Green M&M's

Recently, M&M's have enlisted the help of Pamela Anderson, Molly Simms and a few other attractive ladies to be the new spokeswomen for green M&M's.

What exactly is all this about? Haven't there always been green M&M's?

And while I'm on the topic, whatever happened to the light brown M&M? Is that just a North American thing?

J2... if there are light brown M&M's in Canada, can you please take a photo for me?

Ruined... RUINED!!!

In case I haven't mentioned it before, 'Mythbusters' (shown here on Monday nights at 7:30 on SBS) is my favourite TV show.

However, last night they were seeing who was the Ultimate Mythbuster, Jamie or Adam, and I had to turn away.

Why? Because one of the challenges was testing each others' fear so they had to hold a variety of small woodland creatures in their hands without getting the heebie-jeebies. Well, everything was fine until they brought out the tiny cornsnakes.

Jamie and Adam had *handfuls* of them and were putting them on their heads and it was just revolting! (In case you haven't worked it out, I hate snakes. Snakes and clowns.)

*gets up and sits cross-legged on her chair*

So much for overcoming my fear of snakes on tv.

This week's samurai sudoku

Is a stupid bastard.

It's Tuesday and I have one grid left to complete. Yesterday, I made a mistake and put a 4 in the wrong position but fortunately I caught on quickly otherwise I was going to have to make a journey back to the supermarket to get some liquid paper.

This is why you don't do samurai sudokus in pen.

Australia's Brainiest Celebrity

Did anyone watch this last night? They had 10 former Big Brother contestants on to determine who 'Australia's Brainiest Housemate' is. For the record, it's Jemma Gawned, the lip gloss queen who revolutionised that horrific fashion 'trend' of off-the-shoulder-tops-on-one-side-only for women. Maybe even some men.

Anyway, my rant is that most of the questions seemed a bit too easy. I mean, really... even I could answer the 'specialty subject' questions on Australian Federal Politics and the Chakra System (have you ever? I'm surprised they even came up with 5 questions on this subject).

I actually think that the questions posed in 'Australia's Brainiest Kid' were harder than the ones the housemates were given.

Although, I guess it does help that I do hold a lot of useless facts and information in my head.

*tsai*

The Tigers are out of the NAB Cup. They lost to Hawthorn on Saturday afternoon.

Oh well, that means more preparation time for the Premiership Season.

At least they showed a lot of promise when they came charging back in the fourth quarter. I believe last year we had a lot of trouble with a fourth quarter fade-out.

Go Tigers!

From the Closing Ceremonies blog on cbc.ca

Following the Italian national anthem, a giant marching band made up entirely of clowns enters the stadium. They have their faces painted white and they're all dressed in those all-white clown costumes with the pointed hats. It's a happy bunch, but they all look a little too much like Crazy Joe Da Vola. (by Jesse Campigotto)

Thanks for the memories...

Whenever someone mentions the Torino Winter Olympics, the following 3 images will always play back in my mind:

1. The female snowboarder, who was in a position to take the gold medal without the slightest challenge, who decided to engage in some showboating on her last jump and stacked it big time. Good on you.
2. The male aerialist whose skis flew off as he launched into his routine. Ow, I say.
3. The Italian ice dancer who has the *best* death stare in the world. *shivers*

Goodbye, Torino...

Well, the Winter Olympics are over for another 4 years and Canada has shot up there with a third place standing in the medal tally. I'll give a gold star to anyone who can name when Canada was last in the Top 10 in the Medal Tally in either the Summer or Winter Olympics. Without Googling it.

At close of business, Canada had 7 golds, 10 silvers and 7 bronze. YAY!

Cindy Klassen goes home with 5 medals (1-2-2) and Clara Hughes, another 'Pegger whom I have neglected in previous posts, takes home 2 medals (1-1-0).

Big congratulations to the Canadian Team for a superb effort and I'm looking forward to Vancouver/Whistler in 2010!!! (The Calgary Games are finally paying off!)

Also, I'd like to congratulate everyone who took part in the Winter Games. Especially if they were at the Closing Ceremonies and witnessed the marching CLOWN band who performed a medley of 'I Believe I Can Fly', 'YMCA' and 'I Will Survive'.

