ferrousland.com - general news
stuff that doesn't really fit into any particular category.
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May 08, 2008
burn for four hours - 01:51 PM
i wonder why some long-burning candles have the advice that you should burn the candle for a miniumum of four hours the first time you use them?
i've seen this a few times. i'm not sure what difference it would make. the cynic in me wonders if maybe it's just so that you're already four hours closer to buying another candle. *raises an eyebrow*
May 02, 2008
no dishwasher for me - 07:36 AM
there's a dishwasher here at suzanne's house (where i'm house minding), & i was kind of thinking i may use it, despite (or perhaps because of) never having had one of my own & not really having used them before.
previous times when i've come across places that have dishwashers, i've never been all that impressed with the job that they do. the dishes are mostly clean, yes, with no bits of food left on them or anything, but they sometimes have a particular smell (i've noticed it, for instance, when i've had a drink of water out of a glass that's regularly washed in a dishwasher) & they often have a kind of frosted sheen on them.
i've noticed on a few plates here that they have a sheen. not really the even, all over, frosted sheen that i've seen heaps on drinking glasses, but a sort of broken egg shell shaped pattern of sheen on them. it's hard to describe. you can only really see it if you hold it in the light just the right way with the light reflecting off it. sort of like how you'd look at a glass window you've just cleaned to make sure you've cleaned all the spots off. know what i mean?
so anyway, i just did a small experiment. i washed one of the plates with my enjo kitchen cloth & did just a really quick wipe on one half to get the surface dirt off. the other half i gave a proper, concentrated clean, the same as i'd do if i was washing a properly dirty plate, say, one that that had dried-on food on it.
i then dried the plate & had another close look (holding it the right way in the light, etc) & the half that i cleaned with the enjo cloth is shiny & smooth. i can see the actual surface of the plate. the half that i gave only a cursory wipe still has that sheen on it.
so i'm definitely going to be hand washing the dishes i use while i'm here. it would seem that my inherent, supposedly non-sensical, long-held distrust of domestic dishwashers is warranted.
(on a different, semi-related topic, my inherent, supposedly non-sensical, long-held distrust of microwaves has yet to be proven publically & world-wide by the greater science community, but i'm still trusting my instincts on that one.)
April 30, 2008
a cold on top of a cold - 07:42 PM
i'm getting a bit sick of having a cold. i'm almost over a cold that i've had for about two & a half weeks (i'm still a bit throaty sounding, but there's not been any more coughing & lung congestion) & now this evening it seems i've caught smiley's cold which he came down with on sunday night.
after not having to blow my nose for the last half a week or so, i've now started getting blocked up again tonight. cross your fingers that it stays only in my nose & doesn't block up my sinuses like the previous one did in the beginning.
ugh.
house minding - 06:37 PM
i'm house minding for a friend who's gone overseas with her family.
i love the age we're in that allows me to take my wireless modem/phone line & have my very own internet & my own phone line (even with my own normal phone number) in someone else's house! it took me a while to get my head around that & i know some others have had trouble understanding how it can be done, too. hehe.
so anyway, this place is on the north side of brisbane with the beach really close by. it's not a white sandy beach, but one of those kind with the dark, grey, very fine sand that's almost muddy. it's shallow for ages & ages, high or low tide, so it's perfect for smiley to play there in the sand &/or the sea.
a friend came to visit me here today & we had fish & chips & a beer at the beach. lovely!
it's a really nice place to stay. it's like the holiday you have when you're not having a holiday. (2 points to anyone who can pick the origins of that quote. if you're not australian then you get five points. lol! 
)
i'll be back & forth to my place & here, but thanks to the wonderful advances of technology, i'll never be out of contact of anyone. ta daaaa! very cool. 
April 28, 2008
best birthday evah! - 07:14 PM
i've had the best day today. seriously, it's the best birthday i've had in a really long time, if not ever!
it started out really well with all the birthday wishes & the lovely hug from smiley, all before 9 am, & then it continued with me able to have a full day at crochet club while mum looked after smiley for the day.
i treated myself to a lovely lunch at the cafe there (with a complimentary hot chocolate for my birthday) & then i spent most of the rest of the day choosing just the right yarn for my next crochet project, which is now put away for me, ready to buy one or two balls a week with my usual yarn budget.
i got some birthday money from mum, so i bought quite a few balls of some gorgeous yarn (noro, silk garden) that i've been dying to use for ages, as well as a new crochet hook to use with some really cool new yarn with all sorts of colours & textures in it that i haven't seen before. i bought three balls of the new yarn to crochet myself a scarf that i can wear to the markets on sundays since it's been getting quite cool in the mornings.
