Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

A Very Cottony Anniversary

Two years as husband and wife...
Two years in a shared life...

The Weekend

Its been a while since I got to spend the whole weekend at home with my wife. The fact that I used to work on Saturdays meant that I was away for a part of the weekend and when I got home I was usually too tired to be able to do much. This past weekend has been quite different to that and I can get used to this.

Yesterday was also the day of election for Australia and there was pretty much nothing on TV except the election coverage. Kevin Rudd has become the new Prime Minister and John Howard has been sent packing after 11 years of being prime minister. This doesn't really affect us in any way... YET!! Didn't much like John Howard because of his IR laws. If that had not been in effect when I started working I would have earned a lot more than I had so I am not that disappointed to see him leave.

Went to the Vic Market today and bought a whole bunch of stuff. Made me realise why we don't go there so often. But we tried some Spanish Donuts and they were awfully good. I might head back there soon just to get some of those.

Another week starts tomorrow...

sigh...

I Know Everything

I know everything...

I just don't know what they are called or what they do...

The First Day...

The first day was quite enjoyable actually. Instead of learning just about software problems I get to learn about hardware as well. So by the end of this course I will be able to take a computer apart and then rebuild it piece by piece by my very own self. I am starting to get really excited about it now.

Oh and I wrote about that going away present that my coworkers got me - that new schoolbag??? Well turns out that the course actually provides everything that I would need for the course. And I mean everything! So i got an awesome new backpack, as well as all the tools and books. So all in all I have three bags now. How awesome is that?

It was pretty intense. But then I was expecting it to be. And it's only going to get more intense from now on. But I will deal with it... and enjoy myself whilst doing so...

A New Beginning

Yesterday was my last day of work and tomorrow I begin my new studies. Its a bit scary going back to studying after a long break but I have done it before and hopefully I can do it again. Its all part of the master plan.

Last night the place I worked at had their annual Christmas party which I went to as it would be my last time to celebrate with those people with whom I have worked with for more than a year now. It was an OK party and I got hit with a few surprises. I knew they were planning to give me a going away present (as I had seen the envelope with all the collected money and the list of people who had contributed.) But I did not know it was going to be that big.

The girl who organized everything had given me a ride that morning and before that she had said she needed to go into JBHiFi to get a gift card for her son who was having a birthday. I went with her there and after she finished she gave me a lift home. I was quite pleasantly surprised when that gift card ended up with the rest of the gifts that I got. The sneaky little thing! I also got a new schoolbag (*rolls eyes*) and an engraved pen and key chain set.

The party started at 8pm and it was on a boat which sort of cruised the Yarra river for four hours. Dinner and drinks were provided and there was music and lots of dancing. When it finished we were dead tired and went straight to bed when we came home. I guess Dina is still tired out from it as she is taking another nap right now.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Hey Primary0

Is this how I am meant to view your blog? Or is there something wrong with your website? Or is there something wrong with my computer?

The Case of the Missing Midori

Some weeks ago My wife and I found ourselves in a position in which we needed cash but there did not seem to be any ATMs around. So after walking around for a while and trying at different stores that we came across a bottle shop but we needed to buy something before we could take any cash out. So we opted to buy this 4 pack of Midori Lemon liquor.

Now neither myself nor my wife drink alcohol. That is not to say that we haven't tried any - just that we haven't come across any that we liked enough to keep on buying them. Coca Cola is good enough for us. Anyways after we brought this Midori home, I opened one and tried it, thinking that it should taste of lemon so how bad could it be right? ... It was pretty bad.

So anyways this open bottle went into the fridge and the other three went into the cupboard where it stayed till Dina got fed up and told me to take it to my workplace and give it to my co-workers. So thats what I did.

They seemed to love it. It turned out to be one of their favourite drinks actually. So M put it into the fridge saying it tasted better when cold. That was a Wednesday and we had planned on going to lunch after we finished. And M did not take the bottles with her. They remained in the fridge for two days.

On Friday, I came into the tea room and there was a big riot going on. M was furious as the bottles had disappeared. She was in a real state and had started a tirade about thieves and rotten bastards! It went on for a full 10 minutes after I came in and seemed to have been going on for the past half hour.

So anyway she was giving me a ride home and she was still a bit mad. Her mind was still on the stolen Midori and she almost ran a red light. Luckily she managed to stop before having an accident and I swallowed my heard back down again.

Of course the next day we found out what had really happened to the Midori. The other three in my crew had taken them! When I had brought the bottles in I had told them it was for all of them and M had taken the initiative and put them in the fridge. The other three had thought she might have taken hers already and they had taken the rest! M was not too pleased!

Through all this of course I had a big smile on my face. Who knew that when I bought these drinks that I could not drink, it would lead to so much entertainment.

Motivation pic

via

Birthday Chocs

I got my birthday present from my svigermor last week. They took a month to get to me but they were delicious!

Poor Maldivian

It was so sad. The horse going by the name of Maldivian and who was favourite to win the Caufield cup yesterday did not even run in the race. Just minutes before the race started he reared in the stalls and hit his head in the gates. He was lead away with blood pouring from a neck wound.



photos via heraldsun

Breaking Fast

Ramadan has come and gone and what have I accomplished?? Well, I managed to cook not one but two different Maldivian eats for the breaking of fast. YEP! Two out of Thirty aint bad!


The cutlas came out good. They tasted just as good as when my momma makes them. And I went one better than her. They didn't crack up when being deep fried.

Oh yeah... I ran out of dough while making gulha and six of them went into the deep fryer naked. It didn't taste any good either. The ones in the traditional coats did taste all right. For a first try anyway...

A horse called Maldivian

Yesterday while I was browsing through the news websites I came across this story about Maldivian being the favourite to win the Spring Carnival. Of course at first I thought that it was "A" maldivian and not a horse that went by the name of Maldivian.


Australians are pretty much bonkers about horse racing. They get all dressed up in the best attire and go to races and blow all their money on drinks and betting. Sometimes it seems that the races are no even about horses but just an excuse for the Aussie women to show off their latest fashions. But I digress....

So this horse called Maldivian is a favourite among punters to win the Caulfield Cup which is going to be held on Saturday. If I was a betting man (if I had any money to bet) then I might put it on this horse, and if I win the headlines next day would read : MALDIVIAN WINS BIG ON MALDIVIAN.

