Toll

Night 1 - 4
Day 1 - the remaining 7

All of them have been given proper burial - toilet bowl & pastic bag in bin.

* sob sob *

Crafty wkend

Crafty wkend
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

These are the said giant 'paper clips' that I bought from BaySwiss yesterday. I proceeded to make them into a mobile (no phone, just mobile) becos I can't actually see myself clipping any paper to them things. Pretty cool mobile though, rite?

Anywhos, disturbing news. Spent a lazt saturday today to do various odd things, like making this mobile. There's the usualy laundry & others of course. I also tried moving the new, small fries (baby fishies) in the tropical tank into a plastic tube that I submerged. Alas, the holes that I poked were too large & they swam back out pretty quickly. So all the efforts that I went thru sucking them out with the shits & food scraps, separating them from the shits & food scraps & putting them back in were all for nothing. Have done up another plastic bottle with much smaller holes. Have yet to sight the fries again. Will try again tomorrow. After watching City of God while finishing the laundry (who knew it's so violent?!? Maybe I should've read the box before I bought it. I liked it still though) I stopped & looked at the fish. It was to my shock horror that there was a massize white-spot infestation happening at the big tank. Have applied medication now & I have no idea if any of the will make it. Oh crap. Have no idea what went wrong. They were still doing when I last fed them on Thurs. Already had a fight with dad about whether to tip them out now or keep them in the treatment (am keeping them all in). What a sullen end to the night :(

Passion | Flower

Passion | Flower
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Yet another wkend is rolled by and a wk of procrastination it's time for some full-time fun & relaxation. Uni-ed on monday for some briefing on teaching, wrote some more of chapter & basically bummed around. Decided to stay home on tues instead to pend more time writing. Ending up doing only a couple of solid hours & some other hrs on & off. End result was pretty gd though. Work & work on wednesday & thursday & of course ended the days watching TV (last of the Miyasaki japanime on SBS, & 30 Days on Ten on thurs of course). Yesterday was some sort of a mixed day. Went in relatively early & stopped by library to pick up interlibrary loan. Ended up going to library for 2 more times by lunch time because of other references that keeps popping up (luckily after moving office it's a much shorter walk these days). Anyhow, was going to spend the day marking until Kaka suggested that we should lunch at the Royal. Up we went, & at the last minute I decided to pack up & leave for the day & head into city afterwards. So, no 'real' work done & proceeded to do shopping in/around Town Hall. Didn't get anything I had planned (bday present for Hendo, gd pants for me). Got big, funky, what they call 'paper clips' from BaySwiss though (see next blog). Dinner @ Wendy's & mahjongg. Must've been something about the dinner 'cos we were all pretty out of it during the mahjongg. Anyhow, getting to the pic. After a yr & a 1/4 the passion fruit plant that I got last yr as a bday present is finally flowering. Very pretty flowers. I don't actually eat passion fruit myself, but hey, at least i have pretty flowers to look at. The buds are all over the vines & there are already 2 fruits, which I guess should mature some time during the wk. Maybe try it. Or pass it/them onto parents as guinea pigs :P

