Kazza the Blank One

I've updated the design of this blog to swap out the Google Analytics code for the new stuff, fixed the path to the files, and fixed all the scripts and style sheets to https (hard coded).

So just doing a test post to see if it .. works.. before republishing the entire site (which could take all weekend..).

Oh that reminds me, I need to take tags out of the published pages..  Done.. I think..  

I also cleared the activity log - cleared nearly 9MB!  Down from 56.4MB to 47.8MB

And then in a very long battle with timeouts.. I deleted all the Assets.  

!!!

And now things post super quickly..!!

Sigh I just blatted this entry.  Let's start again shall we..

Monday.  9th.  Backdated.  Long story.  

Took forever to get to sleep. Stressing about my database. So a crappy nights' sleep. Then another busy day at work. I was going to try and sneak off a few hours early to catch up with crap but just too busy. Went to Chris's and got some chicken and cooked up some Chicken Tonight, but it was a bit.. gelatinous.. Not bad, just not super epic awesome. Did some culling of Tassie hotel photos. Not that I can post them any time soon.

All the pink and purple crap this week!!

Tuesday. Awake from some time before two til after three. Hurray. Depressed about hosting. Depressed about my health. Everything is awful. Although we did do a prod cutover and noone's screamed yet. Cooked up some mince/pasta for dinner. 

Wednesday. Awake from after 3. Never got back to sleep. Busy day migrating. Got results of my sleep study. Yeah a bit of sleep apnea. Hurray. Depressed and overwhelmed at everything.

Thursday.  Woke up. Wondered what the time was. Estimated about 5:30. Looked at my phone. 5:29. Cool. Busy day of migrations. Nice drinks but only a couple of other people. Made pizzas for dinner.

Then watched Mean Girls. Aww man I don't miss high school one little bit.

Friday the 13th. Slept mostly ok. Feeling overwhelmed at life. Today was ten years ago that we left for our Queensland trip. But I can't post it because my database is still broken. Two and a half weeks later. So this weekend instead of catching up on everything, I have to find a new hosting company for my blog. Because even if Vodien fixed it this time, they'll still break it again in the near future and I don't have the mental capacity to deal with their BS. I'll be putting one star reviews wherever I can find places to do it. Leftovers for dinner, Mash, then I watched TRON, which I think I might have seen once when I was a kid.

Saturday. Slept mostly ok. Did some house stuff then went looking for new hosting.  Went out for lunch and shopping.  Hungry Cracks are doing a parmi burger.  It was a sloppy mess.

The flowers at Jamo were pretty

Saw this in Coles.  I have a mandolin.  It's awesome. But it doesn't have a gaurd.  So I have to be EXTREMELY careful using it.  Yes I have cut myself on it.  No I wasn't drinking.  But I was distracted talking to people.  So it might be kinda nice to have another one for when my current one gets too blunt to use...

Leftover pasta and salad for dinner, Mash, then I watched Tron: Legacy. I didn't think I'd ever seen it, but then where they go into Jeff Bridges' fancy house I was like, that seems familiar.  Weirdly Disney kept changing the aspect ratio.  In some places it'd be widescreen, but others it was much closer to 4:3.  Weird. Oh and there we go - I have seen it.  Yay for dementia and not remembering anything.

Sunday. Spent much of the day trying to fix my blog. Had leftover raclette from Chris on toast for lunch.

Then.. OMFG TRBC is closing down!!!!!! Drank one of the last of three we have in the house. Stu is drinking one of the others. The other is a dark lager so Stu will drink that. I'm half tempted to do a sneaky trip down for one last visit. But aint noone got time for that.

Roast beef for dinner but overdid it :( (1.75 kg in 1.5 hours).  Stu liked it though. And I guess it will do well as leftovers.  Then watched the 2018 version of Freaky Friday.  Wait, what, it's a muscial?  Lolz.  Only 3.8 on IMDB too heh.  I think there's one more version I still need to see.

I wanted to have a hanami party this year.  I messaged Nat and Andrew ages ago but they never got back to me.  Then I was going to invite Chris and Glenda (they're going to Japan in October).  But with all the stress and drama going on, I just didn't feel up to it.  You know I'm not doing well if I pass up an opportunity to have peeps over for a little party ...

Friday - 6.9.24

Out the door at 9am, but had to get some extra things for Jeff's "hamper". Then we needed to get breakfast. So it was after 10 by the time we got away from Canberra.

