. . .

Thursday, July 31, 2008



Birdie comes before par - this is the way it went in my case anyway... I got my first birdie recently at Elsternwick Golf Course on the 2nd hole (approx 128m). I teed off using (of all things!) a 7-wood.

I drew the club back about 90 degrees (I think - this expertise apparently comes from playing Tiger Woods on Playstation - and they say computer games have no real-world applications!)

The two guys who had just left the 2nd green stopped to watch.
I made contact.
I heard an expletive and joyous sounds from my partner. The two guys kept watching.
I saw the ball land on the green and thought "well, that's good. I won't have to chip."
The closer I got to the green, the more I started to realise what I had just done.
The ball was possibly a metre or more away from the flag.
But it was no gimme.
My brain went haywire.
I crouched at one end, then at the other. I think I was holding out my putter to line it up. Little did anybody know, I didn't quite know what the putter-holding was actually for. All I knew was that it looks good. Tiger does it all the time.
It was time to putt.
I took a deep breath.
Then another.
Then another.
I started to get lightheaded and decided to stop taking deep breaths.
"Stop looking at it and just putt!" I thought. I couldn't stop looking at it. Was there something I missed? A secret break? I didn't know. The importance of the shot started to weigh upon me.
"If you don't do it now you're going to freeze and f@ck up!"
I finally hit it.
The ball coasted on a straight line, then rolled towards the outer left of the cup. It was heading to lip out.
"Oh well," I thought "at least I'll get a par. I've never got a par before. I got a bogey once but that's not the same as..."
I heard a shout. My partner was practically levitating off the green. The ball bent neatly to the right and went in. I was stunned.
Nobody said anything for a second as we stared at each other.
"Rasthermathugraaaa!!!" I shouted.
"Woohooo!" he yelled.
"Yeaaaaahh!! Haaa!! Whooo!!!" I shouted again.
I celebrated Tiger Woods style by leaning back almost horizontally and pumping both fists in the air. Then I looked around, adjusted my cap like I do this all the time, and walked off with my clubs muttering "Haaaa!!" breathlessly.
We continued in a daze. I think it took me a few holes and many wistful "I got a f@cking birdie" repetitions for it to sink in.
If you pardon the pun.

And no, I still haven't got a par yet....



technorati tags:

Wednesday, July 30, 2008





What are your experiences of makeup? Me, I'm a girly-girl in only one respect - I love my makeup. For a long time I have worn the standard liquid foundation (Revlon New Complexion) which in my opinion is the best of the gluggy bunch. This formula can look pretty unnatural and can mask the skin's radiance, giving you a pale or"'greyed out" look. This is why foundation has always been a bit of a grey area for me (pun intended).

The biggest problem with this kind of makeup is the dreaded 3:15 slide. That's the time when the coverage of the makeup wears off and the shiny stuff starts to show through. I, like many people, have "oily skin". It means that I get shiny in the afternoon and makeup finds it hard to stay on, which is why I found myself rushing to reapply a touch-up layer mid-afternoon.

I have begun trialling Musq Mineral Makeup for the past week. The first thing I noticed is that I no longer need to reapply. At 7pm I can look in the mirror and look the same as I did at 7:30am when I first applied the makeup. I no longer have to think about reapplying - I can use the time for other, more important thinking. Like golf for example....

The makeup contains concentrated natural ingredients with no talc or bismuth oxychloride. I have trouble remembering the oxymoron name but I do remember the ingredient is something you do not want on your face. It dawned on me that I may have been over-stimulating my sebaceous glands with the chemicals in my liquid makeup for an extended period of time.

The first day I tried the mineral makeup my skin felt a bit dry. It was a powder, after all. I thought "Oh well, it's not for me." By day two my skin had normalized itself and the look and texture had begun to improve. At this time I started to realise that I may be doing something good for my skin instead of irritating it with chemicals.

The powder is unlike any normal powder you might find in a compact. The ordinary powders feel as if they are weighing heavily on your skin. Conversely, this makeup is lightweight and feels like no makeup at all. It looks as if I am not wearing makeup but it has good coverage and the added protection of SPF 17-20.

