MJ is dead, viva La Toya!

I don't have anything of value to add to the Michael Jackson news, jokes, tributes and montages. I don't even own an MJ album despite recognising that a great talent has gone from the world.

For the record, my favourite song of his is 'Man in the Mirror' but my favourite video clip is the full length 'Smooth Criminal'.

Last night I felt all I could do was watch my 'Ones' DVD and the 'Smooth Criminal' clip off my 'Moonwalker' DVD and go to bed.

I'm not sad that he's dead, he was a musician to me and musicians die. But I do hope this media frenzy dies. It's getting really boring now.

Welcome to Revesby

I went to visit a friend yesterday, she lives in Picnic Point, which is kind of near Bankstown, the outer areas of Sydney and not exactly the most desirable place to live in the metropolis despite its perfectly acceptable suburban-ness.

I walked to her place from Revesby Station, a 20-minute hike. On the way back I missed the train by a minute - I literally watched it go as I entered the street where the station was located.

So I decided to get some fish and chips (GRILLED fish, chips and salad, thank you) from a nearby chippie and eat it at the station. I get to the platform to the city - and there are paramedicas and transit officer everywhere. Then I see it, a body covered in a space blanket lying on the tracks.

I went into a minor panic until I realised one of the paramedics was speaking to said body and it was alive - the space blankets were there for warmth and to keep drizzle off.

I never did find out how he got down there - whether he fell, was pushed, or jumped, but I did think about what a terrible thing it would be if someone took a photo of him and posted it on the internet. No one did. Not that I know of anyway. Either it's a regular occurrence at Revesby Station or they have more dignity there than I imagined.

The train had to be delayed by 15 minutes as they scooped him off the tracks and into a waiting ambulance.

World Class Jokes

Q: How many community radio announcers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Aah... now, let's see... I think the answer is... yeah.... ah... let me just... that was changed by someone you've never heard of from a record label in Prague.

Q: What do you get if you cross a high school reunion with a computer virus?
A: Facebook.

Q: What's the difference between my love life and the global financial crisis?
A: One is a complicated disaster, the repercussions of which will be felt for years, the other is the global financial crisis.

Q: Why did the internet cross the road?
A: Something to do with porn!

By Justin Heazlewood in The Big Issue

I'm a bug?

Something like the cutest

Twitter is down and here is the cutest 'under maintenance' notice I've ever encountered.

Sydney meme

Questions extracted from Speakeasy #10 (edited/collated by Lee Tran Lam).

Answers by yours truly.

If you got to choose which landmarks Sydney would be famous for, what would they be?
The QVB, North Sydney Olympic Pool and the Martin Luther King wall in Newtown. They are fairly well-known landmarks but Sydney isn't famous for them, per se.

Where is the best place you've taken a photograph in Sydney?
Chinese Gardens. You cannot take a bad photo there, even if there are people in the shot.

What is something visitors always want to see in Sydney, much to your surprise?
Bondi Beach. I'd never been until I was about 22, got really excited about finally seeing this great Sydney, nay Australian icon, and was disappointed that it was just a small beach with a lot of posers on it.

The local street you remember most?
Highs Road, West Pennant Hills. I used to live off Highs, and my parents still do. Have been for very long walks along it with and without my dogs, have had friends live nearby, and rode my bike on a road for the first time on Highs.

Do you have a favourite snippet of Sydney history?
My old high school in Baulkham Hills was built on an orange orchard, which is why an orange forms part of the school crest. The school motto is 'Persevere' but if you misinterpret the crest it seems to say 'preserve oranges'.

Something you've never 'gotten' about Sydney?
Some of the things I see people wear (or not wear) down George Street on a Saturday night. Why Bondi Beach is so popular. The bus system.

What are a few of your favourite Sydney things?
Riding the train across the Harbour Bridge. Swimming at North Sydney Olympic Pool. Hiking up to Observatory Hill on a good night and just sitting there for a couple of hours.

What makes you stay in Sydney?
My comfort zone now extends for about 30km north, west and south (don't really do the east...). Job security - it's hard to find a decent job in the media when you land in a new place because you don't know anyone and the industry is all about who you know. Somebody has to pay the train fare.

Everyone recognises the icons of Sydney, but what's a great piece of architecture that people might not know about?
The interior of the State Theatre is amazing, so it's a pity they don't let you take photos.