I wonder what sort of training they have to go through to endure that?

Flat 9 is up for grabs too!

That's right, Flat 9 is up for lease as well. It's a two-bedder and it's only $25/week more expensive than mine!!!

I did contemplate how nice it would be to have a spare room so I could set up a 'studio' - wanker! - but there are pitfalls to Flat 9.

For instance... it's a lot closer to the rubbish bins and therefore the smell of the rubbish bins.

It is directly above the undercover carpark.

I only share my corridor with one other flat. Flat 9 is surrounded by doorways to 3 other flats, i think. The chances of running into neighbours is increased dramatically.

I would lose my lock-up garage.

Finally, if I'm going to pack up and move and go through all that cleaning, I'd prefer to be moving into a nicer place, like a house. Or even somewhere where I could have George. And Wrongtown. And I certainly wouldn't be moving into another mid-level flat.

Hot in the city.

I think this weekend could be the final bout of hot weather for Melbourne this summer with temperatures in the mid-30s. We reached a whopping 35 degrees at 4:36pm yesterday and at 8:20am, it's already 23 degrees.

Another one bites the dust...

This morning, I received my daily Property Alerts from domain.com.au and was *most* pleased to see that Unit 11 in my building is for lease.

*does the Snoopy dance*

Unit 11 is where the 4-6 skateboarding, glass breaking, fat pants wearing, bird-hating, thrash metal punk bogans live. That is, the flat directly above me.

Hopefully this means that there will be period where there is no one living above or below me. Unit 2 moved out a few weeks ago and while the flat's been sold, no one has moved in yet. Having said that, there'll probably be someone in there when I get home today.

Now comes to wait for the next set of bogans to move in.

*kicks over Schroeder's piano*

Gold for Klassen!!!

(Photo: www.cbc.ca)

Cindy Klassen, the hometown hero, after winning the gold medal in the women's 1500m sprint.

And big congratualations to Kristina Groves for her silver medal finish in the same race!

Winter Olympics Update #2

Canada's medal tally as of a few minutes ago was:

Gold - 5
Silver - 8
Bronze - 5

And, there have been something like seven 4th place finishes.

I look forward to the home court advantage in 2010.

Better still, I hope they get kd lang to do another Closing Ceremony hoedown like they did in Calgary.

Hehehehe....

I hope fitzroyal woke up early like she said she was going to...

It was a golden moment... but not in the medal sense of the word.

Maybe it was the half hour delay.

Or even the fog, which caused the half hour delay.

Or was it the memory of Lydia's gut-wrenching knee blowout from yesterday?

Perhaps it was because Jana only has less than 3 weeks to come up with a full body suit instead of her normal two piece.

An open letter.

To the anonymous woman at the IGA Queen Street North, who was crouching in the aisle comparing the nutritional value of cereals and thereby preventing me from accessing the tea bag section so that I could get some Earl Grey tea...

I don't believe there is any nutritional value in Kellogg's Star Wars Crispix.

Cheers.

Automatic Air Fresheners

I hate them.

I've just been doused by the automatic air freshener in the ladies room and it is MOST unpleasant. I think this 'fragrance' is a hybrid of flowers, lemon, chocolate and febreeze.

I might vomit on myself.

It's coming...

On Friday, the NAB Cup begins.

For those not in the know, the NAB Cup is the AFL's Pre-Season tournament. I think it's a bit late this year due to the stupid Commonwealth Games, which are due to wreak havoc on this city in approximately 3 weeks time.

Anyway, some of us have been waiting patiently through the predominantly one-sided cricket season for the footy to begin.

How far will my beloved Tigers go this year? Will Browny's leg hold up? Will Richo win the Coleman Medal? Will I join the Tiger Tribe this year?

Only time will tell.

Bring it on.

'We're from Tigerland...'

Brace yourself, fitzroyal...

You're going to be seeing a lot of these words today and possibly for quite some time:

• Jacqui
• World Record
• broken
• two jumps
• combined aerial

an original piece by spazdaric

there was once a sick dj named Judas
whose priest was kind of a nudist
she like chickie parmas
and eating bananas
my God she was just the cutest

Apparently, Christmas is the new black.

