Hot weather policy

Well I just ate way too much over the last few days! Yesterday I stopped by the markets on the way home and stocked up on fresh fruit to detox my system with. It feels so lovely to eat fresh food after so much junk. Although there has been a bit of chocolate sneaking into the mix today... The weather is just wonderful, it seems like we are going to have a nice hot NYE which will make a change from the snow I had last year. My plan for the evening is not coming along very well, so far no really inspiring offers, but I guess anything that's not sleeping on an overnight bus is an improvement on last year anyway.

Tonight BVR comes over to get set for the Moonlight Cinema. I'm glad it's hot because sitting out on the grass at night is pretty chilly business - at least it is for those who seem to be cold-blooded like me. The film is Life of Brian, which we have both seen a thousand times, but it's a guaranteed laugh. My body clock seems to have been stuffed up somehow and I am unable to sleep before midnight. I'm not sure how to fix it except to get up really early to tire myself out - but the days are already so long and boring... Kinda wish I had a car at the moment so I could drive down the coast and get some good beach action going - Glenelg just doesn't cut it on these super hot days. And at least the drive would kill more time! Speaking of which, I am now about to kill some by walking up and down Rundle Mall and watching all the freaks at the sales. Ordinarily I'd be concerned about getting sucked in and buying something, but one look at my bank account today has cured that...

Annual illness

Merk, ate too much, tummy hurts.. but just can't.... stop.... eating.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A Party House

Saturday night I had the most fun I have had in a long long time. Two of my mates from interstate were back, we had the local Thai restaurant booked for a party of 10 and were all apparently in the mood to party. We all ended up back at mine afterwards since the option of heading into town in the cold weather didn't appeal to anyone, and neither did paying for a taxi. Between 10pm and 5am the next morning we managed to discuss at least a small section of any subject you can possibly think of and solve at least 53% of the world's problems. Trouble is, we were so drunk we can't remember what those solutions were... Some fool brought along his spirits collection and there were some rather dodgy lip-sip-sucks going on involving lemon juice from a bottle (my housemate may want that replaced) and rather more salt than is generally recommended. The next day I kept finding Jaffas all over the floor, evidently there was a food fight too. Oh, and a broken wine glass - not mine. It seems I will be buying my housemate a gift for Christmas after all... Great thing is that she's in NZ currently so I can take advantage of the post-Christmas sales to replace all the things of hers I have used/broken. More than enough evidence around the house to suggest that it was a cracking good time! New Years has a lot to live up to now...

It's RAINING! Not just a little bit, but heaps of it. That's crazy talk in this dust bowl town of ours. I spent all morning holed up at home being bored out of my mind. I can't even remember what I was doing really. Not a good sign. Well, this time yesterday I was lazing by the pool reading a terrible book I borrowed from the local library. It was a truly awful read. But once you're stuck poolside with such a book you just have to keep reading. At least I had a bit of a sleep in this morning after a late one with a bottle of white, didn't get up til 8:30am...



I watched SuperNanny, the highlight of daytime TV at the moment (which just goes to show how low things have crept since ratings season is over) and amused myself by tut tutting at ludicrous parents. I can't remember who said this recently, but I wholeheartedly agree, there should be a parenting license issued before couples are allowed to conceive. If so many people need someone who has a limited grasp of English grammar to come into their house and explain to them what I thought was simple common sense then perhaps things really are as bad as I fear. I'm sure it is very difficult to watch your child have a tantrum about something and work themselves up, but the alternative is letting them treat you like an errand boy for the rest of their life. I know which I'd prefer. But obviously SuperNanny's on a good wicket, she's figured out before anyone else that there are heaps of these dysfunctional families around who are willing to embarrass themselves on TV out of a peculiar mix of desperation and vanity. I guess it would produce excellent footage for 21st birthdays too...



After SuperNanny left, kids tamed, parents back to a simmer, The Ellen Degeneres Show came on. She's made like Oprah and given all her audience Xmas gifts like crazy. I've never seen so much screaming and crying and jumping up and down since parliament closed for the hols. Why do the audiences in America scream so much? I don't think I have ever had cause to scream in a live audience, or in private that much either come to think of it. Am I particularly sedate and self-controlled, or are these women all on drugs? Why so excited? It's more than a little freaky to watch.

