McBlog

Nykolai’s school held their concert tonight and it wasn’t too bad. This year we were in the National Theatre in St Kilda (a beautiful old style performing arts theatre) which really helped the atmosphere. Perhaps I’m getting used to it, but it did seem better – I felt very much less like the Addams Family when they go to the school concert this time :)

At least Nykolai and the other kids had a blast – that’s what’s important in the end.

Went down to the tow truck yard today to pay for my HD to be towed to Holdies for assessment. Took some photos of it for the record. Not a happy looking vehicle at all. I’m dubious as to whether it can be salvaged or if it’s time to consign it to the wreckers…

Bugger :(

Wow – another year gone and here I am turning 37. All those of you who took bets that I’d be dead before now have, despite my best efforts, lost again :)

Keeping it quiet, not making a big thing of it and just cruising through the day.

Thanks to those who called, emailed and/or sent cards :)

Well, guess who managed to crash the car… Yup – the ol’ HD never did behave too nicely in the wet and tonight on the way home from the office, I let my concentration lapse while going up a left hand bend onto an on ramp. The back end started to slide out so I turned into the slide, the front end snapped around and WHAM, nose first into the concrete wall of the ramp. Bounced back into the lanes, turning around 180 degrees and tapping the back left corner against the wall as it came to a halt.

Wasn’t going that fast, but the impact banged up the front, knocked my glasses off and bruised my knees on the dash. The engine was pushed around and would not respond properly as I tried to fire it up so I could get off the road. Managed to find my glasses in the passenger seat footwell and got out to push the car as best I could out of the way (wound up blocking 1 of 2 lanes).

It was after midnight so not much traffic (none at the time of the crash). I called for a tow truck and spent the next 3/4 of an hour waving down traffic so they’d slow down and get past the car safely. A few stopped to check if I was OK and chat, a couple wizzed passed, while most took my “thumbs up” as a sign all was fine, waved and headed on.

So, the HD is now in the towie’s yard waiting for me to pay the towing fee (will get it shipped down to Greg – my mechanic – for assessment). Bloody annoying but, there are some good points:

1. I bruised myself and took a major hit to my ego but no other people were injured/killed/etc

2. No other cars were involved and the onramp isn’t even scratched

3. Nykolai wasn’t in the car with me

4. The office didn’t pay me on Friday night as they usually do – if they had, I would have just paid $500+ rego on the car over the weekend via online payments

5. I’ll be taking public transport for a while – less convenient and probably a bit more expensive than the fuel I was burning, but the walking to & from trains/trams/buses will do me good :)

So, yeah, it’s annoying as hell and rather inconvenient, but I’m OK and other things are going OK, so I’ll get through alright. C’est la vie and all that :)

(start Yoda voice)
Adventure…
Excitement…

A Jedi craves not these things…

Sex, drugs and thumping techno – that is what a Jedi craves!

(end with manic Yoda laughter)

Hmmmm – always wondered why the he was all wrinkled, green and tiny but still kept on going… Preservatives R US, huh?

Last night while setting up a DVD for Nykolai, we heard a massive “crack” sound followed by silence then a series of creaks and a crashing boom like a load of building supplies being dropped. From our balcony, we could see that the enormous old tree next to our garage had dropped a massive branch over a neighbour’s car and blocked the driveway for our apartments (not to mention making it difficult to get out the door :)

I wound up calling the State Emergency Service and they sent a team over to carve it all up, extract the car and do a bit of a clean up. As of this morning, the car’s been driven away (the roof was badly dented, it had a few more scrapes on it and one of the windows had popped out, but otherwise … :) There’s also a load of lumber in one of the parking bays so we’ll have to get the body corporate to pull a finger out and get rid of it. This may also make them get motivated to finally have the damned tree pulled down. It’s very tall, very old and has all the apartments around us scared that it’ll come down and take out a building…

I managed to get a series of photos of it all as the team did their work. They’re loaded at Tree Branch Madness.

One funny note was that apparently one of the neighbours called in a noise complaint to the police about someone using a chainsaw at 11pm. Yup – too much like hard work to come and see what’s going on. Far easier to just log a complaint and avoid actually having to meet the people around you…

Just found this link to a Hamster Powered Night Light – hmmmmm – Nykolai just got a pair of rascally rodents and one of them loves to run in the wheel – hmmmmmm – this could be fun…. :)

In addition to the cat at his mom’s place, Nykolai now has a pair of grey mice at my house. He’s named them Kissy and Licky (no – I had nothing to do with their names – honest! :) There are some photos of Nykolai and the terrible two over on Nykolai’s history page.