Words are Important.

Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns.

Take it... and put it in your heart (heart heart heart).

The Abduction of Kari Swenson (1987)

Olympic biathlete Kari Swenson is abducted by father-and-son mountain men, planning to start their own mountain colony. This based-on-actual-events tele-movie traces her abduction; search-and-rescue attempts by family, friends and a tenacious sheriff; and her steps to recovery after being wounded. (Source: imdb.com)

Go Team Canada!!!

Canada's women's hockey team claimed their second straight Olympic gold after beating Sweden 4-1. They won all five of their games in the tournament, scoring 46 goals overall and only surrendering two.

(Photos from www.cbc.ca and www.canada.com)

Everybody wants something, they'll never give up...

This is what will be on my DVD player this weekend.

Now I shall see the crucial first five minutes of every episode that we missed

after Miss Gauvin extended our piano lessons to 45 minutes each!

You know you're old when...

You read an article in the 'Good Weekend' about the Big Day Out (which you have gone to once) and apart from Iggy Pop, you don't know who *any* of the bands are that everyone was there to see.

For instance, who are Mudvayne and The Hilltop Hoods???

Are those even their correct names?

Oh yeah...

I'd like to formally welcome the following blogs to my blogring:

http://fitzroyal.blogspot.com

http://jelkie.blogspot.com

Hello ladies!

All's quiet on the western front.

After a very hectic fortnight with deadline after deadline, I am now in a quiet period.

*phew*

Pity there's so much archiving to do.

Thank goodness I no longer work in a bar and have to play 'how many papercuts do I not know about?' ever again.

If I had more time...

I would have written the entire previous blog in Grand Theft Auto style prose.

I might save that for another time.

One more thing...

Bozo.

My weekend update.

Again, no photos.

On Friday night, I met up with fitzroyal and off we went to the Marquis of Lorne for a post-work beer or five. On our journey, we encountered a couple of odd bodies but that's what you get when you catch the tram that goes through Smith Street, Collingwood.

Upon arriving home in a semi-drunken stupor, I decided to call young Jimmy to rant. She, in turn, kept referring to me as 'Negative Nancy'. Why, I never! Anyway, the Winter Olympics were on in the background so I had a little rant about 'sports' such as the biathalon (cross country skiing and shooting... why would you?).

The biathalon always reminds me of that telemovie in Canada about the biathlete (played by Tracy Pollan, better known as Michael J. Fox's wife) who was kidnapped while she was training and then accidentally shot and left to die but they ended up finding her and I believe she competed again, otherwise they would never have made a telemove about her. Kari something, her name was... KARI SWENSON...!!! (I *heart* Tracy Pollan, by the way.)

On Saturday, I slept in until 8:05am. Woohoo. I waited patiently until 9am to do washing, only to be ripped off by the washing machine, which took my $3 but wouldn't start. After stewing and sitting in quiet contemplation in my apartment, I decided I would try the washing machine again before lugging ALL my washing to the laundromat and sitting there for the next 4 hours. Fortunately, the machine decided to co-operate.

Then I scrubbed my bathroom. That was fun and I might still be a little high from the solvent.

And I'm not sure what happened next but I had about 5 things that I wanted to do, including getting the saturday paper so that I could attempt the Samurai Sudoku - which is a 5-grid combined Sudoku - as challenged by fitzroyal. And I magically ended up at The Park Hotel. I believe I was heading towards the Asian Supermarket and because it is en route to The Park Hotel, I just kept walking.

Saturday evening, I stayed at home because it's been an awful long time since I've spent a weekend evening at home. And it was great. I spent most of it on the phone to Lidl Pole. Had minor technical difficulties with Vodafone who decided to wipe ALL my credit, then wouldn't let me recharge but still let me continue to make phone calls.

Sunday I embarked on The Search for a Sofa. I went to a few shops and quickly realised that my t-shirt and 3/4 pants were *not* going to get me a second glance from the sales assistants. Obviously, if you can't afford full-length pants, you can't afford furniture. Dumb jerks. Finally, I made it to another shop and I found it... A beautiful leather modular which was in stock and marked down.

