On the Bottom Half

Pictures... Finally!

First of all, to put this post in context, you must go back and reread the post about the washing machine in Coonabarabran (Titled: 'Not Dead').

Alright, back?

First, history: way back in the olden days of Australian automated washing machines, there were double barrelled creations that had separate washing and spinning tubs. I have to admit, though, that the separate spinning tub was a good idea beause it spun as fast as a turbine and essentially dried your clothes before they left the machine. Anyway, they looked a little something like this:


Neat huh? The whole spin-until-every-last-drop-of-water-is-out
is quite Australian - it is definitely a much rarer thing to have a dryer in Aus than it is at home.

Anyway, turn the red knob (which I have lots of experience with as a glider pilot) to the right to engage the washing tub; turn it back and presto, off. Once washed, take the clothes out of the wash tub, drain the wash tub and carry on...

Now, when you drain the wash tub, the water goes into the stomach of the machine. However, when water is pouring from the vent for the electric motor, you know there's something wrong. What better time to solve the perpetual myth of the missing sock... I fished around in the water-filled stomach of the machine and what do I find.... (Drum roll)





A Pink Thong!

Hahahah - Just kidding. A little bit of Aussie humour there for ya.

But seriously folks, I found these:



The pink ones the stragler there in the middle. You can't see it, but I'm standing in the water, next to an electric machine. Don't worry though, I held off on stepping into the puddle until just before the machine turned off.

All together now... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I hope that's the most foul underwear I will ever have to experience.

You can now probably guess that I have my fancy shamancy new fandangled Mac and I have to admit that it's a pretty cool machine. There's this cool software on it called iPhoto that makes you look like a professional photographer by employing this thing called the Ken Burns effect. It pans and zooms simultaneously as it goes over your photos in a slide show - very dramatic and quite professional if I do say so myself. It's a damn shame I had to go back to school to get it.

Other than that, I've finally got a halfway decent wireless network going that's so stable it only drops out about once a day. Thankfully, the router is robust enough that it can recover on its own. But, that requires patience, which is something that my American roommate has little of.

Oh, Google Earth-ians: they've got high-res imagery of the Clayton area up. Type in: 'Clayton North, Victoria, Australia. That whole set of buildings that surround the placemarker are the Clayton Campus of Monash university. If you put your pointer at South 37deg 54min 33sec East 145deg 07min 50sec, you will have your hand on my office. Feel free to crush it if you like. If you move down and to the right and put your pointer on South 37deg 55min 3.48sec East 145deg 8min 24.79sec, you will have your hand on top of my room. Feel free to pick me up and carry me home. That makes me exactly, according to Google Earth's geoid, 8641.36 miles or 13,906.92 km away, as the crow flys. Huuph...

Anyway, to end with this evening, a picture of traveller's bliss, as told by my Mom!

posted by Kyle @ 04:02