glory day

Maybe I'll go shoe shopping on my way to surgery

~ 2½ hours to go ~

Some things, briefly, to stop me dwelling on my impending surgery:

I helped to co-ordinate our op-shop's involvement in the Under the Blue Moon festival last week.  I'd been bringing bags of clothes and things home for the past few months, and here is everything washed, ironed and packed ready to go:

I must admit to feeling a tiny bit daunted at that point.

We had two days of really hard work - Friday setting up, Saturday working the shop - and while there were some stresses [we work for the same organization, quit your bitching] everything went really well.  We got a good crowd, the shop looked great and the lucky dip thingie totally went off (who knew?).

Obviously the best part is that we raised nearly $1600, which is a) the first time in well over a year we've hit the 1K mark and b) believed to be an all-time record for one day's takings.  So yay.

~ 2¼ hours to go ~

A whole heap of the work done for the festival wouldn't have happened without De, who was just a phenomenal helper.  Everyone at the shop loved her, and really I couldn't have done it without her.

And you know what else I couldn't do without her?  Listen to my new iPod Touch!  In a moment which rendered me speechless De and J gifted me the iPod Touch J had won at an event - isn't that just an amazing thing?  And I was actually speechless, and you know that doesn't happen very often.

OK, 2 hours to go.  I'm going to go get it over with.

Surfers Paradise

De, Ke and I have just returned from our weekend in Surfers Paradise, although none of us are, in fact, in any way surf-y.  This was the river view from our hotel balcony:

and this was the city-side view from our hotel balcony:

which while much less pictuesque was perhaps more useful.

Surfers Paradise seems to be a town which attracts a great deal of groups looking for organised entertainment, such as hens/bucks night groups (of which we saw many) and post-season sporting groups.  For that reason I didn't really enjoy the town - there wasn't a sense of friends meeting up together so much as associated individuals coming together to get smashed and behave badly (David *quite* snorted when I told him that, as he feels that is the perfect description of De, Ke and I together, and I have icily informed him he has missed my point).

We had a great time together (as always) with much laughter and chatting and wine and food.  We went to SeaWorld on Friday, and it turned out to be the perfect day to go - on the off-season so the crowd was small, and the weather wasn't too hot.  We saw pelicans, dolphins, turtles, penguins:

rays and polar bears.  We went on a glass-bottomed boat in the shark reef and saw sharks, rays and many different types of fish, including a very pensive yellow fish:

After dinner at the Hogs Breath Cafe we went and got surprise! piercings - Ke got a labret piercing, De got a new nose piercing and I just had my nose jewellery changed.  Piercings for all!

The rest of the weekend was market shopping, lunch next door, walking along the beach, watching the All Blacks win (win!) and then coming back home to my partner and my cat.  Its always fantastic after a lovely weekend away with my girls to come home, it reminds me of just how lucky I am.

Words are, like ... jumbley things

HAVE DONE:

Went to stay with David's grandparents last weekend (she is still recovering from surgery) to bestow more casseroles.   And watch rugby THANK YOU All Blacks.

Last night we watched the Harry Potter movie with De and J at Gold Class Bondi Junction.  I do enjoy watching a kid's movie amid wine and chocolate sundaes!

SEWING:

So far I have sewn six different versions of this frock:

Now I am working on lurid knit skirts, as apparently you can never have enough.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:

~ seeing De when she gets home from work (she's off to the states tomorrow); steak for dinner.  Hairdressers on Friday.

RANDOM PHOTO:

De and I collaborated on a surprise! blanket for a dear friend who - in a fit of what I assume was brain-fever - ran a marathon.  As neither De nor I could successfully run to the corner we felt this feat was deserving of a blanket:

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.

Pretentious and arrogant, certainly, but definitely pretty too.

Look at my pretty apron - vintage Australian wine bottle labels on Polish linen:

I feel the need to take up baking again.

On Friday a large group of us went to Encasa for a birthday party.  I had been drooling over the menu all day, and it wasn't until we got there that I found out we would be eating from the set banquet menu.  That news nearly broke my heart, seriously. Luckily I wasn't actually able to eat most of the banquet dishes (onion allergy FTW!) so the lovely waiter agreed to bring me a steak with a cream and prawn sauce.

It was divine and I positively swooned.  A tender, juicy steak, plump prawns, creamy garlic-y sauce and little bits of fried potato - I would marry this dish if I could.  I'm sure David wouldn't object.  And I shall be having this dish again.  Divine.

Mr Puss works that blanket like a champ:

On Saturday we watched the All Blacks lose to France.  After the inevitable wailing, rending and gnashing it was all a bit of a relief, really.  For the past few years the AB's really haven't played well yet they still keep managing to win (except for that debacle of a World Cup, obviously).  And because they've kept winning they haven't really addressed some of the basic problems (cough*coaching staff*cough).  Hopefully a home loss to an NH team will force some changes, and hopefully we haven't left it too late for the 2011 World Cup (oh please oh please).

