Attack Of The (Not Quite) Killer Wasps

The boy wanted to play some cricket yesterday evening. Once I'd finished cooking tea, a rarity I know, we went outside to play. After some 20-25 minutes he hit the ball back to me along the ground. Instead of bending down to pick it up I decided to stop it with my foot. The ball struck my foot and then launched itself over the fence dividing our property with that of our neighbour.

Yu-Jin looked at me as if what to do. This is a usual occurrence and I signalled that he would be going over the fence. I put him on top so that he could jump down. He did so and located the ball before throwing it back. I was waiting for him to climb the fence so that I could pull him over and he'd just started when he became frightened and climbed back down. Then he started screaming. When the flying insects began to appear I thought that they might have been bees but they were wasps.

Nothing for it but to jump the fence myself, grab him and run towards the other fence and get the hell out of there. After putting him over the fence I noticed a wasp hanging off my arm which I brushed away. We went straight inside and applied cold packs - the boy was stung on the right upper arm and above the left eye. I was stung on the left upper arm and right forearm.

My main concern for the boy, who said that "We should go to the hospital", was that he has a nut allergy and suffers a severe reaction to them. Only a couple of hours previously he had tried some turkish delight we had received for Christmas after I'd given him the go ahead even though the box contained a warning that it "May contain trace of Peanuts and other nuts". As soon as he took a nibble he knew that it had nuts in it. As Yu-Jin had never even been stung by a bee before I had no idea how he would react to a wasp sting.

Rang the hospital who transferred me to Health Direct, who can be called in Western Australia on 1800 022 222. Most of the questions were aimed at identifying if it was a snakebite or not and when I said that they were European wasps I was informed that they are very rare in Western Australia and that there is no known nest in Perth. Perhaps it was just a common wasp then as they have similar markings. If there were no nausea, stomach cramps, passing out, grey lips, swollen tongue or lips or severe pain within an hour then the cold packs were the best treatment but I just had to keep an eye on the little fella.

It's funny, in a way, as the weekend before I had discovered a wasp nest in the roof of our house and asked my father if he had ever been stung by a wasp as the boy wanted to know. No, was the answer. Well now we can tell dad what it is like to be stung twice each. It's discomforting and painful but not life threatening.

After talking to the nurse at Health Direct I noticed that one of my toes was hurting. Looking down at my socks I saw some blood. After taking off the sock I could see that my second toe had had the toenail bent backwards about halfway along so it's a tad painful and swollen this morning.

Ah, well. Just another experience to put down to life.

Golden Compass - Movie Review

It's the movie season and we went to see The Golden Compass yesterday. The clips advertising it made it look quite enchanting and action-packed. Wikipedia has a great article with a plot spoiler. It is based on the novel Northern Lights by Philip Pullman.

Visually spectacular it hasn't done well at the U.S. box office but they may have something to do with Nicole Kidman playing a major character. Her acting is so hollow. I watched it despite her involvement. The movie started slowly but when the action started it was fantastic.

Pity the ending appeared mid-movie with an obvious agenda of doing a sequel. I read that it is the first part of a trilogy. The ending just made it appear like a half-finished work which was quite disappointing. Great story up until then. Another thing to put a dampener on the movie was a retarded person sitting quite nearby moaning and groaning a lot. I was more than a little pleased that the group he was with left the cinema after about 30-40 minutes. Times like that make you think investing in a home theatre is a good idea.

Bikini Massage Follow-Up

In today's Sunday Times newspaper they ran a report almost exactly the same as my blog post regarding the bikini massage ad. There is another article on Perth Now's Website regarding the situation in Northbridge. Major difference between my post and the newspaper article is that they informed the police of their findings.

Funny, eh?

Know Your Target Market - Wine International

One of the first elements of knowledge learnt during Marketing 100 was that you should know your market. Items like the age, gender, spending habits, income, etc. The other day I received some mail addressed to "Dear Lover of Fine Wines". At this point I thought that it might have been incorrectly addressed but they did have my name and address correct on the envelope. I liked the fact that they went on to ask me to fill in a survey, if I was over 18 years of age.

Hang on. They've already identified me a lover of fine wines. Gee, could I be a lover of fine wines but under the legal drinking age? Not the cleverest bit of marketing, methinks.

Wine International Mail.

Bikini Girls Massage Full Body

Catchy title, eh? Should send a bit of traffic my way. Arose early this morning and decided to walk to the post office to check the mail. Must be a New Year's Resolution thing, I dunno. Whilst walking through the adjacent car park a few leaflets on the ground which grabbed my attention. I picked one up and had a read. Obviously the headline is supposed to catch your eye and you don't bother reading too much more into it. I took the time to read the whole leaflet and was appalled by the grammar, or lack thereof.