I will be interested to see how long my container lasts. I was surprised that the container was listed as 5g but when it arrived, 5g of powder looked like more than I had imagined. If this container lasts as long as I think it's going to last, then it's good value. Remember - with mineral makeup, less is more.




technorati tags:



Buy leading cosmetics brands at reduced prices. Free shipping anywhere in the world.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008


My wonderful Kabuki brush arrived and I am happy to report it is a roaring success!!! No shedding, great coverage using mineral makeup and it comes in such a cute bag!

Total cost: $4.99 + $5.00 postage & handling = $9.99

I have saved approximately $30-40 on a name brand brush. This Ebay purchase is one of my biggest successes. Yippee!! I have now ordered a new Musq mineral makeup in the colour "Maldives" - suitable for asian skin with yellow undertones. Although I was born in Australia (blaaoordy oath mayyyte!! - sorry to everybody who didn't get that, it was an Australian reference!), I do seem to have a "where does she come from" kind of thing about my skin tone. Finally I have found a yellow-undertoned mineral makeup that feels natural and looks like I'm not wearing makeup. More reports to come...



technorati tags:




Buy leading cosmetics brands at reduced prices. Free shipping anywhere in the world.

I made the decision to get some web design qualifications early last year. As a result, I have been able to create websites using CSS, but most importantly I can create with confidence. It is reassuring to know that you have received the best possible training to advance your progress in your chosen area of IT - be it security, voice or wireless. I do not profess to be an expert in these particular areas, but I can see the value in learning and developing these skills.

There is a great demand for all kinds of skills in information technology. So many areas are growing so quickly that it takes some attention and application to keep up. It is important for IT professionals to become the supply that the industry is demanding.

Cisco certification provides all kinds of IT training - from entry level to expert/specialist. The site also provides information on IT careers and what it takes to be a "network security superhero". I am going to try my hand at the binary game, called "having fun with binary". I remember learning about binary as a kid, programming in BASIC and generally learning my way around computers. I must say that I have never used the word "binary" and "fun" in the same sentence but I'm willing to be re-educated. You may have noticed there are many "make money online" sites everywhere you turn on your daily surfing adventures. I'm not criticising these sites in any way, let me make this clear, but it is a well known (and tested) fact that if you update / upgrade your IT training, you can make way more moolah. And that's what we all like to hear!


Sponsored by Cisco

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I had the misfortune of being hungry at a well known Melbourne railway station yesterday. I had travelled for a long distance and felt ravenous from the journey.

I had even decided to go for the closest approximation of food I could find - namely Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the US). I eat at fast food restaurants perhaps once a year - if I absolutely can't avoid it.

This time there was no turning back. My hunger pains were leading me in the direction of HJs and there was no stopping me. My partner was starving also and we had already worked out our order.

I spoke to the bespeckled and bepimpled character behind the counter, who I shall refer to as "P".

Me: "I'll have a vegie burger small meal deal with one extra vegie burger."

P: "Okay... is that medium or large meal deal?"

Me: "A small. With one extra vegie burger."

P: "Anything else?"

Me: "Yes, I'd like another vegie burger and a large onion rings."

P: "So that's two vegie burgers..."

Me: "No it's three vegie burgers altogether." (I run through the entire order again)

P: "Okay, so that's two vegie burgers...did you want coke?"

Me: "No, three vegie burgers. Yes, coke is fine."

P: "Okay, two vegie burgers and a coke."

Me: "Three vegie burgers. Three altogether."

P: "Two vegie burgers..." (she is getting annoyed now)

Me: "Three."

P: "Yeah. That's what I said!" (hands on hips and glaring at me)

Me: ?!?!?!?


Meanwhile the lady behind me (who shall be known as "K") was declaring very loudly that this restaurant should be condemned by the board of health.

"It's filthy!" she argued with the same bespeckled 16 year old genius who had served me.

The 16 year old was indignant.

P: "Well we have been very busy."

