:53:00.000+10:00

it was joe's birthday yesterday, but i havent seen him to give him pressies as he went away to sydney for work - due back tonight.

its been raining all day in melbourne, and all last night too. i'm glad i had the kits to keep me company when the wind was howling over the top of the strains of big brother.

not much news on dan in hossie. he's been put into an induced coma, and was due to be woken up yesterday but they have decided to give him an extra day. apparantly its not uncommon with head injuries, to reduce any swelling to the brain.

and its been another hectic week in work for me so far. my students are so technically advanced, they keep me on my toes with weird and wonderful questions, or tell me everything that they know and do that i have got very behind in timing.

we've tried craggle's idea of sticky-tape on the kitchen tops to stop the cats jumping up, and so far (fingers-crossed) it has been working. they dont like standing on sticky stuff. only problem was when our mate KP came over for dinner the other night, leaned over the kitchen workbench to make a phonecall, and got herself stuck to the kitchen sink.

Dan in hospital

2007-06-24T13:35:00.000+10:00

Our mate Dan got knocked over by a tram on Friday morning, he's now in intensive care in hospital. Hope ya get better soon Dan

See ABC News article

cheesecake

2007-06-19T18:50:00.000+10:00

I am teaching an evening class at the moment, and one of my students brought in a cheesecake from work (bakery bit of myer). everyone in the class had a bit, it was very tasty. baked strawberry cheesecake.

i wonder if logan would have liked it. we had a milky bar last week and both kittens went mad over it, sniffing it and having a little nibble. do cats eat white choclit in the wild?

our weekend

2007-06-18T13:31:00.000+10:00

This weekend I (Dino) had to work, Joe made bread and chilli - nice and warming for the cold spell that we have just gone into in Melbourne. We also got a table candle-holder, so we can have candlelit dinners, ahh.

We got out the DVD of a movie called "Boy Town", a comedy about 5 guys that used to be in a boy band in the 80s, that wanted to get back together and sang songs about picking up the kids from school and doing the washing, to represent their more mature audience. By Mick Malloy, and also featuring Glen Robbins from Kath & Kim.

Sunday we went to the vet in Williamstown to have a look at their cattery, ready for when we go on holiday. Seemed clean and well run, we have booked in the boys for their own little holiday there, complete with pick-up service. Logan has gone for the optional extras of pedicure and mud-wrap, Brad wants the massage & spa.

I lost at 2 ebay auctions, and spent a rainy afternoon in front of the fire, Joe likes me playing Abba songs on the piano so that he can sing along (would never admit this though)

I know its vain

2007-06-14T20:55:00.001+10:00

I know its vain of me, but I especially like this picture Dino took of me.

no comment

2007-06-14T20:15:00.000+10:00

I just got an email from Mum (she of 'dont eat chocolate' fame), asking how to post comments on the blog. So here is a step-by-step guide:
1. Click on '0 Comments' (or whatever it says)
2. Type your comment in the box
3. Click 'anonymous' (if you dont have a blogger account)
4. Type the special authorisation code in the picture into the box to show that you are not a spamming computer.
5. Click Publish

painful

2007-06-12T18:44:00.000+10:00

the kittens are teething. they have both got their adult 'canine' teeth come through now, but have been complaining of sore gums and demanding extra attention. when brad yawns you can see that he's only got about 3 teeth left (he spat the others out in a manly fashion). but wait, dont get too close, his bad breath will knock you out. i've been looking at websites on how to brush cats' teeth today.

the other painful activity of the weekend was booking holidays. we've finally decided on destination, flights, accomodation. after all that effort we'll need a holiday just to calm down again.

start of Winter news...