Where to go?

As my commenter pointed out, the last paragraph of my last post was a bit mental. Somehow it had been cut and pasted after I posted it so that the sentences were all in the wrong order, but I have reverted it to its formal glory now. Not entirely sure what caused that. Someone hacking into my blog? They have clearly mistaken me for someone who matters then.

Anyway, as I said yesterday, there was quiche action in my kitchen. Turned out pretty well if you ask me and the guest who partook of it (who has thus far escaped gastro and other food poisoning related illnesses). Plenty of red to wash it down, a fair chunk of Haigh's and about half a year's worth of gossip to catch up on makes for a good evening. My friend is making her way across the Americas next year before ending up in the UK to look for work. Hmm, that just added about five more options to my own trip planning... Just have to wait and see what my budget will allow at the end of the day.

Drip drip

It sure is hot today. I don't mind the usual Adelaide heat, where you can usually escape it simply by standing under a tree, but this humidity sucks. It reminds me of being in Japan where the heat is so sticky you can't escape it except by having a really great air con. It reminds me of falling asleep at work on the long summer afternoons. I think those days were as close as I will ever be to living life as a cat. Even though you have slept all night the lethargy creeps up on you and there's nothing to do but submit to it. Sure made it difficult to keep awake when the holidays were over and kids came back though!

Did you know that not only too little sleep, but also too much sleep gives me dark circles under my eyes? I'm doing nothing all day, I'm getting my normal amount of sleep and I look awful. I guess the only answer is all night drinking binges to lose some sleep, but I can't be bothered. There is some cause for excitement though; two of my friends are coming back to Adelaide for Christmas. Hurrah! People to play with :) I am going to play with someone tonight too - I am making Rocket and Leek Quiche for the occasion. Might as well make something time consuming since I have a lot of it to consume. I should start making bread. Except then I'd have to eat it I guess.

At the moment I am reading three books. I like to mix them up; it makes for interesting dreams. I love how in dreams the craziest situations just seem normal, we should be more like that in real life. And I also love how everyone wants to share their dreams, tell you every detail, even though they know that when they are subjected to such descriptions themselves they are bored to tears. I dream often. My dreams are clear, like the new plasma wide screen TVs, all the colours are brilliant. People will tell you that your dreams mean something, like that's a piece of trivia or something. Of course they mean something, it is your subconscious at play! This morning I had a dream I would like to not have awoken from.

Holiday malaise

My plan today was to go to the flicks, but there's nothing on that really inspires me. Instead I might try and get my UK passport application happening again because that was so fun the first time. Apparently if your parents marry subsequent to your birth it can only mean that you are trying to rort the British Government. Suppose I should be glad they married at all though since bastards aren't given any consideration at all.

Today is my last day of work for the year. I am a little bit happy about this, and also a little bit wary. I always look forward to the conecpt of having nothing to do and nowhere to be, but in reality I don't enjoy it that much. I do enjoy wasting a day just reading a couple of books, but I can't do that for 4 weeks straight without going mental. Not sure what the plans are for the break yet - it's all unpaid leave so there won't be too much going on I would say. I WAS going to Cambodia but plans for that kind of fell through and instead I have tickets for Vietnam in June, but that's so far away!

Tonight is my work Xmas dinner and I am looking forward to it, if only for the chance to frock it up a little bit. Haven't been doing that much lately. And of course Saturday morning the dreaded Xmas shopping. I still have about half to go - totally uninspired still. Christmas Schmistmas.

I ate a tomato I grew today. It was yummy.

Berries galire

This weekend I spent a lot of time out and about. Saturday morning I braved the croweds for some Christmas shopping in the city. It wasn't too bad in the end, I just couldn't think of what to get people so ended up wandering around a lot. Still need to finish that off this weekend coming. In the arvo I jumped on my bike for a ride down to the beach. Headed down Anzac Highway and onto the sand at Glenelg. It's not the best beach around, but it is the closest to my house so I ignored the slightly murky water. It wasn't really hot so I didn't jump in the water for too long but spent most of my time on the towel reading and eavesdropping on conversations around me.

