posies

Some "vintage" (ie from back in 2007) posies...

It's been a long and busy yet surprisingly flat day. And I'm an ongoing mixture of fairly contented (due in large part to being back in The Nut House) and a low level of background annoyance (due to circumstances beyond my control) which did, in part, lead to me flipping the bird to the bus driver who wouldn't wait at the stop for another 30 seconds, but instead sat at the traffic lights for a minute and a half.

And while I'm not feeling particularly lucky, I did stop off and buy a lottery ticket at lunch today... can't hurt right?

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 322

I have had a shithouse day... I started out somewhat cranky since I overslept, then had to yell at people on the bus to make them move down and let me and my fellow passengers on... Felt slightly better once I was at work, but H-San seemed to be in a mood all day, and when H-San is in a mood, as I've mentioned before there really is no shifting him... plus it has a tendency to spread, at least as far as me since our desks are the closest.

Then I seemed to get nothing of real substance done today... I did a lot of little piddly things, but nothing worth mentioning. And of course when I was under a desk trying to plug in a computer (not mine), that was the precise moment that the land agent chose to rang to tell me that my landlord is a pointless wanker... but I knew that already, so I just yelled (kinda, not really, more like put on my Bossy Prissy Pissy Pants hat) at the poor schmuck on the phone for a bit and all I ended up with was feeling cranky and sweaty (from the climbing under the desk, not the phonecall... kinda). I will say this though, this fight isn't over yet... I will get what I'm entitled to

And now I have a headache. A "please die now you useless excuse of a human being" headache...

Mumble mutter... Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Road trip :: America
2. Pool hall :: Hoodlums
3. Extraordinary :: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
4. Jackson :: Janet
5. Heartfelt :: Thanks
6. Wet :: Wet Wet
7. Strangle :: Neck
8. .com :: Boom/Bust
9. Touched :: By An Angel
10. Insipid :: Colour

Current Mood:

damn joints

This doesn't bode well...

Last May when I blew out my knee I'd spent part of the day walking on sand. Yesterday I spent a good chunk of the day walking on sand.

Can you guess where I'm going with this? No, I haven't blown my knee out again (thank the gods), but both knees have done weird twinging things at separate times today.

I really, really, really, really don't want to go through that again. Really!

And neither the scenario where it's the same knee or the opposite knee is any more appealing. If it's the same knee then that road just ends in trips to Emergency and eventual knee surgery, so that's no fun... if it's the other knee then I technically don't have a "bad knee" and a "good knee" any more, just two bad knees, no thanks.

You would think that walking on sand would strengthen a weak knee... it's a different kind of movement, it's resistance training (probably)... but of course I never do the regular thing do I...

I think I'll be off to buy some Joint Formula with Glucosamine & Chondroitin come payday (if not before). I'm also going to have to be really careful on my walk tomorrow morning... I wouldn't want to end up flailing around on the grass in the middle of the parklands before dawn... that's just embarrassing!

ADDENDUM (The following day): Much to my chagrin I realised on my walk this morning while pondering why my knee should be in such a state without much provocation that I spend a good chunk of time on Saturday night kneeling on it... granted I was in water at the time, so the strain wasn't that bad, but I was still kneeling, so that can't have helped... whoops...

Current Mood:

perfect man (meme)

What is it with me and Sundays... I never end up doing anything with them, and before you know it they're over.

I haven't done a damn thing of interest today... sure I tidied up a bit earlier, and went out to get the paper, but other than that (plus watching a couple of Bond movies and working on this for a while), nada, zip, zilch.

I was flicking through the body+soul liftout in the paper (which is invariably full of cut down versions of whatever the latest health/beauty/relationship/self help advise happens to be, and therefore mostly crap... although I still flick through it every week, go figure).

The little sidebar attached to this week's "extract from the latest book on relationships" (in this case "Stop Wondering If You'll Ever Meet Him" by Ryan Browning Cassaday and Jessica Cassaday) did make me stop and pay attention... because I just can't go past a set of checkboxes...

And while this wasn't a quiz, but rather a set of "traits your ideal man should possess", I did find myself ticking the little boxes and trying to summon up the outline of the ideal man... then I spotted some questions in the text itself which could be illuminating... so I thought I'd share (plus, who knows, it could be a meme in the making)...

I know that I've mentioned on more than one occasion (although typically I can't find any of them to link to right at this precise moment) that I am/have been/want to return to being comfortable with being alone, I've been living on my own for a long time and honestly I'm fairly set in my ways (plus I know I'm can be a handful)... sometimes it's nice to fantasise about that mythical perfect person.

Choose 20 of the following attributes (both internal and external) that would describe ideal traits that you'd be thrilled to find in your perfect man:

Intelligent Generous Passionate Polite Sophisticated Educated Funny Vulnerable Well-endowed Preppy Rock-star chic Businesslike

Liberal Conservative Artistic Romantic Honest Trustworthy Sensual Adventurous Family-minded Muscular Tall, dark and handsome Laid back

Health-conscious Rugged Metrosexual Articulate Witty Hedonistic Outdoorsy Stylish Vegetarian Lean or thin Older Younger

Complete these questions as honestly as you can:

• I image that my perfect guy would love to do things like:
  As lame as it sounds, a lot of the things I do now with Ma, but without replacing Ma... shopping, going to the movies, going to see art, going out to dinner, he'd probably also have to love being in front of the camera because if he was all the things that I've checked off on my list then I'd probably take his photo a lot.


