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Showing posts from April, 2006

A Letter to Xander

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Recently in the Friday Follies, there was a link to A letter to the cats and dogs . I've been inspired by this to write a letter just to Xander. Dear Xander, You and me- we're a great team. The past three years with you have been the best experience of my life. But, like all great couples, there are a number of issues we need to work on. I'd like to draw your attention specifically to the following: It doesn't matter to you whether you lie horizontally or vertically in the bed. But it makes a hell of a difference to me, so remember - head on the pillow, back paws pointing towards the foot of the bed. I know you like your privacy when you use your tray, but I'm not in the bathroom 95% of the time. Don't wait until I'm in the shower to use your tray, then get upset because you don't want to "go" when I'm there. You don't like it when I have to go to work. I don't like it when I have to go to work. But I don't have a choice. Hidin

Happy Administrative Professionals Day

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To all of my brother and sister admins, wherever you may be... And I hope that, unlike our Dear Leader, your manager remembers what day it is today, and acknowledges all your hard work in a practical (i.e. PRESENTS!) way. For the admin's work is never done...

Another Year, Another Houseful of Big Brother

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Yes, Big Brother has kicked off its sixth Australian series. In past years, I've said "I'm not going to watch it this year"...but always get suckered in. So I've been honest this year - who was I kidding? I was always going to watch it. I didn't intend watching it from the very beginning, but somehow I did. I made a new acquaintance back during the very first series in 2001, and when I mentioned the show, he said "I didn't think you'd be the type to watch Big Brother". I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are. Fast forward a few years, and this person has admitted to watching BB sometimes, to "know what I'm talking about"! May I just be incredibly fashion-police style bitchy here, and say... What was with Gretel's outfit and hair last night?!? Honestly, that woman needs to stop taking her styling tips from The Bronwyn Bishop Big Book of Looking Good. When I got over the shock of that hideous hairstyle, I wonde

Friday Follies - Classical Style!

(Or old skool, for the chronologically unimpaired) More of those amusing links which I spend all week tracking down - the things I do for you people, honestly. It's an oldie but a goodie - George Dubya's make the pie higher Could this new Pacific solution deter asylum seekers? It would frighten me off. Truly disturbing album covers Here's one for the Red Dwarf fans (and if you're not one of them, you need to take a long, hard look at yourself) - the Tongue Tied video! Hate Tom Cruise? If only he'd taken the advice . You are reading this link, and are about to click on it Well, that's about it for this week, I've got a bit on today. I'll just finish with the worrying observation I just made: that my mobile phone, whilst in my laptop bag, set to silent but on vibrate, sounds alot like someone having a muffled orgasm. Which in turn says a lot about my state of mind, none of it good. Until next week...

Stuck In The Ditch In the Quest For Eternal Youth

Recently I've begun using a well-known brand of moisturiser, which promises to "fight the seven signs of ageing". It hasn't worked. I've been using it for the recommended 30 days, and I'm still displaying all seven signs: Grumpy Constantly complaining Disturbed by kids these days Confused by all new technology Disillusioned Exhausted And coveting items of furniture! Can I have my money back?

The Easter Weekend Holiday You Have When You're Not Having An Easter Weekend Holiday

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Well, Xander and I aren't religious people, as you may have gathered by now. Still, it's an Australian tradition that everyone goes away at Easter, not to mention that I wanted to take advantage of four precious days off work, and do something slightly festive. So, get yourself a coffee - I'll wait - then pull up a chair and read all about it... On Friday everything was shut, so I just rested and hung out at home with Xander. I feel guilty because I've been so busy and not spending much time with him lately, so it was nice to enjoy some one-on-one face time (even if after awhile, it became more like "get-your-cat-breath-OUT-of-my-face!" time!) A photo just because. Then on Saturday , I was up at a ridiculously early hour, to set off on my adequatley-sized day out. Just getting anywhere was annoying - I had to get a taxi to the train station, endure a 3 hour trip to Sydney, and then get another train out to the western suburbs. Western Sydney has been much i

That's it - Friday is Cancelled. No Follies for Anyone!

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Well, what with the long weekend, we're going to be offline for the next few days. No posts and no Follies tomorrow (but hey, if you get bored there's an awful lot of archives to go through!) Xander and Nico would like to wish all of our readers a very Happy Easter! If you really need your dose of Friday humour, check out this post from one of my original favourite bloggers, Non-Girlfriend - it's adorable, scary and funny all at once! I'm off to spend all my money. See you on Tuesday..!

