Everything Snoskred

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My heart is broken.

2 Comments Posted on May 4, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

Yesterday was an absolutely glorious day. The Other Half and I went to a few places to have a walk on the beach. The last place we went is in the new town that both of us really want to live in and it was a place we drove past last time but didn’t stop. It’s more interesting than a normal beach, it has mangroves and a big wooden bridge across them, so you can stand there and look at the little crabs doing what little crabs do.

There were little fish in the stream which was running out of the mangroves, the stream was a funny color because it had rained, and the fish were eating little bits of food coming to them as a surprise

The tide was out, and you could walk out for miles along rocks and sand. And we did, we spent over an hour walking there, just soaking it in, looking in rockpools, finding hidden beach life. It was so peaceful. Absolute, utter silence. It was incredibly incredible.

As we were leaving we noticed that one of the houses we’d looked at was maybe 3 houses away from where we actually had been. I began to imagine a new life, beach walks twice a day, peace, silence, no screaming kids. The house was listed as having three bedrooms and a rumpus room. There’s only two of us but we have a lot of stuff. We live in a four bedroom now. It looked like it would be big enough, and though the bricks were a little dark I said to the other half, why don’t we go to the real estate agent and see if we can have a look?

And so we did. Half an hour later we pulled up out the front of the house. The real estate lady was there waiting and already had the house open. It had screen doors (something we really miss now) and we went inside to a quite dark room which would have been the lounge. Then up a couple of steps to the hallway which ran the length of the house. At one end of the hallway there was a giant wood fire and another living area. Then it had a kitchen and dining. The kitchen was fairly old and country style, but I liked it. Mentally, I was already moving in boxes.

The bedrooms were somewhat small. It had one bathroom. As we walked back towards the laundry I said, so where’s the rumpus? The real estate lady said – it’s out the back, but you don’t get access to it, it belongs to the owner and he stays there on weekends, holidays, that kind of thing. Hmm. Not brilliant news, but I’m still prepared to accept compromises I guess. Then we go outside, and there is no undercover area for a bbq or outdoor setting (we have both) except the owner has one attached to the rumpus, which we wouldn’t be able to use. There was no garage, either.

After we’d been in the house we were standing out the front and all you could hear was the trees and parrots flying past and I just really wanted to live there. Even if the owner stayed out the back from time to time. Even if we didn’t have a garage. Even if we had to give the pool table to my parents to make it work. My mother would be furious, she spent years trying to get rid of a pool table, but maybe I could talk her into it. The idea of beach walks, maybe two minutes walk away, whenever I felt like it.

All the way home both of us tried to figure out how we could make it work. I could almost hear Tim Gunn from Project Runway in my head “Make it work!” but no matter how we sliced it, there was no way us and all our stuff and our two cats could fit in that house. It didn’t have Austar. It didn’t have a broadband connection. We probably could have those fitted, and if there was a rumpus in which to put the pool table we would have explored it. But there wasn’t.

I was really pretty tired, I’d been up for 24 hours trying to put my body clock back onto schedule. We got home and it was just after 4pm, and then those kids across the road started up screaming and playing and yelling, and The Other Half came in and said to me “It’d be worth getting rid of half of our shit just not to hear those kids anymore”.

It didn’t hit me till I got up this morning and was chatting to Sephy online and telling him about the house. My heart is broken. :( It’s like a new version of life was coming towards me, stretching out its hands, and at the last minute it turned around and went the other way.

We’re just going to have to be patient. What we want will turn up. We have to believe that. And now I’m going to be more pro-active – I’m going to get in touch with all the property managers there and let them know what we’re after. But today I feel really grumpy. :(

house hunt, Jervis Bay, mistakes I made

Get serious!

1 Comment Posted on April 28, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Up till now, I have been using fairly cheap art stuff, mainly because you get a lot for a little bit of money.

But yesterday The Other Half and I went to the art shop where I picked up a little something I’ve had my eye on for a few weeks now.

I’m about to crack open the orange cadmium jar because I have a canvas all ready for it. I hope it smells better than the cheap paints do.

Also yesterday we went looking at new places we might want to live. Number one in the running is a sleepy little village where most houses are walking distance to the sea. Number two in the running is the same. And there’s quite a few of these sleepy little villages to choose from, most of them a short drive from where we live now. Of course we would rather have something which has a fairly large block – a buffer zone, if you like.

We found one house which we wanted to look at but when we went to the real estate agents it said no pets. I asked did that mean cats because a lot of times when they say no pets what they mean is, no dogs. However in this case it apparently meant every animal under the sun including goldfish, but the person I was speaking to clarified they didn’t actually know, because they don’t do the rentals. I said, well my cats are my kids, I’m not having any children, and if it said no kids then they’d be in a lot of trouble! They did not even offer to *ask* the landlord for me.

