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Sorry about RSS feed problem!!

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:16:08 +0100

If you have received a bunch of random bizarro stuff from my blog's RSS feed - I am so sorry!!!

I don't know what's causing the problem. I'm only getting the strange posts in my Google Reader (not in Netvibes or My Yahoo! or anywhere else). It's affecting the direct feed as well as the Feedburner feed. The blog itself has not been affected, just the RSS feed. I don't know yet whether it will affect email subscriptions.

I've changed my passwords - this seems to have stopped the rubbish in the Feedburner feed. I'm not sure yet whether this is the case for the direct feed.

I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do or even who to get angry with!

Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon, but in the meantime I really do feel awful about the gunk in your RSS reader :(

A young poet.

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:18:42 +0100

I've been working my way through boxes of "stuff" that migrated from my parents' garage into our spare room many years ago, never to be looked at again. Until now, that is. In preparation for our move, I have been busily sorting and culling. It's amazing how much paperwork can build up over the years!

I'll write a blog post some other day on the treasures and embarrassments that I've uncovered along the way, but today I thought I'd share with you some poetry that I wrote 20 years ago in high school :)

Thinking.

Looking out the window
    At the clouds all passing by;
I wonder if another world
    Exists beyond the sky.

Pretty deep, hey? ;) But mostly I was a silly child, so these next two poems are more in character!

Mr Monster.

Purple monster of the park,
    In the shadows, where it's dark;
Hiding underneath the bench,
    Looking for his monkey wrench.

Vegemite.

Tommy Brown eats Vegemite
    Every day and every night.
He sticks his fingers in the jar
    Of goo, that looks like sticky tar.

He gets it on his nose and face,
    And every other open space.
It travels east, west, north and south,
    And sometimes gets into his mouth.

His mother says "You are a grub!,
    And gives his face a thorough scrub.
"I wish you'd change to peanut butter",
    She has oft been heard to mutter.

But Tommy loves his Vegemite,
    He says it makes his teeth more bright.
He'll eat it till the day he dies,
    On buttered bread and cold meat pies.

P.S. I was a total swot at high school - especially in English - so it would be remiss of me not to mention that I got a mark of A+++ for this collection of poems ;)

Alternative VALA2010 dinner, Wednesday 10 Feb 2010

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:30:19 +0100

I'm really looking forward to attending VALA2010. It will be my first major library conference apart from the New Librarians Symposium in 2008.

And although I'm looking forward to the presentations immensely, I'm also very much looking forward to meeting in person some of the amazing librarians that I've met via Twitter over the last year. And some new people too :)

I won't be attending the official VALA dinner on Wednesday night (I'm self-funding my conference attendance). But happily, this is also the case for some of my favourite twitterers - so we've arranged to meet up for an alternative, informal dinner that night.

If you would like to come along to this alternative dinner, please let me know by either leaving a comment on this blog post, emailing me at sallysetsforth at gmail.com or sending me a direct message on Twitter. The dinner is open to anyone who would like to share an informal meal and conversation with other VALA attendees. Just make sure to let me know if you'd like to attend so that I can adjust the booking as necessary :)

I've booked an outdoor non-smoking table at Automatic Cafe (website requires Flash player). It's close to the conference venue and Southern Cross train station. We can either meet there, or meet at the end of Wednesday's conference proceedings and head to dinner together.

Here are the details -

Time:     6.30pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010
Place:    Automatic Cafe, ground level of Crown Entertainment Complex, Southbank
RSVP:   Monday 8 February (comment on this post, email me at sallysetsforth at gmail.com or send me a direct message on Twitter)

Busy year ahead...

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:35:08 +0100

Well here we are in 2010 :)

It's going to be a very busy year for me and Tim, at least for the first few months. We're doing repairs and renovations around the house, doing a major cull of our possessions, moving interstate, looking for work - and who knows what will come after that!

Since Christmas we've had three large trees removed, a new toilet installed and other plumbing work done, new roof insulation put in, and we've thrown out or recycled several large bins full of 'stuff'. We've also had quotes for a new kitchen and bathroom, which will continue to keep us busy around the house for a while. Oh, and it's harvest time in the garden - so there's lots of cooking and preserving going on too!

I'm sure there will be lots more posts forthcoming on all this activity and upheaval - I just need to find some time to write them!

This afternoon Tim and I are heading off to Adelaide to catch the last couple of stages of the Tour Down Under. We almost decided not to go, what with all the activity going on here, but once the buzz started and the world-class cyclists started arriving ... well, I just couldn't stay away!

My sister will be house-sitting for us while we're away, and it will be interesting to hear how Roxy copes with a different person in the house - or will she even notice?

I'll blog again when we're back home :)

P.S. I posted a new recipe for an easy beetroot risotto on my Recipe Box page.

Advent Calendar - Day 25 (Christmas Day)

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:22:49 +0100

Merry Christmas!!!

