I did have a post here.....

But I tried to upload a video. But it took way long. And long and long and long.

And when I cancelled the video upload, it cancelled the whole blog post. *grrrrrrr*

So, I guess the upshot is that I can't remember what the heck I posted.

Ummmm. There was something about Good News Week. Which I'm watching right now. Well, I would be if there wasn't an ad on about ice additiction. Yeah, I can see the fascination of getting your tongue stuck to the fridge.....

I think I should stop watching and just download the podcast. That way I can have a legitimate reason to laugh like a maniac on the bus.

Speaking of which, Wednesday I decided to take the slow bus to work. And ended up following the fast bus. From that, I found out the FIRST stop for the fast bus is about a 15 min walk up the hill from my normal bus stop.

And when I debussed at terminus, I found a friend whom I haven't seen for a very long time. It was only a quick chat, but it was good to see her.

The Teen's report card arrived today. It was better than we were expecting, but not as good as it should have been perhaps. All her teachers want a parent/teacher interview. Man, I hate those things. Like, I want to go out of my way so I can sit there and listen to them tell me what I already know? She's 17 for heavens sake and quite old enough to understand the consequences of not doing her work. Take it up with her.....

I did try to post her rather dodgy video. Perhaps I won't do it again. Cause I don't want to lose this post again....

My day.... and a bit left over

Remember I said Sunday was so good I took some photos? Alright, I confess. I used my camera phone. Which, for some reason, usually takes kick arse outdoor photos, but really crappy indoor ones.


Taco taco!

My kick arse jammies though are Jim Beam *loves*






This one caught my attention, but not today....






So, and on to my day. I missed some really good photo ops today. A brush turkey watching me walk by. A sheila with purple hair and carrying a hand bag with a thigh bone motif. A solitary bloke standing at a bus stop reading the timetable. Hanging on to his package. Maybe he thought it would shrink?

I really wanted to add some photos of people, but I'm too shy to stop and ask... there was a busker playing an accordian, surrounded by people clapping and singing along. They seemed to be the busker, his singer and a bunch of people all from the same ethnic group. They were having a great old time.

I thought about taking photos of the fountain in the middle of the mall. They have cleaned it up a bit and it has lovely coloured lights that shine under the water in the evenings. But to get a good shot, I needed to stand on the edge. And for some, that could be just way too tempting. I know it would be for me...














1. Breakfast!
2. Snackage!
3. A seat with no graffiti. Rare find that. Although there seems to be a few on this bus...
4. Random stop. Now closed. Due to graffiti?
5. See the wind from these vents? One second nothing, the next I'm pinned like a bug in a display case....
6. Just a bit o'landscaping visible from the window
7. Random shoes. Why oh why can't this phone (5mp) pick up detail properly?!
8. Random busway stop
9. Farmer's Markets. Every Wednesday 11 till 6!
10. Bus isn't really this long, but looks great
11. View from a bridge. Can't take any more. But wait, there's glass....

PA? Maybe not....

I always wanted to be the Personal Assistant to a high powered person and travel with them to exotic places.

Then I watched Devil Wears Prada. Aaaannnnddddd maybe not....

__________________________

I had a brilliant idea for this week. How about I post my week in ... ... photographs. Yes, I was going to take photos of interesting things I have seen or done for the week.

Then I realised that I spend a good 3 to 4 hours every day inside a bus. You'd soon get sick of photos of seat upholstery. Yes indeed. Pretty as they are, you soon be sick of them. And for some reason, anything on the outside of the bus gets a bit blurry when you are moving. Or trying to shoot through foggy windows just isn't going to work. Bugger.

[insert light bulb here] Or maybe I could .... wait, I've forgotten .... [bulb switches off]

Mind, the rest of the week just pales into insignificance when held against my Sunday. It was overcast, and showers abounded. I determined I would stay in bed. My stomach soon put a stop to that. *shakes fist at stomach* And once I'm outta bed, the chances of my going back are, like, pretty slim. So once I fed myself and several others and tidied up, I plonked myself on the couch in front of the tv. With my laptop. I didn't rise again until lunctime when I thought I would do something completely out of character. I made a toasted sandwich for MOTH. And one for Sunny. And since there was too many slices of cheese left over, one for myself as well. Jawsome decided he would make his own.

Whoa. Take that back. I left the couch for a few minutes to help the Elder write out a job application. She tells me that joblink DIDN'T teach her to write to a selection criteria. WHY THE HELL NOT?? It's only a major part of applying for a job these days.

