Spyke

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142 replies

When you're running late so you walk quickly to your seat on the bus, like that'll make it go faster lol

14

I walk to the front door of the tram to get off at my stop so I get home 5 seconds earlier.

7

Had a pretty good day. Nice end to the week. Had some time to chat with the CEO which was good. He's really chill.

Guitar and rest tonight I think. I haven't been able to play most of the last 2 weeks because of my shoulder which has been pretty rough tbh.

Have rehearsal tomorrow so will do the best I can tonight.

Here is one of the newest additions to the stray family:

11

I am generally too scared to do sauces, but I made myself do a fermented one last year using exquisite yellow scotch bonnets, and it was SO totally worth it (then I had to move and it got contaminated).

I definitely recommend having a go at it some time, even just a tiny batch for yourself. It was actually not as hard as I thought - despite the many gurus out there who overcomplicate things

2

I'm gonna ferment mine then blend them with roast capsicum (and a little chickpea, garlic, salt and vinegar).

4
aussie.zone

One of my fave producers is comin' to town later in the month but they're hitting $115 per ticket.

Back in the day (2000's) it was $30/40 for a line up like that. in the EU something similar would be 20 euros.

Can't justify that coin when you're spending 1/2 the time in the smoking area talking rubbish with randos holding an $18 pint.

Australia is not a cheap place and I understand the cost pressures. Promoters won't be making bank (truly doing it for the love of it) but it's hard to see the scene thrive for internationals at that pricing.

10
aussie.zone

It's one of the bigger line ups for the scene. If I was going to go the one set I wouldn't miss is Mefjus.

On the 26th april at the timber yard.

4
aussie.zone

free noodles, free stew, free soup, free ice cream

i am beginning to think i am a cat

10

Had two beers, and then two tequila mixes, fell asleep at like 9pm.

I'm impressed I woke up at 8am today 😂

9

Funnily enough, had some evening drinks during the week recently (something I very rarely do). Probably like 3 beers and maybe 3 whiskeys. Definitely was tipsy but not drunk drunk. Had a great night sleep and was up early feeling refreshed.

Not like I'll be making a habit out of this, but a few drinks ain't the end of the world.

5
aussie.zone

Same. I am going for wine and a new hair colour. It's blue time baby

6
Eaglereply
aussie.zone

Don't forget to put the black pillow cases on before the wine and dye.

5

The way our program is structured, in my new gig, Fridays tend to be quite busy. I've got like 4 meetings today and some serious work after lunch. Very unusual for me.

9
aussie.zone

some pelicans fishing from some tin cans moored off the pier

8
aussie.zone

They've been called tinnies since I've been born 😂

tinny Overview Similar and opposite words Usage examples Pronunciation Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more adjective 1. having a displeasingly thin, metallic sound. "tinny music played in the background" Similar: jangling jangly jingling jingly plinky thin metallic Opposite: full round deep 2. informal•Australian lucky. "I'm what you might call tinny" nouninformal•Australian 1. a can of beer. "let's crack open a tinny, mate" 2. a small boat with an aluminium hull.

5
aussie.zone

Just grated a potato, soaked and rinsed it, stirred in some pakora batter powder then deep fried it till crunchy. Holy shit I need to be careful with this culinary heroin I've discovered.

EDIT: I've also made a mix of 50/50 bbq sauce / siracha which is pretty good too.

8
aussie.zone

is getting my flu shout and bringing the kid to get his a bad idea? I remember my parents trying something when I was a kid and it did NOT go well. But I was older and they didnt really talk to me about it.

8
aussie.zone

My kids had their boosters at all appropriate ages and still get annual flu shots and whatever else is required.

If the shot is suitable for young ones, it'll be fine.

6
TinyBreakreply
aussie.zone

oh sorry, shoulda been clearer. hes getting it either way. More just "Is me doing at the same time a good idea? does it help calm things down or is it scarier seeing dad get his shot?"

4
aussie.zone

Definitely will help. Make sure you convey to the nurse any sort of nervousness the kid has (subtly of course). They usually have a foolproof distraction technique ready to go. Last time it was an issue for us the nurse had a little vibrating bee toy they put on minicalhoon's arm which sort of tickled.... completely distracted her from the shot.

6

hes a bit young to sort of communicate unfortunately. last time we went to the doctor he started screaming the second he saw him. The doctor just laughed and goes "he remembers me!"

4

Role modelling normalises stuff. Like how seeing their parents read for leisure makes kids more likely to do the same.

4

OK so if work is making me give up my lunch break to go to someone's going away lunch, I think it's fair that I not have to pay.

Thoughts?

