The Diamond Man

Laurence Graff has done it again and bought this 24.78 carat "fancy intense pink" diamond which he named "The Graff Pink". It wasn't so long ago that he bought the the blue Wittelsbach diamond for $24.3 million. He renamed it the Wittelsbach-Graff and had it re-cut to bring out the fire inside. The Graf Pink has a slight flaw which is unnoticeable to the naked eye by after re-polishing could be graded as internally flawless.
According to Graff, this diamond is the most fabulous diamond he's seen in the history of his career and he has seen a lot of diamonds. It was almost routine for him to travel to see the Sultan of Brunei carrying a suitcase full of his diamond creations.
This is a classic emerald-cut stone of exceptional colour and purity. It is classified at type 11a which comprises less than 2 per cent of all the world's gem diamonds and is even more valuable than a white diamond of this type because of the scarcity of pink diamonds.
The "Graff Pink", which is roughly the size of a pinball, was last on the market about 60 years ago and was only expected to sell between $27 and $38 million.


But if that is a bit ostentatious for you why not pop over to New York for the Bonhams' fine jewelry sale on December 16 and put in a bid for this little number. A 10.17 carat oval shaped diamond of E colour and VVS1 clarity with two half moon diamond shoulders. It's price is estimated at $550,000-$650,000. Small change if you're Graff.

Also on the block is a rare Oscar Heyman & Brothers diamond, sapphire and enamel "Harlequin" brooch. This is only one of eight Harlequins that Oscar Heyman has created over the last 12 years. The masked figure is playing a lute and the body is pave-set diamonds, accented with marquise shaped sapphires. The mask, hat, and shoes are made of black enamel and the white enamel face is accented by hand-painted red lips. It comes with a signed box, a marker's mark and is estimated to sell for $15,000 to $20,000. It'll be snowing in New York, perhaps I'll just phone by bid in.

How embarrassment!

I really shouldn't be allowed out on my own.
I managed to vote and confuse the card handouters by saying I was swinging until I actually had the pencil in my hand.
VoteRage was close as the silly tart in the booth next to me asked her husband to make sure she'd filled the ballot out correctly. I nearly screamed 'It's the 21st century you imbecile, women have died for that vote you can't cast without a bloke around!'
I calmed down after an egg and bacon roll and a think about how many elections I've been to at this school and let the memories wander around. I didn't see anyone I knew but then these days I can't remember their names anyway.
So being halfway to the bus I continued in the interest of exercise and the promise of cake. I do have to incentive myself. (shuttup, I know it's not grammah)
Bus to Mentone, accomplished.
Bus to Southland, accomplished.
Shock at crappy Christmas decorations and prices for presents. I keep forgetting that not everyone is a pensioner and has money to spend.
Check every five minutes that I still have my umbrella and no-one has nicked my purse which has the cake money in it.
Find two pairs of silver thongs on special at KMart and a box of chocolates.
Have ice coffee and cake, loving the sitting down right in front of the cake display.
Down the elevator to the bus stop with the ticket still in time.
Thank Crispin there aren't too many people around to see me drop the bloody umbrella and fall flat on my face off the bench as I bent to pick it up.
Do the usual crawl and lift my lardarse back on the bench.
Decide not to catch the bus and walk home.
Walk to the taxi rank and get drenched in a shower, forget I have umbrella.
Lovely, taxi is there.
Not lovely taxi is wheel chair cab.
Do my impression of Tarzan and throw myself into the back.
Home in time to miss teeming rain which would have drowned me if I'd caught the bus.
The thongs are from the Goldilocks range, one pair is just a little too big, the other pair is just a weeny bit small. Christmas is Crap.

I'm almost back.

I have a virus.

I think it might be the Wiccan creed of 'Do no Harm' since the violence I've hurled at Telstra in the last 10 days has come back threefold in the virus from Hell.

I am now back with dear old Optusnet, but I didn't go as far as returning to dial-up.

Thank you to the 16 year old nerd at Dick Smith/Tandy Southland who analysed my internet usage and told me exactly what I needed and an hour later I was back on line.

I've hardly been near the computer since, snot is so unpleasant sprayed on a screen. You can almost see the virus spreading.

In the words of that megolomaniacal pipe chewing yankie General, I will return.

Histioteuthis

This little squid is an example of an asymmetrical organism. The cock-eyed squid belongs to the genus Histioteuthis and lives nearly 1000 metres in the deep ocean. It wanders up to 100 metres to feed at night and its body is covered in little photophores or light producing organs, which make the squid look like a little seeded strawberry.