Advent Calendar - Day 24 (The Night Before Christmas)

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:42:40 +0100

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house ...

Nope. No silence here. It's more like a madhouse - we're running around trying to get everything done in time. And then when we realise that there's no way we *can* get everything done in time, we start compromising and working out what's still possible in the time available! Why does Christmas always seem to creep up so fast?!?!

Tim and I have both been slaving away in the kitchen for much of the day. We're having Christmas Eve dinner with my family tonight, and Christmas Day lunch with Tim's family tomorrow. But there's still lots to do, because although we're only contributing part of each day's meal, we have to do it twice. I've made a vegetarian main course and the hard sauce. Tim cooked the pudding a couple of weeks ago, and today has been making hommus for tomorrow, as well as cooking for gifts.

Anyway, just dashing off this quick blog post before we head to my Mum's place. I hope that everyone has a lovely - and not too busy - Christmas Eve :)

Advent Calendar - Day 23 (Christmas Carols)

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:45:39 +0100

We finally finished the Christmas shopping today. We'd already bought all of the presents for Tim's nieces and nephews, but we still had a few adults to look after. Unfortunately, even when you know exactly what you want and where to get it from, shopping at this time of year is pretty nightmarish. We had to admit to ourselves, though, that our attempts to get it over with quickly probably made it even worse! Tim and I lost each other twice in all the rushing around!

Anyway, everything is now wrapped and ready to go. I'm still working on some handmade Christmas ornaments, but that's coming along alright. We've got a fair bit of cooking ahead of us tomorrow, but then all the hard work will be over and it will be time to enjoy the good company, food, drink and music.

The music is usually Christmas carols, depending on who gets control of the stereo (me! me!). I prefer my carols to be jaunty, fun and upbeat - and preferably sung by the Muppets. My favourite Christmas album is 'A Christmas Together' by John Denver and the Muppets. Happily, someone has uploaded the Muppet version of the 12 Days of Christmas to YouTube, so that I can share the joy with you! :)

After the third or fourth repeat of 'A Christmas Together', the rest of the family usually demands that we play something else ;)

That's when the crooners come out - Bing Crosby, Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. I do love those classic Christmas songs: Winter Wonderland, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Let It Snow, and White Christmas. I even love that little tear-jerker, The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot. *sobs*

Advent Calendar - Day 22 (Career Guidance Film)

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:35:53 +0100

Thinking about becoming a librarian? Perhaps you should watch this vocational guidance film from 1947 ;)

You know, apart from the emphasis on books, I must say that this film's message and content has held up pretty well over the years!

Advent Calendar - Day 21 (Vision)

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:08:57 +0100

Yesterday, when we were on our way to a Christmas BBQ with friends and former colleagues, a screw on my glasses came loose. That caused one of the lenses to fall out and render my glasses useless. We were already halfway to our destination (which was a fair way from home), and I didn't have my contact lenses on me, or the small glasses repair kit that I used to carry around (I used to carry a *lot* of stuff in my handbag!). So I resigned myself to a fuzzy day ahead.

I'm shortsighted, with a prescription of approximately -5 in both eyes, as well as astigmatism in my left eye. My vision is perfect up to about a foot away from my face. Beyond that, everything is blurry.

Interestingly, Tim and I recently had a conversation about our poor sight (he's about -8). We speculated that without the invention of spectacles, evolution may very well have prevented us from ever coming into existence. Without our glasses, we're a liability - weak, disabled. And who would want to mate with a squinter ;)

So yesterday I spent the day as a squinter, rather than as a fully able-bodied person. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, mostly because I had Tim's help. Although sometimes he forgot (like letting me know about the baked potatoes, which I consequently missed out on - grrr!). But I couldn't see facial expressions properly, which left me at a social disadvantage. And I couldn't do normal guest-like things, like help with clearing up and the like.

Although I tried to keep my eyes relaxed, I had quite a headache at the end of the day - probably a combination of constant blurriness and the unconscious strain of trying to compensate for it. By the time we got home at the end of the day, I was feeling quite agitated about the need to quickly locate my old glasses so that I could get some control back.

I got my glasses repaired this morning, and everything's back to normal. But it was an interesting exercise in living without vision, even if only for 8 hours. And I feel so lucky that corrected vision is so easily obtainable in our society.

Advent Calendar - Day 20 (Felt Christmas Decorations)

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 11:24:51 +0100

I love finding inspiration on the internet, and when I came across this Zakka Life tutorial for felt Christmas decorations, I knew I had to make some!

I gave these to some good friends of ours as a housewarming gift :)

If you haven't come across the term "zakka" before, I'll take a stab at describing it. Zakka is a design movement encompassing a wide variety of hand-sewn household items, usually functional. Their style is often a little bit kitsch or cute. You can view some nice examples at the Handmade Zakka Flickr Group and the project gallery from the book Zakka Sewing by Therese Laskey and Chika Mori.