The Time Has Come...

... for a little privacy.

As much as I love the fact that probably the only people who read my blog are strangers, I am increasingly becoming aware that I have to talk in code or something as kids from school can find it in google search engines.

Therefore, my blog is going private.  If you want to read this after the end of next week (i.e. after June 6th) then you had better send me a request (via the comments section will do) and I will add you.  You'll need to put your email address in (don't worry, I won't publish the comment so you won't get random lots of spam).

After that, www.kmuki.com will be dead to you...

So come on world, sign up!

Road Rage In The School Car Park

This morning the most bizarre thing happened to me.  Road rage - in the school car park!

Now I can (sort of) understand road rage on the highway, or in traffic when tempers are frayed - but in the school car park?  Honestly, I still can't quite believe it.  I'm still not really sure what happened.  Basically, as I rounded the corner from the lane into the car park, I could see that the car park boom gates were up, and the tail lights of a colleagues' car rounding the corner, meaning they had just gone through - but I don't know how long those gates stay up after a car has passed.  Lickety split, quick as a flash, I floored it to get through.  I mean, you don't want the booms coming down on you as you're passing through the gate now do you?

This then meant I had a bit of a speed up going on, as I rounded the first corner looking for a park.  And as usual, I was running late - which at my school means that the chances of you getting a park in the staff car park are quite slim, because there aren't enough spaces for all the cars.  So I guess I was a little pre-occupied with looking for an empty space.

Suddenly, I spied one - but the car that had gone through the boom gates in front of me got there first, and took it.  Except that clearly this woman doesn't know the size of her car, and she had selected, shall we say, one of the more narrow parks - and her vehicle was wide.  She misjudged the angle needed, thus resulting in the need for her to reverse to straighten up.  Except - she didn't check to see the coast was clear before whacking the car in reverse.  She was bearing straight down on me!

I had no other course of action but to floor it, narrowly squeezing past - and pulling into the next available space some several cars down from her.  I didn't think any more of it, I had my spot, and she hadn't backed into me, so I got out and started to get my stuff out of the car.

Next thing I know, this woman is practically in my face. "Didn't you see me reversing?  I nearly hit you!"  she squealed at me - in front of colleagues (one of whom had her daughter with her, who attends our school).  So she goes off into one, ranting and raving, a full, proper road rage carry on!  She wouldn't shut up about it.  So I calmly pointed out that she didn't check her mirrors before reversing.  "I didn't need to check my mirrors, I was in front!"  Yeah, right, honey.  You just keep telling yourself that!  What a nutter!

So I hotfooted it out of there, but as luck would have it, every time I turned around today, I saw that silly woman.  When I left my classroom, she was there.  When I went to the staffroom, she was there.  When I went to my office, she was in the corridor on the way.  Aaaaggghhhh!!

And I'll bet, she'll be the car in front of me again tomorrow as I pass through the boom gates... what's the chance eh?

Hallelujah! It's All Over...!

Hallelujah! It's all over...

For the past 5 months, my Wednesday afternoons and Friday afternoons have been given over to working with kids on the musical (which I can't name as it could come up in search engines). This musical was apparently on London's West End last year (although I never heard of it whilst I was there, and it didn't last for very long) and apparently has been in Melbourne too (like that's a real benchmark!).  

Anyway, it is quite different from your traditional musicals. For starters, we had to rewrite quite a large portion of it, because the lyrics were just too suggestive and crude. Well, its a mickey take of a famous European song contest, right?  What do you expect?

We also had to add in some acting vignettes, because otherwise there was no acting needed at all. The clever thing about this show (other than the music) is that the audience gets to vote for the 'winner'. We ran our performance for 3 nights, and the first two nights Iceland won, and the last night was Ireland. It was very successful and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.

Anyway, I'm just glad its all over!

Here are some youtube clips to give you an idea of what the songs were like (these clips are from the West End performances).

Da Da Da Da Da - I'm Lovin' It!

So I'm just sitting here in the food court at Strathpine Westfield's after having been to see the absolutely magnificent Angels and Demons and I have made a fabulous discovery. The Macca's here has free wifi which I, having not purchased any Macdonalds, am able to use! How brilliant is that?

Which means, next time I come here to the movies with the boys I can sit downstairs and use the net whilst waiting for them to finish up at Gamezone! Everyone wins!

Now everyone knows that Maccas has wifi, but I didn't expect to find it in a food court one! Fantastic! Congratulations, Australia! The rest of the world welcomes you to the 21st century!!

Addendum:  I found out the wifi also works if you're going through drive-thru - so I can check my emails whilst waiting for my burger!  Cool!

Nobody Loves Me, Everybody Hates Me, Think I'll Eat Some Worms!

