Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I left at 5:20am this morning for Perth and the moon was either full or as close to it as it can get. Which meant that the road was fairly well lit through the darkest and hairiest part of the drive from Bridgetown to Boyanup. Brilliant! I’ll have to plan my trips to Perth around the moon in future.

The trip was uneventful and I made it to work in just over 3.5 hours including a stop at the apartments to pick up my key. I went via South West Highway this time, and only hit traffic issues near the Causeway at 8:45am. Much better than a month ago when it took me 1.75 hours to get from Anketell Rd to Powis St on the ‘freeway’ (what a joke!). So all in all, a pleasant trip timed perfectly for me to get to my client’s site at 9:00am.

I wondered why I couldn’t see the stars this morning when I went out to get the paper. As daylight emerged, it was obvious – fog! We’re close to the top of a very large hill and it was foggy up here – I’d imagine that in the valley where the main street of town is, it was very foggy indeed.

The picture below is of part of the backyard, with some of the fruit trees, the old aviary on the left which is now my garden shed (note the shadecloth I put up over the weekend to deal with any excessive weather!), and the massive eucalyptus trees on the property behind ours. There’s a firebreak/track between us and those trees too, though you wouldn’t think it from this photo!

One of the things about living in a country town and on a largish block of land with fruit trees (yes, fruit trees – lemon, orange, mandarin, apple, plum, and a grape vine are those I’ve discovered so far), is that birds come and visit regularly… and they chatter all day long! I’m not a bird person, but so far I’ve been able to identify these: Western Magpies, kookaburras, blue wrens, Western Rosellas, Australian Ringneck parrots (known as twenty-eights), New Holland Honeyeaters, Bronzewing Pigeons, and lots of other little flitty birds that I don’t know. We’ve also heard black cockatoos in the distance, but haven’t seen any yet. There’s a nice page of many of the birds we have in the garden here: http://www.waratahsoftware.com.au/wp_birds_birds.html

The other thing is the stars! Wandering out into the dark at 5am to collect the paper from the verge is an awesome experience – the Milky Way is just so bright against the black of the night, and some of the stars seem close enough to touch. I’d forgotten how bright stars can be – all those years of living in the glow of the city lights takes that away and you can only really see the very bright ones. Here, you can see them all. And they are an awe-inspiring sight.

Wow! I never thought I’d write about a vacuum cleaner!

Our old vacuum cleaner was one of those cheap piddly little cockroach things that had very little suction and a short cord. Although it was a brand name (Hoover), it really didn’t do the job very well. And when it started cutting out because of overheating – like after about 2 minutes vacuuming time – that was it. Time for it to go to another home.

So when we were in Busselton the other day, one of our tasks was to see what we could find as a replacement vacuum cleaner. I’d heard about the Dysons (ugly beasts that they are), and when the girl in the shop raved about hers, we had to investigate further. Well, not really investigate – I held the end to test the suction and nearly had the palm of my hand taken off, it was that good! We bought the DC08TSY model (pics and details here) and I used it for the first time this morning.

As I said earlier – wow! This thing has a really long cord – long enough so that I could do the whole house without unplugging it; a really long hose, and a telescopic wand with a handle. And the suction is unbelievable! It wanted to lift the loose rug in the living room, and when I had it on carpet mode instead of hard floor mode, it tried to lift the vinyl in the office. After vacuuming the whole house, the bagless barrel had HEAPS of very fine dust and other particles in it… and I only vacuumed the house last weekend with the old one. BTW, we don’t have children or pets, and we’re very meticulous about cleaning up after ourselves.

Amazing.

So amazing that I’ve even named it. In honour of the king hits that Mike Tyson did, I’ve named it “Tyson the Dyson”. I NEVER name things, so that’s a first. (BTW, I don’t like boxing, and I sure don’t condone Mike Tyson’s actions – it’s just that his name rhymes and this vacuum cleaner is a “knockout”.)

I just finished reading “Talk to the hand” (by Lynne Truss; it follows her very successful book on punctuation, “Eats, shoots and leaves“).

The subtitle says it all really: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door). To quote from the blurb: “… Talk to the Hand is not a book about manners or etiquette. It is about the rudeness of the modern world, and the sense of outrage that infects us every day as we discover other people are – generally speaking – crass, selfish, and inconsiderate…”

While this is a quick read, and reasonably humorous for the most part, it’s also a bit depressing to realise that what she has to say about behaviour in her part of Great Britain is just as applicable to urban life in Australia (my experience) and likely elsewhere.

As I was reading it, I was reminded of the BBC TV series Grumpy Old Men and Grumpy Old Women – initially, I found the episodes in those two series very funny, then I stopped watching as I found I was relating too readily to the comments I was hearing. And that was depressing… to learn that I was rapidly becoming a grumpy old woman myself!

As far as this book is concerned, it’s a quick read and worth borrowing from the local library (which is what I did). Don’t be surprised to find yourself agreeing with a lot of what she has to say – and that’s sad. Sad, not for agreeing with her, but that personal interactions between humans – especially those who don’t know each other – have become much more unpleasant.

Go on, look it up! Now I’ve just got to figure out how to insert it into everyday speech…

(Hint: try dictionary.com)

It’s probably very politically incorrect, but I love this sig line copied from a colleague’s email:

Some people are like Slinkies… they’re not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

I have no idea why we have them, but we have an invasion of Portuguese Millipedes! It’s not just us – it’s the whole town, and much of the southwest. And according to the CSIRO, much of southern Australia has these beasties – including Perth, though I’ve never seen one in Perth.

Anyhow, these little buggers are EVERYWHERE. Last night, my husband went around the outside of the house spraying bug surface spray at every opening and crack where they might get in, and cleared heaps of them from near the back door. This morning, there were hundreds of them in the sliding tracks of the back door, hanging from the eaves, inside the house (not so many there, thank goodness! Many were dead – but lots were alive and wriggling.

It seems they don’t hurt or do damage, and they’re not poisonous, but they are a darned nuisance! A friend who popped around last night said she’d even found them in her underwear drawer – ewwww!

And of course, we found out from the Department of Agriculture’s Fact Sheet on this pest that they are more prevalent when it rains, and that in March/April they’re particularly prevalent as it’s mating season! Which means when the babies hatch, there’ll be even MORE of them…

Ah, the joys of living in the country!

Just heard that Australian rock legend, Billy Thorpe, died of a massive heart attack last night. I never had the privilege of going to one of his concerts but his music – especially “Most people I know think that I’m crazy” – is the music I grew up with.

RIP Billy – you’ll be a great loss to the Aussie music industry.

Links:

• http://www.thorpie.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Thorpe
• http://tinyurl.com/36lq79 (News.com.au announcement)
• http://tinyurl.com/2r6sy8 (News.com.au condolence comments)