Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The Alternate Spice Girls

My mate Mal Partridge is a wonderful Philosopher and a good source of good humour. He's responsible for The Mal Partridge Theory of Joke-Telling, an outstanding theory that should raise the interests of sociogists and anthropologists alike.

He told me yesterday about the "Alternate Spice Girls". His mate, Leigh Galvan and he concocted this one, obviously over more than a few beers. It's the name of the five alternate Spice Girls. The absolute only reason I mention it is because after not having heard of them for years, yesterday there was not only Mal's reference to them, but also a question on Temptation about it.

The Alternate Spice Girls are:


  • Herbs'n

  • Old

  • Sugar'n

  • Pine Lime

  • Lostin



For those who don't understand the "Pine Lime" reference you might like to check out this link and select Pine Limefrom the drop-down selector.

Most of us would recognise this though:


Malcolm Partridge thank you once again.

Monday, May 22, 2006

I've been very bad

Today was my first day off the Diet.

For those not in the know, Alison and I have dieting for the past twelve weeks. It's the CSIRO Total Well-Being Diet, and by all accounts, it's quite successful.

Our figures are as follows:


Alison Michael
Start 69.40 88.10
Current 62.70 79.10
Loss (kg) 6.70 9.00
Loss (%) 9.65 10.22


Not too bad for twelve weeks. Although we weren't huge heifers in the first place, I for one am glad the extra kilos are off: I'm fitter than I've been for decades, am notching up my belts, and can justify having kept all those old incredibly-skinny clothes.

Now while we haven't been saints on the diet, we have done it fairly strictly, and there's been countless times when I've just wanted to lie in front of the telly, eat a whole kilogram of potato chips, one of those quarter kilo blocks of the cheapest or drink twenty beers in a row.

I knew today was going to be a "release" day though. Here's my tally of the bad stuff, so far:


  • One mint-cream-filled chocolate cookie (for breakfast)

  • One original glazed Krispy Kreme donut

  • One cream-filled chocolate-glazed Krispy Kreme donut

  • One chili chicken burger with sour cream

  • One server of fried chips

  • One creamy pasta salad

  • One schooner (c. 400mL) of Tooheys New beer

  • One coffee with two very real sugars



I feel decidely unclean - and just a little bit bloated.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Material Safety Data Sheet

I just had to share this with someone, and surely at least one of you will understand exactly why I had to share this when you read it.

I have come across Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) before. For those who don't know, they are a brief doc that tells you all the good gumph about the potential hazards associated with a product. I have seen MSDSs for stuff like fibreglass, casting resins, solvents, etc. From these, one can learn, for instance, how hazardous it is to breath in powdered resins, or the correct gloves to wear when handling caustic sodas, just how flammable or explosive something is, or even what to do if you swallow some toluene-based product.

Today, while cleaning my coffee mug at the kitchenette at work, I saw a new one sticky-taped to the cupboard above my head. It was titled:

"Spree Dishwashing Detergent"


It's good to see that my employer is looking after my safety.