On Top of the World

I’m ready to burst. We went out for dinner tonight for the Festival of Food, which is where you pay $20 each for a 4-course meal. It was quite nice, although my steak was definitely not the medium I’d requested, but more like well-done. Still, yummy and now I’m ready for a nap.

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In the last couple of months I have developed an obsession with Boston Legal. I left work early today because I read on the BL site that I visit that there was going to be a live webcast of “An Evening with Boston Legal” which was held in Los Angeles. It was due to start at 3pm my time, so I left work at around 2:00 to ensure I had plenty of time to get home and ready.

It was quite good - it was just a panel of the cast members as well as the show’s writers and directors, moderated by Camryn Manheim who asked the panel various questions. It only went for an hour, but I think it was worth leaving work for. And hey, it’s Friday, so given the option of staying at work or going home… well, it wasn’t a difficult decision.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that James Spader is going to be on The View on November 21, which is when I’ll be in NYC. I went to the website to see about getting tickets but it said they’d already given all of them out for the next whatever months, so I’m going to try to get standby tickets. M is already aware of this and has been informed that he can do his own thing if he doesn’t want to come I would ordinarily have no interest whatsoever in going to see The View - way too much oestrogen for me - but I’m sure I could manage it if I actually got tickets to this one.

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Another year of tafe is nearly over. At the bridging course last night there was a guest speaker, who came to talk about the interpreting course being held next year. If you pass all the prerequisites of the course, you are awarded NAATI accreditation as a para-professional interpreter, which means you can get work as an interpreter (NAATI is the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters and accreditation from them is essential if you want to be an interpreter in any language in Australia). She succeeded in completely scaring the crap out of me and virtually everyone in the class, so I don’t think I’ll do it. I still have one more year of my current Auslan certificate, which is 2 nights a week, and the interpreting course is another 7 hours on top of that. So if I did both, I’d be studying a total of 13 hours over 4 nights a week, and I don’t think I’d be able to cope with that in addition to working full-time.

And, unlike the tafe course I’m doing at the moment which is has virtually no work outside class hours, the interpreting course does have quite a lot of extra work involved, and as much as I don’t want to fall behind my other classmates who would be doing the course, I think it would be too much for me.

I felt a bit depressed, realising that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I guess when it really comes down to it, I’m not studying Auslan with the goal of becoming an interpreter - it was just to learn a new language and hopefully become good enough to be able to communicate most things I wanted to communicate. Of course, fluency would be fantastic, and it’s something I would love to have, but I have a job already and it’s not as though I’m trying to start a career. There’s no rush for me to do every course available to me just because it is being offered.

But the main reason I won’t be doing it is that I don’t think I’m good enough. The guest speaker said that it’s not a language acquisition course, and you’re expected to be fluent or near-fluent in both languages when you start, which I’m definitely not - it’s why I’m learning the language after all! I don’t really have any confidence in my abilities, and I think that taking the year to finish off my certificate and hopefully gain some more confidence will be good, as well as the much lighter workload. And if the course is offered again (apparently they haven’t had an Auslan component in the course for 5 years because they didn’t have the numbers), I might do it then.

Yesterday afternoon, M got an SMS from his nephew, asking him to tape Family Feud for him because the family of a friend of his was going to be on it. We’ve met the friend a few times, so we were interested to see whether he was going to be on it. He was, so we watched the show. I don’t normally watch it because I can’t stand the host, but it’s always different when someone you know is on! It was pretty funny, because we were expecting big things from him, but he didn’t come up with a single answer that was on the board, so I think it’s safe to say that he didn’t contribute a single thing to the show. Despite that, his family won!

So they got to the last round, where two family members have to get 200 points or more, each answering 5 questions. Fortunately, the guy we knew wasn’t one of the two people. So one of his sisters went first, and she did really well, getting 148 points. If she hadn’t said that a deer was one of the animals in the Zodiac, no doubt she would have got even more. Since three of her answers were the top responses, they were playing to win $25,000.