8
dumblederpreply
aussie.zone

EDIT: 0. Go and just HIT the booze, have like four beers and a dozen tequila shots. If they sack you for getting drunk at a work function sue their asses into your retirement.

  1. Pay and accept it as part of work social life, it's a chance to bond with new colleagues.
  2. Go but don't eat anything, claim you're in a bit of debt while being between jobs. Eat your packed lunch on the way to the lunch. Maybe come across as a bit difficult.
  3. Refuse to go saying that if they're not paying for the meal or your lunch break they can gargle your fucking nuts.

I reckon I've listed them in order of acceptability and reverse order of what I'd want to do.

8

2 is a really good option, probably what I'd do as well. The other time we had a work lunch at a nearby pub that was eye wateringly expensive, I didn't eat and later when the idea of going there was floated again I just straight up said it was nice but out of my budget. Only then did some colleagues chime in to agree. Just gotta be brave sometimes

6

As dumble said, tell them that out of pocket lunch expenses are not in your budget at the time and you prefer to eat what you brought from home.

I've never actually attended a farewell lunch, especially for someone whom I barely know.

Hopefully this won't affect your standing with your colleagues, but they should be accepting of your situation.

6
aussie.zone

Anyone know what happened on the Mernda line? Trains are delayed around 15 - 20 minutes and just kinda stuck that way.

How good is RTO?

7

When RTO = rostered time off it is absolutely fabulous.

When RTO = return to office it is absolutely shit.

9

I saw all the traffic backed up on Plenty Road. Good thing I chose to ride in today

1

I woke up at like 6:30am today for some reason and got out of bed at 7:45 am. It is now nearly 3:45 pm and only NOW have I finally gotten a tiny bit started on that mindless desktop digitising stuff I was supposed to do for uni. I spent 15 minutes importing my field data and downloading a bunch of raster images and now I'm done. I'll do the next step over the weekend. I could laugh, but I'm just glad I finally broke through the inertia - the first layer is always so hard.

Now that I've done at least THAT much, my reward is a shower, the last of that delicious fish curry with pappadums, and then the finale of The Pitt! 🩺

7

One neighbour doing gardening this morning. Fine it's a nice day.

Lunchtime, council is doing mowing grass maintenance around. Bit loud, but whatever.

As soon as they finished, old mate next door decided it's his turn.

I'm going to mow my lawn after work out of spite (and because it needs it).

7
aussie.zone

pfizer makes me feel like i am under the influence

7
aussie.zone


This bit of shrinkflation amounts to a 20% price rise. For what is already a luxury/occasional purchase.

Err, I'll take the big one thanks, Aldi. And I probably won't be buying this treat very often any longer.

7

Shrinkflation really annoys me. I feel so betrayed when I buy something and notice after I open it that it seems less than before? Then not having the previous pack to compare, I wonder am I imagining it? And to add insult they keep the packaging the same size, so we fill up our landfills with unnecessary plastic all in the name of tricking the consumer. I would rather see the price go up so I can see what I’m buying.

6

And companies try and spin it in the most absurd ways, it's mind boggling how they pat themselves on the back for it. GAH.

2

Flights back to the Oppressive Soup are booked. 9 nights. Would've preferred not to stay as long but due to multiple things that's the best option. Since my aunt was paying I got the max Jetstar bundle. So luxurious being able to pick any seat, including the special ones, without paying extra!

The other option was Scoot, which a friend (who does that route often) says is much more reliable. But the fact that you can't even get free water without paying the max amount (and only 1 cup at that!) and use of charging ports is also blocked except for that top tier (but use of power banks is banned in-flight) really rubs me the wrong way. Singapore may be efficient, but that penny-pinching mentality really shits me (the charging port is ALREADY THERE and electricity costs basically nothing! Wtf!)

I already am only doing this trip because I have to... I'd rather deal with Jetstar's inefficiency for now. Hopefully I don't regret it.

Most of the people I know there (and still have any interest in meeting up with) are away because of their PH, so it'll be mostly just me and my mum stuck in a dusty, noisy, humid and dark apartment 🫠 I'm going to be bothering colleagues on Teams and/or hanging out here to stay sane

7

I just got back from dropping off my van at the auto electrician and will have to walk back in a few hours to pick it up. It's the last day wearing the fitness tracker for the study I am in, this week is going to have very different results from the last one, for which I barely moved from the couch because I had Covid. I guess that's the whole point of a control group though, to work out what normal variations occur so you can tell if your intervention is actually making a difference or just normal random variation.

It's good timing for the study to be over though, I want to use moving house to start incorporating some more activity in my general routine. It might mean shaking up Mr Woof's walking schedule, but as long as he gets to go out he should be happy. I'm hoping to get somewhere that has a few more longer walking options close to home, but moving away from Melbourne traffic means I will be more likely to drive places to walk too. I just need to get out of the habit of staying home as the standard.

