1. Talked to Jack about Australia, because he asked me about it.
I forgot what he asked, or how we got onto the conversation in the first place.
I told him about The Pinnacles, the Devil's Marbles, Wave Rock, the Twelve Apostles, and London Arch. We talked a bit about Uluru. I said Australia is made up of a lot of famous rock structures, and we haven't really seen any of them yet.
Jack reminded me that we saw the Three Sisters.
2. Dreamed about Tallygarunga.
Then the dream went from me being there to me telling the story. Tallygarunga has an option where you can act our your story and record it rather than just write it. I do that, and then feel a bit embarrassed afterwards. I start to think it's too melodramatic, and doesn't fit well with other stories in that particular section.
Then Mousie takes over my story. She says my character spewed all over the place once they took the tubes out. I'm bothered by this because I have a vomit phobia. I try to tell myself not to worry. It's not real.
Note: In real life, there's not an option on Tally to act our your story instead of writing it. And Mousie doesn't come along to take over other people's stories.
3. Learned about Joe Blake from Andrew's blog.
Well, actually I heard about it on Andrew's blog. I had to go look it up to figure out what it was.
It's rhyming slang.
I'll let you guess what it is....f you don't already know.
Or you can be like me and google it.
4. Read some of a fictional blog created by one of the Tallygarunga writers. It's about a super hero named Glimmer Girl. There's a transgender theme to it all, because the super hero's alter ego is a boy.
It's very cool and creative.
5. Saw Google News has changed.
I don't know if I like it.
It looks confusing.
6. Read article about tourism problems in Australia.
It's believed a lot of the blame goes to the Qantas strikes. It's making people a bit weary to book plane tickets with them.
The article says domestic tourism has fallen 3%. More Australians are choosing to go overseas.
There're also drops in international visitors.
On top of that, the tourism industry is losing workers because they're off to seek mining jobs.
Hopefully Qantas will work things out.
I don't know what else to say.
7. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called An Hour Of Lab Work A Day Keeps The Healer On Pay.
The stars of this one are Henry Hunter, the mad scientist, and Robert Blackson, the Dean of VMU.
The story takes place at the Victoria University of Magic, in a building called Faculty of Practical Magic.
8. Started to read.
It's late afternoon, on Monday, October 17.
Henry Hunter has already created a reputation for himself in Australia. He got in trouble in the UK for creating fires, and now he's done the same in Australia.
9. Learned from Robert Blackson's post that explosions at the university are far from unusual.
They happen at least twice a year.
Oh. Okay.
So Henry Hunter's disaster isn't too huge of a deal, I suppose.
10. Finished reading the story.
It's pretty fun.
The dean is not caring too much about the fire, since it happens so often. Still, though, he goes to talk to Henry Hunter about it.
Henry Hunter is nervous about the meeting. He's a bit flustered.
11. Started to read the biography of Robert Blackson.
His face claim is Ian McKellen.
I often get McKellen confused with John Hurt.
Which one was in X-Men?
I think McKellen is the one in Harry Potter.
John Hurt was in The Elephant Man.
One was in a movie with Jason Priestly. He played a older gay man who had a crush on a major young celebrity.
12. Looked up McKellen on IMDb. I'm NOT seeing Harry Potter; so I guess that's John Hurt in Potter. Or is it someone else all together?
McKellen IS the guy in X-Men.
13. Went to John Hurt's IMDb page. He's the one in Harry Potter.
The movie with Jason Priestly was called Love And Death on Long Island. Hurt was in that.
I don't think I'll ever get McKellen and Hurt straight in my head. Speaking of that, I think McKellen is gay. What about Hurt ?
14. Consulted Lord Wiki. McKellen is gay. Hurt is probably not.
15. Went back to reading about Robert Blackson, who I'd likely call Ollivander if I ran into him in the wizarding world.
16. Learned that Blackson was born in Perth.
His Patronus is a Mountain Lion. I don't think I'll be able to read stuff like that, for awhile, without feeling sad about what happened in Ohio.
17. Learned that Robert has hearing problems, and gets annoyed with people who talk too softly.
He refuses to get a remedy for his hearing problem, so pretty everyone talks softly...in his eyes (or ears).