2007-06-05T16:26:00.000+10:00

dear blog (cos i'm not sure if anyone actually reads this anymore),

its a weird situation that after having 3 holiday from work, its only once i am back working that i have the time to write a blog entry. maybe its cos i am teaching a new vista course where all the student's exercises are 60 minutes to complete.

so what have we been up to? we did the last radio show of the season on saturday night. i wonder whether we will be allowed to come back again in the spring? i'll miss the regular sms'ers like pauline who always answered my silly quiz questions.

it looks like the californian holiday is off - or maybe just postponed for a year. we were going to go to meet up with my parents, but turns out that they will have just returned from a cruise then, so we are now thinking of meeting them in singapore later on in the year instead.

i got my hair-cut last week (mum will be pleased at that). whenever i go to the hairdressers they always seem to cut it just a bit shorter than i wanted. isnt that bad for business? surely they'd want you to go back sooner? my hair looked fine on the day, but the next day seemed to retreat into my head. maybe the shock of being cut.

the cats are now 5 months old and getting big boys. logan is still jumping up onto the kitchen counter-tops, which gains him a quick spray of water on the nose. he hates that but obviously thinks that it is worth it for the thrill of being naughty for 3 seconds.

joe and i still havent made it to the salsa dance class that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, but have promised to try and make the next one the weekend after next (as its a long weekend coming up for queens birthday, yea!)

anyway, must dash, i'm doing evening training tonight as well (hurrah!), so a long day at work for poor me.

Feed Me !

2007-05-26T11:09:00.001+10:00

Last Sunday we went to see Little Shop of Horrors at the Williamstown Musical Theatre Company. A great production, faithfully reproducing the 1980s movie, even down to the fake American accents!

We like going to see small productions - there were probably about 80 people in the audience where the performance seems more personal. It is set in 'Skid Row' and at the start the homeless people characters came into the audience begging and coughing over everyone. And at the end Audrey II's tenticles reached into the audience too.

The stage had a revolving 'lazy susan' with the plant shop on one side, and the street on the other side. I liked the actors freezing in mid-expression as the scenes changed.

Guess who

2007-05-19T22:39:00.001+10:00

The two of us.

2007-05-19T21:38:00.001+10:00

Harriet poised for your calls!

2007-05-19T21:32:00.001+10:00

Joe on the show!

2007-05-19T21:20:00.001+10:00

Dj dino

2007-05-19T21:05:00.001+10:00

On air au joy

Catnap before the show.

2007-05-19T20:01:00.001+10:00

Balls or not!

2007-05-12T21:23:00.001+10:00

Logan the window wash help

2007-04-28T17:03:00.000+10:00

From Kits

wet cats

2007-04-25T10:41:00.000+10:00

following on from brad's obsession with the kitchen tap, the water interest continues today as joe washes the windows and both cats 'help' by standing under the drips of water, leap into the bucket, lick the wet glass and generally join in. i thought that cats are meant to be afraid of water?

it's not my job

2007-04-24T11:31:00.000+10:00

official winner of the It's Not My Job contest

big brother

2007-04-23T15:20:00.000+10:00

BB 07 started last night. we are determined not to watch it this year. well apart from the beginning of it, just to see who is in it.

aparantly its going to be completely different from all the previous ones

moving in the rain and leaping felines

2007-04-23T14:48:00.000+10:00

saturday joe and i went to help dan move house. went went on motorbikes up to reservoir to help load stuff onto a trailer that his dad had hired for the day. his lesbian housemates didnt offer any help.

it was far more fun than any of the house moves that we've done, when i'm normally running around doing last minute packing. we even laughed at the fact that following australia's worst drought, it poured with rain all afternoon. dan was nice and dry in the comfort of his dad's air conditioned car, but we were following on bikes picking up the spray from the rear tyres in our crotches. when joe and i got home we had to jump straight into the bath (taking sodden clothes off first of course).

then had an afternoon nap. hint: afternoon nap with damp hair equals mad-hair for rest of day.

brads new trick of the day is jumping onto the kitchen benchtop. he seems to love water (isnt this wrong for cats). if the kitchen tap is running, he leaps up to have a look. even leaped straight into the sink at one point. logan is restricted by his broken leg still.

well, i did it

2007-04-20T15:27:00.000+10:00

i took the plunge and got a mobile phone. my decision was possibly speeded up by dan giving me his old phone and joe giving me his spare sim card, so i didnt have any of those oh-so-difficult decisions to make.

so i am officially the last person in australia to own a mobile phone. it is an all-singing, all-dancing model with text, sub-woofers and egg-boiler built in.

what next? a car, an i-pod, children?!

mobile phone

2007-04-13T12:47:00.000+10:00

I must be the only person in Australia without a mobile phone. Since we arrived here 5 years ago and my UK phone didnt work (even when i turned it upside-down), I have been free of the responsibility of daily charging, and forgetting to turn off ringtones in meetings and at cinemas. But Joe has worn me down and made me realise that I should be contactable sometimes. The main arguement that worked was "well, you can always leave it turned off"

Now I just have the task of choosing from 5000 different brands, types and models of mobile phone. ideally i'd like to have one that just makes phone calls, no other fancy features but somehow dont think such a phone has been invented yet.

