Friday, July 30, 2004

George Johnston


Ray Crooke's portrait of George Johnston, c.1969.

(*) Classic Spam Email!

An online friend gave me this idea... what silly spam emails have I received lately? Todays' was:

"These Blue Pills... Will save your love life immediately". Email deleted, of course! hahahaha! Love life??? What love life?!? lol

(Thanx DwarfenOne for the idea!)


Cyalayta
Mal :o)
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mal@maljam.cjb.net
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

(*) Quick Friday Follies

Movies... watched "The Fisher King" with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges the other night - great film - very bizarre, but a fav (a gr8 b'day prezzie too). Also watched "The Gift" today (the flatmate's DVD collection is getting a bit of a workout)... good film, well shot etc. I don't usually like these sorta films, but this one's pretty good. Also saw "Rob Roy" which was about a 2 out of 5. Beautifully shot, and that's about the best part of it!!! Liam Neeson - no...

Cyalayta
Mal :o)
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mal@maljam.cjb.net
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

Sunday, July 25, 2004

New posts to Maljam's Message Board

Hiya. There's a few new posts to the message board - Mia has some exciting news too.

Cyalayta
Mal  :o)
Message Board - http://malboard.cjb.net
mal@maljam.cjb.net
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

(*) Rainy Sunday & George Johnston

George Johnston... oh, not more, Mal?!?! Yes! This time, I have found and ordered the last three out-of-print books by my favourite author that I do not have! By the end of this week I will have every one of his books that I have wanted - and for a whole lot less than I imagined!!! Whoo hoo!... OK OK... this should be the end of my fascination with getting his old books for myself - there's no more to get! lol I've actually listed them all on a new page on my website.

Cyalayta
Mal :o)
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mal@maljam.cjb.net
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

Friday, July 23, 2004

(*) Birthday - Very Early in the Saturday AM

Birthdaft... just a quick one... turning 40 aint all it's cracked up to be.... there's no flashing lights, telegrams from the Queen, visitations from extrateresstrials... nothing like that - thank gawd! I took the boys out for lunch, and Alex wanted to come home with me (sob!). It was great to be with them - as always.

I had a nap this arvo, and had a very realistic dream of sailing with my dad (which we did for years when I was a young teenager etc). I awoke with tears streaming down my face! It's amazing, isn't it? After over 8 years, I still really miss him.

A plus was that my final George Johnston book arrived, "The Darkness Outside" - that's the one I was waiting for! Whoo hoo! And finally... I also received "The Fisher King" on video - one of those quirky films that i absolutely love - can't describe it, just know that I love the whole feel of it. Did I spend the day/arvo/evening on the turps? Nope, didn't touch a drop - didn't feel like it! It's fucking horrible being alone on your birthday - even my flatmate left this morning to spend the w/end with her folks down the coast! So, home alone! lol. Oh well, life is... interesting! At least I can play my XTC, Rolling Stones and Beatles CD's bleedin' loud! Listening to "Please Please Me" even as I speak - gees, that's even older than I am - only just! pmsl!


Cyalayta
Mal :o)
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"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

Thursday, July 22, 2004

New posts to Maljam's Message Board

Hiya. There's been a few new posts to the Message Board over the last few days. Enjoy  :o)

Cyalayta
Mal  :o)
Message Board - http://malboard.cjb.net
mal@maljam.cjb.net
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of the oncoming train." (Robert Lowell)

   
    

(*) Thor'sday

George Johnston... I've received my second out-of-print George Johnston novel this morning, "Closer to the Sun" (1960). Whoo hoo! This one is a semi-autobiographical account of his stay on Hydra in Greece! Roll on...