Clearly they must have an awful lot of people queueing up to rent places there – oh hang on, it’s been on the books for a couple of months with nobody living there? Oh, it’s just you real estate agents don’t really care about it and would rather sit on your arse than try to get it rented. Ok then.

We found some very nice real estate agents in one of the towns we are looking at, so we might just go in there and say here’s what we need, let us know if and when you get anything like it. And we did find one which we’re wanting to look more closely at, in a quiet street within close walking distance of a very nice river and the ocean.

It’s ok, we’re in no hurry. We’ve got plenty of time, and I have plenty of real estate alerts emailed to me.. ;)

Snoskred Art

Only one thing spoiled it.

Leave a comment Posted on April 18, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

My wonderful lunch today, which is pictured in the below post. Yes, those noisy kids from across the road. *sigh*

Actually my day started off not brilliantly to begin with. At just after 9am (I went to bed after 3am) the lawnmower man started up his lawnmower right outside my window. I thought right, there’s no point trying to go back to sleep here, so I got up and stumbled out to the computer, where I found unpleasantness I don’t even want to speak about. Someone showing their ass, yet again. And to be honest, they don’t have that great an ass. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if it looked like a male model or something. And the lawnmower man wasn’t the cute buff one but the older string beany type one, so there wasn’t an ass around to make up for the terrible ass I had to look at.

So then I stumble back to bed, wanting to get some more sleep, but none arrived. And the alarm my other half set without telling me went off, so I figured I might as well get up.

Then, as I am sitting here, I can hear those noisy kids. They’re outside running around screaming and shouting. Sure, it’s great exercise, but there is a *park* not very far away and I’d prefer they take it there where it’s not in my face. Then I sit down with my excellent lunch to watch episode one of season 3 of the west wing, and it’s noticeable, I can hear it above the noise of the surround sound system. I turn the volume up. I can still hear it.

Then I venture to the front door to notice that they have actually moved over to MY lawn to play on. Hello? Do I live here? Then they start to play cricket on my driveway. I try the Metallica trick. *IT DOES NOT WORK*. I think because their parents were not at home to drag them to their bibles. AND WHAT KIND OF PARENTS ARE LEAVING KIDS OF THIS AGE AT HOME ALONE? We’re talking all under the age of 7. Cricket balls are bouncing off fences randomly making a hell of a racket. I need peace!

Not only that, these kids clearly not having any intelligence, they decide to play cricket *across* the road. AND NO PARENT TO STOP THEM!

So I’m in a pretty bad mood today, despite my wonderful lunch. They went on all afternoon. Please, end the school holidays early. I can’t take anymore!

So someone tell me, what am I supposed to do about this?

1. Confront the across the road neighbours about their noisy kids. Hmm, not likely to end well.
2. Call the police each time they are being noisy. Hmm, waste of police resources.
3. Start looking for somewhere else to live, somewhere peaceful, quiet, out in the country.
4. Put a note in their letterbox asking them to please have more consideration for the people who live nearby and not allow their children to run amok like wild animals, and also point out they may get run over if they are not more careful of that road. Suggest they use the park, a safe place to play, instead.
Any other options?

Annoyed Snoskred, noise

I’m a bad daughter.

1 Comment Posted on April 9, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Yes, the final in the series of internet security will turn up sometime this week. I’m sorry but it’s been a crazy weekend in many ways. Including my parents buying new tv sets and cabinets and other oddness.

So when I was over there yesterday, I set some reminders on the Austar box for shows that would be on while I was there. For those from overseas, this is pay tv. You can basically go ahead a day or more and choose programs and when the programs are on it pops up a little reminder.

Mum complained about the little popups, saying “how many did you set?” Well at the time only two, but when she went back to the kitchen I proceeded to set popups for almost every show that was on over the next 2 days. She’s still getting them now, more than likely cursing my name.

Especially the ones I set for desperate housewives, a show she utterly despises. I set reminders for it on the normal channel as well as the +2 channel, so there were at least 4 for that show. ;)

About Snoskred, Bad Snoskred, family

I need a nap..

Leave a comment Posted on April 4, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Grr kids across the road woke me up this morning, shouting, yelling and screaming while waiting for the school bus. I’d had maybe 5 hours sleep. I wasn’t going to get up but then I did, and now it’s almost 5pm and I have chores to do but am having trouble staying awake. I certainly am not up to writing anything intelligent, so check back tomorrow for more Internet Safety. Maybe I will have a nap, but the trouble is once I go to sleep there’s no waking me up until I’m done sleeping. Maybe I can get those kids to start shouting and screaming a couple of hours from now, which would wake me up. Maybe.

Annoyed Snoskred, noise

An art moment.

1 Comment Posted on April 3, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

We interrupt this internet security series to bring you this art moment.

