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| Saturday, April 29, 2006 |
| Idol Time |
While I realise that the vast majority of the world doesn't know or care, today is the Adelaide audition day for this year's Australian Idol. Ata avoids Australian Idol only slightly less fervently than she avoids Big Brother, and would not have realised it was audition day if she had not met an intending auditionee yesterday.
Nonetheless, given that so many people spend a long, frustrating, uncomfortable day waiting to audition for Australian Idol, Ata could not help but think that their suffering should not be noted. So in honour of Australian Idol Audition day, here - for your reading pleasure - is the list of songs Ata would most like to perform on stage if she had the opportunity. And lessons. Lots of lessons. But the point is, Ata thinks they would all be fun to perform. As opposed to just listen to.
Preacher's Son - Aretha Franklin
The House that Jack Built - Aretha (again)
Show Me How To Live - Audioslave
Protons, Neutrons, Electrons - The Cat Empire
The Crowd - The Cat Empire
All That You Have Is Your Soul - Tracy Chapman
Mack The Knife - Frank Sinatra
Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
Little Ghost - The White Stripes
My Baby Just Cares For Me - Nina Simone
Murder in the Red Barn - Tom Waits
Girl Anachronism - Dresden Dolls
Alright, so it's a short list. Probably I'll think of some more in about an hour's time, when I'm doing something else. |
posted by Ata @ 3:15 pm  |
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| Wednesday, April 26, 2006 |
| Fresh off the plane |
Ata is safely back in Adelaide.
Cyclone Monica was a great disappointment in Darwin, producing one day of rain (patchy for most of the day but getting heavier & more constant in the late afternoon/evening) and some wind. At the last minute on Monday, school closures for Wednesday had been announced - putting AM in a good mood as she contemplated two days off (one for Anzac Day and one for the cyclone). Everything planned for Anzac Day was called off - dawn service, marches, mass, horse races, the lot - but several determined diggers stood guard at the memorial at dawn anyway. Ata herself (mildly disappointed not to be attending the dawn service with her father, even though it has been many years since Ata attended a dawn service) rose on Tuesday morning and sat on the bare patio listening to birdsong and contemplating the still, overcast skies. Everything loose had been packed away the night before Just In Case, but the abundance of bird activity suggested to Ata that no cyclone was impending. With all flights grounded and most people off the streets, the only noise was birdsong. The Owl-Faced Finches resident in the garden flew down to hop about on the concrete where they would usually expect to filch seed out of the cockatiel's cage or from their own bird feeder, and Ata obligingly went inside to fetch it. The wind started to rise a little and rain speckled down shortly after. We spent most of the day watching DVD's - a short film collection Ata brought with her, and Ever After. In the afternoon, AM and AF and Ata and a family friend went to the beach for afternoon tea. The weather was more evident here, and we spent some time checking different spots to find a location that had shelter. Each time we stopped, the air was warm and rainless until we began to unpack the thermos - whereupon rain swept in. Eventually we located a shelter to sit under with a table to sit at.
AM's anticipation of a Nice Wednesday Morning spent hauling Ata around to AM's favourite plant nurseries was, however, cut short by the un-cancelling of school. Oh well. One can't have it all.
