Author: Catherine (Page 3 of 5)

The Tupperware Song

December 5, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

This one goes to the tune of I Eat Cannibals. I have absolutely no idea what possessed me to do this.

I need Tupperware!
Oval, round or square
Your love is something edible to me
I need Tupperware!
I need Tupperware!
It’s unbreakable!
It’s bringing out the homemaker in me.
I need Tupperware!

What can you do
With leftover stew?
Clearmates, Stuffables
For all my vegetables
Modular mates!
Melanine plates!
FridgeSmart, Cheesmart
Tupperware will warm my heart!

I need Tupperware!
Oval, round or square
It even has a lifetime guarantee –
I need Tupperware!
I need Tupperware!
I don’t want to share.
I’ll have to host a Tupperware Party.
And get Tupperware!

Grinder for spice
Tray to make ice
Quick Shake, Jel-Ring
Forget the budgeting
Spatula, whisk
I can’t resist!
Zen Bowl, Salad Bowl
Give me more, I want it all!

I need Tupperware!
Oval, round or square
That Pick-A-Deli’s calling out to me…
I need Tupperware!
I need Tupperware!
Need it everywhere
I think I love the Tupperware Lady.
For her Tupperware.

All I wanna do
Is make a meal with you
We all have to eat
But life is not complete
If leftovers aren’t stored
(Shape-O, Snack Cups – I’m never gonna stop!)
In my pretty plastic horde
(Rock’n’serve, Season serve – I really do deserve!)
No matter the supplies –
(Burping plastic, it’s so fantastic!)
I have every size!
(I need Tupperware!)

I need Tupperware!
Oval, round or square
There can’t be too much Tupperware for me.
I need Tupperware!
I need Tupperware!
It’s a love affair –
I’m gonna be a Tupperware Lady.
And get tupperware!

Hostess gifties, always very nifty
Pinks, reds, greens, blues, how can anybody choose?
Sift-N-Store, Mix-N-Pour, not enough, I must have more…
Bake-to-Basics, Quick Shake, you’re the icing on the cake!

ChefSmart corkscrew, incredibly efficient too
Tumblers, Litre Jug, EZ wave, Commuter Mug,
Flan form, loaf form, help my pantry to reform!
Full up, can’t stop, must have a Forget-Me-Not…

Politics: The Australian Greens – to join, or not to join?

November 28, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Is it symbolic, do you think, that when I letterboxed for Labor last week, I got sunburned on my right shoulder, but when I handed out how to vote cards for the Greens yesterday, I got burned on my left shoulder? Comments about the left- and right-wingishness of these parties come strongly to mind… (if you’re wondering why I was helping two separate parties, it is because a friend of mine was running for the wrong party ;-), and also because for some reason they do not print political parties next to names on Council ballots, which I think is appalling, so I want to make sure as many people as possible actually know who they are voting for, whether it is someone I like or not)

I’ll not go into detail about the joys of walking 40 minutes in weather which is 34 degrees and humid in order to stand around for 2 1/2 hours handing out how to vote cards in more of this weather. I’m sure you can imagine it. I suggest you don’t, though. It wasn’t fun, and while it may have been my own stupidity that caused me to wear brand new sandals, that did not add to the fun. I did quite enjoy the scrutineering, though, despite the heat and the fact that we couldn’t turn on the airconditioning because it blew the papers around. I really do not cope well with hot weather, and I stupidly did not have any water with me, so I’m still feeling a bit wrecked.

Politics: My first election day as a How To Vote Hander-Outer and Scrutineer

October 10, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

We’ve got Howard back. Worse, we’ve got him with an increased majority in the lower house, and an absolute majority in the senate. We don’t even have the Greens in Senate; due to the preferences of Labor and the Democrats, Family First is getting a seat instead. This is doubly annoying, because the Green vote was almost enough for a seat in their own right, whereas Family First were nowhere near the quota.

I’m not going into how disappointed I am. You can probably all guess this already. I do hope the US manages to get rid of Bush, though, or there is no hope for us.

Now for yesterday. Yesterday turned out to be a very long day indeed. While in the end someone else put up the signs at dawn, I was at the booth from 11:30am to 8:30 pm or thereabouts. I ended up handing out how to vote cards for nearly six hours straight – it would have been four, but one of our relievers didn’t show up, and the other one got a call from his workplace 20 minutes after he arrived and had to leave. So I was back on again. A sensible Catherine might have been less hyperactively manic in the first two hours, but I don’t know any of those…

Politics: One Day More!

