Discussion Thread 🦩 Friday 2 May 2025

very early breakfast for Ted, who woke me up by walking up and down my body

he's been on a diet too, lost so much weight, he must be real hungry to wake me up

so hugs and half brekkie for the little guy who is not so round anymore 🐈‍⬛

Miss Meow did much the same, along with head butts and a lot of meow. She is also on a diet, but I don't think she is losing enough weight. She is already convinced she is starving to death, further reductions will not be taken well. At least she is well fortified for the stress of moving, if she decided to hide for a couple of days and not eat it would probably be good for her.
"walking up and down my body"
I would like to hire the shiatsu kitten alarm clock please
- Unfortunately shiatsu kitty often comes with enthusiastic amateur acupuncture
Alfie has definitely lost weight and it's nice because he's running around the house more, he seems to be feel much better. But the other night after his dinner, he wouldn't leave us alone, SCREAMING as if we hadn't fed him. Little beast. To the point boyo was wondering if we'd actually fed him. Alfie is an excellent liar!
- We have to announce "the dog's been fed" otherwise he tries to scam another meal from each of us.

Swedish meatballs 10/10

Slowly working down the moving checklist. Power & gas connection is organised, and mail redirection done. I need to look at insurance, which is a bit of a nuisance as my current policy ends 3 days before the moving date. Removalist is the next major thing to organise, and then lots of lots of address changes.

I looked at NBN yesterday, it looks like it has FTTP installed already. That will be good, as I'm looking at getting a Ring doorbell and some security cameras. Money is just flowing from my accounts like water at the moment!

Countdown: 1 week from key collection. 1 month from final move date.

ted has a new cat tree, he has chairs and soft beds, this cardboard box lid on the balcony is his favourite spot

Sounds like normal cat behaviour to me
- yup 🐱

My nephew just asked me who to vote for...stand back kiddo, aunty has got this 💪🏻

Alright.

No big surprises it's music and cat cuddles this evening.

I'm doing some work over the weekend but it's actually fun adjacent, so it's not too bad.

Cheers 🍻

here's ted

Haiiii Ted, you are glorious!
- he is and he has a great personality too, I love him very much
Ted sits like a human
Oh Ted. I want to bury my face in all that glorious floof. Although you might not like it

The band I'm in just released our debut album today! Eeeeep 😱 but also woooo 🥳

Drop a link? Congrats!
What do you play?
- Thanks! Here is the spotify link, but it's also on YouTube music etc. and Bandcamp. https://open.spotify.com/album/7tv4zg1t4VgfZDqgroGaop
  I play guitar and backing vocals :)

So, pakige arrived

ohh bugger.
Refund or replacement time?
- Fun fact: I have actually worked as an LCD repair tech. I opened the case up and there's some suss as shit crap in there - the pressure plates holding the LCD layer to the light panel were not outside the metal plate at the back of the whole shebang, but jammed between them. Which is quite hard to do without opening the case and rescrewing them. So it looks like a very dodgy refurb.
  Everything else works, so it's just a 22" LCD screen needed...I think I shall hit up a mate and arrange refunds.

I just opened Excel and the columns now use numbers as well as the rows. Formulas need to be written differently and now row number goes first instead of column.

What is going on? I feel confused, I feel sick, I'm dizzy, am I smelling toast?

Try the cesspit that is "new outlook". Fucking yuck.
- New Outlook isn't terrible for me because it's just the web version in its own container. However, you can't select which keyboard shortcuts you want to use to it's a no from me.
  But completely changing the way cells are labelled and ordered, now that's unforgivable.
- I usually roll with change, but threw a bit of a tanty when my computer forced that update... until my boss pointed out I could toggle it off. There is nothing positive about that update.

yeah, today I found a dead penguin washed up on the beach. Called wildlife services and they said this area has loads of penguins and it's a natural event. Poor little guy.

Poor pingu :(

Gooooood meowning everyone 😻

Attempting Swedish meatballs tonight. Must find zee Lingonberry jam.

Meatballls from scratch?

I think I have an ingrown toe nail. Hurts like a mf.

If it’s just starting you can wedge a little bit of cotton wool underneath the corner of the nail to lift it clear of your toe, which will allow it to grow out normally.
If it’s a proper ingrown you want to douse it in Betadine and get to the doctor. Trying to do things yourself can be an infection risk
- Thank you 😊 I had accidentally clipped the nail too short and it broke, then I stubbed my toe. Didn't think anything of it until it started being painful and gross over the past few days. I can't really see if it's ingrown, so hopefully it's just beginning.
Get thee to a podiatrist asap! Trust me, they are brilliant at sorting out ingrown toenails. Which have a genetic component but are made much much worse with ill fitting footwear. Speaking as someone whose toenails started to grow into tubes during my 20s, and still do if I mistreat them. My podiatrist kept my feet functional for a long long time - far better than any doc ever did.

Home early yay.

Let the journey of Expedition 33 continue!

Cheers voters 🍺 and 'ave a good weekend 👍

*This post was brought to you by Democracy Sausage v's Bunnings Sausage

Pah! Last election my local election booth had CAKE STALLS! I will have first dibs on the first passionfruit/cream sponge I see! Plus sossiges of course but compared to a nice passionfruit sponge .... no contest!
- It's a great way to raise money, I don't know why more places don't do it.
- I have one literally over the road with sausage and cake stall. It's a good day for democracy
I may have gone off a bit early.
I’ve already eaten sausages on hot dog buns.
Food coma incoming. Trying to fight it
My local polling areas don't have anything 😒I have been known to visit a neighbouring suburb in the electorate who's local school knows how to do it right and vote there. Sossig and cake stall, come to mumma!
- I'm going to the one my kid is working at purely to embarrass her.
  She'll be working for the greens. 👍
🍻🍻🍻🌭🌭🌭
- 🍺

Here's hoping the school down the road will have a barbecue going early tomorrow when we go to vote 🤞

All the exciting things I've ordered lately and the first thing to arrive has to be the mop bucket. Still, it is a very nice mop bucket. And it has wheels, so it can roll with me as I move around the room. Plus it's in a nice bright hazard warning yellow with "wet floor" warnings on the side, so Miss Meow and Mr Woof will know to be careful. Although it would probably be more useful if I actually had the mop.

be more useful if I actually had the mop
Technically mr woof and miss meow could be used as interim mop heads.
- Technically. Mr Woof had a bath yesterday, so I guess it should be Miss Meow's turn. I suspect if I tried it I would end up with many claw marks.
- eggsakly
it's traditional aussie custom as per Lennie Lower to tie fluffy cats and dogs to poles to make mops

wakes up
rolls over.
summons bagagwa

On day two of “onboard for delivery within 24 hours” and you know, you KNOW the instant you poke them it shoots to NO DELIVERY FOR YOU

…but on a far more hilarious note hubs just tried to infolecture me on DNS somehow completely forgetting that I have worked for multiple webhosting companies and know way, way more than he does. Oh and sweetie, you are incorrect.

I like it when clients ask a lot of questions but my god, this one has gone to absolute town. Getting their money's worth I see.

FRIDAY!!!!!

Working on building an internal LLM agent for work. Pretty exciting tbh.

Just reading about the poor woman who was found in the water down at point lonsdale yesterday. So sad. Looks like they're searching the back beach right now with 3 choppers again so maybe someone else was with her that they couldn't find yesyerday :(

Such a dangerous beach.

edit, nope an aircraft incident today, drowning yesterday jeez.

Back in the day (mid 90s, Saturday night) my local night club was The Grand Hotel in Essendon. Where was your's?

P.s. Friday night was Shooter's in Glenroy. $2.50 drinks.

The Chevron in St Kilda Road! Also the Croc, the Parkview, and the Dan O'Connell. But just about any pub had live music on Fri/Sat albeit of varying quality and volume back in the early 70s. If you could be bothered with a long tram ride, then the Three Weeds on Plenty Road often had good bands just starting out.
- Dan O'Connell for St Pat's. They used to use the little park next to the pub for a band (the Australian U2 Experience I think) and outside drinking. Cheap Guinness that got cheaper throughout the night. I remember getting $1 pints at about 2am as they were trying to finish off the supply.
- I've been to the Chevron!
I was too busy in the 90’s for a local. 😭
- What were you doing?
- I was too young
Night club - Goo (alcohol) or the NightCat (pills)
Pub - Evelyn, Rising Sun, The Standard
Sneaking booze into the Fri/Sat ice skate disco on Centre Rd. We'd spend the early part of the evening scouring the Oakleigh Coles for a 2for1 shop-a-docket. We'd then try to talk people already in the queue into letting us in for free with the 2for1 cos we were broke.
- 😂 I love that!
  What was your drink of choice? Mine was Bacardi and lemonade and Sub Zeros with raspberry.
I was more a pub goer: the Lomond in East Brunswick, or the Woodlands, Post Office or Browns (before it was renovated) in Sydney road. Also a place that used to be called Nick's wine bar in Nicholson st North Fitzroy next to the tram depot. Also a couple of the uni pubs but I've forgotten their names.
- The Lomond for chats with RRR presenters.
Early years a pub in Footers near uni, years later Rick's on Avenue Louise, James Joyce on Place Schuman , little mexican place in Greenwich Village, Starbucks on Pearl Street
nearly every bar in downtown Detroit
didn't go to clubs when young, I was either a young parent or working too hard
- What was the music you grooved to there? What did you drink?
Various pubs & clubs, often to see bands. The Punter’s club, espy sometimes, the tote, the empress, others in Brunswick st & around there back in the day. The old Greek theatre, the club, Sarah sands (when it was a venue). That was a trip down memory lane - reminded me I did actually go out quite a lot
- Sarah Sands and the Espy. Good times.

Ticket inspectors southbound on St Kilda Rd @ commercial rd

That looks tasty!! How was the stargazing last night?!
- Sky pretty. Sky VERY pretty

electric blanket on 1 or 2 was a lifesaver last night!

Do people not realise that Costco fuel has long hoses so you can fuel your car no matter which side your tank opening is on? Or are they afraid of using it?

Just nipped to Costco and drove in looking a line of 3 cars waiting at one bowser set, only for the 3 bowser set next to it be completely empty. Feels like a cheat code when you pull up, fuel up and zip out before that line has gotten through.

Like using the tool counter at Bunnings.
- or the trade desk..

I’m having a quiet night in watching the footy, as I’m expecting a busy quokka filled election day. Bought a salad and a Woolies quarter chicken and settled in.

Also bought Masters spearmint milk, because that’s A Thing over here apparently…and it’s legitimately great? I don’t understand why we don’t also have minty milk?

Back in the dim & distant past, you could get spearmint milkshakes here in Melb. Grew up on them. Then about mid 1980s the choice of flavours dropped back to to vanilla, choc & raspberry - caramel if you were lucky. This was about the time that Big M started putting their wares in supermarkets, and you could no longer get milkshakes in milk bars as a matter of course. Some holdouts of course but in general the spearmint milkshake died right then and there. Could be time for a revival.
- My milkshake from earlier today was mango. Pretty bloody good
- I remember as a kid there were syrups at the milk bar - we must have been lucky as ours had blue heaven

Oh shit, is the election tomorrow? And the ballot has to be completed on or before it? Even with the constant spam texts that snuck up on me. I’ve been really sick for weeks.

I guess I just do it tonight and mail it tomorrow, and hopefully even with the weekend it arrives within 13 days.

Edit: I’ve filled out the ballot slip and voted above the line with 6 candidates. Already second guessing my choices but it’s done.

Tomorrow someone comes so they can witness my signature and take me to post it.

And if it is too late then they can just fine me. I don’t care. I’m struggling severely with my health and am doing my best.

I've started off with removalist quotes by getting a couple online, hoping for a rough ballpark figure. One was over twice the cost of the other. Accidentally including a trampoline in the list of things I am moving may have had an impact, although the total m3 they estimated was roughly the same. I almost added 35 outdoor umbrellas to the list on the other, due to resting my finger on the touch screen, but fortunately realised before I submitted it.

beware, a lot of places try to scam with added insurance
- There was one that just doesn't have insurance, and had lots of reviews saying they break things.
  As a positive I now have a bunch of quotes that all agree on the rough amount of stuff and likely time taken to move, so I can focus on the cost per hour and any extra charges (like the $500 surcharge for travelling over 30km the expensive place wanted). That place also thought it would take 3 men instead of the 2 everyone else is quoting for, which is why it was so much higher. All the others are between $1500-$2000, the expensive one was estimating $3500.
  I'll probably just go with the same removalist I had last time as long as they quote within a reasonable range. It was 19 years ago and the business has been passed on to the original owner's son since then, but I was very happy with them.

Managed to squeeze in a real full-body massage that had me being knelt on and every last knot massaged out, every finger and toe and every muscle in my shoulders and even my eyebrows got a massage. Ahh, bliss. I can sleep well tonight

Security cameras have definitely improved a lot since I last looked at them. Everything used to need hard wiring for power and all the apps were pretty glitchy last time I investigated.

I'm going to get the Ring doorbell, cameras with solar power and gutter mounts for the front and back, plus one in the main area inside. That should cover all the main approaches, and being a new estate most of the theives in the area will be targeting all the empty houses filled with brand new appliances anyway.

don't forget this.
if nothing else, it cuts down on delivery shitfuckery significantly
- That is a lot more bold and eye catching than the Ring camera stickers!
Is that a Ring camera for just the regular cameras as well?
- Yes, that's what I'm looking at. Then the one subscription and app will cover them all.

Silksong is gonna be playable at Game Worlds. I wonder how massive the hype is going to be?

https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/game-worlds/

I wonder when it'll be released, well no rush for me at the moment.
Hollow Knight is such a good game.
- They're lucky Hollow Knight is so replayable. Someone needs to tell the Youtube channel that does daily updates on whether there's any Silksong news.

I buy all kinds of music and since it's all 1 or 2 bucks I buy things I don't know. So this morning I put on a cd of "Indian" music. Just a compilation album.

First song up, This Land is your Land Indian style. It was pretty cool.

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

Eggplant waffles with th fried chicken and syzzurp please
- 🍆🧇🍗🍗🍗💤🍯

Is anyone here old enough to remember those collectable cards with pictures of Australian native birds on them that you used to find in packets of tea?

Edit: they were in Tuckfields tea.

yup. Tetley tea.
my husband used to collect them when he was a kid and he has 3 or 4 books of the complete collection
- Oh Tetley was it? I remember the smell of the tea on the cards and I loved them for that as well as the pictures! I had a big collection too that I lost over the years. Wasn't in books as my folks were too stingy to buy the books you put them in.
  Edit: I think your hubby must have the OG Tetley ones, whereas mine were the Tuckfields ones from the 70s

Decently chill day of work today. Got a meeting at 3, which hopefully won't last for too long.

Gonna hit the early voting centre to afford myself a sleep in tomorrow.

line for mine was around the block at lunch time.

Bonus election quiz

4/10 and that was better than average!

2/10
Very obscure quiz.
i did it twice, first time 4, then got 9
I am not a very engaged voter apparently. 3/10
2/10 🤓
Also 4/10, which were largely educated guesses

I didn't realise Paint by numbers would be so calming and fun.

I love paint by numbers. It's soothing! I love to paint/play with colours, but often get caught in my head about it being "perfect" or what I "should" paint, so doing a paint by numbers hits my creative bone without being stressful. Ahh so happy you're enjoying doing it!
I also have a Zen painting app on my phone that I'll often play.
- That's the one I'm using.
I have one on the ipad. Heaps relaxing.
- Yeah I'm using my tablet
It's very chill

Early voting was a no Bueno.

Massive lineup, no parking and I other arrangements. Democracy shall be exercised tomorrow.

Pub grub dinner and drinks with extended family. Was good. Wife is emotional for good reasons and some sad ones.

My son hugged and lifted his favourite uncle (wife's cousin) . It was such a sweet moment. This cousin used to babysit my kids when they were babies.

FRIDAY QUIZ - caution! electoral knowledge required

Tooth brushing isn’t going well so far. Melbcat’s gums are inflamed and sore so she pulls away. I’ve ordered some oral gel that can be applied with swabs (their version of mouthwash) which should hopefully soothe the gingivitis down so I can go back to trying the brush.

The dental cleaning food and treats all contain chicken so I’m trying to give her pieces of freeze dried meat as treats instead of the ones that contain sugar. (Which is otherwise the only kind she can eat.)

Edit. I’ve let her taste the beef flavoured pet toothpaste from the brush and done a few token swipes at the right front fangs where the gums don’t seem sore. (Issues are at the back.) Hopefully I can do that sometimes to get her used to it while waiting for the gel

I need to clean but am not feeling great. It almost feels like it doesn’t matter too -_-

tide is out, time for a walk 🙂 what will I see today

That time of the night again.

Time for another episode of Expedition 33.

This clip had a little bit of a cutscene in it.

Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 - Visages boss

Enjoy!

If there was a song that knows me too well than it's

Heavy Fuel - Dire Straits