Idol-phile

Is it just me, or does Kyle look like a lecherous old guy in both these photos? Its almost like he's trying to do a cool head wobble photo-still equivalent. Creepy! Either that, or someone at some point has told him "you look great, hold that pose".
Except its a joke Kyle.

I'm sure the irony of the pairing is not lost on them either (you'd hope). She's only famous because of a Reality TV search for a Singer, and he breaks dreams every day he's a judge on Australian Idol. Rest of the Gallery here.
***disclaimer: I watch Idol, and frequently listen to the Kyle & Jackie O Show on 2DayFM. I do actually like Kyle.***

Santa

Santa's graduating from Santa academy in Toyko

Die Trying - Lee Child ***/*

A Chicago street in bright sunshine. Jack Reacher, strolling nowhere, meets an attractive young woman, limping, struggling with her crutches, alone. Naturally he stops to offer her a steadying arm, and then they turn together - to face twin handguns held level and motionless and aimed straight at their stomachs.

Chained to the woman, locked in a dark, stifling van racing 2,000 miles across America, Reacher needs to know who he's dealing with. The kidnappers say nothing, and his companion claims to be Holly Johnson, FBI Agent. She's fierce enough and tough enough, but he knows there must be more to her than that. And (sic) at their remote, hostile destination, they will need to act as a team and trust each other, pitting raw courage and cunning against insane violence and seemingly hopeless odds, with their own lives and hundreds more at stake.

Great Reacher novel, Lee Child never fails to deliver.

3.5 / 5

The Innocent Man - John Grisham ****

An excellent book, and an excellent example of reasons fiction writers should also pay attention to the wider world. Grisham has demonstrated that fact can be stranger than fiction, and when it is, it needs no decoration. He has employed a no nonsense writing style in this work which while you may imagine it could drag, it works wonderfully and keeps great pace.
I admit I was so incensed by the subject matter and the injustice of it all that at one stage I simply had to stop reading, and regroup.
If you like legal thrillers, or True Crime, this book is a must read.
Library loan I'm sorry.

4 / 5

Oh dear god, sheild mein eyes!

The new Spice Girls video, if you haven't seen it.
Why on earth are they all writhing around in their underwear??? This song is supposedly about friendship and yet they're all getting their gear off, and simpering at the camera. It all takes a weird Left turn after Geri comes on the screen wearing only her bra and undulating her abs, as if we really need to see that. There's group shots with erupting breasts, like some sort of sickening pillow fight, sans pillows.

Posh is sitting in this weird stripper pose with her legs spread on a chair, wearing some weird fetish pvc bondage strapping, and looking more and more like the over priced china doll she's become. Just when they could have exploited a real opportunity for her to dispel the long-held theory that she was nothing but a pretty face, she simply gets her gear off and pretends she's singing along!

The whole video is this bizarre orgiastic fest, and it was only a morbid fascination that kept me watching. Sporty looked like a lawyer the whole time, beign the only one not to get her cans out.

She's leaving on a jet plane...

All the farewellers, originally uploaded by dataceptionist.

Well she's left already actually. Had an email today to say they've arrived and are having fun.
I miss her already.

Crap food

You know what I think is worse than crap tasting diet food? A misguided expectation it will taste good. I think there is a huge hole in the market for "healthy" snack food that doesn't taste shit.
Take the "Fruit 'n Crunch" bar above.
This is the second such bar I've tried now, that has tasted like poison.
OK, maybe not poison and the death that follows sharply after, but it was CRAP diet food.
Now I know there's a lot of you out there that are saying "yes but diet food isn't meant to taste nice" or "diet food always tastes like shit, what did you expect?"

I have almost reached a point where if it's edible, it can't possibly be something I should eat. The problem then is that I am wracked with guilt every time I eat. Hiding furtively in the corner, tearing the corner off a barbeque chicken, and diving headfirst into the bag, emerging with glorious fat dripping down my neck.

Don't get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy steamed vegies, unlike a lot of people. Chicken rissoles, steamed broccoli, zucchini, squash, carrots. Yum. Snack food is a minefield though.
That Uncle Toby's muesli bar you used to eat at recess every day? Packed with excess sugar and salt.
Space food Stick? Too much Sugar, too much fat.
Even my crap-tacular K-Time bar above isn't the healthiest thing on the shelf.
But the alternative is the Weight Watchers Snack bars, which, without a joke, taste like compounded cardboard with red stuff smeared in between masquerading as some sort of fruit product.
You can't eat the things without 2 litres of water at the ready, because your mouth simply can't produce enough saliva to masticate them properly.