October 8, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

(Sometimes, you just have to go with the Les Mis thing…)

This time tomorrow, I will be handing out how to vote cards for the Greens at Fawkner Primary. You probably know that already.

And I’d like Labor to win, with the Greens getting enough seats to have a chance of asserting a conscience. You probably know that too.

But this is the important thing. This is the thing I really, truly wish for about the election.

I wish everyone casting a vote in this election would cast it with thought, with intent, with an understanding of who they are voting for. No donkey votes. No voting what your friends or family or work say you should vote for. Consider, with your best mind and best heart, what it is you want most out of the options available, and vote for it.

If I had someone to pray to, that is what I would pray for. If I had the faintest idea how to focus magic in that direction, I would do so.

I don’t, so I’m just going to hope it as hard as I can, and ask others who read this to do likewise.

Of course, if everyone does this, we may still wind up with Howard. And I’ll really hate that. But that would be less important than the fact that we would have actually exercised democracy as it should be exercised. If we get Howard back because people aren’t thinking, or don’t care, or are lazy, that would be the ultimate failure.

If we get him back because the Australian people have really thought, really considered all their choices, really truly believe that he is the best option, then that is a victory. Even if I, personally, don’t like it.

Anyone who volunteers to hand out how-to-vote cards tomorrow is my friend. Regardless of what party they are working for. Because these are people who care about where this country is going to go for the next three years, and who are prepared to act on that caring.

And that is the most important thing of all.

Politics: Resources for Senate Voting

October 1, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I thought some people might be interested in this link:

You can click on your state, and find out who all the senate candidates are, including their political party, occupation and contact details (brave people!).

I find this very appealing, as a below-the-line voter; it’s always nice to know what people represent, and a certain amount can be gleaned about a person by their choice of occupation. In my case, for example, it is easily gleaned that I must be a raving lunatic – but I digress.

This is definitely much more useful than voting on the basis of people who have cool names – a tactic I have occasionally resorted to when unable to tell the difference between parties…

I’m also finding this page here a remarkably useful resource; all sorts of questions and answers about how Australian politics works, although I am mostly learning about how everyone else works… The organiser at the Greens meeting commented that the Australian Electoral Commission is a ‘national treasure’, and I’m beginning to understand what he means. I hadn’t realised today that not every country has a politically neutral group running the election – it would never have occurred to me that they wouldn’t. More and more about a certain election involving shrubbery of a dubious nature starts to become clear…

Politics: Preferences and Family First

September 27, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Politics is depressing me today. I got a heads-up from the Greens that both Democrats and Labor are preferencing Family First ahead of the Greens (so did Liberal, of course, but this is no surprise). Family First being the strongly Assembly-of-God linked ‘Christian family values’ party. It looks suspiciously like a bi-partisan effort to keep the Greens out of Senate. Those who like to go on at length about the evils of Family First claim that this party is funded by AOG churches in the US, and is trying to make abortion illegal. Careful checking of their website shows them trying to stay well away from this image, but succumbing to it when they absolutely must – they will mislead and misdirect, but they will can’t bring themselves to lie outright, which is something, at least.

I have to say, I can see why Democrats put Green last – Greens and Democrats are fighting it out for the same ecological niche, politically speaking, so naturally you want to give the competition as little help as possible. But I’m very disappointed in Labor. I feel betrayed, in fact. Family First scare me, and I wish that one of the major parties at least would stop helping them.

I do not want a scary Christian political party holding the balance of power in this country. I have no problem with Christianity, even the scary kind, as a private religion, but I do not trust any religion once it starts developing legislative power. I love Australia and I love its diversity and general tolerance of (or should I say, complete lack of interest in?) many different kinds of religion.

Sorry, this is getting repetitive, but the whole thing really frightens me. Not least because my choice of profession has made me feel obliged not only to be Pro-Choice but to be actively, openly so. I was going to add commentary on that, but I’ll leave it for now. Most people reading this know my views and why I hold them, and if you don’t you are welcome to ask.

Anyway, I’m scared. And I’m wondering how hard it would be to move to New Zealand…

Oh, and I’ll be restarting the politics project shortly. Things are quiet today, so I have no excuse.

