January 2004 Archives

Young men, soldiers, nineteen fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a children's crusade

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance
Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a children's crusade

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Midnight in Soho nineteen eighty four
Fixing in doorways, opium slaves
Poppies for young men, such bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a children's crusade

Im in the process of converting all of my CDs to MP3's so that I have an MP3 juke box on my pc - its logical I play most of my music from my PC as its in the lounge room.. and it also means I can save space and pack all of my CDs away under the bed.

I have converted 17 gigs worth so far.. but something odd happened today.. I converted about 20 Cds but when I went to play them tonight it looks like they didnt save? Which really is odd as I had to pysically copy each converted over to my CD folder.. which I did 20 odd times today.. but they are not there?

Its as if my Hard Drive has restored itself to where it was yesterday? Very strange indeed..

The perfect middle 8 (well actually its longer then 8 bars but anyway), the perfect middle 8 occurs in Aracadia's "Lady Ice".. I should sample it and put it up online one day.. its been about 10 years since I have listed to this song or album..

Just before Christmas I purchased a case of wine. It was made by Cockatoo Ridge - nice Australian stuff! I was a little disappointed that when I opened one of the bottles it had been corked..

What can you do with a bottle of corked wine? Well I spose you can use it for cooking.. but thats not really what I purchased it for, so I was a little disappointed.

So what did I do? I sent the company an email and informed them about it..

I got a response for their customer service representative by way of email and phone call. Leading up to xmas I kept forgetting to return her call and then forgot all about it.

Well today, there was a knock on the door and there stood a courier with a box for me. Inside was a nice note, 2 standard bottles and a magnum of replacement wine - not to mention the complimentary cork screw!

Now thats customer service.. and its that sort of response that is better publicity then a well thought out and paid for advertisng campaign! Nothing like providing good old customer service.. I will be singing their praises for a long time!

Forgot to mention that the other night we went to one of the opening performances of Angels and Light as part of the Festival of Sydney. It really was quite spectacular.. people angels hanging in the sky, walking down buildings, supported by helium ballons.. two thumbs up.. got some good photo's here is one..

Well Im still on holidays - thats until next Monday.. something Im not looking forward to doing.. anyway..

So what have I been doing on my days off? Well not much really... the Sydney humidity has pretty much made be just want to lazy around at home.. which is silly because its probably a heap cooler outside.. as the sweat drips off me now..

Mostly i have been busy doing a heap of Run5 stuff - thats my other web project/interest...

Right now I have been motivated to convert all of my CDs.. well the ones I like the most anyway, to MP3 to store in my MP3 folder so that I have a jukebox on my PC. I have about 11-12gig worth of files so far and Im still going.. of course as soon as I finish converting the last CD I expect the Hard drive to crash.. this wouldnt be the first time mind you..

Have seen and recommend that you pass on Underworld.. havent seen the last of the Lord of the Rings films yet.. may try and do that this week too sometime.. not to mention heading up to my folks place for a spot of fishing.. but Im waiting for it to either rain or cool down before I do that.. there isnt much worse then sitting in the middle of a lake in the hot Australian sun..

Having survived the festive season (and thank you to all of those who willingly donated to my Christmas bootie.. and also thank you to those who donated unwillingly also..).. I ended up with a Stomach bug just prior to the new year.

So NYE was spent sitting at home.. but thats ok.. Im not big on NYE's anyway. Got to catch up with the wonderful 10 year old neice Erin! She makes Xmas and just about everything else in life worthwhile..

I thought I was meant to be back at work next week... until my mum rang work looking for me and was told that Im not due back until the following week. That pretty much sums up my memory.. or lack thereof.. still dont know if I will go into work next week, or if I will take the extra week off.. depends on how I feel Monday morning I guess.. although my mind is half made up.

As a post Xmas present I got a speeding ticket that relates to the 22 October last year, in the mail today. What bothers me most is that I got it on my way to a meeting for work. Oh well.

Oh yeah.. my stomach bug has been my incentive to get fit.. well given that I havent really eaten properly for over a week.. Im just not feeling as hungry when I do eat now.. and I have even shed some unwanted/needed kilo's.. hows that for an incentive..