TeaZerz

Complaints, complaints...

2007-04-25T10:30:00.000+02:00

Having received complaints about the recent lack luster efforts on my behalf I have posted a series that follows on from Gpa's funeral. It includes Nan being silly, about to board a cruise boat to Cairns with Mommy; The hand of cards that I opened the bidding in 500 with, "10 no trumps", which sent Dad into a temper; Crabs dad caught; Barra Wes (brother in law) caught; and that had better sort out those riff raff complainers...

Grandpa

2007-03-01T00:48:00.000+01:00

I am so sad. Grandpa died yesterday.

Mum is in Ballina. We are going today. I feel very depressed: what is it all worth if nice, wise, kind, loving pillars in your life go and die on you?

There is a piture of him down in the Shane St James section.

The Rain In Townsville

2007-03-01T00:18:00.000+01:00

In case we forget what rain sounds like.

No swimming: Crocodiles

2007-02-19T04:13:00.000+01:00

This was the headline on the Townsville Bulletin this morning (19/2/7). The strand (our beach) has been closed because of a crocodile. HAHAHA. That is funny. Tourists always ask me if there are crocs on the beaches and I say "NOOOO!" and "Don't be daft". HAHAHA. Apparently this has happened about 4 times over the last year! HAHAHA. And I have sent all my friends off to the beach happily reassured. I am such a bad friend.

This photo is (of course) the Melbourne Tigers Basketball team (Renee and I happened to be on the same flgiht from Brisbane with them) who, I would have recommended a nice swim pre-match, had I known what I know today (joking). In any case I am sure they had a hiding from the Townsville Crocs (Basketball Team) later that evening.

May all your bids go to game...

2007-02-19T04:01:00.000+01:00

This is mum's bridge club. They largely shriek and hollar but are keen and dedicated to maintaining it as a "bridge session". It is a little hard to get better though, you need all the "human management strategies" like having a common goal, motivation to act, etc. I say this because, it seems, continuing with the basics is easy but a little frustrating. However, to disect the previous play makes the session like a chore.

It is fun for me as a beginner though.

Don't follow me... i am going fishing

2007-02-19T03:53:00.000+01:00

So that you do not think it is all beers and laughs. This is dad and Colin (with broken ribs) and my dinner for the next few weeks. The food is wonderful but the job to get them is hard work, careful planning and preparation, loads of up keep on the gear etc. Thankfully there are those that do it for the love of it.

Tania's Typical Townsville

2007-02-19T03:44:00.000+01:00

This is a fish.

Dad's buddie broke a rib and he was desparate for another so... I went fishing. Where I went is, apparently, a secret: seriously. Of course, with all good secrets the bounty is beautiful.

Beats on the Beach in Ballina

2007-01-16T09:26:00.000+01:00

Pete Murray, Ladies, is actually extremely gorgeous and so are his wife and kids...amazingly.

This I will have to tell you about later as I am late for dinner with David (his parents are cooking). But, I had to upload this picture as it was from a New Years Day concert.

Marnie Prendergast was boss and we were catering for the "artists". As a result we had an ultra "cool" day and my new best friends are definitely "End of fashion" from perth...guys just call anytime...whenever, you know...

"Bangalow, right on the highway..."

2007-01-16T09:18:00.000+01:00

There is a jingle about Bangalow that I can never remember...

Again, my title is misleading and this in not Bangalow. It is Marnie Prendergast and myself at a evening with Ka-King, an American, guitar/percussion/singer/lesbian. Wayne and Meredith were there too. Oh yeah, and Missy Higgins was sitting behind us. Critically?? she and her possy left half way through.

Shane St James

2007-01-16T09:01:00.000+01:00

This is not a picture of SSJ: this is grandpa and Dad @SSJ.

Just mentioning that in case you confused G'pa and Mario with a hypnosis genius who keeps you awake (and makes you smile).
Soooooo I really needed to debrief on this one. Dad was adamant about the rigours of hypnosis science and thus translated that to believe that all the actors on stage (in their little "master class") were actually beinging hypnotised...ahhhh! I am being unfair of course, I (think) he came around in the end. Once I got over that, it was very entertaining (keeping in mind I paid $15, was with my Grandparents and was at the Famous Ballina RSL).

