Singular Scene

So Singular in Each Particular

Archives for July 2009

Power Outage

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So, at the beginning of the week I blog about Blog Mojo and by the end I’m cooking up posts like it’s no tomorrow. Bizarre…

The power went off at my place today.  One minute I’m typing away on the old Mac and I observe that the battery icon is lit rather than the power one.  Of course, I spend a few minutes cursing the power adapter, it’s the new one, until I realise that I’ve actually got no internet access… I get up to check the rest of the house and sure enough, the circuit breaker is tripped and while the lights are on, the power points are all out of action.  No hot water (yeah, it’s dodgy and is plugged into the normal power supply), no fridge, no Internet.  AAAARRRRRGH No Internet.

Good air in, Bad air out.

I go upstairs to the circuit board to untrip it.

It trips again.

Hmm… something’s screwing with my power… I call the property manager. Leave a message, but decide I can do without a sparky and go looking for the culprit.

I unplug everything but one lamp.

Trip the switch.

Back down the stairs to my place, because you know these circuit breakers are never within easy reach, they’re outside on the side of the house and would really be better managed if one had an other half to test all the appliances while I man the switch and turn it back on when necessary.

OK. the lamp’s still on. Good start. I figured I’d turn everything on one, by one until the light goes off…

Hot water on. Lamp still on… WIN.
Fridge on…
Kettle on – Lamp FAIL.

Ok. Kettle is plugged into a 4point board so I unplug the board and the kettle, observing, not for the first time that both units are a little the worse for wear to the tune of a fair amount of Kitten Chewing.  Not Lulu, you understand, my well behaved princess (Ed. *snort*)  but Chino her much younger and more boisterous predecessor.

So it’s clearly time to replace both the board and the kettle.  Something I’ve been putting off, because, well, I’m cheap.  It also seemed sensible to go get a new power board lest I have to show all my electrical arrangements to a sparky who would probably have apoplexy… I live in a small house with.. . hang on… a grand total of 4 double outlets in the kitchen/living/dining/office area and 1 single outlet in the bedroom.

To plug in the myriad of appliances I’m running I have to rock 4x6point power-boards and 1x4point boards and even then there is usually some juggling.

So I hit the store and discover that the Kettle of Choice is $75.  And this is for a teeny tiny 1litre kettle.  Yikes…

So I went looking for a kettle cord to replace the cord as the kettle I have, ugly though it is, is still functional, and guess what. Nobody stocks them.

A pox on our consumeristic society.  So, roll on Sunday when I’ll have an extra shift’s worth of cash with which to buy the new kettle.

Girls’ Night

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Our Blootiful Pincess turned 3 in May, and so she, her mother, and I went out for a special treat this evening.

It was her mother’s idea, an excursion while her bigger brothers and their Dad went to the movies, and we went to that chocolate lover’s decadent paradise… Max Brenner’s.  This was a production effort on the little lady’s part… and it started with a pretty dress, tights and patent black shoes.  Hair up in pigtails and a little bit of make up (did I mention she’s 3?? – lipgloss is makeup in her book).

Mummy was under strict instruction to dress in a ‘girt’ as well.  So the pair of them arrived at my place for dinner before hand looking very fetching leaving me in my jeans feeling far from festive enough (remedied before we left the house).  I wish I could remember every funny thing she says, because, as you’ll imagine from the photo, this kid is chock full of personality and she is never short of a word!!

Once dinner was eaten and tidied away I was escorted to my room in search of my ‘girt’ (thank goodness I own one… I rarely wear it) and suitably attired we drove down to Manly to get chocolately…

On the way there the little miss entertained us with made songs… which started with “up, up, up, down, down, down” in response to the terrain we were driving and finished with a poo song of some sort which was hilarious.  You can tell she has older brothers…

We got to Max’s and ordered, a Mexican hot chocolate to drink, for me and a Belgian waffle smothered in melty milk chcolate and she and her Mum feasted on a fondue for two with all sorts of goodies which was accompanied by a mint hot chocolate… All of the tasty offerings were a hit for one and all and Miss 3 was a hit with the wait staff and fellow diners, she’s so cute you can’t help but be amused.  Check out the pix below the fold, you’ll see what I mean!

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No Apology Necessary

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There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about the decline of blogging and Twitter gets the blame, I have to say, I’ve found this to be partly true. I twitter daily, sometimes more than once and I’m not terribly happy about the effect it’s had on my blog. I’m rather fond of this forum and the record it has kept for me of my life the last 5 years (I think I’m close to that anniversary) Crumbs…

I think of the changes wrought in my world, the early blog on the Wibsite, the move to self hosted Movable Type… why did I even do that? I can scarcely tell you but I’ve been faithful to that platform ever since, becoming proficient enough to the point of helping other Movable Typists as well.

I’ve documented monument and trivia and I’d be very disappointed with myself not to continue doing the same.  I’d be kidding myself if I thought I had an audience of more than twenty, nor that there’d be much hew and cry if I did quietly wind things down (more than I have done) but I’ve stopped listening to those voices, as others have said before me, the blog’s for me, not the audience.  Like I really have anything important to say, I mean, really… (and no I’m not fishing, merely stating the obvious).

So I’ve been wondering about the down turn in my blogging. I could also blame the weight of university study, I could even blog more about that but I doubt there’s much that many would find interesting… eg.  “oooh, we talked about internet governance today and what sort of issues there are surrounding the management of TLDS, CCTLDS and whether ICANN can resist a push to be more democratically managed…

See? I saw you glaze over… truth is, I do too… not best practice while you’re sitting in class…

I could blame the fact that I’m not working for anyone but myself and I’m not getting out much due to financial constraints or… and the list goes on.  I was thinking about the work thing, and I never blogged about that before and there’s even less scandal when I’m working for myself so where did all my blog fodder go!!! 

I could get all introspective about where my life is going, the struggles I’m having with church and the quiet path I seem to be beating to a different congregation… but that’s a bit personal, I could get into the internet dating scene again and try that on… but I don’t see that sitting comfortably either…

So I’m wondering what to do apart from sprucing it up, I do love when the design says more about me, and I’m missing retro girl…

I’m also considering a retrospective publishing of my Epic American/British and European Journeys with my sister from the early 90’s complete with scanned photos from that undertaking and scans of the badges collected along the way. I actually am keen to get some of that stuff published for my own interest and to that end I have transcribed one journal so I’m on the way…. the photo scanning thing… that’s a mammoth task I think..

I’m wondering if I need to plan a programme of blogging…  Say 3 posts a week… themed…

Photo of the Week…
Recipe of the Week…
Travel story of the Week…

Over to you… any ideas?