Robert Lowell... I might have mentioned (I can't remember...!) that I discovered that they've finally released Robert Lowell's "Collected Poems" at last, after more than 25 years' since his passing. It's more than 1,000+ pages, but as a final birthday prezzie for myself, I ordered it today - $75!!! I put $40 down, so it won't hurt so much when it arrives from the UK in 4-6 weeks. I have literally been awaiting this book for about 20 years! I first encountered this manic poet in Year 11 (1981... about 5 billion years' ago now), and he's left a real impression on me ever since. Now I won't have to rebuild my collection in bits and pieces once again, but have all of it in one wonderful volume. A "flawed genius" someone described Lowell as, and that's about right. An imperfect jewel. But, aint we all?


CD's... my 2 CD's I ordered finally arrived, and I'm listening to 'em as I speak. XTC's "Black Sea" is classic British late 70's/early '80's pop - every single track is a hit! And "Get Your Ya Ya's Out" by The Rolling Stones, the great account of their 1969 US tour in New York! Excellent guitar work - whoo hoo! "Midnight Rambler" is gracing the airwaves in here as we speak!

Crazy weather... yeah, we had snow here on the weekend, and for the rest of this week we've had glorious blue sunny skies with virtually no wind at all - it feels like spring in the middle of winter! D'oh!

Religious crossroads... you'd never think a regional center like Bathurst would be a religious melting-pot now, would you? Walking in the shopping centre this morning, I first saw a Catholic nun I used to work alongside a few years ago. Then, not 20 seconds later, a Bhuddist monk, complete with shaved head and long flowing orange robes strolled past! I couldn't help but smirk! Then, to top off a smiley kinda day, I found a $2 coin... at first I thought it was a gag - there's one glued to the footpath outside a service station here (so the employees there get a good laff watching ppl trying to pick it up, I assume!), but it was legit. A sunny funny day.


Cyalayta


Mal


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Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Robert Lowell

Here's a great quote from my favourite poet, Robert Lowell.

"If we see light at the end of the tunnel,
It's the light of the oncoming train."

("Since 1939", Day by Day, 1977).



Oh yeah! My first out-of-print book I ordered turned up today! "The Big Chariot" by George Johnston and Charmain Clift, published in 1953 - and it's even a first edition to boot. A good readable copy! Whoo hoo! lol Not bad for $14 either.

Cyalayta
Mal :o)

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mal@maljam.cjb.net



Monday, July 19, 2004

Mal's Free Message Board

Hiya. Just to remind you... my Message Board is absolutely free to use... you don't even have to join or even log in to use it! So, feel free to contact me there too anytime.


Cyalayta

Mal :o)

Mal's Message Board

Yahoo makes me angry sometimes

I just remembered why I hated Yahoo so much. Normally I have it sitting on whenever I'm online, in case a friend comes on and we can have a quick chat. But, when absolute strangers keep asking you for ur asl, then take like 5 minutes to reply, and say nothing intelligent at all too... grrr! Either talk to one person at a time, or don't bug me, baby! I can just imagine these poor twits with a screen full of PM windows, and none of them have ppl they know, and they're trying to talk to them all! Oh well... at least u can block the idjuts!

Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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Sunday, July 18, 2004

Weekly World News

Weekly World News... The home of "Bat Boy"! Those bleedin' Yanks will believe anything! I was listening on ABC radio National to ex-journo's who used to work for this weekly American trashy tabloid magazine, and people would contact them all the time asking where they could see/meet the things an/or people they allegedly reported about in their articles! It's creative journalism at its' best! The legendary "Bat Boy" even went on to become a musical - can u believe it?!? pmsl! Have a good laff at this stuff.
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com

Cyalayta
Mal  :o)
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Saturday, July 17, 2004

Image Shack

I've found this great free site which
hosts all your pics and gifs for your website. It's not like a public
'photo gallery' or anything like that, but rather like a site to store your images and link
them from this remote server. It's gonna save a lot of space in my
normal webpage server, and the images will load a whole lot faster as
well! It took a few hours to do it all properly, but I've done it the one and only time I'll ever have to do it! Whoo hoo!