As for its other name, the cock-eyed squid that comes about because their left eye is two to three times the size of the right. Scientists still haven't decided why this is but sea lore has it as because the squid lives as far down as sunlight penetrates so the squid trains one eye on the illuminated downwelling water above while the other looks down into blackness.

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I might be off line as I try to figure out what to do with the new modem to replace my wireless set-up. So far I have opened the box without mishap.

This is the year, I think.

I haven't put up the Christmas tree for definitely 10 years, yes, not for this millenium.
Not for not wanting to but with Ma and the Christmas lights and that razamatazz which was enough to turn Santa off the silly season.

So this year was my year of the pretty. My year to haul out the 35 year old veteran tinsel twigs which somewhere along the way I had re-tinselled. The bottom stand had broken so I stood the main centre piece in a giant pot and poured in enough cement for the next freeway. I love this little tree, so easy to put away, fold up the twiggy branches and whack a plastic bag over the lot.

But it's so hard to put it up. So hard to get out the ornaments. So hard to push away the memories which are also lying under cold concrete in a cemetary not so very far away. No angel for the treetop, always a little Father Christmas. The Christmas mice and the gold sprayed pine cones, to be made into the tallest pyramid possible in a wicker basket for the floor. Every year we waited for the first cat to launch the top mouse into outer space.

I was intending to dust and vac everything before I put it up but I know if I wait, it's never going to happen. At least it's out of the cupboard and standing where it should be and giving me a heart attack in the dead of night when it looked ghostly in the wrapping.

I do know what ornaments I have. Instead of putting them on the tree, I'd just open the pine chest and look in the boxes. Oh, shiny, pretty, and some never been fixed to a tree, virgin ornaments, how appropriate. My mother-in-law's deluxe Father Christmas, it had to be mine as she didn't want the 'other' to have it. The baby bears haven't been out of the tissue lined drawer for almost as long as the tree has been hidden. Really small bears and all of them with a Christmas jumper I'd knitted, more important than housework.

Now, deep breath or maybe two, and go for it. Put it up and pin a memory to each branch. Enjoy it for the month it used to be the centre of. Maybe I'll knock a bauble or two to the carpet just for old times sake.

Almost there.

The dentist visit went off without a hitch yesterday with the BrickOutHouse coming home with a hole in his jaw that a family of five could live in.

On the x-ray it looked like the roots of the tooth went through the back of his eyeball to his brain which would explain quite a few things.
It took the dentist several instruments and assistants to dig out the offending molar.
She said it might fix up the sinus headaches and the migraines.
Now only to fix up a small filling in the front and I'm sure he'll do that. He's had too much pain to let anything go now.

Four sessions at the physio, last check up at the surgeon's and I'll have built a new man.
I can't do much about changing his priorities though.
First report of a thunderstorm was enough to get him up (cotton wadding still in place) and run the precious ute to a mate's factory to be undercover in case of hailstones.

But I have to say that my sister and I must have brung him up right as when he was leaving the surgeon's office, he shook the man's hand and thanked him very much for all his good work.

Why I don't fly.

This is the severely wounded airbus and its list of injuries was compared by one newspaper to the famous "Memphis Belle" bomber of WW11.

I have a neighbour who flies regularly as does her husband. A trip to England for her is a weekend jaunt to Southland for me. She flew from America on the first airbus for the Qantas fleet and it's the first time she admitted she was scared.

She said there's always a certain amount of buffeting in any plane, backward, forward depending on conditions in the air. But this was the first time she'd experienced a shuddering movement from side to side caused by the plane itself not atmospheric conditions. It was nearly continuous and she was glad to land in Australia.

I haven't seen her yet but I'd love her take on this near disaster.

Twinkle, Twinkle

This is a night view of the Nile River and Delta from the International Space Station.

The Cairo metropolitan area is the very bright area where the river flows into the Delta. The photograph also shows the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean - the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area in Israel and Amman in Jordan. The lights also show the coast line of the Sinai Peninsula and the city lights of the island of Cyprus at the top of the image.

The thin yellow curving band at the top of the image is airglow, a faint band of light emission that results from the interaction of atmospheric atoms and molecules with solar radiation at nearly 100 kilometres above the earth.

The Telstra bandwagon.

My turn for the Telstra snarl.

Bill for the Internet. I'm on pre-paid wireless, I think. I'm still confused and due to make another visit to the poor dears at the Telstra shop. I know to stand in front of the escape door to the back room and they are captive.