Lake George shining

Stu put on an audio book - The Easy Life in Kamusari.

At the Nattai River hill we were passed by a hoon. I was disappointed there wasn't police on the other side of the hill (there often is). When we got to the M7 turnoff in Sydney there was a bit of a traffic jam and we were in the wrong lane to turn onto it, so that was a bit stressful. We were finally able to merge in and when we got to the pyramid there were police cars and the same hoon pulled over and under arrest (literally saw him in handcuffs on the ground haha).

Stopped at Ourimbah for petrol and lunch.

New freeway and overpasses at Hexham

I'll miss the old bridge at Hexham

Then just drove on. Mostly finished the book.

Arrived in Port Macqaurie just before 6. Dumped our stuff then headed out again.

Went out to Potty's for drinks and pizzas. Most of the family was there so that was nice. The kids were very loud heh.

Saturday - 7.9.24

Didn't sleep very well - the pillow was too thick and the bed too soft. I did go and get my own pillow which helped, but kept getting a sore spine from the soft bed.

Got ready then went out for a good long walk around the beaches which was pretty nice.

Folly, on Windmill Hill

Butcherbird

Nobby Head

Oxley Beach

Flagstaff Lookout

Town Beach

Oxley Beach

Waves crashing off Oxley Beach

Town Beach

There was a small formation of vintage aircraft flying around

Port Macquarie Observatory

Gak gak birds!!

Then I tried to find coffee and breakfast. I'd already passed one busy cafe at Town Beach but wasn't ready to get stuff yet. I found one other cafe but they didn't have any nice pastries just a couple of cakes/banana bread type stuff. Looked for a few other cafes but they didn't look the sort to do takeaway coffee. So #fail. In the end got some snackages and coffee in a can from the Foodary.

Annie stopped by to drop off a dress (I don't own dresses lolz). It was a bit big but looked marginally ok. Stu thought I should wear it.

Then we headed up to SWR, and finished the book on the way. It was kinda funny. Nice story.

Kempsey Northern Gateway Sculpture

At Jeff and Ruth's we arrived in time for morning tea (everyone was already there, so that was a bit stressful), and they put on a slide show which was pretty cool.

Jeff about to go through the slide show

Then we headed off to lunch - The Old Bank in Gladstone. They'd setup a table outside under a big tree overlooking the river - absolutely lovely setting. Had a pretty awesome lunch there. And there were lots of speeches hehe. And there were two snakes. Or the same snake doing the rounds. I thought it was Sally's leash that was moving, and things weren't computing, and everyone thought I was having a seizure or something. But I hope I didn't step on it (I don't think I did). Left after 3.

Family photo

Ruth and Jeff

Arancini balls

Chicken sausage rolls

Prawn platter

Green tree snake (take 2 - the other one that I nearly trod on got away before I could get a photo)

Beef tenderloin I had for lunch

Annie reading her poem

Jeff's birthday cake

Happy birthday!!

The plan was to go back to Jeff and Ruth's to get changed to go for a swim. But then it was decided to drive around the beaches to see which one would be the best. But then it was decided which beach they were going to go to, but noone told us, and most of them didn't come back to Jeff's. This made it Too Hard, so I just stayed with the Stu's.

Then back to Port for dinner of snackages (still full from lunch). Watched some Big Bang Theory then to bed.

Sunday - 8.9.24

Still too soft a bed to sleep very well. Woke up at 5.

Got ready then headed out to Potty's for coffee. We were first there which was nice.

Had breakfast at The Scottish Restaurant then tried to get petrol. But if you're coming from the restaurant side it's incredibly confusing and we drove around a couple of times and in the end came in through the back cause they made it too damned hard.

Put on the next Kamusari book which we got most of the way through (Kamusari Tales Told at Night).

Hexham Bridge

Had lunch in Ourimbah, and got petrol in Marulan.

At Lake George (which is still very full) a wallaby on the side of the road started moving onto the road. Stu slowed down, gently, then rapidly, then to a hard stop. We were lucky we didn't hit the thing. The dude on the right didn't slow down at all and zoomed past us while we were stopped. If the wallaby had kept crossing the road it would have been hit. In the end it went back off to the left. So that was a bit rattling.

Home a bit before 6.

This view coming into Canberra never gets old!

