Patron Saint of Falling Over Things

I’m not sure how much has been on the news about the bushfires, but yes, this is my end of the state, and yes, there are big scary fires frighteningly close to my home. We had an Watch and Act Notice issued from the Country Fire Authority, and per our own safety plan, we threw the kitties in a big cage, packed bras and undies, and headed to the coast. The sky was orange and flickering at 11:30. We travelled in a convoy with about ten cars, one of whom had a chainsaw to cut through any fallen trees that might block the road, but the way was clear.

We hit Port Campbell by midnight, parked by the water and waited. The cats were appalled and terrified, but apart from telling us about it in loud roars (Chewie) and pathetic meeps (Baggins), they were really well behaved. We were there for eight hours. We peed at the Surf Life Saving club toilets, which was the best place to get news updates because most of my town had evacuated there. We let the cats out of their cage in case they wanted to use the litter box we brought, but this idea was appalling to them (more roars and meeps) and they held on all night until we got home at 8am to a safe and intact house. Nothing in town seems to have burned, though some farms have been lost. There are no reports of injury so far.

I am posting this from a cafe in Warrnambool where we’ve gone to charge our devices. There’s no power at home, and not expected to be for two days. But we’re okay, kitties are okay, and I feel ready to go to work tomorrow to deal with the medication logistics that come with this kind of incident. Lots of handwriting labels, old school.

We are okay, our friends and workmates are okay. It’s a good outcome.

(kaffy_r said it was okay. She's a wise woman.)

Medical stuff went okay. She's tucked up in bed, and I'm sozzled up to the eyebrows and watching old Criminal Minds episodes. Life is... something not awful.

*hugs*

I would love to hear about the part of Australia where you live, if that doesn't feel too RL-revelatory. (kass)

( Answered with pictures )

The telephone exchange that handles internet, landlines, cell phones, emergency services, and pretty much everything in my area burned down this morning. It's been fun.

We're sharing a mobile broadband kit at the moment. That's more fun. At least now I can sync my dropbox, and check my mail, and update my facebook so that my family who can't call me know that there's no zombie apocalypse. I'm not going to be online much until it all comes back. We're not sure when that will be. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe next week? Things move slow in the country.

People are coming into town, discovering they can't buy groceries or get cash or pay bills or do any of the things people who only come into town once a week do. They've mostly been wandering the main street in an aimless way looking a bit lost. They're going to be talking about this for WEEKS.

It's not a disaster. Nobody has died. As lilacsigil says, if we're not out digging long drop toilets in the yard, it's a pretty good situation. It's just really, really annoying, and I hadn't realised how much I depended on the internet for a sheer sanity break in between customers.

BUT IF ONE MORE PERSON COMES INTO THE SHOP AND SAYS "IT JUST GOES TO SHOW, YOU SHOULDN'T BE TOO DEPENDENT ON TECHNOLOGY!" I AM GOING TO STICK THIS BROADBAND THING UP THEIR NOSE REALLY HARD. REALLY, REALLY HARD.

I'm just saying.

Really enjoyed the opening ceremony - Prospero and Newton and Stephen Hawking, and nobody used the word inspiring once. (I think Channel 4 might have issued a blanket ban on the word, which is good thinking. I wish I could say the same for the Australian commentary.) I loved the inclusion of the phrase "For those who are able" in the request for people to stand for the National anthem. That's something that I hope becomes a standard thing.

Sir Ian McKellan was brilliant in his button coat. Miranda with her punky blue hair was just fantastic. (Get her on TV now, someone! I would pay good money to see her as the next companion in Doctor Who.) The two of them were awesome together, and Sir Ian's incredibly dorky dancing made me grin. I loved the umbrella theme, the physics ballet, the book seagulls and how much fun everyone was having. On a more serious note, Channel 4 had a Canadian paralympian athlete commentating on the show. He had a lot to say about the inequality of access to equipment and training between nations, and how that's the next thing the Paralympics should be working on, which. Yeah.

The Lexi system they're using to explain the classification system for the categories is really straight forward. They explain what the physical abilities of the athletes are, and what that means for that particular sport. It's enhanced the way we understand the strategies the athletes are using in their events. I think I love the Paralympics for the chance to see all the adaptive technology in use - the pool has adjustable starting blocks, for example, that's something new. But the most awesome thing is that there are more and more athletes that have competed in the able-bodied Olympics first. I hope that one day the two events can be fully integrated. They had a go at Sydney, with a couple of demonstration events but it doesn't seem to have caught on.

But the sports are fantastic - there's an easy-going, friendly atmosphere about each event, all the athletes seem to be good friends, and I love all the hugging at the end of each race or game. It's great to see new world records popping up again and again - part of this being a relatively young event, and one in which adaptive technology and training are making big and rapid changes in the way the events play out.