This week has been a tough week. Its been go, go, go at school, the weather has been diabolical - flooding causing lots of traffic headaches and on top of that, I've been (in the attempt to improve my commute to work) house sitting for a friend. And I have, as a result of that experience, come to realise that nobody loves me, everybody hates me - think I'll eat some worms!

What makes me think that? Well, let's see - I was always taught to look at the evidence and see where it points, always taught that where there is smoke, there's fire - that sort of thing - so I'll show you the evidence.

My friend's house is in the same street as another mate. So, when I knew I would be housesitting there, I let my other friend know. I had visions of late night coffees, lengthy chats, a nice gossipy chin wag, maybe going to the nearby cinema for a movie... but alas, none of that has eventuated. In fact, I haven't even had so much as a text or an email from that friend! Now, I know that for the past few days she has been away (and I have been at school musical) - so meeting up wouldn't have been possible - but still - we didn't manage to sort anything out in the first few days I was there. Thus, your Honour, if it please the court, I enter exhibit A into evidence.

Exhibit B. My email inbox. Aside from a bunch of spam emails, I have had, this week, absolutely no emails from friends or family. Zip. Nada. Granted, the only one who usually emails me is my Dad, and he's been away - but Mum has her own little netbook thing, and has her own email on it. What's to stop her?

And finally, exhibit C. I sent a text to my sister earlier this week saying that as I was nearer to her place now than before, if her boys weren't playing soccer this weekend maybe I could take them to the movies (I was thinking specifically of Night At The Museum 2) Saturday morning. I can't do it Saturday afternoon because I have to go to school for the last performance of the musical, but the morning would've worked.

Did she even write back? No. Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement text. And there have been no phone calls from anyone else in my family either.

So as far as I'm concerned, the evidence is overwhelming. Nobody loves me, everybody hates me - think I'll eat some worms! (Either that or move to South Africa or something!)

Addendum:  Murphy's Law, isn't it - I post this and then my Dad phones me, just when I'm at a performance of the school musical - and the one time I haven't turned my phone off.  Thanks a lot Dad!

In Darkest Brisbane - And There's No Way Out

Two weeks ago, I was in the unfortunate position of having to drive home from the city on a Friday night, when one of the biggest rugby league games this year (well, in Brisbane terms anyway) was taking place at Suncorp Stadium. Basically, the police cordoned off all the roads around the venue and put up ridiculous detour signs. It took me almost an hour and a half to get home.

Then today, with the extreme weather and resultant flash floods we've been having, I found myself trying to make my way home from school late at night, and again, the roads were cordoned off and there were silly little men, in psychadelic flourescent vests and with airline controller batons, directing you off into the ether.

The thing that gets me is this - they put detour signs up at the point of road closure, have men with their airline control batons waving them randomly in the air, have roads blocked off by police vehicles and so on - but they don't tell you how to get from where you were to the other side of the blockage. So for example, tonight the area blocked off would have been realistically not even 1 km. I could see where I needed to be on the other side of the road block. But could I get to it? No!

I was 3 times being redirected back to exactly the same location, and I had had an absolute gutful. Tired, cross and desperate to go home, I eventually just stopped in front of some moron in the flouro vest, whacked on the hazards and proceeded to bale the poor beggar out. How dare they put up a detour sign and then not follow it through so that you end up the other end of where you wanted to go? Even the bloke I had a go at could see the flaw in this stupid "logic".

As a result, I got diverted so far out of my way I thought I was en route to Jupiter or something. Took me an hour and a half to travel 19.5 kms.

Thanks very much BCC! (stupid idiots...)

Wayne Brady @ QPAC Concert Hall

So tonight I went to see Wayne Brady, from Who's Line Is It Anyway, at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Complex). The name of the programme was "Making S%!t Up" and it was a mix of his improv show, plus his singing talents.

Personally I thought the whole thing was very good. A world class performer in a relatively decent venue - what more could you want? Oh yeah. Cheaper tickets.

Would you believe that tickets for this cost $89! $89! That's like £45! I mean, seriously?! I would only pay that for a really famous, really top class performance in London - and I got to see lots of famous people, and lots of top class performances, for half the price! Still, that's what it cost, so that's what I paid.

I guess I got my money's worth. I mean, he was very good, the improv was good (his part of it anyway) - but the bad bit was they played some of the games from Who's Line Is It Anyway (not a problem) - but with some of the audience members. Now to be perfectly frank, it was bad enough to pay $89 for the professional - but $89 to watch a bunch of audience wannabes get up and do not very much at all - not so good.

After his improv set, he did a vocal set - but most people had come to see the improv, so it was really lost on them. I thought he was good though - good enough at least to buy the CD!

Anyway, for my first concert at QPAC in 11 years - it was pretty good. He's well worth seeing, if you ever get the chance...