Free Image Hosting at ImageShack.us


Cyalayta

Mal
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Chilly Saturday

Brrrr...
I checked the thermometer inside just a little while ago - and it was
only 11c / 51f inside! No wonder I was feeling a bit chilly. Then I
hear on the radio that it's snowing about 40km away from here, on the
higher ground! Just as well it isn't really windy, otherwise it'd be really cold. I wasn't aware how
chilly it actually was... I'd rugged up pretty well this morning, with
lotsa layers on... it was only when I was having something to eat, and
I noticed the steam coming with my breath... pmsl! But I love living
around here - such a beautiful place to be part of.



Royal
Troon...

what were they thinking, naming a golf course 'Troon'?!? Everytime I
hear them mention it on the radio news, I can't help but smile. I
thought it was bad enuff having a goldfish called 'Thoon'! pmsl!


Bill takes a walk





Black Sorrows...
I pulled out a CD I don't listen to very often, and it's on even as I
type... "Harley & Rose" by an Aussie group 'The Black Sorrows'. OK
OK, I know it's not exactly the latest thing (CBS:1990), but it's still
a goodie. Got kinda a folkie thing going for it, so it's nice to have
on in the background.


I've given that Midnight Oil
CD I got the other day a good working over as well... some good
memories on that thing for me. Thankfully, I can shut my bedroom door
and flail about the room trying to dance like Peter Garratt! The Spastic Dance! lol


itchy and scratchy







Cyalayta


Mal
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Thursday, July 15, 2004

Thoonsday

Catching up... I caught
up with a local family this evening. I stayed with them when I was
first separated, and house-sat their place over one Xmas holidays too.
I haven't seen many of my old church associates since moving back here,
but I thought it was about time to catch up with these people at least.
They're a few of the good ones. They invited me over for dinner, after
we'd been swapping a few email messages lately. It was a really good,
relaxed, low-key friendly fun evening of just hanging out together,
talking refreshingly. I felt really comfortable - it was a big positive
for me. Obviously, I haven't been doing enough of this kinda thing
lately, so it was good for me to 'break the ice' for myself to start
catching up with these people again, after such a long time.

Walk... I walked to
this familys' place tonight - about 5 km's. I was able to enjoy
watching an amazing Bathurst sunset, and behold the sky change through
a series of magnificent colours. Who said there's no use for the colour
orange in nature?! No way - an amazing spectacle. I guess it's like
'stopping to smell the flowers along the way' - you gotta stop what
you're doing, go out and enjoy a sunset now and again. When was the
last one you sat and participated in?

Books... Well, I've
sent off the money orders for my four old out-of-print books. They
should be here before the end of next week - I can't wait (can you
tell...? lol). All-up, they cost me $15 each (Euro 8.76 / $10.84 US) - which isn't bad,
considering the oldest one was published in the early 1950's! Hey, it's
not as tho I do this sorta thing all the time, buying something I found
thru searching the net! Like - never! hahahaa.

Robert Lowell... I
discovered today that Faber and Faber have finally published (last
year) Robert Lowells' "Collected Poems" - at last! The whole lot in one
big volume, like 1,000+ pages! I had no idea they'd finally done it. I
used to have most of his stuff, as in books of poetry, but one day as a
christian about 6-ish years' ago I felt as though I had to get rid of
them - so, stoopid me - I burnt the lot! ARGH! What was I thinking?!
GGrrrrr....! So, nowadays I only have a 2nd-edition of his "Life
Studies" and a copy of his "Selected Poems". Good selection of some of
his finer work, but not a whole lot of it all the same. The one
drawback for the newly published "Collected Poems" is... the price...
it ranges from $75 to $90 AU! Argh! Oh well, I'll start saving - or
maybe sell the Moofie Monster?! Nah, who'd wanna buy that thing?

Thoon says to say
hello... well, he didn't really... wow, a talking fishie! No, all he
did was splash about and blow a bubble in my general direction... but,
I'll take that as a formalized greeting aquatic-style...

