i’m back

hey all,

i’ve survived 8 days in tasmania & am back in melbourne now. i didn’t have much in the way of net access (or even mobile phone reception) so will have to catch up with email and blog posts.

it’s new years eve here & i’m about to take a nap & then go out dancing!

george michael & hobart

9am dec 24 i had an appointment with my osteopath, dr george michael (god i wish u could have an audience laugh track on a blog). like last time, he did an ultrasound. this is a theraputic ultrasound which is different than the diagnostic one. this one relaxes the muscles.

the other day when i first saw him he asked if i was trying to conceive. i was lying face down on the table, head in the massage head ring when he asked. a loud strong FUCK NO was my answer. dr george michael laughed. said he doesnt think he’s ever gotten such a concise answer to that question before.

this time he also did some acupuncture. this is the first time i’ve had needles stuck in my back (not counting the tat). i barely felt the needles go in. in fact some i didnt feel at all. lying there i could feel something was on my back but it didnt feel like needles. 10 or so minutes later he ‘twirled’ the needles which supposedly makes their effect stronger. 2 of those HURT. the others didnt at all. and i didnt feel them as they were coming out either. later i realised i had small marks on my back but there wasnt any pain.

after hanging out with dr george michael, it was time to head to the airport.

first impressions of hobart international airport… i think key west is the only airport i’ve been in before that’s this small. you walk down the stairs of ur plane & across the tarmac. i was told it’s only recently they installed baggage carousels.

driving into hobart (we stayed at a hotel in the CBD) was a trip. as we’re driving across the bridge i see 1 tall building. by tall i’m talking probably 20 or so stories. turns out that’s not even the CBD. it’s the casino on the edge of town.

i was underwhelmed, in no way impressed, and excited by the buzz of travel & being somewhere new was drowned by the doom of realising i was in a SMALL TOWN.

after dropping things off at the hotel we went for a walk. while we were out we passed the guy who was sitting in front of us in the plane. not once but TWICE. that’s how small of a place hobart is (fyi, population is about 200k).

we had a family xmas eve thing to do that nite. fairly painless even w 2 little kids running around. the scary thing was i found out the pumpkin pie i planned on making was THE dessert for the family on xmas day. not one of many but THE DESSERT. many of u out there know cooking isnt really my thing.

one nice thing about hobart summers (btw, it wasnt that summery. long sleeve tshirts & jeans were needed) is the sun doesn’t set til about 10pm.

merry xmas

in a little over 12 hrs from now, i’ll be arriving in tasmania. take a look at this map. see that tiny little dot under australia? that’s tassie. not the long skinny thing to the right of AU (that’s NZ) but that tiny spot on the right side & immediately under.

while ur looking at the map, take notice that there is NOTHING, NOTHING, i mean NOTHING between tassie & antarctica. NOTHING. i’m wondering just how windy & how cold it will be. there’s a spot out along the great ocean road near warnabool (incorrect spelling) that promotes itself as having a direct line to antarctica. the lack of any body of land btwn that spot & antarctica makes it very windy & cold. i was there in spring time & yep, it was very windy & pretty cold.

i’ll be able to dial in while i’m gone so maybe ill send an update & let u know how i’m doing with nature. there will be pix too (and my hair is a bright new color).

a couple weeks ago i did something to my back. i have no clue but it hurt. i’ve had back problems before so i didn’t stress and got out the tiger balm. compared to other incidents, this was minor pain. after a week, i was better but not perfect & then i started to have a new pain. one i havent experienced before. i went to the doc at school who told me it’s a muscle thing & to just keep using tiger balm & stretch. the doc didnt even touch my back. so i found an osteopath nearby. made an appointment with dr. michael. the day before my apt i get the reminder sms message.

here is what it said…

jen just a quick reminder that your appointment with dr george michael is 22/12/04 230p

how incredibly funny is that? the appointment was the other day. he’s in his 30s i’d guess & so NOT george michael. khakis. considering the man could hurt me, i didnt even make a joke or bring it up.

btw folks, today was hot & slightly humid & i think hit a high of 95. even tonite on the way home it was like 85.

election clothing

check out this site by polichicks. it’s aussie but they have some gear that’s appropriate for kerry supporters.

under ‘products’ there’s several items that just say ’sorry’. personally i think the bag that sez ‘i’d rather be voting’ or the pjs that say ‘i only put out for boys who vote left’ are cool.

xmas stuff

here’s an XCELLENT xmas website where you can create your own carols. check out joy to the world in the ‘most popular’ list.

tonite, only 7 days before xmas, on tv was the grinch movie, some movie called ’snow day’ and now ‘carols at the domain’ which is an outdoor (how cool that we can do that!) carols thing. this one is in sydney but on xmas eve there is one here too. it’s all (bad) australian singers doing carols. but yes, i’m watching it.

