1. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.
When I am released from this mortal load
I'll take my leave but I don't wanna go
When fate delivers me all, I'll ask it for
A place to rest and shelter for my soul
6. Saw that the lo mein noodles we bought today are a product of Australia.
7. Looked up the brand name of the noodles. They're called Wel-Pac, and they're part of some group called JFC International Inc.
8. Saw that there is a JFC headquarters in Australia. Five actually. There's one in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
9. Failed to find our noodles on the JFC Australia page.
10. Thought what Jesse (Ashley Zuckerman) said to Hani (Adele Perovic) on The Code was very sweet and romantic. You definitely look better without the bruising, but you are still the most beautiful person on the face of the earth.
11. Felt lost and confused about The Code. But I'm still enjoying it.
12. Thought the climax of The Code was very exciting. I don't fully understand all that happened, but I think I now know who the main villain was.
13. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Logie Awards. I was curious about whether Ashley Zuckerman won the award for best actor.
He didn't. He lost to Luke Arnold for INXS: Never Tear Us Apart.
14. Went to Random.org to pick my next show. It's The Librarians! That should probably be fun.
I'll start watching that on Wednesday.
15. Started watching another episode of Neighbours.
16. Felt that The Code has made me slightly anxious, depressed, and paranoid.
I have an urge to burn my laptop and go hide out in the woods somewhere.
17. Figured the good news is, I don't have any deep dark illegal secrets on my laptop. But I probably have some embarrassing ones.
Plus, that show and Neighbours have both made me paranoid about someone remotely getting into my laptop and stealing my identity.
18. Wondered about the Madge storyline on Neighbours. Harold (Ian Smith) is seeing his dead lover Madge (Anne Charleston). Is she a ghost or a hallucination? I'm guessing the show will never explicitly tell us. They'll probably keep it open-ended.
I remember Madge from when I was watching early episodes of Neighbours. I'm not sure who she was, though.
Maybe she was Max Ramsey's sister?
19. Saw from IMDb that Madge's last name in the 1980's was Mitchell.
I suppose Madge could have been Max's sister, and Mitchell was her married name.
20. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says Madge was the matriarch of the Ramsey family.
Like Haley Cropper on Coronation Street, she died of Pancreatic Cancer.
21. Reminded, by Lord Wiki, that Madge was the mother of Charlene (Kylie Minogue). Now I'm starting to remember! The two of them were always at each other's throat.
So Madge would be Daniel's (Tim Phillips) grandmother.
I think the show actually mentioned that before. And Daniel referred to Harold as being like a grandfather. I guess he would be Daniel's step-grandfather.
22. Reminded of The Walking Dead episode "30 Days Without an Accident" when I read about Aussie blogger Eric Thompson's experience at a car rental place in Japan. There was a sign there saying that their cars had gone nine days without an accident.
Wow. What does that mean, really? It's kind of giving me the idea that driving in Japan is more dangerous than living in a zombie apocalypse.
Although the without an accident thing, on The Walking Dead, was referring to a small survivor group. The Japanese car rental company probably has a large number of customers, so statistically it's probably more likely for disaster to befall one of them.
23. Started to think that it seems quite unrealistic for a group of survivors, in the zombie apocalypse, to not have any accidents.
24. Felt a little confused and disillusioned. I used to think that Australia reminded me of the setting of some of my dreams. I felt that was evidence in favor of the idea that I had some kind of special spiritual connection to Australia.
But now I'm looking at pictures of Japan on Eric Thompson's blog, and they remind me of my dreams...maybe even more so than Australia does.
25. Amused by what Thompson says about Jacaranda Trees. He wasn't too excited to see them at a Japanese botanical garden, because he sees them quite frequently in Brisbane. Furthermore, as he says, In fact they still instill a dense of dread in us as the flowers are well known for exploding into bloom during the university exam period.
It's interesting how something benign, or even beautiful, can bring up bad memories for us.
26. Tried to remember why I was thinking of the same concept recently.
Now I remember. It was about the gifts I gave Tim for Father's Day and our anniversary. They're really cool, and I think he actually liked some of them. But it's been a very difficult summer for Tim. I started thinking he might end up disliking the gifts, because he'll look back at them in the future and remember this summer.