I wouldn't say it's a great piece of architecture, but the Don Bank Museum in North Sydney is an interesting place I wish I were allowed to explore further.

If Sydney was a character, it would be...
Rakish, charming, outlandishly dressed and rich.

If Sydney was a literary genre it would be...
One of those pseudo hybrid photo history books.

The strangest thing you've discovered about Sydney?
The Baha'i Temple in Ingleside. Why a Baha'i Temple? Why Ingleside?

A building or place you keep returning to?
Waverton Station, out of necessity. Taronga Zoo - I sponsor the condors.

Something about Sydney you're always having to explain to visitors?
The narrow lanes on the Harbour Bridge and why you only pay toll one way. What happens when there's trackwork ('buses replace trains' etc).

Favourite Sydney places to:
Hear: The Vanguard (Newtown). Even though the floor is expensive and the mezzanine is crowded.
Eat: Ichi Ban Boshi (Galeries Victoria), Cafe Ish (Surry Hills), Safi (North Sydney).
Drink: Edinburgh Castle Pub (City), Electric Bean (North Sydney), The Oaks (Neutral Bay).
Goods: Aero Plus (Chatswood), The Tea Centre (City), Kinokuniya (City).
Look: Wharf Theatre (Walsh Bay), Hayden Orpheum (Cremorne).
Stray: Luna Park to Waverton via Lavender Bay.

Sum up Sydney in a:
Sound: toot of the trains
Texture: cool grass
Building: The QVB - ornate, but used as a shopping centre
Phrase: "The train to Hornsby via the North Shore line has been delayed by approximately six minutes."
Taste: dark chocolate. I can't believe how many chocolate cafes there are here.
Photograph: the Harbour Bridge unfinished - iconic but always under construction.

Brainless

So I haven't had the best day. My brain is moving at about half of its normal speed, which is already borderline roadhogging, so it's a wonder I made it home at all.

I had a sluggish day at work: yesterday morning I flung out 10 news stories for the website in half a day and felt pretty pleased about it (there are many things you can write about Australia not being in a recession). Today, in the same period, I managed to plod to five, scratching desperately for any angle that hadn't been overused by the mainstream press.

Then I was supposed to pump through a one-page report on the China Australia Business Congress I attended a couple of weeks ago for the magazine and it seriously took about 2.5 hours instead of half an hour.

Then I held back a sneeze and felt my eye pop. It was weird.

So I got sniffly and my head fogged up so I dismissed myself for the day (at about 4:30pm mind you, so not that much of an early mark) and shuffled homeward.

I'd brought with me a package to send to my friends in Finland as it is their wedding anniversary soon, and also I haven't sent them gifts I bought from my recent trip to Japan, and also there's a birthday thrown in there. So I went to the post office and found a suitable tough bag to put the shoebox of stuff in, paid for the bag and the postage and proceeded to address it.

I'd forgotten to bring the address. I thought I had it in my diary but apparently that was last year's diary. I even remembered most of the address, right down to the spelling of the street (no mean feat in Finnish) but could not for the life of me remember which number was the street address and which was the apartment number.

So I trudged home in the rain, parcel under arm, knowing it would be another day late to the post. I felt like shit, particularly because it wasn't really raining or even drizzling, just that really annoying spitting that doesn't justify an umbrella but gets everything damp anyway.

At the intersection before my place I got annoyed at a young chap in a hoodie dawdling down the footpath, dithering about whether to cross the road, only when I got closer I saw it was an old lady hunched into her fleece jacket stepping carefully around the wet spots on the footpath and I felt ashamed for even contemplating saying something nasty like "sometime today might be nice".

I got home, was pleased to get home, ate two choc fudge cookies without thinking about it (had previously vowed to eat healthy on account of being on the brink of having a cold). Cursed self. Had half a glass of juice with vitamin C in and a large mug of honey and apple cider vinegar 'tea'. Made and ate a big salad while reading Speakeasy #10, at which point my mood lifted considerably.

I don't remember the natural remedies to treat an oncoming cold, just the tricks to soothe a sore throat. Amazingly the lurgy I have has not carpe jugulum just yet so I feel a good sleep tonight may throw it off.

I will be SHIP SHAPE for this coming long weekend. Because I DESERVE the long weekend.

I'm back with the books

My doppelganger has appeared on the State Library website again. This I find highly amusing.