If you're an Aussie or if you use a proxy, you can see the Aussie coverage on the ABC iView. It's pretty good - occasional maudlin moments, but on the whole it's a thousand times better than Channel Nine's commentary for the able-bodied Olympics.



My Nonna is doing well! She had surgery the day after she fell, to put a plate in her hip where she fractured it. On Saturday she moved to a rehab centre, she's started sitting up in a chair for most of the day, and today she took a few steps in physio. The family has settled somewhat, I think? My Auntie flew out from Canada last week, and she's been co-ordinating care and hospital transfers and so on. But nobody is talking about the big issue, which is making the house safe for Nonna and Poppy or investigating alternative safe housing. I am staying out of it now - just keeping in touch with Nonna. I sent her a postcard from Mount Gambier, and I'm hoping to make it down to Melbourne again before my Auntie goes back to Canada.



I learned a new word from my therapist, about a thing I do: when I get all doom-laden, I'm catastrophising. That is EXACTLY what I do. I guess knowing is a good start on the way to heading that tendency off. (But the last couple of weeks, with Nonna, and family stuff, has meant a lot of catastrophising.)



Things that exist that seem too awesome to exist:

Sue Perkins is writing a TV show where she plays a forty year old gay vet who hasn't come out to her parents yet.

THIS:



Gillian Anderson and Archie Panjabi! Together they solve crime!

Actually, we've been back since Monday. lilacsigil is doing really well, not very radioactive and in less pain each day. She's getting her energy back, too - she can take full length steps, and is already doing half days at work.

I, on the other hand, have fallen into a wobbling heap of pathetic jelly.

Thanks for seeing me through this, folks - comments and internet hugs and virtual flowers and all. I love you all so much.

Thanks so much for your comments, folks. lilacsigil is doing much better today - she has a replacement computer, she's over the worst of the nausea and gastritis of the radiation, and she's really looking forward to restarting her medication tomorrow morning.

Me? I got an Absolut giftpack in my Christmas stocking, and I'm taking the opportunity to become further acquainted with my new friends Absolut Kurant, Absolut Citron and Absolute Mandrin. (Lulz, mandrill vodka.) Maybe Absolut Vanilla later. And don't think I'm ignoring you, Absolut Raspberry.

I'm turning comments off, because you've been so awesome and I can barely keep up with your comments as it is. Right now, I'm snuggling into the lilac blanket, watching first season of Criminal Minds (Gideon! Elle!) and opening tiny bottles of vodka. It's going to be okay. And she'll be home on Monday.

Wow, I hope I can do the comments switching off thingy. Things are getting kind of swimmy, thanks to my fruity vodka ffriends.

lilacsigil's Schedule: (so I have it written down somewhere)

Wednesday 14th of March: Blood test in Warrnambool or Colac to get the right pathology group.

Monday 21st March: Geelong, to administer the low-dose radiation for the scan.

Wednesday 23rd March: Geelong, for the scan, and to find out if we're going ahead with radioactive ablation (AKA the lead room.)

Friday 25th March: Admitted to hospital for lead room time. (Friday, Saturday, Sunday.)

Monday 28th March: Re-scan, check all thyroid tissue is destroyed. Hopefully it is. Go home.

Tuesday 29th March: Normality resumes. I can't even imagine.



Bakepocalypse: (I think it's slowing down!)

Soft Pretzels and Soft Pretzel Bites: Pretzels are fun to make, and the dough is really nice to work. The boiling part was much easier and more fun than I expected. I made them once with a soda bath, and once just using boiling water. I think I like the baking soda better - they're kind of chewier, maybe? and the process is nice and involved. As an anxiety buffer, it works really well for me. I really, really like working with yeast doughs.

Mini Mint Cookies:
Supposedly like a Mint Thin Girl Scout cookie type deal? Anyway, I mixed up some mint fondant, and put a little blob of that on before I dipped them in chocolate. They were awesome - just like a mini Mint Slice biscuit. Will definitely make again. (Also, the fondant was NOM NOM delicious, and I could have eaten it with a spoon. Delicious snowy white minty stuff.)

I have to announce the passing of Dean, our sour dough culture. I haven't been using him for bread lately, and I've been enjoying the fun of using instant yeast so much, I decided I'd tip him into the compost. RIP, Dean. You were fun at first, but then you were just too much bother.



Census Meme (I'm sticking with the US cycle. It's shorter and more dramatic.)

1971: I'm about to be born. I'm the first child of two quite young parents. Once I'm born, I'll be living in a cream-coloured bassinet in a flat in Ashburton with one cat.