18. Saw that Robert loves teaching, but he doesn't tolerate students who daydream. He hits them with books or ink.
19. Liked this line about Robert. Now he can hold a conversation with almost anyone, though sometimes he will choose to be difficult, especially if he has been told to behave himself.
That might give me the temptation to be difficult too.
20. Saw that my Australian of the day has a long name. It's Adolphus Herbert Frederick Norman Appleroth.
He was born in Melbourne in 1886.
His claim to fame was jelly...Aeroplane Jelly.
I've heard of it before.
It's what we Americans call Jello. It's not like the jelly we Americans put on our sandwiches.
21. Learned that when Appleroth was sixteen, he started working for the Lipton Tea company.
We have Lipton in America. Is it a British company? American?
22. Consulted Lord Wiki.
Lipton began in Scotland.
23. Learned that Appleroth played around with gelatin and sugar at his parent's house...in the bath.
I guess that's how it started for him.
Meanwhile...Appleroth worked in the tram business. But he gave that up eventually to do jelly full time.
Why was his jelly named Aeroplane Jelly?
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says he was inspired by recent flight accomplishments.
24. Learned that Appleroth himself wrote the Aeroplane Jelly jingle.
The first person to sing it was an adult pretending to be a child.
The second person to sing it was a child who won a contest. Her recording was used for many decades.
Why isn't it used now?
Did someone else do a new recording?
25. Watched commercial for Aeroplane Jelly.
It features the voice of the contest winner—Joy King.
26. Went to Jessa Tilley's YouTube channel.
There's a song that plays automatically on the channel. The description says it's about the ash cloud from Chile.
Jessa Tilley wrote the song herself.
She does a lot of original songs.
That's very cool.
27. Listened to Jessa Tilley's "From Infinity"
28. Started to look at John Lampard's Budgewoi Flickr set.
Lampard says Budgewoi is a small town north of Sydney.
29. Found Budgewoi on Google Maps.
It's very close to Norah Head. Lampard has a Flickr set about that place as well. I looked at it the other day.
30. Liked this picture.
There're not many pictures I'm liking in the set.
I don't blame Lampard's photography. Nor do I blame Budgewoi.
It's just I'm in a kind of blah mood.
Not much is appealing to me.
31. Reminded of our time in Hawaii when I saw this street sign.
It's Kailua Avenue.
The area we stayed in on Oahu was called Kailua.
32. Wished I remembered the name of the street we stayed at in Hawaii.
Tim probably has it written down somewhere.
33. Looked at the Australian Monopoly Board.
My space for today is Collins Street in Melbourne.
Lord Wiki says it's the main street of Melbourne. And part of it is the financial centre of Melbourne. Collins has a lot of investment banks and insurance companies.
34. Learned that Collins Street is named after David Collins.
I probably already researched all this before in the past. But I've forgotten most of it.
Anyway....
David Collins is the one who led the first settlement in Victoria. It didn't work out. This was years before Batman, Fawkner, and their buddies came along.
35. Learned that, at one time, Collins Street had a lot of medical professional buildings.
36. Learned that, in the 1950's and 1960's, many classic historical buildings were destroyed on Collins Street.
That's sad.
37. Learned there are a lot of shops on Collins Street.
38. Learned that Rialto Towers is on Collins Street.
39. Looked at Collins Street on Google Maps.
The west part starts near the Yarra River.
There's a restaurant near the river called Groove Train. It's actually part of a chain. There're several in Australia.
They have a large and varied menu.
I'm not sure if it's any good.
It looks kind of expensive. An order of fish and chips is 21.90. Fish and chips at Disney World is only 15.90.
And Disney World itself is pretty overpriced.
40. Saw that Collins Street goes through Docklands Park.
Oh....okay. I just zoomed out. I'm near the Docklands right now.
41. Learned The Rialto is a hotel.
Really?
I had no idea.
I thought it was an office building.
Maybe it has offices and hotels?
The hotel is owned by a company called InterContinental.
Where do they originate?
42. Consulted Lord Wiki. InterContinental began in Brazil and was later bought out by UK people.
Some time later it was bought by the Japanese; and some time after that it was bought by another British company.
43. Checked the prices of The Rialto to see if I'm right about us not being able to afford staying there.
I was right.
The lowest price for a room is about $400.
