mja blog

Author: Melissa

  • Awesome night of Bob Evans

    My good friend Lee-Ann and I went to see a Bob Evans show last night at the The Tivoli. A lovely venue, The Tivoli is full of wide open spaces with an upstairs gallery and beautifully decorated in an art deco style. It was my first visit to The Tivoli and I loved it.

    The crowd was mostly young 20-somethings. Very well-behaved, no drunkeness or violence, no smoking (of course, since it is now banned from public spaces). Instead there was a wonderfully positive vibe and lots of texting and photo-taking with mobile phones! So different to my experience of the Sydney gig scene nearly 20 years ago.

    Lee and I took seats up in the gallery, below us punters sat on the floor waiting patiently through the support acts.

    First up was Farrell Purkiss, who played a most beautiful guitar and music that made you want to move and tap your feet. Something about him reminded me of the late Michael Hutchence, I think he has the same smouldering appeal. A very talented songwriter/musician from South Africa.

    Next was an act called Machine Translations, which was one man J. Walker. His voice reminds me of Bob Dylan, his music is interesting and different from anything I’ve heard. He was later joined on stage by members of a local band, The Boat People who added an interesting array of instrumentation.

    At about 10.30pm Bob Evans came on. The floor below us filled up with hundreds of enthusiastic fans. A fantastic light display from the stage, terrific sound and Kevin Mitchell himself. A wonderful performer, very funny and friendly and outgoing. I was a bit concerned for him, he mentioned he was on anti-biotics, but he and the Bob Evans band put on a wonderful show. Most of the songs were from the Suburban Songbook album, there were a couple from the previous album Suburban Kid.

    For encore, Kevin brought Farrell Purkiss back on stage and they did a fine cover of the Rolling Stones Wild Horses.

  • Busy couple of weeks

    Having handed in my final assignments for REA11 (Applied Reasoning) last week, after a few midnight marathons to get them done, I have been occupied with various social outings!

    Last Saturday I went down to Logan to attend Anita’s Partylite party. Just love those beautifully scented Partylite candles. I have a couple of boxes of them sitting beside my desk (which are one by one being consumed by flame), the smell is divine. It is almost a shame to burn them.

    On Sunday Paul accompanied me to a Doctor Who Club screening of the first 7 episodes of the latest series. I like the Doctor’s latest companion, Martha. It was quite an enjoyable day, Paul said he’d like to go to the next screening, which is in July. Hopefully H will be off work and able to accompany us.

    Tonight, I went with Jo to see a local production of The Sound of Music. A couple of the singers were really good – Maria, and the Mother Abbess. Would have been a disaster otherwise I imagine! I quite enjoyed the audience participation during the show. Between scenes we were invited to sing along as a group to some of the popular songs, to “audition” for the 1938 Austrian Festival, with “nuns” wandering around our tables judging our efforts.

    Tomorrow night another outing – into Brisbane with Lee-Ann, to see a show with Bob Evans. Looking forward to it.

    After that things will be quiet for a while I imagine. Just as well, I’ve just started a couple of new uni subjects, which require attention!

  • Our new boy

    Graham brought Boss around for a visit today, to see how he and Sasha get along.

    Boss

    They got along just fine.

    Sasha

    Boss is coming to live with us tomorrow. Sasha will have a new little (big) brother!

  • Better client relations II

    Today I walked away from a web programming job I’d taken on a few weeks ago. It was for a family owned business, who had been referred to me by another customer.

    Initial contact was made by the wife, who sent me a copy of their brochure with the products they wanted to sell. Shopping cart site I thought – lots of products, streamlined shopping process – Zen Cart customisation, easy.

    We had a meeting, which I didn’t think went terribly well. I didn’t hit it off with the husband. He has a blunt manner which immediately put me on the defensive, he’d seen at least one other site I worked on and told me he didn’t like it. Nearly every time we spoke after that I would get off the phone fuming, kicking myself for letting it get under my skin.

    Last week, after putting together a basic framework on how I thought the site would work, things came to a head. The man picked it to pieces and explained how he wanted it done. To me, the way he wanted it didn’t make a lot of sense, I thought it would be very confusing for customers. We discussed it till we were blue in the face, then I put H on the phone to try and provide a point of view from a customer perspective. The man has never shopped online, which may explain why he couldn’t understand what I was doing, but was adamant about the way he wanted to do it.

    Finally I agreed to another meeting, as the man felt he wasn’t getting through to me over the phone. I tried to keep an open mind and see things from his point of view, but the crux of the matter is we couldn’t agree in principle on how to do the site. I foresaw many hours of work for something that I didn’t think would be successful.

    I was honest with him, I told him it was turning into something I didn’t want to take on. So we agreed to end it, he is going to find another programmer and I wished him good luck. It may well be that he will end up getting what he wants, and it is successful. It will come down to selecting the right person for the job most likely.

    Perhaps I SHOULD have done what he wanted, instead of being so fixed in my ideas. But on the other hand, there has been a little voice inside all along, telling me that this job would be full of problems. The rapport was not there and this made for poor communication and lack of trust. I think ultimately I have made the right decision and this client will be happier with another programmer.

  • Spirit of Peace

    John 14:23-29

    In the Jewish tradition “peace” was a sign of God’s blessing and the harmony intended for the chosen people. The early Christians understood the peace of Christ and the paraclete to be abiding gifts for the church. Because of these gifts the path of Christian discipleship was a possibility, no matter what trials were endured. May we draw strenth from the Spirit of peace in the challenges of our own lives.

    – Fr John Conway

  • Update on Sasha

    A couple of months ago I wrote about our spaniel’s heart murmur, and the medication she had been put onto.

    While it seemed Sasha picked up for a while at first, once she was off the Frudix (fluid reduction) she resumed her regular coughing and wheezing. Over the last few days she has also become quite bloated and not her regular happy little self.

    Took her in to see the vet today, who confirmed the bloat is fluid retention. Sash is back on the Frudix – she is to have it during weekdays only, with a break on weekends. Apparently if she is on it fulltime it loses effectiveness. Still taking the Fortekor also.