One thing I will say in WW's defence, for the range of food they produce, they get a lot of it right. Their little fruit cups are great, I love them, but you can only eat one a day really (unless you want to eat more than the recommended fruit intake for the day and spend the rest of the day on the toilet). They also do great shredded tasty cheese, baked beans that taste exactly the same as SPC or Heinz (1/2 point). And their single serve tomato soup cans are fab. Their ice-cream is good but not GREAT, but their single serve dessert puddings are AMAZING! Yummo!

Help me people! Does anyone know any good stuff? What is your experience with Pre-packaged "diet" food?

(btw- I picked Blue text colour because apparently the colour blue is an appetite suppressant (WW packaging) as opposed to RED which is apparently an appetite stimulant (think Maccas, Burger King, KFC).
I wonder where Green falls into with Subway.....

Controversial

An amazing video. I would urge you to watch it, very interesting things to say about Islam.




A link to a story done by Jana Wendt on the woman in the video.

Top Sellings Albums in Oz

The top selling albums of the past ten years
(in Australia)

1 Come On Over (Shania Twain) 1997

I only own the greatest hits....











2 Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette) 1995 ^^

This was the first CD I ever owned. I still treasure it...










3 Innocent Eyes (Delta Goodrem) 2003 ^^

I always liked this album. Can get a bit wearing if you listen on repeat though.









4 Savage Garden (Savage Garden) 1997


I only have a compilation created by Loulou. Its got all the best ones anyway.







5 Falling Into You (Celine Dion) 1996

I love Celine Dion. Not enough to buy her music though. I love her French songs.
She really does have an amazing voice.
And yes, I love my heart will go on. Sorry.







6 Abba Gold (Abba) 1992
7 Immaculate Collection (Madonna) 1990
8 Recurring Dream (Crowded House) 1996
9 Come Away With Me (Norah Jones) 2002 ^^
(at least I did ... somewhere....)
10 Forgiven Not Forgotten (The Corrs) 1995
How good was This album. I had no idea it was so massive in Oz though.
11 Yourself or Someone Like You (Matchbox 20) ^^
(on tape, hehehe so old)
12 Forrest Gump (Soundtrack)
Sister has it. Good album.
13 The Very Best of (The Eagles)
14 1 (The Beatles)
15 Affirmation (Savage Garden)
16 The Eminem Show (Eminem) ^^
17 Live (Throwing Copper) ^^
Sigh, another of my staples. Hardly listen to it anymore though. One of my favourite songs also got kind of ruined when I found out earlier this year that the Snowtown murderers used it while they killed people. Creepy!!!!
18 HIStory (Michael Jackson)
LOVE MICHAEL JACKSON! Always meant to buy this.
19 Don't Ask (Tina Arena)
Hahaha I remember dancing in Year 5 to Tina Arena in my friends basement/rumpus room. Good times.
20 The Sound of White (Missy Higgins) ^^
Must say I'm not as into her second album, this one will always be the best.
21 Soul Deep (Jimmy Barnes)
22 Get Born (Jet)
23 Unplugged (Eric Clapton)
24 Let Go (Avril Lavigne)
25 Barricades and Brickwalls (Kasey Chambers)
26 Fever (Kylie Minogue)
27 Odyssey No 5 (Powderfinger)
28 Remasters (Led Zeppelin)
29 Symbols (Led Zeppelin)
30 The Best of 1980-1990 (U2) ^^
This was MUCH bigger than the secong 1990-2000 Silver one. I have both, this ones better. It has all the Joshua Tree classics on it. I don't know if you ever heard the story, but Eca and I got tickets when the concert was released last year. We were both madly clicking the Ticketek website and I got through (yay!). Then they postponed their concert, AFTER Eca had booked her ticket to London, based on the concert date. Eca was devastated she was going to miss it, and I knew it wouldn't be the same without her either.
Fastforward, they're talking about re-schedule dates, and wouldn't you know it. The re-scheduled for when Eca was back in Australia for our wedding. Only problem was it was smack bang in the middle of our Honeymoon, so now I couldn't go.....
Apparently it was a great concert too.....
31 The Ultimate Collection (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
32 No Angel (Dido)
33 Greatest Hits (Robbie Williams)
34 Back To Bedlam (James Blunt)
35 Just As I Am (Guy Sebastian)
36 Fallen (Evanescence) ^^
37 That's What I'm Talking About (Shannon Noll)
38 Feeler (Pete Murray)
39 Life For Rent (Dido)
40 I'm Not Dead (Pink) ^^
41 Michael Buble (Michael Buble) ^^ (burned)
42 Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson)
43 Songs About Jane (Maroon 5)
44 Mistaken Identity (Delta Goodrem) ^^
45 American Idiot (Green Day)
46 It's Time (Michael Buble)
47 Love Angel Music Baby (Gwen Stefani)
48 Monkey Business (Black Eyed Peas)
49 So Fresh - Hits of summer 2003 (Various)
Now how the hell was this particular
(NO idea why there's no # 50)
^^ Own it.