1981: I'm nearly ten. I'm fat and awkward and desperately unhappy. I am in Grade Five. I live with my parents and two siblings in Mentone. Our house overlooks Port Philip Bay. I'll be here for another five years.

1991: I'm turning twenty. I'm in third year of my Bachelor of Science at Monash University. Things are awesome! I love science, and research. Freed of the school system, I'm doing really well academically for the first time in my life. I'm going to do an honours year next year. I have a boyfriend. I live in a house in Malvern, it's great to be independent. My mum had a baby last year! I am one of four.

2001: I'm nearly thirty?! Wow, that was a rollicking ride. I have another degree, this time in Pharmacy. I co-own a business in a tiny rural town. I have a mortgage and a business loan and I pay salaries and taxes and deal with the NHS. I live in a tiny house on a hill with my girlfriend and some cats. Life is surprising. I read a lot of fanfic. I make a lot of cards.

2011: Soon to be forty. Home is the tiny house on a hill, and I still live there with my girlfriend and cats. I write fanfiction and original fiction, I bake and I craft. Life is good, business is thriving. There are tomatoes on the vine and we will eat them soon.

I've started noting down things for posts in Evernote on my phone. It's kind of helpful, actually. (Would a post about iphone apps be interesting? I love reading about other people's apps, but then again, I would also make a good trainspotter.)

How was Covert Affairs? Was it very hand-held? Will lilacsigil be able to watch it without falling off the couch? Because I like Anne Dudek very, very much and would like to see her more on my TV screen.

We are off to Daylesford tomorrow! It will be so good to get out of the house for a couple of days. Sleep in. Eat food we didn't cook.

I didn't realise how burned out the two of us are.

*packs explorer socks and twenty jumpers*

(Holy crap, there's going to be an election! I love the internet - we have printed our postal vote forms out already. And now, for your entertainment, I will throttle my little sister who is not enrolled and sees no need to be enrolled.)

I ain't dead! Have been ill, am recovering. While feverish, I cried in the supermarket. Twice - because they didn't have the kind of tissues I like, and because I had forgotten something. It was too fucking tragic. But I am almost completely recovered now - just the residual problems that come from glue ear and tinnitus to deal with now. And now I have hot cross buns and mini creme eggs and a chocolate bilby, as well as a long weekend, so I'm a happy camper.

The corellas are back. You can hear them coming from miles away, flying over the little valley our town is set in. It sounds like the apocalypse.

I dropped out of comicsbigbang - the first time I've dropped out of anything. My Hellblazer plotbunny would not coalesce - it hung just out of sight, smoking and swearing enough that I knew it was there. Bastard.

I've taken an lgbtfest prompt. I have to finish my au_bigbang first draft ASAP - I am finding it very hard to get a grip on storytelling in 15K - it's much bigger than any fanfic I've ever written, but also much, much smaller than NaNo. I'm all at sea from it, and I think my plot is going to end up all squished into the end in an unpleasant way. But first drafts can be smoothed out. Imaginary plots in my head? Not so much.

Photos from China Fashion week - my knowledge of haute couture comes largely from watching Project Runway, but I really love the shapes and colours of these works of art.

Ooh:


I should be writing my big bang, but I may also have a ficlet open where Jack Harkness hits on Temeraire. *gulps nervously*

War of the Worlds, Warrnambool style: UFOs at Framlingham For the tl;dr crowd, I've bolded the part which most typifies life in rural Australia.

It wouldn't be April 1 without a few playful pranks, but one group of mates in Framlingham outdid themselves by staging an elaborate UFO landing.

Over roughly a month, the jokers constructed the three saucers in Dave Maloney's shed using old communication dishes, some lights and a bit of ingenuity.

Then they dragged them out into a paddock by the Hopkins River yesterday at dusk, fired up the generator and sat back and watched as dozens of onlookers stopped to check out what looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie.

"There's been quite a few cars slow down and people taking photos," Mr Maloney said.

"A few mates rang up to tell me I'm an idiot."

The two biggers saucers measure about three metres in diameter and the smaller one is about 2.4 metres in diameter.

"They're made out of aluminium and fibreglass and they take four blokes to move them," Mr Maloney said.

He said the idea "probably came out of a bottle" and that making the non-flying saucers had been a good time-filler "instead of watching TV".

"I just like doing pranks and stupid things now and again. You've got to have a bit of fun."

The only downer was that some idiots had done doughies and burn-outs around the saucers early this morning, he said.

"I'm spewing about the burn-out marks around them cos they looked really good sitting there in a nice green paddock."

Warrnambool radio stations also broadcast the news of the UFOs, including information about the "landing site" being investigated.

Spewing.