Rather hazy

A rather hazy weekend. It started out quite early. Friday was Rae's rescheduled house-warming so I drove into uni early-ish (ok, it was 10am) and while I thought I would have a somewhat productive day before the night of drinking, dinner, and more drinking, it didn't end up happening that way. Kaka & TK were in also but they were heading down to the 'Gong for the day. Bumped into Danski on way to library, & was told that since kaka & TK were gone we'd be the 1s left on our own un-supervised. Great, 2 bored ppl who didn't particularly want to do the work they were doing but had to. So we spent a stupid day at the office, before deciding that we should bolt 4-ish, picked up Willis on the way & headed to Rae's @ Slurry. After a bit of dress up by the girls while the boys watched on, we dropped stuff off at kaka's before cabbing back to Slurry & met up for pre-dinner drinks. Fun, fun. Dinner was funner. It was Hannibal's on Elizabeth. Yes, Lebanese complete with belly dancers. Naturally I wasn't the 1 who went up to dance & embarass myself (that honour went to TK after the bellydancer very unsucessfully tried to bait Stevo). Anyhow, dinner went long & sore (laughed so hard my cheeks were hurting) & continued at the corner pub (more laughing so cheeks hurt more). Stevo had to leave early cos grandma is in hospital, so some of us carried on at the Coogee Palace. Loud dancy is really not my thing, so Rae & I decided to bolt 2-ish. Slept it off at Slurry for the night until woken by the glare 9-ish. Dazed around with a headache thanks to the vino from night before (should really limit my vino intake & get back onto the hard stuff. Never ad a hangover in my life while on the hard stuff). Decided to bolt the 1pm brunch (seriously, who has brunch at 1??) around 11-ish & went on to buy dog biscuits then Ikea before heading home. Too hung over to continue writing so shredded the fallen wattle & pruned bougainvillea instead (yeah, like loud shredding noises would help that cause). So no writing happened until this afternoon after yet another lazy sunday morning. Finally realised that I need to take more photos at Parramatta & Moore Park to add to the chapter (great, it's only going to be so raining this wk). Now I have to bring the camera to uni AGAIN tomorrow. Speaking of photos, must get wacky photos from TK so we can print & paste on our new dividers as our head shots...

More damn splinters!

What is it about me with splinters?? I simply can't seem to get away from those damn things lately! Here's the story:

I was trying my hand at propagating plants again this past sunday as I saw one of the bird's nest fern has kinda died down & grown into 4. I 'skillfully' cut the thing in half & successfully split it into 2 plants for 2 pots. Then I saw the lush growth of spores at the underside of leaves of the bigger bird's next, so I thought I'd do spore-propagating too. I mean, I've read it in books, so how hard can that be. Proved to be a painful lesson, & underline painful pls. As I proceeded to move the big pot of bird's next out from the corner so I could wipe some spores off, naturally a pot of cactus with giant spikes the size of toothpicks fell onto my hand. Despite their giant size, some of the mini titbits of the spikes broke off & got stuck in my hands. I managed to pry 3 of them out myself which required some cutting of my own skin (ouch No.2). But still 2 got wedged under my skin & tried & I tried, even until the wee small hours of 1am & still couldn't get them out. So, seeing that I needed to drive into uni for a briefing the following (monday) morning I thought i'd stop by the doctor's the have them taken out. While only a short wait until I got to go into the dr's office, she decided that I needed anesthetic on my thumb before butchering me open & get them splinters out! Not having anything against needles or injecting chemicals into my body I agreed. So out came the needle, which btw is not the smallest needles you can find (again, size of toothpicks), filled with anesthetic & she jabbed the thing into, not once but twice on either side of my right thumb! Now, for those who know the nerve system well (& I do 'cos I'm usually a nervous wreck :P) finger tips are bloody sensitive parts of our bodies. Having toothpick-size needles jabbed into them are no walk in the park. Still contemplating if the excruciating pain was worth having those splinters removed, which had by then made my thumb rather sore & swollen. Anyhow, as the anesthetics took effect, the 2 remaining splinters were cut out & removed. Just as the 2nd 1 was being removed, I guess either the anesthetic was starting to take full effects, or from lack of sleep, or on the unlikely situation (as the dr had suggested) that I don't do well with the sight of blood (hello, I cut my thumb myself just to get splinters out!!), I fainted for a couple of minutes. Lucky I was resting my hand on the bed anyway so I just moved smoothly on it & slept it off while they cleaned & bandaged my thumb into a ball of white. A quick stop at the dr's thus turned into an hr & a 1/2 drama. I was going to be given a tatitis shot or whatever it was that she ws going to jab into me but the dr suggested that the next day might be a better option. So I went back on tues morning & had the shot. I was warned that it would hurt a bit. While the jabbing in didn't really hurt, my right arm has been sore & feels kinda bruisy since. Great start to the wk & while the situations didn't deteriorate, it didn't improve either. At least parents are back & I don't have to be cooking & cleaning & etc etc etc. Might be a good time to write that chapter that I said I would do a couple of wks ago. Speaking of which,,,

Ooh, cricket's on!

