Ok Kam, you were so right. This show is so heavily manipulated it is probably scripted. But they're obviously not paying real scriptwriters...maybe it was the work experience person who came up with 'Fabio'.
This was the big twist at the end, after she chose the hunk over the average Joe, clearly touched by the geek's over-keenness and desperate willingness to almost say "I love you", but unwilling/unable to match his 'emotional level'. All the while noting that the hunk guy she chose was holding back (quite) a bit. She went away for a holiday with her chosen hunk and then felt she had to reveal her big, deep, dark secret. That's right, her ex boyfriend was Fabio. How old is Fabio anyway? Isn't "Larissa" supposed to be about 19?
Hunk Guy's reaction was something along the lines of a hissy fit followed by ditching her mid-holiday. Maybe he thought her past 'bad' boyfriend choice reflected poorly on him. This is supposed to show that she should have chosen an average Joe, who would be so honoured to be chosen that he would cope with any number of truly weird or bad skeletons in her closet. Now that I think about it, this would have been an okay, semi entertaining storyline, if only the skeleton actually in her closet hadn't been so completely laughable!
Disclaimer: I was not 'watching' Average Joe: Hawaii. It just happened to be on while I was waiting to start the video to tape this week's Angel episode so that I could go to bed. I may have caught some little bits of previous weeks' episodes while channel surfing. Uh-huh.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
One just ain't enough
I have another blog. I started this back in December, just on a whim. I wanted to be able to dribble on about movies, books, tv, etc, and liked the idea of it being a separate area to this one. I think what I really need is a website to contain one or more blogs, and then some photos too. That's on the list.
So many movies! So little time!
Mum, Dad, Emma and Luke got me a fantastic birthday present - '1001 movies you must see before you die'. This was Dad's idea and he deserves a bucketload of kudos for it.
It is a beautiful book just to flick through, with lovely thick glossy paper that smells good, and photos for almost every movie. It is organised chronologically which is great for browsing, and has alphabetical indexes by title, director, and genre. I love it. I especially like that it doesn't claim to be the definitive 'best movies'. I already knew that there are a lot of movies I want to see. Now I have a much bigger list! I think I should try to have some sort of system - one movie a week? (including cinema and dvd).
Today's CDs:
1. Eagles of Death Metal, Peace Love Death Metal
2. Pixies, Doolittle
3. Nirvana, Unplugged in New York
I've enjoyed them all so much I think I'll let them run through the CD player again.
It is a beautiful book just to flick through, with lovely thick glossy paper that smells good, and photos for almost every movie. It is organised chronologically which is great for browsing, and has alphabetical indexes by title, director, and genre. I love it. I especially like that it doesn't claim to be the definitive 'best movies'. I already knew that there are a lot of movies I want to see. Now I have a much bigger list! I think I should try to have some sort of system - one movie a week? (including cinema and dvd).
Today's CDs:
1. Eagles of Death Metal, Peace Love Death Metal
2. Pixies, Doolittle
3. Nirvana, Unplugged in New York
I've enjoyed them all so much I think I'll let them run through the CD player again.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
no spam thank you ma'am
Would you like to receive email every time this blog is updated? If you've been checking every day since Saturday to see if I've posted Part 2 of the Bridgeclimb story (the bit where we actually climb), this could be what you need. Send me an email saying you would like to be notified. Each time I post, you'll get an email with the text of the new post in it. Which you can read or delete as you please.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Queen of the Castle
Last Tuesday I drove through north Sydney on my way from Newcastle. We had to queue for quite a while to pay the toll before entering the tunnel. As we were waiting, I looked up ahead and could see the Bridge, amongst the skyscrapers. I couldn’t believe how high it looked against those buildings, and that a few weeks ago I stood right at the top.
