Curse you Telstra!!!!!

Aaaarrrggghhh!

This lovely change of cool weather has had one VERY annoying drawback. Since the clouds have arrived my internet service has slowed to less than a crawl.

On a normal day we here in Australia shake our fists jealously at you people out there in fast internet countries. In many places ours is dismally slow most of the time and I often think I can tell when one of the rats in the internets-generating wheel goes off for a toilet break.

I won’t be so silly as to say that the internet is never fast, sometimes I can actually watch a YouTube video without having to pause it and wait for it to load first but that is a rare occurrence. Generally any page loading stops when my email checks for new messages though, so I can’t really say too many nice things about it….*

I had no inspiration for a blog post this morning as it is nearly 10am well after 11am and I have had to disconnect and re-connect so many times already that I am ready to turf the laptop through the front window!

The Sydney Morning Herald 28 Jan 1925 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16191136

I did come up with the search term “inefficient phone service” and was rewarded (eventually) with this article from 1925 bemoaning the phone service that was too deplorable for words.

Hmmmm…. are the same people still running the shop all these years later? It sure sounds like it!

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*I have complained about the bad service to them and was told that we needed to be closer to the aerial to get it to work better.
Really?

Our house is near the top of one hill, the aerial is on the top of the next. We have camped deep in the bush, miles from anywhere and had far better service. Sorry Telstra, it’s not me, it’s you 😦

An unexpected morning.

Apologies for the lateness of today’s post but my normally peaceful morning was interrupted by an unexpected excursion.

I am generally quite an organized mum when it comes to school stuff, I hand in notices on time and the kids have appropriate clothing and lunches for any school trips. Today though, I was a complete failure….

As Number 1 and I strolled towards his classroom this morning the PE teacher bustled up, a group of kids in tow and said something completely unexpected. “Hi Number 1, have you got your kayaking gear?”

Shit.

I looked at Number 1 and he looked back at me, equally horrified. Clearly the answer was “No.”

I had paid the fee, handed in the notice, and then completely put it out of my mind. Bugger.

I asked when they were leaving and the answer, of course, was “Right now”. Bugger again.

Fortunately there was a light at the end of this tunnel of disorganized doom. Our school is quite small, so when they arrange excursions like this (the lake is about 30km away) parents are usually the ones doing the driving and this time they had more kids than cars.

YAY! I stuffed three other kids into my car and raced home. Number 1 dived into his swimmers, we grabbed some towels and headed off. We made it to the lake only seconds after the other three carloads arrived and the kids all splashed off happily. Phew!

Instead of my normal leisurely morning of letting out the chooks, talking to my vegies, checking my emails and having breakfast I spent the first two hours sitting on the dock at Lilydale Lake watching the ducks, and the kids, taking a dive at every opportunity.

It wasn’t a bad trade at all, but boy was I hungry (and desperate for my morning cuppa) by the time I got home!

So, instead of a proper post, I am going to share the view I was treated with this morning. Normal transmission will resume tomorrow…. unless there is something else I have forgotten…..

My alternative morning.

Yippee for the rain!

Lately in Victoria we, and especially our gardens, have been suffering from the heat. We have had a long stretch of hot days and frankly we are sick of it!

The last few days have seen February set a heat record in Melbourne for the most days over 30-degrees (86°F) in the month. Apparently the average is about seven days above 30° in the month but until today we were up to about 14. Blah.

Last night a change was forecast but we failed to get too excited as we have been let down a few too many times in the past. The sky might darken and the thunder rolls but the humidity rises instead of the rain falling. Last night though it did actually cool down, and this morning I woke to the sounds of falling rain. Real rain! What a relief!

I think you can imagine which side of this 1910 cartoon my garden and I fall on 😀

Worker 1 Jan 1910 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70876686

Flying Books and a magic library.

I saw this short film on tv last night and had to share it with you.

If you are a regular reader by now you have probably guessed I am a sucker for animation and that I love a good book and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore has both, no wonder I was glued to it!

It also has a magic library, a Wizard of Oz style whirlwind scene and dared to ask the big questions like “Why does the weasel go ‘pop’? Does it matter? If life is enjoyable does it have to make sense?”
I dare you to resist.

The entire film runs for about 15 minutes and is wonderful. Below is the (short) official trailer but to see the whole thing click here.

Queen. I Want to Break Free.

The Man and I were watching a documentary about 80’s music the other night and were amazed to hear that the clip for this song, I Want to Break Free by Queen, was banned in the US on release.

Hmmmm….  Clearly men doing housework was a little too much for the uptight censors to take…. 😉

I think I will be playing this today while I am catching up on my own housework, although I never hear this song without my mind immediately bringing up an image of Freddie vaccuuming in an inappropriate skirt. An image that is more amusing than motivating that’s for sure!

Wolfe’s Schnapps. 1895.

I made a silly mistake yesterday and wandered into one of the local junk/antique shops. I am sure there are a few of you out there who won’t be asking why that was silly though 😉

Wolfe’s Aromatic Schnapps.

In my wanders I found a lovely, four-sided, light green bottle embossed with AROMATIC SCHNAPPS and immediately decided the other old bottles on my bathroom window ledge needed a new friend.

Once I bought it home I dumped it in a bath of bicarb, vinegar and washing liquid (thanks to EllaDee for that recipe) and left it for the night.

This morning instead of spending time doing the far more recently dirty dishes I should have been attending to, I was bent over the laundry sink with pipe cleaners and a chopstick scraping the gunk out of it.

After using my best pipe cleaner bending techniques I now have a bottle which looks deserving of a nice spot on the ledge, instead of something that probably should have been left in the hole it was dug out of….

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Border Watch 14 Dec 1895 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78846158

Whenever I add a new bottle to my collection I try to find a newspaper article advertising the miracles its contents may have once imparted.

A bit of archive searching last night made me think that a braver person might have kept all those icky bottle scrapings and made up some sort of tonic.

Wolfe’s Schiedam Aromatic Schnapps was a mixture of gin and Juniper berries but, apparently, that innocent sounding recipe was likely to cure you of anything that might be wrong with you, I can’t believe that it isn’t still available in every shop! 😉

I wonder though, was there a secret ingredient in the bottle, or was the secret just the more obvious one of swigging down gin every time you felt a bit bad making you forget your troubles?

That warm glow that followed probably led to the drinker believing they were being cure of what ailed them!

Euroa Advertiser 2 Aug 1895 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65521925