The Georgie Gazette #7

Just dropping in again for another life update, because there were a few little things I didn’t write about.

iPhone 7

I bought the iPhone 7 in rose gold. I didn’t really need a new phone but Brandon wanted to buy my 6S. He was getting bored of the 5c he had (which he inherited from me). And I get to salary sacrifice my new phone because that’s one of our perks at work. It means I will save some money on the phone.

It is really not very different from the 6S. I’ve noticed that the rose gold colour on the back of the iPhone 7 is a little darker – more brown and less pink – compared to the 6S. I like this, actually, because I am not a huge fan of the colour pink. Maybe the 6S just faded to a more pink colour? I am not sure.

Hey Geronimo’s new video for Bake A Cake

It should be no surprise to everyone that I love Hey Geronimo. I mean, I saw them for the 31st time last weekend at a community festival in the city. :P Last week they released a new video for their song Bake A Cake. It’s a super catchy song that has always been a joy to watch live, and of course I got super excited when their debut album was released and I could finally listen to the recording.

The song is just so infectious and fun to sing. I even put it as my alarm tone so I wake up to the sound of, ‘Hey hey! Find a penny, pick it up’ with a multitude of hand claps. I haven’t yet gotten sick of it. It’s a wonder, really, since most songs you put as alarm tones tend to drive you mad after a while.

The video for the song is adorned with fail moments from fail compilations. Some just plain funny, some totally excruciating to watch. In between snippets of these sourced home videos are the contrasting, sharp quality extreme close-ups of the band playing their instruments. Deliberate visual distortion supports the vocal echoes in the song, and there is even an amusing moment where Pete gives Bingers a dirty look for coughing towards the song’s conclusion.

Have a watch, and let me know what you think. 👍

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUZe-sS0NeQ

Indonesia trip

As some of you know, I was in Indonesia a few weeks ago to attend my cousin’s wedding. It was a quick trip! The wedding was huge. The ceremony was in a church, and the reception was in a huge hall with a giant stage where all the professional photos were taken. Indonesian weddings are not like Western weddings – there’s no seating, and it’s essentially a buffet. You walk around and mingle with people. The wedding is quite focussed on family reuniting with family, and from the ones I’ve been to, no one makes any speeches.

My cousin and her husband make such a cute couple too. ☺️

Handing over A Day in the Life to Liz

Thankfully, my dear friend Liz has decided to take over A Day in the Life for 2017. :D I am working on making banners for her for every month of next year. I appreciate that she was keen to pick it up, especially since she has participated in quite a few.

Beck’s graduation

Nick’s sister graduated from high school. It made me think of my own high school graduation – eight years ago! – and how long ago that was. Our farewell song was Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root, and many of you might recall that song from the end of the movie Matilda. The graduation ceremony was great to watch and it was full of love for the teachers. I don’t really remember our year group showing a lot of love, but graduation is always a tearful occasion.

The funny thing about graduation in most schools in our state in Australia is that it is held before we even have our exams that get us into university – the HSC. So even though school is technically over, the next day you will be studying your head off if you want to get into the course you want.

My year group has not had an official reunion, as far as I know. There have been groups who have met up, but no official reunion where we have all been invited. A few years ago, I thought that I would not bother attending one, if one was held. I didn’t like a lot of people in my year group and I still kept in touch with those who were still my friends. But now I think it would be good to show up and catch up with everyone, even though I know I probably won’t speak to a lot of those people afterwards, or ever again.

The Lizard in the Yard

OK so I will cut to the chase: the lizard was not really found. But earlier this week my parents spotted what they thought was a huge snake in our backyard, headed under our house. I was at work at the time, but my mum called up rescue services and snake catchers, some of which promised to send someone, but no one came. Eventually she got a hold of someone who came later in the evening.

His name was Rob Ambrose and he turned out to be a pretty well-known snake catcher in Sydney! There have been endless articles on the internet about him. He was a really nice guy, super friendly, patient and relaxed. He was obviously happy to be doing his job. He said he loved reptiles since he was a kid. After searching under and around our house he did not find any lizard or snake, but said that what my parents saw was unlikely to be a snake, given the weather and the description they provided.

He did find a lot of snail shells under our house, which blue-tongue lizards like to feed on, and said that our long grass made our place a welcome habitat for lizards. I’ve seen blue-tongues before, and my dad found one a year or two back, and we just left it alone and never saw it again.

