Memories of eucalypts

21 06 2006

Someone on one of my lists wrote about eucalypts in Israel, then someone else from San Francisco compared their smell to cat pee… Here's my response:

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If you've ever been to California, you've probably seen eucalypts. They're everywhere there… From southern California to areas north of San Francisco, you can't drive too far without seeing one of those big trees we call "gum trees". An Australian export that has now populated many parts of the world, including South Africa, the Middle East, and the US. And then there's eucalpytus oil which you can probably find in your supermarket or drug store – great for all manner of things, including clearing sinuses and getting scuff marks off shoes! (seriously)

Of course, if you've ever been to Australia, that's about all you see! I don't know how many varieties of eucalypts there are, but it's a lot! The blue of the "Blue Mountains" behind Sydney is a result of the massive amounts of eucalyptus oil given off by milions of trees – it creates the bluish haze. And that oil is what makes them burn so well.

The cat pee smell thing… Never thought of eucalypts like that, but then I've lived with the smell all my life without even knowing it's there. When I lived in Canada for a year, I took some vacation time and drove down the entire west coast of the USA. Somewhere in northern California I came across a stand of gum trees by the side of the highway. I stopped the car, got out, and just scrunched up a heap of leaves in my hands and sniffed long and hard – that smell was wonderful and reminded me so much of home. I ended up tearing off a small switch and keeping it in the rental car for days, having a sniff every so often. It'd been at least 6 months since I'd smelled a eucalypt. Then when I arrived in Sydney after 13 months away, the first thing I smelled as I came out of the airport was eucalypts! I'd never noticed the smell in the air before, but being away for so long without the smell, it really hit me on arrival… so much so I burst into tears! <sob>

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus
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Categories : Australia, Travel

Shocker Dockers – again…

18 06 2006

They played badly, they couldn’t kick goals, there appeared to be no on-field leadership… and they got thumped by Geelong at home!!!

The weather was fantastic, there was little wind, the temperature was mild, they were playing to their home crowd who just wanted them to play with passion – there are NO excuses for such poor performance.

At least by leaving 10 minutes into the final quarter I didn’t get caught in the traffic. Small consolation.


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Categories : Aussie Rules Football

One down, one to go…

15 06 2006

We had some long-awaited good news the other day – one of the two blocks of land we put a deposit on last year is due to settle before the end of the month. The other will be some weeks yet as it's in a later stage of the development. The second one is the one we want to build on; the first to settle is an investment block. 

And what an investment it seems to have been! So far, we've only paid $500 deposit on each block, but both have increased in value tremendously since we paid those deposits in late September and mid-October last year. The investment block (0.75 acres) has a contracted purchase price of $85K; other blocks in that same stage of a similar size are now on the market for $140K+. The block we want to build on (1.1 acres) has had similar growth.

Settlement has been a long time coming – we were told the investment one would settle in January and the other in March. It's now mid-June and only now is the investment one close to settlement (i.e. we'll then own it!). I suspect it will be July or August before the other one settles, unless they've made more inroads into getting the infrastructure finished than I heard a few weeks ago. We really should go down there soon and check out the progress of the road building etc. and take a look at some of the new homes going up in the development…

Of course, settlement is all well and good – but now have to meet the increased loan payments… 


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Categories : Life stuff

Virgin Banana Margaritas

9 06 2006

Those of you who know me well know that I like a good margarita! So when bananas get back to a decent price in Australia, I'll make this (the Queensland banana crop was wiped out by Cyclone Larry in March 2006 and so banana prices are through the roof at the moment).

  • 1 lime wedge
  • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
  • caster sugar (for the glasses)
  • 3 peeled bananas 
  • 1/4 cup sugar 
  • 1/4 cup whole milk 

Rub rims of 2 glasses with lime. Spread caster sugar on a plate and dip the rims into the sugar to coat. Fill blender half way with ice cubes. Add lime juice, bananas, sugar and milk. Blend until combined. Taste for sweetness – add more sugar, if required. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.


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Categories : Food & Wine

High praise indeed

7 06 2006

I had a pleasant surprise in the Inbox today – my evaluations from the presentation I did at the AODC Conference in Cairns early last month. This was my first time presenting at this conference, so I was very pleased with the results and with my ranking as 3rd highest ranked speaker at the entire conference!

Here’s what I got (each score is an average out of 5, where 5 is “Outstanding”):

  • Speaker Skills 4.8
  • Speaker Knowledge 4.8
  • Quality of Content 4.8
  • Delegate interest in topic 4.7

Some of the written comments for this session (all unsolicited):

  • “Wonderful”
  • “I hadn’t thought I was interested, but it had heaps of useful info, so I’m glad I didn’t choose this session for a break”
  • “Spoke a bit fast. Great content”
  • “A great coverage of a lot of useful tools”
  • “A lot of content in time, but wouldn’t want it longer”
  • “Great practical session”
  • “Would have liked more demo stuff”
  • “Very useful review and tools”
  • “Great session. Not teaching us to suck eggs. Useful resources.”

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Categories : Business/Work, Technical writing

Just a little hoarse

4 06 2006

Well, the 'good Dockers' came out to play last night. You never know with this team – one week the bad team plays, the next it's the good team. Same guys; different attitude. The game against Richmond last night was a beauty – not as good as the Derby in May, and nowhere near as emotional and heart-stopping as the game against St Kilda last year in Round 21 when Justin Longmuir kicked the deciding goal after the siren… but it came close.