K: "That's not the point. It's a health hazard out there. Somebody needs to clean it up. Can I speak to your manager."

The manager came out, sporting perhaps a whole extra year on "P" and a few less pimples. She sent out someone to "clean up" which consisted of walking around the area once and finally moving one high chair two inches. The floor was still littered with wrappers, bits of pickle, all sorts of hideous things. The seats outside were so bad that my partner and I opted for the comfy spot near the doorway where everybody coming in can crash into your suitcases.

We finally got our food and sat down awkwardly. Taking a bite, we both looked up at each other and sighed.

The burgers were cold. Not just a bit cold but stone cold.

I got up, gathering the burgers and trudged back to the counter. By now my hunger was a raging fever and all that was standing between me and some food was "P".

Me: These burgers are cold. Could you possibly make us some hot ones?

P: (stares sullenly at me, grabs burgers, disposes of the burgers, mutters and has a private conversation with a weird looking guy)

This weird looking guy eyeballs me. I give him an inquisitive look as if to say "yes, I'm the one fussy person that expects 'flame grilled' Hungry Jacks burgers to be hot. Since flames are hot and all that."

I watch as this strange and suspicious person goes back into the kitchen (which I hoped was not as disgusting as the "restaurant" itself) and grabs some ingredients.

He assembles the ingredients. I watched him to make sure he didn't sully the burger out of spite. So far so good. It's a new burger. Things are looking up.

Then he lifts the burger up and puts it straight in the microwave. My heart and my shoulders sank. What did I expect exactly? A real flame grill? Any sort of attention to food preparation whatsoever?

The burgers WERE hot. Straight out of the microwave.

Except mine. A small quadrant of the burger was still stone cold.

Perhaps they should get their flame grilled microwave fixed.








Wednesday, July 16, 2008


I have realised it's time for another spring clean. I bought a pair of jeans on Ebay and they are not quite right for me. So it's time to start selling again. I managed to sell two dictaphones on Ebay- one for $26 and one for $21 (inc postage). This is the first time I have actually made a profit selling on Ebay! Many items are best suited to a charity bin however I will possibly sell my old phone and various clothes that are gathering dust and contributing to clutter.

I have a plethora of computer equipment, cables, hard drives etc. and I must start organising and clearing. I am gaining inspiration from Decluttering for Geeks - he has an amusing and insightful take on the value of old computer components.

I am happy to report that my corduroy jeans have finally arrived. Sometimes I think the Ebay gods are listening when I complain on my blog. Now there's only one question. Where the heck is my kabuki goat hair brush?



In reviewing the site "Park Let" I discovered a number of points about London. Firstly, London is a well populated city, to speak in understatement. Secondly, there is a large amount of traffic flowing through London during peak hours and throughout the day. Thirdly, it would be a difficult place to find good any parking spots! So perhaps the best solution is to find a London Garage for Rent and rent it for an extended period of time? Many of the garages and parking spots advertised can be accessed 24 hours a day, which is very convenient if you work in the city and wish to visit at odd hours. The parking options range from open air car parking spots to security undercover, swipe card access parking spaces. It would be interesting to tally up the amount spent in a year in hourly or daily parking fees and compare it to the total cost of renting a car space or garage for the full year. If you are presently living or working in London you may want to do this simple calculation and find out if you would be better off with the single day option or the yearly option.


This post brought to you by ParkLet
Here is the part where I get to revisit the top Entrecard droppers on my blog. Will they be the same people getting the linky love or will there be some new faces?


Dropper # of drops
Lapidary Queen Wannabees 25
cheapdanny 22
Heart of Wisdom Homeschool 19
Heart at Home Homeschool 18
SexyAdsBlog 12
Blogging 101 for Christians 12
THE PAPER VISION 12
Lap Band Progress 12
j o s h u a o n g y s 10
IXELA 10


Keep dropping your Entrecard here to make it on to the next Top Droppers list!



technorati tags:

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Many people will be travelling at this time of year, be it for business or personal reasons. Many costs can be offset if you can find the right deals. If you are looking for car rental deals at this time, the deals on the site feature a discount rate of $20.99 per day, $1 car rental from Florida to Chicago and a $25 discount on your next car hire booking. Another deal requires you to share your feedback of the car hire experience to receive one free rental day certificate for use on the next car hire purchase. Perhaps the most significant discount is the offer of 50% off Luxury and Convertible car hire. It can often be a good idea to join a frequent renters program, increasing the number of deals and discounts you can receive.