Ata's flight back was largely ordinary. It left 45 minutes late, we waited several minutes longer than usual for the doors to be opened and the hordes released on arrival at our destination. After spending twenty minutes at the baggage carousel, Ata decided her bag was not arriving, and spent ten minutes discussing the situation with the baggage enquiry counter woman, who was pleasant but a little wary at first. I guess one would tend to be a little wary after some time spent working at a baggage enquiry desk. She suspects the case may have been inadvertantly put on the Darwin-Alice Springs-Adelaide flight instead of the Darwin-Adelaide flight that Ata was on. Oh well. Ata has been flying regularly since she was three days old, but this is the first time luggage has had a mishap. Typically, it is also the first time Ata can remember packing her camera in the checked baggage instead of taking it carry-on. Which is the reason this post has not been accompanied by the photos Ata had planned to post. One can't win them all, can one. |
| posted by Ata @ 6:51 pm |
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| Monday, April 24, 2006 |
| Update |
For anyone interested, here is Ata's Cyclone Update. Her name is Monica. She is currently a category 5 (which is as bad as it gets), but expected to be category 3 by the time she cruises past Darwin. All flights in and out of Darwin have been cancelled from about 11 tonight. Which means that the flight Ata had arranged to be on at 1:55, with the intention of beating the cyclone so as to ensure being in Adelaide in time to make it to work on Thursday, has also been cancelled. Which means that Ata is now booked back on her original Wednesday flight, minus the extra dollars paid to rebook to Tuesday, and hoping that Monica does not decide on a longer stay. Those interested in Monica's current location (and don't worry, I'm not assuming you actually are) can look here: http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDD65011.shtml Ata's Father's favourite site for cyclone movement forecasting is the Joint Typhoon Warning mob. They are predicting that it will cross to the south of Darwin, so we won't cop the eye of the storm. Ata suspects that it will probably turn further south, and we won't get much at all. Just some rain (nearly wrote 'rian', then) and wind. http://www.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc/warnings/sh2306.gif Ata's parents live in a grollo, which was built shortly after Cyclone Tracy and has been altered very little since. As a result, the building is solid enough to withstand just about anything short of a direct nuclear bombing, or possibly the Second Coming. Most loose objects have been brought inside. Darwin is currently on Cyclone Warning. For the uninitiated, 'Cyclone Watch' is the equivalent of 'Alert but Not Alarmed - Know Where Your Spare Knickers Are'. 'Cyclone Warning' is 'Batten Down the Hatches and Don't Leave the Dog Outside Tonight'. I have to go for dinner now. We are having fish and chicken. Toodles all. |
| posted by Ata @ 8:04 pm |
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| Thursday, April 20, 2006 |
| Like a Tiiiiiger |
No time for a proper post today, so instead a little Atafact.
Ata Looooooves Tigers. Like these ones.
Ata's best childhood friend lived for a time in Bangladesh. On her return to Australia, Ata was thoroughly jealous of a picture showing the best friend's two younger brothers leaning on an adult tiger.
Ata's best friend, however, had been too frightened of the tiger to get in the photo. Young Ata thought this a Terrible Waste of Opportunity. |
| posted by Ata @ 6:12 pm |
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| Wednesday, April 19, 2006 |
| She's Baaaa-aaack! |
So the toilet blocked up. On Easter Sunday. A public holiday weekend being, of course, prime facility-blockage time. Fortunately, energetic flushing and poking a garden hose through the pipes outside made it drain well enough to avert a State of Emergency. As everyone knows, summoning a plumber on public holiday weekends requires the mortgaging of one's first born, so the House of Ata was glad to avoid this necessity. Given that we do not have a first born to offer, and we don't like to carry that kind of debt.
Less fortunately, this exertion caused the toilet to make an alarming blooping noise, which caused great distress to Bosco, and set our toilet-training efforts back somewhat.
Anyway, a plumber duly arrived on Tuesday morning to put the nasty snakey thing that looks disconcertingly like a prop from The Matrix through the pipes, and thus restore normal flushing function in the House of Ata. This procedure caused more alarming blooping noises in the toilet, further distressing Bosco. He resumed his toilet protest, and there was a Floor Incident. Ata began to fear the training process would have to start all over again. This proved not to be the case, but only after generous application of catnip spray and the use of cat-discouraging citrus-based cleaner on the floor. And Bosco spending some time with head-and-shoulders down the toilet, investigating the source of the blooping. At least he has stopped drinking the water. |
| posted by Ata @ 4:04 pm |
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| Sunday, April 09, 2006 |
| Scheduled Shutdown |
To the Valued Readership of Atarama:
We regret to inform you that, due to Necessary Authoric Alterations, Atarama shall remain unupdated for the next 5 - 10 working days. Normal Ataservices will resume after this time.
We here at Atarama would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience. Your continued patronage is important to us, and we would like to thank you for your readerly support.
Kind Regards,
Atarama Updating Staff. |
| posted by Ata @ 10:28 pm |
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| Saturday, April 08, 2006 |
| Opportunity |
Opportunity knocks.
Or rather, opportunity considers knocking.
Ata spies it through the peephole.
Ata sees you, precious, she does, oh yes.
Which gives a little time to consider: should you be seized? Shall we lay our hands upon thee?
