On Top of the World

My weblogs blog is working now! That’d be right - I just knew that as soon as I started writing on this blog, and ask everyone to change their links, that it would come up again. Grrr! So now I don’t know what to do. There are aspects of my other blog that I like better, such as some of the functionality, but I don’t want to ask everyone to change their links back just to have it die again. How supremely annoying! Maybe I’ll just continue to use this one for a while, and see if the other one stays working, and then maybe go back to my weblogs one if all goes well.
 
What do you think? Would you all mind changing your links back if I moved again? It’s all a big dilemma.

1. Have you found a new car yet?
Yes yes yes!! Read the post below

2. Why does WWE suck right now compared to the WWF of old?
I have to confess that I haven’t watched wrestling for quite a while - unfortunately I don’t have cable TV any more When I did watch it, I sort of got into the soapie side of things, with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H etc etc… sad I know. I was really disappointed when Stone Cold left, and overjoyed when he returned! He’s my all-time favourite. In his absence, I grew to like The Rock, but Stone Cold was always my favourite.

3. What would be your preferred super power?
I’d love to be able to fly. I think it would just be so cool! Extremely efficient too - no stuffing around in rush hour, trying to take short cuts. Something else that I’d like to be able to do, but which isn’t a super power, is to have the ability to say exactly the right thing in every situation. I’m so envious of people who have that gift.

4. How long is a piece of string?
Hey, that’s a trick question! And I’m not smart enough to come up with a witty answer

5. You’re stranded on a desert island. No hope for rescue. You will probably live there for the rest of your life. Who is with you?
How many people are allowed to be with me? If it’s only one, then my husband of course If I can have several… hmmm I don’t know. M is the only one I can think of that I’d definitely want there.

If you want to play too, here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

1. Have you found a new car yet?
Yes yes yes!! Read the post below
 
2. Why does WWE suck right now compared to the WWF of old?
I have to confess that I haven’t watched wrestling for quite a while - unfortunately I don’t have cable TV any more When I did watch it, I sort of got into the soapie side of things, with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H etc etc… sad I know. I was really disappointed when Stone Cold left, and overjoyed when he returned! He’s my all-time favourite. In his absence, I grew to like The Rock, but Stone Cold was always my favourite.
 
3. What would be your preferred super power?
I’d love to be able to fly. I think it would just be so cool! Extremely efficient too - no stuffing around in rush hour, trying to take short cuts. Something else that I’d like to be able to do, but which isn’t a super power, is to have the ability to say exactly the right thing in every situation. I’m so envious of people who have that gift.
 
4. How long is a piece of string?
Hey, that’s a trick question! And I’m not smart enough to come up with a witty answer
 
5. You’re stranded on a desert island. No hope for rescue. You will probably live there for the rest of your life. Who is with you?
How many people are allowed to be with me? If it’s only one, then my husband of course If I can have several… hmmm I don’t know. M is the only one I can think of that I’d definitely want there.
 
If you want to play too, here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

I can finally get around to answering the questions that Just a Girl and Stevie sent me - sorry it’s taken so long guys!
 
OK, JaG’s questions first (I’ll put yours in a separate post, Stevie):
 
1. How did you become a landlady?
I lived with my parents until April 2000, when I decided that I’d had enough and had to move out. I love my parents dearly, but I just wanted to experience living by myself. So I rented a unit, and lived there for around 2 years. It was fabulous - living by yourself after living with people for so long is just so freeing. I liked setting up the place for myself, and having things the way I wanted. I decided to buy a place because my landlady was going to put the rent up, and it just seemed like the ‘right thing to do’ I suppose. So I bought my house. When I met M, he had his own place, and I had mine. When we decided to get married, we weren’t sure which house we were going to live in, and in the end we decided to buy another one together, and rent out our houses. I’m glad we did it that way - it was good to move into a house that we could make ours together, rather than one of us having to adjust to the other moving in. We moved into our house the day we got back from our honeymoon. That was almost a year ago now.
 
2. What is your earliest memory?
I remember when I was around 2 or so, my parents, sister and I used to live in a granny flat out the back of my mum’s parents’ house. I have various memories from there - we have one photo of me standing on a ledge on a cupboard, leaning over the sink - I remember that photo being taken. I also remember one Christmas when my sister and I got 2 orange toy phones where you can communicate from different rooms - like walkie-talkies, but they looked like the phones of the day - it was such a cool present!
 
