Hello all
Thanks for the well wishes for the puppy. She is doing better! My mother says she is not as spastic as she was before. Which is great news.
PIP- I"m glad your dog is doing well. You must be relieved that the tubes are out.
Aussiegirl- beware of the Yobbo's, they sound like an ornery bunch.

Just wanted to drop by and say hello. Not to much going on here. Everyone have a good night

Whoohoo! Just wanted to post and share my excitement with y'all - I just got floor tickets to Kylie's (Minogue) third concert here in May. Yay! Although this has also led to my gripe of the day - why do concert promoters insist on only releasing details of one concert when EVERYONE knows there's gonna be more than one (her largest fan base has to be here in Melbourne in her home town). I wish they would release ALL the details AT ONCE so everyone can have a chance at getting tickets. Nevertheless, we got tickets and we're very excited. The friend that I'm going with shares the same birthday as Kylie, which is later in the week, so it's like an extra special birthday week for her!

So, on to the tennis news. I'm guessing that most of you would have seen the results of the Australian Open final by now, but just in case, I won't spoil it for you. I'm more interested in the other news coming out of the tennis this morning - Lleyton Hewitt proposing to his soapie star girlfriend of only five weeks and her subsequent acceptance!! Any other Aussies out there thinking "REBOUND!!" - for both of them????!!!!

Yeah, that's what I thought, Hej when I saw it on the news tonight. He split with his ex-girlfriend just last October. And REBOUND, heh, I just got that. :)

Also on the news tonight was the story of how Kylie's Brisbane concert sold out immediately and they announced a second show. I don't much like her music, and there are other acts I'd rather see, so I won't be going. And okay, I won't tease you with any "singing budgie" comments, seeing as you're such a nice person in this forum, heh!

Hey guys - we just got Desperate Housewives here tonight for the first time! It's great. Tomorrow night TAR6 starts, and on Thursday Lost premieres. I've been hearing you all talk about these shows for so long now that I just have to watch them all! A feast of TV! Thanks for the recommendations!

Still waiting for Survivor... latest word is that we will get it in March. And that's just too long to wait for a Peachy fix..(just watch Hildy get started now! Heh).

Hee hee, Aussie, I wondered if anyone would get my little joke! Have you had the news reports up there about how they "first met" five years ago at some charity function and "rekindled" their "relationship" when they broke up with their respective "beaus" (another little joke in there if you recall her ex-boyfriend's name!)? Sounds to me like someone is scrabbling desperately to justify a quickie engagement. I mean, really, they're both so young, what's the rush to get married? How about being boyfriend and girlfriend first? And it's not like she'll be able to travel with him on the tennis circuit, I mean, she has got her own career.

I went to Kylie's Intimate & Live show back in 97 (or 98 maybe?) and it was great. I'm not her hugest fan, but she does put on a fantastic show I think. And it's fun to play with all the special boys too - they just go off! I'm going to take the next day off 'cos I suspect we'll be wanting to kick on afterwards at one of the gay clubs that will no doubt be planning a tribute night. We popped into her exhibition on the weekend and that was amazing. You just can't comprehend how tiny she is until you see her costumes up close and personal.

Aussie I'm totally with you on celebrating the feast of TV that's coming our way! Hanging out for TAR6 - only 12 hours to go! The last few weeks I've been scratching to find something decent to watch and now all of a sudden I'm in a mad panic about how I'm going to get to see everything I want to see! Luckily, my best friend and I have very similar TV tastes so we've got a VCR schedule all mapped out (for example, tonight we'll both watch TAR6, I'll tape The OC and she'll tape Australia's Next Top Model & TAR2 from pay TV). BTW, I believe that when Survivor Palau hits our screens, it will be on a Monday at 9.30. Also, I haven't forgotten your desire for S1/S2 DVDs... I've been checking in with the DVD shop and will keep haranguing them until they come in!

Have a good day everyone! It's going to be a hot one here today. Hope it's not too chilly in the Northern hemisphere.

If you think people are bleary eyed in Australia due to the tennis, try watching it live on the east coast of US. The men's final was shown at 3:30am Sunday morning. Fortunately it was reaired at 12:30pm the same day. Even more fortunately for me, my flight home to NYC from Florida left at 12:30 and since Safin wrapped it up in four sets I got to see the whole match in the air. Thank you, Song airline and your cool satellite TV hookup.

