Tempus Fugit » Logbook

Birthday Candles and the Washed Potato

jez — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 14:50:13 +0000

Today and tomorrow mark the first weekedn I have had off in a long long long time. It was bliss to be able to wake up and know that I could go back to sleep without the guilt that comes with knowing that one should be awake and somewhere else.

So it was not until 1500 hours this afternoon that I decided to awake from my slumber. And it was sooooo nice. In my own time I brewed myself a cup of Merlo Forza coffee and in my own time I enjoyed it. And it was good. Oh yes, it was good.

It has been a relaxing ‘me-day’ today. I have not felt compelled to be anywhere for anyone except myself. I think that as a result, my BP has dropped several millimetres of mercury.

There was a blip this evening however, when Mum tells me that Centrelink wants ‘more information’ fucking bastards. I am in the middle of fucking nowhere and they want me to provide ‘more information’. Balance was returned to my universe however when I discovered that the ATO had come through – but a week after my return was returned. So it’s ‘all good’.

So where does the potato and the birthday candles fit into all this? Well that would be this evening when the power decided to go off…. I was in the middle of downloading my latest audiobook for my iPod from Audible.com and the power decided to go. Great. On battery power on my laptop….please oh please let the power come back on before I lose battery power – I don’t want to have to download the whole thing again.

So in pitch blackness on an island in the middle of nowhere. I’m in a strange unit. No thought had been given to me that perhaps the generators on the island might be somewhat unreliable!

So with the aid of the glow of my mobile…. I managed to locate in the myriad of kitchen cupboards, a packet of birthday candles. Fiat Lux – let there be light. I was able to get around by the light of two birthday candles wedged into a washed potato. Each lasted 15 minutes….so by my reckoning, I would have 6 hours worth of light should I need it.

As fortune would have it, the generators managed to be restarted and I was once again awash with light. And my download was saved.

And the balance of the universe is maintained.

Vegetarianism ain’t so bad….

jez — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:26:03 +0000

When you have to pay 21 dollars a kilo for chicken, it’s time to consider vegetarianism. For the next six weeks I thinks that I might avoid the meat.

A basket of groceries cost me 97 dollars yesterday. That is… a carry basket.

So it’s an expensive little time here on Groote.

And muggy.

Thank goodness for airconditioning. The two bedroom unit I am staying in has three air conditioners. The clinic is airconditioned.

Will be an interesting six weeks.

Like Swimming In Warm Urine.

jez — Sun, 17 Oct 2004 04:56:45 +0000

Hello World!!

Here I am in Darwin.

Muggy as all buggery. It honestly feels like what I guess it must feel like if you were to swim in a pool of warm urine.

Having said that I can only speculate as to what it would be like to marinate in urine (be that mine or someone elses). I have certainly not had the misfortune of ever having experienced it for real

Ahh well. Six weeks of that ‘Warm Urine Feeling’ – hereby referred to as WUF.

Flight up was uneventful. Mikko drove me to the airport…via Merlo. I decided that if I was going to rough it in the never-never I would at least take with me a few creature comforts. Thus I have my stove top espresso maker and 400g of Forza Merlo – freshly ground.

I hope I am not expected to actually achieve any study whilst up here….I wasn’t actually able to bring any textbooks. When I weighed my pack this morning it was 15kg over the 13kg limit. Which means I am up for a nasty hefty excess baggage charge. That being said, I would choose espresso over textbooks any day.

As an exercise in keeping the boredem demons at bay while wallowing up here, I have decided to attempt a bit of a video/docudiary thingy. Basically I think my plan is to video a clip a day, cut it together on my laptop (that in itself should take millions of hours given how slow the laptop goes), and post it in my online album. Given that I can link files from my album to this ‘ere blog thingy, I hope to be able to have a clip of some interest to document my time up in the top end.

Believe it when you see it though. I am sure that even the best laid plans go astray – particularly when they are that of a professional procrastinator….me being one who should probably achieve a lifetime achievement award for procrastination.

Okay. Nuff said. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah. One other thing….feel free to comment away with each post. Would love to hear what the invisible masses* have to say.

* …okay okay….invisible masses might perhaps be a little grandiose…my awstats script of site visits shows a currently limited audience…but it’s growing.