Still peckish

I'm tired of rice crackers and dip. That's been our staple snack for
longer than I can remember. Surely there must be something equally
tasty with a different flavour and texture.

It was most pleasing on Christmas eve to unwrap my lovely new kenwood
hand blender. Easily one of the best presents ever, second only to the
sunbeam pie maker from last christmas and the many sheets of puff
pastry that accompanied.

We shall soon learn whether I am weary from eating the same snack for
years, or simply bored of average supermarket dip.

My cousin pointed out on her 30th that as one gets older, one must
simply accept the things that come with growing up:

1. Giving a shit about eating good food.

2. Making time for the kitchen, cos that's where good food will come
from.

3. Loving presents like pie makers and hand blenders.

4. Swapping recipes with mums, aunties and grandmas.

5. Settling for a Nokia or Samsung mobile phone cos you don't really
need all the cool features.

I can gel with most of this list, and it sounds like getting old will
be quite cool and delicious. Dunno about that last one, though. I
really like
My phone - blogged this with it, in fact.

Hopefully by the time I'm proper old, my iPhone will also be a hand
blender and pie maker. That would shit all over other Christmases. :)

Down skirt

Lo-fi lemon ginger

Hello from vines

Little holiday, in a slightly romantic wish-i-had-nice-photos mood but
quite enjoying not really thinking about pictures for now. Been
snacking and drinking non-stop since we got in. Bloody Mary is
officially my favourite cocktail because it feels nutritious even with
a double shot in it, innit.

Today we went swimming, fed sugar to some ants and then had a BBQ. I
would like to download puzzle quest from the iTunes shop but it's too
big and my phone won't let me over 3G. :( bumholes.

It's been an hour since dinner. Time for another snack. :)

Leftover surprise

WARNING!! DO NOT EAT!!

Dear friends, don't eat chilli con queso ever if you are fat or
cholesterol-ridden. It is mostly butter and cheese with some tomato
and chilli to make it seem feasible. Do not be suckers for its demonic
delicious wiles.

oh my god, it's christmas!

Zombie dog

old farts

it's almost midnight, but i don't want to go to bed just yet. my head's in holiday mode - like back in school, even when you're freaking tired, you don't want to sleep your playtime away. i'm not on holiday just yet, though. still 3 more days of work before i get my break.

in my head, the next 3 days will be cruisey, but i'm not sure if that will be the case. there's so much work to be done - constantly. i'm a bit scared of becoming a workaholic. i don't feel like one yet, but getting to be any kind of '-aholic' is a gradual process, and you don't notice until something goes awry. i do like what i do, and think it could be easy to become one if you genuinely enjoy something about your work.

"do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life" - so the saying goes, and they say it like that's automatically a good thing. is it? would you take for granted the bits you love, as routines emerge in that area of your life? could you become complacent about your growth as a person because of the bragging pride that might accompany job satisfaction?

maybe i'm taking this too literally, too metaphorically, too something-lly.

at the end of the day, i feel it comes down to balancing the good and bad aspects of whatever you do. you could be in a position amongst people you hate, but if you really love the work and are fully engaged by what it involves, it might help cancel out the interpersonal issues. or you could be doing no-brainer work that anyone could do that you don't feel proud of, but be surrounded by awesome colleagues and still love going in everyday.

i suppose this applies to other areas of life too - balancing relationships, finances, friendships, time, health. and then balancing them all with each other and adapting to changing needs & circumstances. it's pretty simple really, but definitely not easy.

heh. i feel like an old fart, saying shit like this, but this week, i've done a fair bit of indulgent young-person stuff. caught up with my best friend from primary school, bought myself some treats and toys, went out drinking and spent the next day hungover at work. it's even past midnight and i'm still awake.

so just for this part of the evening, i can afford to be a little bit old.

okay, old fart is going to bed now. night night, kids.

Arr arone

I'm an orphan for chlistmas this year. My palents are not hosting
chlistmas runch so it's just me and my cat on party day.

Going to garden shity on sunday to buy maybe a mini-loast chicken lorr
for the oven. Maybe arso some celely and sweet potato so I can have
some wegetable. Then for dessert, perhaps a cleam calamel or a fluit
fran. Wow, tree course runch, man!

For my cat, I maybe can buy a smarrer cat. Because he is a Chinese
cat, he can eat loast cat ROROROR.

Okay, it's ereben o'crock and typing rike this sucks barrs. Time to
off the iPhone. Bai bai, TTYR.

Cheesy loaf

cold and sweet

I had a watermelon juice today. It was cold and sweet. Much like me, really. Oh ho ho~

My team and I have been working on a massive project. Now, as it tails off, there's more time and headspace to appreciate what's come out of it. I feel I've learned a lot about the people I work with, and about myself. And it's the sort of learning that adjusts my attitude somewhat towards human relationships, growing up and the kind of person I want to be.

For example, today I don't feel so pressured to "prove my worth". And I think that drive to make some kind of point only served to keep me further away from the things I wanted.