We do not get the same commentators as you in Australia. I wish all the English language feeds would have one broadcast team, depending on the location of the venue. We could have Australians for this tourney, Brits for Wimbledon and Americans for US Open. As it stands, we get a combo platter of some I like and some I can't stand. For the Aussie Open it was Mary Carillo, Pat McEnroe, Cliff Drysdale (South African, but I could almost pretend he was Australian), Brad Gilbert, Dick Enberg, Mary Jo Fernandez and Pam Shriver. I may be leaving some out, but the first five were the main in booth announcers. I've heard Courier in the past doing commentary, and he's decent.

You are too funny, Hej! Beau. Yeah, we're getting all the news reports here about it. They've only been together for 5 weeks, I mean, what's the rush? Geez....

And while I've not seen Kylie live, I've stood next to her wax thingo (what's the word I'm looking for?) at Madame Tussads in London. She's so tiny!

And did you say TAR2 is on Pay TV? Where and when exactly? I'm gonna have to search that one out. I wish we had those Tivo things our American friends talk about. Would sure make life a whole lot easier. And thanks mate, for checking about the Survivor 1 and 2 DVD's at that shop, much appreciated.

I expect there are quite a few bleary eyed people in the US, iME and I'm glad you got to see it. It's a shame cricket is not played in the US much, as it's a superb game. Australia actually lost the last game it played against Pakistan (shock! horror!). They rarely lose, being the world champions and all. Today the West Indies and Pakistan face off to see which team will play against Australia in the Finals. Can't wait.

AussieGirl, TAR2 is on Fox 8 on Tuesday nights at 9.30pm, following Australia's Next Top Model. AusNTM is great. Whilst the host is certainly no Tyra, the show itself is just as good as the original. If possible, it's even cattier too!

Hey Guys!
Great news! Not only am I going home in about 8 days, but my Mom called today, and the police department called, (now this looks bad, but it's not heh), and I had applied back in November for a dispatch job, and she said that I wasn't there but would be coming home 'round the 10th, and the guy was just like, "well have him call when he gets in". Chaka Khan I think I may actually be getting a job! Joygasm!

Sorry bout the exlimation points, but it's been awhile since I've heard good news, I miss my phone, and my Mom, and puppy and kitty and friends hehe.

Hey Woody, that's wonderful news, mate! I knew you were due to have some nice things happen for you!

Thanks Hej, I'll look out for that. Wasn't the first ep of TAR6 great last night? And only one more day till we finally get Lost here, can't wait!

Whoo Hooo, Elfin One! I know that you will be very happy to go home. I'm very happy for you.

I have to say, I just never pictured you as a police employee. Dressing up as a police officer, maybe, but working at the police station, not so much - heh, heh, heh. But best of luck to you. I hope that you come home to a nice new job and situation. That would be the BEST!

I'm also glad that both PiP and Teena's dogs are recovering well these days.

I've decided I want to be a yobbo today. It's such a funny word. Yobbo Bear..... kind of fresh, don't 'cha think?

Yikes, so sorry, double post. First time ever. Yeeeeessh.

Yobbo Bear, heh! That's too funny! But if you want to be a yobbo, you'll have to make sure that you have plenty of beer!

Hey Hej - you okay there mate? I heard Melbourne had it's wettest day on record. And that the temp dropped to 13. Unbelievable, when you think it was only a few days ago that it was 40. (I just hope it doesn't rain today, I mean the first cricket final is on today)! And I saw there was snow in the Highlands today! In the middle of summer!

Woody any more news about that possible job?

Dodo where are you hiding these days, mate?

Australia won the cricket game. Again. Of course.

yeah, but they dropped Matt Hayden for what? 9 runs

ok, here's my aussie update

I got my kylie tickets in the mail yesterday for the second brisbane concert (which is the day before the first one). I'm on the floor but at the back - we knew the gay mafia were gonna snap up all the good tickets!!! The first concert i ever went to was Kylie's Enjoy Yourself concert when i was 8.

