Saturday, July 28, 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Face Off


I'm addicted to facebook. This online community is shared by about 40 of my friends and we communicate by sending cyber gifts, poking each other, planting flowers in each other's virtual gardens and playing realtime scrabble.

I've also joined online groups within facebook such as:
My personal favourite is the "I wish I lived in Bennelong so I could vote for Maxine" group (1505 members). I have been buoyed by the amount of political discussion on Facebook and any old fogie luddite out there who thinks that young people or indeed the general proletariat aren't interested in politics is wrong. A good measure of this is the high level political debate going back and forth in cyberspace. There are many new facebook groups that have emerged, such as the "I wish I lived in Bennelong so I could vote old Johnny Boy back in" group with 51 members, the "Maxine McKew should go back to the ABC where socialists like her belong" group with 176 members and my personal favourite - the "I wish I lived in Bennelong so I could vote Green but pref. Maxine" group, advertising broadly that the Greens are well and truly finished. The good news for the Greens though, is this group has ten more members than Howard's group!

John Howard has his own profile on facebook, although I question its authenticity. I sent him a cyber present in the form of a bucket with the message "you make me ill". He sent a cyber-present back in the form of a roadside witch's cap with the message "Kevin Rudd is a health hazard".

I am most pleased about joining the apostrophe group. We have a lot of fun picking up spelling error's where apostrophe's or the wrong words are used when they shouldn't of(sic).

Best get to work - facebook has made me late again!

Pic - it has nothing to do with this entry except to say that I miss my family and friends and am looking forward to seeing everyone when I get home.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

GoBag


I am delighted to introduce my personal contribution to Sydney's Be Afraid Be Very Afraid Terrorism and Natural Disaster campaign. I feel that the current GoBag is not reflective of these modern times in which we live.

Hence, please consider using my GoBag for the impending apocalypse. I'm not sure where you would actually go after the inevitable large scale disaster that is coming your way given that Australia is surrounded by water.

The Bag: A fine quality "I'm not a Smug Twat" bag taking after its cousin "I'm not a plastic bag". You'll note that it has a non-fastening top for easy looting on your way out of town.
2b pencil and ballot paper: for stuffing ballot boxes to overthrow the Government.
Economics for Dummies: in case you pass by John Howard on your way out of Australia....he wasn't a good treasurer apparently.
"Unafraid" tube: This looks like a tube station sign, giving the terrorists a piece of "what for", but it's actually an inflatable ring that you can wear whilst trying to catch the gulf stream so you can find Nemo and get the hell out.
You Tube: "if you are watching this, I have been herded...out of Australia with my GoBag"
A half eaten chocolate bar: the best survival food on the planet
Dolce and Gabbana's reflective disco pants: As seen on the catwalks recently in Milan. It may be a state of emergency, but that doesn't mean you have to a) lose your sense of fashion and b) lose your sense of fun - a good boogie is the cultural heurism needed to remedy a mass panic.

I feel better now....

Sunday, July 15, 2007

MySpace Cadet

I was only just getting the hang of MySpace and Bebo, and now Facebook has come along. It's an online community that is addictive and unhealthy. Jeannie pointed out that Jock and I were sitting in the same room on different computers facebooking instead of talking. I don't think that is normal.

Facebook - you can poke friends, send them cyber presents, throw cyber food. The good thing about it is you can find friends who you haven't seen for years.

Facebook made me late for work the other day.

I added the magic 8 ball application and was relieved to discover that after I asked it if summer was ever going to arrive in Glasgow, it said "Most Definitely". It really has been a shite summer.

On a completely different subject...

Today has been a great day. It started off at David's flat, v early in the morning, who has a fancy telly that can receive live Dockers matches. They lost...bloody Dockers. But hey - my heart went flutter flutter when I saw Subi oval bathed in glorious winter sun. Bloody Dockers.

Then, it was off to Graeme and Jenni's to meet their new baby, Alex, who was like an Anne Geddes photograph. I did a Celebrity Chef, and made everyone lunch (polenta with smoked shitake mushrooms, proscuito and rocket; bruschetta with yellow tomatoes and avocado oil; fruit platter and wait for it.....TIM TAMS, which Jock found at Sainsburys - who now have none left on their shelves).

This arvo, Avril is coming over for a Sunday roast (we bought a corn fed organic chook at the farmers' markets). YUM.

Life doesn't get much better! Here's me at the Live Earth concert while Metallica was playing. I am SO ROCK CHIC.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Pipe Dreams


This is so cool! Are you bored at work? Tired of daydreaming when what you really wished you were doing is the amazing pipe cleaner dance???

click here! I highly recommend E and F as a good starting point....click on the link and have fun!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Live Earth Wembley


I was there with my mate Mike!.. (who you'll recall from such wedding performances as "Under Milkwood"). I flew down especially to be at the London concert. Now, before anyone shouts "hypocrite!", I offset my carbon miles by donating to Oxfam and GetUp and soon in the not too distant future I'll point to a group of trees and say "we should plant more of those"... There's been some criticism about the Live Earth concerts because of the private jets to ferry rock stars and the amount of energy required to put on the lighting show. Bob Geldof summed it by saying: "Everybody's known about [it] for years. We're all fucking conscious of global warming".