Sunday.  1.9.24.  Backdated.  Long story.  Blogged after we got home from Chris and Geoff's but couldn't post because my database is still broken. Didn't get hungry even by 20:30. Made a piece of toast so I don't wake up hungry in the middle of the night.

Monday. Slept mostly ok. Busy day again. Stu had a job interview. In the afternoon Stu decided he really was too cold, and went down to reboot the heater (yanking the cable on it and waiting 30 seconds). Miraculously this worked! Ran the heater for a while. Got some sausages from Chris's for dinner to have with leftover veggies. Labelled some Queensland photos. Nearly done.

Tuesday. Slept mostly ok. Rinse and repeat really - busy day of migrations, Queensland photo labelling, frustration with hosting.

Wednesday. Slept mostly ok. Rinse and repeat really - busy day of migrations, Queensland photo labelling, frustration with hosting. 

Thursday. Slept like crap. Stressing about my website. Stressing about sleep study.  Busy day at work. Ok drinks. Shopping after work. Dominos pizzas for dinner.

Friday to Sunday - Port Macquarie.

Sunday.  Checked my gmail when we were near home.  I got depressed about the whole hosting thing again. Didn't even feel like drinking when we got home I was that depressed. You know there's something wrong with me when that is the case.

Just crappy shots on my phone.

This one taken as I left work on Thursday

Taken outside our motel in Port Macqaurie

This last one taken from a moving car next to the Macleay River!

Sunday.  25th.  Backdated.  Long story.

Evening. After not turning on the heater this morning because it was 17C, it was getting colder in the evening so I went to turn it on. Except the control panel was blank. No power. Sigh. I bet even if we get someone to look at it, they won't fix it rather than can't fix it. I'm sure they'll be like, eh, dead, too bad so sad bye bye. Stu cooked miso mushrooms for dinner which were very nice. Then watched Twister.

Monday. Slept ok. Migration work at work. At lunch I put on osso buco to cook for dinner. Made up some creamy polenta to go with it.

Tuesday. Up twice in the middle of the night checking on a big bunch of migrations. It was a bigger batch than we'd ever done before and they took too long and ran over backup time, causing everything to grind to a halt, and we had to cancel and redo most of them.  Blog dramas begin.

Wednesday. Went to bed early and slept relatively well.  Blog dramas continue.

Not only that but I'm getting trash emails from a pharmacy in America (CVS) which some retard called Rose has signed up for using MY email address. The problem is I can't access any of the site to complain about it because "CVS.com® is not available to customers or patients who are located outside of the United States or U.S. territories. We apologize for any inconvenience." I raged to them on Twitter. They responded by asking my name. I told them and raged some more and of course they're ignoring me because why the hell should they care that they're spamming someone in Australia. Need to get on with a VPN I reckon.

Thursday. Busy day. Blog dramas continue.

Into season 9 of Mash. Watched most of the Netflix documentary "Feminists: What were they thinking?" They talked to lots of women, but each of them only got a couple of lines each because there were so many of them to get through. There was one woman from some archival footage saying they didn't want to be slaves in the home. Great. Except now it's the other way around. Women got their way. They can go to work. But because women work now, they can afford a more expensive house because a couple has two incomes. So house prices went up accordingly.  It's now gotten to the point where you can *only* afford a house if the woman is working too. So now women are slaves to working. As well as having to look after the house and family. Feminists: What were you thinking?

Friday. Blog dramas continue. Did some migration work and trying to catch up on tickets and emails. Kiev and carrots for dinner (kiev picked up from Coles on Thursday and a whole bag of carrots that Chris was throwing out cause they were going slimy and so I got them for free). Watched 9 to 5 which Jane Fonda had talked about in the feminists documentary.

Saturday. Slept ok. Quiet day. Photo labelling and house stuff.

Here we go again..

Went for a little drive after work to get petrol, CO2 and visit the lake.

Go away!!

Made a caramel slice, and then pizzas for dinner (the sweetie wanted my pizzas over commercial ones, go figure!).

Watched Mash, then The Door Into Summer, which was a bit confusing in the middle but mostly resolved itself satisfactorily.

Sunday. 1.9.24. Slept ok. Blog dramas continue.  More photo labelling and house stuff. Went over to Chris and Geoff's for a raclette lunch. It was eleven years and three months to the day that we last were there. We left it a little late, it really wasn't the weather for raclette. Still pretty awesome though. Went for a walk after lunch which was nice and helped walk off lunch. Not feeling like dinner though!

