Discussion Thread: Monday, 3 March 2025

Gibson's welcome home day is today, and the ten years sobriety.

A good combo lol.

Just chilling today, weekend coming up will nice ❤️

Congratulations! Sounds like an occasion for a cake. Or to buy yourself something nice.
- Thank you :)
  And I reckon you're on the money lol
urge to zzzzz

ended up purchasing that campervan over the weekend. Gotta wait a couple of weeks to pick her up cause they towing folks have a bit of a backlog, then will probably empty it, clean it all up check for anything that needs work maybe give it a service and we pick a destination and give it a try!

If you like any good camping spots that work for caravans/campervans let me know. I cant keep going to tidal river all the time.

Coopers Creek.
- Avoid at all costs.
- Im seeing mixed things about caravans and campers. A few people suggestion it should be tent only. How do you find it?
Hell yeah!!!!!!
There's a super secret spot at the end of swan bay. No amenities, probably illegal but people do it anyway. Sun rises over the water which is a nice view.
Closer to home - O'Brien's Crossing.
Maybe try some spots along the Murray River. I'm thinking Barmah (red gums) and maybe bits of Hattah-Kulkyne NP. Great birdwatching at both. Bearing in mind that the cold weather isnt too far away now.
- hoping to build to that yeah. Starting the wife off with some more "glamping" locations. Probs ensuite sites with power (I know I know, hardly even camping!) but shes been burnt by the proms weather the last couple of times we've gone.
Nelson at Glenelg River has a great caravan camping ground.
It's a long way tho.
Right on. Bimbi Park in the Otways is great.
Turton's Creek, Bear Gully. I'll think of more later!

My neighbour, whom I whinge about regularly, has spent the last week ripping up the grass from his nature strips (each side of the his driveway) and swapping it.

Basically the grass that was on the left is now on the right and vice versa.

In fairness, he used fertilizer, reseeded and all that, but it looks like shite.

Not sure what he's trying accomplish.

It's the first step in relocating to the mirror universe? If so, I just may be on board with this...
- The end result is something worse than he started off with. Perhaps he knows something we don't.
How odd.
- Indeed he is.
My neighbour has a patchwork fence. This morning I heard banging so he's probably added to it. Paling, corrugated iron, scraps of wood. I might go out later and take a pic cos it's a work of art.
- Some people just like doing shit for the sake of doing it I guess.

10hr day with more urgent desktop stuff to do this evening, but pretty good day out even though I was in a really foul mood in the am after realising either I or someone else fucked up majorly and I started in the wrong location wasting a previous few hours. all good now. I got to see these little cuties too which was lovely.

House looks like a dump, I have a full day out tomorrow plus a bday to go to in the evening, REA comes for inspection on Wed am... guess I'll try to tidy as much as I can now and do some frentic cleaning early Wed morning.

Prolly should've done it on the weekend but oh well!

New band audition Friday!

Goodnight all ❤️

She is definitely plotting something!
- We ran out of her favourite cat food so she had to slum it with a cheaper one.
  I'm a dead man...

I experimented making a cola drink tonight. Yesterday I had to make a thing called browning syrup for it, because it's hard to buy Parisian essence these days, (and Parisian essence these days is just colour 150). Today I made the actual cola syrup and it's cooling and developing in my fridge. I always thought cola was made out of cola nut, and maybe it once was, but according to wiki it's made of lots of different things like citrus peels, star anise, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamon and other spices. Huh, TIL. The Minipeelers were keen for me to make Nuka Cola from the Fallout Cookbook Elder got for his birthday. Surprisingly it tastes like cola! Plus I saw the soda stream pepsi syrup at the stupormarket which had a horrific amount of numbered additives. Like, is it even food at this point. And 1.25 litre coke varieties were $4, surely they're taking the piss at this point! So I made my syrup and couldn't resist trying it early.. you pour it in a glass and top it up with fizzy soda water. We were all pretty amazed. Can't wait to try it tomorrow with the flavour all finished developing.

How brilliant. I never would have thought this could be made at home, I just assumed the flavour was artificially made. I’ll have to look up some recipes out of curiosity!
That’s so cool. I’ve heard about Open Cola and wanted to make it without caffeine or artificial sweeteners but it seems like a bit of an undertaking!
Let us know how it is

Gibsons got some special treats and is sitting in her cat tree.

I'm on the couch with a fancy pizza and my new favourite drink, gatorade.

Peaceful.

When the day dawns we depart for Ikea. Hopefully the non weekend timing makes this a less earsplitting experience than otherwise. Also reading up on removing yuccas, WTF have we gotten into?!?! 🤯

Wear eye and arm protection against the yuccas. Best approach is to trim the leaves and then cut the stalks. Patience is the key.
- Going to need a chainsaw for the big ones I suspect. Will be hunting pups for years.

When I went looking at houses in Seaholme I went to the beach too and found some pieces of coral. Seems there are big reefs off the rocks close by. Might be nice to go out and take a look one day. 🙂

here's the bits I found, it's a type of pavement coral, common name Green Coral.

Watch out for certain 🔵💍🐙 ! When I was a kid growing up near there they were often seen in those rocky bits there, don't know about these days though.
- 😧
  I'll be careful.

OK.

I have bought some fancy sheets.

Now for the nap.

Bamboo cotton sheets.

I feel like I have to have shower before I have a nap lol

First day of school today.

Classes were boring. Hopefully the ones later this week will be better. People were interesting. So was getting lost on a new campus.

