Wired for Sound

Earlier this year, the family gave me some outdoor speakers to go with the stereo that we’d bought in Canada. It’s been something of a long held dream of mine to be able to take advantage of the feature of the stereo that enables you to listen to two sources of sound in different areas of the house from the one system. In particular, to have speakers for the back of the house so that for events like Spit and Swallow and New Years Eve, I can pump out the tunes.

It’s one of those things that in theory should be a simple process. Buy the speakers, buy the amp that’s required, buy the remote control that’s required, wire it all up and go. We did all of those things except the go bit didn’t happen.

I read instructions, I searched on line, I read internet forums and eventually I even called the company to ask them about it. There was one nagging suspicion that I had regarding the set up that I had to ask them about. You see, the remote control rather than being infrared, works on radio frequency. I bought the system in Canada, the remote in Australia. Could they possibly be different? The answer was yes.

So that meant that I had a ridiculously expensive remote control in my possession that had the potential to be nothing more than a dust collector. Fortunately the store that I bought it from took it back. Now I just had to buy one from the US. Should be simple enough; go online and shop! Except that the online shopping function didn’t allow for delivery outside the US. So I organised for delivery to a friend in the US. Except then the billing address (which had to be a US address) didn’t match my Aussie credit card address so they cancelled the order. So I rang them and finally managed to pay with my Australian card for delivery to the US.

And yesterday I received my new remote control. And you know what? It bloody works! Huzzah!

The Shrinking Family

Ok for some time its been more than obvious to us that by having 4 kids, we don’t fit into the normal family demographic. You know the one, the one where if you buy a family ticket to the zoo you can cover 2 kids and 2 adults. The one where if you win a holiday, you can take 2 kids and 2 adults.

But recently on the radio, with school holidays coming up, one of the local cinemas was advertising a family ticket special. Other than the fact that it still sounded quite expensive, the real shocker in the ad was the announcement that this ‘family’ ticket would entitle 2 kids and ONE ADULT to go to the movies. WTF?

I know that divorce rates are high and that there’s probably a lot of people who may actually fit that demographic, but … well I just don’t think it’s right dammit.