Colours of summer (pt 3)
Okay, so maybe this time the colours are artificially added.
It doesn't feel much like summer yet - some artistic license was required.
Posted on Saturday, December 31, 2005 | Photos | 1 Comments
Archived: December 2005
Colours of summer (pt 2)
Somewhere in West Perth the other day (just down the road and around the corner from the Coke sign from memory)
Posted on Friday, December 30, 2005 | Photos | 1 Comments
Colours of summer (pt 1)
Taken out the back of the house just after lunch.
Posted on Thursday, December 29, 2005 | Photos | 2 Comments
Crackers
I've ranted about this in previous years, but the "jokes" in this year's Christmas crackers deserve a mention.
Q: Why are robots never afraid?
A: Because they've got nerves of steel.
Hyuk, hyuk.
There was also this politically-dubious gem:
If you put a woman on a pedestal and try to protect her from the rat race, you're a male chauvinist. But if you stay home and do the housework, you're a sissy. If she has a headache, she's tired but if you have a headache, you don't love her anymore.
Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2005 | Photos | 1 Comments
Things go better with
If you're reading this, we've both survived another Christmas.
It was an unusually mild Christmas day in Perth, which meant we skipped the usual mid-morning swim in the pool and lounged around the house instead. A relaxed day spent with family and friends, the way Christmases should be.
Apparently controversially, we cooked the ham for lunch in a Coke glaze. It was surprisingly nice, not overpoweringly Coke-ish, just a faintly sweet taste to counter the salty ham.
And this year didn't bring much in the way of weirdly inappropriate or bizarre gifts (something that's equal parts good and bad really). The best I can do there is probably the instructions that came with a monocular (the gift being quite handy itself). It's a tube you look through, with one focus dial -- not really worthy of four pages of instructions in my opinion.
So tell me. What inappropriate/weird presents did you get? And was there any controversy in your Christmas day?
Posted on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 | Life | 5 Comments
Diversionary by request!
A friend of mine pointed out that for someone claiming to be "a little weird about chairs" I've been a little quiet on the subject of late. So, just for you, here's a post about chairs.
Last week was a something of a career record. Two real, actual conversations with web design clients about designer chairs.
Two!
And both conversations included egg chairs (be still my beating heart!). It even turns out that one of my clients is a bona-fide chair freak like me -- someone who thinks it's perfectly normal to spend unhealthy amounts of money on designer chairs.
Her: It's like having artwork on the wall.
Me: Exactly!
It was creepy.
I'm also kicking myself that I missed out on some el-cheapo chinese knock-off Egg chairs on ebay which were going for $250 each (Australian, including delivery) in any colour/fabric/leather. As much as getting cheap copyright-infringing imitations doesn't sit well (sorry) with me, it would mean that I could easily justify getting an egg chair or three to lord over us all in the office.
And what office is complete without an egg chair?
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 | Work | 3 Comments
On paper
Unfortunate downside of printed proposals: wasted paper.
Posted on Monday, December 19, 2005 | Work | 1 Comments
A week before Christmas
Well after all that, I finally got tickets for the second U2 show. Unfortunately all I could get were e Reserve, which I believe is somewhere up in the rafters. But at least I'm there.
It's a week to Christmas and I'd agree with K, it really doesn't feel like Christmas yet. But that may just be because I've been hunkered down at work trying to get a stack of things wrapped up before the break.
It may also be because I haven't had a chance to start finding presents for anyone yet. How's your present-buying going? (Are you lazy like me, or one of those annoying finished-Christmas-shopping-in-March people?)
Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2005 | Life | 5 Comments
I Still Haven't Found...
Tickets for U2's (Eastern) Australian tour went on sale yesterday morning. After a frustrating two hours trying to get tickets to the Melbourne show through Ticketmaster's log-jammed website and continually-engaged phone line the show appeared to be sold out and I admitted defeat.
But I'll rant more on that experience another day.
They've added a second night which goes on sale next Monday. Wish me luck.
Posted on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 | Music | No Comments Yet
Listening to do
November involved lots of hard work at work. Which, as usual, had the side effect of lots of my buying lots of new CDs to listen to.
Now I'm a bit weird about the first time I listen to new albums. I like to be able to sit down and listen to them properly on my stereo at home at home, not on headphones at work and not in little glimpses in the car. Unfortunately this doesn't sit too well with working long hours, so I've got a few albums that I haven't listened to yet.
But for the ones I have listened to, here's some random adjectives to describe each (because I think we all know that wordsmithery isn't a talent of mine).
Tak (Sigur Ros): A lush, enveloping, beautiful album. I'm prepared to use it as justification to put Iceland on the itinerary of future European holidays.
Main Street (Epicure): playing as I write this post. A worthy follow-up to The Goodbye Girl and great accompaniment for tired Friday nights.
What Was Left (Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set): Quietly beautiful. Really should try to see her play live some time.
Tea & Sympathy (Bernard Fanning): as promised, a little bit country. Also very much great.
You Have to Dig Deep to Bury Daddy (Jeff Lang): I broke my not-at-work-through-headphones rule for this one and was glad I did. Amazing guitar makes a work day smoother and quicker.
And speaking of music, I also caught Epicure playing at the Fly by Night down in Fremantle (which is still one of my favourite venues -- for what's basically an empty shell it's got a strangely intimate vibe). A great gig, including the acknowledged faux-pas of singing Happy Birthday to the bass player, a sing-along to Armies Against Me and several song intro's featuring the words "here's another song about suicide."
Posted on Friday, December 2, 2005 | Music | 1 Comments