44. Wondered if the Rialto hotel is different from Rialto Towers, the place with the observation deck. Maybe they're two separate buildings?
I'm just wondering, because I can't find anything on the hotel website about there being an observation deck.
Yeah....
And I'm looking at Google Maps again. It does look like there's two different places. One is The Rialto, and the other is Rialto Towers.
45. Saw an Australian chain restaurant on Collins Street. It's called Taco Bill.
There're a lot of them in Australia. It looks like most of them are in Victoria though. The site doesn't list the states where the towns are located.
Most of the towns I recognize are in Victoria. The exception is Albury. That's in New South Wales, I believe. But it's near Victoria.
46. Looked at the menu for Taco Bill.
It looks very expensive for a chain restaurant.
I know. I sound very cheap.
A vegetable Fajita order is $19.95.
What does that cost at our chain Mexican restaurant?
Well, it turns out our restaurant doesn't list their prices.
47. Looked at another Tex-Mex chain restaurant in America. Their vegetable fajita price is $12.59.
I'm getting the idea that Collins Street is an expensive street. It's not surprising. From what Lord Wiki said, it sounded like it would expensive.
48. Learned there's a South African Chain restaurant on Collins Street. It's called Nandos.
Lord Wiki says they serve chicken with a pepper called Peri Peri.
There's Nandos restaurants all over the world, and many in Australia.
There're a few Nandos restaurants in America...all in the north-east near Washington D.C
49. Learned from Lord Wiki that there was a controversial Nandos Ad in 2002. They exploited the asylum seeker controversy with claims that detainees were unsewing their lips so they could eat Nandos chicken.
Wow. That's pretty crazy.
50. Saw that the Regent Theatre is on Collins Street.
Right now, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera is playing there.
You know....I haven't heard any of it's songs yet. I should listen.
I shall do that right now.
It's a nice song.
I like Andrew Lloyd Webber.
I'm not sure I'm in the mood for him right now, though.
51. Saw that the British Consulate is on Collins Street.
They don't deal with visa matters. For that, you have to go to their office in Canberra.
52. Saw there is an RSL building on Collins Street.
It's way east, towards the ending of Collins.
53. Learned from the Monash Conference Centre website and the RSL website that the end of Collins Street is known as the Paris End.
54. Saw that there's a Grand Hyatt on Collins Street.
I'm not going to look at the price.
55. Learned from Lord Wiki and Google Maps that there are two prominent churches on Collins Street.
One is a Baptist Church. Lord Wiki has a photo of it, and I'm not overly impressed. It's not my kind of thing.
I am VERY impressed with the other church....well, the building at least. It's called The Scot's Church.
Lord Wiki has a photo of that one too. I love it.
56. Learned from Lord Wiki that the church opened in 1841.
Oh....wait.
That building had to be demolished.
The church building I like was built in 1874.
Here's a fun piece of trivia. The church was built by a guy named David Mitchell. His daughter was Dame Melba.
Mitchell didn't design the building though. That honor goes to Joseph Reed. Reed is also the guy who designed the State Library of Victoria, the Royal Exhibition Building, Ormand College, and a ton of other stuff.
Ormond College is beautiful too. Lord Wiki has a photo. I've seen it before, and I know I liked it. But I had to remind myself what it looks like.
57. Learned that Scot's Church is Neo-Gothic.
I'm smart enough now to know that this is one of my favorite architectural styles. But I'm not yet smart enough to look at a building and say Hey, that's Neo-Gothic.
I can sort of guess...sometimes.
58. Decided to do some Australia quizzes on the Funtrivia site.
First I'm going to do one called Celebrate Good Times....
59. Didn't do so well. I got a 6/10.
59. Decided to do a quiz called Contemporary Australian Arts and Culture.
60. Got an 8/10. I'm proud of myself for knowing some answers. With a couple, though, I had to totally guess.
I really had no idea what kind of material Glenn Murcutt uses in his building.
61. Decided to do a general quiz about Australia.
62. Liked that quiz. It was fun. I got a 15/20. It's not great, but it's not too awful.
They mentioned the same thing that Andrew mentioned...Joe Blake.
I forgot what he asked, or how we got onto the conversation in the first place.