So we have:

Amount on your last bill $59.00
Amount you paid (as at 08 Oct 10) $59.00

Your balance $0.00
New Charges $178.28
(see over for breakdown)

Turn over the page:
Telstra Mobile Casual Plan $10 - 01 Nov to 30 Nov $10.00
Calls & Charges ineligible for Plan Discount
Mobile WAP/Internet Sessions $119.276
3G Data Pack 3GB - 01 Nov to 30 Nov $49.00

Total $178.276

I can't even check the 3GB usage because I delete records on the 1st of the month so I don't go over. None of the other accounts have Calls and Charges ineligible for Plan discount. Tension stay away from my door tonight, I'm in a killing mood.

And on the other hand. A car accelerated in reverse, not across the road, but down the road and mounted the curb, went across the nature strip, missed two huge gum trees but flattened the fence and nearly went through the plate glass doors at the home this morning. A woman driver, with a driving licence issued in Mumbai. I kid you not. Shook up the old biddies a bit as it was very early in the morning.

How was your day?

The plates are moving.

An earthquake struck near Wananui, North Island, New Zealand. 4.3 on the Richter Scale.
It's depth was only 90kms.

Christchurch's earthquake on September 4 is still rumbling with aftershocks. 11 quakes hit the city on Friday night, ranging from 2.5 to 4.3 on the Richter Scale.

Another place I'll be staying away from especially since bits started falling off Qantas planes.
I mean how unlucky can you be to avoid one crash, get on another plane to have that turn around and land safely after problems.

The ring of fire

That's the latest photo of Indonesia's Mount Merapi as it continues to erupt. So far 120 people have died from the incandescent ash raining down from the sky but it's also being blamed for the tsunami that killed more 400 people on October 25, after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

Lurking under the clouds in this image is Anak Krakatau, 'Child of Krakatau'. Anak rose from the caldera left by the explosion of Krakatau and is now beginning to spew an ash cloud high into the atmosphere. In 2009, an eruption started and you'll find some spectacular images here .

Sumatra is the site of Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. It was formed when a supervolcanic eruption occurred and is considered the largest explosive event in the last 25 million years leading to a volcanic winter with temperatures declining 5 to 15 degrees at the highter latitudes.

The tectonic plates seem to be shifting under the Indonesian Islands.

Sympathy, I want sympathy, when do I want it, NOW

Damn it I'm crook again.
Probably Tension or the stress related to Tension.

Nitrites, leucocytes, glucose, ph level, all of them up the wazoo.

Infection affecting the glucose and not the forerunner of diabetes.

Fasting test next week. The one I was supposed to have had .........months ago but geez winter was cold this year and there was mother and BrickOutHouse and stuff.

But believe me, nothing will keep me from Harry Potter, nothing.

I have antibiotics and probably a full dose of Tension again tonight.

I know how it happened, I just ignored all the signs. I'm not eating at the same time, not eating the same food, not sleeping as much as I should. I couldn't even finish my shopping today but the cat has enough food so I'm safe.

Melbourne Cup Day

STRAIGHT TO THE HALL OF INFAMOUS FASHION

NOT HER, HIM.

The Elephant in the room.

Not exactly in the room but trailing through the front door through the lounge and out the back door.
No I haven't said a word or asked about the Sunday trek.
But she's bringing a curry for his tea tonight.

Two more weeks and he'll be able to drive his car, to her place.

Hold the tongue for two more weeks. It's what she's waiting for, me to lash out, then it's sob time and the nasty woman yelled at me and I hadn't done anything. I know because she's done this to me before and caused a rift in the family that took months to heal.

Just two more weeks, unless there's brick handy tonight.

Let loose my little children of the night

I didn't feel like doing the 'Brynne' thing this year

so it's long, black and supremely elegant.

Misanthrope for the next four weeks, maybe more

I’ve always disliked staying at other people’s houses, even as a child.

This turned into a phobia after a two day visit to a friend of a friend in Sydney. I was supposed to return to Melbourne by train with my friend but ill and in pain I decided to stay overnight without her and fly back.

I was left alone in the flat, nothing in the fridge except a can of pineapple juice which I opened and had a glass before I caught a taxi to the airport. I left a gift for my hostess and a note saying that I had opened the juice.

A week later with no phone call from my friend, strange since we spoke or saw each other just about every day. The friendship apparently was at an end on the advice of her boyfriend. I was not a suitable person for her to be around.

Considering the time I’d known her boyfriend and that I’d been sleeping with his brother, it was an odd time to decide I was unsuitable as a friend.

I met her for the last time to hand over photographs of the Sydney trip and to ask the big question, why no more friendship.

