I wrote such a long blog last week that I ran out of time to do all the things I was meant to be doing (the household chores had to wait). So this week, I’ve decided to type it all up on Word the night before. How organised am I? Answers in the comments section below…
And then it was Friday 13th… oooooohhhhh… I never really got the whole superstition thing. I mean, really… why? They make no sense to my brain.
R got a free, all-expenses-paid trip to Sydney through her work, which is cool. So if any of you will be at the Sydney Trade Fair this year, keep your eyes open for strange people offering you tea…
We got a new neighbour on the 14th – her name (truly) is Baby, and she’s from Bangladesh. Seems nice, if a little odd. But then again, odd is our kind of people.
In the evening, we had a dinner date with RB and EJ, for which R and I had to work very hard to leave the house – we were both exhausted after work. But we managed to walk over to Lygon Street (the buses don’t run after 6.30 on Saturdays… grrr…). Went to a Thai restaurant, which is normally excellent, but was decidedly average that night. Maybe I was just too tired to enjoy the evening properly. Fortunately, we didn’t have to walk back, as RB gave us a very much-appreciated lift.
So we arrive at Sunday. Several exciting items on today’s agenda.
1) I received an e-mail from a competition that I entered telling me that I had won! Woo-hoo! And guess what I won… a BOOK! Just what we needed – more books. We are well short on books. Seriously though, we really need a new bookshelf. Our two are severely overflowing.
2) My cousin has announced her engagement (something of a whirlwind romance by all accounts)
3) Our neighbour, Baby, came over and sang oriental religious chants to us! And then she struggled to put a curtain in her flat.
4) I had the next 2 days off! And it doesn’t get much more exciting than that.
5) No Beatles music today. This week, it was ELVIS!
Tell me why I don’t like Mondays. Well, actually, some of them are pretty good. And this particular Monday was great. R and I both had the day off work and it was our 3 ½ year anniversary, so we decided to take a long walk together. We walked from our place, across to the Merri Creek, down to Fairfield Boat House, back down the Creek to Dights Falls, then along the Yarra to Bridge Road. It ended up being about 12km (approximately 8 miles) in total. We then caught the tram over to R’s grandparents place, where we were regaled with tea and cakes and stuff. Caught a cab home, and collapsed into bed.
Next morning, there were many stiff limbs groaning and creaking in our bed. I spent the morning doing housework and listening to music. I rediscovered an album that I have hardly listened to since I bought it 4 years ago – Sha Sha by Ben Kweller. It was great! I was singing and dancing along while doing the dishes. So that’s my musical recommendation of the week (if you’re lucky, I might make that a regular feature, so you can know what to like). Then into the city to spend Christmas gift vouchers (thanks L & J!) – I bought 2 books: ‘The Princess Bride’ and ‘Melbourne’s Great Outdoors’ – and then met R, went for some chocolaty indulgences at Koko Blacks, then had takeaway pizza to counter-act the chocolate.
It was back to work today. I spend most of my days at work quoting films (especially Napoleon Dynamite) with one of my colleagues.
How does the dealio sound to you?
Wednesday 18 January 2006
Thursday 12 January 2006
A new beginning
So. Here we are. I signed up for this blog almost one year ago, and as you can see, I haven't written very much (although to be fair, I have occasionally written here - so that's alright). Two recent incidents have inspired me to put finger to keyboard, as t'were. Firstly, I read The Baghdad Blog by Salam Pax, which got me in the mood for blog. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anything to write about. Which is where incident number 2 comes in. I've already written about it on the danracheltravel blog. It made me realise that there are interesting things happening all around me, and that I could be excited and inspired by simple, everyday experiences. And since then, I've been writing in my diary everyday - not a lot, but infinitely more than the huge quantity of nothing I was churning out before. (I was very prolific - I could write nothing for days, weeks, months, years. I could represent my country - whichever it may be - at the Olympics in the 4x400m Writing Nothing category. You could fill countless exercise books with all the nothing I've written. I think you probably get the point now. It's about time these brackets closed).
YOU DON"T KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE, BOY...
Incident No. 2:
I was wondering around our tiny little Brunswick flat, when I heard a Beatles song (I think it was Paperback Writer) wafting through the air. I persumed that one of our neighbours was listening to the Beatles with the volume turned up to 11. The next track was Rock And Roll Music, but it sounded different - I realised it was a live version. Then I relealised that ALL the songs were live - and not live recordings - actual LIVE songs being performed at that exact moment (give or take a few seconds to account for the time lag caused by speed of sound). I then remembered that the nearby Melbourne Zoo (I love the fact that I can see elephants from the tram on my way into the city!) was starting its season of summer concerts that evening. And that the first band was The Beatnix (Aussie beatles tribute band). And that was what i was hearing. But it sounded for all the world like there was an ACTUAL BEATLES CONCERT happening just outside our front door. I felt lifted.
That was on Sunday.