3. What would you do one day before the end of the world?
I’d make sure that all the people I love know how much I love them. I’d also be tempted to tell a few other people exactly how I feel about them, but I’d probably chicken out just in case the world really didn’t end the next day for some reason.
 
4. Is there something that you carry with you at all times?
I carry my handbag with me pretty much all the time (when I go out that is), so by default I’ve got my wallet, PDA and mobile with me. In terms of sentimental stuff, I have a couple of cards in there that M gave to me with flowers soon after we started going out. Of course I wear my wedding rings all the time, and also a diamond necklace that I bought for myself a few years ago.
 
5. What criteria do you use to select people for your blog roll?
Usually it’s just blogs that I read every day, or close to every day. The main reasons I add people are because I like their style of writing, or I know the person in real life and like them.
 
If you want to play too, here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

I can finally get around to answering the questions that Just a Girl and Stevie sent me - sorry it’s taken so long guys!

OK, JaG’s questions first (I’ll put yours in a separate post, Stevie):

1. How did you become a landlady?
I lived with my parents until April 2000, when I decided that I’d had enough and had to move out. I love my parents dearly, but I just wanted to experience living by myself. So I rented a unit, and lived there for around 2 years. It was fabulous - living by yourself after living with people for so long is just so freeing. I liked setting up the place for myself, and having things the way I wanted. I decided to buy a place because my landlady was going to put the rent up, and it just seemed like the ‘right thing to do’ I suppose. So I bought my house. When I met M, he had his own place, and I had mine. When we decided to get married, we weren’t sure which house we were going to live in, and in the end we decided to buy another one together, and rent out our houses. I’m glad we did it that way - it was good to move into a house that we could make ours together, rather than one of us having to adjust to the other moving in. We moved into our house the day we got back from our honeymoon. That was almost a year ago now.

2. What is your earliest memory?
I remember when I was around 2 or so, my parents, sister and I used to live in a granny flat out the back of my mum’s parents’ house. I have various memories from there - we have one photo of me standing on a ledge on a cupboard, leaning over the sink - I remember that photo being taken. I also remember one Christmas when my sister and I got 2 orange toy phones where you can communicate from different rooms - like walkie-talkies, but they looked like the phones of the day - it was such a cool present!

3. What would you do one day before the end of the world?
I’d make sure that all the people I love know how much I love them. I’d also be tempted to tell a few other people exactly how I feel about them, but I’d probably chicken out just in case the world really didn’t end the next day for some reason.

4. Is there something that you carry with you at all times?
I carry my handbag with me pretty much all the time (when I go out that is), so by default I’ve got my wallet, PDA and mobile with me. In terms of sentimental stuff, I have a couple of cards in there that M gave to me with flowers soon after we started going out. Of course I wear my wedding rings all the time, and also a diamond necklace that I bought for myself a few years ago.

5. What criteria do you use to select people for your blog roll?
Usually it’s just blogs that I read every day, or close to every day. The main reasons I add people are because I like their style of writing, or I know the person in real life and like them.

If you want to play too, here are the rules:
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond; I’ll ask you five questions.
3. You’ll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. You’ll include this explanation.
5. You’ll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

I posted a while ago (on my weblogs blog that isn’t working, grrr) about jinxing yourself if you start talking about something that you’re really excited about. I said that there was something that might happen, but I didn’t want to say too much in case I stuffed it up, and then said that everything fell to shit anyway. Well… all the shit unfell, because it all worked out - I’ve got a new car!! Yay!! *jumps up and down and dances around the room*

I don’t actually have the car yet, but I’m picking it up on Monday. It’s a Ford Probe. I first saw it around 2 months ago, when M and I were looking at cars. He’d mentioned a Probe as a possibility earlier, but I didn’t really pay too much attention. Then we saw this one - it’s in excellent condition, the interior is very well kept, and it’s got all the books, and also a pretty cool-looking CD player too. The only problem was that we didn’t really know what my price range was. So the weeks went by, I’d be fantasising about the car, and trying my best to work out a way that it might be viable. Eventually I took it for a test drive, and it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped it would. My previous car was a manual, but a rather old one, and the clutch was somewhat different to one made 10 years later. So I was a little disappointed after I drove it, because I expected to be able to go from one manual to another with no problems. I cooled off on the car a little after that, and thought that maybe I should get something else. Then I found out that I probably wouldn’t be able to get it anyway, so I tried to forget about it, and think about what else I could get. Things have a way of working out, though, and I found out that it might be possible to get it after all. I took it for another test drive, and it went a lot better, so of course my hopes went up again, and I decided that I really had to have it. So anyway, the money worked out, and after a few more looks and negotiations, I signed the forms last Thursday. I’m getting an inspection done on Monday, and if that goes well, it’ll be sitting in my driveway on Monday night. Yay!