Not the biscuits!

I keep, on my desk at work, a jar of biscuits for when I get snacky. I only eat one maybe two, every other day. They're Arnott's Snack Right pillow biscuits, which are yummy. Snack rights are low fat, or low something or other, so I don't feel like a pig when I eat them, its like 1 Weight Watchers point for two biscuits or something.

This morning, I read that they've been misleading us! The Apple Blackberry ones (a favourite of mine)

"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleges that the fruit shown on the packaging of five of Arnott's bestselling, Snackright fruit slices and fuit pillows, might not in fact be a major ingredient."

I mean what is going on here!

"....shoppers have every right to expect berries to be a significant ingredient of Snackright apple and blackberry fruit pillows.

..... if berries and apple are on the packs then they should make up ``a significant amount'' of the ingredients...."

Damn right they should be! What the hell else am I eating? Butcher shop saw dust? How the hell are we meant to know whats in stuff if they're lying on the goddam packets! I just don't know who to trust anymore. (but I'm not going Organic anytime soon either)

Dilbert fun

Hello out there?

So, umm....look guys. I'm not saying you need to write like, War & Peace or anything, but it'd be really nice if you could leave a comment sometimes. You know, it doesn't have to be every post or anything, but if you had a chuckle or found what I said kind of interesting, maybe just a
"*chuckle*" or "good post"
You know I'd even take a "hey I found this quite dull"
Just you know, so I know I'm on the right track, or the wrong track, or that I'm even still on the track, not running off through scrubby bushland, with prickly things sticking to my socks.

And if you're just dropping in, how bout a Bangawoyo (hello in Korean)

(because really, who doesn't want a Banga-wo-yo)

You've got to be kidding me

I'm sure that's what the judge thought when this case same across his desk....

Escorts a work expense, court told

November 13, 2007

Question: When might thousands of dollars worth of escort agency services be considered a work-related personal expense for a corporate executive?

Answer: When an accountant might find they relate to entertainment or living away from home expenditure for companionship while interstate.

But even the Industrial Court judge hearing an unfair dismissal case could barely believe that Tas Sinadinos lived in the "real world" in claiming that escort services might be a legitimate tax deduction claim for personal expenses related to his relocation to Sydney as executive manager, logistics, for EDI Rail Pty Ltd on a salary of $185,000.

Mr Sinadinos is seeking orders including 12 months' salary in damages and a declaration that he was not guilty of misconduct in using his corporate American Express card for escort services.

His sacking from the company that provides Sydney trains was "unfair" as he was never shown the company's employee "code of conduct" when headhunted from Melbourne in December 2004.

He told the court he only saw the company policy on corporate card use a month later, by which time he claims to have had a verbal agreement with his manager to charge work-related personal expenses to his corporate credit card provided they were reimbursed directly.

But Mr Sinadinos agreed he did not directly pay back the company for up to $12,000 in personal charges at Coles, Theo's Liquor Store and Delfare Pty Ltd, an Annandale-based escort company, and other Sydney escort services...

...Mr Sinadinos agreed he had not worked since his sacking on August 31, 2005 over "inappropriate and unacceptable" personal spending on escort services....

...Buying escort services for "company" was "not dissimilar" to buying fittings for his apartment. He could not "differentiate [escort services] from buying a rack on which to put food on for my apartment. I would leave that to an accountant."

Jennifer Cook SMH

I mean, how ridiculous!

Cool coffee designs

The Husband - Dean Koontz ****

Great Book.
Good Thriller, good plot twists.
Thanks to Susie and Tom, who gave it to me for my B'Day :)
4 / 5

Just can't get into it....