The next person was another sister, and she gave a few good answers, but passed on one, and also gave a stupid answer for the Zodiac question - she said snake. What the?! The host was going through the questions, and by the time he got to the second to last one, she only needed 11 points. Since the last question was the Zodiac question, she had no hope of getting any points for that so she needed 11 for this one. The question had been “Name something you would find at a ski lodge”, and I was SURE that she said ’skis’, but when they put her answer up on the board it said ’skiers’. NOOOOOO! Maybe it’s because my answer would have been ’skis’ that I thought that was what she said, but I was certain she’d said skis. But her face didn’t change into a “that wasn’t my answer” expression (unless they edited it out in production), so maybe she did say ’skiers’ after all.

So we were waiting to see how many points she got for it, and it was… 6. D’oh! And the host said that the top answer was ’skis’! *slaps forehead* So they didn’t win their $25,000, even though I think they should have. The good news is they’ll be on again on Monday since they’re the carry over champs, so we’ll see how they go then.

I took Jack to the vet today so they could get a urine sample directly from his bladder. The reason for this is because all the other samples were taken when he went on the floor, so they wanted to get one that wasn’t contaminated. So we dropped him off this morning. It was so much easier with two people than with one, although he was still petrified and weed in the cage. Dammit, why couldn’t he have waited until he was there and we could have just taken him home again!

So we left him there and went to work. I rang at lunch time and again just before we left to go home, but they said that they hadn’t got anything yet and that he’ll have to stay the night. I hope he’s all right. I can’t help but be a bit worried that they’re not treating him well. I don’t know why I’d think that, but if they don’t like me and think I’m incompetent, maybe they wouldn’t care too much about whether they made him comfortable. I hope that’s not the case. It’s weird not having him here, and I keep expecting to feel a cold draught as he pushes open the study door to come in. I’m looking forward to having him back home again.

*****

I didn’t go to tafe on Monday, or my course tonight. On Monday I had a sore throat so I said I was sick, but really the main reason was because it was the final of Big Brother and I wanted to watch it. Sad, I know. The fact that I don’t enjoy Monday’s classes means that I don’t need much excuse to skip them. But I did enjoy Big Brother. Now that Big Brother’s over, it’s been replaced by an awful show called Yasmin’s Getting Married, in which a girl dates a whole lot of guys in the hopes of finding a husband. Channel 10 has seen how much money they made from all the phone votes during BB, so now with YGM we can vote again to decide which guy she’s going to date. Like I care. Surely noone actually thinks that she’s going to meet the man of her dreams and ride off with him into the sunset.

I didn’t go to class tonight because the vet said they were going to try to get another sample at 6:15 and if they got one they’d call me, so I wanted to be home so we could both pick him up if he was ready. I didn’t really think they’d call, so it was just another convenient excuse not to go to class. I don’t feel bad - all my life I’ve always gone to all my classes and been a good girl, so screw that. If I don’t want to go, I can take a couple of classes off and not worry about it.

*****

Yesterday was our 3 year wedding anniversary. Unfortunately we couldn’t go out for dinner because I had tafe (yes, I did go to one class this week, but only because I had an assessment). We’re booked in for dinner on Saturday night, though, so I’m looking forward to that. I bought M some cufflinks (I wanted to get him a tie bar, because he’s been hinting about one for absolutely ages, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a decent tie bar in this city? Well, I’m sure you don’t, but trust me when I say it’s very hard. I’ve been looking for the last 2 years for a nice one but haven’t found what I wanted yet.) and he had some flowers sent to the office.