Now that is a headline I wanna see. (Also I could use the money...)

The importance of friends

It really is important to have friends. You never know when you are going to need one...

Books, books and more books...

I don't think I will buy books from bookshops for exorbitant prices anymore. I have discovered a much cheaper way of doing that. That is from the secondhand shops. There are so many people who buy books, read them once and then give it away to these secondhand shops to resell them. And they are cheap!

There is a store on Sydney Road called "Savers" which is sort of a secondhand mega store. You can find almost anything there form clothes and books to kitchen utensils and other household item such as curtains, bedsheets etcetera etcetera. I have bought many books from this place for a pittance of their original price. I bought Dean Koontz's Forever Odd, JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and three books containing collections of short stories.

Yesterday I went to this Fete at the local church. They have this every year it seems and there were lots of books there as well. I almost did not go but the wife (God bless her) dragged me there and I bought five books there for just 6 dollars. It would have cost me 12 but they were almost finished with the whole thing so every book was for half their advertised price. Sure some of the books were yellowing and a bit dog-eared but I am not going to keep those ones. I will read it and then probably hand them into another second hand store or even the next church fete.

I should get back to reading now...

Motivation pic

So about this explosion...

I got woken up this morning because my wife saw a news story about the "bombing" in Male'. I ran out to the TV but they had already turned to another story. My thoughts then were that it must have been pretty big to make the news here in Australia. Either that or it has been a very slow news day.

So anyways I got on the internet and the Maldives blogosphere was overflowing with posts about this incident. Someone had made an IED which had exploded in Sultan Park injuring 12 tourists. Two Brits who got the worst of the deal had about 50 percent burns to their bodies and are still in ADK hospital. The ten other tourists have been treated and discharged.

After this morning's news I kept an eye on the TV and about an hour ago SBS World News also reported this story. They also reported that the Australian Government have issued travel warnings to Maldives.

The CCTV video of the explosion has bveen posted on Haveeru. There is also this video on Youtube showing a news report by the BBC. It is a small explosion but given the place it happened, so close to home, it sends chills down my spine.

So Maldives seems to be following in the footsteps of Sri Lanka, Burma and countless other countries where this sort of thing is almost commonplace now. I have friends in Sri Lanka who have relocated to escape the fighting there. I hope, I hope that it doesnt get that bad, that this was just a one time thing and that someday I would be able to bring my wife home with me.

Disappointing...

I was expecting today to be full of excitement what with the planned strike at work and all, but nothing happened! No one went on strike! No one talked about it! It was as if there had been no plans for it at any time and I was only dreaming about this! So it turned out to be just another routine day at work.

Well, on thing did happen. One of my colleagues had her last day of work today. She resigned as there was some conflict between her and her immediate boss. I am not gonna go into details but it was sad as I had been working with her for almost a year now and I probably won't see her again. Good luck to her anyways!

Motivation Pic

Just an update

It could be the onset of Ramadan or it could be all the turmoil happening with my work but I have been feeling a bit lethargic when it came to updating my not one but four blogs. Whatever it is, I decided the best cure for it is just to sit and force myself to type something down and post it.

Last Tuesday was my birthday. I got presents from my wife which include a humongous cheesecake that I am still struggling to finish off a week later. My mother and father called me to wish me Happy Birthday and I got text messages from my siblings. And my niece parroted off a happy birthday to me as well which was kind of nice. The best wish came from my mother in law who sang me a happy birthday song and I did not realize it was her until she finished and started talking to me. Her English was just BEEYOOTEEFOOL.

Whats happening at work is pretty complicated so I am just going to touch on it a little bit. It seems that the contracts I am currently on are not fair or up to standard so I maybe getting a new contract sometime soon which would mean better pay. And when I say sometime soon it could be next week or next month or even next year. These people are not well known for their sense of urgency when it comes to dealing out more money to their employees. Still my coworkers are threatening to strike and I have already said yes. What gets my goat is that they just hired some new staff this month and they are already on this new contract which means us on the old one who have been here for a year now are getting less pay than these new people who get penalty rates as well which is something that we don't get either.

Anyways hopefully I will hear something positive by the end of this week. I am gonna go work on that cheesecake a bit more.

Happy Birthday Laisha

A very happy birthday to my wonderful niece who turns two today. I am sorry I could not send it to you for your birthday and I hope you get it soon. Hope you enjoy what's left of today and hope I get to see you and wish you a Happy Birthday in person before too many birthdays come and pass.

Why?

My loving sister sent me an email the other day titled "pics". Me, being the trusting and loving older brother who has been starved for pictures from back home and who immediately thought this was some of those long awaited pics that would show me what I was missing back home quickly clicked and opened the email.

Yes. The title to the email was correct. They definitely were pics. Also they definitely showed me what I was missing back home but that was not something I really minded missing out on.

The pictures were that of the murdered and disemboweled expatriate found in Kulhudhuffushi. I'm quite sure you all must have heard about it. I read about the murder in Haveeru and was quite shocked. I was even more shocked when my sister starts sending me emails with all the gruesome pictures attached to it.

So my dear sweet sister. If you are reading this, please don't send me any emails like that ever again. I like to think of you as sweet and innocent and not exposed to all these wicked goings-on all over Maldives. Please let me maintain that illusion. Please.

Facebook

A co worker recently told me how much she hated facebook. She went on and on about how much a waste of time it was and that it was just the most recent internet craze that would just fade out over time. How all the people who joined up just wants to collect online friends and boost that number up so that others could see that that person had so many friends.

That is her opinion and she is welcome to it of course.

As for me I love facebook. I have found lots of my friends with whom I lost touch on this thing. I have learnt what they have been doing since I last saw them mebbe ten or so years ago. I have seen their grown up pics. I have seen pics of their wives and their sons and daughters. These were missing last time I actually met some of my friends.

Its much easier to keep in touch with my friends through facebook. And i keep learning new things about them all the time. I learnt my sister had a boyfriend through facebook. and I learnt that they broke up also through facebook. Some might say that this is a sign that I am not close enough to my sister. But when you are thousands of miles away with just a few phonecalls to keep you in touch with each other, you might be surprised just how much of someone's life you are missing out on.

