You're in amongst the archives.
Monthly Archive: February 2004.
- Hollywood:: Wives
- Censor:: Ken Park
- Nascar:: Races
- Lube:: Tube
- Mortgage:: Payments
- Freedom:: Furniture
- Champion:: Racehorse
- Reality TV:: Sucks my brain dry
- New York:: City
- Tease:: Vamp
Which Siren Am I?
Monday, 2 February 2004
Which Silver Screen Siren are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
I can live with this.
Chicken Parma
Tuesday, 3 February 2004
Despite sharing a house for several years with Christine, purveyor of all things parma – I personally have never consumed/nibbled someone elses/ordered at the pub a Chicken Parmagiana – I even just had to look up how to spell it! So anyway, I just got emailed SEARCH FOR A SUPER PARMA 2002-03 – a seminal and must-have piece of literature for parma-inclined people in Victoria, Australia. The publication is an exhaustive investigation of ‘the best Chicken Parmagiana that Southern Australia can produce’ conducted and judged by authorities both ‘highly critical and carrying university educations in Parmology’.
So where can you get it? It comes in PDF format (which means, nuffies, you’ll need Acrobat Reader, which you can download here if you can be bothered).
Download SEARCH FOR A SUPER PARMA 2002-03.
Oh – and I would also assume this would be a great guide for where to take your relatives when they drop in unexpectedly from the UK…
[David - 'my sister called, she's arriving on Friday...help.']
On further examination I’m finding it quite bizarre that the place where I had my 21st Birthday is highest on the ratings list. Did I miss something?
Hold On. Detonating.
Wednesday, 4 February 2004
Work is doing my head in. I seem incapable of keeping my eyes open whenever I look at anything to do with economics. Which is why I can’t post anything here that’s even vaguely exciting. My brain had been hijacked by a bout of pure apathy – and the only things I have to look forward to while I’m still in Melbourne are tonights work dinner *gag* tomorrows frenzied last day at work for a while *shudder* and two visits to the airport in the space of twelve hours. Thus I have been reduced to defining myself as a Heroic Couplet (rather than Blank Verse, the next possible option).
|
Winding Up
Thursday, 5 February 2004
Work drinks last night at Cookie. Followed by a sublime dinner at Chez Phat. Jeez – I’m feeling dunked in inner-city cool. Get me back to Hervey Bay! (with olive dip in hand). Actually last night was far more suited to my brother, bar slut from way back, currently destitute in London after quitting his job for a better one, which then fell through. I may have to set up a ‘Fund For Starving Brother’ on this site if he doesn’t find work soon. Fingers crossed. Or, as they say in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, ’stand on your toe’.
Am very much looking forward to going home to lovely Hervey Bay house – M and I get a couple of days to ourselves and then we have the first of three lots of visitors!! Our spare room isn’t going to know what hit it! I am very glad we have one. However I have just checked my horoscope (because I just have nothing else I’m supposed to be doing….yeah right) and it does not bode well for my arrival back into the nest. Get this:
Taurus (me)
Friday February 6th
A Red Rag in the Casa del Toro? The Full Moon in Leo at 19.48 could trigger a fast but deep sense of crisis in your Domestic Reality sector. There could be a sense that something is not working or someone is just not working out. Wait a day before making decisions.
Aries (him)
Friday February 6th
The phone won’t ring? The love note won’t arrive? You are locked, this evening, in a classic Full Moon in the 5th house scenario, when everything associated with your romantic love life seems to be in crisis. It’s worth riding out without burning too many bridges.
I have the fear. Bloody Mystic Medusa.
Welcome Home Me!
Saturday, 7 February 2004
After living in a house that I never wanted to come home to after spending time away, coming home to the house-in-progress is bliss. Was greeted joyfully by sandflies and M who had cleaned the house to within an inch of its life, bought me flowers and *gasp* had even defrosted the fridge – which had been resembling the polar ice cap for the past two months.
