1. Had a dream that didn't take place in Australia, at first. But then at the end, it did.
What would our world be like if we
In the end, I'm walking back to where we're staying with a woman from a family we just met. She tells me she's going to do some kill thing. Then she says I probably don't know what she's talking about. She tells me that it's what they call baseball. I then remember we're in Australia, and realize this woman has noticed my American accent. I think about how I'm so used to the Australian accent now, I forgot I was hearing it all this time.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't Australia, at first. Because I think we were near the Disney Parks. Or not. It was really confusing. We walked near a zoo, and I thought it was the Fort Worth Zoo. But then realized it couldn't be, because the Fort Worth Zoo isn't at this place. And then I thought we were in Dallas.
But the Disney Parks aren't in Dallas.
2. Wondered if maybe my dream took place completely in Australia but in an Australia that has Disney Parks.
The other day, Jack and I talked about where Disney will build new parks. I wanted one in Australia. Jack thinks the next will be built in South America.
I started to question my Australia plan, because I'm not sure Australia's population is large enough to sustain a profitable attendance.
We looked at park attendance for Disney World in a year and it was pretty high.
3. Consulted Lord Wiki to get a more precise idea.
If you add up the yearly visitors to Epcot and Magic Kingdom (30 million) you'd surpass the population of Australia (23 million).
So in order to have attendance equal to Magic Kingdom/Epcot, every citizen would have to visit Australia every year, and some would need to go twice. Or some foreign tourists could go.
I can't imagine that a Disney Park would bring in foreign tourists. There are so many other things to attract people to Australia. But maybe once they were already there, they'd decide to check out the park.
4. Saw that Florida itself has a population that's close to Australia's. It has close to 20 million people.
Texas (26 million) and California (39 million) have more!
5. Read scary story about a baby shower disaster. There was a salmonella outbreak at the upscale Langham hotel in Melbourne. The upcoming mother was one of the victims and had to deliver her baby early. Hopefully the mother and baby will be okay.
Some people seemed shocked that this happened at an upscale venue rather than a hole in the wall place. I'm not that surprised. I think all restaurants are capable of hiring people who are not careful about cross contamination. And if any place uses raw eggs in their recipes, there's always going to be a risk. As far as I know, there's no special safe eggs that are sold to only high scale venues.
6. Felt the best way to prevent salmonella is to avoid cross contamination—wash hands, wash surfaces, don't cut the vegetables on the cutting board used to cut raw chicken, etc. And don't use raw eggs in recipes.
Although there's always the chance that the salmonella was in a vegetable or something like peanut butter.
We've had peanut butter outbreaks here in the United States.
What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there
was life after death, and
we could easily talk to our
dearly-departed on the Internet?
The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts
7. Started to watch an episode of Eagle and Evans.
I thought the opening sketch was cute. It was about politically correct insults; or really, politically correct way to describe someone's physical appearance.
8. Reminded of the funeral we went to recently when watching a funeral sketch on Eagle and Evans. The minister, on the show, reminds me of the rabbi at the real life funeral, because they both talk very slowly. It's like slowness for dramatic effect.
Is that typical of funerals?
I think the sketch is pretty funny. The minister (maybe priest?) keeps finding ways to talk about The Shawshank Redemption, because it's been on his mind. It reminds me of me, and this blog. I'll have things on my mind, and I'll find excuses to talk about them even though they don't relate to Australia.
9. Started watching the last episode of Eagle and Evans.
I won't miss it, but I didn't hate it.
The only thing I strongly dislike is the end segments with the scary woman. I don't know. I guess she kind of scares me.
10. Went to Random.org to pick my next show. It's Packed to the Rafters!
I'm kind of not sure where I left off on that show.
I think I'll assume I finished the first season and watch season two.
11. Started watching an episode of Neighbours.
12. Felt bad for Bailey (Calen Mackenzie). He tells his grandpa Lou (Tom Oliver) that he is tired of all the sadness. Lou says he's going to Queensland, and invites Bailey to come with him. Bailey says he can't, because he can't leave his mother. Lou says he can't stay and give his mother grief.
It's nice that Bailey has an opportunity to get away from it all, but maybe he wants and needs to be home with his mother and sisters. Yeah, his bad behavior is hard on all of them. But...I don't know. I kind of think Bailey should be told that he can stay, and his mother and sister will help him through his grief and shitty behavior.
13. Thought maybe it would be better if Bailey was invited to Queensland for a short visit rather than being invited to live there.
It doesn't have to be too short. How about two or three weeks?
14. Had a feeling that Calen MacKenzie is leaving the show, and that's why he's being invited to Queensland.
Well, I actually ran into spoilers about that awhile back.
But even without the spoilers, I could probably guess what's going to happen.
The whole storyline about Bailey going bad and wild was probably a lead up to him exiting the show.
15. Felt bad about Bailey leaving. Neighbours characters are dropping like flies.
16. Decided to watch more Backstage Neighbours videos.
The first one I'm going to watch features James Mason. He's one of the recently departed actors.
Mason seems very proud of the chair he bought for the cast green room. He got it at an office store using gift vouchers.
17. Learned that Calen MacKenzie is good at drawing. He does these interesting drawing card things of the cast members. There are many of James Mason.
18. Started to watch part two of the James Mason video.
He was doing a charity challenge where you live off of two dollars a day for five days.
That sounds interesting.
