**************************************************************************** ### # # ### ##### ## # # # ## ## # # ### ##### ## ### ### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### ### # # # # # # # # # ## # #### ### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### # ## # # # ## ## ## ### # # # # # ### ____________________________________________________________________________ # # ### #### # # #### # # ### #### ##### # # ##### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### ### ### ##### # # #### ##### # # ##### ### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### ### # # # # #### # # ### # # # ##### ##### #### *******NUMBERS 336 TO 340*****************************BY DANIEL BOWEN******* *****Please note, some of the quoted addresses within this file may no***** ***longer be correct. Please email info@toxiccustard.com for information.*** "Formula 1 Toxic Custard" TOXIC CUSTARD WORKSHOP FILES Number 336, 10/3/1997 http://www.toxiccustard.com Written by Daniel Bowen --------------------------------------------------------------------- It's the bit you look forward to every week - it's Toxic Custard's POT SPOT WATCH Well, the sign said the lease finishes Sunday 9th of March. Sure enough on Sunday afternoon there was no sign of movement. Inside it appears than all the stock has gone. So... this could be it. Stay tuned to the Toxic Custard Web site for more developments as they happen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You may be wondering how my new job's going. It's going pretty good. I'm part of a small team of seven that have been thrown together, and we spent most of last week figuring out exactly what we'll be doing. Which is just as well, because being a very large organisation, they're taking a bit of time to get such luxuries as phones and PCs sorted out. But the essentials have been sorted out, such as the location of the nearest Coke machine, the quirks of the bistro, and the location of the three nearest parks. It's a hangover from working in St Kilda Road, next to Fawkner Park. We had to check out and rate the parks. Park#1 is very nice, but a little too far to walk. Park#2 is closer but, quite plainly, sucks due to factors such as the dust from the nearby quarry and the noise from the freeway. Park#3 is probably the best. I'm getting a handle on the commute. The urban tribes found on the 624 bus are quite different from those on the train. The schoolkids outnumber the commuters, so they tend to be a good deal more rowdy - in fact they use the kind of language that would probably send your grandmother into shock. The bus timetable in the morning looks like this: Bus time Early early Early Late Which means I'm still half It's a reason- I'm running late asleep able time Gets me to About 8am About 8:30, but About 9am; after work Boss thinks I'm the trip takes everyone else. conscientious a tad longer Bus load An acceptable Cram packed with Uni students, a number of school schoolkids and few late school- -kids and Uni Uni students kids and a students; a (but I get on commuter or two commuter or two early enough to get a seat) Bus driver Keeps the bus Keeps telling Listens to a company walkie people to move decent radio talkie turned up to the back station Conclusion Probably best if Avoid unless Just a tad I'm energetic enjoy imperson- too late. enough. Can go ating a sardine. home early. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diary - Saturday 8th March The very first thing we saw when we walked out of the house this morning was the Whitman's blimp, flying directly overhead. In the afternoon we had a wedding to go to, almost in the middle of Grand Prix territory during a transport strike, a bit of a scary prospect. Would it be Melbourne's version of REM's "Everybody Hurts" video? Thankfully it was while the racing was going (well, okay, not the actual racing, the time trials or whatever it is). So as the cab driver expected, the traffic wasn't really a concern. The wedding itself was great; last time we ran into problems with Isaac making various screechy and other loud noises in the church. This time the bride had insisted that we would stay for everything, no matter how much noise Isaac made. Actually he was relatively well behaved, a key factor being the number of mini-teddybear biscuits we stuffed into him every time he opened his mouth. The reception was good too. Seeing the cake being cut reminded me of our own wedding a few years ago. We were about to cut the cake when we found it was rather more solid than we bargained for. Lori jokingly asked if anyone had a chainsaw. Someone did. He got it from his car, and so we got photos of us holding a chainsaw over the cake. Diary - Sunday 9th March First stop this morning was one of Isaac's colleagues' second birthday party in a park. We foolishly left the house without checking where we were really going, and this being the Garden State and the City Of Far More Parks Than Necessary, we ended up in the wrong park. (Not before we had spotted the inevitable