I’m standing 134 metres above the waters of Sydney Harbour, more than a tenth of a kilometre above all the dirty rascals. It doesn't quite feel real. I don’t quite realise how high I am until a cargo ship passes under the bridge. Hmmm, yeah, that’s quite a big ship, we say to each other. Then I experience a huge perspective shift as the guide points out that there are two people standing right at the front of the ship. They look like matchsticks.
We walked into the Bridgeclimb offices just before 4pm and found LOTS of people, all either lining up to make bookings or waiting for their turn to climb the bridge. Every ten minutes a group of twelve heads up onto the Bridge. All day and into the night.
After a bit of nervous waiting we were called in to sign indemity forms, then colour in a page of those circles that I haven’t seen since competing in Maths and Science competitions at high school, and count into a breathalyser. The circle-colouring-in was to get our names printed on the official certificates. I was the slowest to finish this because I actually tried to read the indemnity form, and at the same time a Bridgeclimb employee was talking about things that might have important. However I am happy to report that both Dad and I passed the counting and colouring-in tests comfortably.
Next we were hustled into an adjoining room, and greeted by another employee, who inspected our shoes, told us what jewellery we were allowed to leave on (rings and small earrings were about all), and performed the impressive feat of handing each of us exactly the right size jumpsuit without asking anyone for their size, but not before he apologised for looking each of us up and down. We went into little cubicles to change into the jumpsuits, after yet another employee came in with a weather report (temp low 20s, humidity high) and recommended "just underwear or very light layers" under the jumpsuit. This was very helpful as I hadn't wanted to ask, but had been wondering if you're supposed to wear your clothes underneath. The jumpsuits were not highly fashionable, though at least the colours were muted and inoffensive in two or three shades of grey. I heard later that the grey was chosen to avoid distracting motorists driving across the Bridge, but I don’t know if that’s true. It was somehow comforting that everyone wore the same, even the staff, and even including those who just work in the preparation areas and don't actually lead the climbs. I did feel for them, knowing how I would feel about wearing a jumpsuit on a daily basis, let alone one with firm elastic wrists, ankles and waist.
Once jumpsuited, they checked us over with a metal-detecting wand. I’m not sure if they were looking for guns, knives or excessive bling bling, but in any case we all passed.
Finally we met our guide and collected an array of gear. First, the padded belt and harness to be attached to the continuous static line (cable) that follows the entire route taken on the bridge. Next, a raincoat (zipped into a smallish package) that clipped onto the back of the belt. If it had been colder we would have had a similarly packaged fleecy jacket clipped on the other side. I was most amused by the blue man-size hanky with an elastic loop on one corner. This was worn on the wrist and wrapped around, bandanna style. I don’t remember anyone using it, but I guess a sudden runny-ness of the nose could be a bit of a disaster. Even if you did have pants with pockets on underneath the jumpsuit, it would be very tricky to get to your snot-rag. We were allowed to take sunglasses, and if we did there was an official BridgeclimbTM cord to hold them, which not only went around the neck but also clipped on to the jumpsuit. Dad was very relieved to discover this option because he had been debating whether to take sunnies, being worried about the wind drying out his contact lenses. There were also BridgeclimbTM hats, which, inevitably, clip onto the jumpsuit. I decided not to mess up my totally stylin’ pigtails. They even had official BridgeclimbTM scrunchies for those who hadn’t thought ahead like me.
We did a short practice climb on a series of ladders set up in the preparation area, mainly just getting used to being ‘clipped on’ to the static line, and learning how to free the clip when it snags. Oh yes, and learning the ‘one-at-a-time’ method of ladder climbing. And finally, just near the exit, we got the last piece of equipment: a radio which went in a holder on the belt, and a headset with ear pieces that went on your face in front of the ears (face-pieces?) and worked by bone conduction. I guess this might be so that you can still hear other things properly while listening to the running commentary from the guide.
We stepped outside onto the street, feeling about as odd as we looked. Not to mention a little apprehensive.
Stay tuned for part 2.