Politics: ALP Policies for the 2004 Election

September 15, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I don’t know why I am suddenly quite so fascinated by Australian politics. But I seem to have decided that I must now find out everything I can about all the parties I dug up yesterday, and report back. We’ll see how long this enthusiasm lasts. In passing, I note that my friends appear to be quite a politically active mob. On quite a lot of different sides, too. Definitely a good thing. I am currently trying to arrange to do how to vote cards at the same booth where another friend is handing out cards for Labor. My evil side can’t help wondering if I can convince my democrat, liberal, socialist alternative and Scary Christian friends to hand out cards at the same booth… keep each other company, you know. Because surely it is a good thing when people on all different sides of politics can find common ground? This is, of course, a hobby horse of mine.

I also wonder why politics is meant to be such a Thing Not To Discuss. My parents didn’t even discuss it with each other, and my mother got quite upset once when I asked her how she had voted. It just Wasn’t Done. Partly, I think, because my father was a swinging voter with working class sympathies and my mother was much more conservative. But it seems to have been a wider social rule. Maybe I’m just lucky in having friends who are happy to discuss politics non-heatedly. Or maybe it’s just that everyone who knows me has by now realised that I ask out of rampant curiosity, not to pick a fight.

Anyway, if you don’t ask the people you respect who they are voting for and why, then how are you supposed to find out what the different parties have to offer people of intelligence and integrity? Or why a particular person feels represented by a particular party?

Back to the policy documents. I’m going to start with the ALP, because I went there yesterday.

Politics: Looking for Policies…

September 14, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

It’s been bugging me that you can’t just go somewhere and read all the different parties’ policies.

So here’s a list of all the parties listed by the AEC, and all the websites I can find for them. If I’ve missed any, or you can fill in any blanks, please let me know.

And yes, I am feeling a trifle obsessive-compulsive today…

Continue reading

Politics: Accidental Volunteering, and Deliberate Reading

September 14, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

This time, it’s political…

I’ve been reading the Australian Greens’ policy document today. All 92 pages (online, of course) of it. This seemed an appropriate step since I accidentally volunteered to hand out how to vote cards / do scrutineering on election day. Well, not accidentally. But certainly in a spur of the moment, hey look, the Greens’ campaign office is at this tramstop, sort of way.

The Gas Heater Song (with apologies to Hall and Oates)

July 29, 2004 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Our hot water system died. The pilot light had been blowing out pretty consistently, and then it started doing alarming whoomphy flames when I re-lit it. I was explaining to a friend that it only blows out at night, and suddenly I heard the opening bars of the Man Eater tune in my head…

She’ll only blow out at night
The hot and tricksy type
Nothing is new, I’ve been out here before
Freezing and listening
Ooh, she’s looking alright, but the pilot light’s no more
And nobody here can see
If the flame is on and the gas flows free
She’s cranky and old, and quite untamed by the threat of a gas-fitter
No more hot water
If you’re after a shower
You ain’t gonna get too far

(Damn, there she goes)
Watch out boy, she’ll blow you up
(Oh there she goes)
She’s the gas-heater…
(Oh there she goes)
Watch out boy, she’ll blow you up
(Damn, there she goes)
She’s the gas-heater…

I wouldn’t if I were you
I know what she can do
She spouts blue flames, she could really blow your house apart
Freezing the weather
Ooh, the fire is there but the cold is in her heart

(Damn, there she goes)
Watch out boy, she’ll freeze you dead
(Oh there she goes)
She’s the gas-heater…
(Oh there she goes)
Watch out boy, she’ll freeze you dead
(Damn, there she goes)
She’s the gas-heater…

Ooh,
Damn, there she goes
(No hot water!)
Watch out boy, she’ll blow you up
Damn, there she goes
(It’s cold)
Ancient gas heater!
Damn, there she goes
(Poor old gas heater!)
Ooh, she’ll blow us up
(Oh there she goes)
There she goes, no more gas heater
(Damn, there she goes)
(Watch out)
She’ll only blow out at night, ooh
(Damn, there she goes)
Late at night –
Good-bye gas heater!
(Oh, there she goes)
(She’s the gas heater)
When you’re in the shower – brr!
(Damn, there she goes)
There she goes
Watch out boy, watch out boy
(Damn, there she goes)
Oh, it’s cold, it’s cold, it’s cold, it’s cold
(Oh, there she goes)
Yeah yeah ancient gas heater
(Damn, there she goes)
(She’s a gas heater)
She’s biding her time ooh
(Oh, there she goes)
Oh, evil gas heater…