I Internet in North Adelaide Now

And I have so much to share with you Internet. Well, I had. But everything seems so fleeting these days and I didn't write much of it down.

The only thing I remember I was going to talk about was how I bough new Glucosamine tablets after I ate all 180 that Chow bought me six months ago. But my wrist didn't heal itself yet, so I got a different brand. They were more expensive this time because they have to of the most contrasting awesome additives. The deadly power of added SHARK. And a pinch of ginger.

Also BULLDOGS WOOOOOOOO.


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The woman with the fake tan stepped into my office, sat across from my desk and lit a cigarette.
At least, she would, sometime in the next 20 minutes. Smelling the future has advantages, but precision isn’t one of them.


Cameraphone Summary of the Last Week

Here's what I've seen lately during life in North Adelaide.

A Gray-Nicholls cricket bat floating in the Torrens. I saw this on the walk to work one morning. It was about 500m upstream from Adelaide Oval. Note that I had to walk down a very wet embankment in my work pants to take this photo but I decided it was worth it.

A Gray-Nicholls cricket bat floating in the Torrens. I saw this on the walk to work one morning. It was about 500m upstream from Adelaide Oval. Note that I had to walk down a very wet embankment in my work pants to take this photo but I decided it was worth it.


Vanessa made mini Mississippi Mud Cakes under the premise that smaller = healthier.

Vanessa made mini Mississippi Mud Cakes under the premise that smaller = healthier.


This is the duck I wash myself with in the shower with every day.

This is the duck I wash myself with in the shower with every day.


Am I the only person who finds the concept of Cheese Butter horrifying?

Am I the only person who finds the concept of Cheese Butter horrifying?


I saw Jonno in town and knowing his propensity to read my journal after he sees me to find out if I mentioned him I decided to take his photo next to the cheapest range of quality world movies in Adelaide (apparently).

I saw Jonno in town and knowing his propensity to read my journal after he sees me to find out if I mentioned him I decided to take his photo next to the cheapest range of quality world movies in Adelaide (apparently).

Cold

Today I spent longer than I should have pondering if we could have bathroom heatlamps in every room.


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In Jumping News

Cricket is like the ultimate bedtime story, told to you by an accountant. I'm amazed at the inverse between how excited I was about the Ashes in the leadup and how sleepy I was as soon as it started. But I still want to watch more days. I'm glad our little temporary aerial - which can't get any of the major stations without fuzz - has enough power to stream SBS HD through the set top box. And as long as there's not a plane flying overhead it looks sweet. There's the same amount of planes in North Adelaide as there was in Mile End.

I did some flying today myself. This evening's lesson in jumping higher: lift your legs/knees up towards your glutes after you launch to gain a few more inches.

My Little Red Coffee Plunger

There's a global financial crisis and all that. I understand, so I wasn't surprised last week when the coffee and Milo in our kitchenette disappeared. In fact, I was surprised they lasted as long as they did.

Despite needing coffee and having kicked my habit of buying one daily around the time I moved out of my Mum's house I refused to return to spending $20 a week at Bean Bar even when taking the fifteen minute bludge of walking to Bank St and back into consideration. Instead on Friday I went into Woolworths and bought this:

image 596 from bradism.com
It cost only six dollars and came with 100g of freeze dried coffees and I was surprised how damn good it was. It debuted on Monday afternoon and it was so fun and tasty that it made me almost... look forward to work today. OK, so I wasn't as blown away by the two cups I made today but it certainly gave me something to look forward to. Actually, jokes and team members being retrenched aside work hasn't been too bad lately and that's in general, not just my morning teas. I've had over a weeks worth of not overwhelming work but enough to keep me continuously busy as well as occasionally helping random Indian developers with puzzle-like config tasks so that they may continue to replace my team members uninterrupted. I even saw another rainbow but didn't have time to take my customary camera phone photo of it.

On the way to work today I walked past the old Adelaide University gym on McKinnon parade and its facade was just starting to get demolished by a giant mechanical chode. On my way back as I reflected on my day of achievement I discovered they'd destroyed a basketball court length of building. OK, so maybe they got more done than me in one day but I bet they didn't get two little red plunger coffees during it.

My Relationship With Ducks

Back in the Mile End house there was a milestone along my walk to work each day that I coined "the Mile End Moat". Having moved to the area mid spring it had for more than six months been a long ditch that ran along railway terrace. It served to separate the redeveloped estate with little townhouses and nice cars in the driveway on one side of the street from the trust housing and their toppled over clotheslines and porches littered with empty Coopers stubbies. I'm sure the moat had seemed like a genius idea to the urban planner who devised it sometime in July years before, but until ANZAC Day and its torrential rains the moat remained a subject of mirth each morning.

On my Monday walk after the ANZAC weekend it became apparent to me just how effective the moat was at collecting run off. Around 40mls of rain in two days had filled it in places over four feet deep and although it evaporated at a rate of ten inches a day it became a point of interest each walk to work after any rainy night.

The thing about the moat was that it was much more impressive in some places than others, that is, some shallow parts would dry out in a day whereas other pools would survive a week after a rain albeit with deteriorating water levels. After one particularly heavy rain a couple of months ago the most resilient section of moat filled about five feet high and as I plotted a damp journey past it that morning I noticed two ducks had made it their home. It was cute at the time, and when I passed by on my way home I noticed that despite lowering water the ducks were still there.

