Did I hear that right?

I was just half-watching the tennis and I could have sworn the commentator said that Rafael Nadal had had "two mystery turns" this set. And of course I'm imagining that's he's had some sort of seizure, not once but twice, maybe his tongue lolling out, foaming at the mouth and twitching, some tourettes as well. But a split-second of thought tells me that he'd had "two missed returns". D"oh!

In a similar vein, earlier today I was driving and half-listening to the radio and they were talking about a racehorse whose name, somewhat improbably, was "A Patchy Cat".

How hot is it? (more)

7-11 at the corner of Waverley Rd and Darling Rd, about 3pm yesterday. Slurpee machines are overwhelmed.

Further thoughts on slurpees and negative marginal utility.

How hot?

It's 10am here and already 38 degrees (or 101 if you prefer). That's hot. How hot has it been?

This was the dreadful scene at the 7-11 on the corner of Waverley Rd and Darling Rd yesterday in the middle of the afternoon. The slurpee machines had wilted under the pressure.

Beer Signs

I got my younger son (10) a camera for Xmas. He takes photos of people's feet, of weetbix in a bowl, dozens of shots of crabs on the beach. And signs. He's a lot like me.

I love these.

Another sign

This one on a house in East Malvern. It can only mean one thing:

"Dangerous dogs not permitted".

Flinders Village Cafe

I've been away for a few days, down at the beach with my kids. We were staying in a small town called Flinders, just over an hour out of Melbourne. Beaches were great, weather was hot, kids were fun.

I'd wake up earlier than the others (they were exhausted) and go into the main street to buy a newspaper and have a coffee. My usual order was this: "a small latte for here please, and can you turn the music down". The cafe had a very pleasant area out front in a courtyard, shaded, nice tables and chairs. But they'd hung speakers from the trees and were pumping music into it - something vaguely new-agey crossed with trance. So there'd be pan pipes and horrible flutes and a peppy electronic bass line too. I can endure this sort of thing in the middle of the afternoon but first thing in the morning it's more than I can stand.

One morning I decided to just endure it - I hate being the Grumpy Old Man who keeps having to ask to have the music turned down (I used to have huge fights with cabdrivers in Singapore about this. Singaporeans abhor silence). So I sat there in the lovely courtyard with my pretty-decent coffee, early morning sunshine filtering through the tree, no kids running around.. and I was seething. It should have been a perfect moment.

Then I saw the sign. It explains everything. I like the second bit. "It would be appreciated if you change tables to inform staff". Now I'm not stupid, I know what they're getting at. They're saying that if you change tables (the tables are numbered) you should tell someone. Which is entirely reasonable. So why not just say "Please tell staff if you change tables".

Pearl Harbor and worms.

From a NYT article about the latest computer worm thingy:

Worms like Conficker not only ricochet around the Internet at lightning speed, they harness infected computers into unified systems called botnets, which can then accept programming instructions from their clandestine masters. “If you’re looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships steaming toward us on the horizon,” said Rick Wesson, chief executive of Support Intelligence, a computer security consulting firm based in San Francisco.

Is this just a mangled metaphor, or does this guy really not understand that Pearl Harbor was an air attack? And yes, I do hate being this picky.

Food

I've been away with my sons, staying with my friend Y (a very lovely friend indeed) and her kids at the beach. At one point she and I said we were going food shopping, and my oldest son, who's 12, enquired skeptically "what's 'food shopping'?"

Hard Game.

Where exactly?

I was on the 0600 flight this morning and I kept myself busy by reading the papers and then a book and having something to eat. Then, as the plane was coming in to land I looked out the window and remarked to myself how sometimes when you come in to land at Sydney it looks very flat and dry, sometimes the angle means you can't see the harbour or the coast and it looks quite different. These thoughts ran through my head without any real purpose; I was addled from lack of sleep and bit racey from having had two cups of strong tea.

Then I looked at the video display, where it showed that we were, in fact, coming to land in Melbourne. So that explains it.

Image

I was randomly following links today when I stumbled upon a posting about how to be successful if you're in a band. I so love this, and I don't think it's a parody.

You need an image. Some go for the "I hate my dad" look, others go for the "I love Satan" look. Personally, I prefer the "I hate my dad and love Satan" look. This one is up to you.