Recently at art class, we had a life model come in to pose. Yes, naked. I spent two hours looking at a naked woman. But she wasn’t a woman, she was a confusing mess of shapes and lines which somehow would not translate to my page very well.

I found it extremely frustrating actually. I ended up throwing out *all* of my sketches, I didn’t like any of them. In fact I only kept one thing from the session which was an experimental paint thing we did. I like it so much I am going to frame it, but it made her look like just a blob. That’s because it was the best way I found to actually get across what I was seeing in the short space of time we had for each pose. It was even worse because I am actually in the middle of a canvas painting at art class right now, and that is what was in my head, that is what I wanted to be working on, but I had to put it aside for this life model instead.

It was a very odd experience. I’d like to try it again when I’m not in the middle of a painting, but I really didn’t enjoy this session, I just felt limited by my lack of talent. Most of the others in the class have had a full year of art class and I have only had one term.

So, as long as you promise not to mock, here is my painting.. and remember it was done in less than 20 minutes. Yes, she has no face, no hands, no feet, but those things are extremely difficult to capture in a short time, and now that it is the way it is I’m not inclined to add them, I just like it as it is.

Of course when I look at this, I see the model and where the details *should* go.

Snoskred Art

Opinions Needed

4 Comments Posted on March 31, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

The above is a painting for my Nephew. It is metallic red, not pink as it seems in this photo. He chose the color the last time I saw him, and the rest has been my invention. The stencil is an African art symbol –

DENKYEM = “crocodile” = symbol of adaptability
The crocodile lives in the water, yet breathes the air, demonstrating an ability to adapt to circumstances.

And the dots (which are silver) are inspired by some Aboriginal Art, which I’ve got in my head recently. I love dot paintings.

The question is, do I put more dots on the painting to make it look more like the one below – as in fill in the space between the Denkyem and the border with more dots? Not all silver ones because that would be too much, but maybe graduating shades of silver to white, or silver to black? Can you let me know what you think in the comments?

I really love how it looks now but I think more dots could work really well too.

family, Snoskred Art

Metallica is scary..

2 Comments Posted on March 27, 2007January 10, 2015 by Snoskred

So, Saturday the people across the road and their kids spent two hours out on their front lawn playing sport of some kind, and along with it went two solid hours of constant yelling, screaming, shouting, crying, and various other annoying noises. I’m not joking when I say solid, they did not shut up once, and it was so loud I think the kids must have hurt their throats.

Apparently not, because on Sunday they were back for two hours more. And I was actually trying to sleep at the time, because I’d woken up with a headache from hell and spent the rest of the day trying to get rid of it by sleeping it off.

You can bet two hours of them yelling and screaming did not go down well with me. They’re lucky I didn’t go out there in my sleeping attire and do some yelling and screaming of my own.

Monday, the school bus got home, and within one minute the kids started yelling and screaming. Within ten minutes the whole family plus some extra random kids from around the neighborhood were out there. I still had a dull version of the headache from the day before, and tried to drown them out with a movie. One hour and forty minutes later, I snapped.

I stormed into the kitchen and grabbed the Metallica DVD that we have. I took it into the big lounge with the big stereo system (that I never turn up over 25) and loaded it in there. Enter Sandman. I turned the volume up to 10 and went into the kitchen to get some headache tablets.

When I got back just three minutes later, the subwoofer had danced across the floor all by itself, there’s some vicious drumming in that song, and when I looked out the window, there was nobody to be seen. Probably they all ran inside to read their bibles and hide from the satanic music. I think all the other neighbors were actually thrilled and possibly inspired as to how to get rid of them next time.

Later that evening we were summoned to my parents house, probably 800-1000 metres away. I told my Mum what I’d done, and she said “That was you?” damn, it must have been loud. ;)

And today, thankfully, no screaming people. If they come back, it’ll be Metallica in 10 minutes next time. It’s just so inconsiderate to make so much annoying noise. I rarely make any noise here, the stereo is always at a reasonable level and I go outside to make sure it isn’t too loud that it would annoy anyone.

They only got 5 minutes of how much noise I’m happy to produce on a regular basis if they want to keep it up. Plus if they really upset me, my parents have the subwoofer of champions just down the street which I could borrow. ;)

I really love Metallica, by the way, everything up to St Anger, and I think many of their songs are true classics. It’s even better when you watch the film clips. But the choices are not limited to that. I think a bit of Marilyn Manson might really freak them out. It makes one wonder, what music would I need to play in order to inspire them to move out completely?

Angry Snoskred, move to the beach, music, noise

Ah Adelaide, I knew you well..

Leave a comment Posted on March 26, 2007June 2, 2015 by Snoskred

I’ve been here over a year now. It seems like forever. But sometimes, memories of the city I used to call home come to me as a surprise. I actually spent a whole night dreaming of places in Adelaide. So for those of you who might live there and consider leaving there, here is your future in one simple blog post.

