sucked in.

I swore I wouldn’t be.

nooooo!!!

it may pass.

sometimes its frustrating to be slightly better informed than the general populaiton.

As a geologist (by education I should stress, not by profession) I’m used to the idea that the world has been around for a bloody long time and conditions on the surface have been everywhere from frozen over from pole to pole and pretty much hot dry desert for countless millions of years at a time.

So the current interest on Global Warming (I put it in caps to reflect the fact that its a term rather than a fact) is just maddenning.

Yes, its perfectly possible for mankind to mess up the climate on the planet. however, what people fail to realise is this wont have more than a brief and fleeting influence on the earth. It might well make life hard for human life for a bit, it may even make the planet a lot less inhabitable for some thousands of years. But what about the millions, billions of years?

The earth has always had a self regulating climate mechanism – a balance – its pretty unlikely that we could mess that up in terms of geological timescales.

And in terms of geological timescales – entire human existance would barely cover a few meters of sediment if we vanished right here and now – a blink in the eye of monther earth.

which is exactly why comments like “The ocean is more acidic now than it has been for at least 500,000 years” as if thats some kind of catyclismic event really piss me off.

yes, of course we as a species should be more respectful to our environment, yes, of course we should take care we don’t pollute the planet – but you know what – the only consequence to the Planet, to Gaia (see James Lovelock’s Gaia theory and also “Is Gaia endothermic” by K J Hsu Geological Magazine; March 1992; v. 129; no. 2; p. 129-141) if we totally mess everything up (and there’s precious little evidence that this is what is really happeneing) is that Homo Sapiens will be consigned to history as a thin line in the geological record and the world will breathe a little easier.

We’re so convinced we have all the answers, when we really know so very little.

travelling on the train like I do almost every day I see a very wide selection of people. The train I take isn’t really like the commuter trains that go to London which carry predominantly suited and booted city workers.

As travel is so innexpensive ($10 return) we get a much wider cross section of the working population and a load more students, manual workers, trainees, people of no fixed abode etc. More like the tube perhaps than main line “British Rail”

And this brings an interesting social statification observation.

With this increased diversity seems to come an increased ambivalance to personal hygine.

In short, the train here is a bit like the tube in London and can get a bit on the fragrant side. With high average temperatures here (in the 30’s for the summer) the problem is somewhat noticable.

So bad in some cases that its verging on a chemical or biological attack.

Anyway, without carrying a can of deoderant about, theres not much that can be done.

So, moving on, or not, as the case may be.

Escalators, dual carriageways, thouroughfares.

Theres an accepted practice of standing on the right letting people walk up or down faster on an escalator in the UK – its the other side here, which makes more sense actually – its like the traffic, pass to the right – and its always worked fine (a few tourists and people that stick out a bit further than others excepted) – only it doesnt here.

Despite signs, theres *always* someone who just stands there and blocks the right lane for people who want to walk up. Same with stairs, corridors etc. And more dangerously, on the roads too. Its in the highway code, there are signs everywhere, but no, people here just drive where they like -hey, theres two lanes, pick one. maddening if they’re toodling along at 20k below the limit.

I dont think its a deliberate thing..it must just be one of those things that you kind of grow up doing until it becomes norm, like mainland Europeans never stopping at zebra crossings for pedestrians (so whats the point in having them?). You never notice these things until you actually live in another country.

My point? I wonder what us Brits do in day to day life that confuse foreigners? Apart from queuing, that is – its well known that we’re the only nation that will self regulate an orderly access to something with no problems, well, that is unless you’re getting onto a train/plane, where all bets are off and elbows are valid means of entry.

Man this was a rambling bunch of nonsene.