Now, Lleyton - the stupidest thing about this whole thing is not him proposing after 5 weeks but the fact he had been planning it for the last two weeks.

Now my favorite topic - TV. I think channel 7 finally grew a brain. The best week of tv in years. First Desperate Housewives, then a 2 hour TAR, followed by Lost (which i am watching tonight - the encore of the encore screening!) and then another 1 hour TAR. Now all I need is survivor and i'm sweet. (Actually, i would much rather no TAR and seeing TAR7 with the rest of the world, but at least were getting something)

Well hey, shnap - welcome to MM! You're from Brissie? Same here!

Wasn't it great to have all those shows last week! I've been waiting forever to see them and been hearing about them from all my US friends. I hope we get TAR7 immediately after they finish this one, we're going to be behind enough as it is. BTW, have you heard anything definite about if Channel 9 is going to show Survivor Paulau?

Yeehah! Second Cricket final this arvo! Come on, Aussie, come on, come on! Heh.

Soooo, good to finally watch all those shows, however, i watch e! news and entertainment tonight everyday so there were no surprises. Also, add to those TAR2 on foxtel and it was perfect. But figure this one out - Lost was on three times and i still missed it!!! I got the times mixed up and saw DH for the 4th time instead.

An air date for Survivor - in last weeks TV Week (the one with the H&A plane crash on it), it had cast pic and said coming soon to Ch9. I can't see it being different to any other season, so we should be only days behind.

And as for TAR7, i read in the What's On guide in the Courier-Mail (i think it was two thursday's before last) that Amazing Race fans won't have too wait to long for a new season as 7 starts in the states not long after 6 starts here (which i already knew) but it sounds hopeful that we will only have a short break in between like we did with 5 & 6.

Thanks for that, Shnap. I was a little worried that with ratings for Vanuatu so low, they might not show Palau. Had that been the case, boy, would Channel 9 be getting some complaints from me!

Did you watch the second Cricket Final today? (For those in the US, Australia won yet again)! I was kind of hoping that Pakistan would win, just to make it more interesting and to have a third final. Oh well. So that wraps up the cricket season in Australia.

I had a lovely day today, we spent the afternoon with friends in a pub by the sea, watching cricket in between listening to a great band, and about 6pm when it finally cooled off a little, we went fishing. Didn't catch anything but it was nice to have some sea breezes. The sun was nothing short of brutal today.

Aussie, all safe and sound down here, thanks for asking! Amazingly, the worst damage at my house was a lot of rain outside. Nothing inside. I say amazingly because not 50 metres down the road there were trees uprooted on the street ... not just branches fallen off, but trees fully out by their roots. There's a couple of large tree in the front yard of my apartment block but they are still in place (phew! cos if either of them had come crashing down most likely my bedroom window would have copped it). On the way to work (it's a ten minute drive tops), I saw many more trees out and about on the roads. And a fair bit of flooding, but nothing like over in the northern/western suburbs and the eastern/south eastern suburbs. I know the power went out near work, but again we managed to escape.

Unfortunately, the storm drains in Melbourne weren't really designed for that kind of weather - apparently they were built to sustain those kind of storms once every hundred years. Which isn't good when these storms are becoming more and more frequent. It's been an odd summer down here so far. Wish it would settle and we could get some more beach weather!!

Hey guys!

It's raining today, so unless I want a flood, I can't use the toilet or shower, which can really cause some problems you know? So I'll segue that into Yay I'm going home on Thursday hehe. I will get to sleep in a comfterable bed and you know plumbing that works! That and a Car and cell phone hee.

Yay! for Woody getting to go home!

Hurray for comfortable beds, working bathrooms, cars and cell phones. I hope your trip home is filled with fun and adventure, Elfin One!

Well, I'm gonna try posting again. I tried last night and the computer gobblins ate my post. Grrrr, I hate when that happens.
I'm sorry I haven't been on in a while. I was at my parents house over the weekend, and mom was having computer trouble.
Aussiegirl and Hej Is this the monsoon season for you, or is all the rain a surprise? I hope you are both doing ok. Do you live close by to each other?

Woody You must be so sick of bad plumbing. I had trouble with my toilet once, and it drove me crazy. It was only two days though, I can't imagine for this long though. I hope you have a great visit home.

