Tim's TV Watching, Arti's Hospitalization, Ansett's Airplanes and Spinner's Backpackers

1. Saw that Tim was watching a movie with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.

It's called Hanna.

I remember hearing about it.

I probably encountered it when writing about Bana and/or Blanchett.

2. Saw that Tim was watching a show called Workaholics. There was an Australian character on it.

3. Learned from Lord Wiki that the Aussie actress guest star on Workaholics is Nicky Whelan.

From 2006-2007, Nicky played Pepper Steiger on Neighbours

In 2009. she did nine episodes of Scrubs.  

In 2010 she was the star of a movie called Hollywood And Vine

This past February she was in a movie called Hall Pass.

4. Saw that Pepper Steiger had a lesbian moment on Neighbours




It could have been more than a moment.

In that scene, it was just an experimental kiss. But maybe more came after that.

5. Learned from Lord Wiki that not much happened beyond the kiss.

I also learned that Pepper's mum had been in a lesbian relationship. Pepper had a hard time dealing with it, but eventually she was was accepting of the situation.

6. Learned from Lord Wiki that Pepper had a stalker named Mary Casey.

Mary locked up Pepper for a long time.

7. Watched trailer for Hall Pass.



The premise sounds interesting to me, but none of the jokes in the trailer made me laugh.

My opinion is probably meaningless, though. I think the movie is strongly geared towards heterosexual men.

8. Read more about Pepper Steiger.

Lord Wiki says she had an affair with Stefan Dennis' character, Paul Robinson. This is what led to the girl-girl kiss.

Pepper confessed about the affair to Rosie.  Rosie had something going on with Paul too. Pepper was upset, and then Rosie kissed her.  I guess that's nice. Instead of fighting over the guy, they found a tiny bit of romance with each other.

9. Saw that Tim was watching Terra Nova.

Yes.  My husband watches a lot of TV.  But to his credit, he watches a lot of it while cooking and cleaning.

To his DEFENSE, he's not feeling well right now.  

Terra Nova is filmed in Australia, in Queensland.

I'm looking at the cast right now—trying to see any Aussie names I recognize.

I don't recognize any, but there's probably some Australians there.

10. Found an Australian actor in the cast.

His name is Damian Walshe-Howling.

Damien is from Melbourne.

In 2010, Damian was in a shark horror movie called The Reef.  



It looks fantastic to me.

11. Saw that Damian Walshe-Howling has been in various popular Aussie TV shows including Underbelly, Blue Heelers, and The Secret Life of Us

12. Found another Aussie actor on Terra Nova.

His name is Eka Darville. 

In 2009 he played the red Power Ranger.  

13.  Saw one more Aussie in the Terra Nova cast.

It's Valentino del Toro

14. Learned from IMDb that Valentino del Toro is a qualified chef.  I guess that means he's professional? Certified?

15. Went to bed and had lots of dreams.  Some of them involved Australia or an Australian.

In one....Like me, Fruitcake has been involved with the Harry Potter role-playing sites—Magic is Might and Magic is Might Continues.  Or at least she tries to be involved. I find out that they refused to let her participate in the site. I can't find any reason for this, outside of them wanting to exercise their right of excluding people. I silently declare I won't be going back to that site anymore, even though I haven't been on the site lately, anyway.  But I decide if they notice my absence and ask me back, I'm not coming back.

In another.....Tim, Jack, and I are in Australia. We're planning to do a day trip to Melbourne for the zoo.  But then it starts getting to be late in the afternoon. The drive is three hours and I'm thinking we won't get there in time. I'm thinking we should skip the zoo and just....drive around (I guess?).   We get int the car. There's talk about a dessert version of pho that someone has given us for free. Tim wants us to eat it.  I worry that we've waited too long, and it's gone bad.

Jack sits in the front seat on the drive and I question this. Tim says it's the only way for his computer to work.  I want Jack occupied on the drive, so I try to tell myself it will be fine for this one time.  But then I decide it's really not safe. 

I'm wondering where we were staying that was three hours from Melbourne.

Oh, and the dream was not technically correct. I remember when Jack was in the front seat, he was on the right side instead of the left. He was where the driver's seat should have been.

