Some Blog Tweaks

I have done some tweaking tonight and you may see the following things:

1. A new Icon should be in your browser bar and for Firefox users in your Bookmarks... may need to enter Lime Kettles via the book mark to refresh it and ensure the little lime kettle shows up :-)
2. A "Label Cloud" over on the right hand side... think its better than the label listing. Also have reorganised the nav panels over there in a better order.
3. Pull Quotes. See the posting below re the Blood Bowl tourney to get an example of this... they're fiddly to put in, but I think they look good... will make use of them from time to time.
4. Pictures. Have added a picture for the first time since I upgraded to Blogger Beta. Not sure if I like the look, nor is it easier. I can post using Picasa 2 if I upgraded my O/S to WinXP or better... it embarrasses me that I am still on Win98SE
5. "Recent Comments" added on the nav panel. The most recent comments posted will be shown here. Please try and use a "name" rather than Anonymous. First names are fine :-) I will see how that looks as the Comments come in, but it doesnt back track and get old comments... so comments only from NOW (hint).

Let me know what you think of the changes! Let me know if it looks broken in any way and let me know what browser you're using and resolution etc etc.

Thanks,
Clay

Pete's Bux Day - Group Photo

Just got the pics of Pete's Bux night - where we had the epic day of go-karting and then drinking...

Anyways, here is a group shot of the day... yours truly with his *excellent* trophy for "Cautious Driving".


This is my first picture post with Blogger Beta - better work :)

Blood Bowl Tournament - Blaxland Dec 2-3

There is a Blood Bowl Tournament on at the Blaxland Tavern this weekend and I will be playing on the Sunday.

If anyone is interested, I am sure roll up attendees are welcome and cost is $20 for NAF members (and probably a bit more expensive for non-NAF members).

I will only be playing Sunday because of Saturday cricket, so I will only be there for the social occasionI will only be playing Sunday because of Saturday cricket, so I will only be there for the social occasion rather than winning… I might take my flings or I might give my old Undead team a run… or go safety first and play Dwarves… hehe

Games start 9am both days I believe, 3 games a day.

Event: Mountain Bowl

Venue: Blaxland Tavern, Great Western Hwy, Blaxland

Date: Dec 2 and 3, 9:00am.

There will be prizes for all participants I believe… and full teams for the winners.

Car Update

Am writing this on the train home this evening as opposed to in as I am driving in in the morning… The guys from Quality Auto Search are coming out to inspect our Ford with a view to trade in value.  Need to get $8,600 for it and a used car of this make and model sells for around $10-11K… give or take.  It’s a bit beat up and tired looking, but runs well (the brakes are probably close to the end of their life though) and the rego is good for another 10mths.

So I will drive in tomorrow, they’re coming to the office in the mid-morning and I will drive back home in the evening.  On Friday, I will train it in, but I have a Camry Ateva for loan for the weekend!  So I will drive it around on the weekend, return it on Monday and hopefully have a Mazda 6 to try as well.  Mazda are also starting a sale this weekend for the base model plus a few features for $28,600 drive away… considering the recommended retail price is around $33K, that’s a good deal and I made the guy aware of that today… he’ll be coming back with a Mazda test drive details later this week and also is going to start sharpening the pencil on price.

This is all good, but I am a bit worried about the trade in… I guess I cant see why anyone would buy a 2001 Ford with 99,000 km’s on the clock…I presume someone will, but I am always the pessimist when it comes to cars.

I must admit, this is the easiest way to buy / sell a car and so far, its all good.

A most unfortunate typo....

Flicking through the Herald online this morning and this caught my eye:

"Crocodiles rock as Swingers go down"

Of course it should be "Slingers" as in the NBL team... hehe

AWB? Never heard of it Your Honour

Mid week lack of motivation has struck me this morning… couldn’t be bothered going to bed last night as I sat up watching NFL and consequently overslept this morning and my diary is uninspiring as I have no scheduled meetings today, which means a plodders day at the desk and a couple of the team are on a site visit in Victoria and the boss is in the UK so the office is quiet as well… It will be a day of punching out those things that you need to get done but never have the time because you have to attend a meeting about new work that wont get done on account of the fact you have more meetings… (clear as mud?)

