Finally I have done a very small amount to relieve the boring, out-of-the-box look of this blog by replacing the default WordPress theme with a different one.
I am tweaking it a bit: I have changed to feed link from RSS (old hat!) to Atom (new, fancy and valid) and removed a repeated date field.
Some day I might actually have something original…
I decided to get an influenza vaccination for the first time this year. I haven’t bothered in the past but decided it was probably time to reduce the risk of nasty illness.
I last had influenza in 1999 and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I don’t mean ‘the flu’ as in a bad cold – I mean being unable to get out of bed for a week or three. The pneumonia I contracted immediately after was an experience I don’t want to repeat.
My doctor told me at the time that it is common for people to be badly affected by flu about every seven years. So, seven years later, I figure it is time to improve my chances, and on Monday I got a shot of Fluvax®. It contains dead viruses from recent strains (three I think) so it offers some protection, although not against any new strains.
There is usually some kind of reaction. On Tuesday my right arm started aching (it was the left arm that took the needle). And my left knee, and … typical flu symptoms. A day later I felt better, so it looks like my reaction to the vaccine was minor.
There’s no guarantee, but I hope to escape the seven-year bitch.
A couple of weeks ago I took deliver of a new MacBook Pro. I decided to upgrade my 12-inch G4 PowerBook because I had the opportunity to buy it as part of a salary sacrifice program.
So far, so good. It’s much faster running universal binaries, Rosetta apps run about the same speed as on the PowerBook and I love the bigger screen.
I plan to blog some of my experiences with the new machine not too long after they happen…
I am singing in the chorus of Romeo and Juliet with Opera Queensland in its final rehearsals before a short season starting this Saturday.
One thing about working in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre is that you sometimes see famous people who are also performing there. Tonight as I was leaving our rehearsal I saw two people doing the same: a QPAC staff member and a shortish woman dressed in black with blond hair. I didn’t pay much attention as they walked through the door to Stage Door reception just before me.
Then she greeted a small number of people with a very recognisable American accent: “Hi, I’m Nancy.”
D’oh!
