The Ekka starts tomorrow, as does the Eisteddfod, with the former being flu-mask free for the first time in three years. This is largely due to an overall fall in the number of flu cases this year in the GC/BrisVegas area - down from 14,687 last year to just 632 this year.
Why do they call them "parties" when there appears to be little fun about them? No objections have been received by the state electoral commission to the registration of a new one - The Queensland Party.
Move over Jessica and the Pink Lady. Fourteen-year-old Laura Dekker has set out on her practice sail to Portugal before beginning her quest to be the youngest solo around the world sailor. She has recently won a 10-month legal battle against child protection authorities in Holland to allow her to attempt the two-year journey. Elsewhere, 16-year-old Justin (hair flick) Beiber continues to deny reports that he is writing his autobiography! HarperCollins will however publish a "behind-the-scenes" on tour book in October; and he is set to star in a 3D movie about his life (so far).
Well, it was/is tomorrow (actually just before because the reading continued last night until the last virtual page was turned) ... and "The Girl Who Played With Fire" has been archived - and has made way for "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest". So many questions one could ask author Stig Larsson if he had survived to see the Salander series published. Of course, there are ways of finding out what other think about it and it's time to tell S that she would enjoy the reads and ask her to please do so so I can get her unique insight into the characters and their goings-on. In the meantime it might be time to read what people have said on the net.
Nyet net. The old ways can sometimes be best. According to Alan Chan, a Singaporean academic who visited a minute ago, Chinese idioms can help with modern Western life. Harmony brings conductivity. Aspiration remains clear in Spartan lifestyle. Ethics before benefits. To retreat is to advance, to give is to gain. In safety, do not forget potential danger. It is better to see once than to hear 100 times. Mindfulness in solitude.
Ms JG is starting to sound a little like K Rudd - she has taken to repeating key phrases as he did - yesterday's being that Labor had a "better economic plan ... a better economic plan.". K Rudd has also assured people he is right behind Ms JG (and not with a knife) and that it is not he who is leaking to Laurie Oakes. He did not, and perhaps this is the cynic in some people speaking, discount that any of his family, friends and/or colleagues are doing it on his behalf.
S made a spectacular lamb shanks dinner tonight - incredibly yummy and the last in an impressive line-up of dishes so far his week. She attributes it to having the time to think and read about cooking - and having some very good appliances and tools at her disposal. Not that she's been using them all all of the time though; for the first week Ramen Girl did not make an appearance with the stove-top as S managed to do all the cooking in oven and/or microwave.
The computer was busy yesterday as S did her first solo Skype - although I guess the very nature of Skype means you can't do it alone. (She loved it!) You also can't do face-to-face with iPhone 4 unless you're on Wi-Fi and talking with someone else who has an iPhone 4. But I suppose that's why it also has a "phone" component. Skype has not yet released a new version of its app for iPhones etc which could add "pay for calls on 3G" functionality - but, wait, they may have already coded a switch off free calls date into the current versions. A bit like the BBC revision that came through yesterday which would fix the bug that prevented advertising showing. Can't imagine how many people would have chosen to download that!)
Even though Ms JG has avowed she is an atheist, she is going along to the Mary MacKillop fund-raising dinner at the Town Hall tomorrow night. it is not known if she will go as the "real" JG or someone else. On the issue of whether we are seeing the "real" Julia, Barnaby Joyce had this to say: "Well, a bit like football but more like Sesame Street. We started off with real Julia , or we had pretend Julia , now we've got real Julia. It's like Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus, and, you know, which Julia killed Kevin?". This could be why some people don't read The Australian - and why others just can't wait until tomorrow!