At half time the scores were level and by 3/4 time Richmond was leading by about 9pts. The Dockers had a resurgence in the final quarter and the goal by Shaun McManus put us 5 pts in front. Paul's brilliant goal in the final few minutes sealed the deal and put us 11pts in front – Shannon and I were ecstatic! The Dockers won and keep their place in the top 8 (currently 7th).

The big downside of tonight's game was an injury to the Dockers captian, Peter Bell. Like Shaun McManus and Troy Cooke, Belly has no concern for his life or limb when he goes for the ball. And he paid for it tonight with an injury to his lower calf that will keep him out of the playing team for a couple of weeks.

Did I have a voice at the end of the game? Nope! Did I care? Nope! Were Shanny and I over the moon? You bet! Pity the others had to leave earlier andmissed a great final quarter.
That's one of the things I love about going to the footy – unlike TV, you can yell and scream and no-one thinks anything of it, 'cos everyone else is doing the same! It's actually very cathartic – you can express emotions (highs and lows) in a way that wouldn't be acceptable in a work situation or perhaps even a family situation. You just can't get that with the TV broadcast. And the other thing you can't get with TV is the raw emotion of 35,000 people all chanting at the same time. Powerful stuff. (Despite this, I still watched the game again on TV when I got home… tragic!)


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Categories : Aussie Rules Football

Qantas Frequent Flyer “rewards” are a joke

24 05 2006

I've been invited to speak at a conference in Sydney at the end of October. I booked the flights on the weekend, and, as I'm a Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer member and a Life Member of the Qantas Club, I knew I could request an upgrade a lot earlier than others can. And, according to their marketing 'spin', that I would have preference over other QFF members. Crap!

I have at least one upgrade certificate left (from when they had those) and some 400K QFF points. But do you think I can get an upgrade? No way! I called Qantas and requested a points/certificate upgrade on one or both legs of the trip. "Sorry, there are no Business Class seats available for upgrade at this time." So I asked whether that was because all the seats were sold (some 5 months out – unlikely), or because they hadn't released seats for QFF members yet. "Sorry, you'll have to call back closer to the time of departure." So then I asked if I could be put on a waiting list for when seats are released. "Sorry, we don't waitlist points upgrades; you'll have to call back closer to the time of departure." No reason, no explanation, no waitlist. Meantime, I have 400,000+ points I can't use.

And while I'm on about Qantas and the Frequent Flyer points thing… The fine print always says that Qantas "may have blackout periods" for QFF award flights with points. Yeah right. For the past few years they've had a blanket blackout period for ALL flights from Australia to the US taken between December 1 and February 1. Too bad if you're a teacher or in some other occupation that forces you to take your holidays over the Christmas break – you can NEVER go to the US on points between those dates. That sucks.


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Categories : Travel

Hurts like hell

24 05 2006

The general malaise I was feeling on Sunday – and that I attributed to the return of the cold – blew out to pain in the jaw area on Monday and a call to the dentist to see if I could get in. Nothing available that suited us both until June, so I thought I’d see if it was all just related to the cold and would go away by itself. By Tuesday the general jaw pain had centralised to a particular tooth and was overwhelming.

Another call to the dentist to fit in an urgent case (I didn’t care what time at that stage!) and I went in yesterday afternoon to find out that I had an abscess that had to be killed with antiobiotics first and then would require root canal treatment! But first the pain killers…

I called in to the pharmacist on the way home and got the prescription filled for the pain killers and the antibiotics, and took both as soon as I got home. We were going to have steak for tea, but that changed quickly as I couldn’t eat anything, let alone a steak! Besides, about 10 minutes after taking the pain killers my limbs were feeling floppy and I was feeling light-headed. Once I lay down I felt like I couldn’t lift my limbs at all – I’m glad I didn’t take these before driving or ‘operating machinery’. They didn’t make me feel particularly drowsy, but I was sure woozy. Despite taking two, the pain didn’t really start subsiding for a couple of hours. I took another one before going to sleep so I had an OK night.

This morning I took another one and got the wooziness back again, so no work for me today. There’s no way I could safely drive a car! That first pain killer from early this morning is now wearing off, so I’ve just taken another one. I wonder what the reaction will be this time… The dentist said that the antibiotics may take ‘a day or two’ to kick in, so it looks like I’ll be on the pain killers for a couple of days. I hope I’ll be OK to go in to work tomorrow.


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Categories : Business/Work

Oh, what a beautiful morning

22 05 2006

I'm looking out my window at the moment and the sky is grey and cloudy, and rain is predicted tonight. But the grey reminded me of the 15 minute drive to work this morning and the most beautiful sunrise you could imagine!

It only lasted for a few minutes, then faded out. But for those few minutes the colours were simply amazing – every possible shade of orange, yellow, pink, and mauve, with patches of clear blue between the light fluffy clouds, and the city skyscrapers blackly silhouetted by that magnificent sky.

It was one of those times where you wish you had a camera to try and record the brilliant colours. But by the time you got a camera, the moment would have passed. (Actually I did have my camera with me, but it was in its bag in my briefcase and I was driving along the freeway in four lanes of fast-moving early morning traffic heading over a bridge at the time… not a good time to be trying to take a photo!)


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Categories : Australia

We’ll take the 4 points

22 05 2006

To say that the footy game between the Dockers and the Kangaroos on Saturday was good would be an extreme overstatement. It was boring, and at times, ugly football. Not a good spectacle at all. Ball handling, kicking, passing skills – all were pretty horrible. But the Dockers won despite all that. And got the four points for the win. 

We'll take the four points, but this was not a game that will go down in memory – or appear in any highlights reel. After the brilliance of the Derby against the Eagles, you'd be hard-pressed to even think this was the same team.


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Categories : Aussie Rules Football

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