I commend the people who created facebook and I hope that more of my friends join up so it would be easier for me to keep in touch.

Weekend

First weekend since I got back to work after the time off. I must admit I am looking forward to this weekend since I am more tired than I thought I would be and will welcome the chance to sleep in a bit. I am also going to go up to Frankston to visit friends. Should be a fun trip.

New Feeds

I have put in new feeds from my other blogs so that when and IF I update them they will show up on this blog; this still being my main blog. I also changed the colours and fonts so that all the blogs look sorta alike except for khuscensations where there is a giant IRONMAN picture in the background. That pic was just too cool not to put there.

One of my friend told me I was very ambitious to start on three new blogs. Either it is ambition or its just plain madness. I was having problems updating one blog so I thought I could just as well continue to do that even if I have three or four blogs; that is continue to have problems updating them...

Of course the only way to get around a problem is to set certain goals and then work hard to realise them. At least that is what all the self help books and motivational speakers are saying. Still I am gonna have a crack at this.

Back to work

The people at work have been very good to me over the last month. What with the new IR agreement that I signed, I was expecting to be fired after taking so many days as sickies without once submitting a medical certificate. But they have been pretty cool to me. We got a big bunch of flowers and cards signed by everyone. Of course my own team sent their own cards and messages throughout letting me know they were thinking of us.

I am going back to work starting tomorrow and the good news is that I am rostered on for some extra hours this week. Hopefully this will turn out to be something permanent and not just until they find a replacement. And its a good thing they called me to let me know, otherwise I would have gone without taking any lunch and probably starve to death.

With the extra hours that means I will be working an eight hour day. That is almost the same as full time work and it really does not sound too bad. I will see what happens tomorrow though before I give this turn of events my blessing.

September

The past month has been a blur. So much has happened in such a short time that I am feeling like I have been hit by a truck, then bounced off a train coming the other way.

My son, Sami Muaz Hameed was born on the 6th and moved on on the 10th. Those four days were the best and worst days of my life. But we will see him soon enough. Angels will take care of him till then.

Before august I had been toying with the idea of creating another blog. Not because I am so adapt at updating but because I figured that if the blog was created for a specific purpose then I will probably be able to do more updates more often. So with that in mind I renamed this blog "khuscen" and this will be specifically for personal updates.

The other new blogs I have created:

Khuscensations: all the movie stuff such as posters and trailers about upcoming movies, news and even mebbe a review every now and then if i can write one.

Khuscentiments: for my fiction writing. Hopefully by the end of September I will have started on at least one short story.

Khuscentinel: news and stuff that I find all over the intranet.


Thats it for the moment.

Wish me luck.

Metal Britney

Britney Spears has changed music genres.. this is a much better sound hehehe...

I was tagged...

Siyah tagged me...

1) 3 Things You Can’t Do
There is nothing I can't do...If I just believe in myself...

2) 3 Things You Can Do
I can't list just three.. all those other things will get sad then...

3) 3 Things That Scare You
There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

4) 3 Things You Love
º My wife
º My son
º My self (for if I can't love my own self then I cannot be capable of loving anyone else...)

5) 3 Things You Hate
º being tagged
º dina's laptop
º australian weather

Oh and I have never tagged anyone before even though I might have replied to previous tags. But if anyone reading this feels the need to continue this then please be my guest.

Never ever give up!

Everyone has at least one picture that they find inspirational. This is mine...

The New Batman Suit

SuperHeroHype.com has posted a hi resoultion pic for the new batsuit that would be used in the filming of The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins.

Taking the oath

Shoot 'Em Up new character posters

pic source: latinoreview.com

You can also watch the new trailer here.

After the rain

photo source: ABC.NET.AU click for more pics

Before, it was the drought. Everyone was talking about the lack of rainfall. The farmers were struggling to keep their crops alive. The government was deciding on new ways on how to beat the drought and enforcing strick water saving rules.

But with the arrival of winter, it has gone mostly into the other side. There were a couple of strong storms in New South Wales that caused widespread flooding and damage to property. Two, three days ago another heavy rainfall this time closer to where I live but still some way off. Wide spread flooding again with at least one person killed when a tree fell on his house. They seem to be recovering now but there has been more rain forecast..

Rain

It has been raining like crazy all day today. More rain is set to come tomorrow as well. And I have to be at work at 6 o'clock in the morning. Its NOT going to be a fun day!!

Computer woes

I am typing this on my wife's laptop cos my monitor decided not to turn itself on anymore. I think there is something wrong with the adaptor but I cant get a new one cos none of the electric stores around here have ever seen the kind of adaptor I have. They keep telling me to check with the supplier and after much googling I have finally found a telephone number for ompany in New South Wales. I will call the guy tomorrow and hopefully he can supply me with another adaptor.

One of the stores told me that it was time to get a new computer. I kind of like that idea even though my budget for this yea doesn't include me getting a new computer. And if its just the fault of the adaptor which I seriously think it is, then there really is no point. It is still cheaper to get a new adaptor if i can find one.

I have started saving some money so that I an actually buy one in the not too distant future. But as of the moment that account has only nine dollars. Still, it is a start.

I Am Legend

New poster and trailer online now for I Am Legend.






view high resolution trailer here

30 Days of Night

New trailer and Poster is out now.




watch a higher resolution trailer here

The Joker

Heath Ledger is playing The Joker in the sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Set after the events in 'Terminator 2' Sarah Connor and her son John, trying to stay under-the-radar from the government as they plot to destroy the computer network Skynet in hopes of preventing Armageddon.



I just saw the above trailor for the forthcoming tv series and was blown away. This just might be the next big tv series to follow the likes of lost, prison break, and heroes. It stars Lena Heady as Sarah Connor. Lena was last seen as Queen Gorgo in 300. It also stars Summer Glau who was the best thing in Serenity. Thomas Dekker who plays Zach in Heroes is going to be John Conner. This is going on my "Must watch" list.