Whitman's blimp, however). Eventually we found the right place. This afternoon I headed over to a flat rented by a couple of friends (the ones who got married in December). It's very near Albert Park, the Grand Prix circuit, so they decided to have a little GP party. It's not close enough or high enough to watch the race from, but close enough that you can get a glimpse of the tops of the cars whizzing by, and the noise well and truly drowned out the TV. Certainly beats surround sound. Looking skyward it was amazing there were no aircraft collisions. I counted five helicopters at one stage (and yes, the Whitman's blimp) as well as an RAAF jet that whooshed through just before the race started. At times it seemed more like a war zone than a sports event. The race itself was interesting, though confusing. I freely admit I don't follow Formula 1 enough to really know what was going on, and we couldn't hear much of the commentary. And every so often a helicopter would fly over low and interrupt the TV reception. For those of you who watched the race on the telly, I can let you into a little secret: they don't stop during the commercial breaks. The laughs came after the race when the Pommy commentators kept proclaiming how much of a "nice chap" the winner was, and one reported that it had been "a cracking race". That of course lead to "Cracking race, Gromit!" done in my best Wallace voice. For more of Daniel's diary, check http://www.toxiccustard.com/diary/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Toxic Custard Guide To Australia returns next week. In the meantime, check out the archive and maybe even ask your own question, at http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Toxic Custard's Web site. A great place to waste time. http://www.toxiccustard.com For subscription requests, changes, removals, etc, send mail to request@toxiccustard.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. -- Daniel Bowen, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia ---------- Play: dbowen@toxiccustard.com / TCWF: info@toxiccustard.com ----------------- Waste your time here---> http://www.toxiccustard.com <---Waste your time here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Nomadic Toxic Custard" ---=--- =--- = = =--- http://www.toxiccustard.com = = = = = Number 337 =OXIC =USTARD = = =ORKSHOP =--ILES 17th March 1997 = =--- =-=-= = Written by Daniel Bowen POT SPOT WATCH: I think it's over. After almost a year of closing down sales, the Pot Spot really has closed. The For Lease sign is up, the stock is out, the window has been wiped clean. The place is empty. Even the sign proposing a specialised printing shop has gone. What will arrive next? Does anybody care? Who knows. In other neighbourhood news, it appears that one of our neighbours is trying to get their car stolen. A say this because it's been sitting out there on the street (rather than in its car space) for the better part of a week now. With the passenger side window down. Call me crazy, but if that's really what they're trying to do, I think the reason they haven't been successful yet because it's not exactly the Wheels Car Of The Year. It's a 1973 Toyota in charming rusting blue (and I don't mean that's the type of blue; I mean it's rusting). We considered stealing it ourselves, but for the fact that (a) it's a crap car, and (b) if we parked it anywhere close to home it would be noticed! Diary - Sunday 16th March Well, the weekend is over and it's back to work tomorrow, with the probably vain hope that we'll actually get our hands on some hardware this week. Yes, we're still without PCs and phones. As well as desks to put the PCs and phones on. I honestly don't think I've done this much handwriting since school. Okay, it could be a lot worse, given that it's the early stages of the project and we're doing a lot of preliminary design and analysis stuff. But there comes a time when you have to stop talking about building a computer system and actually start building it. And that time is fast approaching, along with the deadline for having the thing built, coming along not too far behind it. But things haven't reached desperation point yet. You'll know I'm at desperation point when I actually start writing code on paper. When I start penciling HTML tags into my diary. And when a spare noticeboard becomes the project intranet, with documents pinned up and pieces of string tied between them as hyperlinks. It's all down to the wheels of big organisations moving very very slowly (if at all). Evidently it's the desks that are the main problem - to be precise, where the desks will be. Once the desks have been allocated, the rest will apparently follow. The phones, the PCs, the network connections, all of that. They just don't want to have to do it all again if we get moved. But until someone signs the appropriate bit of paper in triplicate, no desks. We don't have a place to live in the building. We're homeless. We're software development nomads, roaming the complex in search a home we can call our