Daily Discussion Thread: 🚏 Thursday, 9 January, 2025

The RAT finally arrived, and the results are in. I am officially out of the never-had-covid club.

Sing out if it gets bad and you need a hand. I'm happy to help with Mulgrave (South-East) area issues, eg, shopping, dog walking.
Did well to make it so far.
- It's been a bit surprising, especially as I have worked the whole way through in an office with many people. I don't know if this is work's fault or my brother in law though - he was sick with covid at Christmas, ,which puts it right at the extreme long end of the possible incubation timeframes.
5 years must be close to record run.
- I still haven’t had it, to my knowledge. Nothing respiratory in the last five years at all, so I’ve either dodged it or had it so mildly I didn’t notice
- I've always been behind on trends.
That's a good run though. Hope you're feeling better.
Oh poo. Such a good run.

Is talking to birbs in his sleep

Love the teefies. So cute 💜
- A still pic doesn't grab the little twitching snarls. He's ridiculous
kekekekekeke. kekekekekekke

Guess what? House actually now available for the offer. Banker off on medical. I have a headache.

Big breath. If it's meant to be it will.
- Vendor taking the piss! May mail a Guinness bottle top.
Vendor played stupid games and won stupid prizes! Congrats. Assume you got preapproval?
- Yeah, this joint is under preapp. She's aiming for the moon, bank says no.
How did that come around? I thought it was priced out of the table?
- Changed mind

Today is hard

Holy shit those fires in LA are kicking off. And it's WINTER over there. Of course nobody would be enacting the usual fire prevention activities

It's a bit terrifying, especially being the middle of winter. California has a pretty similar climate to us in terms of burning stuff, so you also wonder what it might mean for our future.
- They planted a lot of eucalyptus trees there which then became naturalised. A lot of what is burning is eucalypt.
It's crazy. Apparently 0% of the fires are still not contained.
When I visited California I was surprised by how many eucalypts and other Australian plant species were used in gardens. I guess it’s because it’s a similar climate, hot dry summers, so they do well. But they are so flammable. Scary that such ferocious fires are happening mid winter.
it's terrifying and happening all over the world
slowly ALL the dry eucalypt forests, will burn and be gone
I think we should plant forests that don't burn

I’m actually wrecked

I'm sitting in front of the ps5 for the rest of the day. Productivity can get effed.
Me too!!! Did fine till just after lunch and been cooked since.

I want her life

3 days left till annual leave ends. It's been great to have a break but I'm definitely stagnating.

If I had more disposable income saved for the break it would have been better but that's OK.

My probation ends on the 23rd of January. Once it's over I can start looking for a new place asap.

Fawker and Moonee ponds are looking reasonable for house rental. I don't think I could go back to an apartment, dealing with everyone's noise.

Yesss get out of that part of town!
- Cannot wait! Back to civilisation. I'm tired of going into the city and feeling overwhelmed because there's people around lol

Ever since I've come back from my holiday I've been feeling flat. I'll get over it but it's hard to get motivated in this weather. That's all.

It's not motivation weather. It's callippo weather.
- It's beer weather so I'm gonna work hard to today and drink tomorrow.
  Atleast my washing machine is booked in to get repaired. 2 weeks from now. And no I'm not going down to the laundry mat where the ferals hang out.

Urge to kidnap rising...

Is that a stray?
- Yep. One of the confirmed 4.

One night back in Melbourne and sleeping in an oven has me reconsidering moving back here. Dear lord...

Must be a tassie thing. We prefer to sleep in beds, preferably under AC or at least a fan over here mate.

Brunch was cool, nice to get out for a bit. Came home and tidied up the kitchen and lounge and then felt tired. Am trying to do the VicRoads learner's permit course thing online and it's going ok so far, but I've come to the first tutorial and nothing was working. Tried my MILs laptop and it wasn't working on that either. Looked up what OS versions VicRoads supports and they only do current versions and the previous ones. My 4 yo android 11 phone was never going to cut it! MILs laptop is 3yo. Tried to see if it would update and there's none available anymore for that version 🙄 Nothing like a bit of built in obsolescence to spoil your day! Going to have to use Miniests laptop.. when she isn't using it!

Good luck. 🙂🤞
- Thankyou 🙂 I'm almost ⅓ of the way through the online course; it's divided into 3 parts and there's a tutorial at the end of each part, before the actual test happens.
3 years old should at least be windows 10?
- Nah they sold her a Chromebook. She doesn't really need windows, she just uses it for looking up cafes and restaurants and stuff.
You can do it! I didn't get my learners till quite late. It'll be worth it!