It was poignant at the time as I was beginning to stress about finding a place for Vanessa and I to move into before my lease ended in the End. So early Tuesday morning when the winter sun was barely out and I walked past two ducks sleeping next to each other in what was becoming a large puddle I was filled with some hope that if ducks could find a home so easily maybe so could I. A few weeks later I ended up in North Adelaide.

One of the best things about my new house is that it's a few metres from the parklands and the ovals are bordered by a 2.2 kilometre jogging track with markers every 200 metres. I've used it a few times and around the one kilometre mark one dark night there was a pair of ducks. Now I'm not saying they're the same ducks, maybe they are and maybe they're not, but as I did each laps they stayed there. The next morning I walked past that point and there they remained, smiling at me and rubbing their beaks in the mud.

This made me realise that ducks are appearing a lot in my life: on my way to work; when I exercise; I even wash myself with one in the shower. All these thoughts ran through my mind last night as I sat down for Thai with Vanessa at Café Michael 2 and read the menu. I ordered the duck.

Melbourne Weekend July 09

I'm about to walk to catch a bus to the airport to fly to Melbourne for a weekend of football and buddies.
I'm going to take lots of photos because I look through Facebook photo albums and I get nostalgic for times I took lots of photos.
So I bought a 4 Pack of batteries for my Camera only to discover it's full of photos and I lost the cable while moving.
So now I will return next week with the first phocumentary in a while detailing my awesome camera phone holiday to Melbourne.

Also I saw the ducks again yesterday and they didn't look happy.

Oh Boy

I didn't take as many photos as I hoped I would.
I miss my camera.
Actually, my camera's right here. I miss my camera cable.

Nicked

image 597 from bradism.com

This is the biggest box of Lego I've ever opened. I think my parents did a reasonably good job of raising me as a child, but they definitely dropped the ball when it came to spending up to $140 on Lego sets per child.

But I have a salary now and I can buy these things. So tonight I built the a third of a big Lego police station with my girlfriend and it was awesome.

Given the global events of the past week I'm not all that positive how to approach writing stuff on this global internet, which is why yesterday's entry is terrible by the way. I think I have a theory that goes a lot like this:
1) Every day of your life is a unique gift and should be treated with reverence.
2) If you die the world keeps spinning, doesn't matter how big a celebrity you are.

Obviously I'm not implying that everyone should treat each day like a special occasion because nothing would ever get done if we did. My musings do go a little deeper than that but I'm waiting to discover the sect or religion that's already nutted out some of the finer details and subscribe to that rather than transcribing them myself.

So how about this day you, reader, just appreciate life's bits. Don't affect them, just appreciate the subtleties.

Like, the little gaol cells have little Lego toilets in them.

Left Behind

One day last year I injured my wrist and put a not-small dent in my car. It was a particularly dismal 24 hour period (we also lost basketball). Coincidentally both these incidents occurred on the front left limb of the body, a subtlety not really worth noting but tragic nonetheless. After dropping it off nine days ago I got my car back today nice and shiny and repaired and drove home very carefully to avoid any other tragic coincidences like being T-boned as I left the crash repairer. If only my wrist could be repaired as quickly. A week ago I reached the five month mark meaning it should hopefully all be downhill from here. I saw my hand surgeon today and he says everything is looking good and that while this kind of operation doesn't succeed every time it looks good for me. I don't want to say "The Gym is so close I can smell the Up & Go Energize already" but... well I do want to say that but I can't because it will still be months.
There's a gym for old people just down the street from me with a nice weights room. Hopefully it won't take that long.

Office Choreography

My work might not be that exciting or creative, however there's one thing that keeps me coming back to the office each day: the choreography. I'm talking about the natural, white collar dance that occurs between cubicles. The last few months I've been down on it because skies have been gloomy and my wrist has been tender making me hesitant about flaying it into things. Now the sun is peaking out - today between showers - and it's cabaret season.

The day starts with with the lift-ride Irish-dance as suits, polos and call centre employees with logo tees keep their arms to their side and shuffle to the back and sides of the elevator to the cue of the floors lighting up. At first it seems random, however the viewer can soon pick up on the subtleties that add beauty to the maneuvers, the influence of levels of politeness, the symmetry.

Yet that's nothing compared to the spectacle of the kitchenette Sirtaki around first coffee time. Impeccable timing is the trademark of a routine that sees up to six people zag around and between the others in the shoebox sized kitchen, sliding through narrow gaps to reach the fridge and spinning in unison to allow the person at the bench to use the sink and arsy versy. It almost compares to the traditional Scottish folk dance that is 12 people simultaneously leaving the same small meeting room.

It isn't all showtime though, and the attention to detail throughout the entire day's performance adds up. The flamboyant side step and spin to align an ID card with a scanner and then continuing the move with a shimmy through the security door is particularly popular and graceful. The Hip Hop moves when using paper towel to dry hands, and then depositing it in the trash - in an empty bathroom - also brings smiles. Not to mention the passing in a narrow cubicle corridor tango; the empty lift mosh and the 5pm cha-cha-cha as you take the first steps out the door.