May I begin by asking about your latest electricity bill? If you read yours, have you regained consciousness yet? Scraped yourself off the floor? Put some ice on the egg on your head?

I got mine yesterday and it’s quadrupled. At first I got paranoid in a hopeful way. Was someone piggy backing off my mains and if I could prove it, would my bill be adjusted accordingly? I tried to remember if I’d tripped over any suspicious wiring or seen any dodgy structures hanging off the power lines. Then I remembered that the power lines went underground at our place several years ago. It was worth considering it though.

The bad news is that I then turned over the bill to check my usage graph and the bars for the last three months were no higher than previously. Which has lead to me to the unfortunate conclusion that the price of electricity really has risen faster than the rate of inflation. At this rate, it’s going to be more cost effective to get my hair blow dried at the hairdresser rather than doing it myself at home with the Parlux. I’m glad I had the foresight to get that spendy keratin business done to my hair because it has made my hair look done even when I let it air dry, which I think I’m going to have to do an awful lot more in the future.

www.junkee.com

Speaking of electricity and good hair…. it’s Ja’mie Wednesday again. Ja’mie: Private School Girl is definitely a half hour of television I’d gladly watch using peak electricity rates. On face value, it’s hilarious viewing that highlights the daily struggles of life on the North Shore. I like how Chris Lilley has balanced the parody with references to issues of teenage life as they appear to teenage girls and not from the perspective of adults. As offensive as the language often is and as self centred as the key characters appear, the issues of popularity, relationships and achievement in an all girl private school are treated with the gravity they deserve in the eyes of a seventeen year old.

On a personal level, Ja’mie and her clique in their cordoned off section of the year 12 common room brought back all sorts of memories from way back in …. 1992.  While the hair has changed (it was epic chin length ‘fringes’ rather than the GHD ironed hair of Ja’mie and company) the selfishness, cat fights and flair for the dramatic have not. At the time it all mattered so much but with the benefit of hindsight and twenty years of life well lived, it is now possible to look back with a rueful smile at how the all consuming life problems of year 12 really were mole hills compared to the mountains that adult life brings.