own. If only we had a Moses. Someone to lead us. Someone to part the lift doors. Someone to get those desks, those PCs, someone to get that network connection. Someone to lead us to the promised LAN. But in the mean time, it's scrounging on borrowed PCs, our belongings in a waste paper basket, and meetings, endless meetings, in the bistro. Or maybe in the lift? For more of Daniel's diary, check http://www.toxiccustard.com/diary/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE TOXIC CUSTARD GUIDE TO AUSTRALIA http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ Paul Ryan from Ireland wrote: I spent a year on that magnificently big island that is called Australia. My question is why the hell is it so bloody difficult to get permission to go somewhere so bloody big!!!??? (The embassy here really make it difficult to get a visa.) When Australia was first colonised, they'd let anyone in. In fact, I suspect that most of the convicts who got dragged halfway across the world to be here would have preferred not to have come. Nowadays the situation is reversed. They won't let anybody in without a certain amount of prerequisite paperwork unless they are (a) planning to spend a lot of dosh, (b) a New Zealander, or, rare as it might be, (c) both. The other thing to remember is that the people who staff the Immigration Department and most other government departments, before they get to work there, have to pass a thing called the Public Service exam. To pass the exam, they have to prove beyond all doubt that they are the slowest, least accurate jugglers of paperwork in the country. These are the people the post office reject. And that's why it's so hard to get a visa. Joseph wrote: Here in the US when our kids dig a deep hole in the ground we tell them that they will come up in China. Since Aussies are located below the Equator and not in line with China what do you tell your kids when they dig in your backyards? Nobody asked, I am just nosey. It's not a particularly common thing to tell the kids here - though I seem to remember hearing it in American cartoons. I don't remember being told that when I was a kid digging in the garden. What I do remember is getting covered in mud. According to my calculations it looks like if you did dig a hole from Australia, you'd end up somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. And actually, it looks like if you do the same from the United States, you'd end up not in China, but somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Maybe it depends on the angle you dig at. To catch up on Australian culture, check the question and answer archive at http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Toxic Custard's Web site. Thousands of people have wasted their time here, and now you can join them. http://www.toxiccustard.com For subscription requests, changes, removals, etc, send mail to request@toxiccustard.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. -- Daniel Bowen, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia ---------- Play: dbowen@toxiccustard.com / TCWF: info@toxiccustard.com ----------------- Waste your time here---> http://www.toxiccustard.com <---Waste your time here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Non-food-poisoned Toxic Custard" &&&&& %%%% ! ! ! }}}} http://www.toxiccustard.com |OXIC # USTARD : : :ORKSHOP {{{ILES Written by Daniel Bowen + @@@@ ===== $ Number 338, 24/3/97 DIARY - Fri. 21/3/97 With the accommodation and hardware situation not resolved at work, I've been working at home most of this week. Haven't done this since last year when I sprained my ankle. It's got its bad and good points. Bad: * Less interaction with my fellow deskless sufferers and others. It's probable that if I were locked in a room with a computer and no means of real time communication for the rest of my working life, I would go stark raving mad. But there's always the email and phone. * No hot chocolate from the bistro. Okay, it's a good way to blow $1.20 in a hurry, but to miss out on regular chocolate drinks is wrong. * Have to fit in with the surrounding family chaos. Even a door can only block out so much noise. * It's costing me extra in electricity and net connection fees! And a 14.4Kbps modem seems just a tad pathetic compared to your average corporate high-bandwidth something-bloody-impressive- Kbps "our staff can surf at any cost" connection. Good: * Can dress any way I want. Hey, if I want to sit at the computer in my underwear, I can. (Not that I do, but I could if I wanted to.) * Can work any hours I want. As it happens, I've been working reasonably "normal" hours. I haven't yet got into the habit of waking up late, working until past midnight. I can have long lunches, read the paper, watch some TV... * No commuting. Saves me about an hour a day, and it'd save me money too, if I hadn't just bought that monthly ticket. * If you're facing a deadline and being grilled by your boss over the phone, you can use all those excuses that off-site graphic designers always seem to use (not that I would, of course)... What they say What they mean --------------------------- --------------------------- there was a power failure I haven't done it yet my hard disk crashed I haven't done it yet I'll email it to you first I'll email it to you some thing tomorrow morning time tomorrow afternoon I'll email it to you before That's my close of close of business business - around 4am. I'm working on a number of You're the lowest priority things right now * I can swear as much as I want when I make a mistake. * I can safely go into one of my "thinking sessions" without members of senior management walking past and thinking I'm not doing any work. * It's not a ten minute walk to the Coke supply. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts. Hopefully they'll have got us all desks and PCs by... well, hopefully sometime this century. DIARY - Sat. 22/3/97 The neighbours' car is still out there on the street. Obviously someone's noticed its uncared-for status; people seem to have started dumping litter inside it. Maybe the reason nobody's taken it is that, apart from being a crap car, maybe it doesn't work? Yes, the Pot Spot is still gone. No sign of a last minute resurrection of their long running closing down sale. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't support local business a bit more. Okay, in the two-ish years we've lived here, we haven't actually wanted or needed any kind of terra-cotta garden accessory. But couldn't we have bought some anyway? Just a few small ones? Maybe that could have somehow figuratively lifted the figurative straw that broke the figurative camel's figurative back? For more of Daniel's diary, check http://www.toxiccustard.com/diary/ (Jan and Feb '96 have just been added to the diary... find out what to do when you're expecting the tilers at the door and the Jehovah's witnesses turn up instead.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE TOXIC CUSTARD GUIDE TO AUSTRALIA http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ Scott McLellan wrote: Why is there such a big controversy over hunting ducks? We do it in the states all the time and there's only a few people who complain. Every year at about this time in Victoria the Men With Big Guns get government approval to go into the wetlands and blow the crap out of some ducks who are quite innocently flying around. The Animal Rights Activists turn up too, to confront the Men With Big Guns and generally cause a fuss and get on the TV news. The activists take the position, which has some merit, that the ducks themselves would prefer to just fly around, and not have the crap blown out of them by the Men With Big Guns. Which seems fair enough to me. The other thing the Animal Rights Activists do is to collect some of the shot birds that are plainly not ducks - swans, for example. I'm not sure how on earth the Men With Big Guns can confuse a duck with a swan, but most years a few of them manage it. Maybe the solution is for someone to engineer robot ducks, that don't mind having the crap blown out of them. But the Men With Big Guns wouldn't think it was so much fun, so it probably wouldn't work. This year, most of the ducks have actually flown to other states (where duck shooting is not allowed). Maybe someone explained the different laws to them. With a bit of luck the Men With Big Guns and the Animal Rights Activists will all go home and take up gardening or ballroom dancing instead. To catch up on Australian culture, check the question and answer archive at http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Toxic Custard's Web site. Burn your spare minutes here... http://www.toxiccustard.com For subscription requests, changes, removals, etc, send mail to request@toxiccustard.com with the subject header "subscribe" or "remove" as appropriate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. -- Daniel Bowen, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia ---------- Play: dbowen@toxiccustard.com / TCWF: info@toxiccustard.com ----------------- Waste your time here---> http://www.toxiccustard.com <---Waste your time here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Custard of Doom!" TOXIC CUSTARD WORKSHOP FILES Number 339, 31/3/97 Written by Daniel Bowen http://www.toxiccustard.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW on the TCWF Web site: Custard Television http://www.toxiccustard.com/features/tv/ DIARY - Thu 27/3/97 Wow! After almost a month, some movement at last on desks at work! Somehow, some way, they've found us some. And what's more, they're not stuck up in some obscure part of the building that's fifteen minutes' walk from the lifts. They're down on the ground floor, near the main entrance. Amazing. And of course, having made us wait all this time, suddenly the Powers That Be have decided they're in a hurry - they're paying extra to have the area all kitted out for us over the long weekend. So when we get back on Tuesday, the theory is that we'll have desks. Now, if we can just get some hardware to sit *on* the