shopping adventures with added fork on the road

It's been a long day, but surprisingly cruisy. And clearly it ended with us going off to Fork on the Road... but more on that later.

Although I always hate that moment when you wake up on a weekend at the regular weekday time and it takes your mind a few moments to remember that it's actually the weekend and that you can actually go back to sleep for a while.

It turns out that I didn't need to worry about weirdness from the guy at the supermarket, he wasn't even there... which actually was a little disappointing, if only because it would have gotten any potential weirdness out of the way (maybe... I'm not sure if it will make things more or less weird to be honest).

After we hit the supermarket we headed down the road to see the Honey Man... it's been a while since we headed down to see him, and there were sadly very few honey options... previously he's had about six or seven different varieties, but today he only had three. Supposedly it's been a bad season, which is unfortunate.

Since the news broke that Spring Gully was in financial trouble, we've been intending to head down to their factory store to show our support. With one thing and another we've not managed it until today.

It's actually much closer than I thought it was... just down at the end of Prospect Road (which we were already most of the way down due to supermarkets and honey acquisition) in Cavan. It's also a much smaller shop that I was imagining... but we picked up a few things that were slightly cheaper than they are in the shops, which is nice, and we also had a bit of a chat with (I'm guessing) Mrs Spring Gully.

Then it was back to my place to unpack and whatnot... and for Ma to open the Warrior Woman minifig I got her (which she quite liked).

We didn't really have much of a plan for the remainder of the day, other than the fact that we were headed to Fork on the Road at 4pm, but Ma wanted to head into the city to look at a couple of things... and half a plan is better than no plan at all.

After seeing my Series 10 minifigures Ma decided that she wanted to pick up her own Sad Clown, Bumblebee Girl and Sea Captain... so after we got into the city we headed off to Myer.

Thankfully they'd put out a whole new box and Ma actually found all three herself. I did confirm them all for her though, and it also didn't take a whole lot of time which was good.

We did some other random wandering and ended up in the food court in the new Rundle Place. We were both a little thirsty so we stopped at Fresh Junction to get something to drink.

I decided to try the sugar cane juice... just because it sounded so damn weird. I don't think they've been selling all that much of it because the woman upsized me for free. Unfortunately a large serving was way, way, way too much. Don't get me wrong, it was nice... but in very small doses. I'm not even sure the size I originally ordered wouldn't have been too much... I think a small size would have worked, since I only drank about a third of what I had.

After we'd finished wandering around the city we did a quick detour to Bowden to scope out the location for Fork on the Road and then came back to my place to kill some time.

We ended up watching Up, and by the time we were finished with that and the special features it was time to head off to get our Fork on. Thankfully the weather held off... although the sky was incredibly ominous and there were half a dozen spots of rain.

This particular Fork on the Road was partly for the opening of part of the new development at Bowden... it was slightly odd... there was a whole separate "private party" going on at the same time as Fork, which was weird... and the Premier gave a speech, which I only paid attention too long enough to snap a photo before wandering back to the food.

We did the usual trick of getting a little bit of stuff from a range of places... and mostly we shared it out between us...

We started with a couple of pastizzi from Archie, then shared one of the most awesome toasies ever from Little Big Cheese Co and a passionade from The Little Van That Could.

Then we got a trio of tacos from Tacocat, and some fries and yummy dipping sauce from Chimichurri Grill. So much yummy food!

We finished it off with some gelato from Giro Gelato, chocolate for me and honeycomb for Ma and picked up some of the yummy brownies from Four Seeds (which is also where I snapped the guy with dreadlocks and the Lego Spaceman teeshirt).

So even though Ma isn't interested in doing things for Mother's Day, it was nice that this kind of synced up together and we did something fun.

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photo friday: colours

There should be some sort of rule that says that work shouldn't allowed to get stupidly busy after lunch on a Friday... it's just rude.

It's been a weird week to be honest... due to staff movements (someone leaving and someone else taking over their job) I've ended up taking on a bunch of additional work which also comes with some additional money, although I'm not completely sure how much exactly. But given the general ambiguity about my position, that money is a good thing.

