I'm all aquiver with excitement over the Birthday extravaganza for the ever-lovely and always amazingly demented quaffswinegaily and raettawy! I'm decked out very fetchingly in my big undies, bobble hat, rugby socks and pimp cane, all ready to go!

rangerishot has done an exemplary job with a magnificent cake, lots of tasty lads and an intriguing venue, just to name a few things, but we can't pile all of the work on her, so I've got a few things for the party too:

( Party Prep Part 1Collapse )


( Guess what's under here? Collapse )


There's just something about a man in a kilt!

( A friend for BogdanCollapse )

I also found someone we've been amiss at inviting to our do's, so I rectified the oversight:

( A New Addition to the BoysCollapse )

Seeing as this party will be in full swing for at least two days, I thought it would be fair to our superbly talented band if we added another act to the bill so they could take turns...

( Added EntertainmentCollapse )

Happy Birthday!!!!!

It's Mother's Day in Australia today, so all of you Mums out there, where'er you be, I hope you give yourselves a big pat on the back and have a day of being spoilt and appreciated!

'Yes, yes... the cards, flowers and soppy songs are very nice, dear... now, WHERE'S MY TERRY'S CHOCOLATE ORANGE!'



I actually woke up to a completely cleaned, sparkling kitchen (thought I was in the wrong house!) and a DVD of The Hobbit (both courtesy of my eldest)- so not a bad effort from the munchkin! My foster son? He made me my morning coffee - he's 16, lazy and in the midst of an extremely snotty phase at the moment, so making me a coffee and actually deliviering it with a smile is quite an achievement. LOL!

They're good kids - especially when they're asleep...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Update: I also got a fantastically comfy recliner too! My eldest, 17,  surprised me with it a little while ago! It's second hand (he got it at a garage sale) but in fantastic condition, almost new... and here's the impressive part:
He carried it all the way from the other side of our nearest town (around a 10km trip) by foot, balancing it upside down on his head rather than ask me to pick it up so he could surprise me!!! I'm incredibly impressed by the feat alone and equally touched by the sentiment!

When you have teens, especially, you can tend to feel undervalued and underappreciated - it's moments like this that well and truly make up for it! What a great Mother's Day!

I must say, I am most definitely on a roll. I just watched Now Voyager, one of my favorites , and now TCM has Mrs Miniver and I'm just in the mood for it - I would have preferred the Ghost and Mrs Muir, but , to paraphrase the final line from Now, Voyager: 'Why ask for the moon, when we have the stars?'

I know I wished you Happy BIrthday via skype, but, we can't have your birthday going by without the proper traditions! raettawy, in her usual good form, has done a wonderful job - I think our vaudeville routine is coming along very well, don't you? - but I couldn't let you have a birthday without at least a bit of cheesecake, so...

Dust off your party frock


Get those big undies on:


Enjoy a bit of Cheesecake:

(even she wore big undies - nice to see everyone's in the swing!) Thank you http://ms-drea.deviantart.com

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY capcomplover !!!


Apologies for the lack of a cut - it just wouldn't work.

Many of you who are members of the WIKTT Yahoo Group will have already seen this, but one of our members has posted a webpage with a VERY comprehensive list with links of completed SS/HG stories greater than 100k words. It's well worth checking out!
http://sshglist.blogspot.com.au/

You'll be sure to find something to satisfy when you're overcome by that 'certain' need...

PS: She's trying to get as comprehensive a list as possible, so if you can think of any more, please feel free to contact her and she'll add them. You can add a comment at the bottom of her webpage or via the WIKTT Yahoo group I'd say.

The shortsightedness and gullibility of some people really does make me sad sometimes.

Our present government, should they win the upcoming election, is bringing in a new scheme to help the disabled and their carers in our country get better support - something that has needed doing for a while and is a worthy endeavour. It's called the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and will improve the quality of life for many, many people here..

It's being funded by a 0.5% increase in our 1.5% tax levy that covers our national healthcare scheme, Medibank, and every penny gathered will go to the implementation and running of this scheme. This works out to around $360 a year if you earn our average wage of $70,000 per annum. Around, or less than, a dollar a day if you gross  $1345.15 a week. About $350 a year. Seems like a pretty reasonable deal to me.

May I point out that this is the MATHEMATICAL AVERAGE wage for Australia, not the  normal wage, meaning that WELL over 50% of the population earn MUCH less than this amount. Most of the people I know earn between $15,000 to 60,000 a year and that includes people in what would be termed professions. Yes, I do know people that earn much more, but they're definitely in the minority. i don't know the present figures, but in 2011-12, less than 6% of our population earned $100,000 or more per annum. Our non taxable earning limit is currently $18,000 per annum, so if you earn less than that you won't pay it anyway.

So what is the press spouting as headlines?

$1 a day lost for every Australian!!! (big whoop, even at most of the lower wages...seriously) and many people were jumping on the naysaying bandwagon!