The news today is doesn’t inspire me with confidence either… AWB Inquiry findings handed down and 11 AWB staff have been fingered for further investigation / criminal proceedings and NOT A SINGLE GOVERNMENT MEMBER NEW A THING.  Amazing isn’t it… they can drill down into the levels of AWB management and find the assistant manager of brown paper bags guilty of dire treasonous activities yet no one in the government knew that millions of dollars were going to Saddam Hussein.  And we all have a lot of newspaper dedicated to it, but the real medium of news in Australia – television – didn’t even have it on the news.  It is kind of sad that we blithely let the government do so many things with seemingly no accountability required.  But the day that Kim Beazley confuses Rove McManus with Karl Rove, then all hell breaks loose!  Why, because it’s a TV celeb and is deemed news worthy.  I guess my point is that the media seem to have this disparate view on what makes the news and what doesn’t.  The Beazley stuff up was news worthy and highlighted that he is a bit of a gibberer but the fact that all members of Howard’s Government escaped further investigation about the practices of the AWB is astounding and no one bats an eyelid in TV land.  Sad.

 

Google Analytics

For about 8 weeks I have been running Google Analytics – a tool that tracks who, when, where visitors to Lime Kettles come from and how they got here.

My hitcounter below has been running for some time and my readership has been growing but I wanted to get more stats than just “how many”.

Basically I can summarise the following:

• I receive between 10-80 hits a day.  80 being common on Monday / Tuesday and 10 occurring on Sunday’s.  This makes sense.
• 75% of visitors are “returnees” and I get approximately 25% of hits are from new visitors.
• 69% of my traffic is direct – ie someone has book marked me or types the URL in directly. 10.6% come from Google and the rest are referrals from blogger, bloglines and the like…
• Google.  This is where I am amazed.  Google Analytics tells me what people typed into the search box to get here.  “limekettles” is the most popular, but there are some weird ones like:
• “tracy grimshaw plastic surgery” (3 times?!?!)
• “botox Penrith”
• “burying a cat”
• “snorting snot in the office” – mmmm interesting that one
• “ballet exam what hairstyles”
• There are actually 91 different google search texts entered.  Some make sense, a lot refer to Blood Bowl, others are downright weird.
• I have people visiting from odd countries.  Australian’s make up 80% of traffic and the USA 10% throw in some UK and Kiwis, then we get down to odd bod countries.  Hello to people from Oman, Kuwait, Israel, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and UAE.  Also a fair number of Indians too… better start talking up the cricket and Bollywood.  The number of Arab nations is disconcerting…

Interesting stuff… I’ll post some more odd tid bit’s as they come up.

Buying a Car

Decided to take the late train today as I had a pretty free morning (gets me in right at 9am) and was cutting it fine to make the station and got held up at the only set of traffic lights behind my place and the station.  By the time I got through, the train was at the platform and I was no chance.  So now I am on the “Very Late” train and wont get into the office until 9:30… oh well, its not like I haven’t been working like a biatch lately anyways.

On other news, we’re buying a new car.  We’re trading in our 2001 Ford Futura Wagon and looking at a medium sized car whilst the kids are young enough to not require huge amounts of leg room.  I lease my cars so I will only keep this one for 3-4 years and by that stage Kate will be 10-11 yrs old and would be getting bigger to require going back to a Ford or Holden.

But in the interim we’re in the medium size car market.  But rather than beat the streets and legging it between car yards, I rang up “Quality Auto Search” (they have a website – google it) and I have been very impressed with their service.  Rang them up on Friday, spoke to the guy there about what we’re looking for, he agreed with my views on the kids, fuel economy etc etc and after giving him a price range, he undertook a desktop search.

He rings me yesterday and tells me he’s recommending the Camry Ateva or the Mazda 6.  Both retail for the same price and there are only marginal differences between the two and are good quality cars.  The next step is he’s ringing me today to arrange me to have an overnight test drive of each and he’ll bring me the car to my work and then we’ll also set a day in which I will drive the Ford into the office and he’ll come out and inspect it and so that he can get me a good trade in deal.

So by the end of this week, I’ll probably have had driven both cars, had my car valued for trade in and we’ll decide on which one we’d like and all of this without leaving my desk!

But where’s the catch?  When I spoke to Rod from Quality Auto Search I said “sounds great mate, but how much is all this” he said “For you, nothing.  We get our commission from the dealers” and he also assured me he could negotiate around 10% off the retail price and get some add-ins thrown in.

So… the proof is in the pudding and I will be getting prices today but so far, I have been very impressed with the service and he’s been prompt in calling me back when he said he would.

Also, if anyone has any experience with the Camry Ateva or the Mazda 6, let me know!

Listening:  Penny Century by The Clouds (an oldie but a goodie)

Steve Irwin Meets His Match

I think this is OK to post now that Steve Irwin has died but its very funny... All I can say is "Pineapple!"