Damn splinters!

Anorexic fish part 2

Damn, what's with the stupid fish!?! Last night I had the unfortunately displeasure of scooping out yet another fish that died from being anorexic. Can't they simply learn some humanity (and humility) and seek help from professional when they've got an illness or something? I mean, it's a large enough tank and large enough school of fish in there that if there's a cleaner and a show-off then I'm sure there'd be a shrink in there somewhere! If all else fails, they should just forget about the unpleasantness and get on with life. After all, they're goldfishes and we all know their short-term memories are, well, exceedingly short, so it shouldn't be hard at all for any of them to forget about unpleasantness. Unless they forget to eat, hmm...

Oh brighter notes, school holidays!! OK, so it doesn't usually apply to me whether it's school holidays or not, but seeing that I don't have teachings during hollies I don't have to take my long drives (and I do mean LONG drives) to uni. Which is just as well seeing that the Visa 8c off petrol @ wollies deal is over. I can save some $$ and time by ystaying at home and pretend to work instead of driving all the way to uni and pretend to do work there. But so far it's been reasonably productive - went shopping on sunday, pretended to do work at 'work' work yesterday, plenty of gardening today. I suppose I should buckle down and do my marking tomorrow and maybe even start on my re-writing which is due in a wk... Oh who am I kidding. The ticker-tape parade is friday so there'll be no work that day either! Yippy!!

WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!!!

SMH
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

SEVENTY-TWO long yrs of waiting and finally, FINALLY, the premiership is ours once more!!! Oh, too nerve wrecking this game was, but it just capped off a brilliant yr so well. Defined how we've scrapped and fought all te yr thru. Even though it's exciting to watch, but I think we should really do away with the last minute sncatching of the lead and just lead from start to finish from now on. Oh, how exciting. Next yr's home game will be so chockers... Oh, no time to worry about next yr when there's the ticker-tape parade somoe time next wk. I bet there'd be a million ppl lining the streets. Gd time to go to a 1st ticker-tape parade. Must watch wallet and don't overspend on merchandise...

Nice earrings!

B 104
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Laundry day, & while I was getting the first load back from the lines, I decided that I should play a little trick on the dog. Yes, the old 'peck on the ear' trick. Normally he'd try & get them off as soon as I peck them on, but it's been a while since I've tried that trick & since then he's mellowed down quite a fair bit (no, he's not sick. The vet gave him a clean bill of health - & a credit card bill for me to pay - just this past wednesday), so I thought it was worth another try. One peck went on without much struggel, so I decided to do both sides. There were the initial scratch attempts, but that lasted no more than 5 secs before he gave me. They stayed on long enough for me to take tonnes on photo, for him to have a few naps, before finally snapping off a couple of hours later. Ahh, so much fun out of such a little thing. Should find more excitment outside of house...

Speaking of excitment, can't wait to watch the Swans win the Grand Final next saturday! I don't mean to jinx it or anything, but I do think we have a pretty gd advantage over the Eagles at the moment after the close game but only lost because of bad unpiring decisions 2 wks ago. Must have snacks ready for a LONG afternoon on yelling & screaming. I think chips are on the order to contribute to sore throat & laryngitis. :)

Four seats - Sydenham 2
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

A boring couple of wks. A few things have happened, but nothing too exciting to talk about. Apart from the fact that parents' been away for almost 2 wks now, & that instead of catching a ride to the train & get some shut eyes during those rides, I've had to drive long distances to get to uni. Even though I work on a limited schedule (i.e., don't go unless absolutely have to), they are still rather long drives. It's a lose-lose game I reckon. I either have to get up really REALLY early to beat the morning peak & get a parking spot close enough, or sleep in to avoid the morning peak & get a spopt far, far away. No surprise on what I'd choose (& have chosen thus far, & will probably continue to choose :>) At least I also get to sleep in on my non-uni, non-work days. Not that I don't do any work while at home. Speaking of which, should probably do more reading tonight...