on occasion, the yarn shop will end up with tangled balls or skeins of yarn that are too difficult to sort out, or perhaps they have part balls of which only a small amount has been used for an item for the shop. the regular customers are sometimes given these balls of yarn since it's more trouble than it's worth for the shop to do anything with them. i was given a big tangled mess of some of the most gorgeous recycled sari silk yarn. it's made from the ends of the silk that comes off the looms when they make saris. it's so bright & gorgeous. it'll take a bit of work to untangle it, but it'll happen with some patience. free yarn is free yarn! & it's especially great when it's as lovely as the recycled sari silk yarn.
it might not seem like much of a great day to someone who's not into crafty things (or, in particular, crochet) but for me, it was one of the nicest ways to spend my day, hanging out at the yarn shop & choosing lovely things which i'll enjoy for a long time to come.
happy birthday to me! - 08:22 AM
it's (relatively) early morning & i've had the loveliest birthday already.
i've had birthday wishes from dave, my friend suzanne (& even her hubby & her older son), mum, my aunty (who got online just to say happy birthday. nice!). i've had a big birthday hug from smiley. yesterday i got flowers & birthday wishes from jo (nana may's hand oil/scrub lady i'm working with at the markets). on saturday i got a parcel from dave with lots of cool crochet books & mags & the week before i got a yummy parcel from dennis with delicious organic licorice & chocolate things.
today i get to spend the day at my crochet club with the lovely ladies there (the staff & the regular customers are all nice) & i might even get to spend the birthday money that mum is giving me on yarn, if she can get some cash out this morning.
what a great birthday .. & it's not even 9 am yet! lol!
April 26, 2008
working on sundays - 11:01 AM
i made a mention previously of some regular work that i've got on sundays.
it's at a stall at the markets in the city. i'm selling some really lovely hand & body scrub/oil stuff.
it's all natural (i wouldn't sell it otherwise) with no preservatives or additives. it contains only seven essential oils (peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, chamomile, orange, lemon & grapefruit) & five base oils (jojoba, vitamin e, apricot seed, avocado & hazlenut) for healing & moisturising, as well as celtic & dead sea salts for the exfoliating part of it.
it's called nana may's magic hands (although it's also good for the rest of the body) & is made up on the sunshine coast. it's nice to be selling something that's australian made.
at the moment i'm working it at an hourly rate, but i'll probably end up taking over the site & being a site distrubutor. i'll buy the product from the brisbane distributor & then take the profits from the sales. it also means that i'll pay the site fee, but even so, i'll be making more income as a site distributor.
we're just giving it a few weeks or so with me invoicing her for my time (selling her stock) so that we can both see how busy the markets are & if i want to continue.
i quite enjoyed last week & can't see any reason why i won't continue. i'm working pretty closely with the brisbane distributor & she's lovely. nice to have a happy & friendly person to work with.
April 19, 2008
black sheep - 06:03 PM
you know, i think i've finally figured out that i'm the black sheep of the family. maybe not black. perhaps dark brown, instead. lol!
i'm talking about what my immediate family think of me. my extended family probably don't think so at all.
here are the reasons that i think they think that way:
- i'm the only one in my family that has (so far) not really ever had an idea of what i want to be when i 'grow up'.
- i've got piercings that they all detest. monica maybe doesn't hate them as much as mum & dad do, but she's definitely not into piercings other than in the ear lobes.
- i'm the only one that doesn't go to church anymore.
- i'm home educating my child.
- i'm still breastfeeding him at 4.5 years old.
- i'm more into being 'green' than any of my family. i'm more of a hippy & into natural living, generally.
- i wear dark colours a lot of the time (mainly because i'm a messy eater & i quickly permanently stain anything that's lighter than brown, black or dark blue).
- i dyed my hair blond hair dark brown at one stage (i'm sure mum & dad thought i was turning into a satanist or something when i did that).
- i've shaved my head twice so far (probably won't again. i've done it now. i'm happy).
- i regularly have hair styles that they all pretty much don't like & think are kind of weird.
- i've never really had what my mum would probably call a 'proper' job (i'm pretty sure monica & dad don't think this way. they're not so stuck in the academic way of thinking as mum is).