I love how out on the sand everyone seems to feel as though no one can see or hear what they are up to. Some girls on my right were unfortunately gossiping in German so I couldn't understand them, but on my left there were another couple of girls who were approached by a rather white and rotund man who tried the worlds worst pick up line on them. It was definitely a home-grown one, as evidenced by it's awkward delivery and general failure. He asked one of the girls if she had a lighter, she held it out for him, he asked several times if it was really OK for him to use it. She kept nodding impatiently and he finally took it and lit his cigarette. Upon handing back the lighter he asked "Would it be alright if I moved my towel a bit closer so next time I won't have to come across?" She hesitated for a moment, no doubt weighing the awkwardness of refusing him against the discomfort of encouraging him to pursue in his obvious and futile attempt to pick up. Then she just shook her head and he went back to his towel for about five minutes before picking it up and moving on. I wonder if he'll try that one again?

On Sunday I was on a bike heading up the freeway with thousands of other motorcyclists. I was wearing puppets on my hands to wave at all the kids with and I must say they were a huge success. Only problem was that I was getting carried away with puppeteering and when the bike took off a bit fast I almost came off the back! It was beautiful weather for it, not too hot and it didn't rain in the end either. The oval was packed with people up at Hahndorf, it would have been nice to have had lunch up there and hang around a bit but we had to head back into Adelaide for my grandma's 70th birthday party. So the day was a bit crazy in the end, headed straight from the party back to mine for some quick food and then off to touch footy! Crazy busy. We did win touch footy though, hurray!!

This week I have a lot of cooking to do. Pie for someone's birthday and a dish to share on Saturday evening. And Friday is the work Xmas function :) Nice to be at a workplace that has such things going on. Today there was even a break up party for the international students and I stuffed myself full of cherries and other fruit and am now feeling slightly worse for wear... Too many berries; not good news.

Flat Friday

This morning on the way to work I got a flat tyre! Oh no. It went down really quickly so I had to walk the rest of the way, luckily I was already in the CBD anyway. At least it didn't happen yesterday when I was riding all over Adelaide. I finished up teaching touch at the school out in whoop whoop. How relieved was I about that! Every week it was different, all different kids and so on. Yesterday it was majority girls and they were so mean to each other all the time. Everytime a little kid dropped the ball they'd just get yelled at by all the others, it was really awful so I started awarding 'nice' points as well as scoring points - made it easy to make everything a draw too! Yes, kids aren't supposed to play competitive games apparently. Funny how the only games they really love are the ones that are competitive!

The dreaded shop

No post in a while because I have been lost for what to say. So many things happen everyday that I could easily write a few words about, but somehow they all disappear when I sit down to do exactly that. Today I ordered a Xmas present for someone on the internet and they sent me an email back an hour later saying my package was on its way already! Nice one. It's rather an exciting package too. You know when you really get inspired about a gift for someone? I hate it when you just have no idea what to get someone, the day gets closer and closer and in the end you have to cop out with a gift voucher. There's a lot of that going on this year. When your mates move away it's hard to know what to get them since their taste may have changed, they might even have what you are getting them already! But presents have to be a surprise so you can't ask them. Tricky.

Oh well, one present sorted - bloody heaps to go.

Haigh's dark peppermint pastilles; Mmmmmmm.



Had a bit of a good weekend. Dinner party on Saturday night. Only a couple of mates round and some fantastic pasta recipe. Spinach and ricotta tortellini with creamy mushroom sauce. It was tops, except I couldn't roll the pasta out thin enough with the empty vodka bottle I was using as a rolling pin so the tortellini were fat as. I think we each ate about 4 or 5 of them and were stuffed. Good value then! A few bottles of wine later and it was a very merry occasion. Sunday evening was my first state league game of touch. It was all very serious, we had THREE refs. Crazy talk. But I think we played really well and there's heaps of potential for improvement there.