Ok, so let's get onto this stupid photo. I don't really have anything particular to say about it really, except that I took it yesterday in Sydneham while out on fieldtrip with the 1st yr class. It was not a particularly fun or boring day, just early. Ok, I'll move on to the next photo now.

Anorexic fish

It has come to my attention today that unfortunately one of my goldfish is suffering from anorexia. No, it's not a clinical diagnosis as I don't think there are really any vets who treats fish, but more from 'experienced' observations. Afterall, I've kept fish for many a years. And anyways, the fish is so skin-on-bone that anyone can tell it's been without food for extended period (sorry, no fotos. If I have any they wouldn't be very appetising either. Hah, appetising). It's not that I have been neglecting the tv-aquarium while keeping daily watch on the tropical tank, looking at the colours of the fish (and now more frequently and inadvertantly algae on the glass, must clean again), incessantly looking for the newborns (second 'batch' was born last friday, about 3 wks after the 1st. From different mothers of course. Don't know if they survived well 'cos I haven't been able to see the new newborns since. Although, the old newborns went missing for days before finally reappearing, apparently hiding under the pebbles, plastic fake shipwreck, & big giant shell. Oh wait, why am I on fish again? Oh, ok, anorexic. Neglect. Ok.) Well, no, I havne't been neglecting the TV-aquairum in favour of the tropical tank. I've been feeding and cleaning as per normal routine. But for some reason I spent extra minutes just staring at the tank today. Maybe it's because it's due for another clean yet the water's still so clear. But anyways, that is when I noticed the little one looking anorexic. It was feeding day too, so fed as per normal portions. While the others (many of whom have grown to become fatsos in the process) the little one remained uninterested, even if the dried food or blood worms hit it right in the face. Maybe I should put it in solitary confinement for some psychiatric treatment? Will see, will see. But yeah, so now you know. Even fish can be anorexic. Wonder what happens if they become bulimic?

So comfortable...

PG lounge
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

I found out this Wednesday that the safas to our PG area arrived. For how long they'd been there I don't know, but it couldn't have been more than a few days seeing that I passed by that spot late last wk & there was nothing there. Nothin'. Anywho, they are soft & quite comfortable. Kylie (BEES PG) said that it's a crime to have them there 'cos no one will be able to get any work done from now on. Must plot to make gd use of them for the party we're supposedly having...

Highs and lows

Realised I haven't blogged in over a wk, so I suppose I should post something, even just for the sake of posting. Thought about it hard (ok, not that hard) about what actually to post, before settling down on this sort of non-descript title. It's been quite high and low in many senses. The Swans are flying high, and on track to be back into the Grand Final for the 1st time since '96; us on the verge of losing the Ashes, 1st time in 18 yrs (that can only be the lowest of lows); but then again, August is coming to an end, which can only mean my 2nd yr teaching is over and done with & I can get back to a normaler (normaler? more normal?) life/balance of uni & work. Not that I hated teaching 2nd yr. Both 1st & 2nd yrs have been quite enjoyable. But rather than spending most of my uni time doing one thing or another for the different teachings, I can now actually proscrastinate & pretend to do PhD related stuff & get the bugger finished quickly! Oh crap, there's the marking to come...!??!!

On brighter notes, it looks like WESTIR is finally moving out of the dumps of Blacktown & down to the metropole of Parramatta. Better still, it's right around the corner from where dad works - it's not even 3 minutes walk from the car park! I can only wonder if I'll ever drive again! Ok, so I will. I'm pretty sure of that. And anyways, the move (if it eventuates this time) is not going to happen until November, so there are still some more months at dear Blacktown.

Was in Audrey craving last nite, so watched My Fair Lady in almost its entirety until midnight (skipped thru most of Alfred P. Doolittle. For some reason unbeknownst to me I just don't like those scenes). Still listening to soundtrack. Maybe I'll switch to Thirsty Merc tomorrow...

