Diary of a Dilletante

I did a guest spot with Desci and Bob’s Podcast last week and it is available now. They were discussing contraception and so I told them my experiences with one of the permanent forms of birth control. It is a longish episode and I am in the last third of it.

It also looks like I am about to join the crackberry brigade. I am keen to get back into the hurly burly of a program again as my current process setup role sucks dog’s balls. I’m a bit sick of stop gap roles too. I am feeling a bit like Heracles in that I keep being given shitty jobs to do. Completing one only lands another on my plate. As much as I enjoy working for my Executive sponsor in all this, I am going to start calling him Eurystheus.

It’s much easier to keep the lid on the Geelong bandwagon this year. It will take a massive choke not to reach the Grand Final and I am fairly confident that, once there, they will win again. It’s a pleasant change this winning thing.

Things were looking up last time so of course I had to pay for it. Caught another virus just as I was coming back from the first one (or had a pretty major relapse) and that turned to a secondary infection of both my ears and both my eyes. Ugly in so many ways. So I am working my way through a large and expensive amount of antibiotics right now and only want to kill myself every couple of hours when the pain gets out of hand.

That only really started on Sunday because Saturday was a pretty good day.

I played my quarter final match of the President’s Cup. My first ever honest to goodness matchplay event of any kind. It was nicely nerve wrecking and really kicked in the concentration. I think I actually handled the pressure better than my opponent as he faltered at some crucial stages while I (mostly) held it together.

Nevertheless it was all square heading up the 18th. My opponent made a mess of things while I made a run of the mill bogey to win the hole and the match. Huzzah! I will be back next week for the semi final! Assuming my health holds up and I don’t fall in an even deeper hole.

I come to you tonight, via the miracle of wireless internet, from Vodaphone arena.

The last time I was here was probably 4 years ago taking my girls to see The Wiggles for a pre Christmas show. The post is lost to the ether, but I do remember that the day was hot and there were a lot of yummy mummys in the audience.

Tonight it is High School Musical – On Ice. Apparently there is nothing that Disney can’t strap a pair of skates to.

The audience is changed too. Accompanying their tweens are a set of mummys that have changed. In walking from the tram stop we got stuck behind three women whose combined width was approaching 3 metres when measured across the hips. The few dads are fairing pretty poorly too. My own hair is more salt than pepper these days and my waistline is not what it used to be. I doubt there will be as much dancing in the seats as there was at that joyous show 4 years ago.

The naan bread “dippers” available at supermarkets are not naan bread at all. They are just regulation pita with an incorrect label.

So disappointing.

Back to work tomorrow so I guess I can work with my normal life schedule again.
How ever will I cope.

There are few things more delicious than freshly laundered linen. It feels and smells so great that you find yourself engaged in activities that will require it to be washed again tomorrow, even though that can’t really happen till next weekend and the whole fabulous cycle can begin again.

It looks like the pledge is in no danger whatsoever.

Billions in election War Chest

The Government has found another $3.7 billion in just over three months, taking the 2006-07 budget surplus to $17.3 billion — a large chunk of which it has vowed to invest in higher education and health.

So between last May and yesterday there was a massive spike in prosperity that gave extra billions for the Feds to splash around. Who would believe it? Whoever does their forecasting must have one of the lowest performance hurdles in the game. Them and warehouse purchasing managers – how else would they end up “massively overstocked” all the time.

I think it will be safe to tune out of politics again now.

There is a container lot near the Maribyrnong river that I can see from the train as I go past each day.

They seem to specialise in the transportation of vehicles. There is always some form of machinery parked near the containers. One week there was garbage trucks, frequently there are 50’s style cars with enormous fins, occasional muscle car appearances, but the most frequent item parked there are Nissan GT-Rs. On any given week I see between 1 and 6 of these cars parked there. They seem to the be the specialty of the place.

The one thing I can’t tell is: Are they being exported or imported?

So with my daily snapshot of cars beside an open shipping container I can’t really tell what the trend is.

Some fuzzy searching of drive.com.au etc. didn’t reveal a lot of them for sale so they don’t seem to be coming in to go onto lots. And there seems to be too many of them to believe they are going to pre-orders. It’s got me beat just where they might be coming from or going to.

Just how big is the grey market for cars anyway?

The interminable death march towards the election that may or may not happen this year continues. I’ve noted before that I exercise my right not to vote most of the time. Sure I turn up and get my name crossed off to avoid the fine. It only takes a few minutes to wander down to the school and I’m a sucker for a sausage sizzle fundraiser whoever runs it.

“So Bruce,” say my hypothetical questioners, “how do you justify bitching about the results if you don’t take part in the process?” as they sit back with their arms folded and, usually, a smug look on their faces.
To which I reply, “If I find someone worth voting for – then I’ll vote.”

So I’m going to be clear on this. I am making a pledge. I will vote for the candidate or party that promises less.

Right now we have governments at all levels awash with our cash thanks to a booming economy and to match this we have them all spending like drunken sailors. Apparently the RBA has factored in the upcoming spending binge or as it puts it

“the surplus is expected to be a little lower in 2007-08, reflecting policy announcements”

Pork will rain from the skies. Any vote that can be bought will have mountains of cash thrown at it. They are paying for our votes with our own fricken money and I, for one, am sick of it.

I want to see someone, anyone, promise to do less with our money and as a consequence, require themselves to collect less of it from us. Don’t get me wrong; I’m no anti taxation, pure libertarian nut. I’m happy to hand over a fair share but things are getting out of hand. What will we do if/when the current boom ends?

So.

Any candidate or party that has it’s/their policy announcements sum up to a net change downwards in total budget spend will get my vote.

I feel confident I will be writing 0s in every box again this year. They just can’t help themselves.