Anyway....

There was one more Australian-related dream. It was about my friend Tracey.  She wants me to do one of those trust-exercises.   I'm supposed to fall and she'll catch me. I'm a bit weary, and she's very encouraging about the whole thing.   


That dream may have been influenced by real-life Tracey recently mentioning those types of trust-exercises.  

16. Went to Tallygarunga.

Today I'm going to read a story thread called I Pray The Gods My Soul To Take

So far, it's starring Artemesia Bellerose and Mereditha Tallenery. There may be other characters added later. 

They're both in Oliphant Lane, the wizarding village in Melbourne. They're at the hospital.

Yikes.

17. Started to read.

It's October 5.

Arti is waking up from a coma.

What happened to her?

Did her parents beat her up?  Jackson Dalton?

18. Finished reading Arti's post. It sounds like she was raped and beaten by some man. I'm not sure who.

The last I saw of Arti she was sharing a Snickers bar with Améa in the Southern Cross Tower.

19. Read Mereditha's post. She's been staying by Arti's side at the hospital.  That's very nice of her.

20. Tried to find clues about what happened to Arti.

On the story thread I read the other day....the one in which Reade punched Jack; one of the posts says, Arti had been curiously absent from the game - Jackson had been less than impressed when he'd heard the news. Frankie Dean had been a fine replacement beater for the Sturt team, though, so her presence was hardly missed.

Maybe she was kidnapped?   I'm thinking it could have been that sorcerer-created man— the one that was supposed to go after Améa.  I forgot his name.

21. Searched through Tallygarunga—trying to find out what happened to Arti.

I couldn't find any more answers.

I guess it's a mystery.

Or more likely, I'm just looking in the wrong places.  

22. Decided my other suspect is Zane Nedvidek.  

He's quite wicked.  

And maybe what happens to Arti is going to happen in one of the story threads that isn't yet completed.  Maybe it's the one with Améa and the Snickers bar. Maybe Zane will get in the middle of all that.

That story though takes place on September 18.  From the way Jack and Reade were noticing her absence at the Quidditch game, it didn't seem like she had been missing for long.  

I'm guessing she disappeared that day probably. October 1. Otherwise, I think Reade would have been much more concerned.  

23. Walked to the shopping center with Jack.  We bought new soaps, including one called Eucalyptus Mint.  Now when I wash my hands I can think of Australia...or cough drops.  

24. Saw that my Australian of the day is Sir Reginald Myles Ansett

Ansett was born on February 13, 1909 in Victoria.

In terms of Australia, I associate February 13 with sorry day.

25. Learned that Ansett's father had a bicycle shop.  Then he went to war. After the war thing, he had a small factory that made knitted garments.   

When Ansett was 14, he left school and went to work at his father's factory.

26. Learned that in 1929, Ansett took flying lessons. He received Australia's 419th pilot license.

Airplanes were new then.

How new?

I have no idea.

27. Consulted Lord Wiki.

He says the Wright brothers did their thing in 1903, and did many other flights from 1904-1905.

So I guess airplane flying wasn't too new.

Lord Wiki says 1928 is when Charles Kingsford Smith did some of his major flights. I'm guessing he was probably an inspiration to Ansett.

28. Learned that Ansett set up some type of transportation business in Victoria. It wasn't with airplanes.  He used a car, and carried passengers and freight.  He went back and forth from Hamilton to Ballarat.

29. Looked at the route on Google Maps.  

30. Learned Ansett venture didn't last long.

In 1932, Robert Menzies was the Minister of Railroads.  He helped get legislation passed to protect the railroads from competition.  Ansett was refused a license to operate his road transportation business. 

That sounds pretty unfair and ridiculous to me.

31. Saw that Ansett tried to get into the flying transportation business.

It didn't work out well for him at first—financially speaking. He ended up making money by taking people on joyrides and doing other airplane tricks.

32. Learned that Ansett finally got his business off the ground. Sort of.

It sounds like it hit a lot of bumps and snags.

But he also had a lot of successes. The guy ended up with a business empire.