Wrong day posting

I posted this last friday. The date, however says that it was posted on the sunday before. That was when I first started drafting that post. I didnt finish it then so I had saved it to my drafts. I worked on it on friday and posted it then. Obviously Blogger doesnt really care when exactly an article is posted just when it is started. So I am thinking that I should just start on something everyday and save it to drafts. It doesnt matter if I post them as soon as I write them because as long as I do post it some in the future it would still be posted on the day that it was saved to drafts.

Somehow I don't really like this idea. If I write an article one day but does not finish it and has to save it for later, that does not mean that I would want that artiocle to be posted on that exact day that I started on it. I want it to be posted on the day that I have posted it! Namely that friday five post should show that it was posted on friday! Not Sunday!

Friday Five: Movies I want to see in 2007

A few days back, Subcorpus blogged about upcoming movies in 2007 that he wanted to watch. Being a huge fan of movies, I figured I would do the same but in the interest of not overlapping I would list ten movies that are not on his list and go for some others that I want to see. Then I decided that ten is a bit too much and squeezed the list into five. I also decided that I might just post this under a title - friday five. I have seen this done on other blogs and since I havent updated in a while thought that this kind of thing may help me post more often. So in no particular ordere here are five movies I want to see in 2007:

1. 30 Days of Night
Release Date: October 19, 2007

30 Days of Night is set in the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, in the extreme northern hemisphere, which is plunged into complete darkness annually for an entire month. When most of the inhabitants head south for the winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take dvantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the town’s residents. As the night wears on, Barrow's Sheriff Eben (Josh Hartnett), his estranged wife Stella (Melissa George), and an ever-shrinking group of survivors must do anything they can to last until daylight.

I have been waiting for this since I first heard about it. I even went to borders and read one of the comics. Sadly it wasnt the one this movie is based on. But the comic rocked and I am hoping this moive will too. The pic is from the actual graphic novel by Steve Niles. An official poster has not come out yet but I will post it as soon as it does come out.

2. I am Legend
Release Date: December 14, 2007


Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable…and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City…and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by “the Infected”—victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.

I am a HUGE fan of Will Smith. He has struck the perfect balance between comedy, drama and action. The premise of this movie sound so good too. Though very similar to movies like 28 days later and Resident Evil I am hoping Will Smith will make this movie worth watching.

3. Shrek the Third
Release Date: May 18, 2007



When Shrek married Fiona, the last thing he had in mind was becoming the next King. But when Shrek’s father-in-law, King Harold, suddenly croaks, that is exactly what he faces. Unless Shrek (with the help of his trusted companions Donkey and Puss In Boots) can find a suitable King for Far Far Away, the ogre could be stuck with the job. The most promising candidate, Fiona’s cousin Artie, an underachieving Medieval high school slacker, proves to be more of a challenge than they bargained for.

My favorite animated movie series. I loved the first one and was amazed that the second one lived up to the first one. It will really be a hatrick if the third one is just as good too. At the moment it seems like this movie will be better than both its predecessors.


4. Shoot 'em Up
Release Date: September 7, 2007

A lonely outsider (Clive Owen) living in the shadows of his tragic past, rescues a baby from certain death and finds himself embroiled in a nefarious government plot. En route, he “hooks up” with a prostitute (Monica Bellucci) who specializes in lactation fantasies and who will help him feed and take care of the orphan child. Together they take on the trigger happy gangster politicians (Paul Giamatti, Stephen McHattie), and in a cinematic homage to Serge Leone, John Woo, Jean Pierre Melville shoot ‘em up’s, they bring down the Government and save the day. In the wreckage they find they have accidentally created their own little fractured yet functioning family.

I just want to see Clive Owen and Paul giamatti shoot it out. I saw the premise for this movie around the same time as Smokin' Aces which was one of the best action movies ever. The trailerwas awesome. I love these movies with lots of action sequences.




5. Pathfinder
Release Date: 13 September 2007
PATHFINDER centers on a boy left behind by the Norsemen fifteen years prior to their return to the New World. The child is raised by American Indians. When Norsemen storm the eastern shores, once again waging a barbaric campaign, they slaughter the tribe that adopted him. Now a man of twenty-five, the young man decides to stop the Norsemen’s trail of death and destruction. In the process, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery as he comes to terms with his heritage.

Karl Urban as an Indian warrior of Viking blood. I have always been partial to epic movies. and this movie shows both Native Americans and Vikings in a time when they thrived in this world. It should make for good viewing.

I dare you NOT to smile!

YouTubing

I have been on a YouTube kick lately as anyone perusing my blog might have noticed. The last few days have been spent searching for and viewing Indian songs that had graced my teenage years. Those videos songs of Adnan Sami, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Daler Mehndi, Sukhwinder Singh to name a few.

Anyways I was trying to find the song Mana Janab by Shaan and very shockingly, it had not been uploaded onto Youtube. Googling for it was also unsuccessful. And then I remembered that I had an Indian remix video cd somewhere. So after dusting off my cd wallet I found the song on that cd and uploaded it to youtube. Enjoy!




Click here to go to my Youtube

The Bourne Ultimatum

Deadly handsome men....

The actual reasons why so many women are turning...

Anchorman 300

Cracking sixteen eggs

My humps

I tried posting this directly from youtube but wasnt successful for some reason... This is Alanis Morrisette's version of the Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps".

Don't lie to your mother

Sam invited his mother over for dinner. During the meal his mother couldn't help noticing how beautiful Sam's roommate was. She had long been suspicious of a relationship between Sam and his roommate and this only made her more curious.

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Sam and the roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom's thoughts, Sam volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Julie and I are just roommates."

About a week later, Julie came to Sam and said, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the beautiful gravy ladle. You don't suppose she took it, do you?"

Sam said, "Well, I doubt it, but I'll write her a letter just to be sure."

So, he sat down and wrote, "Dear Mother, I'm not saying you 'did' take a gravy ladle from my house, and I'm not saying you 'did not' take a gravy ladle. But, the fact remains that one has been missing ever since you were here for dinner."

Several days later, Sam received a letter from his mother which read: "Dear Son, I'm not saying that you 'do' sleep with Julie, and I'm not saying that you 'do not' sleep with Julie. But, the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her own bed, she would have found the gravy ladle by now. Love, Mom."

Lesson of the day: Don't lie to your mother.

Spiderman 3 - final trailer

This is the last trailer to come out before the actual movie.