For this 'dollar a day' (which it won't even amount to for most Australians), this will mean that those with disabilities and their carers will have better access to therapy, equipment, help with fitting out their homes so they can live more independently and the building of more specialist public housing for the disabled,  respite, homecare, extending these services into regional areas so help will be more available to all, making job training and study more accessible, ultimately bringing more people into the workforce and less reliant on the welfare system...you name it - it sounds like a winner to me. It will make Australia a better country, a country that actually cares for a group in need in our society.

This is a socially responsible move and will provide a safety net for all of us. Any of us could, as a result of injury or illness, be left with a disability - no one is immune and not all people end up disabled because of an accident or illness they can claim compensation of some type for.

Luckily, the CEO of one of our largest retailer groups put his foot well and truly in his mouth (I can't thank him enough for it, either) and spoke out against it publicly, saying, and I quote:

"Remember, a lot of our customers have equity portfolios, they've got superannuation and they get the bills each week, and suddenly the Medicare levy costs them another $300 from July next year and that's $300 they might have spent with us."

Thank you, Bernie Brookes!

This ill considered comment has actually started making people think and seems to be turning some of the naysayers' opinions around by holding up a mirror to their own sentiments on the subject.

The press seems to have done a turn around on the subject too, for the moment at least, so there may yet be hope for us, as it seems the flock may do a turnabout.

I hope so.

A sad day with the news of the death of Chrissy Amphlett, best known as lead singer of the Divinyls.

Chrissy was a truly original and dynamic performer who is an icon in the Australian music industry. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform many times from the very early days of her career and always enjoyed it. She had a raw, intense energy and sexuality on stage that just blew you away, an original singing style, a good sense of humour, a one of a kind stage persona - all of the things that make for a great performer.

Chrissy had been living in New York over recent years and had battled both breast cancer and MS - she was always a gutsy woman, and it stood her in good stead when it came to putting up the good fight.

I won't say she lost - Chrissy was never what you'd call a loser and I can't think of her as one now - she achieved so much, she worked so hard, she enjoyed her life and she inspired so many people - she will be sadly missed, but will remain in the hearts of many, me being one of them. My deepest condolences to her family, to Mark, and to all who love her.

Farewell, my dear.

I just finished watching this and personally, I loved it - although I can see how it will be one of those shows that will be quite divisive in people's opinions of it.

It's definitely an atmospheric piece and doesn't hand everything to you on a silver platter. Although some aspects were telegraphed a mile away, like a true life mystery, there are many questions left unanswered or open to speculation by the end of it. It's eccentric, quirky with some rather subtle but good black humour in it and doesn't run at an even pace, but these are all things I found entertaining although I realise it will drive some people up the wall. The performances are fantastic - ranging from larger than life to very still, but all are very well done, right down to the smallest part. Campion really got the best out of her players and the cinematography in it is just superb. I'm sure that the cast would have had a wonderful time working on this and it shows.

One of the things I loved about it was the way the teens were portrayed in it - they weren't scaled down smart mouthed adults with a pithy humour beyond their years; they were very realistiic in that they were wary of adults, sullen and secretive, uncommunicative except amongst themselves and still had an element of childhood innocence about them, especially when they were in each others' company away from adult eyes - like most young teens, they were running on instinct a lot of the time and it was refreshing to see.

I've noticed that many reviewers have tried to categorise it or compare it to other works - most often Twin Peaks (which I loved) and I'm surprised by that as apart from the fact that it's original in its feel and concept, it is nothing like David Lynch's work. I think that this seems to be a foilable with many reviewers in that they try to find a category to place everything in and some shows just stand alone, and this is one of them.

Like Carnivale (another show I loved) and Twin Peaks, it really is a law unto itself on the whole.

If you've watched this in weekly format, or haven't watched it yet, I'd recommend that you watch the episodes as closely together as you can (online or via DVD when it comes out) to get the most out of it.

I'd appreciate hearing what others think of it - it won't be for everyone but I'd like to hear other people's opinions on it.

To the wonderful inamac wishing you all the best my dear!

I hope you don't mind, but I told a couple of rather tasty blokes about your birthday and they wanted to join in the celebrations. Not all worked out exactly as planned...

Errol decided to make you breakfast in bed:


Basil had his nose put out of joint a bit because Errol wouldn't let him help:

And demanded that he get to take it up to you:


They ended up having a bit of a tiff about it all and brekkie got ruined in the melee:

But it seems to have all worked out in the end - who needs brekkie, eh?

Looks like you're quite the peacemaker!

But then, with an incentive like that, who wouldn't be!

Hope you had a wonderful day, my dear!
DL xxxxxxxxxx

Sorry it's a bit late, but LJ and my net connection conspired against me and I couldn't post until now - hope the totty makes up for it!

This has been around for a while, but I only just found it:

I thought that some of the fans of the much more recent production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood may find it interesting to watch the 1935 version starring Claude Rains as John Jasper with Heather Angel as Rosa Bud.