Tania's Typical Townsville

2007-01-16T08:46:00.000+01:00

ATCHUNG *DO NOT TELL MUM ABOUT THIS PHOTO*

This was so funny. Mum was walking along watering the garden and went straight into the pool. That was not the funny bit, as I unbeknownst to her, was on the patio and heard a scuffle, the silent type that when pools are involved, you think someone is unconcious and drowning.

This is the funny bit: when i raced out to assess the situation she was in the pool happily continuing on with her task! One metre lower, a whole lot wetter but not fazed or complaining....comedy gold.

Lisa's Wedding

2006-12-20T05:16:00.000+01:00

The biggest event in my life after being born and lisa being born, is lisa marrying Wesley Cummins.
I would love to put a wedding photo but as i have no digital ones this will have to do.

The wedding was July 1 2006.

Nonno's 81st at "the beach" aka Lucinda

2006-12-20T04:56:00.000+01:00

Yes sirie, Chritopher (my cous) has built a potato cannon. There are lots of sites explaining how to do it. Esentially there is some propellant that you light behind a potato (or passionfruit in this case) and it propells forward. Uncle and CB have found BRUT and other deoderants to be the best although they admit to not having tried butane,yet. Hairspray works but does not have much guts and something ele they tried just caught on fire (so do not use that!).

I should have shown you "the beach". Will do next time.

Birthday Boy with Lisa and Wesley Cummins (and Nonna's food)

Stable on the Strand

2006-12-20T03:55:00.000+01:00

You can visit Mary and Joe down on Townsville's strand this week. They have brought the whole stable with them although I think baby Jesus is somewhere more important as we did not see him. Come to think of it- to be fair- to was 930 ish so he might have been in bed (understandably). Peter (on the left) is heading back to Germany on saturday and Dave is working night shift in ED where, one of the consultants has been going to clown school for his big appearance as a clown come angel this week. We did not see him though.

GP Visit

2006-12-15T06:15:00.001+01:00

Each time I go to the General Practice Doctor it is out of the ordinary. Making an appointment and keeping it is rare.

For this reason, I am trying to remember what he said by writing it here. Dr Darren Kennedy has just finished his GP exams and is a few months off being a fully fledged GP. The consultation was excellent despite him being sleep deprived (new 3 week old baby).

With regard to my flu that has been going on for 7-8 days he said, I should use nasal sprays to decrease congestion so that i can sleep. Oxymetazoline or Xylometazoline are good and over the counter. Cold and flu tablets are also good but are systemic. He said cough mixtures are no good. If they have codeine in them they are okay but he said hot honey and lemon drinks that form a sticky layer in your throat are just as good at cough reduction. He said that a asthma preventer puffer is good for the lingering cough that may persist for weeks.

All this is great info I feel. He also said that once you have a baby (a it is known for sure that your cervix can dilate and your uterus can hold something) then the progesterone implant in the uterus is good as a contraceptive as there are no systemic hormones and no need for condoms. YAY. FTFI. For the Future Information.

He also tried to tell me something about the topical vit A cream i use on my face but i was tired by then and did not listen. He gave me the impression to use it sparingly and eventually wrote on the script: "Apply to affected area and leave overnight every 2-3 days." I told him i had dry skin so i assume that is the affected area. He also said that becasue it was a "private script", I could have as many repeats as I want. Who knows what a private script is?

Tania's Typical Townsville

2006-12-15T05:59:00.000+01:00

This is a new section called TTT. Shown here are two Paw Paws from the backyard. The fruit is fresh, sweet and juicy. Dad is particularly proud when his anti-flying fox mechanisms come to fruitian (haha). Thanks Dad for the yummy fruit.

Uncle Gaden's 50th

2006-12-15T05:50:00.000+01:00

We went to Uncle Gaden and Aunty Sonja's Farm for Uncle's 5oth Birthday. The Sugar Cane Farm is at Lanercost [near Trebonne, 10 minutes drive from Ingham, north of Townsville one hour, North Queensland, Australia].

There are videos at www.ZappalaFamily.blogspot.com.

The picture is of myself, my uncle and his goose. T-Rex is so called as he is so much bigger than the other birds they have ie ducks.