Oh, and I got to hold a baby this afternoon... one of the women at work who left at the beginning of March to have a baby came in this afternoon with said baby, and as always, I had to hold the baby. She was really good actually, she slept most of the time I was holding her, and then when she woke up she basically just pulled faces and smiled up at me, which was nice.

I spent the whole of my lunch on Monday tracking down street art, then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I spent the majority of my lunchbreaks in Myer feeling up the Series 10 Lego Minifigures.

I swore that I'd found all of the minifigs on Wednesday, I had 7 still to find, plus picked up a couple of extras, one for my desk at work and one for Ma, making 9... I got charged for 9, but I got home and could only find or account for 8... very annoying.

So I had to go back in on Thursday, talk to a completely different staff member than I'd seen the previous two trips and then go through the box and a half that was left looking for a single remaining figure. And it was the "Fashionista" who isn't one of my favourite designs for this series. She turned out to be the fourth to last bag I checked.

But I did have a lovely chat with a FFOL (female fan of Lego) who came along to feel up the bags looking for her own set. We had a lovely chat about coming back to Lego after being away from it, and it was all very pleasant.

Speaking of conversations, I had the oddest of conversations with a young gentleman on Grindr yesterday... it was like talking to four different people, I never quite knew what random thing he was going to say next. It was an amusing distraction, but not much else.

Pretty much at the same time, I also was possibly being hit on by a guy who works in the fruit and veg department of the supermarket Ma and I got to every weekend. He actually started the conversation with "I see you shopping every weekend with your mum"... which is a tiny bit creepy and confronting. Even though he didn't have a full face picture, I think I know who he is... and to be honest, he's not one of the guys I regularly perv on.

Either way, it'll make tomorrow interesting...

I headed off to Espionage Gallery last night to see "Anything But Human: A Surreal Group Exhibition"... and even though I was there when the doors opened, the two pieces in the whole exhibition that I would have bought already had red dots on them. That's the second time in a row that's happened... which is fairly annoying.

And if they hadn't have been gorgeous "toy soldier" pieces I might have just shrugged it off.

However Josh just pointed me in the direction of the artist in question who was on the other side of the room and I've now commissioned him to do me one of my own, but holding a drum.

Speaking of art... I keep plugging away at my tattoo idea. I actually spoke to Josh about getting contact details for Benzo since I want him to design part of it. I'm still not completely sure how I want to pull the whole thing together, I think I need to gather the particular pieces of art together and then sit down with a tattoo artists to discuss how to bring it all together.

Owlgirl (at work) and I keep revving each other up about respective tattoos... she got her first tiny tattoo late last year and really got a taste for it... and I've always said that I wouldn't get another one until I was completely sure about what I wanted.

Although since Owlgirl's boyfriend got a massive piece on his arm, she and I really keep talking about tattoos... and doubly so about the artist who did her boyfriend's piece because he really does amazing work.

Today was also an annular eclipse, which I didn't even realise, but one of my workmates who I'd had a long conversation with about going to the observatory in Sydney (she's a total science geek) came barrelling in this morning chattering about it, complete with a pair of "eclipse glasses" which are essentially the old cardboard 3D glasses but with really dark plastic in them. And all you can see through them is the sun... so I saw the tail end of the eclipse, which was pretty cool.

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random hutchins hotness

This week's Random Hotness is Mississippi model, Heath Hutchins.

This photoset from Fantasticsmag by photographer Scott Teitler seemed appropriate as we're currently enjoying a last gasp of Summer weather before Winter kicks in.

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adelaide's big walls

This weekend, as part of the Oi You Urban Art Festival, there were a number of street artists around the city working on some large scale murals.

There were also four Big Walls Adelaide Tours of the new pieces, led by a number of the street artists themselves. While I didn't go along on the tour, I did spend my lunch break today retracing it's steps with a little help from the tour map and found all of the new pieces.

And honestly, it just made me happy... seeing so much new colour, new art, new passion out on the streets just lightened my heart.

Of all of the pieces, I think that Beastman's two pieces... the colours of both pieces, but especially the horizontal piece in Tradeshall Lane.