7
aussie.zone

Billion dollar idea: Computer software that adjusts monitor output to people's glasses prescription - so they don't need to wear glasses while they're working/gaming etc. 🤔

6

Edit: OK I'm a lot more chill now. Yeah she threw away their food, because of her "spiritual beliefs". Where I feed them is not on her property.

I just think it's a vile thing to do.

I'm not stopping, and I'm not doing anything illegal. I'm ready for a confrontation.

The idea that someone's beliefs are more important than innocent creatures lives is repugnant to me.

6
Seagoon_reply
aussie.zone

what? 😕

making animals suffer doesn't sound very spiritual

6
Duenanreply
aussie.zone

Think maybe the cat family he’s been looking after has had their food thrown away when he feeds them.

6

There’s always some nutbag who can’t mind their own business and has to touch things that aren’t theirs…

Can’t believe I didn’t remember this before. I think Klever Cages might have gone under now but they had enclosures you could snap together out of pipes and there was the option to add a waterproof partial cover.

::: spoiler spoiler


:::

A few of the specialised parts (door hinge etc) could be tricky to find but for a simple open rectangular shelter it can be done with pipes and connectors from Bunnings plus a tarp. There are free plans online. You could even make the waterproofing full length and in an inconspicuous colour.

Perhaps that would hide the food bowl from her and offer the cats protection from the rain.

2
aussie.zone

I got 5. Have not been absorbing details of news except niche areas of my interest for a while now. Charles and Camilla married for 20 years? Shows what I know 😂

4
aussie.zone

Given my previous performance in these quizes I'm going to guess I'll get 3/10. I will report back on the actual outcome shortly.

3

7/10 - apparently I'm paying more attention than I thought since I've had a bit of free time this week.

3

10/10! I have never got a full score in one of these before! Must have been paying better-than-usual attention to the news lately

3

So I'm learning guitar from scratch with an app Yousician. It's been really helpful because it listens to what string/fret I'm playing and tells me whether it was right, sort of guitar hero-like. Step by step lessons. My dad bought me a year sub to the app so now I can't flake on practicing 😂

I hope that the walls of my apartment are thick enough and I'm not annoying the neighbours lol, we're all nice so I would hope they tell me knock it off. I think it's fine though: I can never heard my nextdoor neighbours, even when they have a dance party, unless I'm in the building hallway. Should be fine.

I need to take breaks though, I'm not used to holding my wrist in that particular way so I have to be careful not to strain it.

6
aussie.zone

I was just reading about a new law coming in for electric vehicles sold in Aus to have speakers that emit noise so that pedestrians will hear them. Good in theory. The catch is, each car maker can have custom noise, so of course they all want some special unique sound. I am already imagining the cacophony of clashing car noises. Lucky I don’t suffer from sensory issue but this could be a new form of hell for those that do. Oh, and the noise must be between 50-75db.

6
dumblederpreply
aussie.zone

That sounds like an atrocious solution to put the ownus of safety on the pedestrian to hear the car and not the driver to PAY THE FUCKING ATTENTION TO WHERE THEY'RE GOING!!!! Build better infrastructure not worse cars. I already hate traffic noise, I was looking forward to at least EVs being mostly quieter.

5

I use a mobility scooter. The number of close calls I’ve had with people stepping directly in front of me (or letting their kids/dogs etc run directly in front of me) because they will not fucking look is too damn high

I’ve ended up smashing into walls trying to avoid oblivious pedestrians

6
aussie.zone

The problem is that pedestrians often don't pay attention to where they are going, and if that involves stepping in front of a car without looking there is often not much the car driver can do. Although given how often people are wandering around oblivious with headphones in I'm not sure how helpful sound will be.

5

Make dashcams mandatory before car noise speakers. If they're not paying attention they'll step in front of anything. I've had people step out blindly in front of medium trucks.

5
aussie.zone

I went to type ‘Nooo’ and accidentally typed ‘Mooo’…

Imagine if you could get custom horns like novelty ringtones🐄 😣

4

I’ve seriously considered loading the MGM lion’s roar onto my phone so I can use it as a better horn on my scooter

4
aussie.zone

So I bought something from an aussie supplier on ebay

I get a notice it's coming from china

so it was just a drop shipper

should I assume the seller has checked the product for safety? No. What would happen is I would be told to get a refund from paypal/ebay

I paid an extra $35 over what I could have paid on aliexpress

6

I bought a mouthguard a while back from Kogan, thinking I’d support a ‘local’ business. It was more expensive than from Amazon, but you know, local.

