Day 68

Nothing to really write about, just wanted to post some pictures...

That being said... I will say that this Friday (December 1) is World AIDS Day (which has the somewhat unfortunate acronym of WAD, but whatever...) Australia is about one year behind in their campaigns. This year the Australian AIDS trust is utilising the highly successful, "Let's Talk About It" slogan, the rest of the world is concentrating on making the governments of the world keep the promise they made and "Stop AIDS".

The promise was to eliminate AIDS by 2015. I usually reserve posts like this one for the Misguided Trio site, but figured it's important enough for you all to know. Apparently they are selling red ribbons and bracelets, somewhere... I haven't found them anywhere...

Enough for now I guess... Photos...

That is all the photos that Blogger will let me post at the moment, so more tomorrow... which is the day before World AIDS Day...

In case you'd forgotten...

I spy with my little eye...

Somebody wearing a bright yellow vest...

Had another visitor this morning, no it wasn't another rat... Workplace Health and Safety opted to send someone around to the house, stopping work for all of 45 seconds. I have no doubt this is a result of Gus having words, or making her yearly contribution to the Mayor's re-election campaign...

Construction barely stopped, I haven't been told of the ramifications of the visit... I don't really care oddly enough...

Photo's this afternoon or tomorrow...

Day 65

As previously promised, I have finally gotten around to posting some photos of the house... so here you go...

Let's have a look out the front first...

New Garage

A closer view of the new garage

Retaining wall footings...

To the back of the house...

The last photo clearly shows just how much water we had not so long ago, the waterline was reached essentially in a 24 hour period...

An abundance of bricks and wood was delivered on Friday afternoon, I assume that something will happen with this over the next few days, so it is all very exciting!

I'm off to see Borat, so until tomorrow...

Yes Virginia... Satan does exist...

And she lives next door… (to me)

After some serious conversations with my crack legal squad it has been determined that I cannot publish the name of my neighbour. However, I can say that she doesn’t live that FAR from me, and for the sake of easy reading we shall call her GUS.

So why is GUS Satan you ask?

Let us start with my successful return to the Gold Coast, elated with my re-emergence a few mates decided to come over, watch some Entourage and drink some Long Island Ice Teas. We were onto our second round when a small voice (Satan has a small voice in his human form) said hello. I went to the front door to see GUS standing there, it took her all of 45 seconds before her true form presented itself and she begun a twenty minute tirade, insulting me, my builder, my sisters wedding and my parents. Some of the more memorable quotes…

“You have been duplicitous and outrageous towards me and should be ashamed of your actions.”

“I don’t care about any weddings it is irrelevant your parents have no excuse for not being here.”

“I gave you no permission what-so-ever for your trucks and bob cats to go through my backyard and ruin my pool”

(And 1 minute later)

“I gave you permission for one delivery ONLY”

“Your builder is offensive and shady and cannot be trusted.”

“Your parents are irresponsible”

To be honest it is hard to remember exactly what was said, the basic version of the story is that, whilst my parents where in Scotland attending my cousins wedding, the building started. The builders were confronted with the problem of getting into the backyard, whilst it would be easier to go through GUS’S backyard this wasn’t going to happen until we obtained permission.

GUS was in Canada at the time and a number of phone calls later we were able to obtain said permission… Except according to GUS, she has never lived in Canada, and only gave us permission whilst she was in Canada for one (1) delivery… I agree, I have no idea what she is talking about either.

GUS has since sent a two page fax to the Doctor, I am yet to read said fax, which is probably good because I'd just publish it... I am trying to work out why my neighbours actually believe I have any say in what goes on at this house. Sure I convinced mum and dad to put a door in where there was a window, but that's all I got!

I didn’t know what duplicitous meant, so I asked my lawyer friends, it means that I was two-faced, which I found ironic, because both times that GUS has seen my face, I have tolerated her screaming at me. The first time I was apparently playing music so loudly her daughter couldn’t train in the pool… which was weird because the pool ain’t that big… Anyway my point is, she hasn’t seen my other face yet, so how does she know it exists? Only Satan would know that.

Whilst it may be somewhat difficult to give the Satan tag to GUS for this one episode, her true colours only came through about thirty minutes ago when she was crossing the pedestrian crossing, she just glared at me, and didn’t so much as walk as she glided across the crossing, and rotated her head backwards to glare at the other car on the other side of the road!

Either way, I am off to church to pray for Satan’s demise!

I’ll post some photos this afternoon… A fare bit happens over ten days!

Important Notice

Given a rather abusive confrontation with a neighbour, I am executing my own right to demise the slow demise website (hopefully for merely 12 hours) whilst I investigate what I can and can not publish on the site...

Therefore... Previouse posts, will not be deleted yet, however, Photo's shall be held off, and hopefully all will be well once I receive said legal advice and I can publish an account of the confrontation as well as the numerous tails that are on standby...

For those not in direct contact with me... No fear, all is well, just [comment deleted by legal]

Until next time...

M

2326 on a Tuesday

So I just got back, and instead of responding to the 122 unread emails I thought I'd quickly post a video I just found of the U2 in Melbourne experience, that I was fortunate to spend with the brilliant Laura...

The First Time, was played... For the first time in Australia EVER!!!

Enjoy...


I'll update the house posts and the entire trip, including me ticking off the Ambassador from Bangladesh, in the coming days...

Until then...

Peace Beatniks!

Random Post from the Airport

As the title alludes to, I am currently at Sydney Airport awaiting the arrival of Nicole's family and my parents. The flight from Canberra to Sydney via Melbourne, was by far the scariest I have ever experienced. Coming into to Sydney we were everything but level with the horizon. Kudos to the Virgin Blue pilot who allowwed this story to be told...