Got the stereo set up finally and found a tape of my old band – we sounded awful! Although I do a killer mounrnful guitar solo on one of the songs. I’m a musical genius, what else can be said. I’m putting the wrong chord in the 2nd bar of song number three down to “creative differences”

rock
and
roll

so, looking at that list, what actually got done?

change all the plugs on the stereo from UK to Oz – nope 😦
unpack all my clothes from the shed – nope 😦
buy some paint, dust sheets etc – lounge, hall, bedrooms and bathrooms – ouch – yes! 🙂
buy an outdoor broom and some loppers – nope, ran out of money! 😦
fix the plaster chips on the corners (well you try moving a bookcase through a tight turn all by yourself..) – yes! 🙂
paint over that awful pinky red in the lounge and stupid rag rolled orange in the hall – yes! 🙂
look at bookcases for the study and lounge – yes! 🙂
call a tv ariel guy – nope 😦

What I did do though was unpack all the kitchen stuff from my UK boxes.

more painting tonight – maybe I’ll get the camera out one of these days too..

broadband came back on very quickly – a few days early in fact, which, in the words of the Fast Show, was nice.

So, its the end of the week (well, 4 hours or so to go) and I can’t wait to get started with more unpacking and painting this weekend. 

On the hitlist:

change all the plugs on the stereo from UK to Oz
unpack all my clothes from the shed
buy some paint, dust sheets etc – lounge, hall, bedrooms and bathrooms – ouch
buy an outdoor broom and some loppers
fix the plaster chips on the corners (well you try moving a bookcase through a tight turn all by yourself..)
paint over that awful pinky red in the lounge and stupid rag rolled orange in the hall
look at bookcases for the study and lounge
call a tv ariel guy

chances of getting even 1/2 of it done? I’ll let you know on Monday – but I suspect we’ll pnly have the supplies and maybe the plaster patched.

just moved house and I don’t have broadband back yet, so I’m limited to a few mins a day at work for the rest of the week.
Hope you’re all having fun 🙂

back soon with more photos and nonsense

the world is a pretty amazing place at 5:30am

its such a contradiction –  quiet, noisy, still, busy, empty, crowded, dark, light all at the same time.

quiet – the house is stony silent when I get up and I can hear my own breathing, the creak of the doors and the noise of the microwave beeping the end of the porridge making cycle seems like an air raid siren

noisy – a bit more awake now and I can hear the roar of the main road just behind the house – people are awake in their hundreds.  The bin men come clattering into the street.  Its really loud outside

still – the sprinklers go off and looking out of the window – the garden is cloaked in a velvet-like eerie still darkness.

busy – I can hear the road noise more now and, even before 6am, neighbours are starting their cars and leaving.  I can hear footsteps in the drive at the back

empty – but the house is still utterly silent and empty inside, even the dog is still sleeping peacefully somewhere

crowded – the roads when I leave are busy and the train is totally packed well before 7am

dark – its stlll very dark out, dawn is a good way away yet

light – headlights, fluroescent lights, train lights thrust a mechanical artifical dawn onto the world

then the sun comes up

I’m poorly. bleaugh.

but I still have to work so I’m sat at home on my lonesome working on yet another proposal..

Its raining today – I’ve not seen rain in ages – it didnt rain back in Blighty last week, it was just grey and parky – and its not rained here since December I think.  I dunno, I wasnt really counting. 

Theres a terrible smell outside today – like stale poo – yuk!  No idea where it was coming from – maybe one of the factories on the Kwinana strip not so far from here – I don’t know.  Anyway, it was awful, but the rain washed it away, which will make my working from home a bit more bearable.

The dog is sniffing.  a lot.  She does that often, but you know how you notice something and suddenly thats all you can hear or see.  Well this is like that.  gah! be quiet puppy!

and onto work I must get.  man, this is exciting stuff isnt it!

ctrl+alt+del

321 and we’re back

Third verse, same as the first, or something,

Its been too long since I wrote stuff down – and I forget what I’ve done half the time.  Ok, ok, more than half the time.  So, to catch up on the last 2 years of not blogging..here we go for a little catch up.  In reverese chronological order (at least I think its reverse – how about top down? oh, you figure it out)

Henry born
Move to Royston
Divorced
Engaged
Oracle buy my company – well, not mine, just the one I work for, or I’d have my own island and wouldn’t be blogging anymore..I’d be too chilled..
Leave the UK and move to Australia
Start work for ASG
Buy a house

and there we are, bang up to date.

*beams*

but I bet you’ll be expecting a bit more from now on.  Oh, okay then, be like that..