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bowerbird saturday shopping

After Ma doing the hairdo thing last weekend and our trip to Sydney the previous Saturday, we were back to regularly scheduled supermarket adventures this week.

Not that it was all that adventurous to be honest.

We did the usual routine, wandered around the supermarket but that was about it before we came back to my place.

And I unpacked while Ma wandered down the street to grab a coffee... which I think may be the default routine now that Winter is on the way.

After I'd flicked through the paper, we headed off to Bowerbird Bazaar.

We got there nice and early, early enough in fact that the doors weren't open although there were still a number of people milling around. Early is definitely the way to go though, since we still managed to have a good look around before the crowds really started to descend.

Even at it's worst, it was still better than last time.

I ended up picking up a few things...

My ongoing obsession with black and white art continued with a print of Parade Onwards by Hannakin. But what's not to love about a flamingo in a hat!

Also on a art theme, I stopped and chatted briefly with Dan Withey... I now kinda get why his art is so bright and bold... he's very much that way himself, and seems really sweet.

One of the new exhibitors was Stonemen who make really cool underwear printed with great photo images. I decided on the Forest briefs and the Eagle trunks... hopefully they'll fit alright, but they look really good.

I also stopped off at Temono, not to buy anything, but to get them to stamp an ampersand on the two bracelets I bought to replace the one that broke. When I mentioned that my previous bracelet broke they suggested that I could send it back and they'd fix it for me... which is sweet, however I'm not sure I'm going to bother, only because it was smaller than these ones and was perhaps a little too tight.

When I saw the mini version of the goldfish mobile at Bearwoods, I had to grab it... I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do with it, although the girl on the stall did say that she has one hanging from the rear vision mirror of her car, so that's definitely an option.

During high school, I made a chunky version of the Stix for Cooks from Sands Made... but Ma kept it when I moved out, and I did make it some mumblemumble years ago... so even that one is a little bit worse for wear. It should also replace the crappy stirrer I currently have nicely.

On the way down to Bowerbird Ma and I had been having a conversation about her birthday and the fact that I don't think I actually have any presents for her yet... so when I checked out the ye olde typewriter key jewellery at Tick Tock Type (and the fact that Ma was wearing her typewriter typebar necklace), it seemed like a good present. She picked out a couple that she liked and then wandered off... and I'd almost made a decision but then the woman pulled out a bunch of different ones from a box under the counter, so that made my decision slightly more complicated. I did end up buying a pair that Ma hadn't seen though, so that was good.

Part way through our wanderings, we stopped off for something sweet to eat at
From Scratch Patisserie... which is always nice. I picked the "Monkey Magic" (layers of peanut butter mousse, caramel cream, passionfruit and peanut and popcorn crunch) which was amazing, especially the "crunch" part at the bottom.

After we'd done a final lap of the place so that Ma could pick up a veritable truckload of greeting cards to give to La Cousina at Christmas we headed over to Hoummus Where The Heart Is to grab something to eat.

I had the lamb kebabs, which was very nice... although there were little dollops of different things on the plate, including Baba ghanoush and one that was pure garlic... I didn't realise that until AFTER I'd taken a mouthful of it...

Seriously, my mouth still tastes of garlic!

Once we'd finished eating we called it a day... there wasn't really anything else we wanted to do... so we headed back to my place, divided up our goodies and I sent Ma on her way.

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photo friday: beach boys

It's been another slightly manic week... more so in the first half of the week where it felt like everybody wanted a piece of me.

And more than a bit of it has been about social media... from presentations for a meeting next week, to giving advice, to attending a SocMed Adelaide session this afternoon. I did have one of those moments during the meeting where I was giving advice where you suddenly realise you actually know a whole lot of crap and most of it has come tumbling out of your mouth.

The SocMed session was kind of interesting... I'm not sure that I learned all that much stuff that I didn't already know, however some of it was mentioned in slightly new ways. And I also finally got to meet one of my longtime Twitter buddies in the flesh as well as seeing a couple of others in the room. So that was nice.

I've also spent a number of lunchtimes popping in and out of Myer, hoping against hope that they'd release Series 10 of the Lego minifigures... alas, no such luck... although they did move the toy department down to the ground floor yesterday, so at least I don't have to go as far to check.