I've started, and put down, and picked up again, and finally given up on the following books recently

I've had this book on reserve for months. It took ages to come in, and I started it, but just can't get into it.
The narrative style is a series of letters from Eva to her estranged husband. Kevin is their son, who when he was 15, went into his High School with a gun and shot his fellow students and a teacher.
Its an interesting premise, but somehow, I think the letter style really irked me. It gives no opportunity for anyone else's POV. I guess thats also its attraction as an author, and it can't be an easy style to write in either.
Not for me unfortunately.


This book was meant to be great. I wanted it to be amazing.
Ever since I read Infidel, I have wanted to read this. Its a bit of a discourse on Muslim women, but for me it read as more of a lecture.
Again, I just couldn't get into it.
I think it was because I felt like I was being lectured, which can be the difficulty in trying to get your point across about something that the listener doesn't neccessarily fully comprehend and that you're passionate about to boot.


Another book I saw in a book shop, and read the blurb thinking it would be a really interesting read. I think if I was more into colonial history, it would have been. AS it stands though, I'm not, so it wasn't as good a read as I'd hoped.
Unfortunately, on the back of the other few I couldn't really get into, it was a bigger disappointment than it might otherwise have been.
I started at the beginning, and each chapter is dedicated to a mistake. The first chapter is the landing of the British.
Yep.
So I read a few, not an interesting as I'd hoped, thought if I went to the end it might inspire me a bit more.
Last chapter, Gough Whitlam.
Yep, thats the most recent thing covered. So it ended up a bit of a fizzer.

*sigh*
It was all quite disappointing.

This isn't going to be pretty......

From my darling husband....

Hi All,

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'll be growin a Mo
(Now I know this isn’t going to be pretty, but neither is prostate cancer – and trust me - Yvonne will be making sure I suffer for the cause).
That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about changing men's health and the fight against male depression and prostate cancer.
Why...

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men...Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
  
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who die from breast cancer annually.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.
  

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/au/donate & enter my registration number which is 156436 and your credit card details.

Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Movember Foundation" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 156436.
Please mail cheques to: PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

The money raised by Movember is donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative, which will use the funds to create awareness, fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and male depression.

For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.
Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Borat look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a Gala Parté ticket .

Thanks for your support

Our First Wedding Anniversary

Wonderful Husband of mine had Champagne waiting in our room when we arrived, complete with a card that said Happy 1st Anniversary to my darling wife.
So we drank the champagne the first night! Heehee
We then proceeded to do our own tasting tour of the vineyards in the Hunter on the Saturday, which was lovely :)

More weird dreams

Ok so yesterday I had this weird dream where I was at one of M's football games and it was getting dark and when the game finished for some reason the lights went off and so me and all the spectators were sitting there in the dark until; the players came out of the dressing sheds again..... weird in itself, and just as I was sort of waking up I decided to go to the bar and get more drinks, and for myself I got either 2 or 4 drinks (massive pisshead, even in my dreams clearly) and for M I got two beers, and then I think his alarm went off, and my brain incorporated it and I thought "oh no, he's not going to have time to drink those two beers" I tried to explain this to him as he left for work but strangely enough he didn't find it as vexing as I did. He said something about virtual beers, like in Facebook. *shrug*

Last week I had a horrible dream that M and I were seperating (I specifically remember this being the term used). I think I heard M say "I'm Leaving" as in he was going to work, and my brain took that sentence and ran with it. That was awful really, as I felt conscious and like I was thinking, I had an internal monologue happening. I woke feeling relieved this was not the case. I hesitated to tell M right away though, as I didn't want him to think I was using my dreaming time to fantasise about getting divorced.

So this morning I dreamt we had had a baby! Literally woke up one morning, went to the doctor and discovered I was pregnant and gave birth. {actually, maybe this is a subconcious hope that I haven't gained weight from over-eating, I'm simply pregnant. Hmmm, think about it.....} Anyway, my dreams lately have been incredibly vivid. For example I can still feel the vomit on my face from the baby puking all over me. I wanted to highlight this as it wasn't like I was dreaming of babies and bunnies and rattles and fun.
I still have a residual feeling of awe though. Its amazing really what the brain can conjure without any prior experience. Having not yet had children, I can't actually draw on experience for a dream like this, and yet it felt quite real, and I really felt immersed in a realisitic way, not in the emotional caricature you can sometimes experience when dreaming about quite foreign things.

I actually woke from this one slightly disappointed it wasn't real.