Coco went to the vet last Friday, her blood count is up to 33 now. Yeah!!
Hopefully, if her numbers keep going up, we'll be able to reduce her prednizone more.
The only bad thing, the doctor said her gums looked pale. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on the pooch.

This weekend i'm going to a comedy show, "The Irish Wake". It's on the idea of Joey and Maria's wedding. Should be a lot of fun. The wedding was hysterical, I can imagine what's going to happen at the wake. I'll let you know how it was.

That's about it here. EVeryone take care

Teena summer is the wet season for us up here in Queensland. Hej lives in Melbourne, which is about 2,000 kms south. We do need the rain though, Australia has been hit by very bad drought lately. It's nice to see the grass getting greener from the rain, rather than just turning brown in the sun. I really know what they mean when they say "It's a sunburnt country".

Glad to hear your dog is doing so well! I hope she continues to get better every day.

Who is Joey and Maria?

Hi Yogi!

Hello All! The boards are finally back up, Yeah!!
Aussiegirl Joey and Maria are characters in a comeday wedding "Joey and Maria's Wedding". It's like a play, and you are a guest at their "wedding". There are a lot of characters there, the drunk uncle, the bossy mother, the slutty ex-girlfriend. It's pretty funny. Anyway, I went to see a show along the same lines last night. "An Irish Wake". One of the girls I work with got tickets, it was at the school in her neighborhood. It was pretty funny. One of the pallbarer's kept hitting on me. Funny as hell, but sooo embarassing. I'm fair skinned so when I blush, oy! All the actors were great. They kept coming around to all the tables during the show, which is how I met my new friend the pallbarer. Anyway, it was a good show.

How has everyone been?

Woody I'm sure your having a good time being back home. Can't wait to hear how the trip was.

Aussiegirl, and Hejhas it stopped raining yet? I hope that it is cooler for you with all the rain, or do you get the humidity like we do here in the Northeast? That would be awful. I hate the humidity.

iMissEthanHaven't seen you here for a while. I hope all is well with you.
Yogi, Tracybeeand everyone else. Come back and say hi, Ok?

Gotta go for now. Everyone take it easy

Well Teena, I don't know what the weather is like where Hej is right now, but here the rain has definitely cooled things off. It's quite nice. Still raining, but not heavily.

The Irish Wake sounds great, Teena! So come on, tell us all about the pallbearer! Will you be seeing him again? Spill!

Not much else happening here.

It's 14th February here, so HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to you all!

Happy V-day, guys and gals! Also happy b-day to my mommy.
There was a bad accident on highway 30, so guess who gets the day off? I'm happy about it, but I hope whoever was involved in the crash is ok.
Well, I'm going to go back to bed! Happy Valintine's Day!

Teena, the weather's really unsettled in Melbourne at the moment. The weekend was pleasant enough, yesterday it was hot all day, and then this morning I woke up to see it's pouring down rain again. Wish it would settle into some sort of pattern - the perfect combo would be weekdays of low to mid 20s (celsius) and then weekends of high 20s so I can get some beachtime in before autumn hits!

Yeah, I'm here thanks. With server slow downs/stoppages, I didn't get to this thread at all last week. I fear I'll never catch up.

Hi, Teena, and everyone else! This thread's been pretty quiet lately, but I bet we liven up when the Palau season starts up on Thursday.

Gotta pass on something sweet that MrBee did yesterday. We don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day, we don't exchange cards or candy or presents or flowers or anything. We went out to dinner on Friday (we have choir practice on Monday nights), and that was it.

Except - I got home last night, opened the fridge, and there was some homemade creme brulee waiting for me. MrBee had made one of our favorite desserts for us to have after choir practice. So sweet! And, to make it even better, he let me use the blow-torch thingie to brulee the creme.

Nothing says romance like gadgets and fire (TM Ted on Queer Eye).

Hi all!

First Survivor MM post...but been reading for awhile, and I think it's really cool to get all this news from Australia. I'm up here in the north in Canada, awaiting what people are calling the blizzard of the year, so I'll take any sunshine or warmth you guys can send over (although, in all fairness it's been rather mild of late, which makes for good snowboarding). And, of course, anxiously awaiting the start of Survivor, hoping for some good times after the recent wave of suck.

