50,000 Hits!

No, I'm not talking about a Beatles "Best Of" album; I'm talking about the number of visits this blog has received since 10th August, 2005.

As I type this, the counter's sitting at 49,983 - and I'm sure that by publishing this post, the counter will clock over the all-important* 50,000 mark.

I'd just like to thank you all for your comments (good and bad), your commitment, and above all your companionship as I've undertaken this journey. We've been travelling partners together, you and I, and I look forward to many more clicks together.

My apologies for my somewhat sporadic posting of late. There's been a really major job at work that I've been in charge of and has been taking all my time (leaving me exhausted after hours and needing to spend all possible time with Wifey and Sweetums), but the good news is that it looks like this task will finally be completed either today or Monday. So from next week, things should pick up around here.

Until then, have a great weekend and enjoy watching the counter on the right climb steadily throughout the day.

(Go on - I can think of no better way to spend eight hours of your boss' time.)



* ie. Not at all important or in any way significant.


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How HOT Is It?!!

I took this photo of an ice cream truck (a "Mr Whippy" van) in suburban Melbourne on the weekend during our 38 degree Celsius heatwave.

I'm not kidding - it was THIS hot.

It's crazy.






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You LOVE Me; You Really LOVE Me!!

Like many people (at least 150), I waded through the Valentine's Day lift-out of the Herald Sun in Melbourne last Wednesday morning. I was having a look to see if Wifey and/or any of you lovely readers of this blog had left a special message for me to find.

And I found this:




So, 'Roly'? My thanks to you. Whoever you are.

But then I saw this alarming indication that 'BJ' and 'Bubbles' are apparently planning a joint suicide on the 3rd of March. And it looks like they might be taking their baby ('Onion') out with them. Not exactly what you want to see as you flick through such loving and thoughtful messages of adoration on a Wednesday morning.




But that's not all - there was also this slightly scary notice from a friendly stalker who simply won't take 'no' for an answer:




And this one just irritated the pants off me. If you're going to submit a message to a major national newspaper to show how much you love your sweetheart, perhaps it'd be a wise idea to have someone check over your spelling and grammar for you first - so you don't look like an uneducated child.




Maybe this was an uneducated child; but either way, Lino is a First Class Dolt. You're missing two apostrophes, a comma and an E, there, buddy. (Also: Ewww! Too much information!)

These examples were all on the same page, so it was enough to prevent me from searching through the lift-out any further. I don't need other peoples' lives to depress me - I've got my own for that!

Anyway, I didn't want to stomp on what I knew would be Ms Fits' material that same day.


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Let's Play "Guess Who"

Guess who I was sitting next to in traffic a couple of weeks ago! You'll never guess, but go on; try.


*waits impatiently*


This isn't really gonna work if I wait in 'Compose' mode for answers to come in, so I'll give you one little hint:


one little hint


That's right, Neighbours' bad boy Paul Robinson himself, Stefan Dennis. He was sitting there, listening to the radio and smiling to himself. He looked content. He looked peaceful. He looked happy. Maybe he'd just run over a kitten or something.

Oh, no ... that's right. The characters aren't real. I keep forgetting.

Anyway, he's one of my favourites on the show (the others being Karl, Susan, Toadie, Rosetta and Frazer), so it was quite a thrill to see that the richest man in Erinsborough was in the lane right next to me -- and that he has to drive himself to work in the mornings like everybody else.

If you're interested, email me and I'll tell you what his licence plate number is.*





* Not really. I don't want Snr Sgt Allan Steiger coming after me.


(Oh yeah, of course. Not real. Got it.)


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V Day

So did everybody have a good Valentine's Day?







...







Excellent. (Although, next time, please don't all talk at once.)

As some of you know, I won an iPod in an online competition, and last night I presented it to Wifey, all wrapped up nicely and sitting in a presentation box. I even used a big purple ribbon!

She loved it! She was delighted. Compared to other years, we agreed not to spend anything on each other this Valentine's Day (with the exception of getting some delicious take away Thai food for dinner so neither of us had to cook). This was due to our limited financial situation at the moment (not because we're against Valentine's Day or anything). So when Wifey opened her iPod, she was quite overwhelmed. I explained that I'd won it online (actually, she guessed before I'd even told her because she remembered me entering the comp), so our 'non-spending' pact was not broken.

I hope other people were lavished upon (or did the lavishing).

If you're single or otherwise anti-V Day, then I hope you had a happy Totally Normal Day Of February.

x


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Muppet Question # 21 Answered

On Tuesday, 6th February, 2007 at 8:56:37 AM, Spankk emailed me and said ...

Who would you say the most famous guest they ever had on the Muppet Show was?



That's a hard question to answer; largely because it depends on whether you meant 'most famous' in relation to the time the episodes went to air, or in terms of today. It is also a subjective notion in regards to what part of the world you hail from.

And of course it's all relative anyway, according to individual tastes.

For my money, it'd have to be one of the following: Steve Martin, Christopher Reeve, Julie Andrew, Bob Hope, Raquel Welch or John Cleese.

However, it's highly likely that everyone reading this will have a different opinion, so here's a story in pictures of just some* of the most famous special guests ever to feature on The Muppet Show:


* "some" = 75



The Cast of Star Wars



Alan Arkin



Alice Cooper



Andy Williams



Bernadette Peters



Bob Hope



Brooke Shields



Candice Bergen



Carol Burnett



Candice's father Edgar Bergen (and his famous
ventriloquist-dummy partner, Charlie McCarthy)



Cheryl Ladd



Christopher Reeve



Cloris Leachman



Connie Stevens



Roy Rogers and his wife Dale Evans



Danny Kaye



Debbie Harry



Diana Ross



Dizzy Gillespie



Dom DeLuise



Don Knotts



Dudley Moore



Elton John



Ethel Merman



Florence Henderson (Carol Brady)



Gene Kelly



George Burns



Gilda Radner



Glenda Jackson



Harry Belafonte



Helen Reddy
(incidentally the only Aussie on the list)



James Coburn



Jean Stapleton



Jim Nabors



Joan Baez



Joel Grey



John Cleese


John Denver



Johnny Cash



Jonathan Winters



Julie Andrews



Kenny Rogers



Leo Sayer
(now residing in Australia)



Lesley Ann Warren



Liberace



Linda Ronstadt



Liza Minnelli



Loretta Swit



Lynda Carter



Lynn Redgrave



Madeline Kahn



Marty Feldman



Milton Berle



Paul Simon



Paul Williams



Peter Sellers



Peter Ustinov



Phyllis Diller



Raquel Welch



Rich Little



Kris Kristofferson and then-wife Rita Coolidge



Roger Moore



Rudolf Nureyev



Ruth Buzzi



Señor Wences



Shirley Bassey



Spike Milligan



Steve Martin



Sylvester Stallone



Tony Randall



Twiggy



Valerie Harper



Victor Borge



Vincent Price



Zero Mostel



So how does my list compare with yours, gentle readers? Anyone I've left off this list that you'd like to contest? Or is the person you deem "most famous" amongst the smiling faces above?


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