glory day

And tomorrow we shall lunch nicely

RUGBY:

Last Saturday we went to watch Uni play at North Sydney Oval.  The weather was perfect for rugby and NSO is such a pretty ground:

Uni dominated from the beginning of the game, and wrapped it up at 69-3.  Still top of the table.  Here are Norths on attack in the second half:

which sadly (for them) came to naught.

Rugby season is very difficult at the moment as I'm following the fortunes of Uni in the local Sydney competition, Otago in the Air NZ Cup competition (and a Shield challenge this week!  fingers crossed!) and the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations competition.  The AB's lost last week as predicted; until the coaching staff changes they are destined to be woeful, I'm afraid.

SEWING:

A whole pile of banded tops and overdue mending, not exciting enough for a photo.

MR PUSS:

He is currently yowling his head off downstairs, because he has just had dinner and isn't that a good reason to yowl?

Photographic proof that he once played with something!  (He does not "play".  We think he finds it demeaning).

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

De comes back from the States tomorrow, hurrah!

Illicit Thursday

Today I am not where I should be.  I should be at the op-shop raising money through retail, but I'm so very PMS-y and stabby, and the idea of trying to have a conversation with anyone makes me want to chew off my own face.  I'm at the place where, if anything slightly stressful happened, I would lose all sense of proportion and go totally postal.  Much better idea just to stay at home, I thought.

Also there will be potato chips.

The celebrations are still in full swing here, as for the first time since November we now have hot water in the downstairs bathroom.  I KNOW!  It's so exciting!  Also the leak under the sink has been fixed; really it's all too much at once. 

We went to see Terminator: Salvation last night, really just because we wanted to go to the pictures.  I wasn't expecting to enjoy it overly, but I thought it was great, certainly much better than T3.  Then we went to Asakura for dinner which is always good.

All my projects are continuing apace - De's house is becoming uncluttered at a rate of knots, and I've finally finished cutting out my surprise! blanket.  I could wish to be in slightly less pain but what can you do.

Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't look at all comfortable.

Some variety at last!

Sometimes it seems like I write the same damned thing over and over again (generally about the losing ways of my beloved Highlanders, the poor befuddled dears).  But then some times it seems the same things happen over and over - the Highlanders lose, I make a frock or maybe some jewellery.

But this week so far has been quite unusual compared to the weeks we generally have.  Yesterday David bought a new toaster, which is definitely a once-off in his life as our former toaster had been in his family since 1971:

Goodbye, devout and faithful toaster!  You delivered us all our bread-related treats and tried to teach me that all orange kitchen accessories aren't the work of the devil!

Sadly it was time for Old Reliable to be retired as it was shorting out the power supply.  In it's stead we have a lovely chrome curvy toaster with an "integrated bun warming rack", which sounds ... fascinating.

Last night we went to Blackbird for dinner - Blackbird is one of my favourite places on Cockle Bay and while I still have reservations about their service I love the food there.  Caesar salad with king prawns, oh my, oh yes.

Then we went to see Red Cliff which was showing at the State Theatre as part of the film festival.  We arrived to find the queue wrapped around the block, and after waiting for about 10 minutes we were told that the starting time would be delayed by about half an hour.  Did I mention it was absolutely bloody freezing in that queue?  With the wind screaming down the CBD wind-tunnel?

Very grumpily David and I went to a dodgy pub to get out of the wind.  We talked about maybe not going back - there was no way they were going to fit that amount of people into the theatre quickly, it was late, we were cold, we could see it at the Dendy later.  But we went back and although the queue was even longer it started moving quite quickly.  In a few minutes we were inside the lovely old theatre, we were toasty-warm, the seats were comfortable, all was right with the world. 

Then a woman came on stage to introduce the movie, and instead introduced John Woo!!  I tell you what, I was squeee-ing like a teenaged fangirl.  I didn't actually know he was going to be at the screening (probably because I don't listen, concentrate or pay attention) so that was a very cool surprise.

Red Cliff was amazingly awesome and fantastic, by the way - well worth a look.

Oh, and another thing that happened this week which doesn't usually happen: I got assaulted.  While riding home on the bus the other night some teenaged girl punched me in the face.  Twice.  It all seems to be a case of girls acting badly (as opposed to someone wanting to punch me, specifically, in the face); the police came round and took a statement and my face is pretty much fine.