You'll all know when I have made my purchase, because I'll be one of the those annoying people trying out all of the different ringtones in a public place somewhere. I'm thinking maybe in the library.

brad tries new cat-food

2007-04-12T20:36:00.000+10:00

logan's leg 2

2007-04-11T14:00:00.000+10:00

update on logan's leg (well foot actually). we took him along to the vet on easter sunday to have the cast changed. they thought he might need a sedative but turns out it wasnt needed, he let the vet cut off the splint and bandage with no protest, had his nails trimmed with complete pedicure and rebandaged without need for the plastic splint to be kept on for the next 2 weeks. both kitties also had their 3rd set of vaccinations and so were a bit off colour the next day, not eating their dinner and telling us that they had achy joints. but they soon bounded back to life the next day. they have doubled in weight since we got them - from under 1kg to now 2kg each.

logan's leg

2007-04-02T21:14:00.000+10:00

logan's broken foot hasn't affected his appetite, he's still stuffing his face long after brad has finished and wandering off. neither wanted to show their faces on such a public site.

last nights show

2007-04-01T14:59:00.000+10:00

I know that we normally talk about ourselves a lot on Not The Real McCoy, but last night we reached a new level of exposing our private life on radio with our Sex Special (although it was really more about relationships and stuff). Sometimes I forget that people are listening and just chat as though its Joe and me having a conversation, or that we are just telling one mate. Probably back to the more trivial subjects next week, or this could be the start of something new, who knows...?

phew

2007-03-30T15:58:00.000+10:00

the end of a busy week at work. and just a teeny bit stressful. i have taught the SQL Server course 2.5 times now, and it always seems to go a bit wrong. well, i have a theory, the more students that i am demonstrating a procedure to, the more likely it is to go wrong, not work or crash the computer. if no one is looking, it will always work perfectly fine. very odd.

on the upside, i had my first easter egg of the year today - a student brought in some mini eggs, including 'one for the teacher'. ahh. they must have liked my teaching even if I didnt.

on wednesday i rushed home from work to water the garden, but as i was nearing home it started raining. i felt as a loss then, watering garden was on my list, but now i couldnt do it cos it was raining. joe didnt understand my dilemma. instead we put in an order for coles online, surely the worlds slowest database, if you want to add a new product to your shopping list you'd better be a patient person. oo, back to databases again.

next week i have the delights of teaching subnetting design for server 2003 - yippee

cat at home

2007-03-26T15:47:00.000+10:00

Ever wondered what cats do at home all day while you're out at work...?

mozzie bites

2007-03-22T10:37:00.000+11:00

we went for a walk along the beach the other evening, probably not a good idea since it was warm, humid and at dusk - we both got done by mozzies.

i've got 2 bites, one of my shoulder and one on my ear. why would a mosquito bite an ear? did it consider all the fleshy parts of the body, and think 'no, i reckon the ear looks the juciest'

the bite on my shoulder has swelled up so now it looks like i am wearing one of sue ellen's shoulder pads.

spice girl on Neighbours

2007-03-20T18:18:00.000+11:00

Ex Spice Girl Emma B (pictured) appeared on Aussie Soap Neighbours last night, playing a cameo role (rather unconviningly IMHO) as herself.

Karl and Suse were just wandering down the street and happened to bump into her. That was always happening to us when we lived in London. Either a Spice Girl or Madonna or Kylie. Those pop stars are everywhere.

march

2007-03-11T11:00:00.000+11:00

Its March already, and not been blogging much as we've both been busy at work.

Farmer Dave from Big Brother has abandoned his farm to go on Dancing with the Stars to raise money for his sheep which then go into making Sheppard's Pie.

Clippy

2007-02-22T10:50:00.000+11:00

Clippy is dead. That lovable animated paperclip in Microsoft Office that helpfully offered the phrase "it looks like you are writing a letter..." has not been included in Office 2007.