So, where was I? Oh yes, back on the couch. And I watched the Devil Wears Prada. I so love Meryl Streep. She is brilliant. And decided I wouldn't want to be a high powered person's PA because I couldn't handle being on call 24/7.

When the movie finished, I looked at the clock. Hmmm. 3:40pm. And w00t! I'm still in my jammies! WHAT a day! I had accomplished the absolute bare minimum and it was ALMOST as good as staying in bed all day.

Ok, so I had to cook dinner *TACOS!* but it was good.

So good, in fact, I took a couple of photos just to include here. However, I've changed bags for the day and left my USB cable at home....

Clever.

Perhaps I will add them later.

[wait! light bulb back on] maybe I could just photograph the graffiti on the bus instead of the upholstery ....

The Teen had her exams this week just gone. I think I mentioned that in a previous post. I hope she did well. She got one result this morning and was really pleased with it. So was I. *congrats!* She had been working really hard to catch up with some very overdue assignments. Ones that teachers have been chasing. I think I actually saw her spend the whole day and into the night on the computer one day. *imagines how much of that was actually SCHOOL WORK*

During the week, the Teen, Wogboy, Elder and Jawsome got together to make a short film for an assignment Teen's been working on. I have seen the end result. VERY dodgy production values combined with some bad acting and some good music choices make for a very entertaining video. Perhaps, with her permission I will post it one day. After it's been submitted for marking of course!

Jawsome has been working some hours at a local supermarket. We think this is excellent - when he applied for the transfer they weren't sure how many hours, if any, they could offer. I think he's feeling a little homesick. He's a bit mopey, although he's doing well fitting in. Deep down, he's just as crazy as the rest of us.

The Elder is still unemployed, and getting uber bummed about it. Never mind honey. Something will come along. It always does. Maybe not a soon as you would like, but it will come. Be patient.

Sunny and Judah are moving out. It has happened very quickly! The timing of the moving out wasn't necessarily their choice, but they have managed to secure a lovely little unit just up the road. Very handy to the bus stop. They missed out on the first one and were disappointed. Then suddenly, they had three or four places to choose from. I wandered into the kitchen this morning and there were boxes and heaps of stuff in readiness for their move. They hope to get the keys today. This move is happening so quickly. It's been raining all day today; hopefully they have managed to avoid their gear getting too wet. I'm not sure when moving day will be, but I imagine it will be in the next day or so. Good luck lads, I hope you really enjoy the freedom to be yourselves.

MOTH. He's just been basking in his MOTH-iness. Takin it easy. Jez chillaxin'. Until today. Someone left the back door open. The dry clothes in the basket near the door ... are now wet. *oh the drama!*

My way or de bus way

It's been a rather strange week for buses this week.

Or perhaps I mean so far this week...

Saturday, I made plans to go into the city to visit a friend of mine who lives outta town, but was down to see the football. The Broncos v Bulldogs match. I am soooo over league these days. Too many faces grace the screen for all the wrong reasons.

But anyway, back to the buses.

The Elder decided to join me. It made me miss the bus I was hoping to catch. Turns out that was cool - lookit the bus we caught.





I dived on, and wow! Someone went to a lot of effort. We walked up the blue side and sat there. Is there any other colour? We did notice that down the aisle was split by a white line. Each side had pictures of blue cockroaches or canetoads. Each with a number and a players name. I loved it.

Sunday I think it was, Sunny was telling me his bus tale. He and Judah were waiting at their city stop, and there were an old "senile" couple on the platform. I don't remember what she was doing, but he was walking up and down talking to himself, and every so often he would go back to her and start talking about his shoes. Nothing suss there. Then, at one point, the old man walked past them. Blaaat! He farted! They had to bite tongues hard so as not to burst out laughing until he'd gone!

The tale continued. On the journey home, they were sitting near the front and could hear the base radio going off. There was lots of air traffic, and more than one mention of police. Suddenly the bus stops. In front of a service station. The driver leaves the bus and disappears. Everyone wonders... Eventually the driver returns and all continues as normal.

They arrived at their stop, and as they were last off and the driver's run *not drover, if anyone ever watched mcleod's daughters * had finished for the night, he got out took out a packet of cigs and lit up. He told the lads what had happened... He had picked up a passenger from a certain major stop. This passenger had a ticket for 3 zones but wanted to travel 5. The driver made him purchase the difference. No worries. Passenger sits, then begins to hassle other passengers. Driver calls a halt and sticks up for hassled peoples. Passenger steps up to the front, grabs driver, slams him against the plastic divider and starts abusing him and *i'm told* laying into him. The disappearing act was the driver stopping off to buy smokes. After kicking the habit for 27 months!