desks... DIARY - Sat 29/3/97 Well, the cult in California committing mass suicide is all over the news. Sorry, but is there any real surprise here? This is what weird cults do. They recruit impressionable people, take all their money, cut them off from their families, go and live in a isolated compound somewhere, shave their heads or adopt some other uniform look, predict mysterious event X, and all commit suicide one otherwise cheerful day. It's not really news anymore, is it? This time of course, the twist was the Internet link - the Web site they left behind. Hmm... It's just a thought - I wonder if they've paid their InterNIC domain name fees? Given the lather the media usually work themselves into whenever there's something to do with the Internet and bad news, they've shown remarkable restraint. All except the Herald Sun (often commonly referred to as the Herald Scum), whose headlines were up to their usual well informed, non-sensationalist standard - "WEB OF DOOM". It was probably a toss-up between that and "INTERNET DEATH CULT" and "NET SUICIDE PACT" and "ARE YOUR KIDS SURFING WITH THE INTERNET WEB DOOM DEATH SUICIDE PACT CULT?". DIARY - Sun 30/3/97 It's a very special weekend - the one when the clocks go back an hour! An extra hour's sleep on Sunday morning is always a good thing. In fact, the only way it could be better would be to have the extra hour on Monday morning instead. Of course, there's another reason that it's a special weekend - it's Easter - the time of year when many people in the western world commemorate Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection by eating far too much chocolate. For my wife Lori, I managed to find a brilliant chocolate Buddha. Meanwhile, our neighbours seem to have given up on the idea of having their car stolen. It's still out on the street, but it's being used a bit now, and isn't left there with the window wound down anymore. For more of Daniel's diary, check http://www.toxiccustard.com/diary/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE TOXIC CUSTARD GUIDE TO AUSTRALIA http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ Ken and Jan in Canada wrote: So, what do Aussies REALLY think about Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious??? First I should point out that I don't speak for all Australians. This is something that has escaped the notice of a few (other) correspondents, so it's worth mentioning every so often. However, since I'm Australian, I can speak for what *this* Aussie thinks. Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee stuff is okay... but he was a lot funnier with his TV show. Alas it's fading into memory now because it's been so long since they were made and shown. Will we never see Leo Wanker again? As for Paul's movie career... well, it looks like he's achieved One Hit Wonder Plus A Sequel status. Which also sums up Yahoo Serious. The difference is that Mr Serious has vanished off the face of the planet. Anybody know where he got to? Probably took the money and retired. Jason (who I'm guessing is somewhere in the USA) wrote: With all of the beer consumed in Australia, What is the legal drinking age???? The legal drinking age is eighteen. Months. No, just kidding. Eighteen years. Which is the same as the voting age. Does this mean you can legally turn up to vote when pissed? I'm not sure, but it conjures up some images, doesn't it! To catch up on Australian culture, check the question and answer archive at http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Got some time to waste? Then waste them at Toxic Custard's Web site. http://www.toxiccustard.com For subscription requests, changes, removals, etc, send mail to request@toxiccustard.com with the subject header "subscribe" or "remove" as appropriate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. -- Daniel Bowen, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia ---------- Work: Contracting for Coles/Myer Pty Ltd at Tooronga ------------------------ Play: dbowen@toxiccustard.com / TCWF: info@toxiccustard.com ----------------- Waste your time here---> http://www.toxiccustard.com <---Waste your time here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Fool's Custard" TOXIC CUSTARD WORKSHOP FILES | http://www.toxiccustard.com | =============================| Written by Daniel Bowen .