I’m standing 134 metres above the waters of Sydney Harbour, more than a tenth of a kilometre above all the dirty rascals. It doesn't quite feel real. I don’t quite realise how high I am until a cargo ship passes under the bridge. Hmmm, yeah, that’s quite a big ship, we say to each other. Then I experience a huge perspective shift as the guide points out that there are two people standing right at the front of the ship. They look like matchsticks.
We walked into the Bridgeclimb offices just before 4pm and found LOTS of people, all either lining up to make bookings or waiting for their turn to climb the bridge. Every ten minutes a group of twelve heads up onto the Bridge. All day and into the night.
After a bit of nervous waiting we were called in to sign indemity forms, then colour in a page of those circles that I haven’t seen since competing in Maths and Science competitions at high school, and count into a breathalyser. The circle-colouring-in was to get our names printed on the official certificates. I was the slowest to finish this because I actually tried to read the indemnity form, and at the same time a Bridgeclimb employee was talking about things that might have important. However I am happy to report that both Dad and I passed the counting and colouring-in tests comfortably.
Next we were hustled into an adjoining room, and greeted by another employee, who inspected our shoes, told us what jewellery we were allowed to leave on (rings and small earrings were about all), and performed the impressive feat of handing each of us exactly the right size jumpsuit without asking anyone for their size, but not before he apologised for looking each of us up and down. We went into little cubicles to change into the jumpsuits, after yet another employee came in with a weather report (temp low 20s, humidity high) and recommended "just underwear or very light layers" under the jumpsuit. This was very helpful as I hadn't wanted to ask, but had been wondering if you're supposed to wear your clothes underneath. The jumpsuits were not highly fashionable, though at least the colours were muted and inoffensive in two or three shades of grey. I heard later that the grey was chosen to avoid distracting motorists driving across the Bridge, but I don’t know if that’s true. It was somehow comforting that everyone wore the same, even the staff, and even including those who just work in the preparation areas and don't actually lead the climbs. I did feel for them, knowing how I would feel about wearing a jumpsuit on a daily basis, let alone one with firm elastic wrists, ankles and waist.
Once jumpsuited, they checked us over with a metal-detecting wand. I’m not sure if they were looking for guns, knives or excessive bling bling, but in any case we all passed.
Finally we met our guide and collected an array of gear. First, the padded belt and harness to be attached to the continuous static line (cable) that follows the entire route taken on the bridge. Next, a raincoat (zipped into a smallish package) that clipped onto the back of the belt. If it had been colder we would have had a similarly packaged fleecy jacket clipped on the other side. I was most amused by the blue man-size hanky with an elastic loop on one corner. This was worn on the wrist and wrapped around, bandanna style. I don’t remember anyone using it, but I guess a sudden runny-ness of the nose could be a bit of a disaster. Even if you did have pants with pockets on underneath the jumpsuit, it would be very tricky to get to your snot-rag. We were allowed to take sunglasses, and if we did there was an official BridgeclimbTM cord to hold them, which not only went around the neck but also clipped on to the jumpsuit. Dad was very relieved to discover this option because he had been debating whether to take sunnies, being worried about the wind drying out his contact lenses. There were also BridgeclimbTM hats, which, inevitably, clip onto the jumpsuit. I decided not to mess up my totally stylin’ pigtails. They even had official BridgeclimbTM scrunchies for those who hadn’t thought ahead like me.
We did a short practice climb on a series of ladders set up in the preparation area, mainly just getting used to being ‘clipped on’ to the static line, and learning how to free the clip when it snags. Oh yes, and learning the ‘one-at-a-time’ method of ladder climbing. And finally, just near the exit, we got the last piece of equipment: a radio which went in a holder on the belt, and a headset with ear pieces that went on your face in front of the ears (face-pieces?) and worked by bone conduction. I guess this might be so that you can still hear other things properly while listening to the running commentary from the guide.
We stepped outside onto the street, feeling about as odd as we looked. Not to mention a little apprehensive.
Stay tuned for part 2.
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