Alas, after a quick jaunt to K-mart for a tape measure and dashing home to re-measure my lounge room#, I soon discovered that the beautiful modular would not fit in my apartment. Curses! However, having acquired a catalogue, I was able to work out what modular would fit and so back I went to the furniture shop.

My mushroom dobby suede modular should be ready in 6-8 weeks. *bows*

Somewhere in the middle of this day, I finished the Samurai Sudoku.

However, last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I realised that the beautiful leather modular *would* actually fit in my apartment if I wasn't so adamant that the chaise be the bit that juts out, especially since that's how the Fitzroy will need to sit in my apartment, and wondered whether I could call the furniture store and swap. But in Australian climates, I think fabric is the way to go. No one likes being stuck to furniture in summer.

# - Yes, I had measured my loungeroom previously but I forgot to take the measurements with me. Also, I only had an Imperial tape measure and had to go purchase a metric one.

Winter Olympics Update

Canada: 2 Gold, 6 Silver, 5 Bronze

3 Gold if you count the traitor. Hehehe... I love calling him that here. I know I just sound resentful but it's more about the pleasure I get in other peoples' reactions when I call 'the local hero' a traitor. I'm sure it's similar to the pleasure that fitzroyal gets when a certain aerialist falters.

Go Cindy Klassen!!! (Note to those not living in Winnipeg or reading up on Winnipeg news, Cindy is a 'Pegger)

One more thing...

I think I'm going to go postal today.

*shakesbothfists*

Attention: Middlechild, JGT or Hugo's mother

Thermos' or thermoses?

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

As of 5 seconds ago, Canada has won 1 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals at the 2006 Torino Olympics. YAY!

In support of the Canadians, I have purchased a Team Canada beanie from a woman in Perth. I'm sure proceeds aren't going towards Team Canada but nevermind.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... The Commonwealth Games are coming to Melbourne and already the streets are chaos. That or they just seem like chaos because I've been leaving work a bit later this week and am caught in peak hour traffic.

Everyday this morning there have been packs of statiticians of some sort on every street corner in the city. PACKS of them with their lawnchairs and thermos'. There are WAY too many fluorescent 'safety' vests out on the street for my liking. It's giving me 80s Chip & Pepper flashbacks... *shudder*

Last night, as I was waiting for my tram, I heard a siren and naturally, I turned around to make sure that I wasn't about to be run over by an ambulance or fire engine, only to see a purple siren on a white car with green and gold stripes down the side, pulling over a taxi. Three people in various shades of navy jumpsuits, with aforementioned fluorescent vests, disembarked from said vehicle and proceeded to carry out a spot check on the taxi.

As it turns out, the Department of Infrastructure (I can't remember the name of the specific sector that was stencilled across the side of the vehicle - it was something like 'Taxi and Towing Authority') is carrying out some sort of blitz on unsafe taxis. At 5:45pm on a weekday. In the middle of the city. I wonder how many people missed their flights yesterday.

However, as a frequent taxi hirer, it's good to see they're cracking down on taxis. I hope they do an odour test too. Or at least hand out air fresheners.

Today's Oddspot

A Canadian woman in her 20s, who went out dancing in Oshawa, Ontario, did not notice she had been shot in the chest until she was back home in bed and having trouble sleeping. (From The Age, 16 February 2006)

Jennifer, oh Jenny!

Last night, after four years of not speaking to each other (apart from twice when we ran into each other at odd events), my old bud, Jen, and I finally caught up.

I take full responsibility for us losing contact and after some random name-dropping on the weekend from another old friend, Dan, I google'd Jen and tracked her down (which wasn't really difficult and no, I'm not a stalker).

I was hoping to have a picture of Jen in her cowboy boots to blog. Maybe she will oblige and send one.

Anyway, I hope we're all good... Especially now that I've made it so public!

Hugo and Rox

The last time we saw Hugo, he was all wrapped up in a blanket and NO ONE

(you know who I'm talking about) was helping him (refer to August 2005 archive).

At least not until after they took the photo.

I guess it's not just Tsais who never miss a photo opportunity.

Too cute!