See http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/09/microsoft-clippy-rip-1997-2007/ and http://www.techsophist.net/?q=node/504 for more tearful goodbyes.

Hair Raising

2007-02-21T14:29:00.000+11:00

After the very private event of Britney Spears' head shaving, the non-publicity-seeking gal is selling her hairbrush to help make ends meet. Split ends perhaps?

If you feel the need for a pre-loved hairbrush, you can bid for it on ebay here

more MidSumma Carnival pictures

2007-02-13T17:49:00.000+11:00

We had a great day at the carnival, the JOY balloon-blowing-up tent had been set up in the hottest part of the park but it was only 48 degrees in there so we didnt mind really, and escaped to have a picnic under the shade of the trees after an hour or two. Then we did a stint on the JOY stall, taking turns at being barrel girl (whatever that is), collecting entries for the free hourly draw and helping members to sign up or renew their membership. It was good meeting friends new and old, 'Not the real mccoy' listeners, some regulars (hi Tex and MP), so we didnt even know we had. The best feedback was "Oh, they played my song, they played my song!"

balloons

2007-02-13T17:38:00.000+11:00

balloons
Originally uploaded by NTRMonjoy.

Blowing up balloons at Midsumma Carnival

sick

2007-02-08T19:47:00.000+11:00

I'm sick today, got the tummy bug thats been going round. Yesterday I was covering for a work colleage that was sick, today I got it. Pah

Ednaville

2007-02-05T20:31:00.000+11:00

On Sunday we went for a picnic to the botanical gardens and then went into see the Ednaville exhibition at the Arts Centre, a recreation of a 1950s house. I think we were the youngest there, but I still kept saying 'oh, we used to have one of those....' wrought iron umbrella stand, flour/tea/coffee jars, telephone table & seat, bedhead bookshelf. I think it was more an exhibition on my parents old house, not Dame Edna's. The only thing I didnt recognise from the era was the African Lady portraits, face blue in the moonlight. Joe tells me they were all the rage at the time, and we overheard a couple saying Oh, thats just like the one we used to have

washington

2007-02-02T09:04:00.000+11:00

We were watching an episode of the tv show Grey's Anatomy last night, that is based in Seattle on the west coast of America. Then a character in the hostpital drama mentioned that the Seattle Grace Hospital was the best in Washington. But Joe said that Washington was on the east coast, not the west. So we had to look it up on the internet (and I got my big world map out too). We didn't realise that the city of Washington has got nothing to do with the state Washington. I thought that Washington must be in Washington, like New York is in New York.

Just goes to show, you learn something new every day (sometimes I learn two things but then forget one of them)

back to school

2007-01-29T19:57:00.000+11:00

Schools go back today in Melbourne after the summer hols, and there were warnings on the radio to stick to 40 kph in school zones. So on my way into work when I saw a group of school kids crossing the road, I ploughed into them regardless making sure that my speedo was displaying precisely 40 kph

who said that?

2007-01-28T11:11:00.000+11:00

Over the past few weeks on Not The Real McCoy we have been asking Who Said That? - movie or song quotes for listeners to guess the answers for. We realised after last nights' show that no-one had correctly guessed who said this:

Come on and dance with me
Yeah, slow
Skip a beat and move with my body
Yeah, slow

Answer: the little-known Kylie Minogue.

water butt

2007-01-25T16:23:00.000+11:00

This is a water butt. Found out at work this week that no-one knew what I was talking about when saying 'water butt'. Ho hum, and all our jokes on the show about it being 'good weather for butts' when it was raining had gone to waste.
Here is an article about water butts.

neighbours gaff

2007-01-24T19:58:00.000+11:00

Catching the odd episode of Neighbours yesterday, saw Will (Sebastian) entering one of the hotels that he alledgedly owns in Melbourne, that was clearly the escalator-ed and waterfall-ed lobby of The Crown Casino Towers at Southbank. But mere moments later, they showed an interior shot boasting views over the botanical gardens and the arts centre. "Thats not possible from Crown!" we declared, shaking our fists at the tv screen. The scenic views were obviously shot from The Grand Hyatt , much further east. And on the show character Elle even said "I'll be at the expensive hotel in William Street". Neither of them are there.