I told him about The Pinnacles, the Devil's Marbles, Wave Rock, the Twelve Apostles, and London Arch. We talked a bit about Uluru. I said Australia is made up of a lot of famous rock structures, and we haven't really seen any of them yet.
Jack reminded me that we saw the Three Sisters.
2. Dreamed about Tallygarunga.
I'm creating a story in Tallygarunga, but I'm also living the story. I'm in the hospital with a lung or heart problem. The doctors say I have to get a tube stuck done in my chest.They tell me it won't be pleasant. I become very nervous and am wishing the machines attached to my body had better scores so I might not have to do it.
Then the dream went from me being there to me telling the story. Tallygarunga has an option where you can act our your story and record it rather than just write it. I do that, and then feel a bit embarrassed afterwards. I start to think it's too melodramatic, and doesn't fit well with other stories in that particular section.
Then Mousie takes over my story. She says my character spewed all over the place once they took the tubes out. I'm bothered by this because I have a vomit phobia. I try to tell myself not to worry. It's not real.
Note: In real life, there's not an option on Tally to act our your story instead of writing it. And Mousie doesn't come along to take over other people's stories.
3. Learned about Joe Blake from Andrew's blog.
Well, actually I heard about it on Andrew's blog. I had to go look it up to figure out what it was.
It's rhyming slang.
I'll let you guess what it is....f you don't already know.
Or you can be like me and google it.
4. Read some of a fictional blog created by one of the Tallygarunga writers. It's about a super hero named Glimmer Girl. There's a transgender theme to it all, because the super hero's alter ego is a boy.
It's very cool and creative.
5. Saw Google News has changed.
I don't know if I like it.
It looks confusing.
6. Read article about tourism problems in Australia.
It's believed a lot of the blame goes to the Qantas strikes. It's making people a bit weary to book plane tickets with them.
The article says domestic tourism has fallen 3%. More Australians are choosing to go overseas.
There're also drops in international visitors.
On top of that, the tourism industry is losing workers because they're off to seek mining jobs.
Hopefully Qantas will work things out.
I don't know what else to say.
7. Went to Tallygarunga.
Today I'm going to read a story thread called An Hour Of Lab Work A Day Keeps The Healer On Pay.
The stars of this one are Henry Hunter, the mad scientist, and Robert Blackson, the Dean of VMU.
The story takes place at the Victoria University of Magic, in a building called Faculty of Practical Magic.
8. Started to read.
It's late afternoon, on Monday, October 17.
Henry Hunter has already created a reputation for himself in Australia. He got in trouble in the UK for creating fires, and now he's done the same in Australia.
9. Learned from Robert Blackson's post that explosions at the university are far from unusual.
They happen at least twice a year.
Oh. Okay.
So Henry Hunter's disaster isn't too huge of a deal, I suppose.
10. Finished reading the story.
It's pretty fun.
The dean is not caring too much about the fire, since it happens so often. Still, though, he goes to talk to Henry Hunter about it.
Henry Hunter is nervous about the meeting. He's a bit flustered.
11. Started to read the biography of Robert Blackson.
His face claim is Ian McKellen.
I often get McKellen confused with John Hurt.
Which one was in X-Men?
I think McKellen is the one in Harry Potter.
John Hurt was in The Elephant Man.
One was in a movie with Jason Priestly. He played a older gay man who had a crush on a major young celebrity.
12. Looked up McKellen on IMDb. I'm NOT seeing Harry Potter; so I guess that's John Hurt in Potter. Or is it someone else all together?
McKellen IS the guy in X-Men.
13. Went to John Hurt's IMDb page. He's the one in Harry Potter.
The movie with Jason Priestly was called Love And Death on Long Island. Hurt was in that.
I don't think I'll ever get McKellen and Hurt straight in my head. Speaking of that, I think McKellen is gay. What about Hurt ?
14. Consulted Lord Wiki. McKellen is gay. Hurt is probably not.
15. Went back to reading about Robert Blackson, who I'd likely call Ollivander if I ran into him in the wizarding world.
16. Learned that Blackson was born in Perth.
His Patronus is a Mountain Lion. I don't think I'll be able to read stuff like that, for awhile, without feeling sad about what happened in Ohio.
17. Learned that Robert has hearing problems, and gets annoyed with people who talk too softly.
He refuses to get a remedy for his hearing problem, so pretty everyone talks softly...in his eyes (or ears).