---' Number 340, 6th April 1997 |-------------------------' -----------------------------' NEW on the TCWF Web site: Learn About Toxic Custard - the history, the FAQs, and take note of our humour disclaimer. http://www.toxiccustard.com/misc/about/ And... Radio Custard is back!!! DIARY - Wed 2/4/97 April Fools' Day yesterday was pretty quiet. The best prank I spotted was an advert in The Australian for a Compaq combined mouse and massage device. The text described it and then said for more details to go to a Web page with an address something like www.compaq.com.au/aprilfoolsdayprank/ha.ha.ha/ We did get our desks at work. It's not the roomiest space I've ever worked in, in fact, some shoe boxes compare favourably. But any desk is better than none. Even better, the guy was in today wiring up the network connections! Great, all we need is PCs to plug *into* the network connections. POT SPOT WATCH: It looks like the former Pot Spot shop is turning into a carpet store. DIARY - Fri 4/4/97 Great news! We got cables to go with our network connection points! Amazing stuff. With any luck, in the next few months the bits and pieces of the PC might turn up. Okay, I admit it, it's starting to get just a little frustrating. This is the end of the fifth week at this new job. The first couple of weeks, I could stand - we were getting to grips with the task ahead, working out exactly what we'd be doing... But five weeks - c'mon! Someone should get the message soon - we're computer people... here's a hint... we need computers to work! There is a particular person who has the responsibility of getting our computers for us. We're now seriously considering stealing his. But in the mean time, I'm still spending a fair bit of time at home, getting paid to mess around with the technology we're intending to use for the system we're going to build. I can't actually go ahead and build any of it, so who knows, the Toxic Custard web site might get a few little Java applets out of it! DIARY - Sun 6/4/97 I was going through the latest Weetbix collector cards the other day, as one does... at the moment it's various groovy and highly athletic basketball stuff, not something that enthrals me enough to want to collect them. Anyway, imagine, for a moment, that you're me. You've just pulled the cards out of the box without yet seeing what the theme is. You read the caption, which says, and I quote: "Between the legs dribble" What the heck is this?! Ah... I see... It's just basketball. We haven't yet reached the stage where bizarre personal diseases are featured on breakfast cereal cards. Today's funniest spotted shop name: "The Mad Pom - We buy anyfink." DIARY - Mon 7/4/97 Week six. No PCs. I hope they realise how much it's costing them for us all to be working but not getting anything done. We've got new neighbours at home. The guy downstairs moved back to Perth. He left some groceries behind for us. Stuff he said he couldn't use. Like GladWrap. Maybe they don't use that over there? Anyway, a family moved in last week. They seem pretty friendly, which is nice. 'Cos remember... everybody needs good neighbours. For more of Daniel's diary, check http://www.toxiccustard.com/diary/ - now with archives going back to August 1995! Relive those halcyon days of the mid 90's - the launch of Windows 95... my McDonald's free coffee story... the French nuclear tests... and learn all about the most evil vicious crime of 1995 - the stealing of my bike. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE TOXIC CUSTARD GUIDE TO AUSTRALIA http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ Lolak writes: When I last visited Melbourne, (Flinders Street station to be exact) I saw all these people with large slipper like sheep skin shoes. What are these called? Is this an underground cult fashion? I noticed the walk in these were accompanied by a unique shuffle and you could hear the drag across the pavement. Please explain. These are commonly known as "ug boots", and I'm wearing a pair right now actually. Although these could loosely be described as fashionable amongst some sectors of the population, the vast majority of Australians wouldn't be seen dead in a pair outside the house. To most, they are no more than nice warm slippers. In terms of shoe evolution, ug boots are closely related to thongs. Both are generally worn for slobbing about in; the thong in summer, the ug boot in winter. Great for taking out the garbage, getting in the paper, that sort of thing. The shuffle and drag noises accompanied by the ug boots are probably related to the low self esteem of people who can't afford anything nicer than ug boots to wear in public. To catch up on Australian culture, check the question and answer archive at http://www.toxiccustard.com/australia/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There's plenty more Toxic Custard to be had at the web site - http://www.toxiccustard.com For subscription requests, changes, removals, etc, send mail to request@toxiccustard.com with the subject header "subscribe" or "remove" as appropriate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. -- Daniel Bowen, Custard Communications Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia ---------- Email: dbowen@toxiccustard.com ------ TCWF information: info@toxiccustard.com Waste your time here---> http://www.toxiccustard.com <---Waste your time here ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Toxic Custard Workshop Files - http://www.toxiccustard.com - is Copyright (c) 1997 Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia. Excerpts may be distributed without charge provided no modifications are made and this notice is appended. For subscription and back-issue information, send email to info@toxiccustard.com