I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already… I know, I know, aren’t we old hands at this marriage thing. The third anniversary is leather, though, so that’s pretty boring. I guess he could have got me a handbag and I could have got him some shoes or something. And as for the cufflinks I gave him, according to the anniversary list I should have waited another 8 years for that (steel). Next year is worse though - fruit. Happy anniversary, honey, have a mango. Luckily the 5th anniversary is looking up - wood…

Here’s the list I found (which I got from here):

Traditional Wedding Anniversary Gifts

1st - First - Paper
2nd - Second - Cotton
3rd - Third - Leather
4th - Fourth - Fruit/Flowers
5th - Fifth - Wood
6th - Sixth - Candy/Iron
7th - Seventh - Wool/Copper
8th - Eighth - Bronze/Pottery
9th - Ninth - Pottery/Willow
10th - Tenth - Tin/Aluminium
11th - Eleventh - Steel
12th - Twelfth - Silk/Linen
13th - Thirteenth - Lace
14th - Fourteenth - Ivory
15th - Fifteenth - Crystal
20th - Twentieth - China
25th - Twenty-Fifth - Silver
30th - Thirtieth - Pearl
35th - Thirty-Fifth - Coral
40th - Fortieth - Ruby
45th - Forty-Fifth - Sapphire
50th - Fiftieth - Gold
55th - Fifty-fifth - Emerald
60th - Sixtieth - Diamond

There was also a list of modern wedding gifts:

Modern Wedding Gifts

First - Clocks
Second - China
Third - Crystal/Glass
Fourth - Appliances
Fifth - Silverware
Sixth - Candy/Iron
Seventh - Desk Sets
Eighth - Bronze/Pottery
Ninth - Linen/Lace
Tenth - Leather
Eleventh - Jewellery
Twelfth - Pearls
Thirteenth - Textiles/Furs
Fourteenth - Gold Jewellery
Fifteenth - Watches
Twentieth - Platinum
Twenty-Fifth - Silver
Thirtieth - Diamond
Thirty-Fifth - Jade
Fortieth - Ruby
Forty-Fifth - Sapphire
Fiftieth - Gold
Fifty-fifth - Emerald
Sixtieth - Diamond

What’s up with ‘desk sets’ for the 7th anniversary? Complete ripoff if you ask me. Maybe that’s where the fabled ‘7-year itch’ started - people got sick of getting crappy desk sets so they called it quits.

Australia lost, but I’m still glad I stayed up for the game. If I’d just woken up this morning and heard they’d lost 1-0 I would have thought that it wasn’t any great surprise since I figured that they were going to lose, but then I wouldn’t have seen how well they did play. Well, I thought they played well anyway, from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know anything about soccer. It wasn’t a walkover so that was good. I thought they did really well.

The downside about staying up for the game is that we got around 4 hours sleep, which meant we weren’t functioning that well at work today. We left work at 2 because an electrician was coming to give us a quote to put in some new light switches, but even if he’d called and cancelled I would still have wanted to leave early. By the time we left I was feeling positively weary, although oddly I’ve woken up a bit now.

By total fluke, tonight I saw an episode of Grumpy Old Women. I remember blogging about it last time it was on; I love that show! All the women are so funny. I hope I don’t forget about it next week.

Well, I’ve accepted that Jack isn’t going to willingly eat the tablets when I put them in front of him, so that means I have to administer them myself. The good thing is that I’ve developed a technique that seems to work quite well, causing minimum damage to both of us (at least, I hope he’s not too traumatised). I’ve got the process down to be quite brief, so that can only be a good thing. If only he’d eat the damn things, then none of the trauma would be necessary, but never mind. Only 26 more doses to give him. Sigh.

I’m staying up tonight to watch the World Cup match between Australia and Italy. Even though I know absolutely nothing about soccer, and can probably be labelled as one of those people who doesn’t care about a sport at all and then all of a sudden becomes interested when my country’s involved, I know enough to realise that we probably don’t have much of a chance and this will be the end. On the other hand, I am hopeful that Australia will do well.