Cyalayta

Mal smile

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Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Shopping Adventures

Message Board... I've been
continually tweaking my
website over the past month, and I think I'm finally happy with it!
(pmsl!) I haven't really been able to do anything with it for about the
last six months, because my computer was too sick to upload the stuff!
Plus, I've also opened a new Message Board for people to post their
comments and thoughts about life, the universe, everything - and a
banana. A group of people used to have one running when we all used to
have a online chat community a few years' ago, but most of those people
have moved on by now, and we don't use it anymore the way it used to
be. So, I opened a new one and streamlined it after my experience from
running the old one. Feel free to use it anytime. It's free to use, and you don't even need to log in or join! I don't know how it will be used at this stage, but it's there to be used. Cruise by and take a
look. http://malboard.cjb.net


Webpages...
speaking of my website, I've added
a few new pages here and
there, and there's a few new additions to the photo gallery too.


CD's... I was able to buy some
classic CD's today for very little
bucks. Right now I'm listening to an album I spent my school Year-12
listening to, Midnight Oil's "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1" - I finally own a
copy! Plus, I got an early live Elvis set - like the really good stuff,
Sun-era R&B and rockabilly stuff. And finally I got Bob Dylan and
The Grateful Dead - which was really cheap - and after listening to it,
I understand why! It's terrible! Sounds like really sloppy club muzak!
pmsl! While I was downtown, I ordered 2 CD's I'd been after for a long
time. I've got them on vinyl, but I've got no record player, so it's a
bit pointless! So, I'm awaiting The Rolling Stones' "Get Yer Ya-Ya's
Out" (an amazing live album from their 1969 American tour - great
guitar interplay - really!), and XTC's "Black Sea" - an album full of
great tunes with a great vibe to it.



Books... whilst I sent away for the
four out-of-print books yesterday,
I managed to pick-up a Gary Larson/The Far Side book I hadn't seen
before. I thought I already had most of his stuff, but this was some
later stuff. Always good for a laff is the ol' Larson - he's a sick
puppy! Anyway, hopefully by the end of next week I should have in my
possession those 4 books... 3 by George Johnston and 1 by Robert Lowell
(a poet!).



You know you're getting old when you get excited when you find and buy a cheap back scratcher!!!

Camera... I'm
disappointed by the loss of my small digital camera. A
few years ago we sent a video of Pa falling off a skateboard to
'Australia's Funniest Home Video Show', and in those days they gave
everyone who sent a video in a free small digital camera! While it only
took small low resolution pics, it was still bloody handy to have. Alas
and alack, it seems to have grown legs somehow. I've been looking high
and low for it over the last 6+ months. I know Michelle and the boys
don't have it. I fear I've accidentally left it somewhere (it was only
a
small thing), and someone's walked off with it. Bummer. I went pricing
a similar digital camera today, and I couldn't find anything within
cooee of it! They all started at like $300! I don't wanna spend money
like that on a camera at this stage!

Cyalayta

Mal :o)

Webpages / Message Board / mal@maljam.cjb.net

Monday, July 12, 2004

The Party

Have you seen this classic film, "The Party"? I sure hope so... it's got some of the most classic scenes in it that you'll remember forever! Peter Sellers is in absolutely fine form here. Go see it this week! Do yourself a favour!

The Party
Cyalayta


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Rain Rain Rain!