Walk it out!

I have this friend who emails me crazy and wacky video clips every now and then. They always manage to make me crack a smile n matter how I was feeling at that particular time. So I thought I would upload them on youtube and then share them with you guys so that you will have one more thing to smile at... hopefully...

This video is about walking buns/glutes...

Man-puter?

Flight Announcements

Occasionally, airline attendants make an effort to make the, "In-flight safety lecture" and their other announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:

1. From a Southwest Airlines employee.... "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane..."

2. Pilot... "Folks, we have reached our cruising altitude now, so I am going to switch the seat belt sign off. Feel free to move about as you wish, but please stay inside the plane till we land... it's a bit cold outside and if you walk on the wings it affects the flight pattern."

3. After landing: "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.

4. As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Washington National, a lone voice comes over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

5. After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced: "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."

6. From a Southwest Airlines employee... "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XXX to YYY. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt and if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised.

In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which one you love more.

7. Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds but they'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you or your money more, than Southwest Airlines."

8. "Your seat cushions can be used for flotation and in the event of an emergency water landing, please take them with our compliments."

9. "As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."


10. "Last one off the plane must clean it."

11. From the pilot during his welcome message: "We are pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry... Unfortunately none of them are on this flight...!

12. Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day. During the final approach, the Captain had really fought to get the plane down. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant came on the PA and announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"

13. Another flight Attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."

14. An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying XYZ airline."

He said that in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally, everyone had gotten off except for this little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sonny, mind if I as you a question?"

"Why no, Ma'am," said the pilot, "what is it?"

The little old lady said, "Did we land or were we shot down?"

15. After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the Flight Attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt up against the gate. Once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we'll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.

16. Part of a Flight Attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today and the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of us here at US Airways."

Kids ideas on love and marriage

1. "If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don't want to do it. It takes too long." -- Glenn, age 7
   

2. "Love is like an avalanche where you have to run for your life." -- John, age 9
   

3. "I think you're supposed to get shot with an arrow or something, but the rest of it isn't supposed to be so painful." -- Manuel, age 8
   

4. "No one is sure why it happens, but I heard it has something to do with how you smell. That's why perfume and deodorant are so popular." -- Mae, age 9
   

5. "Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good too." -- Greg, age 8
   

6. "Once I'm done with kindergarten, I'm going to find me a wife." -- Tom, age 5
   

7. "On the first date, they just tell each other lies, and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date." -- Mike, 10
   

8. "I'm in favor of love as long as it doesn't happen when Dinosaurs is on television." -- Jill, age 6
   

9. "One of the people has freckles, and so he finds somebody else who has freckles too." -- Andrew, age 6
   

10. "My mother says to look for a man who is kind. That's what I'll do. I'll find somebody who's kinda tall and handsome." -- Carolyn, age 8
    

11. "It gives me a headache to think about that stuff. I'm just a kid. I don't need that kind of trouble." -- Kenny, age 7
    

12. "One of you should know how to write a check. Because, even if you have tons of love, there is still going to be a lot of bills." -- Ava, age 8
    

13. "When somebody's been dating for a while, the boy might propose to the girl. He says to her, 'I'll take you for a whole life, or at least until we have kids and get divorced.'" -- Anita, 9
    

14. "I'm not rushing into being in love. I'm finding fourth grade hard enough." -- Regina, age 10
    

15. "Most men are brainless, so you might have to try more than once to find a live one." -- Angie, age 10
    

16. "A man and a woman promise to go through sickness and illness and diseases together." -- Marlon, age 10
    

17. "[Being] single is better . . . for the simple reason that I wouldn't want to change no diapers. Of course, if I did get married, I'd figure something out. I'd just phone my mother and have her come over for some coffee and diaper-changing." -- Kirsten, age 10
    

18. "Love is foolish...but I still might try it sometime." -- Floyd, age 9
    

19. "Love will find you, even if you are trying to hide from it. I been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me." -- Dave, age 8

Cat Walking on the Zebra Crossing!

Yeah... cool heading isn't it? But that's about it. It really has no bearing on anything that I actually did... just something I was thinking about today. So let me write about how I came to write that heading.

I was walking home after working an eight hour shift. I was tired, I was sleepy. I was walking and listening to music on my ipod. So really the outside world did not have too much an effect on me. That is until I came to the crossing.

Now this is a very big road with lots of traffic flowing in both directions. You have to press the signal button and wait fifteen minutes before it will allow you to cross. Of course I'm exaggarating here a bit. It wasn't fifteen minutes... more like fourteen and a half... but the point is you have to wait there till the green man lights up. Only then can you cross.

SO the green man comes on and I start across the zebra crossing. Which is when I notice all the cars that are stopped on the side of the crossing. I also notice all the people in those cars. But mostly I notice all those eyes staring at me.

Now I am not very comfortable being stared at. I can honestly say that I don't like it. If I had to chose between being stared at by a dozen eyes and fighting a hungry lion in a colloseum... I would chose the lion. (Of course these days there are no more colloseums, and if you let a lion go hungry for any amount of time, PETA will be more than ready to cut you into pieces and feed you to the said lion.)

When people stare at me, I get all self conscious and then of course I start to do weird stuff. Well, not weird per se, but stuff that you wouldn't expect from a normal person at any normal time. In this instance, I ran down the crossing!

Yes, that doesn't sound too weird now, does it? But that street can be crossed by a normal stroll in about half a minute. For me I think it took five seconds. And I was really nervous when I reached the other side. (Why did Khuscen cross the road? To get away from the eyes that were staring at him...)

Anyways that was when I started to think that it would have been funny if I had strutted my stuff like a model on a cat walk on that crossing and really given those eyes something to gawk at.

And that is when I realised the amazing similarity between a zebra crossing and a cat walk in that they are both named after an animal. In the case of a catwalk, I think it is something about the way a catwalks that is copied by a model to show off her... stuff. And a zebra crossing is... ah... stripes on the road... stripes on the zebra...

Anyways cool heading eh?

Actual Entries on hospital charts - part 2

I somehow only posted half of the entries in that list. so here's the rest...


16. Occasional constant infrequent headaches.

17. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

18. Rectal examination revealed a normal-size thyroid.

19. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.

20. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.

21. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

22. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

23. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

24. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stockbroker instead.

25. Skin: somewhat pale, but present.

26. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

27. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Blank, who felt we should sit
on the abdomen, and I agree.

28. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.

29. Patient has two teenage children but no other abnormalities.

Actual Entries on hospital charts

1. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

2. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

3. On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.

4. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

5. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

6. Discharge status: Alive, but without my permission.

7. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year-old male, mentally alert but forgetful.

8. The patient refused autopsy.

9. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

10. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

11. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40-pound weight gain in the last three days.

12. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

13. She is numb from her toes down.

14. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.

15. The skin was moist and dry.

A video from the past

I was searching for maldvian videos on youtube and look what I came across...




This video is from 1990 when I was but eleven years old and the school kids feature here, I think were from the same grade as me... I am not sure... They are definitelt from the same school and if it was 1990 then they were in same grade as well... I recognise only one of them - Dhonbulhaa hehehe. Dont know her real name and dont know where she is now, but she was in the class next to mine at the time.

Anyways hope you enjoy this video and enjoy any memories that might be dredged up by the association. I know i have.. thanx to the dude who uploaded this video.

Sick Notes

These are real notes written by parents in a Tennessee school district...(spellings have been left intact.)

1. My son is under a doctor's care and should not take PE today. Please execute him.

2. Please exkuce lisa for being absent she was sick and i had her shot.

3. Dear school: please ecsc's john being absent on jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33.

4. Please excuse gloria from jim today. She is administrating.

5. Please excuse roland from p.e. for a few days. Yesterday he fell out of a tree and misplaced his hip.

6. John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.

7. Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was hurt in the growing part.

8. Megan could not come to school today because she has been bothered by very close veins.

9. Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side.

10. Please excuse ray friday from school. He has very loose vowels.

11. Please excuse pedro from being absent yesterday. He had (diahre, dyrea, direathe), the sh**s. [note: words in ( )'s were crossed out] .

12. Please excuse tommy for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea, and his boots leak.

13. Irving was absent yesterday because he missed his bust.

14. Please excuse jimmy for being.It was his father's fault.

15. I kept billie home because she had to go christmas shopping because i don't know what size she wear.

16. Please excuse jennifer fo! R missing school yesterday. We
forgot to get the sunday paper off the porch, and when we found it monday. We thought it was sunday.

17. Sally won't be in school a week from friday. We have to attend her funeral.

18. My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent a weekend with the marines.

19. Please excuse jason for being absent yesterday. He had a cold and could not breed well.

20. Please excuse mary for being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.

21. Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover.

22. Please excuse brenda. She has been sick and under the doctor.

23. Maryann was absent december 11-16, because she had a fever,sore throat, headache and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick,fever an sore throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't the best either, sore throat and fever. There must be something going around, her father even got hot last night.


My favourite is number 14 lol...

New Spidey 3 footage online

NBC.com has a new clip from the movie which is going to premier in 57 days. I just watching it and I honestly have to say that if I had not been hooked on this movie before then I definitely am now. Go there to watch it now...

Oh, but to write...

I know I want to write. I have started writing many times. But it only goes as far as a few lines and I hit a dead end. I just cannot seem to be getting anywhere so I give up. This has been going on for the past month or so. You may have noticed the lack of any real posts on my blog. I have posted a couple of jokes that I found whilst in my foraging aroung the wide world of the web and these have garnered more comments than any of my actual writing. But then again I am not doing this for the comments.

The real reason for my blog is and always has been because I have had an avid interest in stringing words together into sentences. And then the sentences into paragraphs and so on and so forth. My actual goal would be in putting together a short story, a novella, a novel - and not necessarily n that particular order. I just want to get published. But then I do not have any hope in getting any of my stories published when in fact I don't have written any yet.

So this blog was first started as a practice ground for my writing. I planned to write lots and lots. I have also written many times on how I plan to write lots and lots. This being one of those times.

Anyways I have all these ideas and plotlines and stuff rolling around in my head that does need to come out. They have been screaming at me everyday to let them out and I have already started on the actual paperwork that is necessary for these things to be let out of their prison. But you know how it is with all the red tape... so do not expect these to be posted her enytime soon. One day... One fine day...

Post a letter!

Worms

Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a jar of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a jar of cigarette smoke.
The third worm was put into a jar of sperm.
The fourth worm was put into a jar of soil.

After one day, these were the results:

The first worm in alcohol - dead.
Second worm in cigarette smoke - dead.
Third worm in sperm - dead.
Fourth worm in soil - alive.

Lesson:

As long as you drink, smoke and have sex, you won't get worms.

A rare medical condition

A man and a woman were sitting beside each other in an airplane. The woman sneezed, took out a tissue, gently wiped her nose, then visibly shuddered for ten to fifteen seconds.

The man went back to his reading. A few minutes later, the woman sneezed again, took a tissue, wiped her nose, then shuddered violently once more.

Assuming that the woman might have a cold, the man was still curious about the shuddering. A few more minutes passed when the woman sneezed yet again. As before, she took a tissue, wiped her nose, her body shaking.

Unable to restrain his curiosity, the man turned to the woman and said, "I couldn't help but notice that you've sneezed three times, wiped your nose and then shuddered violently. Are you ok?"

"I am sorry if I disturbed you, I have a very rare medical condition - whenever I sneeze I have an orgasm."

The man, more than a bit embarrassed, was still curious. "I have never heard of that condition before" he said. "Are you taking anything for it?"

The woman nodded, "Yes... Pepper."

Family Additions

My little brother got married on the 30th of December. I attended the ceremony in spirit if not physically. I have not met my sister in law though I have chatted to her online. I asked for pictures, lots of pictures to be sent immediately to my email. Immediately of course is open to interpretation.

A month passed before i got any pictures. And the four that my brother sent me after taking some time off from his busy, busy schedule was great pictures but left me wanting for more. It has been nearly three years since I last saw any of my family in person. The only way to see them was pictures sent electronically whenever the busy siblings could find the time to send them to me.

Last night however after weeks of pleading my littlest sister managed to send me a lot of pictures from the wedding day and party. It really blew me away. The bride's side of course are all new to me. There were a great many of them and now I gues they are part of my extended family. In a place like Male' I must have seen them at least once so there were a couple of familiar faces though I could not put a name to them.

