I finally have my new site about online shopping in Australia ready. It’s called MyOnlineShops.

It’s a replacement for the shopping site that I lost last year, when the domain renewal email went to an old address I wasn’t using any more. Someone quickly grabbed it, as it had a great ranking at Yahoo, and solid PR, and then offered to sell it back to me for $800. No thanks. I did the work for that once, so he won’t get any profit from me. And it no longer ranks anywhere useful.

MyOnlineShops was completely created with Drupal, an open source Content Management System. I didn’t have to do any code at all - it is pure core Drupal, a large number of contributor modules, and CSS. OK, maybe 10 minutes of html for the page layout, moving a few things around from the default layout.

I obviously have a thing about My…. websites. This is my third, after MyDogSpace and MyDogSite.

The reason for calling it MyOnlineShops, is that it lets me (and free members), create my own list of favourites, have my own shopping blog, my own profile, and make my own reviews and comments on shops I’ve used.

I’m still busily adding more online Australian shops, but feel welcome to suggest any missing ones through the contact form on the site.

a new petrol station opened last week around the corner.

there was no great fanfare - possibly they were too embarrassed by how late it was, and how ugly it is - like they transplanted a highway monstrosity into our little Federation suburb. Anyway. It’s open now. Although it still doesn’t have an Icee machine, which makes it a failure in the eyes of an 11 year old boy.

For a treat, I suggested that we drive through the new automated car wash. I’ve never done it before, although I’ve been a passenger in one. And it was cheap enough to go for the souped-up carwash, including the polish, wheel clean and undercarriage.

We paid and drove to the entrance. The computer-controlled sign at the top said zero minutes wait. So we drove down the driveway. Stuff-up number one: there were two cars in front. 10 minute delay.

When it was almost our turn, we noticed that the car in the car wash was stopped and doing nothing. They waited. Then they drove out while the light was still red. That was a mistake. The computer control immediately said “car wash temporarily unavailable”. We got out of the car, told the cars behind us what was wrong, and walked up to the counter.

‘Oh that happens sometimes’ they said. Not very impressive in a brand new car wash. Apparently it’s very sensitive, and you have to have your handbrake on. So he reset the car wash and told us to drive in.

We drove in, put on the handbrake, and waited.

The shampoo. The rinse. And……

No dry. No polish. No green light.

We sat and waited a few more minutes. They guys behind us got antsy, so we drove out and back up to the main counter, again.

They said it really was sensitive, said we really had to put the handbrake on (duh, we did), turn the engine off, drive straight, and not move. Wow. Not much fun for kids.

They said they would come down and wait to see that it worked for us this time.

The computer said zero minutes wait time.

Oops. A queue of two cars.

Another 10 minutes.

Gee, the assistant got bored, and decided not to wait for us after all.

We drive in, very slowly, very straight. Put on handbrake, turn off engine. Don’t move.

Shampoo. Rinse. No dry. No polish. No green light.

We wait a few more minutes. We beep and toot.

Everyone behind us backs out up the driveway.

No help from the petrol station.

It’s been an hour since we first got here.

Will I ever go back to the Mosman BP Petrol Station Car Wash?

Not on your life.

This year I started doing dance lessons, as Les and Serina have been doing performances for a while, and suggested I join in. The hardest part I found was learning to follow: in traditional ballroom dancing, the female follows the lead of the male. But after 35 years of playing piano and being in bands, I really really want to come in at the beginning of the bar. Those two things rarely happen at the same time. And it’s not just me - Pip has the same problem, after playing the flute in orchestras, and that’s even when dancing with a fellow muso.

So we did a few performances at the Autumn Ball last month. We did the opening number, to a certain Right Said Fred song, with Serina and I being the rah-rah girls to Les’ central figure. Here’s our I’m Too Sexy number from YouTube.

And then Les and I did a more traditional waltz. The other thing that I found hard was dancing in high heels without falling over. At 5 foot 11, I’ve never really been a high heels kind of girl, and more of a tomboy/bookworm, so it took all my concentration not to fall over, especially during the turns.

Next time we’re going to do something Latin, and I’m going to learn how to walk and turn properly in high shoes.

All the performances from the ball are now on YouTube from the StepUpDanceStudio. I recommend P02 and P18 for some really impressive dancing, and P19 if you want some stunning costumes. And of course Les and Serina doing the Jitterbug for a really fun dance.

A stunning article in the Sydney Morning Herald today entitled Self Sufficiency on a balcony.
It was the most concise guide I’d ever seen on how to grow all the fruit and vegetables you need to supply your family, on your balcony or small backyard.

It made me want to go and buy her book Backyard Self Sufficiency book from Seekbooks.

I think I will. Absolutely stunning.

I just finished reading Time Magazine’s top inventions of 2005 - a little late, as it gets passed to me from my father-in-law in a pile a few weeks after he’s finished with them.

The magazine’s top nomination was for the cloning of a dog. Woof.

At Time.com, there is a list of the top inventions as voted by online readers, with the Fukuda Automatic Door coming first, followed by the stunning Lifestraw, a personal water purification straw. You can check it out at lifestraw.com.

The ones with the most practical use for me were:
- Roomba - a robot vacuum cleaner
- Sony’s Ebook Reader

The roomba is apparently available already in Australia, that can sense stairs and basically do all your vacuuming for you. And apparently it happily copes with dog hair, which is the bane of my existence. My beautiful gold labrador just has to walk through the room for it to be absolutely covered with dog hairs. It doesn’t look so bad on the cream carpet (apart from the footmarks and the red dye from where he peed on the red leather pouf), but on the kitchen floor, it constantly looks hairy. Not good, Jan. So I’m definitely saving up for a Roomba this year. Along with everything else.

Sony’s Reader was apparently a hit, because the screen is made from an electronic paper that makes it look almost as clear as paper. Not being backlit, it reduces glare, which can strain the eyes. It’s about the size of a paperback, and shows one page at a time.

Personally, I’d almost kill for an electronic music display device. Currently when I play the piano, my old much-loved music books are propped open with a diary on each side, to stop the pages from flipping open as I play. And then when I try to change pages I have to quickly rebalance the diaries, usually dropping them, and half the time the whole book falls on the floor.

As I write this, I did a search on Google for electronic sheet music display, and found the Music Pad Pro Plus.

It sounds like heaven. An electronic touch screen (or you can use foot pedals) to turn pages that can store 1000s of pieces of sheet music.

The only downsides I can see are price ($1200US), weight (around 4 lbs), and my preference to have two pages open at a time. Although it says you can use landscape mode to have two sheets displayed, I wonder how easy they would be to read.

Oh well. Maybe one day I’ll win the lottery, and have every gadget I could ever want.

And a new kitchen.

cheers.