Monday just gone, I hopped a bus to work. No problem until we get most of the way there and stop at one of the major pickup points. The back door won't open. Hmmm. Then the front door won't close. So, says the Conductor as she leans in to talk to the driver, you'll have to turn it off and restart it. So he did. Except. It won't start. We have to leave the bus and wait for another....

This morning I'm on the bus to work. There is roadworks where the turn off is for the motorway, and the drivers now have to go past it to the next roundabout then come back. But it seems that they are left to discover this for themselves. Fair enough. So, he pauses at the no longer available turn then works out he has to go past. Well done. Out on the motorway, and he calls back ... there is an accident on the city bridge and we've been told to keep on the busway to avoid it. It will take a couple minutes longer but I'm going .... blah blah blah. Hoookay. Off we go. And grind to a halt. I should have taken a photo. I don't know how many buses there were, but we were stopped. And the ones trying to merge were stopped. And there we sat. For a while. I didn't time it. Eventually we started moving. In a stop start fashion. Turns out a bus had broken down in a tunnel. Took up the whole lane and they had to direct the buses around it, one at a time. My normal 45 minute run into the city turned into almost an hour and a half.

Been a great week for buses.

Oh, for the rest of the week? The Teen is now in exam block. I wish her well. Jawsome has managed to pick up some hours at his new store. Considering they weren't sure they would have anything for him before he moved, he's seems to be out nearly every day.

And my highlight? I saw a hummer. A stretch one. Hot pink. With black wheel arches and chrome accents. Very eye catching!

But not a bus...

No, wait come back!

And that is good for more than one situation! My fingers went spaz, and I ended up posting half a headline. *shakes head*

And of course, being June we've just waved goodbye to the last public holiday of the year. Until Christmas. *much wailing and gnashing of teeth*

It's been a rather odd week this week. Perhaps. But then, my life is usually odd, so perhaps not.

So Thursday last week was the day to be out and about. I was standing on the corner in the city *not what you think, i was waiting to cross the street* between buses. I glanced at a bus going past, and lo! It was filled with blue and white streamers and decorations. Not to mention somewhat disgruntled passengers. I was a tad disappointed that NSW didn't win the game. Perhaps Queensland cheated? No, let's be honest. I was more peeved that they changed the timing and we didn't get the game to coincide with the week of the conference. Gypped!

I managed to make the bus change. As we snuck around the corner, the traffic being slow and all, and I could see smoke billowing around the street. No activity from any pedestrians except a glance or two over shoulders, no sirens. Nothing. I wondered what it could be that was so exciting to everyone? And there it was. A harley. Parked on the footpath. Smoke coming off it. And all the chrome was sprayed with some sort of stuff. Someone had a fire extinguisher perhaps? Oh, and a rather pissed off looking rider type person. One of the yuppies who think they are bikers. Tall, dressed in his black leathers. Clean shaven. Ha! If he were a real biker, he would have avoided the fancy leathers and probably picked an older model harley. IF he had to have one....

On up the road we went, toward the Uni. I glanced down. A VW! An old one. Pained bright red and covered in black spots. *wonders* Some people do seem to have rather too much time on their hands, don't they.

Friday was a pretty ordinary day. The one saving grace was that it was the prelude to a long weekend. I made it out of the office, in time to catch the 17:25 bus home. And while standing at the corner in the city waiting for the lights to change, I espied a maroon version of the blue yesterday bus. *is happy. the world is in balance* So, I'm waiting for my bus. The last one of the day. It's allotted time came and went. Not unusual for this line. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited. The crowd dwindles. Eventually, there were only 4 of the regulars still waiting. One decided to leave for an alternative. Another suggested we remaining 3 catch a taxi. With some trepidation, I thought well, maybe. And then I found an e-cab voucher in my wallet. *yesssss!* The bus did arrive though. At 18:15.

I arrived home to find some random teens at the house. I did tell the Teen she could have friends over to celebrate her birthday. More gradually arrived during the night. The music and the voices got a little loud, but apart from one appalling noise, they were rather well behaved. I was sitting in the rumpus room and heard a Bang! It didn't sound good, and I wondered if I had the courage to go see what it was.

I did. After a little while. It seemed that one of the girls walked into the glass door. It's ok! She wasn't hurt. Except her pride. And neither was the door.