• When we are together, I want him to treat me:
  I'm not sure how to answer this one (and shouldn't it be "I want us to treat each other"... it's not a one way street)... and all the answers that I can think of sound a bit crap (kindly or well). I guess the best I can come up with is that he would treat me like an equal, and I would do the same to him.


• My vision of myself in this relationship is that when I'm with him I feel:
  Calm, brave, desired, kinder and whatever the polar opposite of jealous is (that last one could potentially be wishful thinking, but it would be nice).


• It's important to me that I'm able to talk with him about things such as:
  Honestly, anything... I'm not fussed on politics or organised religions, but I'd want to be able to talk honestly and frankly on matters of sex (kinks, fantasies, what he likes, what I like, places, positions, etc) and quite likely I'd want to be able to have any number of conversations about how confusing all the relationship stuff would be for me.


• What do I want from this man that I don't currently have in my life?
  Somebody who not only accepts me for the screwed up bundle of insecurities that I am, but also finds me attractive just the way I am and desires me.


• What would he do to make me happy?
  Well, that would depend on whether or not he'd had gymnastic training... no, I kid (mostly)... He'd surprise me with random things (maybe flowers once in a blue moon, a homecooked meal, a sweet and thoughtful text message)... but I think if I didn't always have to make the first move and he also knew when to give me some space, then I'd be pretty happy.


• What would be different about me if this perfect guy was in my life?
  I would like to think that I'd be more social (since I'd have somebody to do social things with), I'd be less abrasive/angry (because I'd have somebody calling me on all my crap when it happened) and I'd just generally be happy... and what more can you ask for than that?
  

Current Mood:

attack of the killer kites

Tired, sunburnt, tired, brain all overcooked...

After our regularly scheduled Shopping Safari (during which I managed to snag a new pair of sweat pants, although I'm not sure how good they're going to be since they're a world of nylon, although they're a reasonable brand) and a quick side trip to West Lakes (since we were in the neighbourhood) we headed down to Semaphore for the 12th Adelaide International Kite Festival.

That photo kind of sums up the day really... lots of downed kites...

Of the four Kite Festivals I've been to, this one was the least successful. It was nobody's fault (unlike last time when I forgot to charge my camera battery), these things are often in the lap of the gods, but there just wasn't enough wind, so none of the big "inflatable" kites got off the ground. In fact there were more kites flying on the "public" side of the jetty than there were in the official section for most of the day.

I didn't bother taking my big stunt kite, since it does have a tendency to crash and I didn't want to kill or main any small children with it, but Ma and I did take the kites we bought last year, my flaming sled and her little bluebird.

But of course we both knew that The Kite Shop shop was going to be there and we'd be drawn to pretty coloured flying things...

We did resist for a fair while though... we had a look in the shop when we first got there... then we went to look at the few kites that were flying, take some photos... then we went up Jetty Road to get steak sandwiches for lunch... then another quick look in the shop before we wandered down the beach to fly our old kites (which was fun) followed by some icecream... but eventually we gave in and went a'spendin'...

Ma had decided on the kite she wanted fairly early in the day, and she stuck to her guns and got the Prism EO Atom, which as far as kites go is pretty much the bees knees as much as getting it set up and attaching the line... you just pop the thing open and it's ready to go and the string attaches with a clip... takes all of five seconds (actually the orange and yellow kite in the shot up the top is the same brand, although a much larger and more complex kite).

Also true to form, I went backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards again on which kite I was going to get... and in the end there were about four that I was considering. But I kept coming back to the Angels Play kite... mostly because I really wanted to see what it looked like in the air. And you know what, it was a good choice. Although if it had been me, I wouldn't have called it "Angels Play"... this thing isn't the least bit angelic... it's alive and the wings seem to flap. It's a dragon, or maybe a demon... but not an angel.

Actually it kind of reminded me of the Klingon bat'leth, but I am an enormous nerd... so let's just move on...

Oh, and we also both got a little Japanese "Yakko" paper kites... mine has a little warrior guy on it, but I don't think I ever saw Ma's well enough to tell you what it was...

Then it took what seemed like FOREVER to put my kite together (Rod A in Slot B, repeat until insane, etc)... and then we had to go back to the shop because I'd forgotten how to do a "Swallow's Hitch" or whatever the hell the knot they tell you to attach the string with is.

But once we got out on the beach with it, I could feel that it just wanted to take off... and even though there wasn't a whole lot of wind, after a couple of false starts, it did fly really nicely.

