Movin' on Up - or Should That Be In...?

So this past weekend I finally bit the bullet and moved out and into a small, one-bedroomed flat in Nundah. This has been a good move for me but has proved to be somewhat expensive as I this is the first time in my life (how sad is that) that I have lived on my own in Australia, and therefore the first time that I have ever needed furniture, kitchen appliances and so on. This is no mean feat to try and set up on an extremely limited budget, particularly when one is having to pay quite a lot in terms of bond and the first few weeks rent, so as a result, I am 4 days into the current pay period and have less than a 1/4 of my pay left to last me for 10 days. Especially not good when you consider I still don't have everything I need, and its school holidays - so I'm being expected to take nephews and neices to movies and outings and so on - and I don't even have enough to fill the car, or pay the groceries - let alone all of that. Oh well. Mr Visa will have to help out - again...!

But it is nice to finally be in my own place! When I get proper internet access there, and when I get things unpacked and so on, then I will finally upload some shots.

Meanwhile I am currently reliant on the free wifi at McDonalds, which is fine except that everyone here in the food court is looking at me like I'm a knob or something...

Gabrielle Emily Head: A Dedication

Yesterday was my lovely niece Gabrielle's dedication at the Salvation Army, North Brisbane. It was a lovely day, despite the weather being inclement, because both Nanny and Grandma were able to be there, as well as the whole family. Nanny hasn't been well, and it really was the first time she's been properly out of the house since Mal left. It was lovely too because my Aunt, Kathy, was able to be there too, making the family as complete as it could be.

After the service we had a sausage sizzle at Beck's in-laws, which was lovely.

I volunteered for the task of preparing the video presentation for the service, a task I enjoyed very much but because I am somewhat out of practice with my editing, found took an inordinately long time to complete. Essentially I worked on it every night for a week - and then on Saturday completely abolished all but 2 or 3 clips, and re-worked the whole thing using one of several animoto clips I had prepared to 'give me an idea of how the flow of the photos would work'. Anyway, here it is, hope you enjoy:

And this version has the little 'coda' I wanted to show - but it would've detracted from Gabby's day...

A Very Expensive Lesson

Recently I was housesitting for a friend. It was a great experience, and certainly one that I would do again, especially as in this instance, the flat is really a very large one, and very close to a relatively big shopping centre, which meant that I spent quite a lot of time leisurely window shopping (well, sort of window shopping - I would look in the window, then go in and buy the item!).

My friend was really very generous in the housesit, giving me free reign of all the things in her flat, even having stocked up a few essential items in the grocery department and so on, and letting me have free reign of her foxtel etc. She even offered, very generously, the use of her computer and internet, with its very fast connection. Fantastic!

There's only one catch to all this. You see, in Australia, the internet companies are really very monopolising, and I am not aware of a single one (perhaps someone can enlighten me) that offers, for personal use, unlimited downloads. Each provider sets a phenomenally low limit - 2GB, 4GB - in usage per month. Now you think about it, in this day and age, it is really not very hard to reach and overtake those sort of limits with the size of files these days. So, not wanting to overstep the mark with regards to this, I asked my friend what her limit was. 4GB, she told me. Ok, sweet - I know not to use the computer very much then.

But alas, during that time, in the UK the BBC was showing "The Apprentice", my all-time favourite show. And I had been very lucky in finding a very special thing, called "My Private Network", that allows me to connect to a UK based ISP so as to fool the BBC into thinking that I am accessing their site in the UK, and thus allowing me to watch (streamed) their recent TV shows. This meant that I would be able to keep up to date with the happenings of the show.

Alas, although my friend's service is quite fast, the time of day I was accessing it meant that the rest of the world was watching too, and so you would get 1 or 2 seconds of show, then it would 'buffer' again. For those who don't know, 'buffer' means 'send a little spinning wheel around the screen, pausing the picture and waiting for a good 30 seconds before resuming again for no apparent reason'. So it essentially rendered the watching of this show virtually impossible.

However, the BBC have recently introduced the ability to download their programmes - not to keep, no, they expire in a week or so - but it means that you don't have the stupid buffering thing going on. And, helpfully, they let you know what the size of the download will be before you do it.

So, knowing my friend has a limit of 4GB per month, and having been given carte blanche to use the internet, I allowed myself the very small luxury of downloading during the course of the 2 weeks, 2 episodes of this programme - the sum total of about 1.2GB all up. That's ok, that's within her limits - sweet.

No. Not sweet. For when she returned on the Sunday she informed me that her ISP provider had emailed to say she had gone 2GB over her limit! 2GB! And all I can think of is having used only 1.2GB for the total amount of time I was there!

But that's not the worst of it, no, not by a long shot. She then informs me that the cost for this is charged as an excess fee, at the rate of - you ready for this - 15cents per MB! 15 cents per MB! Seeing as how there is something like 1024MB in 1GB - this is a problem - at the rate of 15 cents per MB, I'm looking at at least $184! For 2 episodes of "The Apprentice"! And I can't even keep them - I only had them for a week each!