The Myer Centre.

Originally built to house the new Myer, and containing two outrageous floors of amusements on levels four and five in the part that was not Myer but was called “Dazzleland” including an indoor roller coaster, I did spend quite a lot of time in this building over the years. It’s a shame that they quickly shut Dazzleland down. I have fond memories of the roller coaster. Here is an ad about it!

However in Adelaide nothing good stays around for too long, it seems. Downtown was yet another example. Magic Mountain, that was another. Anything involving fun, you can’t have that, apparently. That’s what the Gold Coast is for. People would rather save money to go there than have fun things in their own state! ;(

The Botanical Gardens.

How lucky you are to have such a gorgeous place right in the middle of the city. Hidden in the middle of the Botanical Gardens there is a hothouse of such goodness, and it contains a pond which is teeming with tropical live-bearing fish. It is one of the most relaxing places on the planet, I think. How long is it since you were there, people reading this who live in Adelaide? What’s your excuse, huh? And I won’t even go into the goodness of the Zoo.

The food.

Oddly, this is one thing I really truly miss. Leaf and Ladle, which makes great soup and salads in town. The Sushi Train. And some local places we used to go to and eat great food. Our names for them were not the same as the real names for them and I can’t remember the real names for them! But there was a great place on Grange Road near Tapleys Hill Road which make the best burgers. And there’s a great chicken place on Tapleys Hill Road which made the best roast chicken and chips. And Barnacle Bills. And Vilis Cafe.

The public transport.

You don’t think it is any good? Move out of the state for a bit, you’ll think again. The trains run on time. The tram is brilliant. Even the buses were reasonable. The 99b, I miss that greatly. But I loved the trains, and the last two places we lived were very close to train stations, which I loved.

The city.

I haven’t really had much of a chance to explore the city of Sydney. The main part of the town where I live is not very exciting really. But Adelaide city, there was always so much to see and do and places to go and even if you didnt have anything to do there was a lot of fun to be had watching other people. The shops were great. I miss the shops.

However, there’s some things I don’t miss, like the slow driving everywhere, the 60km speed limits, and the beaches. Not when I have these new beaches here, and great snorkelling within a short drive from home.

adelaide, Aussie Culture, growing up

What not to wear.

4 Comments Posted on March 7, 2007June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

I’m sure many of you heard of todays plane crash in Indonesia.

It’s an unpleasant fact of life that sometimes, planes do fall out of the sky. Which is why anytime I go to get on one, I am constantly amazed at how unprepared people are for the possibility of what might happen. They ignore the safety briefing, don’t even bother to look for the nearest exit, and *worst* of all, wear things which are not appropriate for the occasion.

The reason I mention this is, I just saw footage of the crash scene with a woman clearly injured, trying to walk in heels and a mini-skirt. Not a good idea!

So, a few fashion don’ts for when you next fly..

This outfit will mean you have trouble getting to the exit door, which will mean those behind you might not make it to the door at all. Nice for street-walking (literally perhaps) but no good for flying. Heels will hinder your progress. Put them in the suitcase, don’t wear them in flight.

Pantihose! OH NO! Major plane fashion faux pas! The fibers will melt in a fire and stick to your skin, which is not a good look and certainly would cause a lot of pain. Just say no to pantyhose when flying.

Going on a beach holiday? Save the beach dressing for when you arrive. Wearing something like this on a plane will get you talked about, and more than likely a large percentage of burns to much of your body in the event of a crash. Not a wise choice.

Leave your flip flops in your luggage, because in the *very rare but occasionally it does happen* instance that you have to traverse broken metal and things on fire, your feet will appreciate that you chose to wear a real pair of shoes.

So what should you wear?

Covered, closed, comfortable shoes, preferably leather. I like Doc Martens myself.

Comfortable pants which are easy to move in.

No flammable fabrics – though all fabrics will become flammable in the kinds of fires you will see in planes, some fabrics are more likely to catch fire than others.

Denim jeans (not too tight, don’t restrict your movement) is the better choice.

A long sleeve shirt to protect your arms from burns. Wool is one of the least flammable materials. Cotton is a good choice too.

The idea is, to get out of the plane before you have to deal with the fire. If you are wearing sensible clothes which you can move in, its more likely you’ll be able to manage this task. Knowing where the nearest exits are will also help. But if you are injured and can’t move, wearing clothes that will protect you will be a good idea too.

Anyway, that’s just a few thoughts you might want to consider when next choosing what to wear when you fly.

Save the fashion for the catwalk, put it in your suitcase.

When you fly, dress to survive.

Even though 99.9% of flights make it safely to their destination, if your flight happens to be one where you do need to evacuate, you will appreciate dressing to survive instead of dressing for fashion.

Fashion, life lessons, plane safety, things to remember, what not to do