At the end of the day, my aim isn't to make people think I'm cool and competent and fun. I want to be cool and competent and fun. I mean, it's nice when people believe good things about you, but it's only meaningful if those things are true.

Today, as I sipped the last of my red melon drink, I joined countini.com - where you can count your drinks and compare with your mates. I like it because the entire internet can see how awesome I truly am with my cool nutritious drinks.


This is not an ad. Nobody pays me to write this shit. :(

Captain... Something

Brd nw

I've not had a full day's break from work in ages. Busy busy project.
Is bananas.

B A N A N A S !

Had a weekend packed with runs to the office, runs to town, runs to
wedding, runs to the shops cos all that running worked up an appetite.
I miss the long hot summers of my uni days. But I shouldn't complain
too much cos I don't miss not having my own income.

If I had a 3-month summer again, I think I would laze on the beach,
join a rock band, paint my apartment and maybe catch up with some zine-
ing. But most likely, I'd just enjoy sitting around with nothing to do.

Not today, though. It's time to get up.

What

vi - remove all leading whitespace in a line

shift-v (to work in visual mode)

select text to use

:'<,'>s/\v^\s+//

'<,'> means "operate only on selected text"
s/ means "start of a line"
\v^ means "treat all text as magic" - i forget why
\s means "all space characters"
+ means "for multiple instances"
/ means "replace with everything until the next /"

hooray!

(note to self and anyone else who uses vi for html editings)

Hooray!

Bubble bubble

Oh how it simmers, oh how it shines!

Hot pot

I'm very excited about this hotpot. Forget Sunday roast, it's Saturday
stew! Wew wew wew!

relaxing my face

people on the bus and walking around the city always seem to have displeased expressions on their faces. i used to wonder why - were they unhappy with their lives, were they thinking really hard about something, or did they scrunch their faces up because the sun was too bright...?

everytime i saw their disgruntledness, i would make a point of relaxing my face. after all, i wasn't unhappy with my life or concentrating that hard, so why be so tense? i was also conscious of how my face might make others feel - if someone on the street saw me with a peaceful expression, perhaps it would help them think of peaceful things too.

i don't wonder about these things so much anymore. i think at some point i lost interest in what was up with people, and developed more interest in what's up with me. i don't know what this says about me - probably nothing. i did see a lady with a very disgruntled face today while i was thinking very hard about my takeaway box of delicious noodles.

mm, noodles.

Sucks.

Monday - sick. Body aches, worst headache in the world, sore chest,
sore throat. Everything tastes and smells stronger, my own shampoo
made me dizzy. This sucks and I missed a pub afternoon so it sucks
even more.

Tuesday - feel worse. Feverish, sweats, disgusting coughs. How high a
fever can you go before you get brain damage? What if it's a super bug
and I die within 24 hours? What if that guy at the lan who smelled
like a homeless person's armpits was a biological weapon drop sent by
the soviets because I'm not very good at red alert 3? I hate the
paranoia most about being sick. Went to doc, got antibiotics - same
ones the give to pneumonia patients. I don't want an old man disease!!
This sucks.

Wed (today) - woke up chesty, but the aches have subsided a bit.
Nauseus from the antibiotics. Warm rice porridge and warm instant
soupy mee helps a bit. Fever less bad, headache less bad. Why wont it
just go away :( watching gentle telly, then napping so the telly can
watch me. Today sucks a bit less than yesterday.

Tidbits from the weekend

Red Cats (green flavor) is my current Firefox theme at home. Kitties cute!

If you like survival horror games, or if you like to yell at the computer in unrelenting bouts of hilarity, get Left 4 Dead. Game comes out next week, but if you preorder it, you can get the much-enjoyable demo. It's only one level, but it's a novel few hours of fun.

Chelsea Pizza made really good pizzas on Saturday. And the staff were really nice and friendly and chatty too. Current favourites are Nog + anchovy and Margherita + chicken + fresh chilli.

Fancies the pink

Hello mojito

Boo

Wow I've broken the blogging run already. This was meant to get posted
last night but wine and a retro betty's burger got in the way. Boo -
fail at internet!

To bee or not to bee

Did you know that a bee hive can hold around 50,000 bees?

I didn't, but thanks to smarties, I now do. Nutrition and education
all in one little snack box.

oh yeah, ear candling

i went for an ear candling session at carillon arcade on saturday. walked out feeling good, but i think it had more to do with the included head, face, neck & shoulder massage rather than the candle. i don't think it's improved my hearing either, but the guy who did it wasn't very good. i'm still skeptical, but would try again, perhaps someplace else.

the theory behind candling makes a bit of sense - grub in your ears affects your sinuses, throat, sense of balance and general sense of well-being, so sucking it out would surely feel a bit better. but there's not a lot of suction pressure in those hollow candles, and i've had my share of sticky wax that takes some effort to remove with a poking stick.

when people describe it, it all seems a bit airy-fairy too - like it involves realigning of my chakra energies for spiritual benefit, when really, i'm just getting shit out of my ear hole.

i feel sad for the guy in that joke about going to the doctor with a banana in his ear. he should go see an ear candler instead. take note, kids.

yeah.

one of those

I’ve been having dreams about my missing cat. I like to think it means he’ll come back one day, but I know the world doesn’t work that way.