27. Decided that we have two choices when we connect a bad memory with something—we can avoid the something or we can create new positive memories to associate with it.
Another example I have is a World Showcase restaurant at Epcot in Disney World. We had some drama there, and honestly it's given me bad feelings about not only that one restaurant but the whole World Showcase. Even though World Showcase is completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
We go to Disney World a lot, and I don't think we're going to avoid Epcot. So we'll probably go back to World Showcase many times and eventually good memories will replace the bad ones.
28. Thought about the Lake House. We've had huge dramas there. Oh Lord...if those walls could talk.
It's a place full of bad memories, but we all love the Lake House, because the good times overshadow the bad memories.
29. Learned from Thompson's blog that there is a flower called the Amorphophallus Titanium plant. It's name means Giant Formless Penis, and it's supposed to smell like a dead mammal.
Wow.
What is a formless penis?
30. Learned from Lord Wiki that the stinky penis plant is native to Sumatra.
31. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Sumatra is part of Indonesia.
Because I forgot. For a moment, I was thinking Sumatra was in Africa. Then I remembered it was in Asia, but I didn't remember where in Asia.
Yeah. I know. I'm looking very American right now.
32. Wondered if my two biggest obsessions in life (Australia and Cystic Fibrosis) were all about connecting me to Japan. Because through Cystic Fibrosis, I ended up with Tim. Both his sister and brother have/had a huge passion for Japan. And Tim has a slight thing for Japan as well. He's already been there three times; and for his birthday trip, he wants to go back.
Then one of my favorite Australians has a thing for Japan and has been living there.
Although actually I had three major obsessions. The other was the Poltergeist movies. Do they have a connection to Japan somehow?
33. Remembered that my son Jack came about ultimately from the Cystic Fibrosis obsession. One of his main obsessions is Nintendo, and that's a Japanese company.
Everything is starting to come together.
Really. I think all roads lead to Japan.
34. Started watching another episode of Neighbours.
I'm trying to cook at the same time, which might be a mistake. I'm not good at multi-tasking when it comes to cooking.
35. Consulted Lord Wiki about Giselle, the ballet that Georgia (Saskia Hampele) saw with her admirer Nick (Damien Fotiou)
Lord Wiki says it's about a woman (Giselle) who dies from a broken heart when she learns her lover is engaged to someone else. Then Giselle is summoned from her grave by some other characters. They want Giselle to bring her former lover to his death.
Was the ballet an inspiration for the Harold (Ian Smith) and Madge storyline?
Did Harold leave Madge for that other women they've mentioned? I forget her name.
36. Used our Australia oven mitts to get my baked pasta out of the oven.
The result of my efforts weren't worth a standing ovation. But it was edible, at least.
37. Consulted Lord Wiki about Harold.
He took over Daphne's (Elaine Smith) coffee shop when she left for maternity reasons. I remember Daphne! She's the former stripper.
38. Learned that Harold once saved Des (Paul Keane). I remember Des too. He was coupled with Daphne. And he had an annoying meddling mother.
39. Didn't see anything about Harold leaving Madge for someone else.
But still there are similarities between Giselle and the Harold and Madge storyline, just in the fact that they both involve a lover coming back from beyond the grave.
40. Intrigued by Sheila (Colette Mann) serving clotted cream with her cake.
I didn't know people did that. I've heard of clotted dream with scones, but not cake.
41. Googled and found recipes for cake that has Clotted cream inside of it; or on top of it.
Sheila has the cake, and then near it is a bowl of clotted cream.
I guess that might taste good.
42. Saw Kyle (Chris Milligan) wearing a California t-shirt. And this is not the first American shirt I've seen today on an Aussie TV show.
It seems like anytime a character is wearing a t-shirt on an Australian show, it's for an American thing.
Where are the t-shirts promoting Aussie locations?
43. Remembered that I saw someone on Neighbours wearing an Osaka t-shirt. So maybe I was exaggerating when I said every t-shirt is promoting the US.
44. Thought that Naomi (Morgana O'Reilly) was being a bit unfair with Mark (Scott McGregor). She's upset because A) she learned he warned Paige (Olympia Valance) about dating her brother B) She and Mark were having a moment of public affection. He stopped when Paige walked into the room.