It seems longer than two days ago that I drove my mother and I to the airport to collect my little Nan, who had travelled from the US to New Zealand on the QE2 and then flown into Melbourne. Apparently there are many fat, over dressed, whiny people on the QE2 – a revelation that didn’t really surprise me too much. So I got to catch up with my Nan over dinner, and then leave at 5:45am in the morning with all the loot she brought me (endless supplies of makeup, Burts Bees stuff and a bottle of Glamorous by Ralph Lauren). So I left tired, but smelling delicious. In the throes of my gratitude I also left her some of my new books to read…thank god my mother lent me another case to get all my stuff home. I went from being the world’s lightest traveller to burdened mule-girl in just over two weeks.
Oh man, I’m glad to be home!
Slump
Monday, 9 February 2004
OK, my euphoria at coming home has been quashed by 18 mosquito and sandfly bites, large amounts of humidity and M playing Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. He is possessed by finishing off the kitchen, the proximity of his family and (I suspect) my interuption of his bachelor life. Nevertheless, he continues to make me pesto – so I am valiantly playing the role of tolerant princess. Dylan and Rachael arrive tomorrow afternoon, which is going to be cool – although I have to have a serious chunk of work done by the end of the week and this might detract from my ‘hostessing’ abilities.
I bit the bullet today and bought THIRTY mosquito coils and a LARGE bottle of tropical strength Aeroguard. Once my next payday ticks around I will also invest in some mega-strength Vitamin B (even though I can find no scientific research that upholds the general agreement that mosquitos stay away from B-junkies). Every little bit helps.
Before I left (just now on three weeks ago) I planted some corn seedlings and some sunflower seeds. They are now both higher than my knees – a product of the huge amount of rain that happened in my absence. Go corn! I continue to plot my revenge on the bastard shutupandstopit next door. I now have M’s permission, once the house is sold, to drive past the front of their house and scream ‘WAYNE – shut the gate you useless f****** c***!’ Which is only a tiny fragment of what I heard him scream at the mother of his children this morning at…oh, about 8am this morning. But I am still tempted to record him in full flight and play it loudly over the fence at opportune moments…hum. Might have to get my blackbelt beforehand.
Just Queer
Wednesday, 11 February 2004
It’s 9pm. Humidity is at 80%. I want to move south. Quite soon. Tomorrow in fact. However our latest visitors are kind of liking the weather and are feeling holiday-like, so I am trying to curb my weather-related whining. Gah. Here are the visitors out the back.
Earlier today M’s mother rang to see if one of us could take her to the doctor. I had to work all day, so M went along. So they’re in the waiting room at the medical centre and M’s mother starts telling him about this TV show she watched last night at my urging. She was agog.
“I didn’t know B was into that kind of television show! There were men with men. There was a man with a ten inch…thingy…and they were throwing quoits over it! There was a woman there too. But she turned out to be a man as well…”
By this point M was torn between gagging and having hysterics. I’d told her to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and she’d stumbled on Queer As Folk. That improved my day considerably!
5am
Friday, 13 February 2004
That’s what time I got up this morning. It was actually cool. Bliss. Will now have to go to bed at about 8pm, but it was worth it. Our guests have been unbelievably nice to us and yesterday hired jetskis for us to have a go on. M and I had one and they shared the other. The jetskis were brand new (as the hire lady kept reminding us). I’ve never been into jetskis – they look like fun but they’re kind of noisy and it seems like a surfeit of idiots use them at the expense of other peoples more laid back beach fun. Anyway – there was no one at the beach so I didn’t feel so bad. I jumped on first and M rode pillion.
Weeeeehoooh! WAAAAHOOOOO!
I went up to 80km an hour and M was hanging on for his life. It was a total buzz! We zipped up and down and up and down, jumped little waves – M had to try some semi-burn outs (or the water based equivalent). Then last night we got taken out to dinner – for the second time (and as someone who has only been out to dinner in Hervey Bay twice in six months, this is a major thrill) and we all tried some deep fried Tasmanian brie. As an entree…which was a mistake. It was pretty nice – but I think I prefer it normal on dry biscuits.
Dylan is majorly into his polaroid cameras and there are pictures of everything being spat out of different cameras – my scanner is in storage or I’d be putting some of them up here. I do have some photos of the new kitchen (I know this is not exciting for normal people, but we’ve been cooking on a single burner camp stove since June) but I won’t bore you. Must get back to the fascination of arson. That was sarcastic, in case you were wondering.