I packed up and trundled off to bed around midnight. With orders to the Teen that it was time to turn things down. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I couldn't hear them at all from my bedroom. *sighs and drifts off*

Saturday dawned somewhat dark and stormy. Ok, so not dawned. It stormed around mid morning. Maybe. I really dunno. I didn't actually get outta bed till just before lunchtimeish. And then I got mad at myself for wasting the morning. *sighs. just not built for sleeping in*

I spent the day tidying up little bits of the Teen's leftovers, and cursing because the house needed vacuuming and has done for some time.

Sunday I did some housework. Just a bit. Not a lot. Washing. But it was a bit wet again, so the dryer got a good workout. The Teen commented that she really liked having parties on the Friday. You get two whole days to recover, not just the Sunday. I decided that I really like Jawsome's bean bag ... thing. It looks like a giant blue tongue. But oooo boy, is it comfy. Not lying down though. I plant myself on it and use the back of it as an arm rest. It's just the right height... zzzz

I'm just dying now to get my mitts on the PS3. Darn *riffles through game box* why is there no good games in here?!

Monday. It was a great day. I did more washing. I vacuumed half the house. I stuffed myself full of chocolate icing left over from the rocky road cupcakes the Elder iced. I played a bit on the DS. Well, that's a bit of a misnomer. I actually read a book on the DS. Lorna Doone. Sunday night I cooked dinner and chilled in front of the DVD player. I decided that I would see if I could get Shrek 2 to work. And it did! *does happy dance* Because it wouldn't play at all on the other DVD player. And then I watched Beowulf. Hmmmmm. And then, somewhere around midnight, after MOTH did a mercy run to pick up a couple of stragglers who forgot it was a public holiday and therefore a SUNDAY timetable, I went off to bed.

Hmmmm ... flanny sheets in winter.....

Gotta move with the times.

Well, it's finally happened. The big day finally arrived. The Elder and Jawsome have moved in. Yesterday. Today, Jawsome and MOTH are returning the truck to the depot and we won't see them again until Wednesday evening.

Safe trip fellas. Bring each other back in one piece. Miss you already.

There have been two other startling developments in the last week. Oh yes indeedy there have.

On Monday last, a no-longer-employed-with-us-cause-i-moved-on-to-better-things work colleague dropped by. Some of us decided to go out to lunch. The chosen place is a restaurant that does good steak. If you like that kind of thing. There are a couple of other items on the menu that don't involve steak. I had a prawn and scallop risotto.

But getting to this restaurant involves catching a bus. So off we trundled, down to the bus stop to share public transport with a bunch of the great unwashed. Who also think they need to use the bus. For those of us who use the buses on a regular basis, this is just a walk in the park. So to speak. And it's fun watching the confusion that takes over those who don't use the buses. And sometimes, just for something to do, some of us explain to the others what sorts of tickets they need etc. Not something I usually do though. No way.

So, back to the tale. We are on the bus. Tootling merrily away down the road. The strange thing is we have to go past the restaurant to get to the nearest stop, then walk the block or so back.

But the bus takes a wrong turn. Instead of taking the way down to the busway, she goes up toward the bridge. Uh oh. And no reversing; there's a car up the clacker. The driver calls down the bus, Can anyone help me? One of the GTs sent her up to the bridge, right turn, and round the block. How did he know this would work? A bus he was on some other day did exactly the same thing.

We did make it to lunch. Just a little later than planned.

But, as was pointed out a couple of times; at least the airconditioning on the bus worked. Our office airconditioning hasn't been working for the last 3 weeks. Thank heavens it's not summer.

The rest of the week was pretty quiet. I did end up with a headcold which tried to make itself known on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I sent MOTH out to see if he could find something that I could use to keep it at bay. I am not allowed to take pseudoephadrine *dangit there goes the lab* so I have to try other things. Usually I take Zyrtec, but it doesn't do much.

This time after seeking a recommendation from the chemist, he came back with something completely different. I've never seen it before; it's supposed to be all natural. Whatever the heck it was, it worked. Even made me sleepy. And since I've passed the box on to Jawsome, I can't tell you what it is.

So, Wednesday I had off sick. But the meds were good. I couldn't even tell I had a cold.

The weekend just gone, MOTH finally caught up with the digital age. Yes people, he took a friend's advice and has himself a Facebook page. An old friend of his who now lives across the brine had been inviting him to join. So he finally did. Not sure what he thinks of the whole process, but he seems to be enjoying it so far!

Long live new tricks, old dogs and things of that nature....