Naomi feels Mark would rather be with Paige, and these are the reasons why those things happened. Mark argues that he just doesn't want to rub Paige's face in it. Well, because he and Paige were dating. He dumped her, and Paige was hurt by that.
If Paige had dumped him; I could understand Naomi's worry. Then it might be a case of Mark using Naomi to make Paige jealous. But that's not the case. I think it's actually nice of Mark to want to avoid hurting Paige.
45. Wondered if real Australians wear USA t-shirts as much as fictional TV ones do.
And either way...Is this a new fad, or has it been going on for a long time?
46. Wondered if I have more Australian or USA t-shirts.
I think Australian. I have several shirts from there.
As for the US: I have two American flag type t-shirts and a New York t-shirt.
Oh, and I also have a YMCA shirt from Hawaii. I bought it, because it was the YMCA where they filmed parts of Lost. It's not very comfortable, unfortunately.
47. Remembered I have a Disney World t-shirt. That would count as American.
48. Looked down at the shirt I'm wearing. It's a World Series one. Definitely American.
So...maybe I'm wrong about having more Australian than USA t-shirts.
49. Decided to count my Aussie t-shirts.
There's a green Sydney one, but I never wear it anymore. I don't know why.
I have two map ones which enhance my ugliness, so I don't wear them much.
I have two fitted shirts. One is promoting Australia in general; and I think the other is promoting Sydney.
I have a pink Koala one. I've been using it as my pool shirt.
I have an I Love Melbourne shirt.
I have an Australian flag shirt.
I have a No Worries shirt.
Anything else?
Oh! Yeah. I have a green and gold Australia shirt. I liked it a lot, but it has stains. So now it's kind of a wear-at-home or lake-house kind of shirt. I wore it during our big lake house water balloon fight.
I feel like I'm forgetting a shirt....
Maybe I'm not.
2. Bored a bit by that episode, but I liked what I saw in the preview segment. It looks like exciting things are coming.
3. Started watching the last episode of season one of The Code.
I'm still struggling to figure out who is very bad and who is doing bad things for what they see is the greater good.
4. Listened to Bernard Fanning's "Shelter for My Soul". It's a very good (though sad) song about dying.
I thought it was timely of my Spotify Shuffle to play it, because we have someone in our life that is in the process of dying.
I guess the one thing we all have in common is that we're all going to die someday. We share that trait with every human and every other living thing out there.
I'll take my leave but I don't wanna go
When fate delivers me all, I'll ask it for
A place to rest and shelter for my soul
6. Saw that the lo mein noodles we bought today are a product of Australia.
7. Looked up the brand name of the noodles. They're called Wel-Pac, and they're part of some group called JFC International Inc.
8. Saw that there is a JFC headquarters in Australia. Five actually. There's one in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
9. Failed to find our noodles on the JFC Australia page.
10. Thought what Jesse (Ashley Zuckerman) said to Hani (Adele Perovic) on The Code was very sweet and romantic. You definitely look better without the bruising, but you are still the most beautiful person on the face of the earth.
11. Felt lost and confused about The Code. But I'm still enjoying it.
12. Thought the climax of The Code was very exciting. I don't fully understand all that happened, but I think I now know who the main villain was.
13. Consulted Lord Wiki about the Logie Awards. I was curious about whether Ashley Zuckerman won the award for best actor.
He didn't. He lost to Luke Arnold for INXS: Never Tear Us Apart.
14. Went to Random.org to pick my next show. It's The Librarians! That should probably be fun.
I'll start watching that on Wednesday.
15. Started watching another episode of Neighbours.
16. Felt that The Code has made me slightly anxious, depressed, and paranoid.
I have an urge to burn my laptop and go hide out in the woods somewhere.
17. Figured the good news is, I don't have any deep dark illegal secrets on my laptop. But I probably have some embarrassing ones.
Plus, that show and Neighbours have both made me paranoid about someone remotely getting into my laptop and stealing my identity.
18. Wondered about the Madge storyline on Neighbours. Harold (Ian Smith) is seeing his dead lover Madge (Anne Charleston). Is she a ghost or a hallucination? I'm guessing the show will never explicitly tell us. They'll probably keep it open-ended.
I remember Madge from when I was watching early episodes of Neighbours. I'm not sure who she was, though.