Dark Slate Blue
Friday, 13 February 2004
#483D8B |
Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You’re good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is medium – You’re not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it’s required of you. You probably don’t think the world can change for you and don’t want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively. |
Something Stupid
Monday, 16 February 2004
Every day after I get up and have a cold shower I put 30+ Sunbock all over me. Yesterday I learned that even water resistant 30+ sunscreen can sweat off. As a result I have the worst sunburn on my back that I’ve had since… I’m not sure. Since I was about eight? Ow. It feels like I’m aging by the minute – at the moment I look like an English tourist, but by the time I get down to Melbourne I think I’ll look approximately 53 *sigh*
Dyl and Rach hired a little tinny yesterday and we went out fishing and shooting Super8 film at Burrum Heads. I was convinced I was in the shade of the roof awning the whole time – and assumed M would have pointed out my mistake, but no. He must just want me to look nearer to his age than I do.
There are still a million polaroids being produced every day and I think I’m going to have to grab my scanner out of storage. There’s only one thing standing in my way. The weather. Yesterday we escaped it by hanging on the boat for the first half of the day, and swimming under the pier for the last half. But today I’m trying to get some work done – but all I’ve done so far is make M solemnly swear on my fried upper back that no matter how much he likes it here, we are leaving Queensland before next summer (which I’m sure will be of moderate temperature and neglible humidity once I vacate the state – humph). Now I just have to find a pin to prick his finger with so I can make him sign in blood.
BiteCount
Tuesday, 17 February 2004
Those of you who keep an eye on my bitecount over there on the left hand side of the page, will have noticed that it has only ever hit about 25 or 26 when my bites have been super bad. Unfortunately, one of the things that Dylan has done while visiting us up here has been to render my bitecount laughable. He currently has 70 – seventy – bites – resulting from a badly positioned mozzie net on the second night of his stay. So I hereby bestow upon him the title of BiteKing and I bow to his superior bitedom.
Bye Bye HG No.4
Wednesday, 18 February 2004
House guests No.4 departed this morning and we were v.sorry to see them go – we had an awesome week! It was fated that M’s power saw broke the day they got here so he wasn’t able to do all the work that is sitting there waiting for him – instead we went swimming every day, my work hours became more and more ‘flexible’ and I had other people around to whinge about the heat with and compare bites. M and I got taken out to dinner every night and almost died with delight. And in regard to the bitecount – sandflies got in the mozzie net last night and bit the crap out of me – so now Dylan has a little bit more competition.
She’s Finally Lost It
Friday, 20 February 2004
Summer’s heat is unrequited
Lying on the floor, I’m blighted…
Struck down by degrees
Gothy friend arriving later
And we fondly anti-ci-pate her
Tilt training toward her sweltery fate…er…
Small white Melbourne knees
Up this morning while it’s cooler
Dreaming of a swimming pool, her
Grecian name is prob’ly Toula
Feed me olives please
My newest friend has a rotation
Blessed be its mechanation (?!)
Three whole speeds of operation
Elcon Fan of Glee.
Whirring silent almost nightly
While the sandflies bite me bite me
Stirring air that’s sticking tightly
I sleep and dream of brie.
Quizzical
Friday, 20 February 2004
Which America Hating Minority Are You?
The fact that I did this quiz has no relevance to the birthplace of my mother ;o)
Multiple Intelligence
Friday, 20 February 2004
I found a link to this quiz on Digital Daydreaming and I’m in a quizzy mood this morning. It’s kind of an interesting one….
The Seven Intelligence Areas
Linguistic: 11
Logical-Mathematical: 3
Spatial: 2
Bodily-Kinesthetic: 2
Musical: 11
Interpersonal: 3
Intrapersonal: 3
A Short Definition of your Highest Score
Linguistic – the ability to use language to describe events, to build trust and rapport, to develop logical arguments and use rhetoric, or to be expressive and metaphoric. Possible vocations that use linguistic intelligence include journalism, administrator, contractor, salesperson, clergy, counselors, lawyers, professor, philosopher, playwright, poet, advertising copywriter and novelist.
Musical – the ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respond emotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, to interpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and expressive performances and compositions. Possible vocations that use the musical intelligence include technician, music teacher, instrument maker, choral, band, and orchestral performer or conductor, music critic, aficionado, music collector, composer, conductor, and individual or small group performer.