19. Learned that the cast of Neighbours isn't always so good at doing their dishes.
Our sink often looks like that.
I have a reason, though.
Our dishwasher isn't good at getting food off plates. If I put the dishes in with food, they will come out dirty. I don't want to rinse each dish on its own, because that would waste water.
So I let the dishes sit there, and when we wash hands or use the sink, the dishes get soaked a bit with water.
Also, our kitchen sink takes several minutes to get hot water. So while I wait for the water to get warm, I rinse the dishes that need to go into the dishwasher. When the water is hot enough, I wash the dishes we don't put into the dishwasher.
I usually wash dishes only once a day.
20. Looked at James Mason's filmography.
21. Decided James Mason looks like someone who would be cast in an American superhero movie.
He kind of reminds me of Christopher Reeve.
22. Saw that Mason was born in 1989. He's quite young. And that makes me feel old.
He's still in his twenties.
23. Saw that James Mason's first episode of Neighbours aired on February 25, 2010.
There are very few people on the cast list that are still there today—Stefan Dennis, Alan Fletcher, Tom Oliver, and Ryan Moloney.
But that's just for that particular episode. Other episodes around that time might have had actors that are still around in 2015.
24. Saw that James Mason recently directed and produced a short film. It's called Someone Else, and the star is Alicia Banit from Dance Academy!
25. Decided to watch another episode of Neighbours.
26. Tired of the Dimato storyline.
We had two characters forced to work for Dimato (David Serafin). Now it looks like Paige (Olympia Valance) is going to be joining the team. Well, the team would really just be her and Tyler (Travis Burns) since Matt is dead.
27. Decided Tyler is to blame for the Dimato mess, because all he has to do is tell his cop brother (Scott McGregor) what's going on.
28. Couldn't remember why Tyler started working for Dimato in the first place.
29. Reminded by Tyler that the reason he started having to work for Dimato is because he got the Hermione car back for Imogen.
Why didn't he just go to the police and say, I rescued this girl's stolen car, and now the people who stole the car are forcing me to work for them.
30. Glad that Lauren (Kate Kendall) agrees with me about Bailey. She says, You can't just get rid of your kids cause they're causing you grief.
Well, I guess you can if the actor portraying your child wants to pursue other projects.
I do understand that sometimes there is a huge drama in a family, and it's best for everyone to separate. But Matt died quite recently. Bailey lost his father. I think it's normal for a teenager to experience some turmoil in such a situation. I don't think bad behavior is too surprising.
Now if Bailey sinked deeper into a shit-hole as the weeks and months passed by; then a long-term change in scenery might be a wise idea.
31. Decided that Calen Mackenzie reminds me a little bit of Matt Smith.
32. Liked Lauren's mothering in this episode. She's reluctant to let Bailey go but agrees to it. And she's sad about it. She sheds some tears.
I think it wouldn't be good if she refused to let Bailey go, especially after he talked about how being at home is making him so sad. But I also wouldn't find it good if she seemed calm and cheerful about him going.
33. Thought about how parting in all relationships should be like that. We should be brave enough to let people go but have tears when they do so.
It doesn't have to be literal tears. Some people cry only on the inside.
And of course we don't need to cry if our loved one is just going away for a week or so.
I just think if there's no sorrow at the start of a long separation, maybe the love isn't that strong?
34. Realized that sometimes there may be a lack of sorrow, because the excitement of going on an adventure outweighs the sadness of leaving.
35. Thought of times where I wished I was sad about separating from someone but in reality, I was eager to do so.
It's not so bad if the other person also doesn't seem overly sad.
36. Thought that, in most cases, the person leaving would have to leave for a really long time for me to be sad. Because time goes by quite fast for me.
The main exception is Jack. I miss him if he's gone for a night. Seriously.
But I'm getting better at it.
I already have plans to combat my upcoming empty nest syndrome. I think I'll be doing even more binge-watching than I do now. And hopefully there will be some traveling....
37. Thought about how Jack and I are going to be spending a lot of time together doing his high school curriculum. I imagine it's going to be somewhat fun and a lot stressful. By the end of it, we might BOTH be wishing he had a Grandpa Lou to whisk him away to Queensland.
38. Felt sad about the loss of two more Neighbours actors.
39. Looked at Calen Mackenzie's filmography.
He was on an episode of Neighbours in 2011 but didn't play Bailey then. He played a guy named Thomas McPhee.
The Perfect Blend website has a page about Thomas. It includes a photo.
Thomas was a friend of Callum, Sonya's son. But the friendship didn't work out, because Thomas's mother found out about Sonya's drug and criminal past. She was a bit prejudice. Or a lot prejudice, really.
40. Saw that Mackenzie started his Bailey work in 2013.
41. Went to Calen Mackenzie's Twitter.
MacKenzie Retweeted a link to a video with Lou and Bailey fighting on a video game.
Oh. It's the scene where Bailey hit Lou.
It's not too exciting. At least I don't think so.
42. Went to Calen Mackenzie's Instagram. His last post was from 10 weeks ago. It's of a woman hugging Jason from Friday the 13th.
43. Saw video of MacKenzie with American money.
44. Got idea that MacKenzie is strange.
That's not a bad thing.
I just find it hard to understand him.
Maybe he's a hipster, or something like that?
I feel like he's speaking a whole other language.
I think I kind of prefer Bailey, the astronaut geek.