Wow... we've had like 1/2 inch of rain over this weekend! Wonderful. Not good to get the washing dry, but that's just irrelevant. Fingers' crossed, the water'll run-off into the dam catchment, rather than just soak in. But, everything's so parched out here anyway - I doubt it.
Cyalayta


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Sunday, July 11, 2004

(*) Sunday's Interplay

It's raining!... It's great - it's been raining constantly for about the last 12 hours! Hey, we haven't had rain like that in about 2 months here. Plus we're in the grip of our third year of a severe drought here as well. So, any constant rain - that does more than just soak straight into the parched ground - is really welcome. I'm lucky where I live, about 200km from the coast. A few years' ago they raised the level of the dam wall of the local water supply, and it's still got lots of water in it. Unlike some of the other areas not far from here, which'll have to start bringing water in for their town! It's pretty bad here in Australia. I heard the other day that the drought started a few years ago in Western Australia, and over the last 2 or 3 years it's crept across over the continent to the Eastern states, where I am. So, it's everywhere (well, except for a few places on the coast, of course). The majority of our population live within c.1 hour of the coast, so a lot of them don't really give a toss about the rest of us living out here, west of what they call "The Sandstone Curtain"! lol

George Johnston... I've been able to locate three very rare out-of-print books online in Australia of my favourite Australian author, George Johnston. I've never used eBay or anything like that before, but this is dealing with the booksellers direct, thru their shops. I found them thru this site here. It's great - I love his stuff, but it's not as tho I'm an avid "1st-Edition collector", or anything like that! (Actually, I managed to get a first-edition copy of his 1964's "My Brother Jack" for just $8 a few months ago! Whoo hoo!) I just wanted a copy of three of his books I haven't got! I've read them before (borrowed them from various local libraries over the years), but it'd be great to actually own them and read them at will from now on! Plus - it won't cost me an arm and a leg either - all up for all three, including postage, will be approx. $36 / 21 EUR / $26 USD! I'm happy.

Thoon... Did you know that Thoon, my beloved goldfish, has his very own webpage now? Check it out here! Thoon is enjoying his dancing swimmy life in his new home. All is well with him - he's eating like me (uh oh!), and enjoys exploring every fractional-inch of his little world.

Online for almost 5 years... I couldn't believe it when I realised the other day that I've had a 'presence' in cyberspace for almost 5 years now! I uploaded my very first attempt at a website in August 1999! I kept fiddling with that site for ages, after much trial and error. My current site is a wholly new one from that one, but the history is definitely linked between the two. It's not as tho I know anything especially about designing webpages, it's all just trial-and-error learning using different html programs, and fiddling with codes and stuff! Sheesh!

Plus - I've had online friends for over 2 1/2 years now! I keep in regular touch with friends via chat and email all over the world, including Hawaii, USA, England, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, as well as all over Australia! Wow - a lot of water has flowed under the bridge during that time of sharing together, let me tell you!

Stink pretty... I must be reverting into my old hippy phase again, or something (gawd... somebody stop me!) I'm giving the ol' incense and oil-burner a good workout lately. Smells nice anyway...
Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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Saturday, July 10, 2004

Website Award Winner!

My homepages have won an internet award! A Gold Artsy Award!

The details can be found here: Gold Artsy Award for Maljam's Homepages

Cyalayta


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Friday, July 09, 2004

(*) Took my boys bowling

Bowling...
I took my three wonderful, handsome boys ten-pin bowling this arvo. Wow - did we ever have a blast of fun! They had the disco lights and UV lights and music pumping out - it was very cool! We were too busy dancing to bowl sometimes! We played two games together, and even Alex, the youngest, won the first game! It's amazing what those ramps and gutter-stoppers can do for your confidence! They all looked so great and grown up. It's been about 2 weeks' since I've seen them - that's just the way things have worked out just lately. Josh is growing up fast too - he's 11 in August - and he's got his first pimply-spots already! Or perhaps it's just been a bit too much junk over the school holidays - what do ya reckon? hahahaa. I caught him out of the corner of my eye chatting with a girl while he was there trying to select a ball - no wonder he took so long, the little flirt! Aint it cute?! And sheesh - it got mighty warm in there! It was a bit cool outside today - not too bad. But you still rug-up for it, and we all had to slip off jumpers as we all got a sweat up... maybe it was all that running around, dancing and bowling...? hahahaa.