The Friday Five 032
Saturday, 21 February 2004
When was the last time you…
1. …went to the doctor?
Um, about four months ago?
2. …went to the dentist?
In August. I have the Fear.
3. …filled your gas tank?
Filled it? Right to the top? Never happens.
4. …got enough sleep?
Sometime before Summer….
5. …backed up your computer?
About a month or two ago….argh!
Up To Date
Monday, 23 February 2004
Well I am an idiot. Lisa did not arrive until yesterday. We cleaned up the house on Friday and it was only a complete fluke that I SMS-ed her to see how her ‘trip up’ was going: a message that was responded to by a phone call with her shrieking ‘I’m not coming ’til Sunday. SUNDAY!!‘ So then we had the difficult task of trying to keep the bathroom clean for two days so we didn’t have to do it again, try not to drink all the beer and eat all the TimTams. (Tangent: as the TimTams were the new ‘Kahlua’ flavour or whatever the fuss has been about, it wasn’t hard as they smell much better than they taste, sadly.)
So she finally showed up yesterday – two hours late as the Tilt Train had to only travel at 60km per hour due to the extreme heat and threat of the train tracks buckling. Yike.
Picked up a new hard drive so we can try and get some recording done soon – huzzah from what looked like a disused shopfront in Maryborough. It’s actually a huge place filled with a million computer bits that is solely dedicated to trading on Ebay – which I thought was pretty nifty.
It is thundering off and on now and there is a HUGE storm that has just brushed by us – with lots of lightening visible fairly far away. M has run out and kamikazed quite a lot of his basil plants (apparently if you chop their tops off, they grow wider and bushier). So now our blender is full to the top of pesto and Lisa and I are skidding in our own drool. I think I’m going to have to look in to the viability of freezing pesto…right now!
Weather
Thursday, 26 February 2004
Am still busy playing hostess. After rampantly consuming large amounts of white wine with the very gourmet risotto that Lisa and created, we got up slightly groggily yesterday morning and Drove with M to Rainbow Beach, via Tin Can Bay and Poona. Spent lots of time enjoying the waves at Rainbow Beach – I stood up on my surfboard for seconds at a time (-just call me Layne) – Lisa got her pale gothic skin a lovely shade of British Tourist Red and we also investigated Inskip Point.
After another swim we headed back to Maryborough and had our own personal lightening show on the way. Here is a biblical looking weather moment:
[photo by lisa]
When we got into town every light in Maryborough was out! We headed to the pub, as we were early for our dinner reservation and the barman had one torch, which was complicated by Lisa and I asking for shandys… We sat on the balcony of the pub and watch the light show for a while and then headed to the Muddy Waters Cafe – just as we got there the street lights popped back on – they’d hooked up a generator, but were way behind in their schedule, so I rang through to a Hervey Bay restaurant who told me that lights were still out all over Hervey Bay and that if lights were on in Maryborough we should stay there. So we did. Lisa treated us to a lovely dinner and we drove home tired and floppy from sea and sun. I was so buggered that I didn’t hear it pour down during the night, but our little creek is running this morning, and the water tank is overflowing.
Early Early
Friday, 27 February 2004
It’s 4am. Got woken by the most godawful cat fight – and as nothing can get into the cat home, I’m assuming that something passed close by – and both the cats endeavoured to let whatever it was know that it should never pass their way again. M proved again that if he had offspring their bad dreams would go unattended (how can anyone sleep through the noise of two cats feigning violent prolonged deaths?) waking only afterwards to say pettishly ‘Well you heard them – if you think that they’re OK and shouldn’t be checked on…’
…meaning…’Heartless cow, just because you can see one of them stalking up and down by torchlight through the bedroom window, doesn’t mean that the other one isn’t lying there bleeding quietly…’ So I lay in bed for another hour, guiltridden. Dwelling on heading out the to cathome, leapfrogging cane-toads, and deciding against it. Daylight will reveal all.