On Sunday night we went to see the Fire Water presentation, which was a huge disappointment.  Despite watching from the Opera House as suggested we couldn't see very much, and what we saw didn't look that exciting.  We debated hanging around for a later session but couldn't really be bothered. 

The lighting effects around the Harbour were fun - particularly on the Opera House - and while we took about 957 kajillion photos none of them really came out.  This photo of the Harbour Bridge isn't too bad:

Actually that photo looks a hell of a lot better if you click and enlarge it, otherwise my apron looks three times the size of the Harbour Bridge.   Strange.

David and I were reading in the paper the other day that Sydney is not regarded as a pretty city, but that's just such bullshit.  Any city that has the harbour and the Rocks area (not to mention Hyde Park, Manly, Darling Harbour, I could go on) is a very pretty city indeed.

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.

Although they built that industry on the backs of the convicts

To celebrate our sixth (sixth!) anniversary David and I spent Easter in Newcastle.  While this probably wouldn't be a choice that everyone would make we both had a great time.

We'd been there before for gigs and clubs but we'd never looked around the city.  The buildings are all Victorian and reminded me of Dunedin, and the foreshore walk gives a great perspective on the town.  What I didn't know about Newcastle was that it was (post-European settlement) originally a convict prison, and by all acounts a fairly terrible one.

This is the Convict Lumber Yard, one of the first buildings built by the convicts:

It's now a park/historical monument - and I've got all the sensitivity of steel wool, but it still feels a bit creepy.

Newcastle is generally known for maritime history, and also for being the birthplace of Australian industry.  It should also perhaps be know for its bizarre statuary:

Yes, that is a wheel on a foot.  There were about 20 of them in a small space and no explanation was provided.  Make up your own story!

So there was much celebration and flowing wine, much eating and drinking (I had the most amazing meal of haloumi, steak, cream sauce and prawns which probably won't win a Michelin hat any time soon but met most of my basic food-group requirements) and generally had a good time together.  Which after six years together is pretty much the point, isn't it.

Newcastle is home to the rugby league team the Newcastle Knights, and look at this awesome poster:

Don't you love the way they say "next JOUST will be on ..." - I mean absolutely, commit to that imagery!

[Yes it's a crappy crappy photo, taken through the filthy train window as we were pulling out of the station, right in to the light.  But I still thought it was awesome].

The best rockabilly band in the world

Without wanting to sound overly dramatic (perish the thought!) last night was the night I've waited thirty years for.  Because last night we went to see the Stray Cats.

Stray Cats were my first "band crush" - the first band that I identified as something I wanted to listen to, rather than just letting the radio play at me.  The first band whose album I bought.  I didn't ever really think I'd see them play live, but when I found out they'd be playing here I begged David to buy me tickets for my birthday (which he did, and he rocks).

And oh, last night was simply fabulous!  They put on an awesome show and had heaps of energy.  We loved it, the crowd loved it, the band loved it.  Just a top night out all round.

Here Miss Clara models the merch:

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?

Nooo, it are not my birthday any more :(

Yesterday was wonderful.  I went to the Monet exhibition, which was superb.  I used to have a poster of the Water-Lily Pond (as, I believe, most 14 y/o's did), and to see it up close and personal, words fail me.  But wow, the themed gift-shop at the end?  Dreadful.  Take any crappy and/or tacky thing, stick it in a box with a Monet print on the front and voila!  Seemingly a license to print money, but really irritating after seeing such a great exhibition.

Then I visited MY painting (I really, really want the original.  I imagine I will be gifted it on behalf of a grateful nation when I ... umm ... do something important? or something?  Also I shall have to have our walls enlarged), and walked through the Domain and the Royal Hospital (they have a fountain of which I need a photo).

We went to the Rose of Australia for dinner, but found out once we got there that the dining room is closed on Monday.  David + I = not particularly gifted at planning and organisation.  Most of our favourite places were closed, but we ended up at our favourite casual Japanese place (beef skewers with cheese, nom) which was fun.  Then we went next door to a gelato place for dessert and kahlua (where some sort of atheist recruitment group was having its xmas party, ahh Newtown, you never disappoint).

All in all a lovely birthday experience, and thanks for your birthday wishes.

And in case you didn't click the link to MY painting, here is my print:

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon by Sir Edward John Poynter.  The dimensions of the original are 3.5m x 2.34m.  My version is 1m x 0.75m (and also not as red as it appears here.  I suspect some sort of interface with the flash and the glass has caused this).