Hobbits Go Back To Work

The weekend is over already and it feels like it hardly started… Monday’s come around very quickly!

The weekend though was very full and busy.  Friday night we all went to the soccer and saw Sydney FC play Queensland.  Niki had never been before but it was a great night and the girls were into it with their flags and face painting.  I think because soccer is an easy game to comprehend rules wise (don’t use your hands, kick it into the goal) the girls could understand it.  They were also into the sing-along chants of the Sydney FC fans in The Cove and we had a great time.

Saturday saw me wanting to head out in the morning and do a lot of errands so I took the girls out with me and got my suits dry cleaned, the car washed, a few nick-nacks at the shops and went hunting for my work Christmas Party costume.  The theme is “The Land of Make Believe” and I pretty early on decided to go as something out of Lord of the Rings.  After little debate, I have decided to go as a Hobbit.  I have ¾ shorts, I bought a cheap white cotton button down shirt, hired a cloak, belt, sword and vest for the night (only $22) and bought for $4 a set of Elf ears from the costume hire place.  All set and done… and the best thing is I get to go bare feet!  Will fluff up the hair a bit on the night and I am debating how to tackle the “hairy feet” issue… my feet aren’t hairy so I am debating to either do nothing or glue some hideous merkin like thing onto my feet… probably go with the do nothing option, but any ideas welcome.

Sunday morning went to Niki’s parents to help set up their new plasma TV… I am hopeless with home electronics and have no idea what all the cables mean, but we got all the TV channels locked in and learnt how to switch from Digital to Analogue.  Could only pick up the Nine and Seven channels on the DTV (I thought ABC had a digital station?) and 10, SBS and the community channels are on the analogue.  Confusing as all hell this stuff (for me anyway) but its working now.  Lunch time was spent at a BBQ with all my old uni friends and was very relaxing… so relaxing that when we got home Niki suggested I take it easy and watch the cricket and the next thing I was being woken up after 2+ hrs of a nap… very hobbit like!

The Ashes Commence

Well, back in the office today, but I drove in as we’re off to the A-League tonight to see Sydney vs Queensland. Got some free tickets via work and Niki and the girls are coming in…

Today though is a sporty theme as I want to comment on the start of the Ashes…

Top marks to Australia. They showed how prepared they were mentally and they were brilliant. But what about England?! That Steve Harmison would have to be the biggest choker going around. How many times in his career has he started jittery? I have seen him bowl 11 ball overs in the past and yesterdays opening ball really did set the tone. England were very stodgy and if they’re relying on Flintoff with the ball, then they’re in for a long summer. Yes, I am probably regurgitating the mainstream press today as there isn’t much to write about when the home team racks up 3/346 but I hope Australia bat until tea today and that Ponting is there at the close.

Go the Punter!

Bushfires

Home again today. I think I am over the worst of it, but I have lost a few kgs (not a bad thing!) and am feeling very washed out and bleh... a day on the lounge in front of the cricket has its merits though :-)

The bushfires were pretty big up here yesterday too... nothing really threatening property although my brother and sister in law at Springwood were being very watchful as spot fires flared up at the next suburb (Faulconbridge) but we down at Glenbrook were far enough not to have to do much, but its always a worrying time and makes you think "what if". This summer will be a bad one fire wise I think.

The Fire Brigade apparently was using Glenbrook Oval as a marshalling area and there were trucks parked there for most of the day yesterday. Also all day helicopters and planes were buzzing overhead so if something started at our end of the valley, it was going to be spotted as soon as, which is a good thing.

Niki took Brooke to dancing down at Penrith yesterday afternoon and she said ash was falling from the sky down there... pretty apocalyptic stuff given that the fire front was up at Mt Tomah and Blackheath.

Should be all a bit quieter today though... the temps will be in the mid 30's again, but the winds have eased way off...

Home Today

No major post today... caught the dreaded gastro off the girls who've both had it the past week or so. Is generally a 24hr thing, so here's hoping.

I'm not mentioning it...

But Ian Thorpe retired today….

Just in case you didn’t know….

How long now until he is "outed"...

(Not that there's anything wrong with that)

Media Hysteria II

Ah, the media is in another shit storm this morning… and its all about whether Ian Thorpe is retiring.  Is it just me?  Am I being really too harsh, but cant this stuff be at the Sports section of the news and not the main and apparently only story of the day?  Breakfast TV was full of it, the radio on the way to the station was a long discussion on the subject… Channel 7 had people reporting live from Thorpe’s house saying he had “left the house”… OMFG!  He left his house!! Hold the presses!!