I used to believe that a car is purely for getting from A to B. All that has changed now (well, it actually changed a while ago - all M’s fault ), and I’m actually looking forward to cleaning the engine, washing and polishing her… I even used to imagine looking out the window and seeing my car in the driveway. Sick, I know. But now that sickness will become reality - yeah!

I posted a while ago (on my weblogs blog that isn’t working, grrr) about jinxing yourself if you start talking about something that you’re really excited about. I said that there was something that might happen, but I didn’t want to say too much in case I stuffed it up, and then said that everything fell to shit anyway. Well… all the shit unfell, because it all worked out - I’ve got a new car!! Yay!! *jumps up and down and dances around the room*
 
I don’t actually have the car yet, but I’m picking it up on Monday. It’s a Ford Probe. I first saw it around 2 months ago, when M and I were looking at cars. He’d mentioned a Probe as a possibility earlier, but I didn’t really pay too much attention. Then we saw this one - it’s in excellent condition, the interior is very well kept, and it’s got all the books, and also a pretty cool-looking CD player too.  The only problem was that we didn’t really know what my price range was. So the weeks went by, I’d be fantasising about the car, and trying my best to work out a way that it might be viable. Eventually I took it for a test drive, and it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped it would. My previous car was a manual, but a rather old one, and the clutch was somewhat different to one made 10 years later. So I was a little disappointed after I drove it, because I expected to be able to go from one manual to another with no problems. I cooled off on the car a little after that, and thought that maybe I should get something else. Then I found out that I probably wouldn’t be able to get it anyway, so I tried to forget about it, and think about what else I could get. Things have a way of working out, though, and I found out that it might be possible to get it after all. I took it for another test drive, and it went a lot better, so of course my hopes went up again, and I decided that I really had to have it. So anyway, the money worked out, and after a few more looks and negotiations, I signed the forms last Thursday. I’m getting an inspection done on Monday, and if that goes well, it’ll be sitting in my driveway on Monday night. Yay!
 
I used to believe that a car is purely for getting from A to B. All that has changed now (well, it actually changed a while ago - all M’s fault ), and I’m actually looking forward to cleaning the engine, washing and polishing her… I even used to imagine looking out the window and seeing my car in the driveway. Sick, I know. But now that sickness will become reality - yeah!

M and I had lunch at the Earl of Leicester today. We’d both heard before that the schnitzels were somewhat sizeable, but I wasn’t expecting anything this big! Needless to say I didn’t need any tea tonight. It tasted damn good though - well, what I could manage to eat of it.

I went to Brisbane for work last Wednesday, and while I was on the plane, and at the airport waiting to come home, I wrote some stuff on my Clié to pass the time, and I thought I’d post it. Enjoy!

Part I - The Flight to Brisbane
I’m writing this on the flight to Brisbane. I’m sitting at the emergency exit, so I’ve got lots of legroom. Not that I need it, but it’s nice. We got lunch on the plane, thank goodness. If possible, plane food has gone downhill. For lunch I had a sandwich, cheese & crackers, a fun size Cherry Ripe and a Coke. Well it filled a space anyway. The next time I eat will be on the flight home. Two plane meals in one day - bummer.

40 minutes to go. So far I’ve watched The Great Outdoors, Just Shoot Me, and a music thing about Wendy Matthews. I don’t mind her - it seems that I like most of the artists that Qantas have featured on that show - except the Dixie Chicks. In some cases it’s been a pretty depressing realisation.

A chick sitting across the aisle from me has one of those kids’ activity packs that the flight attendants hand out at the beginning of the flight. I wouldn’t mind one myself. She’s doing one of those puzzles where you have to find a list of words. I love those puzzles. I used to do the Woman’s Day one every week - when my mum bought them anyway.