i did a search of the tv guide site & it is a SAD SAD state of affairs. one channel is running xmas stuff from 4-6pm for kids but i don’t know the name of any of the shows they list. no charlie brown, no grinch, no heat miser!!! there’s a couple things like oprah’s xmas special, xmas raymond, etc. one channel is doing a 6 episode marathon of simpson’s xmas specials (on xmas day). i’ll have to try to download some things. if anyone has something on dvd & feels like ripping it for me i have a server where u could put it.

poor aussie kids. they have no clue what they’re missing. no wonder no one has xmas spirit here.

last nite i went to one of these carols things in person. it’s local & in a pretty rich part of town so not only a choir & a band & cheesy host but fireworks too!!

it was god awful.

you would think it would be fun (i did at least). everyone is sitting around on a blanket on the ground with candles. it was nice & warm – about 10pm when i finally put a sweater on over my tshirt (yes, that is for u cold climate folks). i had poured a bunch of scotch into my raspberry slushie.

but no one told me there would be SOOOOO many kids. they’re so annoying. this one kid kept kicking me. even smacked his hand into my butt once (and no, he wasnt trying to grab it) and not once did he say he was sorry (kid about 10 or so and i elbowed him later). the kids were ’sledding’ down this hill with cardboard. gee, i sort of felt sorry for the losers. it was v funny. i took pix. but i got hit w cardboard as the little fuckers walked around trailing boxes behind them.

but that wasn’t the worst thing. the host of the evening was VERY cheesy. but that wasn’t the worst thing. the 4 singers were also cheesy but had ok voices. still, not the worst thing. that prize goes to a kids group called ‘zoom’ (but being ‘launched in 2005 as rock-it’ said the program). think the wiggles but younger & more annoying. like a boy band.

there were kids crowding the stage so i couldnt see that much (damn) but i could see 2 girls in not a hell of a lot of clothes & a guy & they were doing some aliens from outerspace xmas thing. the one girl was wearing red PVC like you’d wear to a club or more likely, a bondage club. i didn’t quite get how 2 stick figure 20 yr olds in PVC were role models for that 5-10 age group even if they were singing songs like ‘when i grow up i wanna be a chef… when i grow up i wanna be a nurse…. when i grow up i wanna be… blah blah’. oh, and that was the most educational or inspirational or intelligent song i heard them sing.

last saturday we did some xmas lawn bowls. this was my 2nd time lawn bowling and i’m really shit. but like normal bowling you drink the entire time. pix are here.

figures

this was in the new yorker so you have have seen this quote before but quite an interesting one…

“The average man can maintain genital thrusting for two and a half minutes before ejaculation, but the average woman requires fifteen to eighteen minutes of persistent clitoral stimulation to have her first orgasm,” Kerner says. “That twelve-and-a-half-minute difference is a gaping maw of frustration on the part of women.”

it’s from this book:

she comes first

food differences

as i type, i’m eating the last of the cherry poptarts i got at the usa foods shop. they’re soooooo good.

earlier i opened the bag of chex mix. i love wheat chex (and can’t get it here) so i settled for a bag of the chex mix. HOLY SHIT they’re SALTY. not a bit salty but like one small handful & a big gulp of water salty. are they just THAT salty or has my palate changed so much that i don’t appreciate the fine american salt anymore???

a new reason to be homesick

riding home on the tram tonite, i found a new reason to be homesick. (and no, not b/c melbourne’s public transport is pretty crap) a guy got on & stood next to me. i took note he was listening to his ipod. i know that’s nothing exciting over there in civilization but i don’t see many ipods in these parts.

i realised i could see his screen & hence ‘evesdrop’ on his musical taste. if i were at home, i could do this all the time on the train!! which is my new reason to be homesick.

but don’t worry…. it’s been in the 80s all week (i’ll ignore it also rained each day) so not homesick!!

dude = mate

a uni of pitt prof / linguist has studied the word ‘dude’ . after listening to frat boy conversations & having his students listen in on their friends, he found that mostly men called other men ‘dude’. he concluded the word is used to show closeness but ‘not that close’. (ie gay).

which, to my knowledge, is how mate is used. although i’ve heard women use the word pretty often.

aussie tv shows & holidays

aussie tv is a mix of american, australian & british shows. all 5 channels of it.

this week/last week, something interesting has happened that i didn’t notice before.

there’s several new usa shows (arrested development, joan of arcadia) and ads for other new shows like desperate housewives (coming in january). we also now that have richard branson apprentice show.

that’s not incredibly different. a sudden influx of shows but otherwise not different.

the weird thing is all the aussie shows are going on holiday. there’s sunday morning news shows & there’s live morning shows like regis. both of those are showing their last shows this wk b/c they’re taking time off for xmas. yes, it’s december 1. the sunday morn news show doesnt come back til jan 9. i’m wondering what will take their place or if it will be repeats of the same shows.

the one letterman/leno type show, rove, has been finished for a few wks i think.

nice time off… over a month…

i can understand the regis & letterman type shows but i’m amazed the sunday morning news shows take over a month.