Look, the guy was a great swimmer and he’s probably going to pull the pin.  He deserves his accolades and can enjoy the rest of his life doing whatever he wants (making Pearl Necklaces??) and good luck to him.  Give him plaudits and sing his praises, but why does the media become focused on “one big story” every time.  There is nothing wrong with moderation in our journalism… I am getting tired of each day being gazumped by one item that in the overall spectrum isn’t as big as they make it out to be.

What will be tomorrow’s story?  Paris Hilton buys a new cat?  Eddie McGuire says something unsavory about Bert Newton?  That a sport star gets convicted of DUI?  Perhaps I should run a sweep on what the “next big trivial thing” is…

Slashdot: Draconian Anti-Piracy Law Looms Over Australia

This article from Slashdot today shows how stupid we Australians are about the Intehwebs. Like seriously, why is this being rushed through Parliament? Why are we so paranoid about Internet and copyright?

Again, utterly ridiculous… surely there are more things to waste time and effort on.

Dora is Not Porn

My daughters love Dora The Explorer, but I wont be buying this one....

Link

Fired Up

Greetings this morning from the smokey Blue Mountains.  There has been a combination of back burning and a small fire in the Grose Valley that has resulted in the entire mountains area being covered in smoke.  Walked out the front door and the hillside across the valley we sit in was covered in it and when I drove to the train station, in the lower parts of the drive, the smoke was across the road like fog.  At least they’re back burning and its not a real fire…

But what I am fired up this morning about is the ridiculous amount of coverage to the stupid Tom Cruise / Kate Holmes wedding.  Seriously, does it need to be the lead story with live crosses on Monday morning?  In my hungover state yesterday I awoke and Weekend Sunrise just wouldn’t shut up about it and had some “Social Commentator” from Dolly (yes, Dolly!) on the set being interviewed about the whole thing.  Social Commentator… how does one get that gig?  I consider myself a social commentator of a different bent… I’d perhaps commentate that “we should all shut up and forget about what rich people do with their oodles of cash as it does nothing but encourage them.”

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, poverty rife throughout the world, local issues being drought, interest rates and politicians calling each other pedophiles under the privileged of parliament and what do our news reporters give us?  Fucking TomKat.  Ridiculous.  Its about time that people grew up and realised that living your lives vicariously through celebrities isn’t important.  What is important are things closer to home and that we all should be mightily concerned that the weather is swing 10-15 degrees a day and that we can have snow and bushfires in a space of 24 hours. We should be worried about US foreign policy causing friction everywhere in the world and yet we blindly follow. We should be worried about these things instead of what Posh Spice wore to a wedding that was actually not legally binding between a washed up actor more concerned about his cult and an actress so B-Grade that I can’t recall her being in a movie…

/rant off

Slow Driving, Slow Head

It's sunday evening... I have been up for 4 hrs after sleeping all day and I have very clouded memories of last night.

Pete's bux celebrations started with Go Karting at Minto and it was my first foray into Karting, but I was very keen about it. I generally am with new things and this was no exception.

We were split into 2 groups of 6 and each group had 3 ten lap heats in which points were awarded after every race. We did a practice heat first just to get the feel of the track and I must say after this first practice I was surprised how hard it was. The wheel was hard to turn and there were a couple of very tight turns, but it was great fun.

We just went around and around as fast as we could with no idea on placings and I felt like I was flying... but then the race marshal gave us a print out of our average lap times and I was way off the pace... fastest guy was going around in 37 secs and I was back at 43 secs. Six seconds doesn't sound like much but it was a huge gap.

In the official heats, you go out under a pace car for one lap and then fly into it after the pit lane. I was in the middle of the group for the first race, and I was soon swamped!

To cut a long story short, I found that my problem was that I was driving it like a car... accelerator, brake, accelerate again. I didnt know until the end of the heats that I should just have the accelerator down full and brake when I needed to. I tried that better in the Consolation final and came 2nd, but only because I held off Joey and Noyz by blocking them rather than outrunning them... but a wins a win they say (well second).

Then it was onto Marrickville RSL and then the Rocks. The night is a bit of a blur and I recall getting very "emotional" and abusing the bouncers at the Observer (That pub has gone downhill bad!) before we ended up at the Orient. Live band, packed house, much more lively. I lost track of time, the bus picked us up, I reached Pete's house at the end of the line and crashed on his lounge room floor... very messy indeed.