Also saw on the Little Britain dvd extras that Lou & Andy's council flat scenes are filmed in a big country house in Bushey, an expensive suburb in North-West London. Cheeky.

rain

2007-01-21T14:10:00.000+11:00

Melbourne gets 2 days of summer rain after months of drought. All those people doing rain dances must have worked. It was nice sitting outside on the verandah in the warmth watching the big fat droplets falling straight down - the garden looks greener already.

shannon noll

2007-01-18T17:07:00.000+11:00

This one's specially for
Treacle the Pup. What I want to know is, would you bite those fingers Treacle?

food fads

2007-01-18T13:49:00.000+11:00

january is definitely the month for food fads here at work. One of my colleagues is munching on celery sticks at donut time, our linux expert is only eating vegetables for 2 weeks, and the technical support guy is surviving purely on tinned tuna.

I give it a month before they're all back on the greasy spoon egg and bacon sangers, with kebab juice to drink.

hot in the city

2007-01-17T08:46:00.000+11:00

Yesterdays soaring temperatures did not hit me until I left air-conditioned-work at 5:30, then stepped outside into the 39 degree smokey heat. I had heard the receptionist telling someone else how there were power-failures and that traffic was bad as traffic lights were out. I found this was the case in Williamstown Road, and when I got home Joe said we had no power. So no aircon, mustnt keep opening the fridge as everything will defrost, no tv, music, microwave or innernet.

We decided to make the room hotter by cooking sausages on the gas top, then headed for the beach with water bottles and boardshorts. Surprisingly a few (hundred) other people had the same idea. The beach and sea was jam packed full of huge people and even huge-er dogs, just waiting to run out of the water and skake all over you. A kind of personalised hyrdronic cooling system i suppose. Our beach is not a designated 'body beautiful' zone, so anyone can just come along and let it all hang out.

There was a family at the beach that had a boat, 5 kids, a newborn staffordshire bull terrier, and then later on we saw a newborn baby. We think the mother must have given birth while we were there. The kids seemed determined that the puppy would swim in the sea, and the poor mite kept being dropped in the sea and immediatly swimming back to shore and running away from the water, only to be yanked up by one of the bin-lids again.

When we got home, the power was back on and the fridge was beeping at us to say it was too warm. The beeping continued for about an hour until we worked out how to turn the beeping feature off.

Today there is talk of power bans , restricting the use of air conditioners to the ill, elderly or pregnant, with $10,000 fines if you are caught cooling down.

Water ban, electric bans, what next?

fame at last

2007-01-08T15:32:00.000+11:00

Our house is in Belle Magazine this month. Havent seen it yet, have you?

Joe got a copy and just emailed me about it. He got back yesterday and we had a belated christmas. I made him stay awake nearly all day to beat the jet-lag. He tried to get me drunk on mini liquer chocolates.

Did you know: there are 800 species of birds in Australia, 50% unique to Aus.

bananas and ants

2007-01-03T12:57:00.000+11:00

breaking news, bananas down to $4 a kilo in australia. whoho. for those overseas readers wondering what the fuss is about, 80 percent of Australia's banana crops were wiped out during Cyclone Larry last year, which caused banana prices to go up to $15/kilo at one stage. i prefer strawberries tho.

i woke up this morning to find ants all over the bedroom floor. in the hallway too. so i braved the 30 degree heat to buy ant-go-away-stuff (and the luring bananas), when i got back all the ants had gone! where are they? did they see me coming?

A Foreign Lyrics Show

2007-01-01T21:24:00.000+11:00

I have been inspired by Craggles sending me a copy of the French dance track Fleur De Saison to do a Not The Real McCoy special show with songs containing foreign lyrics. Dunno whether I'll do it this week or next week, or whether the whole thing is a bad idea.... but I reckon I've got stuff in French, German (Rammstein, duh!), Spanish, Greek, Gaellic, heck even broken English.

lizzie drip

2006-12-30T14:20:00.000+11:00

Video of British drag act Lizzie Drip, as mentioned as few times on NTRM.

pugsday pix

2006-12-26T20:50:00.000+11:00

Pictures from the Pugsday Show, taken in studio 2 at JOY 94.9. 1st pic (L-R) Dino, Dennis. 2nd pic Dick, Dino, Harriet.