While I'm always open to a bit of variety in my week I draw the line at physical violence.  Although our cat bit the policeman, so that was a tiny bit funny.

And here's something else that hardly ever happens: Mr Puss, slayer of policemen, naps on the black sofa:

I guess if you really want a cat to sleep on a sofa you need to cover it with fabric scraps.

Donde Esta La Pollo!

Last night we went to see the Headless Chickens play, and it was fantastic.  They were as full of energy as they were 20 years ago, the crowd loved them and they played my especial favourite song Mr Moon.

It was interesting to run into so many people we hadn't seen for ages, because it made us realise that we haven't been out to anything music or club-related for nearly a year.  There's nothing wrong with that, it was just another reminder of how life keeps changing.

Allow me a small rant about the venue:  I hate the Gaelic Club.  Hate.  There is nowhere to sit and having to stand for four hours (albeit draped against a wall-shelf-thing) made me very cranky.  Also I managed to gash my leg with my other foot (I have no idea how; it takes a special sort of talent to be as klutzy as I).

Today has been very, very quiet and decidedly non-productive.  But that's ok too, I suppose.

The one thing I have done is made an executive decision to have two litterboxes in the downstairs loo.  The cat already has his litterbox there, but has decided he wants to use a patch of floor about half a metre away.  So I've put another litterbox in that spot in the hope that it might stop this behaviour.

Honestly, the room is slightly over a metre square, and it has two litterboxes.  We only have one cat.

Speaking of Mr Puss and lack of productivity, here how he's spent his day:

He loves sleeping on this computer box: it's big enough for him (not everything is), it's in the one spot that gets the afternoon sun, he can look down on the comings and goings in the shared courtyard.  And it demonstrates the virtues of being lax and unorganised - if David and I had actually thrown out that box four years ago where would the cat sleep now?

The NaBloPoMo crunch

So while I would like to write about my trip to the hairdressers and my totally awesome haircut, or perhaps the bizarre trip to the optometrists, or even the status of FrockProject, I find I am out of time.

We must make do with a gratuitous photo of a cat:

who is helping me with my online shopping.  Bless.

I'm wiped

Today has been made up of a lot of awesome.

I went to Marrickville with De and a friend of hers and bought the rest of the fabric I need to finish FrockProject.  Then we went to a new (to us) fabric store, which was wonderful and amazing and overwhelming in equal parts.  I bought only some fabric to make some pants (FAIL. this is supposed to be about making summer clothes!) because I worried that if I picked up any fabric I would want to have it all.  Then to Lincraft, now at a handy-dandy location in Alexandria. 

The only less-than-stellar experiences in our day was pretty much any time we had to interact with service staff - really we were unlucky in that area today.

And now I'm totally exhausted.  I'm going to cook dinner and prepare to get up at 4am to watch the All Blacks take on Wales.

Here is one of my favourite photos of Mr Puss, posing on the ironing board in front of another tuxedo cat:

CrappyCam has given him 'Children of the Damned' eyes.  He doesn't usually have those.

Perhaps he should make better choices

I spent the day doing the same range of motions over and over and over and over:

Sew seam.  Take garment to ironing board.



Remove cat from ironing board.  Iron seams.



Remove cat from sewing chair.  Sew seam.

All.  Day.  Wherever I wanted to be, there he was.  So as well as the sewing (which, frankly, already has many potential annoyances) there was a grumpy, needy cat who just wanted to be left alone to sleep.

I did finish a dress:

which actually looks quite nice on.  I should have finished it months ago but I got the pip with it when I unaccountably spent five hours on the pleated waistband thingie.  Five hours, I don't know how that's even possible.  I was worried that it's displaying a bit too much cleavage, but David assured me that the amount of cleavage displayed is entirely right and proper, so that's reassuring. 

It's his flea-treatment day today, hurrah

I've signed up for NaBloPoMo again this year, which means a post every day throughout November.  Expect a lot of cat photos!

Actually speaking of Mr Puss he is in disgrace right now.  Not only did he cry all morning (causing me to wake up far too early, very grumpy and with a headache) he has decided that using his litter-box is now optional.  I, of course, am firmly of the opinion that use of the litter-box is mandatory, so things are a bit stressful in our house right now.

And here is the feline in question looking like Iams wouldn't melt in his mouth:

Don't believe him.