It's just so good to hang out with the boys. Alex hugged and cuddled me for ages. Of course they love and adore their 'new' dad too (which is fine, by the way), but they still see themselves having two dads, which is pretty cool for them. Oh yeah.

When my brother visited with them the other day, they made sure he stayed for dinner, and crawled all over him delightfully. It's just so great to see they adore their 'Uncle David' - and he laps it all up, of course, as any proud Uncle would. Good on him. I love my brother, and it's just brilliant that the boys can still have an ongoing relationship with my family too (and their 'Nanna Rae' - my mum). Whoo hoo. It's making the best out of an unfortunate situation, with divorce and all. Things are going good for the boys and their interfamily relationships, which is such a huge relief off my shoulders.

Cyalayta
Mal :o)

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Wednesday, July 07, 2004

(*) Max

This is Sebbie's drawing of their dog 'Max' - don't ya love the 'Dr Seuss' thing he's got going here?! lol Aint it precious? :o)

max

Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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(*) Wednesday - a cold day!

Mum and Bro... My brother picked me up yesterday, and we spent the day hanging out with our mum. She's still very weary and thing, weak and quite breathless too. She turns 75 in August. In spite of her weakness, we all had a wonderful day together at her place in the Blue Mountains - lots of fun and laffs. My brother and I had just the best time hanging out together in
the car (he drove me home again afterwards - a 1 1/2 hours drive back), and we talked and laughed and compared notes for ages and ages - wonderful time. After dropping me off, he dropped into visit the boys. He's quite wrapped on Alex - he's a famous Uncle now!

Scanner and keyboard... My brother gave me his old scanner yesterday as well! Wow! It took all of 5 minutes to set up, and it scans just great! Needless to say, I've updated a few photos and things on my website as a result! Plus, for my birthday, I lashed out and bought a new keyboard for this thing. I was sick of wrestling with a sticky 'l' key and a down arrow key too. At last - this one's nice and touch-sensitive, unlike the last one (an old 2nd-hand thing) which was a real clunker!

Photos updated... You can check out my new uploaded pics thru my website. Latest ones of the boys. Don't forget to sign my guestbook too!

CD... I also bought another CD (aahhh... the joys of birthdays!). I grabbed an undamaged 2nd-hand copy of Crowded House - "Together Alone" - it's the only one of theirs I didn't have. Sounds great! The Crowdies are one of my favs.

Sleeting... another freezing day out here. It's about 1 point off sleeting - the rain is really cold and 'hard' (if you know what I mean, if you've ever lived in areas where it sleets and snows!) It'd be snowing where I used to live in Ilford/Mt Vincent, about 70kms away! But, that's like 1,000
meters up atop a mountain, and I'm only like 670 meters up here. But, as always, once you rug-up for it, it's not too bad at all. The dark heavy clouds are rather really beautiful, in their own way. It's just that wind... goes right thru you! Sheesh!
Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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Monday, July 05, 2004

(*) Monday - Thoon

Thoon IV... Well, "Thoon IV" my comet goldfishy has established himself into his little waterworld in my room happily enuff. He's a little larger than the last one (just the luck of the draw - there was like 5 thousand in the tank at the shop!), but dances happily just like his predecessor did. It's nice having a fishie again - I left the filter and air pump on yesterday even tho the thank was empty - force of habit! D'oh! So, I'll be nursing this one for many years to come - fingers' crossed. It seems as tho I've finally figured out the mistakes I've been making along the way - hopefully by now I'll get it right! lol.

Greece...
who would have believed it? Greece won the Euro 2000 Cup Soccer? They went into the competition totally ranked at 150 to 1 extreme outsiders - and they went all the way and won it, beating Portugal 1-0! Whoo hoo! It's the first international final Greece has ever won in soccer, apparently. All the Greeks here in Australia have declared an unofficial public holiday to celebrate! (Melbourne is the 3rd-largest Greek city in the world! True!) The Greeks in Sydney stopped the traffic in their wild celebrations!