Has Anyone Noticed...

...That "Are you a member of our loyalty scheme?" has become the new "Do you want fries with that?" in shops? You can hardly buy anything these days without the shop assistant trying to sign you up for the store loyalty scheme. Generally, these schemes mean that if you spend a certain amount of dollars at the store, when you reach that amount you'll get a miniscule discount - usually 3 or 5% - off your next purchase. But the thing is, the stores don't want you to join their loyalty schemes because they have a warm and fuzzy feeling about you being a regular customer; they want to sign you up so that they can track every dollar you spend, and then send you lots of relevant advertising materials, for which they are paid by their suppliers, and encouraging you to spend even more. I've fallen for this myself. Recently I've bought several DVD box sets, and after the third purchase, I got tired of being given the company loyalty card spiel and decided to s

litezon.com/nobodyhome

(When I finally get around to registering for my own domain, that's the address I want...how apt). I'm definitley going senile in my old age...talking to someone recently, I could not think of the word "incentive". I came up with about a dozen synonyms, but the word "incentive" which I wanted to use, just would not spring forth in my mind. As someone who's always prided herself on words, this is very frustrating, and worrying. I think "Eau Bugger" would be a great name for a man's cologne (try saying it!). Now, no one steal my idea. There are two guys who both just started in my office, who are evangelical Chrsitians. One is named Rod; the other one was named Glenn, but of course I've re-named him Todd (if I have to explain this, I'm going to come to your house and slap you). Is Iraq in a state of civil war? Well, I think the fact that the Iraqi leaders can't even agree on whether or not it is or it isn't, really proves the

The Friday Follies - New, Unimproved!

A change is as good as a holiday, even for the Follies. Especially since I've been scared half to death twice this week - so I'm living on borrowed time. The most recent incident was last night, whilst going out to the bins, when I was startled by a bat in a tree near my back door. The bat, startled by me , made a sudden flight from the tree and flew past my face. Actually, I wasn't all that scared, just jumpy about the noise in the dark. Now, I am morbidly, deathly afraid of birds. But I'm not especially scared of bats - actually, I often like to stand outside in the evenings and watch as they go flying overhead. One horrible flying creature I cannot abide (I can't go to someone's house if they've got a budgie in a cage) the other I find quite graceful. Lesson learned? Fears are irrational . Except fear of clowns. Anyone with any sense is scared of clowns. Apparently, this blog is worth nearly $8,000 on the BlogShares site. I didn't even know it was li

Frequently Asked Questions

Well, what with new readers arriving through BlogMad, Bust and others - a warm welcome to you all - I thought I'd take the chance to answer some of the questions I get asked about my life and our blog. So... Q: How did your blog get started? A: Back in January 2004, whilst randomly surfing the net, I came across a few blogs I liked, and having wanted a website of my own for a while, I just decided to start one of my own. I've always liked writing. Q: Why is your blog for both you and your cat? A: Basically, I think of us as a team. But not in a crazy way. There's only ever been a few "Xander posts" - like this one . Q: Is Xander named after the character on Buffy ? A: No. (This is the question I get asked more than any other). I've never watched Buffy and didn't know that it had a character named Xander until people started asking me this. Q: Okay, how did Xander get his name? A: When I knew that I definitely wanted a cat, I intended to get a girl cat, a

The Sky Is A Hazy Shade Of Winter

Okay, so winter is upon us for another year (I wonder how many I've lived through? My seasons are all out, due to moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern as a child). I didn't enjoy my first non-daylight-saving work morning as much as I had hoped, because this morning at 5:50am Xander climbed onto my chest and started batting at my nose to get me to wake up; 5:50am having been 6:50am and therefore time to get up last week. (I can't really complain though - how many times has Xander stopped me from being late in the past, by waking me if my clock radio doesn't work? How does he know ? He never wakes me on the weekends, or if I'm sick. I don't give that cat enough credit). I did give him something else...a brand new jewelled collar, complete with a purple name tag. I've been told "You can't put that on him, he's a boy!" But as I've pointed out, I don't care and neither does he. He does need to wear a tag now, as I've