It arrived in a box with an Amazon docket showing the lower price kogan got it for, prior to the markup I paid. Bloody Kogan, never shopping from them again (and don’t get me started on the resulting spam)

6

it also bothers me on an ethical level, there are people who don't want to trade with certain companies and yet we get shenanigans like that

6
aussie.zone

You'll still get a refund via paypal/ebay.

Leave a review saying they're a drop shipper and not an aussie based supplier.

Predatory tactics, so fuck'em and report.

6

too late now

i only found out when it was pretty much on my door step

but I'm going to be more careful now

4

Comment that shit on their feedback . Challenge it if they claim "local stock"

1
aussie.zone

Petrol looks like it's going up around the place today. My two local Ampols were 2.04 and 1.66.

5
aussie.zone

Yep, I heard your warning a couple days ago and filled up yesterday at 1.69 (1.65 was too far away). Passed by plenty of places over 2.00. Thanks for the reminder, I was down to 20% and have a couple more longer than usual drives to do and suspect prices will not go down much till after Anzac Day.

3

It was going up yesterday too, I reckon they'll all have shot up by the holidays and stay up for them. The price shoots up and trickles down.

3
tone212_reply
aussie.zone

I'm getting 164.9 on my 7/11 app as best local price, so good idea to lock in a price.

3

Just be mindful that the max discount you can get is 25c a litre.

Stopped using 7/11 even since they made that change.

2
Duenanreply
aussie.zone

Yeah. I’m hoping that the stations near me hold steady until Tuesday or Wednesday so I can fill up.

1
aussie.zone

I feel like they might not hold out that long. The weekend of good weather is nigh! Maybe if you're lucky they'll only go up to 1.80

3
Duenanreply
aussie.zone

I’m feeling like that too, the stations near me are usually the last to change so there’s hope yet but do still have 2/3rds of a tank so I might be able to hold out till after Easter

1

Oh good, especially as iirc you have some time off from work and won't need to drive as much hopefully. I rarely fill up as I don't use my car that much but at $70+ a tank it does make me gulp when I do. Miss the precovid prices when I just got my first car.

2
aussie.zone

Beep Beep 🚚
🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

5
aussie.zone

Energy food please, I have lots of walking to do this morning.

3
Seagoon_reply
aussie.zone

this is early 🌞

I would like a packet of dinosaurs to nibble on during the day please.

3

I was hoping for a 🔋 and maybe even a 🧃 but I guess I'll have to do with the SOURCE OF ALL LIFE (and fish out the coppers that Force snuck in)

4

🍳🍳🥓🌭🍅🥔🍄🍄‍🟫🫘🍞☕️
🍳🍳🥓🌭🍅🥔🍄🍄‍🟫🫘🍞☕️

2

I kind of neglected my garden while feeling so sick for this past week.

::: spoiler Garden rambles Yesterday I went out and watered because everything was wilting and noticed the powdery mildew was really on the jack be little pumpkin leaves. Today I went out and they’re full of aphids I don’t have the energy to wipe off. I’m still feeling pretty sick.

They look healthy still but I’m learning a lot for next go round. (With how much I need next time I should choose concentrates and combine the organic pesticide and fungicide into the same solution for efficiency.)

There’s a fruit shriveling because I didn’t pollinate it and a recently closed female flower I could still probably get pollen into, but I’m wondering if I should let the plants concentrate on maturing the fruits that are already set and growing. The weather is still warm but I don’t know what to expect.

Feeling sad af. When starting all this I envisioned a bumper crop of zucchini to share out (as people always complain of them going wild) but it seems my space and energy limitations mean a lower yield. (I think those I did plant at the right time.)

:::

With help I managed to sort out a dental appointment for May but that’s still a month away so I got another week of antibiotics from the gp to try and hold me. Worried about the wait tbh.

5

Gah. Forgot about a bill that needed to be paid until I saw the email receipt of payment 😢

5

I'll need to crack open a can of Citray when I get home today. I received an email from La Sirene they've stocked up on the Praline as well. We'll probably be in Reservoir for a car show so I might get some

4

Melbcat is sleeping warm under the doona. I hope she lets me in!

I’ve seen electric blankets that are washable and am wondering if it’s worth buying one of those.

4
aussie.zone

I forgot to mention that you now can’t even read only let alone print a document without a Microsoft Word subscription. I switched to Libre Office

4
tombruzzoreply
aussie.zone

Introducing copilot into 365 and upping the price by $100 was one of the best things to ever happen to Libreoffice. I've been meaning to do a presentation on Libreoffice for the old people I help so they can save money

4

I found a job ad for this place called Youngster.co check them out and you can probably sign up. Also it's not volunteer, it's paid

2