Ma on the other hand always seems to struggle. I don't know what it is, but she never seems to be "one" with the kite... her bluebird did fly okay earlier in the day, but she could not get the Atom off the ground properly to save her life (and she always ends up with too much unwound string, luckily this string didn't knot like the bluebird string had a habit of doing). Granted, it's not a "normal" kite, and all things considered it's kind of heavy... I even handed over the line to my kite at once stage (she did manage to keep that in the air though) to see if I could get the Atom up for her. No joy... I think there simply wasn't enough wind for it. But it'll be interesting to see it when it is working properly, it's a groovy little kite.

After a while, I could start to feel myself cooking all down one side (just like last year actually), so we called it a day (I think it was about 4pm by that stage, and we probably got there around noon). But because both our little brains were possibly a little overcooked we ended up taking the long, yet not terribly scenic route back to my place...

Now I just need to work out if I'm going to celebrate Earth Hour the same way as last year or not... and if not, whether I'm going to bother actually doing the Earth Hour thing at all...

Current Mood:

photo friday: city lines

Sometimes you have to be thankful for the little things...

• Being complimented on a particular shirt every time you wear it
• Making pasta sauce with chicken and broccoli using Lucia's tomato sauce
• Fridays
  
• Dark Belgian Couverture chocolate
• Having co-workers that make you laugh
• New mostly naked photos of hot bloggers
• Getting paid
• A pair of luscious round buttocks in tight fitting dress pants
• Sunglasses, so you can stealthily appreciate the buttocks
• Being thanked for your creativity and skill
• Realising that nobody makes better Rocky Road than you
• Going kite flying tomorrow

Current Mood:

random herd hotness

It's been a slightly complicated day, so I really wanted something simple for today's Random Hotness... and what's simpler than a male model in nothing but his underwear (and I just realised how that sounds... but you know what I mean), especially when it's black & white photography using natural light.

And it all comes together nicely in these gorgeous shots of Tommy Herd, a 6' tall, 20 year old hockey player and student from Canada.

Current Mood:

wednesday oddities

Okay, technically one of these stories happened on Tuesday, but it was still slightly outside the norm... and the first one is more annoying than odd... but we'll soldier on...

I had to wait around this morning for the handyman that my land agent arranged. And, as with all tradesmen (with the exception of the incredibly cute electrician), he'd said between 8 and 8:30. Doing the "tradespeople to normal people translation" in my head I knew that that meant that if I wasn't dressed and organised by 8 he'd be early... but if I was organised then he wouldn't come until after 8:30. So naturally it was the latter scenario. And it wasn't even worthwhile when he got here... he wasn't the least bit humpable (or as it turns out, useful).

I knew he wasn't going to be able to do a damn thing, he look one look at the problem and said he wasn't going to be able to do a damn thing (well, he stopped the thing from falling apart completely, but if I can't get it fixed in a timely manner then that's going to be more annoying than if it DID fall to bits... at least then I could play the "panic" card)... the down side of that is that it took about a week to even get him out here... now I have to start the whole process again with somebody who CAN fix the problem. So that's going to be another exercise in frustration.

As always, the ultimate problem is my cheapass, moronic, shifty landlord... he just never wants to spend any money or be helpful or occasionally even answer his phone or pay his bills. The worst thing that ever happened in all my rental experiences (and we're including having to do a "forced swap" with Lownee and living out in Legoland) is when he bought this building.

On the upside, I know I can take whatever time off work that I need to to sort this all out. Sure, I don't get paid for any of it, but it's not like the time itself is an issue.

Now the other story might just be weird in my head, and it might have been a perfectly ordinary thing that happened, but what made it weird was actually me. Just hear me out...

After the movie last night, I went, as I often do after the movies, to the bathroom. As I walked in, this guy came in just after me and I happened to catch a look at him as I turned around to close the cubical door. Cute, probably in his very early 20's, slightly Mediterranean looking, reasonably stylishly dressed. Actually there was a brief moment of eye contact, which maybe be what started this whole thought process off in my head...

He then proceeded to take the cubical next to me... the only other cubical in the place (the rest of this particular bathroom is just one long urinal). Which was fine... then he proceeded to pee standing up, which again was fine, personally I'm not really a big fan of the urinal either. But the way he was standing, I could see his shiny black shoe under the partition, which again, fine. A little strange, because he was obviously standing with his legs very far apart, and possibly even straddling the bowl... but not outside the realms of normality.

After he'd finished doing what he was doing, he turned to face me. I know this because I could still see his shoe. Actually I was half waiting for him to start tapping his foot... he just seemed to be taking much longer than you would expect to do what he needed to do... all the while with his foot (and by inference, the rest of him) facing towards me, albeit on the other side of the cubical wall. And you know what they say... "Shake more than twice and your playing with yourself". Added to all of that was a zipper noise at what seemed like the wrong time...

Eventually he left the cubical and washed his hands, then dried his hands, and dried his hands, and dried his hands... and then he was obviously still in there, but I couldn't hear anything. And part of me is thinking that Ma is waiting for me, part of me is wondering what the hell is going on, and part of me is kind of wishing I had more time to find out. So I leave my cubical, and he's standing at the mirror, essentially preening, while I wash my hands.

I glanced at him in the mirror, as you do, and at that precise moment he happened to be adjusting his belt buckle...

And just as I finished washing my hands and turned the water off... another guy came in to use the bathroom...

But seriously, am I nuts, or was there some very subtle dance of anonymous sex going on... or was he just an overly vain straight boy with a hygiene fetish who happened to get a text message on his phone after peeing? Enquiring minds want to know!

Current Mood:

movies: duplicity

I have a confession to make... and I know it will make some people think less of me, but you know what, I really don't care. I want to get it out in the open, just lay my cards on the table...

I really like Julia Roberts.

There, I've said it... which brings me (in a somewhat ham fisted way) to Duplicity...

This movie has more layers than a freakin' onion, I swear! It's one part Ocean's Eleven, one part romantic comedy (no direct comparison springs to mind). And every time you think you've got it figured out, we go into another flashback and another layer is revealed...

It is definitely a movie that once it's over, you kind of want to turn around and go straight back into the theatre and see it again... not because it's the best thing ever made, but just because you want to make sure that you caught all the twists and turns.

Ma said to me on our way down to the theatre that the story was originally written for Julia and George Clooney (although IMDB has no trivia listings, so I can't confirm or deny that)... and that could have been fun, it might have been nice, although I do think it would have been treading way too much on the toes of the Ocean movies. Plus Clive Owen is a better fit to the way the character ended up... as Ma said afterwards, there's a slight roughness to Owen that Clooney doesn't have any more... George is just too slick these days, whereas Clive feels more real (in what is a very "unreal" movie).

The supporting cast does a fantastic job too, they're an eclectic bunch, but I don't think there's a bad actor amongst them... they're mostly "unknowns" (or at least not recognisable character actors) with the exception of the two company directors played with relish by Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti. I'm not sure if the characters are loosely based on any real CEO's, but they both do such a great job, especially Giamatti, that it feels like they might be. And the slow motion opening title scene containing the two of them is just hilarious... it was at that point that I knew exactly the kind of movie I could expect for the next two hours.

All in all, it's a fun, complicated, layered, enjoyable, suspenseful ride...

yani's rating: 3 American embassies out of 5

unconscious mutterings 321

Well, I'm officially and properly back at The Nut House. I have my old desk back (yaay), I have all my shortcuts and stuff set up on my desktop and all my "toys" (literally in some cases) arranged on my desk.

As I said to H-San this morning, "It's not official until I have my toys out!"... which sounds vaguely filthy out of context...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Studio :: Apartment
2. Meetup :: A word in need of an extra space
3. Ostrich :: Head in the sand
4. Jokes :: Bad
5. Estranged :: Husband
6. Random :: Hotness
7. Slap :: Bitchslap
8. Hotel room :: Sydney
9. Inscribe :: Metal
10. Polar :: Bear

Current Mood:

time flies

I've had one of those days...

When you look at it logically, I haven't done a damn thing pretty much all day, and the day still seems to have disappeared without me noticing...

However, this morning I helped a website track down the missing images in it's collection... actually that's pretty much what I was doing all morning. The tracking down was easy, it was the resizing and emailing that seemed to take forever. No, scratch that... it actually DID take forever.

It was nice actually, because it's a website that I used to spend a lot of time on (or rather it's the newly resurrected version of that website, since the previous version fell apart due to "lack of admin"), and some of the people involved with this new version are people I knew pretty well (at least in an interwebz capacity).

Then I went and got some lunch, blah blah... and sat down to watch the Alien Resurrection Special Features disc that I got yesterday. And while I love how much stuff they pack onto the Special Editions of the Alien movies, that happily consumed most of the afternoon (which is my own fault entirely, I know).

But then after some other random faffing about, it's suddenly getting dark, and I seem to have lost my whole Sunday with nothing much to show for it. Of course, that wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't working next week... but since I know I'm going to be there for a good long while now, I kind of feel like I should make my days off count for something. I'm sure I'll get over that in a couple of weeks...

Now I just need to sort myself out for work... and maybe have some kind of dinner...

Current Mood:

women, a market and mallwalking

It's been another action packed Saturday... not really that adventurous, but busy... and not really helped by the highly changeable weather...

Blah, blah, supermarket... blah, blah, unpacking groceries...

Once all the usual and not overly exciting stuff was over with, we decided to go to Norwood to check out the Real Women photography exhibition. Partly because they looked like they'd be groovy photos, but mostly because the photographer/artist is actually a friend of a friend (a friend I met through Raury in fact).

When we got down there we discovered that the gallery didn't open for another fifteen minutes or so... so to kill time we wandered down the road with the intention of looking in a few of the little chichi-lala shops on the Parade... we never actually made it past the first one we went in, because the woman who owned it came over to Ma and said she thought she knew Ma. I kinda rolled my eyes internally, because invariably these are random women Ma has met through work or training or whatever, but this woman was in the realm of Ancient History... I think we're talking before/around the time I was born. So I wandered around the shop while they stood around nattering about how everybody in various families were... and they weren't finished, so I wandered around again... and again... and again. Let's say that the shop wasn't that big, nor was it that interesting, but I'm pretty sure I saw every damn square inch of it.

Fortunately it killed the required amount of time and when we went back to the gallery it was open...

Brent has always had a particular style, and these photographs are very much within that style... they stunning and lush enough (especially at the rather large scale they're displayed in the gallery... 1 x 1.5 metres, although there were a couple of larger ones) to be beautiful, but at the same time there's something disturbing about them. My initial impression about most of them was "I like it, but I wouldn't want to live with it". The possible exception to that is the photo in the top right corner, "Beauty is pain"... but for the most part the woman are staring directly out at the camera, and it's a little confronting (which I'm sure is the point). But obviously other people liked them enough to buy several of them, and at about a grand a pop, that's not bad.

When we left there we really, really didn't know what the hell we were going to do next, but we kind of vaguely decided on a trip down to Marion, although we came at it from possibly a very strange direction, partly because that's just the kind of day it was, but also because we wanted to avoid all the Clipsal 500 crap in town...

We ended going down Goodwood Road, and I said to Ma that it might be worthwhile stopping off and browsing some of the groovy little shops along part of the road, so we were already thinking about stopping... then it turned out that they were having their Autumn Sidewalk Market. They only have them three times a year, Spring, Autumn and Christmas... and I actually saw the Christmas one on my way back from one of my solo shopping trips to Marion last year, but was too tired to stop. So obviously we were supposed to happen across this one...

Ma did better out of the market than I did... but then a large number of the stalls sold various kinda of jewellery... although we did discover a couple of shops we'll have to go back to another time (The Waste Not Want Not Shop where Ma bought a cute beaded seahorse from somewhere in Africa and The Eternal Spirit which was the main reason we were going to stop in the first place). But we wandered up the road, got given some really tasty free gnocchi, did the sausage sizzle thing, then we went back down the other side of the road, Ma bought a ring made out of an Apostle Spoon (well, the top of the spoon anyway).

The Eternal Spirit was fairly groovy... your typical "crystals, New Age, hippydippy" store, but a pretty good one. I ended up getting yet another little buddha to add to my collection (I think it will end up coming to work with me) as well as a Jizo Bosatsu statue (this one in fact) which I thought was a buddha, but turns out is a bodhisattva (interestingly it was another Anijain product, the same as my Bastet statue and one of my Ganeshas)...

Ma bought this cool Picture Jasper pendant... and it was interesting, the woman who was serving us and the guy behind the counter were trying to work out what the stone was, and the guy was actually talking to this seemingly random woman... they worked out that it was Picture Jasper, and the random woman looked at Ma and said it was the perfect stone for her and that she would notice a difference as soon as she started wearing it. Now me, I just took that in my stride, but Ma had to ask how the woman knew... turns out she's a clairvoyant and, quote, "could sense the energies"... I did say to Ma later that it will be interesting to see if she does feel that way when she wears it, either because the woman said something, or whether the very fact of her saying it will stop Ma from feeling it.

Anyway, we wandered back to the car and headed onwards to Marion. And bonus, we got a carpark right near the door without even trying (woohoo... we did suffer for it on the way home though, because we got stuck behind/between/beside two huge trucks for a large chunk of the way)...

Blah, blah, tried on clothes that just weren't right... blah, blah, bought DVDs (and Ma paid full price for Lost In Austen, which makes it something of a Red Letter Day... although she did talk about putting it away for her birthday, so maybe I need to give her the money for it and make it part of her present)... blah, blah, Heartwood Creek Tinkerbell statue that's going away for Christmas...

By the time we'd finished wandering all around Marion we were pretty much exhausted... I am, however, starving, because we really didn't eat that much today...

And next week we have the Kite Festival... must my sure my camera battery is fully charged this year...

Current Mood:

photo friday: rock

Today's Photo Friday is in honour of the fact that today was Rockchick's last day at work... which is something of a mixed blessing... if she wasn't going away, I wouldn't have her job, but it's not going to be quite the same without her.

I wasn't loving myself quite so sick today... don't get me wrong, it was still a good day, but I get the feeling that yesterday was one of those "special planetary alignment days"... and you only ever get a finite number of those.

Having said that, not very much that was noteworthy happened today...

• It was Rockchick's last day as I said...
• Spent most of the day doing time consuming yet not overly interesting things...
• Made myself some nice chicken kebabs with rice and a baby corn, mushroom and capsicum stir fry for dinner...
• Bought one of those high-top apple pies that I've been drooling over for months for dessert...
• Marc dropped by very, very briefly to return a DVD he borrowed (and points for him that he returned it sooner than he said he would and I didn't have to chase him about it)...
• I'm not sure which portion of tonight's dinner isn't sitting right (I'm guessing it's either the chicken or the pie, or both), but something is disagreeing with me somewhat...

Not thrilling, but welcome to my life...

Current Mood:

lovin myself sick dotpoints

I tell ya what... I've been "lovin' myself sick" for most of today...

• Wore my new stripy shirt... so I was feeling all crisp and stylish...
• Swapped from my usual bodyspray fragrance to the new Instinct fragrance this morning, and it's all spicy (cardamom, amber and atlas cedarwood to produce "a spicy scent of leather"), and because it's new and I've been using the old one for such a long time, I could smell it on myself all day long... yummy...
• I'm back in The Nut House, which is awesome... essentially I feel like I'm "home" again... even though the team is slightly different yet again, and the dynamic is about to change again when Rockchick leaves... but various other people around the place were pleased to see me too, so that's always nice...
  
• Felt very proactive (which is an awful buzzword, but often a good thing to be) and got things on track at various points during the day, which always feels good...
• Since I started today, it's going to be a very short week, plus I get to wear casual gear tomorrow...

Current Mood:

random clothed hotness

Today's Random Hotness goes in a slightly different direction than usual, in that model Bryan DeWitt is totally clothed (if you don't count some forearm and ankle action)...

Since I started back at work today, I thought I'd go with something that kind of pays homage to the fact that Urban Suitage (aka cute dudes in businesswear) can be just as hot as a half naked guy. And while these shots aren't particularly the kind of UrbSui I was thinking of, they are very stylish...

Although sometimes you just want to slap the model silly or just encourage them not to talk... to quote Mr DeWitt, "... all I do is skateboard and work random jobs around NYC where models are hired"... its lucky he's pretty...

Current Mood:

celtic seal

Your Celtic Animal is the Seal

You are a compassionate, sensitive soul. You feel deeply. You are also a dreamer and a romantic. You have a glorious imagination. You are flexible and adaptable. You can make do in any situation. You are very loving and affectionate. You are generous toward those who are important to you.

What's Your Celtic Animal?

Current Mood:

restful river images

Thankfully I have some nice, soothing images of the newly refilled River Torrens to counteract the day I'm having.

Honestly there isn't really that much going on, and I've essentially done nothing all day, but it's been an irritating day nonetheless. I'm not going to do a big enormous rant (although I could), because honestly that will be as uninteresting to write as it will be for you to read.

I do cast a pox on the owner of the car alarm that went off repeatedly between 3:30 and 4 am this morning... and it kept stopping and then started again, so every time I thought it was safe to try and go back to sleep, there was the stupid alarm again...

And shame on me for forgetting that while I may get to deal with my land agent instead of my landlord now, the land agent still has to get things approved by the useless landlord. Hence, general annoyance.

So it all just adds up to me feeling generally flat... and I have an actual pain in my neck rather than just a metaphorical one (probably the result of sleeping funny after I got woken up, I'm not sure)...

But before this turns into a total whingefest...

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montage monday: thirty five

Guess how old I am now...

Yeah, it's not really much of a mind scrambler is it.

I mentioned to Ma at dinner on Saturday that I'm not sure if 35 is the bottom of the valley before the long climb up to 40 or the top of peak before the all too quick slide down to the same place (it made more sense on Saturday because I was using visual aids, ie the dessert menu)... not that I'm overly stressed about getting to my next "0" birthday, I managed the last one fine.

Unlike a usual Monday Montage, I didn't restrict myself just to house numbers or external signage or anything... there's my bedside clock, my mobile, a roll of film and a page from a novel (bonus points if anybody recognises it) amongst others. It did however point out to me the absolute insanity of building/house numbering in both North Adelaide and the city... skipping numbers seemingly at random, or having both odd and even numbers on the same side of the street (where the street faces onto parklands) with no real pattern to it.

Anyway...

Around noon I headed off to Rockchick's "Farewell Lunch" (and managed to avoid being rained on, although I did take a jacket which I'm not certain I really needed)... she doesn't actually leave until Thursday (or possibly Friday, I'm a little fuzzy on the details to be honest), all I know is that I start back at The Nut House on Thursday and there's enough time for a handover.

It wasn't bad... we went to The Wakefield Hotel (formerly The Bridge Under Troubled Bad Moon Rising Damp or something)... which looks much better than the last time I was there, but they'd gussied up the menu so much that there wasn't a burger (which is usually what we all end up with)... so I had steak instead. Which wasn't bad (although it means I'll be having steak for two out of three meals today).

Interestingly, even though I know it was on the calendar on the wall at work, nobody mentioned my birthday... so neither did I (I also didn't mention Watchmen to Sugarmonkey and H-San, but that can always be brought up later)... there was never really an appropriate time to slip it into the conversation, plus it's not my responsibility to remind them, it's up to them to remember (or not).

One thing that did strike me was when I was watching Rockchick eat (slightly unavoidable when she's sitting across from me)... she's a tiny little birdlike thing at the best of times, but she was cutting seemingly tiny pieces of her steak, not to mention the accompanying chips. Granted her steak kind of ended up looking like she'd been chewing it rather than cutting it (and she didn't finish it all), but I did kind of have an "I really should be more like that" moment... I'm invariably the first one to finish eating whenever I'm out with people, and I think part of it is that I go with the caveman approach to cutting my food... big chunks. So we'll see how that works out... I know I'll end up forgetting (plus half the time I don't eat things that require cutting), but it's worth a shot.

And after two phone calls I finally got a little bit of love (potentially anyway) from my Rental Agent... now let's see if it actually works out properly...

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unconscious mutterings 320

It's very, very, very grey and wet out there, which would be fine if all I had to do today was stay inside and watch the special features from the Resident Evil sequels... but it's Rockchick's farewell lunch today... damn...

Unconscious Mutterings...

1. Sunburn :: Exquisite sting
2. Aquarium :: Seahorses
3. Otter :: Bear, cub and wolf
4. Awesome :: Totally
5. LOL :: Txtspk
6. Accordion :: Hans
7. Hot Pocket :: Microwave "food"
8. Grandstand :: Demolition
9. Shaved :: Twink
10. Upgrade :: Computer

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wikipedia birthday meme

I couldn't stand sitting around my apartment this afternoon, so I just went out... to the Rundle Street Markets theoretically, and while I did do that I also did a fair bit of wandering around...

I also reaffirmed a couple of universal truths (well, they're universal for me anyway)... there's no way in heaven, hell or anywhere inbetween that I'd pay $65 for a single pair of underpants, I don't care what name is stitched into the elastic... hell, even $35 is pushing it uphill.

Also, there are times when you're bound and determined to buy a particular thing (not underwear this time)... and the first store you go to is closed, then the second store has it but they don't have something else you want, so instead you go to a third store, which is also closed. This is clearly the Universe's way of telling you you don't need the damn thing and to just go home.

And I got rained on, which was kinda okay.

Now, given that yesterday was my birthday (big shock I know), this Wikipedia/birthday themed meme seemed appropriate...

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. Choose three events that happened on your birthday.
4. Then choose three important birthdays and three interesting deaths.
5. Post it.

My birthday is March 14 (obviously!).

Events:
1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice
1967 - The body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery
1995 - Manned space mission: Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American astronaut to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle

Births:
1863 - Casey Jones, American railroad engineer (d. 1900)
1951 - Jerry Greenfield, American co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream
1980 - Mercedes McNab, Canadian-born actress

Deaths:
1933 - Balto, Siberian Husky noted for his role in the 1925 serum run to Nome
1976 - Busby Berkeley, American choreographer and director (b. 1895)
1991 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist and playwright (b. 1950)

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birthday adventures

Hey, guess what... today's my birfday... oh wait, did I mention that already? *grin*

And it's been one humdinger of a day... a loooooooong day too...

For whatever reason, Ma was running late this morning (I think she overslept) so while I was up and organised fairly early, I didn't need to have been quite so organised quite so early...

You know something, grocery shopping on your birthday is just like grocery shopping the other 51 weeks a year that don't contain your birthday. Except I had a moment marvelling at the absolute and total wrongness that is the Freddo Ice Cream Party Cake... it's just wrong, what with the bright green, pink and yellow icecream layers... wrong I tells ya!

But other than that it was a pretty normal Supermarket Safari... and I avoided the urge to get myself any little "birthday treats" (mostly anyway... I just didn't get anything specifically because it was my birthday... oh, wait, there were those profiteroles... bugger).

Then it was back here for the Ritual Unpacking, which today had an added bonus in that after I was done unpacking the groceries I got to "unpack" my birthday presents...

Okay, technically two of the DVDs were bought later in the day (Golden Girls, Season 4 and High School Musical 2... what can I say, I'm SOOOO gay... also against all odds I quite liked the first HSM).

HSM2 is actually a "Christmas present" since I bought it with Christmas money I got at Second Christmas, but it was bought on my birthday, so it counts as a birthday present.

Obviously we went a little excessive with the Doctor Who episodes... what can I say, it's been a gradual collection since Christmas, and they've been half price if you know where to look, so now I have the first three seasons (woohoo). Also, David Tennant (*drool*) and Billie Piper (*sqeeeee* see also the bottom of the pile, Secret Diary of a Call Girl)...what's not to love!

The thing in the yellow box isn't some sort of odd lightbulb or sexual torture device, it's actually an Ikea vase/candle holder that has a glass spiral up the middle of it, and you can put water in it so that the candle floats at the top... very nifty. And oddly, it's something I first saw at the house of a random Internet bootycall...

But moving right along...

Since it was my birthday and all, we decided to go off to the Art Gallery to see their new exhibition of Japanese art from Australian collections, The Golden Journey.

Stealing from the blurb on the website...

The Golden Journey is a stunning display of almost 300 diverse objects revealing the astonishingly rich heritage of Japanese art held in Australia's major public and private collections. The exhibition, the first comprehensive survey of its kind in Australia, tells the story of Japanese art from prehistoric times until Japan opened its doors to the West at the commencement of the Meiji era (1868-1912).

In a word... WOW!

If you're in Adelaide and have any kind of love for or appreciation of the Japanese/Asian aesthetic, go and see this exhibition (and you have a while, it's on until 31 May)!

Because there are so many pieces, it's kind of hard to pin down my specific favourites, but amongst them were a beautiful female Shinto figure in wood, several of the decorated metal sections and guards from katana and wakizashi swords, the very famous "Mount Fuji Seen Below a Wave at Kanagawa" image by Katsushika Hokusai (which I've loved for ages) as well as several others pieces that I can't remember the name of.

Interestingly (but in no way surprisingly) I also reconfirmed that I really, really love "vintage Japanese porn"... okay it's really "erotic art", but there were three pieces in a very high and black case (and the only black case of it's type in the whole exhibit... to keep the little kiddies from seeing something they shouldn't)... including two long thin scrolls that were just gorgeous.

We arrived just before the guided tour and started off wandering around with the guide, but while she was semi interesting, I wasn't really feeling the "tour vibe", so we wandered off from the group (although since neither Ma and I nor the tour group were going at any speed we pretty much kept pace with the group and could eavesdrop on what she was saying) and did our own thing.

All in all I think we were in the exhibition for about an hour and a half... which is pretty good.

After we finished poking around in the little gift shop next to the exhibition, we headed off for some random wandering around the city. First off we stopped off at Boost Juice to get my free Birthday Boost (woohoo, free things on my birthday, gotta love that), then poked around bookstores and DVD stores as usual (and bought the aforementioned Golden Girls and HSM2 DVDs at JB HiFi... it's weird that I never used to like JB, but now I can't get enough of them).

While we were wandering up and down the Mall, we came across this man and woman carrying signs and looking extremely sour faced...

Who knew that in addition to all the other things that happen on my birthday, it's also International No Smiling Day...

Actually they were pretty obviously performers connected with the Fringe (at least I HOPE they were)... but they were hilarious, particularly the woman... and every time they stopped they drew a crowd. There was also one woman who stopped and said something to them, but I wasn't close enough to hear what it was... I do wonder whether or not she got the joke though...

Since we were already down at that end of the Mall, I took Ma down to Ikeguchi (one of the places I went looking for the Bento box before Christmas)... which turned out to be slightly dangerous... it's not a big store, but damn she made the proverbial meal of it.

And because we'd done all these Japanese related things Ma mentioned that she wanted to partially replicate the fabric wrapping that I did for her at Christmas for La Cousina's wedding present, so we set out to find some fabric and ribbon and iron on interfacing (which would have been my original plan if I'd had enough patience to do that myself). It took a fair bit of faffing about (much like the original plan of wrapping Ma's present), but in the end we got everything and Ma was pleased with the results... now all she has to do is put it all together.

It was getting close to 4pm by this stage, and while we did a quick tour through one of the food halls, there wasn't a lot of choice for foodage, so we called it a day and came back to my place, figuring we'd go and visit one of the many eateries near me.

In the end we settled on Kwik Stix (to complete that Japanese/Asian theme for the day), and took a chance on a couple of the items on the specials board... Prawn and vegetable tempura (which was a fairly safe choice actually) and Green Tea Noodle Stir Fry with Crispy Duck (yep, that was the big question mark). Turns out that I can officially check duck from the list of things that I've never eaten, and I never need to bother having it again. It wasn't bad, in fact it was a little bit like turkey, but it wasn't anything to write home about really. The green tea noodles however were kinda cool (as was the spicy sauce everything was dressed with).

So that was my birthday... one very long, very cool, very Japanese inspired day...

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it's my (35th) birthday

You say it's your birthday/It's my birthday too, yeah

Woohoo... it's my birthday.

It's not quite as exciting as my last birthday (but then waking up in another city on your birthday is pretty hard to top)... but, still.

Fortunately the weather likes me... after a week of slightly warmer weather today is currently very grey and raining... woohoo, just how I like it.

Oh, and in my ongoing birthday theme of famous people who's birthdays I share... I also happen to share it with Sir Michael Caine (I'd do a "My name is Michael Caine" joke, but it really doesn't work without the accent... Sugarmonkey and I do it quite a lot when we've been drinking).

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photo friday: no loitering

Some more highly instructive stencil work... although I think that this is slightly more official than the previous ones.

Today didn't end up being anywhere near as complicated as I thought it was going to be... in fact nothing much of anything has happened today at all... and all I have to do is go and get my drycleaning a little later.

I did discover this morning that the medical centre just down the road (where Lownee used to work in fact) has vanished. It's probably been gone for ages, since I can't actually remember the last time I visited it. But it does mean that I'm without a GP... which is fine because I seldom need one, but bad in that wherever I go next I'll need to start from scratch. And even though North Adelaide seems to have about a million specialists and doctors of varying hues and persuasions, there isn't a plain old GP or random medical centre anywhere near here (not that I can work out from the Yellow Pages website anyway).

Yesterday seemed to be slightly more productive... it wasn't really, but it felt like it was... and at the very least I got a phone call from La Ginger Ninja about when I'm supposed to be returning to The Nut House... next Thursday at this stage, which is good.

So that's it really... and I'm off to get my drycleaning...

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