This post brought to you by Advantage Rent a Car

My Ebay purchase update is as follows:

#1 KABUKI Brush Goat Makeup Beauty Tool



I am still waiting for this one. Perhaps it's coming from the same remote place as the Newsboy cap. There's nothing worse than having all this mineral makeup to try out, and nothing with which to apply it!


#2 Brown Cords



No surprises here. See my post on my corduroy obsession below...
Apparently the seller of this item has encountered some kind of problem with sending the cords to me. The internet she was using has been playing up. She remarked that it was "thanks to Telstra". Oh ho! So I'm not the only one! It's not that I'm in a hurry or anything, it's just that my black pair of cords has developed a slight patch of wear. I have rectified the situation with an iron and some of those stick-on repair patches. I surprised myself by ironing quite well - I forgot I could do such domestically complex tasks! :-)



technorati tags:

Thursday, July 10, 2008



For this particular jacket I paid $35.55 - more than my usual outlay but it was worth it!

Some of you are probably starting to think "this girl has a corduroy problem". Well yes. I do. I'm obsessed with corduroy. It's comfy and warm and I like the look of it. I like cardigans too! Oh my...granny fashion!! Well not really if you consider that Roger Federer likes a cardy, the 90s practically started the cardigan revolution and... I'd rather wear this stuff than the spray on jeans and stupid high fringes that are apparently in fashion right now. Is it Lindsay Lohan's fault? Amy Winehouse? Actually Amy Winehouse is responsible for most of the hairdos I saw last Saturday night. Kind of a beehive-meets-rats-nest revolution.

It's quite fun to put together a look out of clothes that appear to fly in the face of fashion. Some people have an unnatural phobia of cardigans (Kath Lockett - you know who you are!)

How far can you skate on the edge of fashion? Braces? Eek! If you can pull that one off I'll give you a medal. Gumboots? Overalls? Mercy!

One thing that I believe you cannot integrate into mainstream fashion is the tracksuit. Or tracky dacks as we say in Australia. Tracksuits have 3 purposes in my opinion:

1. Running/exercising/walking outdoors and generally looking like a healthy person and making everyone else feel guilty

2. Those times when you really can't be bothered changing and you run into the video store/supermarket - but you still look like you have been to the gym so you are still making everyone feel unhealthy!

3. Lounging around like a sloth with a motivation problem. Nobody can see you (except perhaps the pizza delivery person and then you are definitely going running tomorrow!)


There are, in my opinion no other options. I consider the following to be crimes against fashion when it comes to tracky dacks:

1. Wearing the tracky dacks with dress shoes. NO!!! If you're not wearing runners then you are in fashion limbo! Are you exercising or are you going casual? YOU CAN'T DO BOTH!!

2. Trying to "dress up" tracky dacks with any kind of jewellry. Let me say this slowly. This is Eastern Melbourne. YOU-ARE-NOT-IN-THE-HOOD. Put down the bling and move away from the tracky dacks.

3. White tracky dacks with black knickers. Oh so wrong.

It makes one wonder what constitutes fashion. Perhaps it's finding a look that is unique or makes people take notice.

Perhaps it's decided by a bunch of strange people in celebrity land. Perhaps they sit in a room and say "Cone bras. Let's put one on Madonna and see if it'll catch on."

I think it's about finding your own individual style. Whatever that is. If it's comfortable, and makes you feel like "you", then you're probably on the right track. Fashions change, hairstyles change, but a photo taken in a "fad" year is forever!