Manly...
Well, at least the Greeks have got it good... my old team in the ARL, Manly, are now coming dead last! D'oh! Oh well... things'll bound to work out for them - eventually!
Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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Saturday, July 03, 2004

(*) Saturday

Thoon... I have some very very sad news to share. My beloved goldfish, "Thoon (III)" - has passed away! He'd experienced a nasstie fishie disease, and did not respond at all to the medical treatment. Sadly to say, his final swim was the big flush! Well, he lasted longer than the first two - #1 lasted a week, and #2 jumped out of the bowl on the first night! #3 loved his new tank - with a lid - for the last 8 months!

However - "Thoon (IV)" will grace the tank tomorrow! lol Fingers' crossed for this one... perhaps I should use water in the tank instead of ouzo...?

Gees... at least my flowers are still alive! lol

Cricket... So much for sitting back and enjoying 5 days of good cricket - it's all over in 2 1/2 days! Sheesh! At least the Aussies won.

Cyalayta
Mal :o)

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Friday, July 02, 2004

(*) Friday is today

CD's... Here's a list of CD's I play endlessly! They're not in any particular order either. Looking at it, it's funny that I've got so many 'Best Of' ones, but that's a good place to start. I'd love some more early Stones, The Who, plus XTC - and The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds'! Am I an old geeser? You betya - and proud of it! pmsl! There's many a day or night when I'm sitting at this damn desk typing away, with one of these oozing out of my CD player here... either thru the air, or thru some groovy (lol) headphones - I don't wanna keep my flatmate awake forever listening to all my 'classical music'! lol

Even as I'm writing this, I'm listening to Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde' - for like the umteen-millionth time. I can never get weary of the sound of this thing!

* The Beatles - Abbey Road; Let It Be - Naked; (White Album); Sgt. Pepper's; Revolver; Rubber Soul; Past Masters Vol. 1
* Crowded House - Recurring Dream (Best Of); Woodface; Temple of Low Men; Crowded House
* Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
* Led Zeppelin - Remasters
* Jimi Hendrix - Experience Hendrix
* Pink Floyd - Echoes (Best Of)
* The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
* Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan; Bringing It All Back Home; Highway 61 Revisited; Blonde on Blonde; Greatest Hits (Vol. 3)
* Paul McCartney - Wingspan
* Beach Boys - The Very Best
* Deep Purple - Made in Japan
* The Yardbirds - The Yardbirds
* The Byrds - Super Hits
* Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
* Cream - Strange Brew (Best Of)
* Crosby Stills and Nash - Crosby Stills and Nash
* Van Morrison - Super Hits
* The Bee Gees - The Record (Best Of)
* Sly and the Family Stone - Greatest Hits
* U2 - Rattle and Hum
* Michael Jackson - Dangerous
* Paul Kelly - Songs From the South (Best Of)
*Soundtrack from Forrest Gump


Cricket... I've been watching a little bit of the Test cricket on the TV. Australia's playing Sri Lanka in Darwin - a test in the middle of winter! Whoo hoo - ending the mid-year cricket drought! There's one bowler for Sri Lanka that I just can't get my head around... if you get to see his bowling action, maybe you'd appreciate where I'm coming from. The young bloke Malinga looks like a chucker to me - yet he's got 2 wickets today already! Gees! I dunno... it's just the wierdest action!
Cyalayta
Mal :o)

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Thursday, July 01, 2004

(*) Thursday is this day

Take a look at my webpages. I've spent a bit of time totally refreshing and updating them lately. There's all sorts of stuff in there, if you take a good look around! Enjoy.