If we take you in and make you our own, shall we regret it?
Would you make our lives more Interesting, or just Harder?
If we turn you away this time, will ye come again?
Before you lay a fist upon this door, Opportunity, think well on this -
Ata shall be waiting for you. |
| posted by Ata @ 11:59 pm |
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| Friday, April 07, 2006 |
| All Graduated |
Tonight was the Graduation ceremony for the TAFE course Ata did last year. Some of you may recall Ata's struggles with this particular course - the difficulty centered primarily around working out whether the course actually existed, and what exactly the subjects were about. Apparently she must have worked it out in the end, because Ata qualified for two - count 'em, two - diplomas. Only had to do one set of subjects, mind you, but if you pick the right subjects you qualify for both certifications.
TAFE graduation ceremonies are a very different kettle of fish to University graduations. For a start, you don't have to hire a hot uncomfortably expensive gown. You don't have to sit in rows. You don't have to bow to ranks of extravagantly attired professors (howcome their gowns are so much fancier than ours?). In fact, most people did not even turn up to have their awards presented. Dammit, after all that class-attending and assignment-writing, I'm jolly well going to get my turn to have my name called while I walk across a stage. AND there was a Light Supper afterward.
Having sat down & settled in our chosen locations, Mr Ata went to the little boy's room. Ata looked about to see if she recognised any classmates - no luck on the classmate front, but lo and behold! Just three seats to the left was a Friend that Ata had not known would be there. He was on his own, so came to sit with Ata and Mr Ata. This Friend moonlights as film crew, and shall henceforth be known as Film Crew Friend, or FCF for short. In fact, one of his films was being shown this very evening at a film festival, as it had been nominated for an award, but he was unable to attend as he had prescheduled in the Graduation Ceremony.
So Ata and FCF pored over the evening's program, and speculated on exactly how long the whole shebang would take. When the ceremony started, Mr Ata entertained himself by sending text messages to a workmate and playing games on his phone. Ata and FCF entertained themselves by keeping track of where the ceremony was up to in the program, and making fun of names. Or more specifically, making fun of the presenter as they struggled, mangled, and skipped over difficult names. We waited eagerly for a presentation to a particularly poetically named girl - Lucia Maria De Sousa Pestana - but were disappointed when the presenter, having blundered through several difficult names already, chickened out and announced her as Lucy Pestana.
After the ceremony there was Food, which had been very eagerly awaited as the invitation specified arrival at 6:30, and no-one had eaten yet. It was very tasty, but laying hands on the hot food took a degree of tactical skill and an amount of assertiveness. Ata did alright with the chicken skewers and calamari rings, but it took several tries to get a filo triangle.
It was an alright evening on the whole. As good as a graduation ceremony can be expected to be. And now the course is officially done with, and Ata shall never need to do it again. |
| posted by Ata @ 9:57 pm |
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| Saturday, April 01, 2006 |
| Funny Little Frog |
You can't help but admire a band that makes 'poet' rhyme with 'throat'. I was ambivalent about this song when I first heard it, but now - well, I'm still not sure whether I really like it. But it's catchy. And I like the image of the jester in the ancient court.
Funny Little Frog
Honey lovin you is the greatest thing
I get to be myself and I get to sing
I get to play at being irresponsible
I come home late at night and I love your soul
I never forget you in my prayers
I never have a bad thing to report
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
My eye sight's fading, my hearing's dim
I can't get insured for the state I'm in
I'm a danger to myself I've been starting fights
At the party at the club on a Saturday night
But I don't get disapproving from my girl
She gets the all highlights wrapped in pearls..
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
I had a conversation with you at night
It's a little one sided but that's allright
I tell you in the kitchen about my day
You sit on the bed in the dark changing places
With the ghost that was there before you came
You've come to save my life again
I don't dare to touch your hand
I don't dare to think of you
In a physical way
And I don't know how you smell
You are the cover of my magazine
You're my fashion tip, a living museum
I'd pay to visit you on rainy Sundays
I'll maybe tell you all about it someday
- Belle & Sebastian http://www.belleandsebastian.com/recordings.php?release=&view=lyrics&lyrics=432 |
| posted by Ata @ 7:30 pm |
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