Maybe she was Max Ramsey's sister?
19. Saw from IMDb that Madge's last name in the 1980's was Mitchell.
I suppose Madge could have been Max's sister, and Mitchell was her married name.
20. Consulted Lord Wiki. He says Madge was the matriarch of the Ramsey family.
Like Haley Cropper on Coronation Street, she died of Pancreatic Cancer.
21. Reminded, by Lord Wiki, that Madge was the mother of Charlene (Kylie Minogue). Now I'm starting to remember! The two of them were always at each other's throat.
So Madge would be Daniel's (Tim Phillips) grandmother.
I think the show actually mentioned that before. And Daniel referred to Harold as being like a grandfather. I guess he would be Daniel's step-grandfather.
22. Reminded of The Walking Dead episode "30 Days Without an Accident" when I read about Aussie blogger Eric Thompson's experience at a car rental place in Japan. There was a sign there saying that their cars had gone nine days without an accident.
Wow. What does that mean, really? It's kind of giving me the idea that driving in Japan is more dangerous than living in a zombie apocalypse.
Although the without an accident thing, on The Walking Dead, was referring to a small survivor group. The Japanese car rental company probably has a large number of customers, so statistically it's probably more likely for disaster to befall one of them.
23. Started to think that it seems quite unrealistic for a group of survivors, in the zombie apocalypse, to not have any accidents.
24. Felt a little confused and disillusioned. I used to think that Australia reminded me of the setting of some of my dreams. I felt that was evidence in favor of the idea that I had some kind of special spiritual connection to Australia.
But now I'm looking at pictures of Japan on Eric Thompson's blog, and they remind me of my dreams...maybe even more so than Australia does.
25. Amused by what Thompson says about Jacaranda Trees. He wasn't too excited to see them at a Japanese botanical garden, because he sees them quite frequently in Brisbane. Furthermore, as he says, In fact they still instill a dense of dread in us as the flowers are well known for exploding into bloom during the university exam period.
It's interesting how something benign, or even beautiful, can bring up bad memories for us.
26. Tried to remember why I was thinking of the same concept recently.
Now I remember. It was about the gifts I gave Tim for Father's Day and our anniversary. They're really cool, and I think he actually liked some of them. But it's been a very difficult summer for Tim. I started thinking he might end up disliking the gifts, because he'll look back at them in the future and remember this summer.
27. Decided that we have two choices when we connect a bad memory with something—we can avoid the something or we can create new positive memories to associate with it.
Another example I have is a World Showcase restaurant at Epcot in Disney World. We had some drama there, and honestly it's given me bad feelings about not only that one restaurant but the whole World Showcase. Even though World Showcase is completely innocent of any wrongdoing.
We go to Disney World a lot, and I don't think we're going to avoid Epcot. So we'll probably go back to World Showcase many times and eventually good memories will replace the bad ones.
28. Thought about the Lake House. We've had huge dramas there. Oh Lord...if those walls could talk.
It's a place full of bad memories, but we all love the Lake House, because the good times overshadow the bad memories.
29. Learned from Thompson's blog that there is a flower called the Amorphophallus Titanium plant. It's name means Giant Formless Penis, and it's supposed to smell like a dead mammal.
Wow.
What is a formless penis?
30. Learned from Lord Wiki that the stinky penis plant is native to Sumatra.
31. Reminded by Lord Wiki that Sumatra is part of Indonesia.
Because I forgot. For a moment, I was thinking Sumatra was in Africa. Then I remembered it was in Asia, but I didn't remember where in Asia.
Yeah. I know. I'm looking very American right now.
32. Wondered if my two biggest obsessions in life (Australia and Cystic Fibrosis) were all about connecting me to Japan. Because through Cystic Fibrosis, I ended up with Tim. Both his sister and brother have/had a huge passion for Japan. And Tim has a slight thing for Japan as well. He's already been there three times; and for his birthday trip, he wants to go back.
Then one of my favorite Australians has a thing for Japan and has been living there.
Although actually I had three major obsessions. The other was the Poltergeist movies. Do they have a connection to Japan somehow?
33. Remembered that my son Jack came about ultimately from the Cystic Fibrosis obsession. One of his main obsessions is Nintendo, and that's a Japanese company.