18. Saw that Robert loves teaching, but he doesn't tolerate students who daydream. He hits them with books or ink.
19. Liked this line about Robert. Now he can hold a conversation with almost anyone, though sometimes he will choose to be difficult, especially if he has been told to behave himself.
That might give me the temptation to be difficult too.
20. Saw that my Australian of the day has a long name. It's Adolphus Herbert Frederick Norman Appleroth.
He was born in Melbourne in 1886.
His claim to fame was jelly...Aeroplane Jelly.
I've heard of it before.
It's what we Americans call Jello. It's not like the jelly we Americans put on our sandwiches.
21. Learned that when Appleroth was sixteen, he started working for the Lipton Tea company.
We have Lipton in America. Is it a British company? American?
22. Consulted Lord Wiki.
Lipton began in Scotland.
23. Learned that Appleroth played around with gelatin and sugar at his parent's house...in the bath.
I guess that's how it started for him.
Meanwhile...Appleroth worked in the tram business. But he gave that up eventually to do jelly full time.
Why was his jelly named Aeroplane Jelly?
The Australian Dictionary of Biography says he was inspired by recent flight accomplishments.
24. Learned that Appleroth himself wrote the Aeroplane Jelly jingle.
The first person to sing it was an adult pretending to be a child.
The second person to sing it was a child who won a contest. Her recording was used for many decades.
Why isn't it used now?
Did someone else do a new recording?
25. Watched commercial for Aeroplane Jelly.
It features the voice of the contest winner—Joy King.
26. Went to Jessa Tilley's YouTube channel.
There's a song that plays automatically on the channel. The description says it's about the ash cloud from Chile.
Jessa Tilley wrote the song herself.
She does a lot of original songs.
That's very cool.
27. Listened to Jessa Tilley's "From Infinity"
28. Started to look at John Lampard's Budgewoi Flickr set.
Lampard says Budgewoi is a small town north of Sydney.
29. Found Budgewoi on Google Maps.
It's very close to Norah Head. Lampard has a Flickr set about that place as well. I looked at it the other day.
30. Liked this picture.
There're not many pictures I'm liking in the set.
I don't blame Lampard's photography. Nor do I blame Budgewoi.
It's just I'm in a kind of blah mood.
Not much is appealing to me.
31. Reminded of our time in Hawaii when I saw this street sign.
It's Kailua Avenue.
The area we stayed in on Oahu was called Kailua.
32. Wished I remembered the name of the street we stayed at in Hawaii.
Tim probably has it written down somewhere.
33. Looked at the Australian Monopoly Board.
My space for today is Collins Street in Melbourne.
Lord Wiki says it's the main street of Melbourne. And part of it is the financial centre of Melbourne. Collins has a lot of investment banks and insurance companies.
34. Learned that Collins Street is named after David Collins.
I probably already researched all this before in the past. But I've forgotten most of it.
Anyway....
David Collins is the one who led the first settlement in Victoria. It didn't work out. This was years before Batman, Fawkner, and their buddies came along.
35. Learned that, at one time, Collins Street had a lot of medical professional buildings.
36. Learned that, in the 1950's and 1960's, many classic historical buildings were destroyed on Collins Street.
That's sad.
37. Learned there are a lot of shops on Collins Street.
38. Learned that Rialto Towers is on Collins Street.
39. Looked at Collins Street on Google Maps.
The west part starts near the Yarra River.
There's a restaurant near the river called Groove Train. It's actually part of a chain. There're several in Australia.
They have a large and varied menu.
I'm not sure if it's any good.
It looks kind of expensive. An order of fish and chips is 21.90. Fish and chips at Disney World is only 15.90.
And Disney World itself is pretty overpriced.
40. Saw that Collins Street goes through Docklands Park.
Oh....okay. I just zoomed out. I'm near the Docklands right now.
41. Learned The Rialto is a hotel.
Really?
I had no idea.
I thought it was an office building.
Maybe it has offices and hotels?
The hotel is owned by a company called InterContinental.
Where do they originate?
42. Consulted Lord Wiki. InterContinental began in Brazil and was later bought out by UK people.
Some time later it was bought by the Japanese; and some time after that it was bought by another British company.