Bux Weekend

Have a big weekend this weekend with my mate Pete’s Bux Day tomorrow. It’s going to be a very long day as we are go-carting at midday down Campbelltown way, back to his place at Mt Druitt from which we’ve hired a bus to go to Marrickville RSL where they have cheap beers, cheap meals and “entertainment” of dubious quality and then the bus takes us into the Rocks for a pub crawl. The bus then picks us up at around 3am back to Pete’s place where a piece of floor awaits.

It is going to be a loooong day.

I am excited about the Go Carting. Never done it before and should be fun. I’m not a rev head, but I do like the dodgems :-)

And of course, its all fallen on a day which we have the Bye in cricket, so there is no clash. Sunday though will be a rather slow day I presume… will be nursing a ginger outlook on life.

[edit - my post this morning contained my work email disclaimer... fark... gotta watch that]

Picasa 2 Doesn't Work With Blogger Beta

Nope, I need v 2.1 of Picasa and that runs on Windows XP at a minimum.... damn I need a new PC! (Currently running W98SE)

Grrr

Liberal Politics - The Christian Right?

The arrest and charging of Milton Orkopoulous is a good thing and shows that no matter the political power a man may wield he is not above the law and that in fact it is even a greater justice that he has a longer way to fall than the common man.  May he rot in hell.

However, the public uproar that this seems to be some fault of Premier Morris Iemma is sad.  The Liberal Party, the long standing bastion of moral purity (never mind their previous leader was a philanderer) have basically accused Iemma of hiding Orkopolous.  That the Labor Party condone such horrendous acts.  That was shouted down in Parliament and Iemma has been very firm in disposing Orkopolous from not just his front bench, but from politics despite the presumptive right that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

Then yesterday the Liberals took it up a notch saying that there “was another” minister under investigation for similar heinous acts and that Iemma should come clean.  Basically a direct attack that Iemma is hiding pedophiles in the Parliament!  This is dirty politics at its worst and I agree with Iemma that Liberal opposition “leader’ Peter Debnam should resign.  In fact if I was Iemma, I’d take action against Debnam for slander put he’d probably get away with it on account of “parliamentary privilege”.

With all this going on yesterday, I saw an interesting story on Dateline last night that was about the almost cultish Christian group “The Exclusive Brethren” have now moved into politics and have been attacking left wing political parties in New Zealand, Australia and the US.  There reason?  Well they believe that they are the chosen ones to ascend into Heaven at the end of the world (they call it The Rapture) and that they believe that the foreign policies (read war) of John Howard and George Bush are bringing the world closer to that point.  Well I agree with them on that – George Bush has probably come closer to blowing up the world than any other US President and Howard is his lapdog, but the point is that they are infiltrating the right wing parties and funding smear campaigns and running a political agenda that is based on fear and out right lies.

In New Zealand, they put out stories that the Prime Ministers husband was homosexual and that the NZ Green Party (a major player there) was morally corrupt,  In Australia, both John Howard and Peter Costello admitted to having meetings with The Brethren and this has been converted into direct exemptions for the Brethren for their companies in the new Industrial Relations laws.  There it is in black and white in the new IR Laws that there is a broad ranging exemption for “companies and subsidiaries owned and / or managed by the Exclusive Brethren”.  Why does this group get direct mention in national laws?  How far has the Howard government been corrupted / influenced by The Brethren?  Who are these crack pots?  When their ultimate desire based on their religious beliefs is for the world to end so that they can ascend into heaven, then isn’t it a tad dangerous that our Federal and State Liberal parties are being pumped information on the sexual preferences of opposition members and then having their say in the running of the country?

This is scary stuff…

Classic - Clear that History People!

Taken from Electron Soup... classic

England Under Stress

English opening batsman Marcus Trescothick has left the England camp on the eve of the Ashes campaign due to “stress related illness”. This is amazing and an unprecedented event in sporting circles and an interesting case study. Now most Aussies will have a joke and a laugh and would have sledged Trescothick mercilessly during the series. He played in the NSW game just concluded yesterday and failed with the bat, but I am sure the crowd would have given him some curry on the race down to the wicket.

Now putting this into context if you were suffering from such an illness (can we call it depression? Is that what it is?) and you had anywhere between 30 and 100 thousand people bagging you on a daily basis and compounded by you not being in the best of form, I think it’s a logical and brave decision to pack it in and go home. For the sake of the team, he would be useless and a liability and more importantly, you have to say is it worth it on a personal level? You’re stressed / depressed / fatigued and you continue to put yourself through it and in the background you’ll be aware the Selectors would be giving you a tap on the shoulder and yanking you out anyway if you don’t conquer the demons and perform. Essentially it’s a lose / lose situation to play, so it’s good that he made the right call.

But to the team itself, England is now in disarray. Trescothick averages 43 in tests and is despite this a very good batsman. Strauss his opening partner is good too, but they are talking of opening with Alastair Cook as a replacement… who? With Vaughn, Jones and now Trescothick out of the squad, England looks very paper thin. I am now envisioning England being put to the sword this summer… a whitewash wouldn’t surprise me and guess what. I am going to enjoy it mercilessly!

Greystanes 9(dec)/243 def Baulkham Hills 83 and 128

A belated post, but I should put it down that the mighty Greystanes B10’s cricket side had a big win against Baulkham Hills last weekend…

At stumps on day 1 (which I think I may have previously reported last week) Greystanes were 5/164 in reply to Baulkham Hill’s first innings of a mere 83. Yours truly had scored 68 (out during the last over of the day).

Day 2 saw Greystanes bat for a further 45 mins before declaring at 9/243. All batsmen made a good fist of it with plenty of starts and the late order hitting was excellent. I did though remain the high score at 68 *cough* but everybody contributed – it was a real team effort (remember, there is no “I” in team, but there are five in “Individual Brilliance”).

Therefore with a comfortable lead and plenty of time, we set out to bowl out Baulkham Hills. To their credit, they made a good fist of it and at the first drinks break were 1/70 odd… we were very flat in the field and we seemed to be going through the motions. At the next drinks break, they were 5/120 odd after we had improved and the equation was we needed the last 5 wickets and they needed another 35 runs to make us bat again. I personally was looking forward to having another bat to run down a hopefully small target - not that I was thinking of my batting average ;-) – but the bowlers had the final laugh with our leggie Crazy Dave Mandic ripping through the tail with a further 4 wickets to finish with 6/26. We took those last 5 wickets for only 3 runs and we ended up winning by an Innings and 32 runs.

Apart from that sloppy start to the second stint in the field, it was a great effort and we’re looking the goods. The comp has developed very quickly into two halves with the Top 3 teams clearly ahead (we’re in that group) and the remaining four teams fighting it out for 4^th spot for the semi finals – and we’re not even half way through the season yet. In addition, we get the BYE next round before we finish the first half of the season against the currently second (and arch rival) Wenty Waratahs. Waratahs won our Grand Final last season and we’re keen to beat them...

Personally, I’m having probably the best season I have ever had with the bat with an average of 38.50 (and that’s considering I have had 2 ducks!) and am feeling fairly confident at this stage (have cursed myself now though by blogging this!).

New Look & Feel

Changed the template.

What do we think?

Come on, be honest... I do like the picture at the top though...

Mind you, if anyone is interested, I'd more than consider putting up a better banner in the template if someone can a) send me a decent banner and b) tell me how to change it :-)

Australia

Long time Lime Kettle member chunky has provided this link over on the forums... I am bringing it out to the main blog to edumacate (sic) any foreign visitors to this blog and/or Australia. I am also a big Douglas Adams fan :-)

Enjoy.

U2

Last night went to see the final U2 show at Telstra Stadium. It was a fantastic show, and Niki and I had a brilliant time. Seats were B Reserve which meant at the far end of the stadium but with elevation. This meant we were able to see the full (read 4 story high) video wall front on and the light show was excellent. Sound was clear with the exception that you had to strain to hear what Bono was saying when he went into his little monologues.

This all was a damn sight better than when Niki and I saw U2 at the SFS during their Zooropa tour (was that 1994??). That day, the sound was crap and the show was ruined. But last night, for the first time ever, I had a good experience at an outdoor concert. We only got the tickets on the cheap after one of the girls at work couldn’t go, so I am glad I went.

The concert itself was excellent with a mix of very old and new songs. In the very old playset was New Years Day; I Will Follow; October; and amazingly the very old B side song Party Girl. It seemed that the only people who knew the words to that song was myself and the guy on the other side of Niki. Everyone else around us was “huh?” and even U2 themselves stopped mid way through when Bono apologised for stuffing up the lyrics and called the band together half way through the song to sort it out.

“I know a girl, a girl called Party… Party Girl!”

Anyways, the night was also excellent on the transport front… drove from the city and parked at Lidcombe (across the road from Rookwood Cemetery – Niki was most impressed) and jumped on the Sprint Train into Olympic Park. Met Niki outside the bar at the Novotel and spent about half an hour inside with a beer and listening to the Rattle And Hum cover band. Then it was a kebab and straight into the stadium with no hassles.

Coming home was easy as well and I was really glad my car was at Lidcombe instead of trying to get a train back to the mountains as it was a pretty late night… the show finished after 11:00pm.

So in short, for those of you yet to see the show in other cities – enjoy!

Traffic Snarls

(First email posting with the Beta version of Lime Kettles… hope it gets through OK.)

Drove in this morning because Niki and I are off to U2 tonight and jebus what a shit fight!

Left the house around 7:00am and didn’t get in until 9:40am. Normally a 90 min run took over two and a half hours and it was hell all the way. The M4 was the worlds biggest carpark, Parramatta Rd was horrendous and it took me 20mins to get through the lights at Wattle St heading toward the City West Link. I was also forced to use the dreaded Cross City Tunnel and come into the city from the east side.

Now I am late, agitated and have not had time to attune to a Monday morning like usual… will be on the back foot all day because I want to leave early for the aforementioned concert.

Lime Kettles Has Gone Beta

I have transfered the blog tonight over to the new Blogger Beta format.

Let me know if you find any weirdness going on...

The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

If you've seen those funny video clips of people playing around with Mentos and Diet Coke, then you'll like this!

Bloody Trains and Bloody Osama

Great… first the train they send this morning is 6 cars instead of 8 and making a lot of people stand but now some lady near me is upset that there is a bag near her that nobody appears to own and she has gone off to report it to the guard… I bet they stop the train soon and get the “bomb squad” out and this is going to make my trip in a real mess.  The lady has stood up and asked the carriage in general “does anyone own this bag” and when nobody replied she has gone off to find the guard… great.  I am sure it really is Osama laying bombs on the Blue Mountains train….

[edit] – Post Script:  The guard came picked up the bag and left… he’s probably enjoying someone’s lunch as we speak

America Realises They Were Wrong

George Bush has been swamped.  At least the message appears to be getting through to the average American that this President, even more so than his father, has lead America and the majority of the western world including Australia on a wild goose chase through the Middle East.  Thousands upon thousands of lives either snuffed out or changed forever in the US, Iraq, Afghanistan and Great Britain.  Australia too has had a number of deaths attributable to the various wars in the middle east but those four countries have been changed forever.  Yes, Saddam Hussein will be hung but was it worth it and is it still worth it?  World oil prices up, risk of terrorism up, peripheral countries like Iran and North Korea more anxious and the world is generally worse than it was when compared to September 10 2001.

Two more years to come now though and I heard on the news this morning that Dennis Rumsfeld has resigned… that man should be with Saddam in the dock and his mate GwB should be with him.

Blogger Problems

There are problems with Blogger at the moment... hopefully normal service will resume, but at the moment my train postings are not getting through...

Clay

Melbourne Cup - meh!

I hate Melbourne Cup Day.  I am not a punter and find putting bets on horses 1000kms away ridiculous.  I don’t know why so many people feel the need to throw money away on a massive field of horses in which less than a quarter have a legit chance to win it.  But having said that, I am not against Horse Racing per se but rather the hype that this race brings.  I don’t mind going to the track itself as a day out, but why do women in Sydney feel the need to wear hats and carry frilly umbrellas when the action is in Melbourne?  I saw this morning at 8am, 4 blokes in suits with flouro ties and black shirts drinking beer with sunglasses on… why?  Ejits!

All the press raves about it, you cant read a newspaper or watch TV without it being rammed down your throat and its just a bit too much for what it truly is.  So today, I will enter the office sweep to be social and eat the food put on and quietly pray for when the hype dies down and we can get on with the cricket.

Now that’s exciting!!

Saddam to hang - more trouble than its worth?

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death this morning.  In my opinion, all’s well that ends well.  Whilst I think the entire Iraq occupation has been a disastrous event in which the Americans have thinly disguised their true motives for oil with weapons of mass destruction and the removal of a dictator in the name of democracy, the truth of the matter is that Saddam Hussein being disposed has been a positive thing.  What will be the concern now will be what to do with the vacuum he will leave behind.  The pro-Saddam Sunni’s have been fighting for him and obviously for his release, but now Saddam will be martyred in their eyes and it will surely escalate the violence.

That great moron George W Bush this morning made a gloating speech and will see this as further justification, but what he should be really doing is either cleaning up the mess or get out with my preference being the latter.

I look forward to our own moron Johnny echoing George W’s words this morning as he always does.

Sunday Evening Post

Thought I'd recap the weekend with a bit of time up my sleeve...

Saturday was cricket and I had a very good day as we bowled our opposition Baulkham Hills out for 82 and in reply the Mighty Greystanes B10's are 5/164.  Yours truly opened the innings and was out on the 4th last ball of the day for 68.  Was bloody tired last night after spending the entire day on the field... but its a lot better feeling than getting a golden duck!  Next week, we'll push the lead some more and then try to score an outright.