- i'm not even close to what you might call 'being a lady'. i'm sure mum desperately hopes that might happen one day, but i hope she's not holding her breath. i know in what situations i have to 'behave'. that's good enough for me.
none of these things are what my family would call inherently wrong (although not going to church anymore would come close. lol!), but with the combination of all of those things i'm sure they think i'm pretty strange.
i guess i turned out very differently to them. i know there's nothing wrong with that & i'm proud of who i am. it bugs me sometimes that i don't feel particularly accepted for it, but over all, i like me & i'm happy that i can still be me even with the mild condemnation, even if they don't mean for that to come across.
amongst all this, i do know my family love me & would do anything for me if i ever needed their help, so don't worry about that.
it amuses me that it's taken me almost thirty-six years to figure out that i'm the black sheep. hehe. i suppose my one saving grace (in their eyes) is that at least i've never been into sex, drugs & rock & roll. rotfl!!
April 14, 2008
still here, just been busy - 08:37 AM
i just realised that i haven't blogged for a little while. i guess i've just been busy over the last week or so with various things.
i'm looking at having a market stall on sundays to earn a little bit of cash, but nothing's finalised yet. i'm still working on the details.
i'll tell more when i've got more details to tell.
so i'm still here & alive & well (except for cricking my neck horribly in my sleep two nights ago. it's still really sore today), i've just been busy, that's all.
April 03, 2008
new series, old series - 08:37 AM
why do they promise a new series of something on tv & then play only a few of them before going back to an old series again?
we usually rarely watch tv here, but just lately smiley's been enjoying abc kids tv in the morning.
last week they advertised that they were putting on a new series of sesame street. they had new oening credits & the song was slightly different, etc. but one of the ones earlier this week i was sure we'd seen a few weeks ago.
just now i saw the opening credits & it's an earlier one again!
isn't that called false advertising?
April 02, 2008
the mastery club affiliate link - 03:13 PM
you might notice that i've added a small banner to the side bar for a book called 'the mastery club'. it's a brilliant book.
it's aimed at young people, but a friend actually bought a copy for me because she knew i'd get a lot out of it. after i read it, i started to read it to smiley & he loved it as well. he liked it so much he actually wanted to start again from the beginning once we'd finished, so i've read it to him twice! i have two adult friends who i thought might like it, so i bought them copies, too.
it's a novel based around the concepts of achieving your goals, beng the master of your destiny, creating the type of life you want. even though it's written for young people, the language is perfectly adaptable for a younger or an older audience.
it's such a good book that i'd link to it even if i wasn't going to earn anything on sales of the book via me (as if i get that much traffic, anyway. lol!), but i figure that any chance of income is a good thing.
April 01, 2008
no choice - 07:01 PM
smiley & i went to the shops just before to buy some sweetened condensed milk to make some yummy little coconutty-chocolate balls that we saw on play school earlier this afternoon.
i generally try to buy an australian brand & australian made, but there was simply no choice there at bi-lo. there was only evil nestle (who push powdered baby formula on mums in countries with tainted water & then the mums can't breastfeed anymore once their milk has dried up) & the multinational coles brand which is probably made by nestle anyway.
grrr. i hate that. i wish there was a family-run shop within walking distance. i'll bet they'd stock a better range of brands. i don't mean a bigger range, i mean a better range. i.e. not coles or woolworths brands.
March 22, 2008
a stranger's face from over a year ago - 06:59 AM
yesterday when we went to the boat fair thing at sandgate with my friend suzanne & her family, we were sitting down having lunch & i noticed a boy sitting across from us who looked very familiar. i was dead sure i'd taken a picture of him & his sister at woodford the year before the last one.
suzanne encouraged me to go over & ask him if he'd been at woodford two years ago. so i did. turned out it was him. he was with his sister, who's also in the pic. he's a youngish boy with dreadlocks, so he's quite distinctive looking.
you can see the pic i took here. i got his email address & sent him a link to the pic so he can have a copy if he wants.
March 21, 2008
lost our lemonade - 07:30 PM
smiley & i had a really lovely day out today with my friend, suzanne, & her hubby & kids at sandgate (a beachy area) but by the end of the day, i was tired, a little bit sunburnt, & very ready to head home.
smiley was mucking about a bit, which added to my short temperedness, but to top it all off, the really yummy freshly-made lemonade which i'd bought, only drunk half of & was really looking forward to finishing & sharing with smiley, ended up spilled over the side of the car & the rest all over the road when i drove off after forgetting i'd placed it on the roof of the car while getting smiley & my bags packed inside.
bugger it!
now i'm going to be craving some more of that until the next time i can get to a market where they happen to have it. grrrr! 
March 19, 2008
the magic roundabout - 09:44 AM
oh my gosh! i just saw an ad on abc kids (on the tv) for the magic roundabout!
i used to watch it when i was a kid & it seems they've brought it back as an animated series. wow. so cool.
here's the wikipedia entry about it & a youtube clip of the original. it was done as a stop-motion type thing way back then, but the new one (from the little i saw of it on the ad) is more modern animation. maybe computer generated.