Singapore to Sydney Flight SQ221 Dec 5: "Is there a doctor on board"

2006-12-07T05:42:00.000+01:00

I spent the night looking after a 2 year old girl who had respiratory distress. She was reasonably ill. When I say that I mean unwell. She has a Respiratory Rate of 45 and Pulse Oximetry showed a blood oxygen saturation of 85% (if that is meaningful).

I had great resources at my disposal. The steward, for one thing, LS Mohamed Ariffin was attentive, proactive and kind. Also, there were two boxes, well labelled, one with medical tools and the other with drugs and I was able to keep in contact with the international doctor network via phone. Dr Cox in Singapore was great and she organised an ambulance to meet the plane and faxed through her medical referral.

In case you are wondering why I wrote about this: I was thinking that it is interesting to know what is available to you if a) you or a loved one gets sick on a plane or b) you are a medical person answering a call to help.

If this is not interesting to you, I apologise.

However, something of great importance that should be widely known, is that, as a consequence of above senario, I how have the flu and it is nasty.

Singapore Changi Airport

2006-12-07T05:34:00.000+01:00

The airport in Singapore is interesting. As most of you will know, it has a "Transit Hotel" which is a confusing title because there is far less expectation of you, the client, than with a normal hotel. This one, it is expected that you do not book, that you only stay a few minutes to hours, and they do not try to get extra cash from you with minibar/laundry/ whatever else. I think it is in Terminal 2 and you just shower and or sleep, then go. A shower is S$8, including all the lotions, hairdryers, combs, towels etc you need and a bottle of water: fabulous.

The other Fab things in the airport that I saw were: the sports bar jazz musicians (video to be posted when I get my own computer), free movies, rooftop garden and pool to get some air, a 2 hours tour of the city (conditions apply-eg you have a 5 hours stop over, you are there during working hours etc)... All this is and more, a gym....

I Get Around

2006-11-29T11:00:00.000+01:00

This is a video that I made. It was pretty difficult so I would not try it at home. HA HA. funny me.

PS there is another video just below the screen (if you scroll down) that Andrew made which is more funny.

http://wolfram.schneider.org/dict/

2006-11-28T16:21:00.000+01:00

According to this site....(for me to remember)

Herrlichkeit {f} wonderfulness
wunderbar; wunderschoen {adj} wonderful
wunderbarer more wonderful
am wunderbarsten most wonderful
wunderbar {adv} wonderfully
wundervoll wonderful
wundervoll {adv} wonderfully

Ski'n Dirty: Solden, Austria 2006

2006-11-28T16:02:00.000+01:00

This is the final cut of a Ulead Videostudio (attempt)/production. The music is actually insired by the Weird-Al-Yankovic remake of Rollin Dirty. NB the original song is used here but check the funny version "White and Nerdy". ( I will see if i can add it to the blog??)

PS at 44 seconds in to the video my wunderschoen ski instructor Daniel can be viewed, briefly.

Essentially Andreas, Darkeyah, Andrew and I hired a car and drove the 3.5 hours to the Austrian Alps for three days of alpine adventure. The town next to the slopes is called Soelden.

In the deep winter (jan-mar) the snowline is all the way down to the valley and so you can catch a ski lift from the main street of the town and when you are finished for the day ski to your hotel. We were a little bit early so we still had to drive back and forth to the main ski fields.

The ski runs in Soelden are super long and run over of two glaciers (tunnel inbetween). You catch a ski lift up to ~3300 metres and then have a good 20 minute ride all the way back to the lift again. The snow was excellent and the best thing about going a little early is that the slopes were not crowded.

Note the bunny suit is explained in Andrew's blog jetaxe.blogspot.com, but was left over from a photo competition he entred. The brand new suit cost 15 Euro and has featured at two costume parties also.

Happy Accident

2006-11-14T15:34:00.000+01:00

This is a Happy Accident (where is that expression from?). I was trialling linking my Picasa Photo Album to this blog and it did not work. However, now I have a nice Photograph "published". This is Natalie Malpass and I at the Townsville Cup 2006.