And they are looking for 16 year old girls to work in this industry? This ad is wrong on so many levels. Fact, they're offering immediate starts for 16-30 yrs females. Firstly, there is age discrimination involved here and secondly, there is an element of gender bias. Exactly what "products" would you need to ensure that the "girls" were catered with? Does the fact that "girls" is in quotation marks mean that trannies could get involved?

Love the "This brochures (sic) is the property of Joe Blow Distributors (Victoria - Australia).

For three hundred dollars a day I might think of joining this business. The bikini could be a problem but maybe I could do a topless bikini massage, i.e. in briefs. Or perhaps based on the 16-30 yrs females required for immediate start they have enough blokes employed and not enough female customers. Damn. Just my luck. All of it bad.

Bikini Girls Massage Full Body pg 1.
Bikini Girls Massage Full Body pg 2.

I'd be fairly certain that they've just grabbed an image from the Web to advertise. How could you have a massage done by someone filled with so much silicone and collagen that they couldn't move properly?

Mischa Barton's New Role

When I heard the news about Mischa Barton's arrest the other day I immediately thought that she was longing for her role in The O.C. and wanted to relive it in a new show called the OD - in reference to her being charged with drug possession.

Quite shocked to find out that she's only 21 as she appears to have been around forever. Never watched an episode of The O.C. myself. What possesses these young people to ruin themselves with drink and drugs?

Bunbury Trip 2007

Following Christmas, the start of the Boxing Day Test and the post-Christmas sales, it was an ideal opportunity to drive a couple of hours south of Perth to Bunbury for some R&R. In fact, we had no plans to do anything there for the four nights that we stayed. Our choice of accommodation was the Lighthouse Beach Resort situated in the northern part of town and overlooking much of Bunbury. We made use of the indoor pool, spa and sauna. Much of the day was spent window shopping.

Map of Bunbury from the Bunbury Visitor Centre.

Bunbury Lighthouse

Lighthouse Beach Resort Hotel and Bunbury Lighthouse.

Setting sun over water in Bunbury (Geographe Bay)

Marlston Hill Lookout


Next day we visited Jetty Baths, a beach situated at the harbour. There was a lovely playground for children and shelters for families to stay on the beach and out of the sun. Why couldn't they have something like this in Perth? The water was quite murky even before you reached a depth that you couldn't touch whilst keeping your head dry. In the water were some fish, a couple of crabs and some really strange creatures that looked like clumps of sand. We climbed the Marlston Hill Lookout on Apex Drive later and the view is quite spectacular, although windy. Bunbury certainly would be well placed for a wind farm.

Beach at Jetty Baths in Bunbury.

Overlooking Outer Harbour from Marlston Hill Lookout


On our last day prior to leaving, New Year's Eve, we undertook some touristy things. We visited the old timber jetty, Koombana Beach to view dolphins (failed to sight any), the mangroves nearby, had lunch in an old Tuart forest at Maidens Reserve followed by an hour or so at the beach set within 150 million years old volcanic rock between Rocky Point and Lighthouse Beach. Miky sat down in a gap between the rocks as it had nice, calm water. Nice, calm water that was until a wave suddenly filled it up and buffeted against the rocks. She came out looking like she'd visited a cafe at San Francisco Zoo.


Crane at entrance to Bunbury Timber Jetty.

Bunbury Timber Jetty.

One man died last year on the jetty. I'm not sure whether it was closed to the public at the time.

Mangrove boardwalk on Koombana Drive.

Mangroves

Old Tuart forest at Maidens Reserve

300-400 years old Tuart trees.

Volcanic rocks at Rocky Point to the west of Bunbury in Geographe Bay

Waves pounding volcanic rocks

These 150 million years old rocks are situated on Lighthouse Beach.

Another Wave pounding volcanic rocks

Small inlet between volcanic rocks at Rocky Point

Is this a trilobite?

Trilobites are supposed to be extinct.

Crabs on Lighthouse Beach.


We had such a relaxing time in Bunbury and spent many hours in and around the pool. Some beaches were a little too rough to enjoy but it wasn't too hot with the temperature hovering around 28-32 degrees Celsius. I thoroughly recommend Bunbury for a few days away.



Redneck waterskiing - Bunbury style.

Happy New Year 2008

I've been offline for a few days having some R&R in Bunbury to see in the New Year in the build up to returning to work. It's been nice to kick back and do nothing much but shopping, visit the beach and use the pool, spa and sauna at the hotel we stayed at.

Well, it's still the New Year so I would like to wish one and all a safe, prosperous and happy New Year.