We still had to pay Rob for his service, but the cool part is that he brought out a blue-tongue lizard he had with him (so we could see what it looks like) and we got to pet it. They are harmless creatures and don’t bite. Their skin feels weird. And they do look a little snake-like when they are lying in the grass.

He said he has one as a pet and has had it for over thirty years. He feeds it chicken and strawberries! I’ll end with a photo of Rob and the lizard he brought along, which he said was going to be used for educational purposes. You can see that the lizard’s legs are a little out of sight.

Rob, snake catcher, with a blue-tongue lizard
Rob, snake catcher, with a blue-tongue lizard

Until next time! 😌

Comments on this post

How are you liking your iPhone 7? How do the headphones work without the jacks? :P

I had no idea you went to Indonesia haha! But then again I have been a bit out of touch though I try to follow Twitter. I guess the trip really was that quick! Are you going to be posting photos of the wedding?

I remember I met my friend from Australia a few months after she graduated from high school. She told me she graduated in September, then had to study for the HSC. That is so interesting for me since over here the equivalent timeline would be finding out which university we’ve been accepted to in March, then graduating at the end of June. :D

There’s a guy on youtube who has one of those skink lizards as a pet. It really does look like an odd snake in the photo without legs hehe.

The headphones just have a lightning connector so they connect to the same port as the charger cable! I only use the ones that came with the phone so have no issues but the box comes with an adapter that lets you connect the regular headphone jack into the lightning port.

Yeah I didn’t post much about it, it was a quick trip! I haven’t posted any photos of the wedding because I didn’t have any good ones but I might share one later on.

iPhone 7! Wow!! Liking the headphones? I’m really curious about how they will survive without the wire!

So will you be participating in Day in the Life from 2017 or no? I like those posts of yours!
That guy sounds super awesome and that lizard’s cute!

The headphones just have a lightning connector that goes into the same port as the charging cable. It’s nice that the box also came with an adapter so you can still use ‘old’ headphones with the new phone.

Thank you! It has just been tiring keeping up with A Day in the Life. I know Liz has some great ideas though, and I want to let her share those. She will take full ownership and I may participate from time to time, but not all the time. 😊

So funny: I scheduled a #LizLately post for today the other day! 😂

That lizard is tre creepy nevertheless. 😔 It looks weird and may be friendly as a pet, but lizards. 😩😒 I remember seeing the pink one’s tail just…spiral-bouncing on the kitchen floor. ‘Twas too vomitrocious for me. 😅

Ohh, you’re making them for me for the whole year? SO NICE YOU ARE. 😮 I wasn’t expecting that to be honest. 😊😌

What does salary sacrifice mean?

I’ll have to watch/listen to their new song when it’s not 2am and my headphones aren’t hooked into my iPod Nano (which I am listening to). 😂

I’m not good at explaining but the salary sacrifice works such that you are reimbursed for the phone straight away but pay back the cost over a few weeks as the amounts are deducted from your paycheck. It means that they are essentially paying for the item for you but you pay back by sacrificing some of your salary, and you do not have to pay tax.

I couldn’t watch the whole music video, haha. Way too cringe-worthy! Catchy song though, you’re right.

That lizard is huge but kind of cool looking! Man, I just see possums and squirrels, which my dog Marley loves to chase, and it’s hilarious, too. Glad you managed to go to a family’s wedding. I have one in March and I have to grow out my hair from my mow-hawk. Boooo but I love my aunt and besides I’ll be one of her bridesmaid, so I can’t do that.

How is the iPhone 7? How it’s like having no earphone jack? I think it’s a terrible thing to do on Apple’s part because of how they are charging for their own headphones and how every one else is charging an arm and an leg for adapters. Shame on those people LOL

I can still plug the Apple earphones into my phone. The phone still comes packaged with earphones, that has not changed. At this stage you can only use it with the iPhone 7’s lightning port. They do come with an adapter so you can plug ‘old style’ headphones into the phone, though.

Woot for a new phone :) That’s good you were able to save some money by buying it. I think it’s interesting that you noticed the difference in colour with your previous and current phone. It is possible the 7s is more brown or the 6s has faded.

Your trip to Indonesia does sound like it was a super fast one! I’m sure it was great seeing relatives you hadn’t seen in a while, and it’s always nice to see the happy newlyweds being cheered on!

Yay for Liz taking over A Day in the Life. :) I’m glad someone awesome stepped up to continue this link-up :)

And wow at the lizard. I guess it’s good that it was a lizard and not a snake?! But still, uh, no thanks on it being near me! I’ll take furry animals over scaly ones.