The flat we stayed in belonged to his mother, a born again Christian of the rabid Catholic kind. According to her, I had stolen food, imposed on them by overstaying 12 hours, left without saying goodbye and thank you. Above all, I was the worst kind of female, in her opinion I was well on the way to becoming a (gasp) lesbian. That gob smacked me and I can only think it was because I had walked into the bathroom in my petticoat to hand a towell to my friend. These were the days of bra, girdle, stockings, full length petticoat, you know, ‘move along, nothing to see here’.

The last was also hurtful because the son sharing my bed did not tell his mother that she was mistaken probably to assure her that he was still her virgin child. Over 40 years ago and that betrayal still sends hate arrows if I hear a certain song.

I had known the friend and boyfriend for some years, neither had defended me. Friendship severed.

A fleeting phone call some years later brought home the fact that when people say you can’t go back, it’s really true. Another reason I would never follow facebook.

As far as I was concerned I had done everything that etiquette demanded of a guest but a phobia was born and I still dislike staying with other people in their home.

The point of all this is that I have someone not staying but visiting at the oddest times and seems to have no idea of what one does in someone else’s home.

I would not dream of asking to borrow cosmetics.

I would not have a shower in another’s bathroom.

I would not be cooking in another’s kitchen at 11 at night.

I would not invite my parents over when the owner of the home is in her grotty old dressing gown after a day at the oldies party and not tell her they were coming until they were on the doorstep.

I would not tie the owner’s lace curtain in a knot so one could lie on the bed to watch the birds.

And so on.

I apologized to my mother yesterday. She was crazy, bitchy and thoroughly horrible before she went to the home but she had two years of the ill-mannered troll that I am now wanting to choke after 3 weeks.

I should have let mum do away with her and pleaded justifiable homicide due to insanity.

I have not said anything to the BrickOutHouse, he knows. He has offered to go away as soon as he can sit to drive the car, bad idea and one I was trying to avoid by not saying anything.

You see, I have been in this position before with my son and his girlfriend. She won the battle and he left at 17. These two women are of a kind. They saw the man they wanted, they got the man they wanted and they will lie, cheat, connive and kill to keep the man they wanted. The only difference between them is that one was aggressive-aggressive and one is passive-aggressive. But the one I’m dealing with now could give A-A a 10 length start and still beat her in the bitch stakes and I never thought I’d be saying that.

Tension if you're reading this....PISS OFF

At long last, the first part

I have my ticket, my precious ticket.

Now I'll have to read the book again.

Take the Quiz here!

I've lost control of the year

Monday, I can't remember at all. Thank goodness I keep a diary but I forgot to write in it.

Tuesday, Mother not well so spent all day with her. Her mouth was well enough to give orders.
Still it was pleasant to have her in bed and be able to have a reasonably quiet time in her room.

Wednesday, I can't remember at all. Thank goodness I keep a diary but I forgot to write in it.

Thursday, shopping day and I forget to do the internet Bpay for the bills so run all over Southland and remember why I'm in love with internet banking. Buy clothes on sale for mother.

Friday, I start out for the bus carrying a sherpa load of stuff for guess who and decide a cab would be better. Even better go to Southland and try and sort out my Harry Potter ticket which Village have managed to stuff up. No joy so spend some more of mother's money. Bad move, she makes me haul out every thing in the wardrobe and put it in piles. One for her, one for me and one for the op shop.

Tuesday night was ladies night at the pub and the beer was free. I forgot that, three beers and I'm gone but I won a prize. Just what I've always wanted, a Bingo Set. I donated it to the Home.

I owe emails to people and you will hear from me, promise.
BrickOutHouse is recovering to the extent of walking 7kms a day.
He insists on putting blocks of chocolate near my mouth and I don't remember eating them.
How he loves Aldi chocolate, unfortunately my innards don't.

I am weary and there is tension but not because of him and I can't vent because the cause of the tension might remember I have a blog.

Call it quits, loosers

From the Sunday Herald Sun:

Train travellers are shunning myki, transport documents reveal, amid a renaissance in the popularity of old-fashioned Metcard ticketing.
Ten months after myki's introduction on Melbourne trains, only 8 per cent of all commuters are using the $l.35 billion system.

And I'm not one of them.

On the buses I am supposed to exit via the back door, which is all well and good if the driver has managed to park up against the curb. If he hasn't then it's grab hold of the door and swing to safety. This takes time but people are usually kind enough to wait or just bored enough to watch the fat lady fly. If I have to swipe and swing then I'm going to be at the back of the queue hoping
the driver has one eye on the back door. Never take it for granted that he has.

Being a pensioner I was supposed to get a free myki and I didn't so I'll stick with Metcard.
Give it all up, take the loss and go back to something that works.
When will politicians learn to admit a mistake, cop the kick in the kneecap and move on (I almost said forward but that's already been used).