Part II - Waiting at Brisbane Airport
I’ve got 15 minutes until I board. I didn’t bother changing my watch when I came here, since there didn’t seem to be much point for one day. So when I got to the airport I checked my watch and I thought, ‘Cool, I’ve still got an hour, I might get something to eat.’ Then I realised I only had half an hour. Derr. I hope they have dinner on the flight, I’m starving!

The rest of the flight here was good. I had to turn my Clie off around 20 minutes before we landed, and I had just been about to write that one thing that sucks about the window seat is needing to go to the toilet. Both seats next to me were occupied by people who were having a snooze, and I would have felt bad waking them up. Fortunately there wasn’t much of the flight left, so it wasn’t too bad, but it was weird how quickly the need to go escalated from mild to almost urgent.

The last bit of the flight was really cool - we flew right over Brisbane, over the sea again, then turned around and came back to land. I think the pilot was disappointed that the flight was over so soon and wanted to go for a burn over the ocean before he had to land. I loved the look of the sun reflecting off the sea. It was beautiful.

The meeting went well, except that laptops give me the shits. I had to load some data into the database, and whenever I double-clicked on a file it thought I wanted to rename it. Plus it was just so slooow. Not what I needed when people were sitting around waiting to look at the data.

Time to board. A little kid just came up and started looking over my shoulder! Very cute.

Part III - The Flight Home
Just as I had extra legroom on the flight up, I’ve got extra legroom now, this time because I’m sitting in the first row of economy. It’s cool! I’d been thinking of trying to change my seat because I didn’t want to be looking at a wall for the whole flight, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve got 2 business class chairs in front of me which have jumbo storage compartments, and are positioned such that I have a nice amount of legroom, a TV right in front of me, and a fabric barrier on top of both the seats in front to block out the unsavoury business class travellers. Plus my table is located in the arm of my chair instead on the back of the chair in front of me. I’ve got my own little compartment - it’s like I’m travelling pseudo business class!

Well, that’s what I thought until I tried to watch TV and eat dinner. The TV angle isn’t good for this spot - it looks like you’re watching negatives of people instead of actual people. Although it seems it’s ok for ads - they’re nice and bright. Anything else, forget it. Next was dinner. It’s really cool how the table is stored in the arm, but the table’s just not big enough. There’s noone sitting in the middle seat, but there is someone on the aisle, so we ended up sharing half of the middle table each. The dinner itself wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for. Well, I didn’t care what it was as long as there was something hot, but *everything* was cold. It was salad, a roll and a mini chocolate. Wtf? For dinner? I wish I’d had the $9.95 hamburger meal I almost bought at the airport. Maybe I’ll be able to convince M to get some real food (ie takeaway) on the way home. It really sucks how all of Qantas’ economy meals are cold now, no matter what the time of day - they never used to be like that. Tight-arses.

An hour and a quarter to go - I think I’ll play some games!

Back again - there are now 40 minutes to go. I had the toilet urge again, and this time I just couldn’t wait. It must have been ages since I last used a loo on a plane, because I had no idea where anything was. The only thing I didn’t have trouble finding was the loo itself. After I finished, I couldn’t find the button to flush, and did a semi-panic. Then I didn’t know that the plug was always in by default, so I had to find the plug button (after another semi-panic). Then I dried my hands but couldn’t find the bin. So that was the cause of another totally unnecessary panic. Naturally, everything I panicked over not being able to find was in a completely obvious place. What an absolute tosser. At least they don’t have those bifold doors anymore, it’s just a normally-opening door. If it hadn’t been, I’d probably still be in there now.

We’ve now been told to ’switch off all electronic devices’. Home soon!

OK… what to post first. I went to Brisbane for work last Wednesday, and while I was on the plane, and at the airport waiting to come home, I wrote some stuff on my Clié to pass the time, and I thought I’d post it. Enjoy!
 
Part I - The Flight to Brisbane
I’m writing this on the flight to Brisbane. I’m sitting at the emergency exit, so I’ve got lots of legroom. Not that I need it, but it’s nice. We got lunch on the plane, thank goodness. If possible, plane food has gone downhill. For lunch I had a sandwich, cheese & crackers, a fun size Cherry Ripe and a Coke. Well it filled a space anyway. The next time I eat will be on the flight home. Two plane meals in one day - bummer.