Getting sleepy as I count the cost of my latest spendings - 7th pair of shoes for the yr; garden mulcher; CD storage; retro wares from op shops... zzz ... ... ZZZ ... ...

After

Mountain of boxes
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Finally, a picture of the aftermath of the FBE-BEES office move. This is the view from my corner. This lovely terrain can also be spotted from Steve's, Karin's, Claudette's, and over the dividers, Therese's and Karen's. OK, basically from everyone's except Rae's (she's in the corner & has turned the back on us. Well, has her back to us/mountain at least)

A farewell to arm(chairs)

Farewell to FBE
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

So the move finally happened last friday. For now, everyone is trying to deal with the aftermath of the move (should take pic of the mountain of boxes) & settling themselves in. But, but in between of all the packing & trucking & unpacking & furniture moving, we managed to squeeze in a little bit of drinking & cake. It was a condensed celebration really, seeing that we tried to make it a farewell to FBE plus my bday (very belated), Chris(bobby)'s bday (not as nelated), Anu's birthday (again, not so belated), and Rae's bday (a little early for this 1). The turnout was reasonably sizable, so we managed to scoff down the whole of 2 cakes in an hr. An unexpected surprise when those who knew the geographers presented us with a goody bag of, well, goodies! So now we will have to reciprocate & throw an office warming party. Hmm, when would be a gd time for that... Thinking cap back on.

Mystery of the missing thesis, solved

For long, some at the FBE (particular some geog staff & students) have been wondering the whereabouts of one bounded copy of a missing thesis - mine! From the time it was noticed missing (probably 2 yrs ago, if not longer) no one had seen the bounded (bounded only, not gagged, presumably) one, much less caressed, sniffed, or whatever that you can do to one bounded book. Out of curiosity this afternoon, I started looking around the BEES (for non-UNSW-er, BEES is now my new home. I've been booted (not quite forcibly removed) from the FBE and gone onto the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science) website. 'Twas this drive of curiosity that drove me to look at a link that took me to the Geography Honours Thesis roll. It was of course no surprise to see some familiar names - Rayner, Robinson, etc. After all, Rayner did study fish habitat (or something like that) and Robbo looked at sustainable housing (or something to that extent). Shock horror came when I saw my OWN name in that list of physical studies!?!?! And mine didn't even look anything like physical!?!?! Anyways, now that it's been located, I might find a time and take it back, by stealth of course. Now, how do I get into 508...

Before & during

BEFORE

DURING

Stay tuned for 'after' photos...

Da move

Da move
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Finally, the big day has come. Geography's day at the FBE (for the PGs at least) are finally over. On one chilly friday morning, the UNSW porters came and picked up our lives in boxes, bookcases and filing cabinets, and trucked everything up to our new home - Samuels basement. Ok, so I've lost my fantastic view of 2 walls at a corner, trading that in instead for a smaller, but more communal office. Let's hope that the list of disruptions come to an end soon (move, reorganising, reconnecting networks, Pierrick's welcome back, Pierrick's farewell, farewell to FBE, birthday parties, Gibbo's farewell, etc) and everyone can get back to their work. I know I need to!

TV-aquarium

TV-aquarium
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

For those who haven't seen. Apologies for the bad photo quality. Can never seem to photo this right...

Fishy business

Tropical tank
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Tank complete! Ok, so it was after yet another failed attempt of neons & danios before settling on the platys, but the tropical tank is alive again. I really shouldn't be filling the house with all these things seeing that I've taken on quite a few this Session, meaning that I'd have less time for house things. But, simply couldn't help myself. Not a very good picture of the tank, yes, I know. & the fishies are hiding a bit (forgive them, they're new to this point-&-shoot business. They are no game fish after all. Not that those would be alive enough to be tanked). It is of course where the old fish bowl used to be. That spot had been left empty since the goldfish moved into the TV (for those who haven't seen, in person or otherwise, see next blog).

Time for sleep. 1st day of teaching tomorrow arvo.

Hmm, damn good yogurt cake...