I should have gotten laid tonight... I've been chatting with this guy on and off all week and right up until lunch time today we'd made a plan to get together tonight... then nothing...

It's one of those things that really annoys me... you want to flake out, sure, go right ahead. But just say something... anything. Or if you have no intention of following through, don't make the promise in the first place.

Anyway...

There's been a weird dripping noise coming from somewhere other than my apartment on and off for a few weeks... originally I thought it was just my stupid neighbours not turning taps off properly, but it turned into a constant thing at some point on Saturday. It definitely started to drive me all kinds of insane, and I had to run my evaporative cooler for a couple of nights just so I could get to sleep.

I put off calling the Land Agent, because really, what can they do about a neighbour's tap? But the longer it went on, the worse it was getting and the more insane I was getting, so in the end I really didn't have a choice. I was kind of expecting it to be a long drawn out thing, but I called the agent and they said they'd get onto it... then the plumber called me around lunchtime and by the time I got home there was silence.

Granted my brain keeps inventing dripping sounds, so I'm still a little paranoid, but it seems to be fixed.

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random emergency hotness

A Twitter related Random Hotness this week...

These photos are all from @EmergencyTwink... which I discovered when someone I follow retweeted something from their other account, @EmergencyOtter.

Granted I think I've reblogged more than a few of the images on my Tumblr, and I'm not completely convinced some of the guys they post are actually twinks (they're more twunks in my opinion... halfway between twinks and hunks)... but sometimes it's nice to get a little Emergency Twink action in your tweetstream.

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lifescouts: music month

April was music month on Lifescouts...

I'm really, really, really not musical. Although part of the problem was the choice of musical instruments... if they'd included a xylophone and a recorder in the list, I would have had a couple more badges.

Yeah, I know... the least cool instruments known to man. I've never played the drums, I've never played a guitar, and I haven't done anything musical for several years.

Piano

The piano story that comes immediately to mind is from my Year 8 music class.

The majority of the stuff we did for that class was on keyboards, but there was one particular day where the number of keyboards was less than the number of kids in the class, and for whatever reason, I was the dumb bunny than ended up without a keyboard.

There was, however, an upright piano in the corner of the room, so I ended up using that. Our task for that lesson was to learn, I think, Love Me Tender. And by the end of the hour I could not only play it through, I could do it without the music. And it sounded so much better on this big old piano than on the little electronic keyboards.

Granted, I don't think we ever went back and practiced that again, so I don't think that it stuck for much longer than that lesson, but it's one of the few times that I managed to commit a song to memory in such a short time.

Keyboard

I don't quite remember when I got it (or why I wanted it to be honest), and I don't really know what brand or model it was (I think it was probably a Casio, but I honestly don't remember), although I think Ma still has it in a cupboard upstairs at her place (in the original box), but some time in the 1980's I got a keyboard.

And I spent a fair degree of time hammering away at it sitting at the kitchen table, trying to learn the small repertoire of sheet music that I had.

I don't remember most of the songs, but I do remember spending a fair degree of time working on playing Annie's Song by John Denver (because I was so current and modern, I learned a song that came out the year that I was born).

I think I also had a book of Christmas music, so I think I tortured the house teaching myself Away In A Manger and Oh Christmas Tree amongst other things.

Concert

I didn't go to a concert until I was about 20...

To some degree I don't really see the point in going to see people play songs that sound worse than they do on their album or else watching them mime while putting on a performance.

But I think that's partly about the fact that I'm really not that bothered about music in general.

There have been a few exceptions to this however.

Ludo and I became band groupies for a local pub band called Framing Watson. However, I would more accurately describe those as "gigs" and not concerts... although we did see them when they were supporting various larger acts that came closer.

However my first concert experience was going to see Janet Jackson's Janet World Tour concert on February 21, 1995 with Ludo and his girlfriend at the time.

Then on December 20, 1998 I went to see The Velvet Rope World Tour, which was also my final concert going experience.

There have been various other music events since (although not that many), but they're much more in the category of smaller and less grand "gigs".

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