Opinion Australia

Had to ask the family yesterday because I had *no* idea where we’d been and what we’d done. Seems the youngest went skating (that much I knew) then to a party at a bowling alley whilst we went shopping for ‘stuff’ of some sort.

I’ve been a bit woolly headed because I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the new sites. Both daughters now have active blogs, as does the personal trainer Sally (not that she’s written in hers yet!). I’m well on the way to working out the mechanics of the ‘ice skating’ site and will be able to make a start on Sal’s ‘business site’ soon. All that’s left to do then is create her ‘recruitment site’ and the major part of the creation work will be done.

There is a load of work to do on the ODPS and Talk Tidy sites, but they are ticking along well enough right now so I’ll not interfere too much there until everything else is running smoothly.

As any web designer will tell you, ‘site creation’ is the easy part. The problems start immediately afterwards. Even getting a site ‘live’ is a relatively minor issue. The *real* challenges are adding meaningful content and then successful marketing… i.e. attracting visitors! If you can make just a few of those visitors either part with cash directly to you, or click on advertising to earn a few cents each time then you’re doing well.

As far as the kids and Sal’s blogs are concerned, most content will be down to them. Yes I’ll update the ‘Skater’ site now and then with photos and the like, but essentially the blogs are there for them. Sal’s business site will be essentially ‘static content’ and so once done can be almost forgotten except for occasional maintenance.

My blogs obviously need constant updating… and the AO forum needs constant monitoring because of the odd-bods who attack it now and then. Which leaves the Skating and the Recruitment sites.

I’m fairly confident that I can get the Recruitment site functioning, up to a point. I’m not yet convinced that that ‘point’ coincides with Sal’s ‘point’ – but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

What I *am* more sure about is that I could develop the skating site to a standard that would make it *the* premier site for the sport… and the stopping place for anyone interested in ice skating in Australia. SO what’s stopping me? Time – pure and simple. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Occasionally I think I will simply ignore everything else an treat the sites as a full time job in themselves, but neither life, nor my brain, work that way.

Yes I’ll get on with it eventually… but it’s so frustrating sometimes not to be able to give my full attention to a task and concentrate on it properly. Flaming ADD drives me crazy. Oh… hang on!

So yesterday was a bit of a disaster. Today… not exactly ‘fruitful’… tomorrow?? Well tomorrow is another day… or so they say.

Today was a bit of a ‘curates egg all in all. For those unaware of what the hell I’m talking about, it’s a reference to an old joke about a Curate who was lodging with someone whose culinary skills were notable by their absence… i.e. she couldn’t cook.

The Curate, being a pious sort of guy and desperately inoffensive would do anything to avoid insult or conflict. Unfortunately, one day he was given a boiled egg that was probably delicious when fresh, but had deteriorated to the state it might have hatched had it not been boiled.

As he delicately was picking his way through it the landlady walked up with a smile and asked him how he found his egg. The Curate smiled, thought for a few seconds and said “Wonderful… in parts.”

That’s pretty much how my day has been ‘Wonderful… in parts”.

To be honest the ‘wonderful’ parts can only be described thus in comparison to the rest of the parts which weren’t quite so… err…. wonderful.

Getting up at 4:30 a.m. (again) was obviously not the best part of the day, but *being* at the ice-rink and seeing Zara Pasfield back at the rink. This girl (daughter of champion skater Michael Pasfield) has a great future ahead of her. She has a long way to go yet but she is very graceful and ‘fluid’ to watch and streets ahead of any of the others I’ve seen at the rink so far. Also of course watching my own child skating well was worth getting up for though, she’s not yet at the skill level of Zara! !

So that was mixed to begin with. From there we rushed back to collect the eldest daughter to ferry her to her Tennis Camp. Then it was another rush down to the ‘diet doctor’ to have another ‘pep talk’ and then back home. No sooner in than out. Shopping in Woolworth’s is a mixed bag too. I don’t really dislike shopping, even at supermarkets, but dragging the youngest with me and having a cold as well made it a less than pleasant experience.

From there back to Tennis Camp to collect the youngest and then home. This is where it got ‘interesting’.

For the past month or so the swimming pool has been unusable. We’ve had endless people coming and going trying various things to fix it but to no avail. We knew it was blocked, but had no idea where, or by what. Today we found out.

The guys had dug up the garden, dug up around the pool filter box, poked god knows what into the holes and eventually (no idea how) they hoicked out what was causing the problem… a small plastic ‘cup that was almost exactly the same diameter as the pipe it had blocked. I’m assuming the kids dropped it into the pool and somehow it circumvented the filter box and filter bag before finding its way to the pipe.

I say I’m assuming that because it is *such* an unlikely event it could almost have been deliberate.

Anyway, they seem to have unblocked it. They removed the pumps, hacked off lots of pipe, dug up the place wherever necessary… and used all sorts of equipment to assist them. They also say they’ll have the pool all bar fit to use by tomorrow… nice. All that’s concerning me right now is exactly how much this is going to cost us. If we end up having to shell out less than $2,000 I think we’ll be doing well.

This has to be the most expensive plastic cup ever, If ever I see that Curate I’m going to kick his shins.