Top 50 - Number 12 - The Internet

I was relatively late to having the internet connected to my abode. It was only about 5 years ago that I summoned the courage to have it. I had ready enough access to the internet at my work and it was enough for quite some years. I didn't see the need for the expense to have it connected until family moved overseas and it was proving problematic to keep in touch via before work emails etc.

I finally capitulated and got sucked into the vortex as you do when you have unlimited (well relatively unlimited) access to the internet. I got wrapped up in the whole on-line dating scene for a while since I wasn't meeting anyone interesting in real life. I was careful and cautious and always used my common sense. It served its purpose for the time being and I have now shut down my profile on the dating sites I used as I don't have time for anyone at the moment and the quality control was proving problematic.

Now I am constantly on-line since I've added social networking to my sphere and that has been a real boon, it allows me to keep in touch with far flung family and reconnect with long lost friends and family. I see the internet as a very useful tool and would be pretty lost without it but would have more free time LOL.

I now have a blog I regularly post in with great delight.

Who knows where the yellow brick road will lead me ......

Movies & Music - a combo post for my top 50

I enjoy both forms of entertainment immensely but I cannot actually live without my music. I am lucky to possess an iPhone that comes complete with an iPod, I have loaded many hours of music onto it and use it everyday to listen to songs.

My workmates have been very indulgent in allowing me to have my music while I potter about setting up the library for the business day ahead, I am a compulsive early bird, generally always the first one in for a solid 45 minutes.

The iPod is on before I am in the library, I don't bother with earphones as they don't suit my aids and then I can't hear anything like the courier arriving or the phone ringing. Generally the music is up and I am singing my little heart out to whatever tune and funnily enough, my colleagues know that I am in the library! Music is on in the house, I usually just have the radio going while I am doing the housework or pottering about. The car radio is generally plugged into the iPod so again I am singing happily wherever I am going.

Now when it comes to movies, I enjoy them as much as the next person but I don't break my neck to see feature films when they come out unless it is something I am really struck on. My video membership card usually expires from lack of use. I generally have the occasional marathon of a mixture of new movies and old favourites on a quiet weekend when I am too pooped or too broke to go out.

My music tastes are fairly middle of the road, I am pretty much an 80's tragic and ballad sad sack! I loathe rap, heavy metal and that kind of music, its just noise and sounds like microphone feedback to me.

My movie choices are also fairly middle of the road, I cannot cope with horror or scary or suspense stuff. Once when my boss invited me to see "Sixth Sense" at the movies, I knew my sister had seen it, she knows what a complete sooky la la I am when it comes to scary stuff, she informed me of every scary part so I knew what to expect and so I was able to comport myself with decorum and not bellow with fright at every tense or scary moment.

Yet I am not a sooky la la in life, if there is a noise outside that I can hear (which means it must be freaking loud) then I go outside and investigate it, albeit it armed with a heavy and long object in my hand. I lived alone for 7 years before I got a flatmate and never once been scared to be on my own. But scary movies - Gah - they just wig me out, my cousin once persuaded me to watch some really scary title and I did it reluctantly in broad daylight with doors and windows open to let in the light and I still ended up behind the couch screaming my lungs out.

So that's my taste in movies and music - boring and pedestrian to some but frankly I don't give a flying patootie! I'll always listen to something new to give it a whirl and base my opinion on actual experience but if I don't like it then I don't bother with it.

Until next we meet.........

My Car/s - 41 to go of the big 50

My car is rather new and spiffy..............after much agonising I traded in my faithful purple Hyundai Excel 041 FBM last July for a shiny red Hyundai i30 747 LTL and I still feel guilty! Now I am still adjusting to this new car, its dimensions and spatial surrounds are still unfamiliar to me! I had my purple Hyundai for almost 10 years and knew her inside and out. I knew exactly how she fit and how she would respond and everything about her. I know I am anthromorphising an inanimate object but so what!

I've only had 3 cars in my time as a licensed driver, my very first car was a Datsun 200B 1981 wagon - it was a perfect first car! I learned a lot of lessons in that car, primarily that you need to check the oil in an older car regularly or you are going to spend 1991 New Years Eve weekend fixing an almost seized engine under the supervision of your beloved uncle and with your cousin, who got dragged into helping me, learning far more than you ever wanted too about motor engines and how they work and in particular, why the need for oil so much!

I, no doubt, will have this current vehicle for many years since I take care of my belongings and enjoy looking after them. I spring for a full detail at least once a year to give that show room polish and glamour and the services are religiously adhered to.

I was 22 before I got my licence and it took me three tries, since the first two tries were under the misapprehension that I had excellent vision, apparently when you are around 20-21 your visual acuity can drop dramatically and it did for me but I hadn't noticed really. It was only when I was at the movies, and I asked my brother who played a particular role because I couldn't read the credits and he noted "sis you need to get your eyes checked" that I kind of realised that the world around me had softened into a gentle blur and yes that may have been the reason why I failed my licence twice thus far. Oh the joy when I got glasses, I could see definition in trees and things in the distance, like speed signs and oncoming vehicles in my path if I tried to make a right hand turn right now.

I've enjoyed my freedom that came with having a car, I was determined to be braver than my dear mum who had a 5 k radius that she would drive in and about a 45k speed limit. I have my trusty sat nav if I am unsure where I am going and just set the destination and off I go. It hasn't let me down yet, I just love it.

I am determined to do a driving holiday and see a few sights one day, may even take Dixie along for the journey! We can always bunk in the car as the back seats fold down completely now and its almost a bed size for me. However I do find driving very tiring and so far 2.5 hours is my limit before fatigue really becomes a serious issue, so perhaps I need to condition myself to longer driving periods.

We shall see...........

My Bed - 43 to Go

My Bed - is my retreat from the universe! I love my bed, I love lolling about on it daydreaming about all manner of inconsequential things and just relaxing! It isn't an expensive bed just a simple Queen Bed size aluminium bed but it has lots of European pillows and normal pillows so I can pile them up to relax upon while reading. It's funny whenever I sleep in a new bed I literally have to break in a new bed, I have back pain while I adjust to it and poor sleep until my body is acquainted with its dimensions. So I miss my bed ferociously whenever I am away regardless of how magnificent the bed I might be sleeping in!

My current bed quilt was a lovely silver and white number from a little shop in Bowral NSW, I was visiting with my brother and his fiance while they were sussing out wedding venues in that area and we were checking out the town and I found this beautiful quilt and just had to have it. I had no idea how I was going to cart it home - thought I would have to air freight or post it back home to Queensland but my sister in law to be said she thought it would be OK as onboard luggage on the flight home and it was! It just really sets the room off - when the bed is properly made which is usually clean sheet night - my very favourite night of the week - I just love the smell of sun dried linen and that beautiful feel of clean sheets!

I wish I was more disciplined about making my bed and then I could more often enjoy the feel of peeling back the cover and sliding on into the haven of my bed! Instead, I just shake the sheets and rearrange the pillows and linen back into some order for I am a very restless sleeper and the bed linen and pillows end up all over the place, sometimes it looks like I've been conducting the wrestling championship in my bed.

My bed is something very dear to me.............