In actual fact, I've now been informed that the total bill for this '2GB over limit' malarkey is a whopping $279! But what I don't understand, is how 2 episodes, which should be about 1.2GB all up, is nearer to the full 2GB!

The moral of this story is, if you are housesitting for a friend, and are going to use their internet - find out if they are near the end of their billing cycle or not, and then - DON'T USE IT! AT ALL!

What a total waste of money... and a very expensive lesson...

Camping With The Boys

So this past weekend I decided to get in a little family time with my sister Mel and her tribe, so I stayed over for the weekend.  Now there's staying over the normal way, and staying over my way.  We did, of course, my way.

Which involved me bringing my tent over to Mel's property to set up camp in the backyard for 2 days with 2 little boys.  It was absolutely fab, we had a brilliant time.  The boys and I set up the camp, then Kevan and Lach built a little campfire for us to cook dinner on - we had a sausage sizzle - and then Mel brought out some marshmallows which we proceeded to roast over the campfire.  After this we even had a little sing song!  What a fab evening we had!

Bethany though, at one point in the evening was getting a bit fractious, so we let her out of the high chair (yes, a campfire with a high chair) and took her over to the tent.  She thought it was just wonderful, she was jumping up and down on the mattress and flinging herself face forwards into the sleeping bags.  So funny to watch.

Later on in the evening, Mel, Kev and Bethany made their way back to the house, and Lach, Haz and I settled in for the night.  It was really quite funny - there was Lach on one side, with my iPhone, playing Wolfenstein 3D and generally making himself gloriously sick, and on the other side, there was Harry, with my iPod, watching Home Alone.  What a social bunch we were!

Slept quite well that first night, except for one thing.  Whereas both boys had blow up airbeds, I had a piece of thin foam on top of a doona to sleep on.  Suffice to say it was somewhat thin for my rather robust frame.  Coupled with the fact that I was squeezed in the middle between the two boys, and you get the picture.  Nonetheless, sleep did eventually overtake me, and I do recall my eyes having been closed for at least a short period of the evening.

The next day we had a glorious fried breakfast before heading out to Mel's church for the service.  That over, it was back to Chateau le Goff for a spot of lunch, and then the hard work began.  The clean up.  

Not the clean up of the camp - no - I mean the house.  A houseful of boys and a very little girl can only mean one thing - disaster zone.  So the boys were each set tasks and we set to it - the dangling carrot being the reward of Cold Rock and Gamezone if we were successful.  Suffice to say with that as our reward - we were!  So off to Cold Rock and Gamezone...

...and back to the last night in the tent.  However, there was just no way I could have another evening on the foam, so we stopped off at Beck's to pick up their blow up mattress, which, being as its a queen size, Harry and I both slept on.

It was considerably colder the second night, but we were snug in the tent.  The boys had started the evening off on their own in the tent, as Mel and I were in the house watching Die Hard 4.0 - don't worry, the boys had the walkie-talkie should the boogey man come whilst I was absent.  I got back to the tent to find it was 10pm and two little boys were still playing with iPods and iPhones...

I think it was probably just after 11pm before we truly got off to sleep.  But a lovely weekend camping it was too, even if it was in the backyard...!

The highlight (after the camping and campfire of course) was our little video series, In The Wild.  I haven't finished the edit here, but I have included footage of the lovely Bethany attempting to (not) say Lachie's name... enjoy...!

Nanny and the State Of Origin

My poor Nan has been really unwell lately.  I won't go into details, but essentially the poor lady is, and has been for quite some time now, housebound.

So last Wednesday, as I was house-sitting for a friend in Strathpine (in the attempt to find a quicker commute to school - alas, that didn't happen!  Gympie Road is the Devil's Road....), I decided to pop in on Nan on my way home.  During the course of our conversation, I happened to ask what she was doing next week for State of Origin.  "Why, watching it here on my own" was the reply.  Now, seriously, I can't have that.  She hasn't managed to be out of the house in literally months now.  If she has to watch the game at home, then she shouldn't have to be alone.  And seeing as its the first time I'll get to watch the game in real time (as opposed to a delayed telecast some 8 hours later at the Walkabout), I felt it highly appropriate to suggest to the rest of the family that perhaps this year, we all go watch it at Nan's.

Unfortunately, for those in my family with young ones (i.e. - all of them) that just was not a possibility.  So, I decided I would go myself.  I phoned Nan in the afternoon, suggested a take away option for tea, and picked up some gorgeous Chinese (food, not man!) en route to her place.

We had a whale of a time!  We had a nice little catch up whilst eating dinner and watching Two and a Half Men (seriously, what is the attraction of that show?), and then we enjoyed the pre-game wind up (although Nan did spend half of the time chatting to her mate Enid, or Edith, or something - on the phone beforehand).  And then we thoroughly enjoyed yelling our advice to the ref, the coach, the team - and the opposition - at the TV for the duration of the game.

Fortunately Queensland won, quite convincingly too -  28-18...  Now its on to Origin 2, and then 3... be still my beating heart...

My view of the game - note my gorgeous blundies in the foreground

Nanny giving Mum a score update at half time

Enjoying the game

Billy Slater's awesome try

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!