Thanks to D&D from 'A Touch of Pink', and to Harriet for helping out for the morning. These were taken about halfway through the show just before 9am, a bit early for me, you can see that my eyes are just starting to open.

happy pugs day

2006-12-25T22:12:00.000+11:00

well the day started early, getting up at 5:30am in the JOY studio by 6:30 to start the pugs day show for 7am. got some great feedback via email (joe listening from the UK), sms and phone, more people listening that i expected. dennis and dick from 'a touch of pink' were helping me out, and harriet popping in and out of the studio to add her special charm to the show.
it rained on and off nearly all day, i only got wet once - good for the garden tho'.

cat music

2006-12-23T14:22:00.000+11:00

Ever wanted to see a cockney male group performing 'Indepedent Woman' in front of a pub, playing xylaphone and harmonica? Oh, and they're cats too. Watch and listen here ---> http://www.rathergood.com/independent_woman/

pugs day

2006-12-22T21:17:00.000+11:00

The PugsDay (aka Christmas Day) Special show will be 7am-11am on Monday, if I can wake up on time. It will be just Dino since Joe is on the other side of the world in sub-zero temperatures; I've had a phone call to say that he's arrived safely. Its harder doing the show on my own, and I might not be my jolly self (sic) but the show must go on and Christmas time with the JOY family is so much better than being alone.

stop press, there might be special guests abducted from another show. Guess you'll just have to listen.

sad news

2006-12-21T09:46:00.000+11:00

Some very sad and unexpected news yesterday, Joe's father passed away. He was on holiday in Blackpool having a dance on the dancefloor when he said he had to sit out the next dance cos he felt tired, then suffered a heart attack. At least it sounds like he was enjoying his life up until the end.

Joe managed to get a last minute flight to the UK and is on his flight as I (Dino) type this. I am staying in Australia, so we'll be apart for Christmas. Hopefully Joe will be back in Aus for New Years Eve but we're not sure when the funeral is yet.

More Kate Bushy Stuff

2006-12-19T11:19:00.000+11:00

Natalie Bassingthwaighte & Shannon Noll's new single is released today in Australia, the cover version of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush's 'Don't Give Up'.

I've just seen the music video for it, haha, I like the bit where Shannon Noll is miming to the female lyrics at the end.

Have a look, its on The Rogue Traders Website now

bush fires

2006-12-14T16:12:00.000+11:00

With over 50 bush fires raging across Victoria and Melbourne being shrouded in a cloud of smoke, I am keen to save my own Kate Bush collection.

Yet despite a total fire ban, Robbie Williams still gets away with smoking cigarettes on stage during his Australian concert without paying the $150 fine. Kate Bush would never do that.

hot in melbourne

2006-12-11T11:33:00.000+11:00

yesterday was the hottest december day in melbourne for 53 years - so how do we spend the day? yes, spring cleaning; running around the house with buckets of hot hot water.

at 2:45 the temperature was 42.1 degrees C. By 4pm - an hour and a quarter later - the temperature had cooled to 23.5

I wonder if it had anything to do with Kylie's opening night concert?

mashup art

2006-12-10T20:53:00.000+11:00

as mentioned on the show last night, another artistic side to mashups is in creating the cover-art. here are some examples

Christmas Party No. 1

2006-12-07T10:47:00.000+11:00

Got my first of the year work related Christmas parties today.
It’s one organized by the telecommunications client I am currently working for, all of my team is supposed to be attending but we’ve already had three of the ten come up with reasonable excuses for being absent from work today.

The party’s being held at a lawn bowling club, someplace at the neither end of Lygon street in the depths of suburbia. Lunch is a choice from three types of roast animal – (not a good start for veggie me) followed by desert (I’ll pig out on this if it’s half reasonable) and then onto lawn bowls and karaoke. I did wonder what folk out in the sticks got up to for entertainment.. seems its throwing balls of wood weighted to not role in a sensible straight line, whist singing along to a backing track and lyrics sheet in large print, of some Beyoncé (or is it more likely to be Pat Boone) track.
(Is this why Treacle wanted lawn bowls…I wonder? )

I’m sure I’ll have a splendid time.

{joe} - yes it is me....