It appears a few definitions were changed last night. Like ‘debate’.  Apparently debating no longer involves actually engaging your opponent, addressing their points, and countering with your own argument. Or ‘good’. As in, ‘this has been a good debate’, ‘yes, it has been a good debate hasn’t it’. Good now means fruitless, pointless, stupefying and I want the last hour of my life back.
Nothing that Abbott said last night surprised me. The fact that my husband has taken to calling me “toots” and keeps asking me what I’m doing out …

It appears the ‘leanest election ever’ is still allowing for both Libs and Labor to still find ways of paying us for our vote.  We’ve had to say goodbye to an outright bogan lottery this time, because handing out random, one-off payments to various low socio-economic groups will be labelled as financial mis-management, no matter which team does it. So of course they’ve had to find less obvious ways, and tax rebates is again turning out to be the most popular.
This time, it’s the Education Tax Rebate. Also known as …

I don’t use petrol vouchers. The Bolshie conspiracy theorist in me knows that the 4c discount I’m getting by buying petrol from Woolworths or Coles is surely recouped many times over somewhere in the money they took from me in order for me to get the voucher in the first place.  The realist in me knows it’s a moot point, since small-town rules dictate that at some point every fortnight I’m going to have to shop at these stores anyway, or else forgo some of the nicer things in life (well, that’s …

I just had a phonecall from Telstra, who were ringing to let me know I have a new account manager (whatever that is) and to ask if I was happy with my current plan and service from them.
Kind of a loaded question really. Should I mention that last year they accidentally removed the ADSL code from my line, resulting in three weeks without internet, because they couldn’t work out what was wrong, and the person who could fix it didn’t speak directly to customers or to the Telstra staff who …

It’s hot, I’m tired, I have a cold and a teensy hangover.
I can’t be arsed getting off the couch and I’ve been surfing forums pretty much since I got up.  At  one point, I detoured to Google Images to find a picture of Robert Pattinson to appease a twifan who may have been traumatised by my Maybelline signature there.
Now, Twilight aside, I’m a bit of a fan of RPatz. Not because he makes me all SQUEEE!!!! (which he doesn’t, although I have noticed in some of his candid shots he …

Edward chuckled and raised one perfect eyebrow. Bella grimaced. Jacob flushed under his russet skin. Edward chuckled again. His face was unreadable. Alice chagrined.  Bella gazed into Edward’s perfect face, marvelling at how the marble Adonis could love someone as plain as her. She grimaced. Edward raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow and chuckled.
Repeat the above paragraph for 1500 pages and you have Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking dawn.
OK, so the writing is terrible.  She’s not the first author who has a toxic relationship with adjectives.  Matthew Riley doesn’t seem to use …

It was my turn to hit the video store for the weekend movie afternoon and evening (something for the kids, something for the adults). The duck had mentioned that he had never seen the Warren Beatty/Madonna movie Dick Tracy, so I found that and then attempted to get the whole five-weeklies-for-a-fiver with the same first letter, but it turned out harder to find five rentable movies starting with the letter D so after Dick Tracy and Duchess I had to step to the left and work through the letter C …

In my attempts to be less of a consumer, I don’t layby.  There is not a product on the planet that I absolutely must have, must reserve the right to own despite not being able to afford it. I eschew toy sales and the craziness of packing away more toys than my children will ever play with, based on the notion that they are somehow cheaper in the middle of the year than they will be anywhere in the next six months leading up to Christmas.
I’ve been known to ridicule …

I’m going to go ahead and admit I’m the poster child for passive neglect when it comes to parks and playgrounds.
The thing is, standing ankle deep in bark chips pushing a child on a swing for an hour isn’t really my idea of a good time.  It seems, however, whenever I take my kids to a playground, I’m alone in this sentiment.
This morning is a good example.  I had to drop the chaos duck at work early, so before dropping my eldest off at school, I stopped at the shops …

The chaosduck read this post from IMDb (Internet Movie Database) to me the other night, and I thought he was making it up (because history tells me not to trust) so I had to check it out for myself.
He had been looking up an actor from the movie Office Space, which is one of my all time favourite films. I think anyone who has ever worked in a cube farm and suffered the confusing bureaucracy of having at least two bosses at any given time should see this movie, if …