33.  Went to the Ansett Australia  website.  

34. Consulted Lord Wiki about Ansett Australia.

He says they were a major Australian airline. They did domestic flights and flights to Asia.

In 2002, the business died because of financial problems.  Well, at least the airline part of the business died.  Maybe other parts survived?

This was all on the Australian Dictionary of Biography, by the way.  But I got tired of reading it from them.

35. Learned that Ansett was the official airlines of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

I've never even heard of them.  I have always thought of Qantas as Australia's airline. I didn't realize there was once something else.  It's probably because Ansett didn't fly to the United States.

36. Figured I probably wouldn't have heard of Qantas either if it wasn't for Rainman. That movie taught Americans about Qantas. 



37. Watched the Julian McMahon shark movie trailer.



It looks fun and scary; maybe a little dumb too. But that's okay.  

I wonder what would be worse—being trapped in a grocery store with sharks or being trapped in a grocery store with zombies.

At least with sharks you die.  And that's that. With zombies, you become a zombie too.

You might not realize you're a zombie, and so it shouldn't really matter. But it's depressing to think the whole world might become zombies, and civilization as we know it will disappear.  

So out of zombies and sharks, I'd say zombies are worse.

Now how about scary creepy ghost girls—like Zelda on Pet Sematary and Samara from The Ring.

I think I might prefer zombies.

One of my dreams last night was about a scary ghost girl character.  Then I was scared when I had to get up to pee. I worried I'd open the door to the bathroom, and she'd be there waiting for me.

Fortunately, she wasn't.

And I walked through the grocery store today without being attacked by sharks or hungry zombies.

I'm very thankful for that.

38. Started to look at more of Baroo42's Darwin to Perth Flickr set.  

39. Thought this photo was pretty cool.

Are those reefs?  

40. Loved this picture.

The boat looks weird to me, like it's too big for that body of water.  

Maybe the body of water looks smaller to me than it really is.

41.  Thought the scenery in this photo was very beautiful.

Western Australia has a lot of beauty. I wish it wasn't so far away.

Australia itself is too far away from me, but Western Australia is even worse.  

42. Wondered if that's a snake in this photo.

Probably.  

43. Saw the Rottnest Island animal.  What's it's name again?   It starts with a Q. Quaoka?  

44. Consulted Lord Wiki. It's a quokka.

Well, I was kind of close.

Anyway....

It looks like a giant gerbil, in my opinion.

45. Loved this peacock photo.  

It looks like the girl near him is saying, Not interested....sorry. 

46. Wondered about Spinners Backpackers.  The name is in this photo.   I'm guessing this is where Baroo42 and his friends stayed.  

47. Went to Spinners Backpacker's website.  

It's in Perth.

A dorm room costs $175 a week. I wish I didn't mind sleeping with other people and sharing a bathroom.  It's such a great deal.

For $195 you can get a twin room.  That's pretty good.  Then I guess you only have to sleep with one other person.  And it might be someone you know. I mean if you're traveling with someone you could get a twin room and share it.     

Spinners says they have dorm rooms available with 4 beds. It might work for a family?

I'm not sure if it's family-friendly though. It's probably geared more towards young adults.

48. Wondered if Baroo42 met new friends on his trip to Australia.   Or did he mostly hang out with people he already knew?

49. Went to look at the Australia Monopoly board.  

The next place on the board is Perth Station.  

Lord Wiki says it's the largest train station in Perth.

I wonder how far it is from Spinners Backpackers.

50. Tried to map it out on Google Maps. I think I got the right train station...hopefully.

It's about a 20 minute walk from the hostel to the station. That's not too bad. 

51. Learned from Lord Wiki that the train station was built between 1893 and 1894.

I wonder why Lord Wiki doesn't know the exact year.....

52. Saw that Tim was watching Transformers.  I think maybe I saw Isabel Lucas.   Isn't she the one in that movie?  

53. Learned that Isabel Lucas was in the second Transformers movie.

Maybe that's what Tim is watching. 

54. Found out Tim is watching the third Transformers movie.

Isabella Lucas isn't in the movie, so I must have been imagining things.