Fenella does not know the meaning of public holidays - neither does my alarm clock
All day yesterday I was so looking forward to my sleep in this morning. I was imagining a peaceful morning, getting out of bed around 7:30-8. However, despite living with Fenella for one and a half years, I completely left her out of my sleep in fantasy. Sleeping is something Fenella does after we have left for work not at 5am in the morning.
Our regular morning ritual (Fenella and I, not Tomas and I. Tom's morning ritual is sleeping) goes as follows:
- Fenella wakes up around 4:30 - 5. Walks up to my head, either sniffs me, or put her paw on my face to determine the amount of noise she will need to make in the next 45 minutes to wake me up properly.
- She will then most likely prepare herself for the onslaught by running around the living room.
- At approximately 5am she will jump up onto the drawers where my jewellery is and commence the wake-up Amanda routine. It goes something like this: pick up necklace in mouth, drop necklace onto other necklaces, repeat a million times
- This will generally wake me up and I will give her death stares from the bed.
- Finally at 5:30 my alarm will go off and if I don't get out of bed now, Fenella will up the ante just a little bit by starting to push items off the drawers.
And this is what happened this morning except for the fact that there was no way I was getting up a 5:30 this morning so I tried to ignore her - something that Tomas is very good at doing, he sleeps right through the whole morning ritual. At about 6:30 and after there wasn't much left to push off the drawers, I gave in got up. At least it's looking good for a nap later.
Coincidentally, as I was writing this Fenella was doing the following things:
- Preparing to go to sleep on my side of the bed
- Biting Tom's hand (he understands public holidays and is therefore still asleep) because she spotted it from her spot on my side of the bed
- Further biting of Tom's hand because he moved it when she bit it the first time
- More biting until Tom pushes her off the bed
- Snoozing on top of her scratching post in the sunlight looking like the kind of cat who never attempt to lick the inside of her owner's mouth at 5am in the morning to wake her up
The 2020 Summit
ABC2 is broadcasting the 2020 Summit this weekend. I'm in two minds about the Summit.
Firstly, I think that getting people together to discuss ways to improve the country is a worthwhile thing. Debate and group contribution is generally a good way to come up with and develop good ideas into great ones.
Secondly, it's good way to connect the government with the people who know most about their fields as well as those who may not normally be consulted.
However I'm just not that convinced about the whole thing. From what I have seen until now, it's not about putting forward ideas and bandying them about, weeding out the impractical and useless ideas until you have a set of great ideas to take to the government. All I have seen so far, are speakers standing in front of their group pushing their ideas with no chance for discussion. I am sure that there is opportunity for debate but so far, it all seems quite political.
Also, from the telecasts I have picked up that in each group an emphasis has been placed on "cost negative" ideas. Does this mean that an idea that can be implemented cheaply will be rated over one that will require significant investment from the government and will deliver real improvement to Australians?
Finally, why is this a one-off event? Surely, turning the summit in a regular event will be beneficial to the country and ensure that we always have a good supply of fresh ideas for our future.
One last word. Participants at the summit have dubbed themselves: summiteers which kind of makes it sound like they have an immense obstacle to overcome...
Better late than never
About a month ago, I shaved my head for the Leukaemia Foundation's Shave for a Cure. I raised just over $800 thanks! The reaction has been almost exclusively positive and I may even shave it again soon. Growing your hair out is always awkward, more so the shorter it is to being with.
Most people have seen my newly shaved head but for those who haven't or who are on the other side of the world here's the proof that I really did shave my head.
Post-shave with the other 'baldies' at work
Too cool for you - almost finished the shave
Pure class - the mullet and the office's fake cigarette.
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