After "What's left of me", former 98 degrees bandmember and, need I add, ex-husband of whatshername, Nick Lachey has released his second single "I can't hate you anymore".

You know, Nick, I am sensing a pattern here. Get over yourself already! You know what you need, Nick? You need to get laid.

Nevermind the fact that I might not be in any place to give relationship advice but c'mon, looking at his most recent singles that Nick Lachey might as well come right out and say "I'm a puppy who likes to get kicked. (Preferably by my ex-wife)."

Neither parent nor pram

Summer is a killer. Entering your car after having parked for two hours in the summer heat is a bigger killer, no joke. Today I was determined to snare one of those rare sheltered lots at Galleria so I circled and waited for about four minutes before I spotted one, one, sheltered lot out of Galleria's 4,235 lots (sheltered:unsheltered = 900:3,335).

Not bad eh, for my patience.

I had recalled seeing heaps of sheltered parking lots on my previous visits (when I didn't have a car yet) but somehow, the lots disappeared when I was looking for them today.

Shopping centres here aren't like Takashimaya or even Tampines Mall back home where all the parking lots are in one spot - underground. Because shopping centres here are horizontally developed rather than vertically, one often finds oneself walking and walking and walking just to get from one end to another. Look on the bright side, that large double chocolate sundae you had before your shopping spree probably had whittled into thin air.

So I managed to grab a sheltered lot.

Something should have gone off in my head when I noticed all, and I mean all, the cars around mine had car seats in them. That's pretty weird, and a bit freaky isn't it? Had all the mothers in Perth come out in full force? Was I going to be buttonholed by the mummy brigade?

Oh, I got my answer a few steps later. Oh yeah.



Yeah that pretty much explained it.

I didn't move my car though. 900 sheltered lots, there's plenty of parking for you mummies. :-P

Twenty-something too

19... 20...

Ohh... what's next?

Candles
(Photo taken from Getty Images)

Look ma! Ducklings!

Look who we found lounging on our patio...

Ducklings on our patio

Yes, very cute. But guess who has to deal with all their duck poo?

In which this author attempts "teenage girl" vernacular

Like, I have the coooooooooolest lecturer evar or what?!?

He, like, gave us, like, a 12 freakin' day extension for our 4000 freakin' word essay!

Like, so totally awesome!!!

Spreading the love

My minicards arrived yesterday!

moo minicards

They're 19.99 (USD) for a pack of 100 minicards. You'll need a flickr account, I think that's the only way you can get 'em.

More information at www.moo.com

Hit and run

Something terrible happened today. If you had guessed, from the title, that it had to do with cars and driving, well, you're right. Nobody was hurt, fortunately.

Anyways Perth was pouring today. Like big fat droplets and strong winds, the type that sort of make it harder to see what's on the road, y'know? I was reversing into this lot today and I had noticed I was coming too close to the car on my right. There was probably about only 10cm space but I wasn't too worried because it's not the first time I had come so close. I just had to go forward and reverse again.

So I turned my head around to check for oncoming cars, at the same time reach for my gear stick, the next thing I knew, there was this barely audible scratching sound coming from my right.

Shit, right?

I drove forward, and turned my body around to check the damage. When you're in my situation and you hear a sound like that, anyone can tell what had happened.

The car was an average red sedan, and there was, indeed, a series of three white lines running across its paintwork. The longest one was about 30cm.

I did what was probably the most irresponsible thing I have ever done: Drive away to park at another lot as far away as possible.

When I stopped at my second lot (parked safely this time), I sat for a good five minutes weighing my options. Not a lot to choose from: Either I walk away, or leave a note with my contact details.

I headed in to work, doing nothing. It was busy when I entered so I got to work straightaway. In between customers, I told my colleague what happened. She said it was probably the rain, and that I should leave a note. Asking her advice was hardly necessary, I mean, isn't it obvious the right thing to do was to apologise and then leave my phone number?

I caught a break about 30 minutes into my shift and ran back out into the parking lot but here's the thing, the red sedan was gone, which increased my guilt about tenfold. Somewhere out there this irate driver was most probably cussing in a thousand and one languages and I'm here, half of me quite happy to have escaped dealing with it (the other half extremely guilty of course).

I'm really going to be threading on eggshells for a while now, just so karma will have less of a reason to strike. :S

And now, a word from the lowly majority

Mathematics was my strong suit when I did my O Levels. It still is now, just don't ask me about pythagoras' theorem. So with my above-average calculating skills (ahem), I did an estimate of how much it would cost weekly for me to attend classes.

A single unit costs $1900 (an average as different degrees have different costs).
We have 13 weeks of classes, which means each week will cost the average student about $150, if you round up.

Skipping that week's classes means $150 have gone from your pocket into the uni's without you getting anything in exchange.

Attending classes but with a boring lecturer droning on and on would also mean that $150 have been deposited into said uni without you getting anything of any worth back. It is not your fault you attended the lecture but fell asleep because the lecturer seemed to be telling a bedtime story.

Do you see... where I'm going... with this?

Why do some lecturers suck so badly? You would think with their experience of attending lectures, and then conducting lectures themselves, they would have had some idea of making their lectures interesting, or even listenable, to start with? Or is it because they just don't bother because they have the upperhand anyway? I'm not asking them to do a song and dance, just make lectures more bearable, is that so hard to do?

* * *

You know the Aussies are pretty big on personalised car plates when your colleague's car plate reads John 4 16. Imagine my amusement when I stopped right behind this at a red light:

Spotted