If you're already on the global warming hydrogen fueled solar panelled bus, there wasn't much to be gained from the preaching that went on via crappy films and cartoons between artists and the didactic warbling of the artists themselves. I was there for the concert and the excitement of being at Wembley stadium and for no other reason than that. It was awesome. When else am I going to see Madonna, Metallica and Spinal Tap all on the same day?

The concert was like getting a tasting plate at a restaurant -each artist only did four or five songs. The Foo Fighters, Metallica and the Beastie Boys were all madmen and the stadium was electric during their performances. But it was Madonna who did it for me. She was all class. This video does not do the performance justice, but here it is anyway...she's a bit like a girl version of Iggy Pop - cavorting sinew....


The Abba rift in this song is genius.

Also genius is the band Nunatak, who made Live Earth truly global by making sure there was a concert on every continent. Nunatak are a bunch of scientists on Antartica.

Can I end this entry on three points:

1. The Live Earth pledge: we've been asked to pledge something we're going to do for climate change. I'm already doing the canvas bag thing, the light bulb thing, the turn your telly really off as opposed to sort of standby off thing and the public transport to work thing. So, from now on, I'm going to take a reusable lunch box to work to use at the local tuck shop instead of the polystyrene one they give me. That's the little thing. The big thing, and I'm going to have to think about whether its feasible, is to see about following my friend Rachael Robert's lead and get an Environment House for my local suburb of Partick. That's a mammoth commitment, so I need to think about it.

2. The Logistics: Can I just say that the logistics of Wembley stadium are truly wondrous. 80,000 people leave the stadium at the same time and we basically just walked down the path at a steady pace and onto the tube at Wembley Park.

3. Resource Security: When the Australian Government says the term "resource security" why does it mean oil and not water??????

Friday, July 06, 2007

Take your hat off to Nelson II


How very apt. Cartoon borrowed from Steve Bell at the Guardian.
I love the way Blair has just collapsed.
What a joy it was to read the Guardian today and see this image in the letters page!


Thursday, July 05, 2007

Take your hat off to Nelson!

Good onya Brendan Nelson for telling the truth about the war in Iraq. I like the new spin "resource security" that Nelson put on his gaff.

I wonder if they use the term "resource security" when it comes to water?

Meanwhile, back in the Get Up bunker, Louise Barry has made a video for Mr Howard. You will recognise Louise as the woman who questioned Howard on Australia's foreign policy when he visited her in hospital after the July 7 attacks in London. I'm urging everyone to donate some $$ to Get Up so this can be aired on TV. It is about oil. We knew it was about oil all along. We knew it was all about the alliance with the US.



In fifty years time, we'll be the deputy sheriff to China and we will be at war with some small nation with a large underground lake over "resource security"...The Water Wars...I can't wait...hang on....doesn't Australia have an underwater lake somewhere??????

Unfortunate


What was the sub editor thinking? An unfortunate placement of an ad...

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Waking Up


My morning wake up routine goes....
Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen;
pour myself a cup of (fair trade) ambition,
and yawn, and stretch, and try to come to life.
Tune in to radio 4 and the blood starts pumping
check out the web, the Cappo's need thumpin'
with folks like me on the job from on average 8.23 - 5.48

However, this morning, still half asleep, I turned on the radio to hear "...and we'll bring you more after the news about Alan Johnston's release". And suddenly, I was very awake with my ear to the radio for the rest of the morning. What a joy it was to hear that Alan was freed. In his interview with the BBC, he made a comment about what freedom really feels like ("Just to be able to look at a door and say I can walk through that, or see the sun and think, I can feel that") and that his heart goes out to all those who are currently being held against their will. As a journalist he seeks the truth and reports it to us first hand, and at the moment of his release, he chose to talk about others around the world who are imprisoned. I had a tear in my eye and felt quite emotional when we were talking about it at work around the water cooler.

Good on ya Alan. Click here for Amnesty information.



Monday, July 02, 2007

Glasgow Airport


It was the first day of summer holidays and new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown's third day in office. It was raining.... then the flaming jeep plows into the main terminal at Glasgow Airport and a terrorist attack puts the city on alert. It's a miracle no one was hurt.

For the past year we have been working at Glasgow Airport talking to cleaners who get paid a measly 10 pence above minimum wage. We've been saying to them that they don't work in a safe place anymore and worse, they are the lowest paid airport cleaners in the country. Any one of them could have been working on the footpath where the car hit the other day. Cleaners are so often front line and so often forgotten about. I've been looking at the photos of the attack and thinking - I walk that footpath every week. But somehow, it doesn't feel real, maybe because innocent people were not killed.

And now today we find out that a doctor in Australia has been arrested over the failed terror attempts. Surely this should bring it home to me - that my adopted city and home country are clearly under attack. If only I had my fridge magnet with me...It still doesn't feel real. I don't feel alarmed.

Eeeuuch... Alexander Downer is on BBC Radio 4. One of the pleasures of living here is I don't have to listen to Howard ministers. Downer is blaming Beattie for the Indian born, Liverpool trained recently arrested doctor... I blame Victoria for sending all their retirerees to Queensland puting the health service under pressure.

We've organised a meeting next week with the airport cleaners' bosses. The cleaners are in the union now and we're hopefully going to gain union recognition and a pay increase. They bloody well deserve it!