Ok, So I Finally Posted This Here, You Know You're From Ararat When...

So here it is on here, my list I wrote one night when Bec was at trade school last year (August 12th 2008 if you want the precise date). This is my 'You Know You're From Ararat When...' list that took me about 5 minutes to write and that I thought no one would read. Apparently someone did read it, must have liked it, copied and pasted it into and email and spam was born. And it was out of control how quickly it got around. People were talking about it within a day or two, asking me if i'd seen it or saying, 'have a look at this email, you'll like this'. Even my Dad rang me and asked for my email address so he could forward on the list. Some people refused to believe that I had wrote it, or probably don't even know who it was. I'd love to know who was the original emailer of this though, not for any recognition or anything, just to say thanks for enjoying my writing and sharing it with people...and also so I can get royalties (joke). I never thought it would bounce around like it did, but I did feel a sense of pride knowing that some of my writing was giving people a laugh. To everyone who has spoken to me about it and said they enjoyed it, thank you. It was always meant to be a loving homage to the place I grew up in, not as a mean spirited attack on the town and I think people have taken it as such. And if they didn't and are bitter about anything from back in the day, what can I say, maybe instead of blaming a town for your problems and bitching about the place and the people, take a look in the mirror and you might see the reason behind your issues (please note, that is not a knock on anyone who leaves and goes onto bigger and better things, good on them I say, it's more for the mean spirited people who can't let go of the past). I've lived in lots of different places, from the inner city and suburbs to little country towns and mid size regional cities, and have enjoyed most of the places I lived. I just like here the best and if anyone has a problem with that then that's for them to deal with, not me. Anyway, enough of the rambling, here it is as seen on facebook and on spam emails,' You Know You're From Ararat When...' exactly as I wrote it straight into the 'I'm Great Coz I Grew Up In Ararat ' facebook group.




You've chucked at least one lap of Barkly Street.
You know who Carol, Tess, Schnieder and Noel are.
You know that it's Alexandra lake and Oval, not Alexander.
You've eaten chips with either gravy/chicken salt/cheese or a combo of them from Reids.
You remember going to Sicilians at the old shop after the pub.
You go to the fish and chip shop called Georges but run by the asian people, not George after the pub now.
You've done the tour of J Ward.
You or your family has driven to Halls Gap for no reason other than to get an ice cream.
If someone mentions the Bronx you know they don't mean the part of New York.
You've watched a storm/sunset or played in the snow on One Tree Hill.
Johnny has been an arsehole to you at the Rat.
You absolutely HAVE to go out and catch up with everyone on Christmas Eve.
You absolutely HAVE to go somewhere else on New Years coz lets face it, Ararat does suck at New Years.
You've told Stawell jokes, and mocked their lack of traffic lights.
You've gotten a sausage from the Lions club people on a Saturday morning up the street.
You call Barkly street just 'the street'.
Someone you know works at either the prison, AME or in the houses.
You know Ararat is the only place in the world with a pedestrian crossing between two pubs.
You wonder why the Golden Gate Festival king has to always be some old man, when the queen is always some young chick.
You've been ripped off by Majors when you've seen the exact piece of clothing somewhere else $10 cheaper.
Janga. Say no more.
You've always wondered why Ararat North chose all brown tracksuits as their school uniform.
You've been to Norval Dam, and probably jumped out of the tree.
You know of the Moyston puma.
The Performing Arts Centre will always be the Town Hall.
You can name some of the 'celebrities' who've been to Ararat Maccas.
You remember Shane Kelly slipping out of his pedal at the '96 Olympics.
You've been taught by Mr. Drosg.
You've been to Flint Hill and the common.
You cringe at the Jailhouse Rock weekend, but go anyway 'for a look'.
Same with the Golden Gate Festival.
You've been tattooed by Nifty.
You've driven round the resie just because.
Christmas light looking is a MUST, especially Christmas Eve before you go out.
You used to go to The Hippo.
You list your favorite restaurant as Sicilians.
Your favorite restaurant IS Sicilians.
You've played golf at Chalambar, basketball at the YMCA and footy or cricket on 'the oval'.
Junior footy at Richardson Oval.
Junior netball at the high school netball courts.
You know where 'snob hill' is.
You have time to make a list of things called 'You know you're from Ararat when...'

Fell free to add more, no trolls please.

The Silence Is Killing Me

First blog for 2009, and also the first one since November of last year. Slack, no? Well no, I have to admit that I have for been trying to think of some good blog topics for quite some time, but I have been cursed with a case of writers block. My last blog was ok I thought, and would be very hard to top, so the blog I had considered and had been planning, in defense of the emo culture, had been put on the back burner for a while. It will probably be written, but I didn't feel it was appropriate to put a blog up defending emo after writing a tribute to a fallen friend. The last blog was both easy and difficult for me to write. Easy inasmuch as writing about such an effervescent person like Alfie isn't much of a challenge, but difficult writing it knowing that he was taken far to young and we'd never get to see that magical smile light up a room again. So after a tribute blog, and my two very angry blogs prior to that it was hard to find something I felt would be able to stand up to my previous three efforts (my first was just a dip of my proverbial toe into the gigantic blogspot pool, and in my opinion, doesn't read overly well). So instead of a deep, from the heart blog, or an angry rant anyone who reads this (probably no one, and if you are unfortunate to stumble across this blog, no you cannot have xxx amount of minutes of your life back) will just have to settle for some random mullings, various thoughts that enter my head while I sit here listening to Underoath and watching my pup play with an old sock.

If, as Rene Descartes said, I think therefore I am, does that mean that when people say 'I wasn't thinking' that they cease to exist for a period of time?

Who was the person who complained or got ill from a bag of mixed nuts that prompted the makers to put warnings on the bag saying 'may contain traces of nut'?

And who was the person who ate the little sachets that are in new shoes that made the makers put 'do not eat' on the sachets? Seriously have you EVER had the urge to eat something that you found in your shoe? Me either.

Some people find Paris Hilton attractive. How? She has that whole Don Vito (sorry Vincent Margera) eyes thing happening, as shown in this picture.

Society really sucks when kids look up to the likes of Paris Hilton, who has no discernible talent and is who she is because of her rich family. Sarah Jessica Parker is hard on the eyes too, but at least she can act.







Seeing as how the block is setting back in, i'll finish this blog now. That's it. Go home.