Everything is starting to come together.
Really. I think all roads lead to Japan.
34. Started watching another episode of Neighbours.
I'm trying to cook at the same time, which might be a mistake. I'm not good at multi-tasking when it comes to cooking.
35. Consulted Lord Wiki about Giselle, the ballet that Georgia (Saskia Hampele) saw with her admirer Nick (Damien Fotiou)
Lord Wiki says it's about a woman (Giselle) who dies from a broken heart when she learns her lover is engaged to someone else. Then Giselle is summoned from her grave by some other characters. They want Giselle to bring her former lover to his death.
Was the ballet an inspiration for the Harold (Ian Smith) and Madge storyline?
Did Harold leave Madge for that other women they've mentioned? I forget her name.
36. Used our Australia oven mitts to get my baked pasta out of the oven.
The result of my efforts weren't worth a standing ovation. But it was edible, at least.
37. Consulted Lord Wiki about Harold.
He took over Daphne's (Elaine Smith) coffee shop when she left for maternity reasons. I remember Daphne! She's the former stripper.
38. Learned that Harold once saved Des (Paul Keane). I remember Des too. He was coupled with Daphne. And he had an annoying meddling mother.
39. Didn't see anything about Harold leaving Madge for someone else.
But still there are similarities between Giselle and the Harold and Madge storyline, just in the fact that they both involve a lover coming back from beyond the grave.
40. Intrigued by Sheila (Colette Mann) serving clotted cream with her cake.
I didn't know people did that. I've heard of clotted dream with scones, but not cake.
41. Googled and found recipes for cake that has Clotted cream inside of it; or on top of it.
Sheila has the cake, and then near it is a bowl of clotted cream.
I guess that might taste good.
42. Saw Kyle (Chris Milligan) wearing a California t-shirt. And this is not the first American shirt I've seen today on an Aussie TV show.
It seems like anytime a character is wearing a t-shirt on an Australian show, it's for an American thing.
Where are the t-shirts promoting Aussie locations?
43. Remembered that I saw someone on Neighbours wearing an Osaka t-shirt. So maybe I was exaggerating when I said every t-shirt is promoting the US.
44. Thought that Naomi (Morgana O'Reilly) was being a bit unfair with Mark (Scott McGregor). She's upset because A) she learned he warned Paige (Olympia Valance) about dating her brother B) She and Mark were having a moment of public affection. He stopped when Paige walked into the room.
Naomi feels Mark would rather be with Paige, and these are the reasons why those things happened. Mark argues that he just doesn't want to rub Paige's face in it. Well, because he and Paige were dating. He dumped her, and Paige was hurt by that.
If Paige had dumped him; I could understand Naomi's worry. Then it might be a case of Mark using Naomi to make Paige jealous. But that's not the case. I think it's actually nice of Mark to want to avoid hurting Paige.
45. Wondered if real Australians wear USA t-shirts as much as fictional TV ones do.
And either way...Is this a new fad, or has it been going on for a long time?
46. Wondered if I have more Australian or USA t-shirts.
I think Australian. I have several shirts from there.
As for the US: I have two American flag type t-shirts and a New York t-shirt.
Oh, and I also have a YMCA shirt from Hawaii. I bought it, because it was the YMCA where they filmed parts of Lost. It's not very comfortable, unfortunately.
47. Remembered I have a Disney World t-shirt. That would count as American.
48. Looked down at the shirt I'm wearing. It's a World Series one. Definitely American.
So...maybe I'm wrong about having more Australian than USA t-shirts.
49. Decided to count my Aussie t-shirts.
There's a green Sydney one, but I never wear it anymore. I don't know why.
I have two map ones which enhance my ugliness, so I don't wear them much.
I have two fitted shirts. One is promoting Australia in general; and I think the other is promoting Sydney.
I have a pink Koala one. I've been using it as my pool shirt.
I have an I Love Melbourne shirt.
I have an Australian flag shirt.
I have a No Worries shirt.
Anything else?
Oh! Yeah. I have a green and gold Australia shirt. I liked it a lot, but it has stains. So now it's kind of a wear-at-home or lake-house kind of shirt. I wore it during our big lake house water balloon fight.
I feel like I'm forgetting a shirt....
Maybe I'm not.