On the groom's side however, I saw a lot of my most favourite people and their other halves. Two of my cousins got married while I was over here but this was the first time that I actually saw a clear picture of them. Ajoo has started wearing burugaa as well and looked quite beautiful. Almost didnt recognise my aunt. She has changed a bit. Naazuku also looked very different from the skinny, gawky little girl I had last seen. She does not look skinny any more. I guess the new boyfriend is good for her then hehehe.

The bride and groom looked really happy. My brother has always had this way of making everybody around them feel at ease. He is everyone's favourite. In almost all the pictures he is holding hands with everyone. My mom, aunt and cousins. hehe.

Hassan and Fahy, I wish you all the best in whatever your lives shall bring you. May you face your trials and tribulations, hand in hand and with a smile on your face. For together, no mountain is unattainable.

Baby, Don't Cry...

NURSES GAG TINY ORPHANS

ORPHAN babies in a hospital were gagged by cruel nurses fed up with their pitiful cries.

A woman patient used her mobile phone to film one tot with his mouth taped and others with dummies tied to their mouths. When she protested, she was told by nurses to mind her own business.

Now a maternity nurse is suspended for “brutally mistreating” the children. The hospital’s chief doctor was reprimanded for negligence.

Patient Elena Kuritsyna discovered the children at the hospital in Yekaterinburg, north west Russia, after hearing their muffled cries.

The hospital said babies were gagged to stop them spitting out dummies and to spare overworked nurses the need to pick the dummies up.

But state prosecutors said: “This was done to make the children behave more quietly.”

Thousands of Russian babies are abandoned by mothers who are HIV positive. Russia has one of the world’s fastest-growing Aids epidemics.

source: mirror



Sometimes I really hate people.

Al Qufi

I told my family that I am going to name my baby "Goofy". It took a while for them to realise that I was joking. Hehe. Right now "Goofy" is a placeholder since we do not want to know the gender of our baby yet. Most probably even after birth I am thinking that the name is going to be stuck of him/her for all eternity.

Night before last, I was chatting to my sister and the first thing she asked me was :-

Sis: Are you really serious about the name "Goofy".

Me: But of course. Don't you like it?

Sis: NOOO.. I don't. Its a cartoon name.

Me: Well... we lke it.

Sis: What does it mean?

Me: ridiculous; silly; wacky; nutty....

Sis: Oh no.. you shoudl find a name that means something nice like "Malak". It means "angel".

Me: nah we like this...

Sis: But shouldn't we be able to write the name in arabic???

Me: Well we are not going to spell it "Goofy"... It will be spelt "Qufi"... Does that look all rite?

Sis: hehehe

Me: mebbe even put "al" in front so... "Al Qufi Wal Hameed"

Sis: hahaha... Now I know you are not serious...

Robbed!

No, I was not robbed. So those of you who clicked here thinking to read a post about me getting robbed can breathe a little bit easier. Or be disappointed. Whichever.

What happened was that when I got to work this morning I could hear the alarm bell going off. I thought at first it was from my workplace but when I came closer I realised it was not coming from there but from another store, two places down. Well, naturally my curiousity drove me to go and investigate a bit further and what I saw was the front window of the store, with a large gaping hole in it. Someone had broken the glass and gone inside. It didnt look like anything had been taken but I dont work there so I dont really know. Could be the alarm going off had scared the thief away.

I waited a couple of minutes debating whether to call the cops or not. What usually happens at my workplace is that when the alarm goes off the cops are ususally notified automatically and they would have come already. Many a time before when I came to work there had been a note on the door saying that the cops had come to check out an alarm. But there was no police here yet.

Then, one of my coworkers showed up and she called the cops. While we were waiting for them to come, I noticed that two of the flagstones on the pavement nearby were missing and when I looked at the broken window, I could see the stones there. The thief had used the stones as a sort of battering ram.

By then the rest of my cowrokers arrived and we were enjoying this bit of excitement that had come into an otherwise routine morning. The cops arrived about five minutes after we called them and they didn't really want to speak to us I suppose. So we left them to their devices and went inside.

When I finished work today, I saw that they had covered the opening with a large aluminium sheet. And they were already open for business. So I guess that it wasn't a really serious robbery. Still that helped wake me up this morning.

Most Embarrasing Moments

The following are the top four winners from a "Most Embarrassing Moments" contest:

1. "While in line at the bank one afternoon, my toddler decided to release some pent-up energy and ran amok. I was finally able to grab hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other patrons. I told her that if she did not start behaving 'right now,'
she would be punished.

To my horror, she looked me in the eye and said in a voice just as threatening, 'If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma that I saw you kissing Daddy's pee-pee last night!'

The silence was deafening after this enlightening exchange. Even the tellers stopped what they were doing! I mustered up the last of my dignity and walked out of the bank with my daughter in tow. The last thing I heard when the door closed behind me were screams of laughter."

_________

2. "It was the day before my eighteenth birthday. I was living at home, but my parents had gone out for the evening, so I invited my girlfriend over for a romantic night alone. As we lay in bed after making love, we heard the telephone ring downstairs. I suggested to my girlfriend that I give her a piggyback ride to the phone. Since we didn't want to miss the call, we didn't have time to get dressed.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, the lights suddenly came on and a whole crowd of people yelled, 'SURPRISE!' My entire family--aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and all my friends were standing there! My girlfriend and I were frozen in a state of shock and embarrassment for what seemed like an eternity. Since then, no one in my family has planned a surprise party again."

__________

3. "One of the funniest "most-embarrassing-moment" stories I've come upon in a long time was about a lady who picked up several items at a discount store. When she finally got up to the checker, she learned that one of her items had no price tag.

Imagine her embarrassment when the checker got on the intercom and boomed out for all the store to hear: 'PRICE CHECK ON LANE THIRTEEN. TAMPAX, SUPERSIZE.'

That was bad enough, but somebody at the rear of the store apparently misunderstood the word 'Tampax' for 'THUMBTACKS.'

In a business like tone, a voice boomed back over the intercom: 'DO YOU WANT THE KIND YOU PUSH IN WITH YOUR THUMB OR THE KIND YOU POUND IN WITH A HAMMER?'"