40 minutes to go. So far I’ve watched The Great Outdoors, Just Shoot Me, and a music thing about Wendy Matthews. I don’t mind her - it seems that I like most of the artists that Qantas have featured on that show - except the Dixie Chicks. In some cases it’s been a pretty depressing realisation.

A chick sitting across the aisle from me has one of those kids’ activity packs that the flight attendants hand out at the beginning of the flight. I wouldn’t mind one myself. She’s doing one of those puzzles where you have to find a list of words. I love those puzzles. I used to do the Woman’s Day one every week - when my mum bought them anyway.

Part II - Waiting at Brisbane Airport
I’ve got 15 minutes until I board. I didn’t bother changing my watch when I came here, since there didn’t seem to be much point for one day. So when I got to the airport I checked my watch and I thought, ‘Cool, I’ve still got an hour, I might get something to eat.’ Then I realised I only had half an hour. Derr. I hope they have dinner on the flight, I’m starving!

The rest of the flight here was good. I had to turn my Clie off around 20 minutes before we landed, and I had just been about to write that one thing that sucks about the window seat is needing to go to the toilet. Both seats next to me were occupied by people who were having a snooze, and I would have felt bad waking them up. Fortunately there wasn’t much of the flight left, so it wasn’t too bad, but it was weird how quickly the need to go escalated from mild to almost urgent.

The last bit of the flight was really cool - we flew right over Brisbane, over the sea again, then turned around and came back to land. I think the pilot was disappointed that the flight was over so soon and wanted to go for a burn over the ocean before he had to land. I loved the look of the sun reflecting off the sea. It was beautiful.

The meeting went well, except that laptops give me the shits. I had to load some data into the database, and whenever I double-clicked on a file it thought I wanted to rename it. Plus it was just so slooow. Not what I needed when people were sitting around waiting to look at the data.

Time to board. A little kid just came up and started looking over my shoulder! Very cute.

Part III - The Flight Home
Just as I had extra legroom on the flight up, I’ve got extra legroom now, this time because I’m sitting in the first row of economy. It’s cool! I’d been thinking of trying to change my seat because I didn’t want to be looking at a wall for the whole flight, but I’m glad I didn’t. I’ve got 2 business class chairs in front of me which have jumbo storage compartments, and are positioned such that I have a nice amount of legroom, a TV right in front of me, and a fabric barrier on top of both the seats in front to block out the unsavoury business class travellers. Plus my table is located in the arm of my chair instead on the back of the chair in front of me. I’ve got my own little compartment - it’s like I’m travelling pseudo business class!

Well, that’s what I thought until I tried to watch TV and eat dinner. The TV angle isn’t good for this spot - it looks like you’re watching negatives of people instead of actual people. Although it seems it’s ok for ads - they’re nice and bright. Anything else, forget it. Next was dinner. It’s really cool how the table is stored in the arm, but the table’s just not big enough. There’s noone sitting in the middle seat, but there is someone on the aisle, so we ended up sharing half of the middle table each. The dinner itself wasn’t quite what I’d been hoping for. Well, I didn’t care what it was as long as there was something hot, but *everything* was cold. It was salad, a roll and a mini chocolate. Wtf? For dinner? I wish I’d had the $9.95 hamburger meal I almost bought at the airport. Maybe I’ll be able to convince M to get some real food (ie takeaway) on the way home. It really sucks how all of Qantas’ economy meals are cold now, no matter what the time of day - they never used to be like that. Tight-arses.

An hour and a quarter to go - I think I’ll play some games!

Back again - there are now 40 minutes to go. I had the toilet urge again, and this time I just couldn’t wait. It must have been ages since I last used a loo on a plane, because I had no idea where anything was. The only thing I didn’t have trouble finding was the loo itself. After I finished, I couldn’t find the button to flush, and did a semi-panic. Then I didn’t know that the plug was always in by default, so I had to find the plug button (after another semi-panic). Then I dried my hands but couldn’t find the bin. So that was the cause of another totally unnecessary panic. Naturally, everything I panicked over not being able to find was in a completely obvious place. What an absolute tosser. At least they don’t have those bifold doors anymore, it’s just a normally-opening door. If it hadn’t been, I’d probably still be in there now.

We’ve now been told to ’switch off all electronic devices’. Home soon!