It’s true that growing up does make you lose some hope. That’s not necessarily a sad thing, as it forces you to look at real life and perhaps make something of it, rather than living in lalaland and never getting anywhere. The media seems big on the lalaland life, romanticizing the drama - the romance - those impractical ideals that are exhausting to maintain on a daily basis.

Having grown up on that, I'm over it - though maybe not out of it just yet. I am a bit scared of being one of those 30 year old women who acts like a fairytale princess, as if being self-absorbed is still cute at that age.

I'm also scared of being one of those 27 year old women who is constantly scared of "being one of those (something)" so I'll stop.

nice weekend

Yesterday, I went computer parts shopping, bathers shopping, had a Jester's pie for lunch and special Sizzler for dinner, followed by a stinky gaming hour at Timezone and home to play Fable II. Today, I woke up to the Red Bull Air Race, went for an ear candling and then had homemade chirashi rice for dinner. It's been a good weekend.

I have more to say on ear candling, but will write about that tomorrow, because it's bedtime and I'm bloody tired. Goodnight. :)

Broken prowns

We goin sizzler

New puter

Old faithful dell died the other day, so new computer for me, just in
time for the office lan next week. Really hoping I'm not still paying
the old one off - being not in debt for it anymore would be quite nice.

Spent last night playing fable 2 with the killerest headache from my
neighbour's potent homebrew.

I'm making a little extra effort to chill out at home. My schedule's
been packed for the last couple of months and I'm feeling the pinch.
Things at work are ramping up too - all the more reason to steal large
pockets of time for myself.

Headed to the gym later, then a fat dinner with comfy friends. Zero
effort, all reward evening, one hopes.

Signed up for NaBloPoMo too - http://nablopomo.ning.com - to encourage
the stay-at-home-do-nothing way of life.

Soda rock on chapel st

1:35am

I'm so hungry. I would like a burger - one of those little round ones
with the soft buns. Mm...

But no, here is a window from earlier.

Borsch, vodka & tears

Bloody Mary, borsch and olives at bvt on chapel st.

Gypsy soup!!

Chat potatoes at imperial on chapel

It's got somethin'

Margherita custard. Jesus fucking Christ this is WEIRD.

1806 on exhibition st

The croft institute

Not what I expected from the website, but enjoying the
unpretentiousness in an obviously themed setting.

Not the shanghai tea

Originally I ordered the Shanghai Tea, but the bartender shanghaied me
and recommended this citrus mint number in its place.

I can't say no to a dude with "I am the lizard king" tattooed on his
arm, so here it is in lovely cocktail glory.

The only way to describe this would be - many flavours in succession.
It starts with the salty-sour lime, followed by a wave of mint, then
lemon zest and finally the potency of god-knows-what went in there.

This is a win-win concoction. Melbourne: 1, Sandy: 1.

Chi lounge wallpaper

Chi lounge loo tiles

Trumpet on Russell

Quail!

Lane way graffiti

Lovely sushi cafe

Street corner sushi

Really frighin tired

Goodness me! We landed on the windy as runway at 5am Melbourne time.
The city was barely awake as we made our way by taxi to the little
hotel in Carlton.

Check-in was ten million hours away, so we killed time over toast and
tea, then a wander round the shops for a couple hours.

There's a lot to see and do here. The architecture's lovely. Malls and
crowds are like perth, same density, just more. It's like this city is
the "cream of" version of whatever soup you would use to describe home.

Our hotel room is tiny and one of my travel companions insists on
walking round half dressed at all times. Perhaps I shall seek my
revenge with the power of the Internet.

Had the best nap ever. It's 5pm-ish now and we're ready to explore
again. Maybe Chinatown, it's time for food.

Aussie soccer on the telly. Wob still walking around half-dressed.

Wob prepares

For his weekend with the girls.

Strawberry mojito

Photo of swee taking a photo

Another tired message

Ran so ragged today at the indoor 5-a-side tournament. Lovely to be
home, in bed, belly full of pizza from Stone's in mt lawley.

Flying off to Melbourne in a few days. Wee lil weekend trip with a
coupla mates for some chilling out, shopping and maybe a bloody Mary
tour of the cocktail bars on their itinerary.

Really hoping to find a nice pair of new bathers for summer; my old
ones have gone a bit saggy and ill-fitting. Really also hoping that a
nice one won't be too expensive cos I bet there won't be much in the
way of a tax return this year, if last year's $30 is anything to go by.

So very very knackered. Cutting this short for bed. Nite!

What makes you so happy ?

Quality meat marry me