Hiya

sup?

oh yes. Adult realisation I can fill the backyard with monkeybars if I wish.

Looks like house is a no go. Vendor trying to playing bidding games well above projected value. Ho hum, I'll stop pricing curtains.

you got 30-60-90 days to do that anyway from signing.
- I can tell your gender by that comment alone!
often it's the real estate agent doing that
reas get more money that way. They do it by setting a price and for that sale they get a flat fee. The reas then negotiate a percentage of the price they can get that's over the initial price.
- This is a private. No REA so she gets the lot. Which means going low ought be a thing.

Lorne be packed…

And jeebus, breakie and coffee nearly $40…

it has been one year since my last serious sciatica attack i am 95% better

am on diet and slowly losing weight past 2 months

It's time to start some gentle exercise to tone muscles 🙂

Dr Google told me as I was no longer feverish light exercise should be ok and may even help improve breathing. So I took Mr Woof to the end of the block and back. That was not a great idea, I'm now exhausted.

I have ordered some RATs that cover covid and flu that should arrive today. Hopefully I will then have something to officially blame. Unspecified plague is just unsatisfying. I did do a covid RAT on Sunday which was negative, but I think it is time for a second opinion.

I'm a week out from coming down with flu-A. Broke the fever in about three days but am still pretty breathless and I went to bed at 7:30 last night!
I copped something in November that was neither flu no covid but packed the punch of both so there's deffo some nasty nondescript stuff there.
- There has been a lot of stuff going around at work, so it could be anything. If I get another covid negative I can at least absolve my brother in law from blame (he had covid at christmas, right at the very edge of transmission timeframe but still possible). It would also mean I could stay in the never-had-covid club.

Alright carrots were a misfire. not even a knuckle long. Zucchini is looking better now that I remember to harvest it early enough. Tomatoes finally have a bit of fruit so I've thrown up the net around them.

May I present the Resident Evil Boss I grew a awhile back
- oh man, too compact soil? i think my little chubs just didnt have enough depth.
I will throw my only carrot from this year into the ring and humble you all!
- Thats more carrot than I've grown!

Sky pretty

omg, seeing pics of the devastation if the fires in LA. It's really dreadful. 😖

I have family there that have evacuated but doing ok😕 power is out in a much larger area around the fire affected zones.
- so much of what a house is built with is now manmade plastics, that stuff burns real quick

done the shopping and put it all away, still couldn't get eggs or fresh cat food

onto my sixth load of washing

and also doing garden work

I am hot

still couldn’t get eggs
A few here could donate a few of their 4x10^¹⁵ gippsland ones.
- I could send a dozen of mine. May come with a side order of Plague.

I should be getting to sleep because I'm going out for brunch with my MIL tomorrow. She wants to have brunch with just me, not with the kids and Mr P tagging along, so we've told them I'm going to help her with some shopping. We used to go out together a lot more when I was a sahm and the kids were in school, but we haven't much at all these past 3½ years I've been working. I feel guilty 😔

Kick-starting a gravity thread.

I'm grateful for the shade and water.

equally stunned its already Thursday but also exhausted its taken THIS long to get here.

Ok the titan arum did not bloom overnight, though it is definitely imminent.

The other thing I learnt yesterday is that there are in fact two titan arums in frame. The tree-like thing circled in yellow on the left is the single leaf of a different specimen that is between flowers.

Edit: New link!

Wow, this is wild
'Tis open.....
- Sure is! There might be a little more to go? Wish I could visit to give it a sniff 😁

I'd love to have a channel to Dav Pilkey. I'm sure he's doing fantastic and doesn't need any sort of reinforcement. My kids are sitting on the couch re-reading Dog Man books, and giggling their heads off.

The neat thing about Dog Man is it is full of puns and pop culture references. When they first read them, they get a tiny fraction of those. My oldest is now 13 and has picked up on loads of word play and cultural references that he's never understood previously. He's probably older than the target demographic, but is loving them all the same.

I'm sure seeing his work bring all this joy to a couple of kids on the other side of the planet would make him beam with happiness. At least it would for me, even if I were a multi millionaire.

You can probably send something through his publisher? I reckon he'd be stoked to hear that.
I have nothing but respect for authors of children's and YA books. Takes a special kind of genius. And yes, they must love children very much.
Since kids don't usually write maybe you can , as magpie suggests, and drop the publisher a line.