*shudder*

So I was going to take a picture of the beautiful tan on my feet that proves that I have been outside this summer... and I decided against it. My feet resemble lizards at the moment and require some intensive moisturising. It's quite a bizarre tan that I've got because only my feet are brown. There's pretty much no colour from the ankles up. This is what happens when you get around town in 3/4 pants.

Oh well... maybe Melbourne can squeeze out a few more warm weekends for me. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of skin cancer.

Meh.

What? No photos???

It's been 8 days since I last went to the Glasshouse... I'm loving it, just quietly. I might go for a record - although, I don't think I can beat my 18-month absence from a couple of years ago but let's not go there.

On Friday night, I went to King Victoria at the Star Hotel. That's two weeks in a row! But I think I've had my fill... I just had to see the famous Rocco D'Amore and suss out a certain situation.

Saturday night, I went out for a drink with Carol & Anj to celebrate our one and only chance to go out on a Saturday night together. We've known each other well over a year but due to work commitments, we haven't had the chance to go out, apart from the occasional knock-off drink. It was also an opportunity to hear Mo Ichi play. After about a year and a half of receiving text messages letting me know about her gigs, I finally made it to one (although, it appears I've been struck off the SMS list).

I also missed Ari's birthday drinks on Saturday night (but I will make it up to you, oh Captain, my Captain). I did see you and Cassie the Friendly Ghost on Friday night as well as yesterday afternoon so that has to make up for something! COME ON!

Yesterday was Carnival, which equated to about 30,000 happy campers fenced into a park with a bunch of stalls, a couple of stages, the non-stoppable bootscooters and cloggers and more fenced in sections, which were the bars. And there was also the usual array of greasy food outlets... even Nando's, who were selling fries and peri peri for a whopping $11. It's true! It happened to a friend of mine.

I briefly caught up with Andi and Megan for the fourth weekend in a row... if we keep this up, by the beginning of March, I will have seen the girls more times than I did all last year!

I have no photographic evidence that I was actually at Carnival (or any of the aforementioned events, for that matter) so I will have to take a photo of the lovely thong/flip-flop tan on my feet and post it at a later date.

And that's about all to report on my weekend... Now to wait for everyone else to update their blogs...

This puppy reminded me of Froggy.

Only instead of a pine cone, Froggy would have been chewing on my mobile phone.

Here she is...

I found Sez sneaking into another photo...

>:o)

Good ol' Melbourne weather...

It's raining, it's pouring...

I left my kitchen window open.

Good thing I haven't moved all my equipment to that bench.

*tsai*

More photos from the march.

The Headless Marchers.

Surveying the crowd or contemplating getting gelato. You decide.

'Where'd you get your top from?'

Holding court.

Tickets, please.

Omg, is that Di Watson?

Always busy.

Hi there!

(formatting on blogger is so not friendly! *shakesfist*)

The big union march.

Two things to note: Julie's smiling and the baby isn't crying.

I'm taking bids on this photo.

Dancing Lessons with Lisa.

My fellow paparazzi, Flowers.

SPUNKS!!!

"Do you think she has the camera pointed at us?"

What are these two up to?

Having a laugh in Catani Gardens, St Kilda.

"If one more person takes a photo of us..."

The twins. (I don't know, that's what they call themselves.)

Kate, Cat and me!

Meanwhile, I don't know who the intended subject of this photo was.

" If I stand completely still, maybe she won't see me..."

A Night at the Star Hotel.

Who's that gigolo on the street?

Cassie the Invisible is captured with 2/3rds of The A-Team.

Smile, Lisa!

February Birthday Shout-outs!

Feel free to comment if I've missed anyone... Anyone that I know, that is.

Udi de Waard (2nd)

Ari Missikos (8th... Come on!)

Kristine Bartmanovich MacDonald (10th)

Deborah Milne (14th)

Simone Gallo (15th)

Kelly Lynch (16th)

Corrie Brooker (18th... where are you?!?)

Thom Jef Garcia (18th)

Shelley Semken-Clarke (24th)

Yvette Walker (24th)

Mel Fitzpatrick (27th)

Nat MacFinn (29th... My first leap year baby friend! I think I just made up your surname)