unconsious mutterings 405

Well, my suitcase is half packed (I'm waiting until tonight to pack all my t-shirts so that they're not too wrunkled)... I did the check-in thing this morning, but I think because I did it on the web and not on my phone it didn't give me the option of doing the whole mobile/SMS boarding pass thing. Or maybe it's just that Adelaide Airport doesn't have the technology to do that yet, which is a bit lame...

And the taxi is booked for 5:45... that's FIVE FUCKING FORTY FIVE IN THE MORNING! Ahem... it's a wee bit early, so I'll be going to bed early and setting about four alarms on my iPhone just in case.

Since I don't know what the internet situation is going to be in the hotel, so I think I'm going to do the whole "go dark/fill in the gaps later" thing.

I also figured I may as well post some Unconscious Mutterings today instead of tomorrow...
  1. Adhesive :: Tape
  2. Bill :: Ted
  3. Swing :: Rope
  4. Counter :: Culture
  5. Fluid :: Transmission
  6. Investigate :: Crime Scene
  7. Chit chat :: Waffle
  8. Humane :: Treatment
  9. Boss :: Big
  10. Furniture :: Removal
Current Mood:

small pre-travel shopping adventures

suitcasesIt happens every time I colour my hair, but I keep forgetting how short and blonde my hair is at the moment... when I catch sight of myself in something reflective it's still a surprise! But anyway...

We had a very short, sharp and to the point shopping adventure today...

Since we won't be around for the whole week there really didn't seem to be any point in doing a proper Supermarket Safari. We toyed with the idea of doing our own thing today, but Ma wanted to drop something off at the framing place when I picked up my toy soldier print.

And since I had to go pick up my dry-cleaning thanks to yesterday's haircut adventures, I told her not to come down until about 9... and I'd kind of planned that I'd go and grab some things from the North Adelaide Village before she came down.

But I got distracted with tidying up and by the time I was ready, Ma was already on her way, so I gave up the earlier plan and waited for her.

Turns out it was a good idea because we wandered around the supermarket and possibly spent as much money on little bits and pieces (small toothpaste, new blades for my razor, sun screen) to take away with us (as well as some other bit and pieces for the weekend) than we would have done if we'd done a proper shop.

And by the time we'd finished, got my dry-cleaning and come back here, it was about the same time that it would have been if we'd been to the regular supermarket.

Ah well...

Our next stop was the framing place, and as I mentioned I was very happy with the way that the toy soldier sketch turned out. But then we spent a good chunky of time trying to find something that worked for one of Ma's cross stitch pictures. It's a bit difficult when it's a wizard in a multicoloured robe... we eventually found something though.

From there we detoured off to Kmart since I wanted some new socks to take with me to Sydney... and some new underwear, which I don't really need, but looks like it's going to be very comfortable.

The final stop was Perryman's Bakery to grab some lunch (and spares besides) before coming back here...

And we were all done by noon pretty much!

So not a terribly interesting day all up, but a nice relaxing lead in to our holiday. Only two more sleeps now...

Current Mood:

photo friday: waterlily bloom

waterlily bloomI'm a blonde again baby!

Also, it rained today... I mean serious rain... my favourite kind of rain actually. Big fat proper Spring rain... and there was no wind at all so it just fell straight down out of the sky. I love that! It got a little wispy and wussy later in the day, which was less good, but at least that was easier to travel home in.

I'm also officially on holidays for a week... because, you know, I'm going to Sydney... which I think I've mentioned... once or twice.

Today was actually an excellent "last day before leave" kind of day. I was busy pretty much all day, but while I was engaged in work activities, none of it really felt like working. Essentially I did a lot of talking and a fair bit of listening.

I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but it often astounds me when I open my mouth at work, exactly how knowledgeable I am/sound. In the every day grind of things I sometimes forget that, really, I know stuff! And when people ask me questions, I'm often able to answer them in a sensible and comprehensive fashion.

Except when people ask me the dictionary definitions of words... then I get a bit lost. I can use the word correctly, just don't ask me to actually give you a definition! Rockchick did that a couple of times today, and ended up writing one of them down (esoteric... one of my favourite words) and she then rifled through her notes to use it later in the day. Quite sweet really.

I was a tiny bit obnoxious when I was leaving this afternoon, I went and said goodbye to more people than I would usually say goodbye to specifically so that I could tell them I wasn't going to be in next week because I was going to Sydney. Little bit cheeky really.