Fuck it. I’m going to load up a veg pizza and eat like, all of it

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

I would like a bowl of icecream and the most adult beverage you can concoct
- 🍨🥤🧊🍋 water with two drop of lemon juice
Not really hungry rn. A grazing platter of amuses bouches please.
- ^🫒^🍰^🍮
Grabbing some oysters in an hour or so, but could do with an oyster starter for the oysters &/or an oyster dessert. Thanks chef!
- 🦪
  🦪🦪
  🦪
I'll have what err.. Force is having but without the err.. well you only live once.
- ^💩
Massive bowl of pasta plz. With assorted veg stirred through, and maybe some tuna for protein?
Honestly I’m just very meh and need fuel please Chef
- 🍝🥦🥒🥕🌽🐟
Some lamington fingers please.
- 🍋🍰✋
I'll take some anuses bouche too thanks
- ^💩^🍰

🍻 happy hour 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3RO0UMsBss

and tonight a new western series starts on netflix, America Primeval. The last western with a woman as a main character was just awesome, Emily Blunt in The Englishwoman ( which I really really recommend ) . Hoping this is just as good. It should be .

Back from lunch with a friend.

I had a delicious Katsu Don but they ran out of milk and I couldn’t get a coffee :(

Also a few poles had fallen down on Warrigal road so traffic is heavily congested with 2 of 4 lanes in and outbound blocked.

Those things piss me off. Having to call an employee to purchase knifey cutlery at Kmart 😾 and magnetic stickers on makeup that I can never fully remove 😾
Both of the big supermarkets are evil but Coles feel that bit more like they've actually declared war on their own customers. I've avoided shopping there since they installed the awful cattle gates.
- i get angry when they ask to look in my bag
Nope. I bet this entirely kills sales of those products. I predict it'll be more profitable to just have regular shelves. Even with a percentage of loss through shoplifting.
Let's see if I'm right and this doesn't get rolled out to all the other stores. 😃

Potentially contentious topic, but where in your opinion is the absolute best place to get a smashed patty beef burger that importantly also does an awesome vego/pescatarian option for my partner that isn't specifically a beyond burger (impossible burger is fine)? Preferably a hidden gem. Must be at a minimum Rockwell and Sons level for quality and creativity. Price is irrelevant as I really want an awesome new smashed burger.

Home made. 🙂
- Far too much effort for a single meal when I'm the only person in the house who occasionally eats meat, and will not cross contaminate any pans, utensils etc
- 100%. Never had a smash burger half as good as what you can achieve at home with a cast iron skillet.
Which area in Melbourne? I think there's a suitable option in inner west which I've had a few times. The patties are "hand pressed", that's the same thing right? And there's a vego option (mushroom) which I've never had but it looks good.
- Any where in Victoria really as we can make a trip of it.
  Smashed is typically a ball of mince that's flattened on the grill with crispy caramelised edges on the patty, cheese melted on top whilst cooking. I'd sacrifice my perfect burger though if that mushroom one is just a grilled portobello as my partner would love that.
  So lemme know the place and I'll have a look at the menu & pics.
Doesn’t meet your brief, I don’t know of anywhere that would suit. But for a homestyle smash burger you can’t beat the old style fish and chips shops. They were making ‘smash’ burgers before they had a name. Patty pressed flat to sizzling on a hot plate, melted cheese on top, get it with the lot. I love this kind of burger more than the American style ones.
- Finding the right chippy that doesn't that though is still something I'd want a recommendation for! They'd do a fish burger too if they have the equivalent of a smash on the menu
Have to admit I haven't really seen many smash burgers too often in melbs. Seems a more US thing but maybe I'm living under a rock.
- There are quite a lot of places, even some chains but my old staples have either closed or got to the point of quality degrading after being open so long so I'm chasing the dragon
I haven't been there for a few years, but Kustom Burgers in Thornbury I think fits your brief!
- Thanks for the suggestion and it does just fit the bill but it's not it. Also eaten there a while back and it's not as good as Easys and I'm not a fan of Easys...

Imagine putting 25 hours into a game only to go and play the tutorial and realise you've been missing half the features.

:/

My commute tomorrow might just involve 28 minutes of walking in the heat before spending a similar amount of time on the bus.

Put a handfull of raw rice inside and a little bit of vinegar, then shake the bottle. The rice works to scrub the bottle clean. You sometimes have to rinse out a few times to get all the rice grains back out, but it works really well.
I reckon you need one of these fat boys and one of these long boys.
Around the house I reuse glass bottles for fridge water. Heading out, I've a Kleen Kanteen stainless bottle, which was cheaper from Aussie Disposals (Southland) than online.
Just saw this: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/888172 1.1L double wall, stainless, $22 @ spotlight.
I use something similar to this for bottle cleaning. Works well and doesn’t scratch. bottle brush

THE STARS ARE VEILED.

NO THEY ARE TEMPORARILY MUTED

🍝🥦🥒🥕🌽🐟