Prescription glasses can be expensive to buy through conventional methods. The people at zennioptical.com have come up with a novel way to sell prescription glasses for less over the internet. The idea intrigued me as a concept - it may be right for you, it may not be the right choice for everyone. It appears to work like this: Firstly you must have a prescription for eyeglasses to shop on the site. This seems to make sense, as it would be quite dangerous for people to buy and wear glasses not designed for their specific eye conditions. You fill out your prescription details when ordering your chosen frames - be it sunglasses, rimmed or rimless glasses. Perhaps a pair like these:



Some of the glasses start from $8 and depending on your prescription, can cost as little as under $25!


This post brought to you by zennioptical.com

Tuesday, July 08, 2008





Today I received my Musq mineral makeup samplers. The price was $12 and postage was free. When they arrived I was surprised how small the samples were. Each colour testing sachet appears to have enough mineral makeup to cover my nose - maybe. But according to the enclosed leaflet, the mineral makeup is concentrated and each bag is said to hold enough for 2 light applications for the entire face. I will test most of the colours, except perhaps "Waikiki". My colour is possibly somewhere between "Sorrento" and "Maldives" but "Rajasthan" and "Amazon" are not out of the question.

One of the biggest challenges I have found when choosing makeup is that I have yellow undertones in my skin and most, if not practically all makeup appears to be made for people with pink undertones. It will be interesting to find out if this is the solution for me. I may not recognise myself after this test!!

Tips:

* Ensure that moisturiser is fully absorbed and dry before applying mineral makeup so as not to create a patchy effect

* Apply with a "kabuki brush" in order to achieve coverage of large areas

TIP: Do not necessarily buy the first expensive brush you find. Prices ranged from around $60 (?!?! sixty dollars for a makeup brush?!?!) down to $5-$10, which is the range I have settled in. I have read a range of reviews on these more expensive "mineral makeup brand name" brushes and the reviews are disappointing. I will try the cheap brush, if it packs up I will have lost $10 rather than $60, as some shoppers have complained to have lost with overpriced brushes that reportedly shed "like a cat".

* Do not apply too thickly or the colour will appear distorted

* Apply very thinly at first, then add a little extra over imperfections.


I have been researching mineral makeup ingredients on various websites and according to the information I have ascertained, Musq seems to have the best ingredients.

Mineral Makeup Ingredients to Avoid:

Talc - may clog pores

FD&C and DC colours - possible irritants

bismuth oxychloride - creates heaviness / caked look and tends to "slide off" after hours of wear and is a possible irritant







Now I'm just waiting for my "KABUKI Brush Goat Makeup Beauty Tool". Sounds exciting, yes? I presume this Ebay description means that it is made from goat hair, not a makeup brush specifically for use on goats. Not that goats don't need pampering just like everyone else.





technorati tags:




Buy leading cosmetics brands at reduced prices. Free shipping anywhere in the world.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

If I can do this, so can you.

It works like this - you submit your article to Digg, choose a category, etc.

When the submission has been successful, switch to the front page of Digg and click "upcoming".

Press Alt+PrtScn

You have just captured yourself on the front page of Digg.

For example, here is my front page Digg story - "Chinglish Delivery" - it made it to the front page around 4pm today.


How long did my article stay there?

About 10.5 seconds.



P.S. Please Digg me for being a smartarse.




technorati tags:
I thought I'd mention my top 10 Entrecard Droppers here and give them a little linky love xox


Dropper # of drops
Lapidary Queen Wannabees 28
cheapdanny 24
UnderHeavens! 19
Heart of Wisdom Homeschool 14
Lap Band Progress 13
MamaFlo's Place 10
Heart at Home Homeschool 10
IXELA 10
THE PAPER VISION 10
j o s h u a o n g y s 9


Thanks guys! I've received 69 drops today. I think I'm going cross-eyed from dropping Entrecards and leaving comments. I've discovered heaps of new blogs - some funny and some giving me some new savings ideas. Some just make me wonder (you know who you are).

I will list my top droppers from time to time to show all you lovely people how much I appreciate the droppings! I mean drops!

:-)



technorati tags: