(not) Madonna

By virtue of the fact that Madonna has released so many songs it stands to reason that I'd like one or two of them, but off the top of my head I can't think of a single one I'd want embedded in my blog. So despite being back Into the Groove I'll not be sharing any Madge.

I will instead share my OCD at the poster for the entourage movie. "DREAM LARGE. LIVE LARGER. entourage." That simply does not scan and it is doing my head in. It should be "DREAM LARGE. LIVE LARGE. entourage" or "DREAM LARGE. LIVE LARGER. entourager." Every bloody bus shelter now exists solely to raise my blood pressure.

Yes, I am a grumpy old man.

So running. Not a lot to report really. With my thermals in the wash I needed to man-up a bit (forgive my gender stereotyping, developing-boy-child damaging phrasing) and ran to the city in just a t-shirt, shorts and cap. As usual the things to warm warmed and the things that shrank and went numb went numb and shrank.  I turned my legs over and got to work.

One of life's simple pleasures is wandering barefoot around the city, which I do after my morning shower. The routine is run, shower, change into fresh shorts and t-shirt, coffee and.toast from Cinno"s and then into the office where I dress for work and occasionally put shoes on.

An emotional start to the working day and I'll get to that in a day or so. Work was typically Meh and then at 15m or thereabouts I escaped to do a loop of the city. Lovely running weather at the moment. Mostly clear and sunny, not too warm, not humid (oh Janathon how I do not miss your humidity!)

And to bring this dull post to an end, back to work, now on the bus home. Must remember to update this with links and labels later tonight.

Jumeathon total now around 77 km.

Oh, alright them. Just for the Nikon F3 at 1.15

And finally. Happy birthday mum. You should be 68 today.

awesome!

The rings of Jupiter. Awesome. A collapsing star. Awesome. The Grand Canyon, Awesome. The vending machine guy moving confectionery from a shelf that is not working to a shelf that is working. Not awesome. That is what I'd call his job which I may appreciate or expect. I'd not be in awe. It makes me wonder how the person I overheard describes the awe-inspiring. Maybe the explanation is simpler and they've got an awe threshold somewhat lower than mine. Yes, that must be it.

freedom for Tooting!

OK, the title is a bit of a stretch, but it appeals to me. A quick run through of my citizenship ceremony. It was held at the council chambers in Chatswood. A fairly dull fairly typical council building. There was a bit of a raised stage for the assembled dignitaries who, apart from the mayor in his mayoral robe (all a bit Santa Claus) were not especially dignified. There was a picture of the queen on the wall. That is rather quaint and, I don't know, seemingly irrelevant. The word seemingly does carry a bit of weight.

The room was arranged with two long tables stretching out form the raised stage/table to form an enclosed, square cornered U. Behind that were three rows of seats, facing the stage. We stood when the mayor came in. He acknowledged the aboriginal heritage of the area before an Asian belly dancer arrived to give a shimmying dance to a crackling CD on a small cheap stereo. I knew I looked confused and Sal later confirmed that I'd looked very confused. I initially missed the point of how this was anything to do with Australia, but soon worked it out. Australia is now a land of migrants. Even your true blue Aussies (not the original folks) are relative newcomers. You could put on pretty well any display and it could be said to represent some aspect of modern Australia. Anyway, apparently the dance was Thai or Cambodian or something. It was easy enough on the eye. If a little odd.

That said, I looked at the names of the mayors of Chatswood dating back over 150years and all names looked somewhat Anglo. Maybe the office appeals only to Aussies with a bit of old mother England about them. Don't know.

After the dance we pledged. Two lots stood to pledge, the first ones under God and outnumbering those who left the God bit out by about 2-1. Which I thought was odd.

From this time forward, under God,

I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,

Whose democratic beliefs I share,

Whose rights and liberties I respect,

and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

I left out the God bit. You are allowed to pledge on a Holy Book and I had been tempted to see if I could find a Tom Cruise biography, the Scientology New Testament. After we'd pledged it was a matter of, one at a time, walking up to get our certificates presented by mayor Pat Riley. Of around 40 people I think 5 of us seemed Anglo, maybe 8 Indian, about 4 "others" and the balance Asian. Which is a pretty fair reflection of the Chatswood demographic. I think. Eah of us had a picture take, and these will be emailed to us. Sal and AJ were in mine and AJ, of course, stole the show. She went on to try and disrupt te show with some of her poltergeistesque gutteral gurgles and Sal too her out for a snack of left boob.

After we all had our certs the stereo was once again crackled into action and we sung the national anthem. In a moment of un-Australian-ness I managed to remember all of the words, though we did only sing the first verse.

And that was it. I signed up to vote and left for Yum Cha. I walked AJ back to the pub where I proceeded to have a couple of (Australian) beers, about a bottle of (Australian) wine and then I tottered home where, after AJ was in bed, I had a couple of (Australian) rum and cokes. I did feel a bit dusty this morning and should have thrown a (very Australian) sickie.

Anyway, this is a very dull post as it contains nothing of my thoughts and feelings on taking out Australian Citizenship. That shit takes brain power, and it is late (for me) and I am flat out of grey matter. Time for bed, maybe I shall ponder what it all means and share that later. Best not hold your breath.

demarcation

Weather this week. Where are the boundaries between "showers", "a few showers" and "shower or two"? Showers, plural, suggests to me that two showers, or rather "a shower or two" could be the same thing as "showers". Two from a potentially far larger number of showers suggests that two is "a few". You can see where I am going with this. I will be disappointed with the Bureau of Meteorology if Monday has three showers or either Tuesday or Wednesday has a single shower. Should here be no precipitation on one of those three days I may write to my MP. But I'll probably not.

Monday Shower or two.

City:          Min:   20  Max:   25
West:          Min:   17  Max:   25 

Tuesday A few showers.

City:          Min:   19  Max:   23
West:          Min:   17  Max:   23 

Wednesday Showers.

City:          Min:   21  Max:   23
West:          Min:   19  Max:   25 

the things people say

It pays not to listen to the words people use but rather try to listen for the meaning. Reason? So much utter nonsense is spoken and written and we tacitly assume it does not matter.

For instance, Mr Madonna's Mum:

Madonna's mother-in-law, Ritchie's mother Lady (Amber) Leighton, made no comment to reporters who gathered outside her west London home, saying: "We are not talking to press and we won't be all day."

Made no comment. Other than that one.

My favourite today is the new vision statement from our Chief Executive, communicated to all staff. Apparently:

Our purpose is to Maximise Potential

I'm not entirely sure we need the capital M and P. Possibly because of the upper case H and F in "even High Flyers will be renamed MaxPeople". Hold on, I think I need to throw up...no, no, I'm okay.

I would rather realise potential. Potential, after all, is

1. possible, as opposed to actual: the potential uses of nuclear energy.
2. capable of being or becoming: a potential danger to safety.
3. Grammar. expressing possibility: the potential subjunctive in Latin; the potential use of can in I can go.

I don't think Lewis Hamilton's purpose is to have the potential to be a world champion.