2006-11-09T22:14:00.000+01:00

"SARAH'S CHARISMA"
London Lite, November 1 2006, Review [Free Evening Newspaper]

Sarah Kendall is an Australian Comedian who was excellent. We saw her at the Soho Theatre [21 Dean St, London W1, 9.30pm Tuesday 31st October 2006 10-17.5 pounds]. She has been nominated for this award and that and was the simply superb.

She based her set on "what the French call l'espirit d'escalier ("staircase wit')". It is that moment after you have lost an argument, when the perfect biting retort comes to you, only far too late i.e. when you are walking away and (apparently in France) down the stairs. I will attempt to scan her photo. As you can imagine when you see it, she does a crisp Nicole Kidman impression.

Fruge, Lisa, Patrick, Bega, Toby, Peter, Zoe and Myself: will post photo when find one? Does anyone have one?

ZOE'S CHARISMA
My friend had us staying at the Covent Garden Hotel [10 Monmouth St London WC2H 9HB] NOTE UK post codes and how is it that Soho gets the relatively elegant W1?.

Long story short:

It was cool.
I did NOT view Scarlet Johansson throwing a temper tantrum, Jude Law being a Law-unto-himself etc. -but life is full of happy accidents.

NB: Reason for London visit- Be a part of Zoe's move from Brisbane to London.
Zoe's new house is charming, complete with a 50 year old holly bush (blushing red for the Christmas season).

I was grateful for our privileged situation in terms of location, time and money to spend. Together we experienced a West End performance of Chicago, a few doors down from our hotel; had Japanese across the road; watched "Sixty Six" in Uedon Movie Theatre, Leicester Square for the price of 12 pounds; further trampled the road well traveled through Westminster Abbey; visited Ikea twice; and ate Italian at "the Village" in Wimbledon.

PATRICK, BEGA, TOBY and SARAH'S CHARISMA
Amazingly my friend is called Sarah as well. Again, coincidentally she, along with my other friends, are also full of Charisma.

Together we got to see the New Zealandish band Minuit which are breakbeat bandits according to their site and electronic/pop according to wikipeadia. It was great although I do not know where we were?

We also went to Sarah's house for pasta. This is very cool. Since the advert in the tube posed the question "Is staying in the new going out?", pasta at home became tres cool.

Beges and Patrick and I had a wonderful lunch at the top of the National Portrait Gallery in Leicester Square. PG asked work colleagues re: a small gallery with a good cafe and this was great advice. I ate Black Pudding which it seems is similar to Deutschland's Blood Sausage. I.e. Its major ingredient is pig blood. Andreas and I watched a documentary on how to make it: essentially, blow-your-mind-gross. Indecently, it tastes great. However, I will re-vow never to have it again.

On Sunday was the finale of the trip with a day in Oxford where Fiona, Fruge, PG, Zoe and I went punting. Joanne (tap dance partner in grade?7) took us around, especially to Harry Potter's eating hall (AKA Christ Church College), The Turf (where Bob Hawke entered the Guinness book for fastest beer skull), Poets' pub, her hall for dinner (amazing but not so great in photos, note the organ in the background).

SUMMARY
Thanks to everyone for a terrific time in the Home Land.

London Trip - Detained in Immigration

2006-11-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

GETTING NICKED (/ticked off)
I was detained in immigration for 90 minutes. It was so passe. She asked me how much money I had in the bank! She asked the birthday of my boyfriend in Germany. She did not take well to answers that were not exactly as she wanted (which is amazingly ridiculous as terrorists will all have watched Gerard Depardieu and Andie McDowell in Green Card and learned their answers off by heart).

I answered, "Do you have any relatives in the UK?" with, "Not that I know of". This I thought was a safe bet, unfortunately she did not understand. Looking up and directly into my face said "What does that mean?". Alors! I avoided moving my face. I held my eyebrows still, stopped a grimace and then held my breath. Neither of us said anything and then she looked down and kept writing. I thought I was a goner.

Fortunately my "friend who I was visiting" came up with the goods. In 30 minutes of phone interrogation she did not falter (unlike Gerard) right down to "And finally.... What is your birthday?". She got her own birth date correct and thanks to the grace of god I was released.