Haven't got to much time left on this thing, essentially thanks to the high winds, Sydney is down to one (1) runway, so averaging an hour delay on every flight in and out of the place...

The reason for this random post from the airport is two fold, firstly, I am bored and don't want to pay another $7 for a beer, although a bottle of wine may be on the agenda just for old times sake... Secondly I had one hell of a visitor to the house on my last night there...

It was the size of a small cat with four legs and a heck of long tail! My first ever encounter with a rat... So the dog was actually barking at the rat, not trying to get out... Hopefully we have gotten rid of the rat by the time I get back...

Well that's it for me live from Gate 31 at Sydney Airport, hope all is well with everyone, if I see you on Saturday I'll talk to you then... if not... oh well...

Day 50

How appropriate, it is Day 50 since the de-construction began, and it is also the day I abandon my post for the next 10 days. Within those days I'll be picking fights with diplomats and politicians in Canberra, attending my younger sisters wedding in Sydney, and then, because I am fortunate enough to have such great friends, seeing U2 again in Melbourne...

I never realised that I would be seeing both the first and the last U2 concerts in Australia, and I won't complain about it either!

So with this being the last post for a while, I thought I would give thanks...

Thanks to the Dog, without your barking at 2300 to get out of the house, and then 0130 to get back in, I wouldn't have known that I had 2 missed calls from Hutch whilst he was at the Pearl Jam gig...

Thanks to the Turtles, without your constant need to attack each other within the tank at 0200 every morning, I wouldn't realise that you still existed...

To the cats, well I'm not really thankful to the cats, they make noise, they attack each other... I guess they could be more human than I give them credit for...

To the builders... This better be worth the early mornings, but thanks for taking care of the kids whilst I am away...

So big deal, it's only ten days, I realise I am being a little dramatic, but... Whatever... It's my blog and until the FBI, ASIO and MI5 tell me to stop, I'm not going to...

Given there was only one true entry in the previous competition it was a hands-down win to Carla, the garden bed things that were at the front door no longer exist... A prize is on its way... As soon as I find the money for postage!

I think I have a new idea for a competition, I need to make a decision, next year should I aim to go to Cuba or Calgary for the Stampede? Let me know what you think, whilst you're thinking about what you are thinking about for my next year... Enjoy some photos (of the house this time... Not U2... More U2 post Melbourne)...

For those that enjoy facts and figures...

Before Tuesdays storm the pool was empty, I now put it at about three and half feet, so if you were to throw the dog in, her head wouldn't be above the water!

That's it for now folks! So in the words of genuine geniuses around the world...

Peace beatniks!

U2 Edition Part 2

Still no photos yet... but eventually!!! I keep getting asked about the set list for the show, to the best of my memory, this is what I have manged to come up with! Leave a comment if I am wrong and make me right!

1. City Of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo
3. Elevation / Streets Of Your Town (snippet)
4. Until The End Of The World
5. New Year's Day
6. Beautiful Day
7. Yahweh
8. Walk On
9. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
10. Love And Peace Or Else
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday
12. Bullet The Blue Sky / When Johnny Comes Marching Home / The Hands That Built America
13. Miss Sarajevo
14. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
15. Where The Streets Have No Name
16. One

Encore 1
17. Zoo Station
18. The Fly
19. With Or Without You / Streets Of Your Town (snippet)

Encore 2
20. The Saints Are Coming
21. Angel Of Harlem
22. Kite

Oh ok... Maybe One...

U2 edition

This is the third time I have attempted to do this... so no preamble... just photos... and yes... I was that close!!!

This is about all that blogger is letting me post at the moment, I'll add more over the coming days, much thanks to Aashish and Lashes (aka Mickey Z), they are the ones responsible for these photos!

Day 45

It's 0700 on the 45th day of this "experiment" I have the photos that I took yesterday put up, but just thought I'd mention that whilst PMJH is on the Today show talking it up with his buddy Karl, proclaiming what a great day it was for the people of Iraq, when their former leader Saddam has been sentenced to death, in what can only be described as a farce of a trial... Cement trucks are queuing up out the front... It's slab laying time!

Photo's pre-slab....

New Kitchen.... It's going to be HUGE

My new Power/Cable/Phone/Water

Front Door... Something is missing, tell me what and I'll send you a prize

More photos this afternoon, once the slab is down, and hopefully set before the dog walks over them!!!

The Week that Was....

Ok so before any of you start complaining about the lack of updates... IT'S NOT MY FAULT! The builders cut through my cable/phone/electricity/water lines a record 4 times this week...

That being said, a lot of work was done on the house, obviously excavation out the front, and a whole lot of bricklaying out the back. Truck departures are up in the 70's and the main concrete slab and new garage should be built over the next week!

Photos (hopefully in somewhat of a chronological order...

Random Turkey in the Backyard...

Frontyard

Busted phone/electricity/cable

Frontyard....Again

Rear of house, before bricks...

Some Bricks....
Water Fixed... Cable Busted...Again...

The sun is finally shining on the Gold Coast, so I will head out and take some more photos today, mainly of the mudpit in the front yard, but I'm sure I can find something out the back to photograph as well...

U2 are on the Gold Coast at the moment, for those wondering, yes I did go to Versace, No they didn't turn up in the bar, and Yes the rumors are true, I was asked to leave, I won't tell you why, because my parents read this site...

I am going to the concert on Tuesday night, there are many people who aren't. It's all very exciting so enjoy this clip of U2's new song with Green Day 'The Saints are Coming'