Rain Rain Go Away

Oh No! You can't say that, think of the farmers and the drought!

Well I am. Firstly another rainy day this morning brought tears to
little Brookie's eyes as it dawned on her that today was the day that
Kindergarten Girls were allowed to use the play equipment at lunch but
because of the weather, that would likely to be not happening.

To rehash a quote of the famed ozjesting "rain makes my babies cry".

Then coming into work today, I missed my train because I had to park too
far away and then got caught in an all mighty downpour which resulted in
the trains grinding to a halt due to "multiple signal failures and track
flooding".

Actually it was a bit surreal as somewhere east of Strathfield, we had
to crawl along the tracks that were about a foot under water! Never
seen anything like it as the railways with all their ballast and pipes
are generally well drained...

And my grass continues to grow unabated... my broken lawnmower remains
unfixed (did I tell you my new lawnmower died on its 2nd use?) and I am
sure I saw a family of pygmies running through there this morning! ;-)

Seriously though, the rains have brought plenty of frogs and our cat -
"Charlie The Grey, Hunter of Glenbrook, Slayer of Lizards and Toads" -
has been having a field day including bringing in one of these frogs for
us to enjoy in the house... thanks very much Charlie!

Anyway, Gmail continues to be inaccessible at the office and I am
sending this in Plain Text from my work email... hope it works,
otherwise this post will be deleted!

Damn Work IT

Has blocked my access to Gmail and now I cannot do discrete email posts to the blog... means (like I am now) having to come into Blogger and do a manual posting...

I could email from my work account to the blogger mail-post thingy, but when I do that I get my work's email disclaimer (which names my company) and I have no idea how to do that...

If you know how (in Outlook 2003) to turn off your company email disclaimer, can you let me know...

This is important... having to log in to Blogger will really change my timing of postings and will result in me being less likely to (or inclined) to shoot off a quick posting re a funny link...

Damn IT Depts!

Kyoto

One thing that I have forgotten to mention this morning is new PM Kevin Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol.

From what I can see today, our economy hasn't packed it in and there are not suddenly 100,000 people out of work. Reading the papers today, there have been a number of damning articles on how we, via the negotiations of ex Liberal Minister Robert Hill were able to allow our carbon emissions to INCREASE between 1990 and 2012 as opposed to the rest of the world requiring their emissions to decrease.

And now they're saying that we'll over shoot the target of the allowable 8% increase by 1%... and now we will have to pay by being further under the hammer in the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol.

But, that should teach us a salient lesson on putting people more in tune with making an economic profit in charge of a subject matter that required a bit of long term vision for the greater good.

Well done Mr Rudd for doing something on Day 1 after years of stymieing by your predecessor.

Getting back into it...

I am going back to exercise.  Would you believe that there is a 24hr gym open at Emu Plains and I went there last night at about 10:30pm.  Its not a flash gym in any sense of the word and the bikes are a bit out dated but the treadmills are fine and the weight room is also fine.

I have a tread mill at home (gathering dust) and the dog is keen for walks so every night I will do one of three things - go to the gym, walk the dog or walk on my treadmill.

 

At a BBQ on Sunday my mates and I decided to make a pact to lose 10% of our weight.  Lets just say three of us raised the century mark... and I was one of those.

 

So, pending my knee snapping in two - which it felt like on the bike last night - I will be adopting an exercise routine.

 

Last time I did this, it lasted 6 months... lets see if I can keep going this time!

He's not mucking around...

Kevin Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol today!

 

I think I can hear the wheels of the Mining Boom grinding to a halt from here... oh no! the sky is falling!

Mondayitis

Have a bad case of Mondayitis today... had a good weekend, we were out and about but I wasnt terribly busy (Niki though was flat chat with dancing on Saturday) so I spent my Sat morning relaxing with a coffee at the local cafe before heading home on a rainy Saturday morning to paint some more and then went down to cricket with the fatalistic requirement that no matter the weather you have to turn up... which we did and which the captains and umps called it a day at 1:15pm and agreed to a one day game next week.

So it was off to the pub and a couple of beers and then out to dinner with friends...

Then Sunday was a big Xmas BBQ and I forgot the camera, but the day was excellent and we didnt end up leaving until after 6pm... Jumping Castles, a BBQ, a wading pool for the kids, a bit of one touch soccer of grown ups vs the kids and waaay too many beers... (Niki was driving!)

But my good mood came acropper last night. After getting home, I decided to give the lawn a quick mow. My lawnmower (which was Dads previously and was some 20+ years old) died yet again last week and instead of getting it repaired yet again, I went to Bunnings and bought a new one. Brought it home and it worked fine last week.

Looking to run the mower quickly over the backyard - 7pm on a Sunday night - I pulled the cord and felt something crack and the cable became stuck and would only pull back about 30cms. One farking mow and its done something to itself. All my good humour went out the window. Now I have to find the receipt and get it repaired via Bunnings (which I presume will take months) or I can take it to the local lawnmower place and pay for it myself.

Not sure what to do with that, but the grass is still growing!

More dumb Americans...

Can't believe they get on TV...

And watch for the last line... "You tricked me!"

Let me tell you sweetheart, it wouldn't be hard!