I haven’t ventured into the deep, dark depths of the business as yet but have already been scoulded with a “ohhh but those are Autumn colours”.  I’ve also had the most hideous hot pink “frock” shoved in my face from a woman who could have stood in for Prue or Trude (http://www.kathandkim.com/threw.htm).  The same woman who got very confused when I told her I didn’t want red dresses for my bridesmaids, “But you’re wearing red today?” she said.

There is also the endless clucking, smug smiles and obligatory cooing over my engagement ring (I wonder if that’s a ploy to check if you’re a tyre-kicker).  Jackson is lucky, so far he’s only had to deal with some venue co-ordinators and a couple of photographers … these people tend not to be relatively normal.  Relatively.

If you don’t know what a gecko looks like … here’s a couple of the little blitters.

I haven’t minded them too much - they climb along the walls so you only really know they’re there if you see one move out of the corner of your eye, or hear them squwarking, oh, or find their little mouse-like dropping along the window sills.  But tonight that changed.

One crawled across my foot while I was sitting on the couch with my feet on the floor.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a scaredy-cat, just ask Brewy about the “spider in the shower” story but if a Gecko is crawling across my foot, it means they’re taking over.  Soon they’ll be sleeping in our bed and hogging all the hot water.

Any suggestions for getting rid of them?

It might be the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the list goes on but for me, the first think I think of is *BROADWAY*. Imagine my amusement when the day before I left home to come to the US of A, I discovered that the stagehands union had gone on strike. Oh dear, I thought, I hope that doesn’t last long. I read the NY Times online and discovered that the last such strike lasted only 5 days. Phew! I couldn’t imagine going to New York and not seeing Chicago or 42nd Street or any of the any number of other Broadway musicals. (Well now it’s no longer secret squirrel that I LOVE musicals).

Now, with just 2 days left in the Big Apple, one being Thanksgiving, I am starting to no longer shake my head and smile at the timing. As I walked past the picket lines tonight I was sad - yes, sad that so many people are temporarily out of work and their union is failing to come to an agreement with the theatre heavies - but mostly I’m sad because I want to see a damn Broadway show! Call me selfish, because I am.

I say yes but what do you think? I lunched alone for three days in San Francisco and it seemed that burgers were the easiest meal of all and, when not purchased from a chain restaurant, is actually really nice.

Thank goodness for all of the walking, otherwise I’d have gained about 5 kilos in those three days.

What I am referring to is that the taps turn the wrong way, the light switches are out at the bottom when on instead of at the top and the toilet bowl is full of water at the start and then empties when you flush. Also they have appetizers and entrees instead of entrees and mains. Some stuff includes tax and some stuff doesn’t so I never know how much something costs until they tell me at the cash register which means I can’t figure out how much money I need to get out.

OK, so perhaps they’re not backwards but is taking some getting used to!

I am accompanying Jackson on a work trip to San Francisco and we are then shooting over to New York for a few days. Besides being constantly beseeched by the homeless for some spare change San Francisco has been really pleasant. I won’t say it’s been great as for some reason, despite being able to navigate to London Underground, Paris Metro etc with relative ease, I have found San Francisco’s public transport to be somewhat intimidating and inconvenient so I’ve opted to walk. The walking is great as you get to see “people live here” parts of a city, rather than just what the tourism board suggests you should see, but I haven’t really checked out San Francisco’s claims to fame as they’re quite a hike or beyond a hike from our hotel.

However, Americans are very friendly and open people and, although, they’re quite loud, I quite like them. I just have to get used to unintentionally listening to peoples private and personal conversations and then I’d feel quite at home … particularly if people are going to keep saying I’m the “best thing goin’ ’round tonight”!

Today my sister and I took our mother and grandmother for High Tea.  Chocolate High Tea to be precise.  The Stamford Plaza in Brisbane holds Chocolate High Tea every Saturday and Sunday from 3pm to 5pm.  The concept is lots of tea and lots of petite, sweet and savoury delights with a high emphasis on chocolate.  Think “Baileys Cheesecake”, “Chocolate and Peanut Caramel Slice”, “Chocolate-dipped Strawberries” and “Mud cupcakes” as well as a smattering of the standard crustless finger sandwiches and too many other petite sweets to mention.

Heaven? Yes.  Filling? Definitely! Almost sickly? For me, yes but for my fellow diners not so much.  I highly recommend the exercise for anyone who has a sweet tooth and is willing to “play ladies” for an afternoon.  The demographic is certainly set for the outing but what could be better than whiling away a couple of hours overlooking the river and stuff your face with chocolate-y delights!

I had to drive out west today for work and, of course, when I was in the middle of nowhere my car decided to suddenly inform me that it was running on minimum oil.  Now, I don’t know a lot about cars but I know that they like water and there is such a thing as too little and too much oil - both of these latter options have dire consequences.

Thankfully I turned out to be only about 10kms from a place called Oakey - 159kms west of Brisbane, population approx 3,500.  Unfortunately there was only one petrol station and neither of the ladies there could point me in the direction of the synthetic oil.  They did however direct me to ask the Toyota dealer, who read my manual and suggested I got to the Oil and Battery Barn.  They were able to sell me synthetic oil, though I am now the proud owner of 5 litres of the stuff, far more than required!

After this ordeal, I required the public facilities.  The public facility turned out to be automated … fully automated … right down to the electronic toilet paper dispenser and (this is the best bit) the automated soundtrack.  Yep, music to relieve yourself to.  Press the close door button and the music starts, press the open door button and it stops the music and flushes the toilet!  I personally feel that the music was a little uptempo for the occasion but really, what is the precedent for this situation?

I was grabbing some lunch at a Cairns shopping centre yesterday when I looked over and saw a business displaying the following large sign: “Juices, Shakes, Crapes”.  Now I know there is a word “crape” but who uses that spelling for deliciously light and soft pancakes!