26.8.24 (backdated entry)

When we went food shopping at the markets on the weekend we were looking for something we could slow cook. Stu saw osso buco so we got some of those. Found a recipe in The Slow Cooker Kitchen that I think I got from the Green Shed.

Coat some osso buco steaks in a little flower then fry til caramelised.

While that's frying, add half a cup of dry white wine (I didn't measure this), a cup of stock, half a tub or so of tomato paste, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, garlic, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves (fresh ones, thanks Jo!).

When the meat is done, cook a diced onion and a couple of carrots until a bit coloured.

Cook in a slow cooker all afternoon.

Enjoy!  (enjoyed here with creamy polenta)

Sunday.  18th.  When we were in the butcher we asked about the "rump cap" they had in the fridge (I'd never heard of it).  Like would you slow cook it or roast it.  He said to roast it.  So we did.  And it was amazing!  So tender and flavourful.  Loved it.

Then watched Iron Man 3.  I would argue that anyone with a huge house like that in such a prominent location, the owner would probably be "public knowledge".  ie, giving out your address would be a bit pointless because any sort of basic search would probably turn it up.  I could be wrong of course.  Also, the movie failed with its assumed knowledge.  There were mentions of "New York" but the last time I saw Iron Man in New York it was for his expo.  I think there was one mention of aliens.  But yeah pretty much a fail in terms of filling people in that had only seen the first two Iron Man movies and none of the rest of it.  I still have no idea what happened to him.

Monday.  Stu had another nosebleed overnight but this time it went *everywhere* :(  Didn't sleep well after that.  Another busy day.  Toulouse sausages and salad for dinner.  Spent two hours uploading Tassie html to the blog.  Was hoping to get it all done.  Only got half way.

Tuesday.  Slept mostly ok.  Another busy day.  Finished getting Tassie photos online, well at least the day photos, not the food/hotel ones.  I still need to fix the style sheet and scripts on all my blogs so it's hardcoded https so they'll render properly.  In my copious free time.  Sigh.  But @kapgar and @blogography have both managed to post comments recently, I thought they'd either stopped reading or given up posting on my broken site heh.  Hi!!

Wednesday and Thursday.  Bit of a blur.  Super busy days at work.  We did sneak out for a Lighty lunch though.  Their caesar salad is pretty epic - more bacon and cheese than lettuce!

Friday.  Slept like crap.  Busy day trying to catch up on tickets.  

After work was Dark Matter in the Pub with EB. 

It was interesting but OMFG Too. Damned. LOUD!!  We used ear plugs.  I think I should keep some in my bag permanently.

See!  I'm not the only one that thought it was too loud - three or maybe four other people in view blocking their ears as well!!

Saturday.  Slept mostly ok.  Finished culling Queensland photos.  Finished doing Tassie food photos.  House and Lego stuff.

Kievs for dinner (that I got from Coles during the week).  Watched Miss Potter.  I had no idea what it was going to be about.. until I saw a picture of Peter Rabbit heh.  Quite a sweet movie.

Sunday.  Slept mostly ok.  Felt totally flat all day.  Didn't feel like doing anything much.  Sigh.  Didn't turn the heater on this morning, it was 17C when I got up.  Did some photo stuff, Lego, music, food shopping.

Six months ago today the sweetie and I headed off for a month in Tasmania.  We had a lovely time and saw heaps of stuff.  But not nearly everything we could have seen.  We could go back and have basically the same itinerary and still see a months' worth of completely different things.  

Yeup.

So here's the photos!  Enjoy!

And in other news.

I was FORTY YEARS ago today our family left for a holiday in Western Australia.  Unfortunately I only realised this a couple of days ago so didn't have the time to process the parents' photos to get them online.  Soon!!

Sunday Neil and I went to see Twisters.

No relation to the original.

Well other than the title font and some of the producers.

It certainly had some of the vibes of the original.

So yeah, a bit of silly fun really.

I would argue that people in Oklahoma would be all too aware of what they needed to do during a tornado. 

And could a tornado *really* form without *anyone* noticing it when the whole area was literally full of tornado chasers?

We both enjoyed it, for what it was, popcorn Hollywood fluff.

Although we had choctops, not popcorn.

;)