The game is starting at 1:00 tomorrow morning, so I probably won’t get to bed before 2:30, which in turn means that I’ll be really tired for work. I’m sure other people will have stayed up to watch as well, though, so we won’t be the only ones looking rather bleary-eyed.

One of the goats that lives near me (as I live in a veritable sanctuary of wildlife) gave birth to a couple of kids - at the left of the photo - a few days ago. When I went on my walk yesterday I took some photos. Naturally, they were sitting as far away from me as they could get, and not even my encouraging calls of “Goats!” could get them to come over. So the photos aren’t as good as I’d have hoped, but maybe I’ll be able to get a better one another time. The ones I took with the flash on were pretty cool, since it reflected off the eyes of some of them and made them look possessed. Goats have weird eyes anyway, with their oblong pupils, but this was just a cool Psycho Goat look.

***

There’s a guy at work who’s really pissing me off at the moment. Do you remember that episode of The Simpsons with Frank Grimes? I feel like the guy at work is Homer and I’m Grimey, and that one day I’m going to go totally lose it and end up electrocuting myself.

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I watched the final episode of Grumpy Old Women last night. What a great show! It’s a British show where a bunch of women aged in their 40s and up say what irritates them (usually about ‘young people’, but also about being ‘older’). Most of them I’ve never heard of, except for Jilly Cooper and Germaine Greer. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the things they said, which I guess makes me a Grump Old Woman myself, but they honestly did raise some valid points! I wish I’d seen the whole series - I only saw the final two episodes. I hate it when that happens.

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My final thought is a little indelicate - I’ve been wondering about it for a while, but didn’t really know how to put it. So, just in case you’d rather not read about bodily functions (but why wouldn’t you want to, really?!) I’ll hide it…

I’m really annoyed with all the tv shows we get from other countries (which is most of our tv shows), which have some Australian guy or girl doing a voice-over, like a commentary on what’s happening. Like Myth Busters, and Wife Swap etc. Do the the tv stations think that if we have an Australian talking every now and then, that the viewers will think the show is from Australia? Or are they really that stupid that they convince themselves that the shows are Australian?

Obviously they have to meet some quota of Australian programming, but since they can’t make any that people actually want to watch, they resort to the voice-overs on shows from overseas and call it Australian content. Why can’t they just admit that the majority of Australian shows suck (especially the ones they try to put in primetime) and noone wants to watch them?

I just finished watching The Biggest Loser and I am so sick of seeing Lisa crying - every week, more water works. Geez - get over it!

I used to love Basil Brush when I was a kid. And Playaway. They didn’t show Playaway for very long, but what they did show I thought was great. I found something really cool today, and I can’t remember how I stumbled across it, but it’s so cool! I was looking through the list and thinking, “Oh my God! I remember ___!” Playing the title or a couple of clips brought back all the good memories. It’s just like when you’re reminiscing about when you were little, and all the great cartoons you used to watch, like The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and The Herculoids, before all the shit cartoons started. Aaah the good old days! What cartoons/TV shows did you like when you were a kid?

The Brits make some pretty good TV… in fact, I think most of my favourite actors are from Britain - Ian McKellen, John Hannah, Nigel Hawthorne, Robert Carlyle…

First off, the most important part - happy birthday to my love, M - I love you babe *mwah!*

M and I have been watching a lot of Pimp My Ride lately. I love that show! If I still had my crappy Pulsar, maybe I could have got Xzibit and co. to pimp my ride. Ah well. One thing I was wondering, though, was how the hell would they get insurance for those cars? Most of the people whose cars are ‘pimped’ are under 25, and one of the standard questions that insurance companies ask when you’re looking for insurance is whether you’ve made any mods to the car. “Umm… yeah… my Ford Escort has been converted to look more like a BMW, and it’s got 3 Xboxes, 6 TV monitors, a coffee machine, a water fountain and a chandelier. Is that going to make my premium higher?” How the hell could you afford to insure all that! I know, I know - I’m such a party pooper