Once I was done with work and had called Ma to also tell her that I was now officially on holiday (amongst other things... although she went on leave earlier in the week I think, so she wins that particular game), I toddled off to see Tink who was looking particularly fetching in a pair of knee high pixie boots... very apt really.

Now I have a confession to make... my Sydney haircut choice was inspired by Gruen Transfer era Will Anderson... or at least it was the starting point. It's quite short for quite a way up the sides and then graduates up to a higher section at the top. And boy is it blonde!

Last time we went with dark colour around the sides and some blonde sections combed into the top... this time we decided on the usual blonde colour I use around the side and some SUPER blonde sections across the top. The end result looks VERY blonde but actually has a fair bit of depth and texture to the top part. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Tink commented that no matter what we do with my hair, it always makes my eyes look really blue... we take it dark, they pop out as really blue... we go blonde, my eyebrows match my hair finally and my eyes look really blue. I resisted the temptation to reply to her statement with "that's because they're blue"...

Because the weather appeared to be threatening some serious rain (which I don't think it's actually delivered as yet) I decided to head for home, although I did stop off at Haighs first.

I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't seem to have any Rocky Road or toasted marshmallow on display, and when I asked the girl behind the counter she said that it was because "mashmallow season is over"... now I didn't actually know that was such a thing as "marshmallow season", but it turns out that because Haighs don't use any preservatives in their marshmallow it doesn't do terribly well in the hotter months.

Which disappointingly means that I'm going to have to wait until next Easter before I can get my hands on some more marshmallow goodness... well, once I finish off the two packets of dark Rocky Road I bought...

It very much looks like this weekend could be all about tidying up... I do like to come home to a clean house after we've been away, and my house is looking a touch untidy at present so I'll have to attend to that.

Just three more sleeps!

Current Mood:

random sydneyside hotness

Following in the vein of our last trip, today's Random Hotness is Sydney inspired...

And the photos of 21 year old Sydney based model, Khan Ruben, were taken by Sydney based photographer, Simon Le...

The only thing that would have made this MORE Sydneycentric is if he'd been photographed in front of a recognisable Sydney landmark...

khan ruben by simon le khan ruben by simon le
Current Mood:

pre-sydney countdown

harbour rail botanica
I went thumbing through my collection of photos from our last trip to Sydney looking for something to use with this post... I'm pretty sure none of these have seen the light of day before... they may have been included in a montage or two, but ever full size.

I had to draw the line at six.

But I did find it surprising that it was 2008 when we were there... it really only feels like five minutes ago. I can still remember sitting outside the hotel on our last day in the sunshine, drinking Iced Coffee and wishing I didn't have to leave... in fact large amounts of the trip are pretty much burned into my memory.

And in six days time I'll be back there.

I don't know if the full realisation that there are SIX DAYS TO GO has really hit me yet. Yes, academically I know it, but I haven't really ramped the excitement level up yet. I think it will start to kick in on Friday after I leave work and go and have my "Sydney Haircut".

I think part of me is always astounded that I'm even travelling... it's not something we ever did when I was a kid, in fact it wasn't until the late 90's that I got on my first aeroplane.

And Sydney still has that siren-call that I felt when we came back two years ago. I'm hoping it's not a feeling that disappears on a return visit...

business lunch contrast
The thing I think I'm most looking forward to on this trip is seeing Sculpture by the Sea down at Bondi, especially since we never got as far as Bondi on the last trip.

I also want to see more of the CBD, and I think that given where our hotel is we'll get to see a whole lot of different stuff than we did last time.

And I definitely have to explore the Botanical Gardens this time... last time we just used it as a shortcut on our way to the Opera House and didn't really look around... plus I want to see the Flying Foxes again!

Oh... and the Sydney men... I was very impressed last time.

We don't really have that much stuff pre-organised though... last time we had a laundry list of what we were doing and when, but with the exception of Bondi, it's a much more laid back affair this time around. I don't think we'll have a problem filling in the days though.

tall history
I guess I am a little bit excited after all... or maybe just writing about it helped.

Everything is officially done now, the flight, the hotel, the transport... all I have left to do is scribble down whatever notes I need, come up with my list of things to pack and then actually pack them. Oh and book the taxi for Monday morning...

In the end I decided against buying a new camera or an iPad/netbook for this particular trip. They're not off the cards, I think I just need to give them some more thought.

Have I mentioned that there are only six days to go?

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 404

Unconscious Muttering not found... coz, you know, internet humour... yeah never mind...

So after waiting for a week and a half to hear back from Airport Transfer Company A, I requested a quote from Airport Transport Company B at 10:20 this morning... but 10:45 I had a reply. So I booked with them.

I think that's officially everything now... this time next week we'll be in Sydney!

Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Sarcasm :: My lifeblood
  2. Coke :: Cola
  3. Frank :: Donnie
  4. Party :: Time
  5. Witches :: Eastwick
  6. Intentional :: Insult
  7. Crisp :: Sheetgs
  8. Lockers :: Sauna
  9. Walking :: Morning
  10. Fundraiser :: Donation
Current Mood:

exhausting but productive shopping saturday

keep calm and spend moreIt has been one of those days where we go everywhere, do everything and come out of it slightly exhausted but pleased!

First up Ma was having her pre-Sydney haircut, so I was shopping solo today... which was fine, it just meant that I got to wander around the supermarket listening to the Penny Arcade D&D podcasts (yes, I'm still working my way through them) on my iPhone... which is slightly odd, I'll grant you, but very enjoyable.

I also discovered that they've finally started making Farmers Union Strong Iced Coffee in the Stubby... cue Happy Yani!

Once I was finished I was in the process of texting Ma when she texted me... talk about timing!

Anyway, we met up here and after some "what are we doing" action, we decided to head off to the framing place where we've had some things framed before. I've had a toy soldier sketch that I commissioned sitting around since about the middle of February, and I figured it was about time that I got it framed up all nice.

Of course the one thing you never want to do is tell me that I can't do something design-wise... I can't have a black matt and a plain black frame? Really? Guess what I ended up with... yep, black on black. Technically I could have done a white matt, but in the end I think the black on black will really make it pop.

Granted, I have no idea where the hell I'm going to put it once it's framed...

I mentioned that I don't really need any more framed articles the other day, didn't I... I'm suggesting that this one doesn't count because I already had it, albeit sans frame.

Our next step was Ikea... mostly to take a look at the new stuff, pick up a new catalogue and find out exactly how much it will cost to deliver six flatpack bookcases to my house.

Turns out that it was a good plan, since the wider Billy bookcases have been reduced in price... and it seemed like it was only going to cost $67 for the entire collection. I kinda need to check up on that though... I know when I had my bed delivered (which technically was more than one piece) it only cost one lump sum, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't justify charging $67 delivery per bookcase... I just want to make sure.

All I need now is some way to get my four old bookcases down to the Reading Room project in the city...

Since we were in the general neighbourhood we decided to stop off at Harbour Town... which, again, turned out to be a very good plan.

Most of Harbour Town is wasted on both Ma and I... we only ever seem to buy things that are either footwear orientated or underwear related... and between the two of us we did both...

I bought a new pair of Bonds trackpants at halfprice, mostly because they're a particularly unattractive shade of blue (which I'm wearing as we speak), but I never leave the house in them, so who cares.

Sadly the Converse shop didn't happen to have any of the Jack Purcell leather laceless slip ons in my size... a size too small and a size far too large, but not mine. They did have some of the Dr Seuss Converse All Stars... and while I was very, very tempted to get the ones that look like they've been sketched in Seuss-style... but really, I'm 36 years old... I shouldn't be doing with Dr Seuss shoes...

Which is just as well since I just discovered you can build your own Converse shoe on their website... I think I might have to look into that!

Anyway, after being teased by shoes (while Ma bought new socks in preparation for our trip) we wandered around and towards the end of our wandering decided to go into one of the luggage stores, just to have a look around.

samsonite bright liteMy main problem so far has been that I can't decide between a hard shell case and a Crumpler suitcase...

But there's nothing that will quite make up your mind like seeing good quality brands at low, low prices. Especially when that discount is 50%!

So say hello to my new suitcase, the 67cm silver Samsonite Bright Lite suitcase. It actually looks a little bit like a fridge on wheels with a handle, but it moves like a dream. Ma bought the same one in a particularly violent pink. We might not recognise mine instantly, but I don't think that there will be a lot of discussion about which suitcase is Ma's!

We were both under the impression that the new cases were actually bigger but Ma tells me they're exactly the same size... which is a little disappointing, since it would have been nice to have a little more space, but I've never really had that much of a problem with managing to cram all my required clothing into my suitcase.

The choices for eating are a little disappointing down at Harbour Town so we ended up going to Glenelg to the Orange Spot... while the majority of their food is great (particularly the lemon tart... gorgeous!), I have to say that they do make a fairly average sausage roll.

After we'd sat and watch the waves for a while and eaten our lunch we headed down to West Lakes which turned out to be the one part of the day which was a little bit pointless... if only because the Game store Ma wanted to look in no longer exists, and pretty much all I wanted to do was drool on the Lost box set in JB HiFi...

Add to that a brief detour into the city to one of the Morning Glory stores, and that was our very exhausting but productive and pleasing day...

Current Mood:

photo friday: orange stamen

stamenThis photo seemed appropriate since I was watching the Day of the Triffids remake (which I have to say is actually dull and feels like every single other "disaster" movie/miniseries made in the last five years).

Sometimes I find looking at other people's photography by inspiring and depressing... and usually for the same reasons. Mostly because I wish I could/had taken the shots. 52 Suburbs is one of those photography blogs that does that to me, it is without doubt some of the most beautiful collections of urban photography I think I've seen. And I think it doubly gets to me because it's all about Sydney.

Have I mentioned that I'll be in Sydney in 10 days?

On a related note, what would be nice is if chauffeuring websites actually responded to their emails...

Other than that there wasn't a whole lot else to report.

Current Mood:

random parkour hotness

I think that the first time I really saw parkour or free running was either the video clip for Madonna's song Jump or else the post title scene in Casino Royale... but I remember being blown away by it.

This week's Random Hotness features professional free runner, Chase Armitage, who, other than being incredibly talented when it comes to stunt work and parkour, is also incredibly easy on the eye!

chase armitage chase armitage
Current Mood:

movies: resident evil: afterlife

experience a new dimension of evilThe movie Ma and I had planned to go and see tonight was only on at really unhelpful times (before 4pm or after 8:30pm... which just seems dumb to me, especially for an animated movie) so we skipped official movie night.

However, given that I'd been thinking about going to see Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D at some stage, tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity.

On the way home after the movie I was pondering what we've actually seen in 3D since this whole craze started up again, and I think the majority of it has been animated movies... How to Train Your Dragon (on our second viewing), A Christmas Carol, Up, Bolt and The Nightmare Before Christmas... in fact the only "live action" movie we've seen would be Alice in Wonderland (hence the quotes around live action... but technically I think that also needs quote marks around the fact that it was "in 3D" since it was more than a little dodgy).

And I have to say that for the most part (once I went out and got them to fully open the curtains so the whole screen was showing) the 3D in RE:A was excellent. I was also surprised that I didn't walk out of the movie with the kind of headache I usually end up with.

There were a couple of instances of the action looking a little stuttery, but that could have been a combination of the 3D and camera tricks I'm not exactly sure. I think it's more likely that it was an unintended side effect of the 3D though. And it may have been something that I got used to, since I only really noticed it at the beginning.

The only real 3D clanger I could see was a shot in an airfield where you could see where the digital matte painting started since it looked exactly like a painting had been stuck across the back of the shot. I also questioned whether shots that were essentially "things on screens" or video playback really needed to have a 3D element to them... surely they should be completely flat otherwise they stop being believable?

And yes, there are a number of instances of "stuff" flying out at the screen... shuriken, bullets, giant axes, etc... but I think that the 3D also adds to the "boo" factor of a couple of scenes. Even when I knew that there was a scare coming, it still made me jump I think because it felt more real.

But enough about the 3D... lets talk about the movie...

To sum it up in the briefest way possible... "Woohoo... oh... m'eh"

Of course I'll elaborate on that.

The opening of the movie is strong (and to be honest, I think it's one of the pieces that showcase the 3D in it's best light), it picks up pace, collects some of the story elements from previous movies (specifically from the previous instalment), sets off at a run with them... and then at some point, to continue the running analogy, the movie trips over it's own shoelaces and stumbles towards a completely unsatisfying and anti-climatic end.

Part of the problem I think is the pace and part of it is a wonky script. In the first movie they're trapped in an underground facility and spend the whole movie trying to escape from it... lots of tension, lots of opportunity for plot and character development. In the second movie (which has never been a particular favourite of mine), they're trapped inside a whole city and have to find a way out... somewhat less tension, but there is still a fair amount of plot and character going on. In the third movie they spend a lot of time driving around and... actually, even though I saw a chunk of it when it was on teevee the other night, I'm not completely sure what the hell happens in the third instalment... I do know that it feels very matriarchal though... and there is definitely plot going on, although it's fairly simple.

But every time Afterlife settles into what you think is going to be the big location for the movie where they can spread out and let some plot and tension happen, it ends up feeling remarkably like they just barrel on out of whatever jam they're in remarkably easily. The movie also manages to feel like something of a rehash of parts of the first three movies as well as having a decidedly Dawn of the Dead (the remake) feel to certain scenes.

Although I haven't played the video games I am aware of them and I know that there are the big "Boss" monsters that inhabit the games. And they use one of those monsters about halfway through the movie, but unlike the previous movies where there has always been a reason for those critters to be around (they were let out when the power was turned off, Eric Mabius went all Project Nemisis, Iain Glen shot himself full of anti-virus), there is absolutely no reason for "Axeman" (as he's called in the credits) to show up. His scene is great and it's a nice action piece, but why he's there is never explained and it seems incredibly random.

And yes, I know... expecting well thought out plot in a Resident Evil movie is an oxymoron of some sort... but the other movies have at least followed their own internal logic.

It also didn't help that the major Big Bad played by Shawn Roberts was essentially acting like a reject out of a second rate Matrix knock-off and was in no way threatening... (and, if I'm allowed a brief spoiler... was despatched at the end of the movie with a trick from the Wile E Coyote handbook).

For all that they rush headlong for the end of the movie, there really isn't any great resolution when the credits start to roll. Nobody really does a grand "here is my evil plot" speech, there isn't especially any major nasty critter they need to vanquish. They just leave it on a slightly weak cliffhanger for the next movie and I really didn't feel like the movie got resolved... it felt much more like it had just been placed on hold.

Overall, the word I want to use is "rushed"... it definitely felt rushed.

Having said all of that though, it was still a fairly enjoyable movie... and you get exactly what it says on the box... there's zombies and monsters and swords and guns and cool kung fu action and some very decent 3D plus, as always, there's Milla Jovovich who is always worth watching, especially in this kind of big action movie.

Fortunately Ali Larter more than holds her own, even though her character doesn't seem to have a great deal to do, but even so she manages to show off the acting chops that she never quite seemed able to let out in her work on Heroes.

Other than that the rest of the cast is fairly forgettable... even Wentworth Miller doesn't manage to provide very much eye candy (in one scene I could have sworn he was looking a little chunky around the middle).

It's definitely not the best of the Resident Evil franchise... but at the same time I don't believe that it's the worst (I still think that would be the second one). I do think that if it's worth seeing it's worth seeing in 3D.

yani's rating: 2 robot chest spiders out of 5

unconscious mutterings 403

Hey, isn't 403 one of those internet forbidden error things?

In unrelated news... I love to get parcels in the mail...

Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Freak :: Of Nature
  2. Homework :: A thing of the past
  3. Favor :: That's one of those U-less American spellings
  4. Encounter :: Bay
  5. Shake it :: Til you make it
  6. Felony :: Murder
  7. Loops :: Belt
  8. Groove :: Shake your groove thing
  9. Funding :: Government
  10. Plot :: Burial
Current Mood:

shopping with gays, dvds and watches

big gay shoppingThe homosexuals were out in force today... I don't know if it was because we went to Marion for the first time in a while or what... but there did seem to be more than the usual distribution of The Gays out and about...

Anyway, thanks to my regular Saturday morning alarm going off an hour early (curse you iPhone update!), I had a brief OCD cleaning moment this morning (scrub the sink, scrub the sink) and also looted my collection of Sydney maps and brochures from the last trip and dug out some useful ones...

And I reiterate that our hotel is in a kickass location! Woot!

Also, in the "stating the obvious" column, we're going to Sydney in two weeks... Double woot!

Today's Supermarket Safari went pretty much the same as usual... blah blah, broccoli, blah blah, iced coffee, blah blah, risotto rice... not interesting, but functional...

We headed down to Marion (as I mentioned before) and things got a little DVD nuts... JB HiFi happened to have the REAL Avatar (The Last Airbender... the original cartoons, not the crap movie) DVDs out cheaply... all except the second disc of the first season... grrrr...

So I ended up asking the slightly dopey DVD section boy if they had any... I think he was new, since he really didn't know anything... but he was all cute and slightly socially dysfunctional like a big puppy, so he didn't annoy me. Turns out they had the missing disc at another store, so it went from "Hmmmm, maybe I'll buy these, let me carry them around and think about it" to "Oh, so I have one on hold somewhere, so I'm getting all the rest of these"...

Now I just need to find somewhere that sells blank multiple disc Amaray style cases...

It's no surprise that I've been looking around for a watch for a while now, but it came to the forefront in the last week or so since the winding pin came clean out of my most recent $20 watch... which was the replacement for when the pin came out of my previous $20 watch...

my new big-tic kaleido watchHave I mentioned that I'm attracted by bright shiny things? And that it's worse if the bright shiny things are red?

We stopped at Shiels briefly to look at watches, not with any particular plan, just general looking. The watches I'd seen a while back (and snapped with my iPhone) were all long gone, but there were a couple that were quite nice...

And then I noticed one were the face was flashing red (well, red to black etc).

Just then a nice saleswoman mugged us and I asked to see the flashing watch (actually I asked it it was flashing because of an alarm... but no, it's just a feature)... which turned out to look quite nice on my wrist. And it doesn't always flash... it can be black, it can be red or it can do the flashing thing.

I looked at a couple of other watches, but they were both a little large on my admittedly slender wrists (one of the few body parts I can say that about). But the Fossil Big-Tic Kaleido watch just kept drawing me back.

So I bought it!

And the lovely saleswoman gave me a 10% discount (because I asked, and they were having a big storewide sale on everything else, but that didn't include watches).

So, obviously this one should last much longer than the $20 versions...

Then there was more DVD looking/shopping... and I got a set of three Paul Newman movies for about half the price I've seen one of the movies... bargain! So even if the other two movies turn out to be rubbish, it's still worthwhile.

Now I know I started this post with discussion of The Gays being out in force, but haven't provided any evidence... but I was kind of saving it up for the couple who won the Big Gay Prize for the day...

You're a tall homosexual, you have should length purple hair... your boyfriend/casual sex partner/BFF/gimp is scowly, blonde and wearing too much eyeliner for a Saturday afternoon in the suburbs. You're shopping for Christmas decorations in Myer and you're carrying around three large baubles covered in large silver sequins. You totally win at Gay of the Day! Take a bow sir and collect your prize!

I'm just disappointed that he wasn't buying Christmas decorations in the same shade as his hair... because trust me, they were available!

Anyway... after we grabbed a quick numnum to eat we called it a day... apart from having to swing past a second JB store to pick up the other Avatar DVD... where I was slightly hassled by the dipshit security guard because the boy at the counter had given me a free copy of "Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide"... you know, from the OTHER Avatar (it's not the same thing ya dufus, or can you not give these things away to save yourselves?)... which I didn't even want (but it was free, so I'll take it).

Once we got home and Ma took herself off home, I went a little nuts in the Penny Arcade store... this having money thing, combined with the Aussie dollar being about on a par with the US dollar is a dangerous thing. As are "region free" DVDs...

Now I just need to work out what the hell I can have for dinner. I hate that it's never something I think about when we go shopping, so I never actually buy anything specifically for Saturday night dinner...

Current Mood:

photo friday: butterfly tongue

butterfly tongueThis is one of those "I don't believe I got this" shots... every other time I've tried to snap butterflies, they take off... but this one was content to just sit there slurping up nectar while I shoved my camera right in it's face...
  • I wore purple today... I'm not exactly sure HOW it helps gay youth at risk... but I did it anyway.
  • Just when we thought Summer weather had arrived, Winter crept back in the door... it's been raining... and raining... and windy and cold... and raining.
  • Thankfully my hot water, which went out on Tuesday (and was fixed yesterday) has held up to the weather.
  • After listening to D&D podcasts all week long I wanna play Dungeons and Dragons!
  • I've noticed that I don't buy "ready made" food so much anymore... sure I might buy something that can just be stuck in the oven, like fish or whatever, but it's been ages since I bought anything "heat and eat".
  • Work was fairly slow today... H-San is still on leave, Sugarmonkey had the day off, so it was just me and Rockchick. Very much a m'eh kind of day.
  • I may have to go to a workshop on Wednesday that I'm not especially interested in or excited about... it would be useful, but given the other people who are going it could be a very tedious day.
I'm sure there was more stuff... but it's all gone clean out of my head...

And now it's time for 60 Minute Makeover...

Current Mood:

random opposing hotness

Today's Random Hotness are kind of opposite in a lot of ways... one is a curly brunette and the other has blonde dreadlocks, one is wearing underwear and the other isn't, one seems a little more butch than the other, one is wearing jewellery and the other pretty much isn't...

But they're both shirtless, have not dissimilar body shapes and are posed in a slightly similar fashion... and I'm not actually sure where I was going with this...

I will say that I found the two images in completely different places though... and I wouldn't kick either of them out of bed...

brown curly hair, no underwear and shirtless blonde dreadlocks, calvin klein underwear and shirtless

Current Mood:

street art tuesday

false icons
mono chaosOne piece of street art from Melbourne and one piece from Adelaide... only I'm not saying which is which...

Hopefully I can find some street art in Sydney this time around...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 402

Urgh... I hate it when the internet is slow at work... makes everything 100 times harder than it needs to be.

Also, I was having a fat day...

And I slept like crap, not helped by the fact that I downloaded the last iPhone update which resulted in my alarm, which worked perfectly all last week, going off an hour earlier than it needed too... grrr...

Unconscious Mutterings...
  1. Intruder :: Alert
  2. Repelled :: Water
  3. Trench coat :: Private dick
  4. Lipstick :: Lesbian
  5. Humongous :: Size Queen
  6. Oven mitts :: Freezer
  7. Case :: Travel
  8. Daughter :: Son
  9. Attorney :: Law
  10. Shaken :: Stirred
Current Mood:

big fat saturday with bowerbird and travel plans

one joker to go thanks!Today has been one big fat fucking day!

After I wandered around this morning and did some of the stuff I should have done earlier in the week, I got ready and checked my iPhone camera for no real reason, and it worked... which is good, because it didn't work yesterday.

As always, we started with the Supermarket Safari... which, really, is much less of an actual safari these days... I hardly bought anything, mostly fresh stuff.

Once we were done with trolling around supermarkets we came back here for the general unpackery... we headed down to Bowerbird Bazaar... I'm glad we went down nice and early (which is code for "we had to stand around for 10 minutes before they opened the doors), I think the word has definitely gotten out compared to previous years, so it filled up really quickly.

I could probably write a whole blog post on people and their behaviour at these type of events... but it's enough to say "people stop in stupid places and annoy me".

As always, the slightly dilapidated look of the Queens Theatre is a perfect accompaniment to all the high end art, craft and design.

I made myself a promise this time... no more artwork. I have a bunch of stuff that should really be on display that isn't, and I just don't have the room. And thankfully I managed to stick to that, although montages by Crayon Chick (none of which are featured on her website) did have my resolve wavering. In the end I settled for buying some of her collage magnets.

There was a lot of cool stuff, but as always tends to happen with us, all of the best stuff was on the very last two stalls we looked at. Okay, the best stuff as far as I was concerned... Ma did buy a few other things along the way.

But on the first of those two stalls, Almond Tree Frames (where I got my rabbit last year) I found two different toy soldiers and a set of Where The Wild Things Are bookmarks and on the other, Green on the Inside, I found this key pendant...

labyrinth keyAn intricate key, red thread, a ring that mentions San Francisco... could it have been any more made for me? I did take the escutcheon off though, since I didn't think it was adding anything... but Ma may make that into a brooch, so it's not going to go to waste.

We grabbed some lunch from the Red Door Bakery stall... I had an Angas Beef pie that was so light and melt in the mouth... delicious!

After that we wandered over to The Jam Factory to look at the Making Waves surfboard exhibition... they were so shiny and beautiful... I just wanted to caress them...

Since there wasn't any glassblowing we could sit around and watch, we headed back to the car and drove around to Rundle Street since Ma wanted to head to the Bead Shop again. Then we stopped for something to drink (mmmm lemon gelati floating in apple and peach juice!) and headed up to the Mall.

On the way I detoured into Diamonds Cameras to look at the Sony NEX-3 camera... I know my current digital camera is only just a year old... but the Sony has interchangeable lenses and is essentially a digital compact body with SLR lenses. But it's also $1100... which, disturbingly I could pay for purely with gold coins... but I'm not sure it's really necessary... so I'm going to muse on it...

After a little wandering around we headed back here and booked the flight for the Sydney trip, which was the easy part... then we started looking at hotels... which took forever... trying to find something central at the right price. We did end up finding something and Ma took down the details to call them when she got home.

Which she did... and it turned out they didn't have available rooms... which turned out to be very good news. After some investigation I managed to find a place right in the middle of the city... a minute away from Circular Quay, two minutes from the Opera House... granted it isn't going to be anywhere near as nice as the hotel in Melbourne, but I think I can safely say that very few hotels will live up to that standard.

But we have a flight, we have a hotel... we're going to Sydney!

Current Mood:

photo friday: tree teddy

wild jungle tree teddyThis is the wild Tree Teddy, captured in his natural habitat, lurking on an out of the way spot waiting for his prey to pass underneath so he can pounce...

Actually, I shot this in the Botanical Gardens a couple of weeks back, Ma spotted it... this little teddy sitting high up in a tree... but he wasn't lonely, on the next branch over was a little stuffed tiger. They'd obviously been out in the weather for a while, the teddy had essentially lost all his fur. Whether the gardeners had put them up there, or some very limber visitors I'm not sure...

Today has had a number of ups and downs...

The Ups:
  • I discovered I'd finally been given access to "New Twitter" this morning... I was essentially part of the "And everyone else" rollout, but still...
  • I got to listen to D&D podcasts starring Wil Wheaton and the Penny Arcade guys (earlier sessions to the videos I watched earlier in the week)... even though I've never actually played D&D, they're highly enjoyable!
  • I finally got around to knocking over a bunch of non urgent stuff that has been handing around my work Inbox for the last week or so.
  • Somebody asked me if I was okay because according to them they'd been hearing my "shitty snarky" tone of voice for the last couple of days and they wanted to make sure I wasn't overly stressed (which I wasn't really... we'd just been doing a lot of debating of ideas).
  • Booked my pre-Sydney haircut and my pre-Christmas haircut!
  • Passing on the knowledge that when you give a money box to somebody, you never give it empty (I actually passed that one a while ago, but it came up again today).
  • Chocolate milk!
The Downs:
  • I put a brand new shirt on this morning and discovered that the buttonholes on the sleeves were either missing or not properly cut through.
  • I went to photograph said lack of buttonholes with my iPhone, only to discover that the camera, which had started working again a week or so ago, had stopped working again.
  • Turns out my shirt isn't overly well made (it's from Red Circle and was on the bargain rack, whatdayawant!), the stitching on the decorative features on the shoulder is either missing or falling apart or both.
  • Arguing why people shouldn't do things the way that works for them, but rather the way I say they should do it... you're never going to win that one... fortunately I was discussing it with H-San rather than the people involved.
  • H-San going on leave for the next two weeks... there is always something screwy that happens when he's gone.
  • Being told that a meeting request was for important T&D when actually it's for a pointless social gathering in a well known outdoor homosexual beat, but now that I know I declined the request...
So it pretty much all comes out about even I think...

Current Mood:

random shameless hotness

Following on from last week's Random Hotness, this is another one from the "Didn't he grow up purdy" file.

This one is a little different though because anybody who is a fan of the teevee show Shameless has seen Elliott Tittensor grow up in his role as Carl Gallagher from a shaven headed, slightly freaky looking little boy to this beautiful, well coiffed young man who fills out his underwear incredibly well (and, one might say, shamelessly) for the January 2010 edition of Attitude Magazine.

It's amazing what a difference six years makes...

elliott tittensor elliott tittensor

Current Mood:

the green, the ring and the geek

curving green fluffy bud
It's green, it's botanical and it has texture... it's Wednesday's featured photos...

Yesterday on the way home I was fiddling with my piercing (you know, the one in my ear you can see in my profile picture), as I am often want to do, and there was a "pop" sound and the ball came out! Now, I've had that particular piercing for at least 10 years (the oldest digital photos I can find I already have the second piercing in (which I no longer have), and that was 2001, so the first one predates that), and I've never had a moment's problem with it.

Obviously it was about due... before the movie last night we stopped off at the tattoo/piercing place on Rundle Street and I asked the girl if she could pop the ball back in. She tried and she tried and she tried... she used her hands, she used pliers, she used the other pliers... nothing.

So at lunch today I went into Essential Beauty and asked them to try... and for a moment I didn't think it was going to go in, but she had better pliers obviously and it's all in position again now. They did also charge me $5 for the privilege, which I thought was a bit of a cheek.

The rest of today kind of got away from me... I finally managed to finish something I've been trying to do for a week at work, but when I got home I started checking up on old tweets that I'd saved to look at later and had a big geek moment over a series of D&D videos starring Wil Wheaton and the guys from Penny Arcade... well over an hour and a half of videos, and I started watching, then I watched while I was cooking dinner, then I kept watching, and kept watching... and then my evening just evaporated.

But between D&D geekery and Spicks and Specks deleted scenes, I had a very good time...

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