Today we went to friends Angelo & Karen's to warm their new house.  They bought a really nice little villa in Greystanes and we descended where Angelo had cooked up a BBQ and Karen had splurged on the salads and deserts.  Very nice afternoon of sitting down eating and drinking... have had too many beers today so I will probably hit the hay early tonight.

On the gaming front, the seventeenth season of the SWL Bloodbowl League has started up on fumbbl and I am starting with a new Rotters team in the bottom divisions... I won the league in Season 5 but have been a long way away since... maybe this team will get there... Kudos to the reader who can work out the team name...

Subversive Censorship

The ABC show “The Glasshouse” has been cancelled due to “bias”.  The ABC, which is our Government Owned TV station has decreed that it shall show  “balanced coverage” and that it will not present shows that are “biased”.  I ask “Biased to what!?”  The Glasshouse, for those that don’t know of it is (was) a show that took the piss out of the media and the Government.  The name of the show is a reference to the “when in glass houses” cliché… The show was a bunch of comedians taking potshots at the news of the day which of course had a high level of political content.

Now the ABC has cancelled it because under its new policy, it doesn’t fit their “balanced and non-biased view”.

When you’re owned and controlled by the Government, this simply reeks of the fact that someone on high in Canberra (Johnny are you reading this!) said “get it off as it isn’t doing my chance of re-election any good”.

This dear readers is censorship for political gain.  This is what Dictators do.  This is what Saddam Hussein was doing in Iraq – swamp the public with pro-regime views and refuse alternate thinking to reach the people via media censorship.  I don’t care that John Howard denies it, the station is owned by the Government and hence someone in Government made a decision.

In another case, NSW Liberal Opposition Leader Peter Debnam wrote to NSW Premier Morris Iemma asking for bi-partisan support to denounce Sheik Hilaly and his “extremist views”.  Hello?  Not that I endorse what the Sheik said, but since when do we not live in a country of free speech and democracy?

I am not going to be naïve and believe this is a new phenomena but seriously, we have to realise that the Government is ever increasing its grip on what the people hear, read and understand.  The media is so far from an independent presenter of the facts and is now riddled with people vying for political gain.

PlayStation Portable - Good Or Bad

I have a thread going on the virtues of the PlayStation Portable (PSP).  Anyone with an opinion should go here.

Lucy Comes To Stay

Niki's mum and dad have headed for a 10 day tour of New Zealand and we've been charged with the responsibility of minding their 8mth(??) puppy "Lucy". Lucy is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and is a lovely dog, but I just had to post this picture.

The thing on Lucy's head is a "snooty" and this head rug is so that she can eat her dinner without getting her ears in it! I have never laughed so hard as when I came into the kitchen to see Lucy in her "snooty" waiting for her dinner... LOL!

Of course, she gets the royal treatment from the kids and is constantly being groomed while poor old Zoe the Golden Retriever loses out.

And of course, she is very cuddly and this is what I saw after getting out of the shower this morning... Lucy and Brooke asleep in my bed...mmm...

Scary Girls

Just a snapshot from last nights trick & treating expedition... this was before they went and before they became suger-hyped lolly monsters at 9:30pm! LOL! :)

Halloween In Australia...

Last night was Halloween… did any of you dear readers get a knock on the door from kids looking for lollies? We only got one door knock from the kids across the road, but then my girls actually did go out with some school friends and tricked and treated around our suburb. Kate dressed as a witch and Brookie as Cinderella went around and door knocked. I got home from work during this and I went walking around the block trying to find them and didn’t see a soul. Mind you it was quarter to nine at this stage and probably too late. However one house had a jack-o-lantern on the front verandah and the girls did come home at 9:30 loaded to the nines with lollies and chips. One person even gave Kate, Brooke and their friends a $20 note!!

Niki said that whilst people were friendly and had stuff to give she felt very awkward knocking on doors, but the kids loved it. But why are we doing this? Even the media seems to be partially behind it and twice I have heard the story “its not American, its actually British”. What crap… yes, it probably is a celebration brought to America by British settlers on the Mayflower, but this doesn’t mean we in Australia need to celebrate it. Do the Americans celebrate the Queens Birthday like we do… yes, its British, but this bad logic doesn’t apply to them. Why do we need to follow American tradition and excuse it on the basis it originated in the UK? Seems like another case of Americanism gone wrong…

Having said that… I didn’t mind having a few chockies courtesy of the neighbours last night!