43. Checked the prices of The Rialto to see if I'm right about us not being able to afford staying there.
I was right.
The lowest price for a room is about $400.
44. Wondered if the Rialto hotel is different from Rialto Towers, the place with the observation deck. Maybe they're two separate buildings?
I'm just wondering, because I can't find anything on the hotel website about there being an observation deck.
Yeah....
And I'm looking at Google Maps again. It does look like there's two different places. One is The Rialto, and the other is Rialto Towers.
45. Saw an Australian chain restaurant on Collins Street. It's called Taco Bill.
There're a lot of them in Australia. It looks like most of them are in Victoria though. The site doesn't list the states where the towns are located.
Most of the towns I recognize are in Victoria. The exception is Albury. That's in New South Wales, I believe. But it's near Victoria.
46. Looked at the menu for Taco Bill.
It looks very expensive for a chain restaurant.
I know. I sound very cheap.
A vegetable Fajita order is $19.95.
What does that cost at our chain Mexican restaurant?
Well, it turns out our restaurant doesn't list their prices.
47. Looked at another Tex-Mex chain restaurant in America. Their vegetable fajita price is $12.59.
I'm getting the idea that Collins Street is an expensive street. It's not surprising. From what Lord Wiki said, it sounded like it would expensive.
48. Learned there's a South African Chain restaurant on Collins Street. It's called Nandos.
Lord Wiki says they serve chicken with a pepper called Peri Peri.
There's Nandos restaurants all over the world, and many in Australia.
There're a few Nandos restaurants in America...all in the north-east near Washington D.C
49. Learned from Lord Wiki that there was a controversial Nandos Ad in 2002. They exploited the asylum seeker controversy with claims that detainees were unsewing their lips so they could eat Nandos chicken.
Wow. That's pretty crazy.
50. Saw that the Regent Theatre is on Collins Street.
Right now, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera is playing there.
You know....I haven't heard any of it's songs yet. I should listen.
I shall do that right now.
It's a nice song.
I like Andrew Lloyd Webber.
I'm not sure I'm in the mood for him right now, though.
51. Saw that the British Consulate is on Collins Street.
They don't deal with visa matters. For that, you have to go to their office in Canberra.
52. Saw there is an RSL building on Collins Street.
It's way east, towards the ending of Collins.
53. Learned from the Monash Conference Centre website and the RSL website that the end of Collins Street is known as the Paris End.
54. Saw that there's a Grand Hyatt on Collins Street.
I'm not going to look at the price.
55. Learned from Lord Wiki and Google Maps that there are two prominent churches on Collins Street.
One is a Baptist Church. Lord Wiki has a photo of it, and I'm not overly impressed. It's not my kind of thing.
I am VERY impressed with the other church....well, the building at least. It's called The Scot's Church.
Lord Wiki has a photo of that one too. I love it.
56. Learned from Lord Wiki that the church opened in 1841.
Oh....wait.
That building had to be demolished.
The church building I like was built in 1874.
Here's a fun piece of trivia. The church was built by a guy named David Mitchell. His daughter was Dame Melba.
Mitchell didn't design the building though. That honor goes to Joseph Reed. Reed is also the guy who designed the State Library of Victoria, the Royal Exhibition Building, Ormand College, and a ton of other stuff.
Ormond College is beautiful too. Lord Wiki has a photo. I've seen it before, and I know I liked it. But I had to remind myself what it looks like.
57. Learned that Scot's Church is Neo-Gothic.
I'm smart enough now to know that this is one of my favorite architectural styles. But I'm not yet smart enough to look at a building and say Hey, that's Neo-Gothic.
I can sort of guess...sometimes.
58. Decided to do some Australia quizzes on the Funtrivia site.
First I'm going to do one called Celebrate Good Times....
59. Didn't do so well. I got a 6/10.
59. Decided to do a quiz called Contemporary Australian Arts and Culture.
60. Got an 8/10. I'm proud of myself for knowing some answers. With a couple, though, I had to totally guess.
I really had no idea what kind of material Glenn Murcutt uses in his building.
61. Decided to do a general quiz about Australia.
62. Liked that quiz. It was fun. I got a 15/20. It's not great, but it's not too awful.
They mentioned the same thing that Andrew mentioned...Joe Blake.