Micks' Musings

I was reading the Mythbusters forum the other day and saw a post about "Fan Death" In South Korea there is a belief that sleeping with a fan blowing towards you can result in your death (look up the Wikipedia article for some more details). It seems that if someone dies with a fan on in the room then the press report it as a "Fan Death". Japan used to have a six day calendar. Every day has luck or fortune associated with it. One day is unlucky all day and one day is lucky all day. Guess which day you should avoid doing anything important on? These are known as ROKUYO. The western societies have Friday the 13th. Fortunately this day doesn't come around very often but when it does we have to be careful! There are no shortage of superstitions in all cultures so no one need feel left out! Look at all the movies and TV shows about vampires, witches, demons, wizards and other supernatural phenomena.

The silly story in the Sydney Morning Herald about Sunday Rose meeting her future husband, Tennyson Crowe, reminded me of the blooper an automatic subtitle generator made on TV one day. I was sitting in Sydney airport when the news story about Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's newborn was discussed on one of the morning chat shows. The blooper? It called the newborn "Sunday Roast".

Yesterday my bicycle was stolen because I didn't listen to the little voice in my head. You know the one. It says things like "Don't leave your bike out here because someone will take it. Maybe you have done it dozens of times before but that doesn't mean it won't happen today". One the way home I stopped to have a cuppa with Mum and Dad. I left the bike where I always leave it. In full view from the sitting room (next to the kitchen) window. We didn't see anyone walk past but someone took their chance. I wonder how long it will be before I start ignoring the little voice again.

There is a song with the chorus "The working man makes work for the working man to do". The song may have been tongue in cheek but it proves the saying "Many a true word is spoken in jest". I am sure everyone can think of an example. In our case we had our house renovated a few years ago and every time a tradesman completed his task there was a mess left for the next tradesman to have to avoid. We visited the house everyday and cleaned up the mess in an attempt to keep the renovation on time. It didn't work and our builder still managed to find $20,000 of extra charges as well as taking 35 weeks to complete what he said would take 14 weeks. To save money we did the painting and we did most of the work before the flooring man came to lay the new floor (5 weeks late). The floor took about 7 weeks to do (it was a 10 day quote) and the floorers managed to put holes in the walls and ceilings which we had to patch and paint over. It is of little consolation that the f...

Have you seen the latest anti-magpie gear? The echidna or porcupine or hedgehog bicycle helmet!! An enterprising lady cyclist in Canberra has used cable ties to transform her bicycle helmet so it has plastic spines pointing in all directions. I cannot vouch for its effectiveness as the Magpies have always left me alone (or never flown close enough for me to notice).

Yesterday I brought two aerosol can fire extinguishers, one for the kitchen and one for the hallway cupboard, next to the laundry. On Saturday night I was sitting in the lounge room watching the end of "New Tricks" when there was a smashing sound from the other end of the house. Down in the bathroom one of the heat globes in the light unit had failed, overheated and set fire to the plastic surround. The globe had then fallen to the bathroom tiles and shattered. When I walked in molten plastic was dripping on to the floor and flames were flickering inside the heater / light unit. I watched the fire go out. I had not replaced the old fire extinguisher after we had the house extended (it was one of the things that was thrown out). I considered using a wet towel to smother the fire, getting a bucket of water, using a dry towel but decided to wait and see. It went out without ever becoming a danger leaving behind splashes of plastic and broken glass.

The Twenty20 world cup just finished, the Rugby World Cup is nearing the quarter final stage (at last, the group stage seems to have gone on for ever) and the Womens' World Cup Football final is this weekend. On top of all this there are several Cricket Tours starting next week (England in Sri Lanka and Australia in India), the English Premier League (and even many other leagues in England) is in full swing, the AFL and NRL Grand Finals are this weekend and then there is Golf and American Football... It is a good think I don't watch Golf, Basketball, Baseball, Motor Sports or American Football because I would never get to bed!