__________

4. "This one actually happened at Harvard University in October of this year in a biology class; the professor was discussing the high glucose levels found in semen.

A young female (freshman) raised her hand and asked, 'If I understand, you're saying there is a lot of glucose in male semen as in sugar?'

'That's correct,' responded the professor, going on to add statistical information.

Raising her hand again, the girl asked, 'Then why doesn't it taste sweet?'

After a stunned silence, the whole class burst out laughing, the poor girl's face turned bright red, and as she realized exactly what she had inadvertently said (or rather implied), she picked up her books with out a word and walked out of class...and never returned.

However, as she was going out the door, the Professor's reply was classic... Totally straight-faced he answered her question, 'It doesn't taste sweet because the taste-buds for sweetness are on the tip of your tongue and not the back of your throat.''

___________

Small World

It has been a real interesting week of sorts. First, the power outage for four days. Then when the power came back on, the phone lines were out which meant of course that there was no internet. Which meant no blogging. After all those promises made to myself to blog at least once every day, this happens and it has pissed me off a bit. But guess theres nothing else to do but start again and keep blogging every day from now on. The phone line started working yesterday.

I met two maldivians newly arrived in melbourne this week. I found out the first guy was here while I was perusing the Police website and they had an announcement about him going to study in melbourne. I knew the guy because he is a cousin of a very good friend of mine and because he had done his undergraduate studies in Canada on a schol which I myself had unsuccessfully applied for. I was a bit peeved at him then but really have to thank him now. Because if it had not been for him, I would never have met my wife. And I would not be here right now.

Anyways met the guy for drinks before and he is staying at my place for a couple of days till he finds a place of his own. The second guy who come with him to melbourne turned out to be someone I knew as well. When the first guy had told me his name I didnt recognize him but when they came to my place yesterday I was really quite surprised. This guy was also a cousin of another friend of mine. The three of us had been in the same class together and were very close. And now their cousins had arrived in Melbourne at the same time and attending the same uni. Really quite amazing.

Power outage

The temperature reached a record 39 degrees on Tuesday and the fires burning in Victorian bushlands got an added boost. The bushfires burnt a major powerline between Victoria and NSW causing a massive power outage across Melbourne, Geelong and northern and eastern Victoria.

I was watching the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and not enjoying it very much when the power went off in our flat. This had happened last week as well and I was not that worried about it as we got it back pretty quickly that time. So i went to bed and fell asleep a bit only to be woken up about an hour later by a friend who had recently arrived to melbourne and wanted to meet up with. The power was still out.

A quick shower and I was on the bus. Only then did I realise that the blackout had affecte not only us but the whole of the suburb. The traffic lights were not working and there were cops directing traffic. I managed to catch up with my friend and went into the city where they had power and we sat in an air conditioned food caught and had some cold drinks. Around 7:30 I left my friend and decide to busy some subway for dinner considering there was no way we can cook any food without power.

When I got to my flat I found that the power had come back on and we were overjoyed and sat down to dinner while watching the Golden Globes on TV. We had finished dinner and were getting into the show when the real excitement of the day started to happend.

I heard this screeching noise and muted the TV to figure out what it was and couldnt but I coudl hear people moving outside so I opened the door and looked out. There were emergency lights in the front of our apartment block! When I went outside I saw the big fire engines parked on our doorstep and the firemen near our switchboard. Most of our neighbours were out there as well.

What had happened was that our main switchboard was very old. And when we got the power back after the main power outage, it had somehow caused and electrical short and had melted out the wiring and the switchboard had caught fire. The nuber 6 flat had lost power first and he came out and saw the flames and roused number 2 who had thrown water over the flames and then they called the fire department. All this was going on, me and my wife we still had power but then the firement had pulled out the main electric cable and all 10 units were left without power.



This being Australia and Melbourne city, you would think that this problem would be solved quickly but no, it took us four days to get the power back. Four days with cold showers, no hot food, no tea or coffee, no washing clothes, no TV and no internet. The electricity people came on Wednesday and started to work on fixing it... What they actually did was stripped off the old, charred switchboard and left. The reason for that was that they could not get the supplies they needed to fix it.

So wednesday passed and we were told that we could expect power by Sunday... Thursday cam some good news. They had got the supplies and they were putting meters up as well as a new swtchboard. We were told we culd get power tha next day. But it was not to be... The body corporate guy told us that we needed to be home so that the electrician would have easy access to our flats so they could test the power. I was working on friday, so was my wife so we gave him a key so that he could let the guys in.

Friday when I came back from work, there was still no power and the guys came into my flat to do their tests and said that everythign was working fine now. All that was left to be done was for the Electricity suppliers to come by and connect our power. So we waited and waited. And then we learnt that the guys who were supposed to come to our apartment block had been called off for some emergency work at a hospital...

We were told that they might veen ome by later that night but that they didnt need to get into our house. so we went to sleep. Around 1 0;clock I heard this loud banging on my door and woke up slowly. It stopped and it took me a while to realise that it could be the electricity suppliers. So i went to my study where our switches are and turned it on. No power... I got dressed and went out. Our neighbours had power!! I quickly ran downstairs only to find that those people had left already adn we spent that night without power as well.

At 4 am we decided to call Citipower and after five minutes of holding and waiting was passed to an operator who ahd no idea what I was talkign about. It seemed that they did not do what I had just seen them do. It was not them. And then she put me on hold. I was still on hold when the credit on the phone ran out. It was a prepaid so...

ANyways I went to work and left the job to my wife who tried valiently to get through again but with no luck. So she went and found the body corporate guy who was very helpful in calling them up and talking to them, quietly insisting that they infact had come last night while the operater vehemently denied having done so... It took most of the morning but when I got home around 12 we had power back on!

Four days living on takeaway has definitely made us decide not to have takeaway for a long time. We also had a mountian of dirty dishes and dirty clothes that needed to be washed and our flat reeked as we could not clean it. No TV and no Internet was probably a good thign even though we were bored out of our minds. I managed to read one of the books I had been meaning to read for quite sometime. It is really scary to see how dependent we are on electricity. I only hope that nothign like this will happen ever again.