Archive for July, 2009

Furniture

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Had a brilliant idea to put together some cheap furniture fast.  I bought some steel shelving units that other day for the spare room and they are pretty good, but they look like they should be in a shed. But they have a pretty good construction so that the outside rails are completely flat. So I reckon I can cover them in some pine, stain it and varnish it. They should look good without all the hassle of building wooden frames for furniture if I was to do it all myself.

The shelving units only cost $75.

Will post pictures when I get down to it.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Why is it that people here want to rehearse theatre on Sundays during the day? There must be a better way. When the working week is done there is only 24 hours of daylight for doing things that you can do in the sunshine, that it seems an awful waste to do things that can be done at night during the day. If that makes any sense.

Still, I had a chat with GH about the Malanda show and we’ll see how we can progress. They haven’t finalised the part I’m playing yet, and hopefully my aversion to daylight rehearsals will produce a part that doesn’t require too much Sunday work.

Went to see Ravenshoe Arts and Theatre Society’s production of Ali Baba on Friday. Very rustic but very enjoyable. Just shows that theatre doesn’t have to be done to some ill-defined standard of professionalism to be entertaining. It could have done with some music for the songs though. Even someone banging out the melody on the Joanna might have helped.

Yet again, failed to win the lottery.

Played better golf on Saturday. My new short swing is starting to lock itself into place. Shot 81, but missed a stack of short putts, and three putted a couple o greens. Tee to green it was pretty good.

A shredder

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

I bought one, for the garden. So now I can shred all the garden waste and turn it into mulch. But it is going to take time, there’s a fair bit of waste there and the shredder, being a cheapish model, takes its time.

Roxy has learned to drop the ball, the new computer is super fast, but I can’t install Silent Hunter III on it and I’ve stopped writing. I must start again. I think the angst over the future of the APA has caused a loss of creative energy, but things are looking better now.

Must do an update on the APA site too soon.

Free writing: Bend

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Write for 20 minutes (without editing) in any style using this word: BEND
In the world of the toilet there is one thing that is most important. The bend. If you don’t have a u bend then you wouldn’t be able to keep the water in the toilet bowl and the whole thing would stink. Let’s hear it for bends. The bends are also important in another aquatic activity. For some reason they call it the bends if you come up too fast and don’t allow the nitrogen dissolved in your blood to escape via your lungs. It turns into bubbles at the sudden release of pressure in exactly the same way that opening the cap of a bottle of soda water suddenly releases the pressure and the dissolved carbon dioxide comes out. Was it Fran who showed us that in the BSAQ classes? I wish I knew where she was, but then, what would I say to her. I contacted Katherine, after all, but couldn’t think of anything to say to her either. Maybe I should ask her, she’s the psychologist after all. Another bend that features prominently in life at the moment is the one you attach to PVC pipes to make them go through a 90 degree turn. Very useful they are too, they’re called elbows and you can make all sorts of things. We’ll be making cages for the outdoor tanks so that we can keep several fish stocks and not have the predators eat them.Bending over to pick up a tee after a good drive is a great feeling. It’s not so great when you’ve just smacked one into the out of bounds area. Sometimes I don’t even bother picking up the tee, and just swish at it with the club, or sometimes smack it further into the ground with the club. Of course I have to hit another ball so I choose a new tee that hasn’t previously offended (to my knowledge). And then there’s the old joke: Why did Romans build straight roads? Because they didn’t want to drive their horses round the bend. Hah ahaaha. I was going to write a series of whodunnits based on ancient Rome and it’s civilisation. I might still do that. I’d love to write a good whodunnit. Perhaps I should start with a play. I need a good idea or two for a one act play for next year’s drama festival. Bend doesn’t seems a terribly good subject at first sight, but could it be? Maybe I could do a play where one of the characters thinks someone is stuck in the u-bend of his toilet? Maybe it becomes a god thing or nature of belief idea? I could call him John.
No that would be too silly. Then again, they like Are You Being Served up here so why not? No joke is too obvious for the people of FNQ. Bending the elbow is something I don’t really do any more. But this is more to do with the fact that I was never addicted to drink, I was addicted to intellectual conversation, and I found that in Paris, but sadly the local bars here seems to be completely devoid of it. If you want a drink here you need to be thinking along the lines of accompanying it with a fight rather than a conversation. This writing might be quite good fro the intellect though. There was a think in the news about scientists who have discovered a material that could bend light. Maybe the invisibility cloak is not too far away. Harry Potter would have died really young if he hadn’t had that invisibility cloak. Is it too unfair to say that it was a very handy contrivance for the plot? Need to get Harry into or out of a tight spot? Use the cloak. Who cares? I wish I’d written those books.

In the world of the toilet there is one thing that is most important. The bend. If you don’t have a u bend then you wouldn’t be able to keep the water in the toilet bowl and the whole thing would stink. Let’s hear it for bends. The bends are also important in another aquatic activity. For some reason they call it the bends if you come up too fast and don’t allow the nitrogen dissolved in your blood to escape via your lungs. It turns into bubbles at the sudden release of pressure in exactly the same way that opening the cap of a bottle of soda water suddenly releases the pressure and the dissolved carbon dioxide comes out. Was it Fran who showed us that in the BSAQ classes? I wish I knew where she was, but then, what would I say to her. I contacted Katherine, after all, but couldn’t think of anything to say to her either. Maybe I should ask her, she’s the psychologist after all. Another bend that features prominently in life at the moment is the one you attach to PVC pipes to make them go through a 90 degree turn. Very useful they are too, they’re called elbows and you can make all sorts of things. We’ll be making cages for the outdoor tanks so that we can keep several fish stocks and not have the predators eat them.Bending over to pick up a tee after a good drive is a great feeling. It’s not so great when you’ve just smacked one into the out of bounds area. Sometimes I don’t even bother picking up the tee, and just swish at it with the club, or sometimes smack it further into the ground with the club. Of course I have to hit another ball so I choose a new tee that hasn’t previously offended (to my knowledge). And then there’s the old joke: Why did Romans build straight roads? Because they didn’t want to drive their horses round the bend. Hah ahaaha. I was going to write a series of whodunnits based on ancient Rome and it’s civilisation. I might still do that. I’d love to write a good whodunnit. Perhaps I should start with a play. I need a good idea or two for a one act play for next year’s drama festival. Bend doesn’t seems a terribly good subject at first sight, but could it be? Maybe I could do a play where one of the characters thinks someone is stuck in the u-bend of his toilet? Maybe it becomes a god thing or nature of belief idea? I could call him John.

No that would be too silly. Then again, they like Are You Being Served up here so why not? No joke is too obvious for the people of FNQ. Bending the elbow is something I don’t really do any more. But this is more to do with the fact that I was never addicted to drink, I was addicted to intellectual conversation, and I found that in Paris, but sadly the local bars here seems to be completely devoid of it. If you want a drink here you need to be thinking along the lines of accompanying it with a fight rather than a conversation. This writing might be quite good fro the intellect though. There was a think in the news about scientists who have discovered a material that could bend light. Maybe the invisibility cloak is not too far away. Harry Potter would have died really young if he hadn’t had that invisibility cloak. Is it too unfair to say that it was a very handy contrivance for the plot? Need to get Harry into or out of a tight spot? Use the cloak. Who cares? I wish I’d written those books.

It’s a dog’s life

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Roxy was off her food this morning. Don’t know what is wrong ith her, probably she ate something that the cats killed and it hasn’t agreed with her. I’ll see whether she’s managed to eat anything.

Trying to get my finances in order. Have to get some new budgets together for spending on the house, spending on me, paying off the mortgage and the day to day costs of life.  I managed to get to the end of the month after buying the new computer without having to do a cashback from the mortgage so I’m very pleased with that.

I’ve made a resolution to try and write 500 words a day on the novel.  It isn’t much and that’s the whole point.  If it’s easy I’ll maybe stick to it. One of my problems has always been my inability to stick at things that take a long time.  I’m also a terrible procrastinator with finishing things off. I’ll get to 90% done and stop. I have to stop.

First test in the Ashes this evening.  I remember watching the last Ashes from England at the Auld Alliance in Paris. This time it’s on in the evening and will finish about two in the morning.  I think England will win but it is a very even contest.

New computer

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

My new computer arrived today, so I  can retire my creaky old PC to the spare room. It a long time since I’ve upgraded and the increase in speed is enormous.

Roxy is doing well after her operation. Stitches are holding nicely. She goes in next week to have them out.

We’re walking all around the Lakeside development now, about a 2km walk.

Need to do some work around the garden.

By the way, if you know me and you’ve stumbled upon this site and you want to make any comments then send me an email. Due to spam I’ve restricted comments to members only. And there aren’t any.