The LOL part was the finale which was an imposing 15 minute oration from the Home Office officer. Essentially, I was "disorganized" and "ill prepared for travel in the UK" because:

I did not have my own accommodation.
They, at the HO, had no way of knowing that I had any money.
They, at the HO, had no way of knowing that I had a job.
They, at the HO, had no way of knowing that I was going to leave the country.

Despite:

"Claiming" that I was "staying with a friend" and thus "did not need other accommodation". I! [polite abbreviation for mother's sake of Idiot!]. Also, having called my "friend" and the "5 star hotel" that confirmed my name was on their books as "expected guest" it was difficult to see her point.
Showing her my 70 Euros, 30 pounds and 2 gold credit cards.
Showing her my professional registration.
Showing her my return flight booking/e-ticket receipt.

Considering:
There is "no way of knowing" that 99% of people walking through are

Going to their stated address
Have money/
a job/
or intend to leave.

I.

SUMMARY

With regard to UK Home Office Immigration Act 1971 Channel Tunnel (International Arrangements) Order 1993:

'Gov' "needs to get her priorities straight".

London Trip- flights

2006-11-09T17:58:00.000+01:00

Not to dwell on this and keeping in mind that I will eventually move it to the end of the Londres section I would like to clear the air before showing you cool photographs of my friends.

CLEARING THE AIR
My mom says that, "air travel is becoming more difficult now", and she is correct of course. However, Air France is an awful airline AND I am going to complain about it: because Air France personnal are mean, neglectful and arrogant I had a really bad day on Monday 6th November 2006.

That is, along with many others connecting through Charles de Gaulle I spent hours crying and lining up alternately to pass the 18 hours it took to taverse London-Paris (50 mins flying time) and Paris-Nurnberg (65mins ft). In fact, not so many people were overtly sobbing but there were a great deal of yellers, swears, insane ragers and other demonstrations of more anger-based manifestations of frustration.

Donnez-nous votre point de vue... New points of vue for Air France... as per their "Tell us about your Air France flight experience" leaflet:

Firstly:
Fly with any other carrier to get an idea of industry standard.

More specifically, (Note: skip this section as it is boring and mainly for TZ's memory) ideas that were rehashed over the day by other passengers, which specific TZ related examples .

When security line is > 1hour long and most connections are booked 40mins apart (from separated terminals) have a customer relations officer calling through those whose flights are next. For example my Nurnberg-London (outwards) leg ended being 2 hours longer than scheduled. The reason was that I missed the London connection while waiting in que for a security check. With reference to my ticket jacket that said "All our staff at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport are available to help make your connecting time here as enjoyable as possible" (which I have just considered may simply be a poor translation of the French above it), I headed for an Air France personnel who was scowling and viewing the proceedings. As she continued her doing-nothing-at-all role she tersely disregarded me saying that "there was nothing she could possibly do" as it was a security issue. I next appealed to the security officer who smiled and waved at me which I interpreted as, "seeing that every one else here will miss their plane you, my dear should not feel entitled to make your flight". This was not verbatim but by the look on his face I think he though the enforced pleasure of extra lining-up would do me good. I can see him writing "the joy of queuing".
When promising luggage will make the reschedule connection in 2 hours, make sure it makes it. Although an Air France personnel interpreted what she saw on the computer as reassuring, three hours later my bag did not land with me. In fact it landed approximately 9 hours later and rejoined me 6 hours after that. I found it particularly hard to tell with the Air France Staff if "reassurance as to the content of your enquiry" has a less precise meaning that what you assume i.e. "You can be reassured that there is no counter and no amount of queuing that will make [content of your enquiry] relevant to us".
Announce relevant information. 3.5 hours delay with no explanation nor verbal warning when boarding commences is outrageous and enraging.
Give out food and drink vouchers. And, if, after lining up for half an hour a client is referred to a second desk "as this is not-the-voucher-desk obviously" for the voucher but without indication as to the fact that they are not eligible for a voucher, find, after another hour of waiting, they are not qualifying for said vouchers, just give them one anyway. FGS.

SUMMARY
Je ne sai pa! I do not know why they are so terrible at customer relations. I do not know why you would fly Air France. Perhaps it is for the nice cup of tea they serve.

This is my first posting

2006-10-29T18:37:00.000+01:00

My first posting is disappointing. I thought that my site might look like google's one. As it turns out, it does not.