With all my ‘hostessing’ I’ve actually just been using my computer for working and not catching up on my regular blog reads! I’d been missing my fix over at missjenjens and discovered that she was no longer in residence there. I assumed that her move to Sydney may have prompted a blogging hiatus. But no. While checking up whether Gianna’s baby had arrived I noticed a post (just prior to the birth) about missjenjen having got the boot from her workplace as her blog had been discovered. Too bad she’d already resigned – mwah ha ha ha. So if you’re out there missjenjen, remember that truth is the response to all cries of ‘defamation’ (that’s the only thing I remember from my degree – Arts – obviously) and from the sound of the many people that blighted you at the office, they’ll only have benefitted from the insights that your blog was kind enough to give them ;o)
Free Associate
Saturday, 28 February 2004
From here…
Bargain Time
Sunday, 29 February 2004
Lisa was here and gone in the blink of an eye! New guests arrive tomorrow to be picked up at 5pm from the bus station. In the two days of no-guests buffer zone we have had a triumph of bargain-hunting. Saturday morning we left the house with one goal only – to comb the op-shops for an electric fan. Usually when we leave the house on a Saturday morning it’s to do washing, go shopping, go swimming, get a coffee, read the paper, hit Bunnings and stop at any garage sale we see. So, to set off with one goal was strangely invigorating. We didn’t end up finding a fan, but other, better-er things.
For ages I’ve been itching to get to the big op-shop at the other end of town. There is one near it where I got a great standard lamp two weeks ago (painted electric blue – but I plan to change that); but I had a good feeling about this particular one. Last time I was in Melbourne I went to Myer to look at Food Processors. (This tangent ties in, I promise.) For two reasons; one, because I have a $100 Myer voucher and two, because M is getting very tired of making me pesto using our blender and the poky end of the wooden spoon. It’s not the blenders fault – it’s just designed for making cocktails, not greenly edible delight. So. I found a food processor in the Wonder-OpShop. Almost fell through the floor with glee. It was a whole eight dollars. I took it to the register. It had a yellow sticker on it. This meant, the lady confided, that it was actually four dollars. Jesus wept. I grasped it to my bosom, or thereabouts.
M exited the Wonder-OpShop clutching an old Sunbeam chunky toaster. Our toaster has worked beautifully since the day we bought it from a deceased estate garage sale in Williamstown – but no one could call its ‘distressed melted plastic’ look endearing. I tried to explain to M that I have spent the last eight years carting my own old Sunbeam chunky toaster from house to house, as it works intermittently and looks so chrome plated and sexy that I can’t bear to get rid of it. He ignored me. Got his new one home and it behaves exactly the same as mine does – intermittently….
Anyway – we just tried out the Four Dollar Food Processor out on a bagful of basil-goodness. Magical. It was made to create pesto. In fact, it was so much better than the ‘blender and the stick’ method that M and I both looked at it, astounded by the wonder of the technology that had, until now, passed us by. And now we get to spend the Myer voucher on something cool!
So…you would assume that the bargain day was over. No way. On the way home we went to the recycle shop that adjoins the tip. There is always an abundance of freaky stuff there, but this time… this time our wishes were surpassed. I found a back seat for our HiAce van! This is extremely cool because it means that from now on, when we have more than one person visiting, we don’t have to cruise everywhere in the Humber (which I like to keep for special occasions). It fits perfectly.
The way you pay for stuff at this place is to look for the guy holding an excercise book. He is the man that conducts the sales. So we track him down and take him to the seat I found. He looks thoughtful.
“It’s in pretty good condition…”
I hold my breath. If he says more than $30, we’re toast.
“How’s six bucks sound?”
I marry him on the spot and we fly to Vegas….
No. Actually, M and I look tres cool and say casually, “Oh, that’d be fine.” While v.uncasually scrambling for our wallets. Not only a seat, but a baby capsule as well. (It is at this point, if my mother ever read my blog, that I would instruct her not to get excited…I digress). Mung and Rach are bringing Luka, who is almost five months, and I said I’d hire them a baby capsule if I could. So I’m hoping they will be wildly impressed by the fact that we bought two, perfectly good ones super cheaply. Of course M and I have no idea how to fit it or anything, and I’m sure that our neighbors are completely submerged in rumours of their own invention after seeing M and I standing in the front garden pondering the baby capsules with expressions of blank incomprehension.