Hey Guys! I had made it home last Thursday about 1 in the morning but I've been just getting stuff back to normal, so Yeah I'm back heh. Also thanks guys for the well-wishes.

Welcome Mikkamtl! I'm sure you'll find that the gang around here are nice enough lol.

Oh my gosh! Two more days till Peachy day, so Peach daquaris all around.

Welcome, mikkamtl! Sending you lots of Aussie sunshine (and there's more than enough here to share! What part of Canada do you hail from?

Well, only two more days to go till Survivor for some people. Others, like those of us here in the Southern Hemisphere haven't even been given a start date for Palau. Grrrrr......

Hi TraceyBee! And welcome home, Woodlock!

Thanks for the greetings, folks.

AussieGirl I'm in Montreal, but I'm from Finland. Been here now six months in school, and generally enjoying being a student again after a few years of work. For me it'S both an adventure and learning, and I'm having all kinds of fun. And of course, watching waaay too bleebleeblahblahboo-- in a sense it's weird to see my favorite shows in first-run, and not several seasons behind. My friends back home are all still on Pearl Islands....

I'd take some Peach Daquiris, please!

Hey, welcome, mikkamtl!

And hi to everyone else! I'm still around; just haven't had much to post about. Still in between temp assignments, and getting a little worried as I don't qualify for unemployment due to the ridiculous technicality that my income for my 3 base quarters didn't equal 1.5 times or greater the income of my peak quarter (most of my work last year was independent contract and didn't count towards it), but I've been interviewing with new agencies so hopefully something soon. I did that play that I think was the last thing I posted about; basically it was an exercise in how to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, which isn't necessarily a bad learning experience. Still glad it's over though. Saw the Christo gates exhibit in Central Park with my neighbor today, which was cool and unique; I'm waiting for him to give me his pictures and then we're going to combine them into one online photo album, and then I'll post the link if anyone's interested. And that's about it, really!

*whistles innocently*

The premiere week has snuck up on me somehow. I guess having a DVR really means I'm never watching commercials anymore. It took a mention in Miss Alli's TAR finale recap for me to realize it was this week, so I set my DVR to record the series.

I am currently enjoying a delicious pear which is possibly 1/2 day - 1 day overripe. It's so soft and juicy and I'm making a mess of my desk.

Yesterday I was in one of the saddest places - Godiva the day after Valentine's Day. There were a bunch of women (including me) buying heart-shaped boxes of candy at a 50% discount. I chose to believe they were all bargain hunters like me, not women who had no one from whom to receive candy the previous day.

Where? I'm on the East Coast! Long time lurker, on many of TWOP's boards - just feeling the need to start posting!


*Waves at everyone* How's she goin', eh?

Good to see you again Dodo. Don't be a stranger now, Ya hear?

I know I don't get out much, but that sounds fun, IMissEthan, I wanna go to Godiva and get some on sale candy heh.

Welcome BluenoserGal!

Welcome BluenoserGal - it's nice to see some new faces in here. This place has been awfully quiet of late (yes, I'm talking to you, Dodo).

Dodo, sorry to hear of the problems you are having getting unemployment, that really sucks. Over here, you'd automatically qualify for it if you're unemployed, and at least that tides you over till you can find something else. The problem with that system of course, is that many people then don't try to find any work and end up on unemployment for literally years. But anyway, I really hope that something good comes along for you, you sure deserve it. Stay positive, mate!

mikkamtl I know exactly what you mean about seeing shows several seasons behind. I was reading in the paper recently about Days of our Lives being something like 6 years behind the US! Luckily for me, I'm not into watching the soaps, and we're only a few weeks behind on Desperate Housewives and Lost. I've never been to either Montreal or Finland - are they similar in terms of weather?

Hi all! It has been a really long time since I posted and I have a lot of back reading to do. I wanted to let you know that this forum actually was a great help to me back when I was writing my dissertation. I spent about equal time on it as I did researching.
It has all paid off and I successfully defended my thesis on Friday. Yay, it was probably the hardest thing I have ever done (doctorate overall).
I think I have post traumatic shock or something that I don't have to spend every minute calculating and correcting anymore.