EVERYBODY NEEDS GOOD NEIGHBOURS
On Monday, R and I moved our washing machine out of our walk-in-wardrobe and into our communal laundry space just outside our flat. This had the double-plus-good benefits of creating more space in our space-starved flat, and also saving us time and money from having to go to the EXPENSIVE laundrette down the road. Somewher in the moving process, I managed to get bitten by a (or possibly 2) spider(s) - my first ever spider bites! And Australian spiders at that! One bite on my fabulaously named Mound of Venus, and one on my calf. Much to my relief, I didn't die. Much to my disappointment, I didn't turn into Spiderman.
That evening, we informed our neighbours that they now had access to a washing machine, and we all celebrated by having a spontaneous tea party - again, something we haven't done before. We drank copious amounts of tea, ate cake and fruit, and talked until late in the night. Nice.
WALK, FOOD, FILM, FOOD
On Tuesday, we started off the day with a walk to Fitzroy, meeting EJ on the way. Went to Bimbos (RIP Punters Club) for cheap, good pizza, then trammed past the upside down statue of LaTrobe to Fed Square, and into ACMI to see Howl's Moving Castle with a lot of talkative kids, who seemed to have decided to do their own commentary throught the film. Then R and I went to Balaclava to buy bagels and to go joospotten'. Then walked home from the Zoo and flomped.
CHORES AND CHEERS
An exciting morning spent doing washing, shopping, paying bills. I had a snooze in the afternoon, while R did e-mail and internet stuff. I then called the company have shipped all my stuff from London. They left a message on Friday for me to call them saying that customs was holding the boxes and needed more information. I called the number they left, and found myself talking to a call centre in Malaysia, who were unable to transfer me through to the Australian office, but they gave me a phone number which was clearly wrong - there weren't enough digits - but I figured out where the missing number went, and eventually sorted it all out (I hope). So our tiny and cramped flat will soon be invaded by 18 big boxes of a lifetimes worth of collecting! Fun!
We spent the evening at Saj & Es(EO'RdG, if I continue to identify people by initials)'s fabulous new house eating yummy food, drinking wine, watching Mean Girls, and being moulted on by their cats.
That was the last few days. I've got to go and get ready for work now.
Until next time.
YOU DON"T KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE, BOY...
Incident No. 2:
I was wondering around our tiny little Brunswick flat, when I heard a Beatles song (I think it was Paperback Writer) wafting through the air. I persumed that one of our neighbours was listening to the Beatles with the volume turned up to 11. The next track was Rock And Roll Music, but it sounded different - I realised it was a live version. Then I relealised that ALL the songs were live - and not live recordings - actual LIVE songs being performed at that exact moment (give or take a few seconds to account for the time lag caused by speed of sound). I then remembered that the nearby Melbourne Zoo (I love the fact that I can see elephants from the tram on my way into the city!) was starting its season of summer concerts that evening. And that the first band was The Beatnix (Aussie beatles tribute band). And that was what i was hearing. But it sounded for all the world like there was an ACTUAL BEATLES CONCERT happening just outside our front door. I felt lifted.
That was on Sunday.
EVERYBODY NEEDS GOOD NEIGHBOURS
On Monday, R and I moved our washing machine out of our walk-in-wardrobe and into our communal laundry space just outside our flat. This had the double-plus-good benefits of creating more space in our space-starved flat, and also saving us time and money from having to go to the EXPENSIVE laundrette down the road. Somewher in the moving process, I managed to get bitten by a (or possibly 2) spider(s) - my first ever spider bites! And Australian spiders at that! One bite on my fabulaously named Mound of Venus, and one on my calf. Much to my relief, I didn't die. Much to my disappointment, I didn't turn into Spiderman.
That evening, we informed our neighbours that they now had access to a washing machine, and we all celebrated by having a spontaneous tea party - again, something we haven't done before. We drank copious amounts of tea, ate cake and fruit, and talked until late in the night. Nice.
WALK, FOOD, FILM, FOOD
On Tuesday, we started off the day with a walk to Fitzroy, meeting EJ on the way. Went to Bimbos (RIP Punters Club) for cheap, good pizza, then trammed past the upside down statue of LaTrobe to Fed Square, and into ACMI to see Howl's Moving Castle with a lot of talkative kids, who seemed to have decided to do their own commentary throught the film. Then R and I went to Balaclava to buy bagels and to go joospotten'. Then walked home from the Zoo and flomped.
CHORES AND CHEERS
An exciting morning spent doing washing, shopping, paying bills. I had a snooze in the afternoon, while R did e-mail and internet stuff. I then called the company have shipped all my stuff from London. They left a message on Friday for me to call them saying that customs was holding the boxes and needed more information. I called the number they left, and found myself talking to a call centre in Malaysia, who were unable to transfer me through to the Australian office, but they gave me a phone number which was clearly wrong - there weren't enough digits - but I figured out where the missing number went, and eventually sorted it all out (I hope). So our tiny and cramped flat will soon be invaded by 18 big boxes of a lifetimes worth of collecting! Fun!
We spent the evening at Saj & Es(EO'RdG, if I continue to identify people by initials)'s fabulous new house eating yummy food, drinking wine, watching Mean Girls, and being moulted on by their cats.
That was the last few days. I've got to go and get ready for work now.
Until next time.
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