My friends who are teachers love their jobs, one primary one secondary. The primary teacher has it tougher, so they switch to being a specialist teacher every couple of years, then back to the classroom for a few. It's a good career choice and they live a reasonably comfortable life styles as single people.
I’ve got my parents and sister in one ear, with one saying don’t do teaching because I’m going to get abused by “shitty kids” and cry and not know what to say when a kid tells me to fuck off. Plus the workload.
What do your friends, teachers and classmates say?
- They don't really say anything.

Power is out here inner east I can't see shit

As long as you're seated it should still go in the bowl
- It's the should that haunts me

My finger had an intimate argument with some bluestone / basalt yesterday whilst moving it. Feeling that today.

Spoke about gravity, savlon and poor judgement. Basalt won.

do you have someone to kiss it better?
- Unfortunately finger is single atm :( its other four friends are trying to avoid the same fate which I respect.

Also fake tax time.

Make sure you sing the dango song every time if it's a thing in this game as well
- No canteen yet or food.
  Might have to finish a couple of quests before I get access to it.

ETA for afternoon tea: 15 mins. Iced fruit bun, highly anticipated yummyness.

Edit: yumminess aquired.

When you're itchy do you scratch under your clothes or on top?

ffs, now I'm itchy.
- Nits nits itchy scalp nits
I start out on top but then I get under and really scratch the skin 😬
Under. No matter what lol
- Yep same. I use a back scratcher.
Depends if it's an itchy bum
- Cheeks under. Crack over.
Under, unless it's in the nether regions. Scratching over clothes makes it worse.
Depends if I’m out in public or not.
Definitely under, I hate the feeling and sound of scratching through clothes. And it's never satisfying. I've got a back scratcher for that area.
Damn you

Noticed all my nasturtiums were gone… ran the tape back and a workman whippersnippered them. Forget even trying anymore.

Maybe that’s what happened to the marigolds too (despite bright flowers)

maybe next time cordon off the garden bed with some string and sticks

Any Severance fans also seen Dollhouse? 'Cos goddamn.

Yuppp

I read a short biography of one of my fave artists last night.

He was not a good person, he came from a deeply misogynist society , knew better but still aided in events leading up to a young woman being murdered by her husband.

He was also not some magic artist that had no help or training.

I am conflicted as his paintings really are beautiful.

Who was he?
- An Australian.
There are a lot of artists and musicians who unfortunately aren’t great behind the scenes

I’m not sure I’m going to bother buying a coaxial cable for the tv if the dvd player isn’t working

That moment of “NOOOOO” when you accidentally open Duolingo after a couple of months. And yet, I feel too guilty to turn off the notifications – even though I pretty much have all notifications turned off on my phone!

I think all the napping I did over the weekend screwed up my sleep last night.

It felt like I didn't sleep well and I "B set" of dreams.

Tomorrow is Pancake Tuesday which means the following day is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. Every year I give up sugar but it's not really much of a challenge because i don't eat that much of it so this year I've decided I'm giving up bread as well. (I love it, but it hates me).

So if there is something you'd like to give up, feel free to join me. You can do it for a week and see how you go or continue for the 40 + days. It's up to you.

Had Lent forced upon me until 15-16 by parents. Heavy guilt trips and Catholic doom always hanging over my head through out my formative years took a long time to undo. Ain't going through this shit again, even voluntarily.
I'll always support people who try it, as long as it's guilt free and for a good cause.
- In this case I recommend you either give up Lent and/or religion.
- Oh no. It's not proper lent. It's like Christmas without the religious shit.
I've been taking a break from booze, weed and porn this year to see how much of a hold they might've had on my life. Aside from a week's shit sleep with the weed, the impact seems minimal. I was smoking a lot of weed. Booze and porn were already somewhat take it or leave it. I'll kick on for the rest of the month because that was the plan - three months - but since it doesn't seem an issue I guess nine months of middle age hedonism here I come.
- That's more like a confession. 3 hail marys and be on your way.
I’m trying to stop doomscrolling and also trying to reduce negative social media.
It’s been really hard trying to replace it with other hobbies due to multiple barriers but all I can do is try to reduce
- go to GOG.com
  Download Dungeon Keeper (original), Factorio or Theme Hospital
  Lose all your SM time in other means.
- Yeah doomscrolling is not worth your time or the little bit of sanity you have left. I like to play games like cribbage, 500, chess, backgammon, mahjong. The world is your oyster these days.
It's odd. I grew up with a devout mother and I went to church at least once a week up to when I became a teen
we just didn't do Lent , Easter wasn't big at our house either, Christmas was. ( traditional Huguenot )
- We eat tuna casserole and stuff our faces with hot cross buns at mums house every Good Friday. That's as religious as we get.
Used to follow it very loosely, I remember getting ashes on my forehead every year but I fell away from it all after I grew older.
I will give up spinach for the week. Edit: AND I will give up 90% and above cocoa chocolate

4 day weekend next weekend, but it can't come soon enough. Might have to slip in a mental health day somewhere this week

The AFL really needs to get its shit together.

To allow the opening game to happen with the cyclone over in QLD is pure insanity as much as I want to see my team play.

Move the opener to round 3 where the bye for the teams are or move it locally and tell people early so that they don’t make a dangerous trip to Brisbane.

Anyway that’s my rant for the day.

Yes, they should move that game to round 3. But also what even is this half-arsed 'opening round' nonsense? Just play a normal round of footy.
- It’s so stupid. Just make it round one for starters and maybe have a game in Melbourne.
  They think they’re capitalising on the NRL being away in Vegas.

My lenovo smart clock fell and the power cable snapped right on the metal barrel. It's a 20 volt power supply as well so I guess it's just trapezoidal ewaste now.