Parent-Teacher night... I met with both the boys' school teachers yesterday evening. It's amazing that Joshs' in Year 5 already! They boys are going just great at school! Their academics are great, their socialisation is wonderful, and Alex's teacher described him as a delight! See? It's not just me who's wholly biased that they're great boys! Their school is in such an amazing setting. On the outskirts of our rural town, the main playground is a huge open paddock. It's within sight of Pit Straight at the Mt Panorama racetrack! There are 6+ cows looking thru the fence at you with their big damp brown eyes as you walk about out there! There's a huge old gum tree leaning up against the far-end single-wire fence - it's a very cool climate to go to school at! Much different to mine - a lot of my schooling was all grey concrete! At the moment, Josh's class is running a shop in their classroom - complete with tables and rows of priced groceries, 2 cash registers, packing table, a storeroom, and each of them has a budget to buy their groceries. Very cool way to learn life-skills using simple and fun role-play! Josh found himself an old electric cash register a few years ago (that kinda works...), so it's getting some use by a lot more kids at last. I decided to walk there and back yesterday (I still don't own a car, but this place is small enough to walk everywhere anyway), and travelled about 4 or 5 kms by the time I got back home... I walked into town afterwards - it's not all that far to their school! The colour of the hillsides and the sky as they changed colours with the setting western sun was awesome to watch - at times I just stood still mouth agape enjoying the changing scenery all about me. It's a very pretty place to live, even if it got a bit cool by the time I got back. But it's the same as anywhere you live - you get used to it and take the beauty of it for granted - until you stop, look and breathe.
Body Clock... As I said the other day, I haven't been sleeping too well. But, now my body clocks' gone a bit spastic! The other night I was asleep by 9pm amazingly, yet I was wide awake at 3.30am! And this morning my eyes popped open and the brain started working at 4.25am! Argh! lol Oh well, I can rug-up out of the frosty air outside at that time of the day, slip on some quiet headphones, and write away!
Inheritance and glasses...? My immediate family is really very small. There's just my three boys, mum, 1 brother, 1 auntie and 3 cousins - I mean, that's it! I was the youngest of my family, and most of 'em have all died off! I had a bizarre experience a few months' ago, when a great-Aunt in her late 90's passed away. Although I hadn't had too much to do with her over the previous 15-or-so years, my brother and I were amazed to hear we were both small benefactors of her estate thru her will! When the cheque for a few hundred dollars arrived, I felt very strange - this was all there was that was left of my Auntie! Apart from memories, of course (there's some good ones there too). Well, there was one thing I've desperately needed for about the past 3 years - a new pair of glasses! The old frames were starting to wear out, and I needed to have my eyes tested again - it'd been 9 years since the last one! My eyes haven't deteriorated that much at all (I'm shortsighted and wear glasses 24/7... well, expect when I'm in bed! lol), but it was the new frames that were the revelation! They feel so light compared to the old ones! These plastic lenses are very cool - I keep forgetting I'm wearing the things most of the time! Now my nose doesn't have a dent from the weight on it from my old glasses (kidding!). Well, that's what it feels like. When I put the old ones on, like when I snip the grass or whatever, they feel like I'm wearing iron goggles! Silly 'ol me! So, now everything I look at, I keep in the back of my mind my old aunt - she gave me my new glasses.
Stargazing... Actually, now that I can actually see things at a distance a whole lot clearer (well, it sure feels like it!), I've been spending a bit of time checking out the nighttime heavens. Yeah - watching the stars! It's something I loved to do as a kid (I even used to have a small telescope - heaven knows whatever happened to that - I don't have it now! sob! lol). Braving the cooler evening air is a challenge - I don't stay out too long, believe me! - but the sky is so much clearer out here in the country than it ever was in the city (where I grew up). You can see heaps, just by letting your eyes adjust to the dark sky. There haven't been too many cloudy nights recently here - thanks, in part, to the 3-years drought we're in the grip of - D'oh! Besides, I've been hitting the local town library and picking up a few books on star watching (not astrology stuff!), which've helped me find the names of some of the clusters of starts and stuff out there. Hey, I think it's really interesting. You know, the sky is always there, but you just forget it's there - until you stop to look!
Cyalayta

Mal :o)

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