On the bright side I now have unlimited time to read every post ever written and watch survivor as it plays instead of when I have time to watch the tape. Looking forward to talking to you all and reading the updates of your lives from the past few months!

AussieGirl, the weather is sort of similar to home, but the extremes in Canada are very new to me, as Southern Finland actually has mild winters, with temperatures generally hovering a couple of degrees below freezing. Here it can go from 0 to -20 overnight. There's something to be said about ocean currents, after all. I've not gotten into the soaps yet...that would mean watching waaay too bleebleeblahblahboo; I do, after all, have to study and other stuff, too.

The unemployment thing sucks, Dodo. Back home, they have a fairly generous plan on that, but you only have 6 months to get new work.

Ricci what exactly was the subject of the thesis?

24 hours to go until Peachy!

Howdy all!
First off, Welcome Mikkamti and Bluenosergal nice to see new faces on the board.
Welcome back iMissEthan, Ricci, and Dodo I was wandering where you guys were.

Not much going on here. The good news is, I have the next five days off, Yippee!
The bad news is, I'm battling a cold. I hate to be sick, but i'm glad to be vacation.
I'm eatting chicken soup as I write this, hoping to kill this cold so I can have some fun.
This time tomorrow i'll be having loads of fun watching my man Peachy! Sorry Aussiegirl I hope your not too far behind us this time. BTW, how is big lilttle aussie doing in school?

DodoSorry to hear about the job hunt. Keeping a good thought that you find something soon. Don't be a stranger, ya hear?

iMEAny time you need some company in the Godiva store, keep me in mind, K?
I am happy to help, especially if it's with chocolate. hahaha

Ricci That is great about your dissertation. What was it on exactly?

Woody
Glad your home safe. How was your visit with mom? It must have been nice to be back at your old stompin ground.

Well i'm gonna go now. Gotta rest up for tomorrow. Talk to you all soon

OK - the office pool has been picked -- I got Bobby Jon Drinkard, the PR dude. Coincidentally, I have a degree in PR. Hm, what are the odds, one in twenty?

Go Bobby Jon! I want the $200.00!

Hey BluenoserGal, that's one of the guys that I am rooting for, but mostly because I'm shallow like that, he is one of three tv boyfriends I have from this season. I love your screen name by the way!

Teena, I'm actually in Texas for good now, so no more Mississippi for me heh.

Well since about 10ish last night my hair is blonde, it's been forever since my scalp has known the burning sensation of dye. :)

Hello all! I'm checking in from the West coast, and like BluenoserGal I'm a long-time lurker. I have a feeling this season will merit a lot of witty banter (not to mention tequila), so I thought I would join in on the fun.

Cheers

Thanks! I don't really HAVE a blue nose though. ;-)

Hey Bluenosergal, does it come from the ship? Forgive me in advance for my lack of knowledge in matters Canadiana.

Teena10242, good luck with the cold. I've been fighting a mini-cold for 3 weeks now. It just won't go away.

Aahhh...one day of class left, then it's Spring Break, otherwise known at McGill as "Reading Week". Could they not call it "Drinking-and-Sleeping-Late-Week", instead?

mikkamtl, yes, in a roundabout way, it does. The ship, The Bluenose was built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. People from Nova Scotia are called Bluenosers.

Better than being called a brownnoser! Hee.

Howdy all!
Woody That is so great, back in Texas for good. You must be so happy.
Are you back with Mom? I hope you are having a great time back home

Mik I am feeling better today. I'm not sneezing every two seconds any more. Which is a great plus. I hope this is the end of it for me. I couldn't handle weeks of this. BTW have a great time on Spring break!

Just wanted to stop by and say hello to everyone. Talk to everyone soon

Like lots of others, haven't stopped in here in forever, but I am finally able to make a quick stop to say Hi! Not been able to drop in the last couple of months because of stricter enforcement of internet rules here at work, and our dial-up at home has been disrupted by a nasty virus which we have been unable to completely eradicate. Anyway,

Hi sweet Elf!

Hi Dodo!

Hi Teena!

Hi Tracey! (I may be coming up to the TC in October - will keep you posted...)

Hi, everyone else!