Work = too stressful

I am getting a facial tic. I kid you not. A TIC. In my left eye/brow area. Am becoming Bruce Willis in that movie The Kid.

Curse my career-driven success-obsessed, hard-working lifestyle!

(Well... curse work)

Also, trivia: Name one other movie that the kid who played The Kid was in.

A hectic fortnight. (not Fully Hectic, though)

OK, well, in the last little while, I've done any number of things, most of which I ran late to.

For one thing, I worked a huge amount. Two of the people at my work had to take time off, so I was pulling double shifts, which is a good thing since, and I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I'm just going to go right ahead and complain again, my fridge exploded. Well, stopped working. So more money is, even more than usually, A Good Thing.

Also, if time is money, then Catie and I have spent a small fortune on house-hunting. This has been largely unsuccessful, but, y'know, so it goes. If worst comes to worst we can make do with another six months at Lilyfield, but with more and more builders and suchlike awfulnesses. Well, perhaps I'm being melodramatic now. (NB. Yes, definitely).

This last fortnight in particular has stood out for chaoticness for several reasons. Firstly, my father had kidney stones and had to have an operation, and three days off work. (Regarding this point, everyone, especially you, Pun, is forbidden to comment. The entire damn suburb rang us up and asked him about it in hideous detail. The poor guy deserves a break.)

Then, just as he was recovering from his operation and still feeling horrible, my paternal grandfather passed away on Sunday night, so we went to his funeral on Friday. (again, please no comments re. this bit, complete strangers have been commiserating with me all week, and I've had enough). I realise that perhaps if I don't want you people to respond, then I shouldn't post about it, but it seems sort of awful not to even mention something like that.

On a sort of counterpoint to this, however, my maternal grandmother's 94th birthday party was also this week, so that was good.

Also, they filmed the "makeover" episode of Tim's tv show, which basically means an enforced haircut. Would you believe that when the cameras stop rolling on those shows, they have to give the clothes back? Even the shoes had tape over the soles so they wouldn't scuff them for resale.

So anyway, I had to drive Tim to Paddington to have his haircut (because I had a car, and was at his house, because we'd seen Memoirs of a Geisha late the night before, and it would have been pretty harsh to be like "bye! I'll be driving home now, enjoy your 4 bus rides at 7:30 in the morning, and also, have fun on your day of filming which goes from 9am to midnight!". Which turned out to be entirely to my profit, anyway, because we got to Paddington early, and hadn't had breakfast, so (wait for it, Pun....) we had Max Brenner for breakfast. Hot chocolate and waffles with strawberries and chocolate, and then a mint and lemon granita so we could unglue our tongues from the rooves of our mouths. (Dear everyone who isn't Pun; please don't feel that I've forgotten you, only Pun always reacts so delightfully predictably).

So yes, dear old Tim was ridiculously wonderful throughout the whole week, and didn't mind when I got mascara all over his t-shirt when I was sad about my grandfather and also bought delicious breakfasts and such. He did, mind you, deliberately wind me up about his haircut, by pretending that it was horrible and suchlike, and making me all worried for him, when actually, he looks absolutely fine. *shakes fist*

Also, we went to dinner in Wooloomooloo, (ought there be a double L in there somewhere?) which was unremarkable except in that we ended up parking AGES away, like, in another postcode. Which meant that we accidentally signed ourselves up to walk through Kings Cross after dark, and we saw an interesting array of Ladies of Negotiable Affection. The amazing thing was how similar they were in dress to so many other women, and yet how obviously separate they were. Was made mildly nervous that own dressing style might resemble their attire, but reassured self on that score. Also, we saw Jehan from Uni, but only at a distance.
What else?

Oh yes, also (unrelated to above paragraph), Catie has a new blog, which is pretty cool. I urge you to check it out.

Today's trivia question is this: What do Geoffrey Rush, Stellan Skasgaard, Bill Nighy and this July have in common? *fangirls*

Now I'm back in the swing of things...

So I shall post again, superfluously. Not, obviously, that these posts aren't always superfluous, but there you go.

Apparently the government has today sent an application to Paris to ask if the Opera House can have world heritage listing. This seems somehow amusing to me, that it's Paris we have to ask. All their buildings are old and pretty and we must sound like the nerdy kid running along going "me too! Me too!". Heh. But I hope we do get it listed, that'd be nice. I mean, that building was in a Jmaes Bond movie once, one of those great early ones, where the bad guy was like "here's a slide show of major cities with recognisable landmarks which I am seriously considering razing to the ground, killing the inhabitants of and sewing the land with salt. So please forward an obscene amount of money to this, my home address, where I plan to be peaceably at home asleep tomorrow, and by the way, the sentries change at 7 o'clock. Please don't send James Bond then, or we'd be conveniently defenceless." and so on. (hmmm.... I appear to have gotten a little carried away there, sorry).

Where was I actually going with this post? I strongly suspect that the answer is a resounding "nowhere", but let us not be discouraged, dear readers.

Oh, while I'm at it, I would like to clarify that the Lucy/Tumnus fics that I was hunting for would definitely have been Grownup!Lucy/NotAnyOlder!Tumnus. It's just that he's so cute/english/scarf-wearing/shirtless. And he has adorable little hoofsie-woofsies, to paraphrase Good Omens. Plus he totally looked like he had a crush on her. (Ahem)

Anyway, yesterday I went and saw King Kong, which was a very Peter Jackson film. Long and a little unrelenting, but basically pretty good. I wasn't a huge fan of the people-being-eaten-by-enormous-insects/leeches/worms-with-teeth/spiders bit, but then, this is mainly because I'm not a huge fan of enormous-insects/leeches/worms-with-teeth/spiders in any capacity, even just as office workers or something. Am speciesist, it seems. *is ashamed*

The other day at work we had an odd discussion, one of the ladies had had a prank played on her by her friends, who had put her profile on a gay dating site, and she had a reply from this really shy, nice-sounding girl, ehich she thought was hilarious, I thought was cruel and the other lady thought was gross. Y'see I'm all for taking that sort of thing as a compliment, but she maintained that it could only ever be seen as grotesque and awful to have "one of them" (she may actually have even said "those") find you attractive. I'm interested to know what you guys think. If someone of the same gender as you expresses romantic interest in you, are you (a) complimented and therefore accept/politely decline, explaining that, lovely as they are, you are not that way inclined, or (b) freak out and run screaming to the hills, stopping only to scrub any areas of your skin where they may have touched you and so on?

Half a trivia star to each answerer of this question who has an argument to back it up. I warn you that "b, because it's gross" or anything similarly cretinous will receive negative stars, but genuinely backed up answers either way will be rewarded.

For those of you who are my school friends, I have to warn you that the dates for Maroubra weekend are currently in stasis until SillyOleTim can figure out whether the dates we currently have will clash with his 21st. Since I picked that weekend at random and his 21st has to work around his Dad leaving the country for 5 months, I'm afraid his will have precedence, just like Kathryn's did over my skiing trip.

Also, the IB would like to officially extend its congratulations to Alex and Alan, who recently got engaged, and go "ooh" about engagement rings. (some people get clucky around babies, I get clucky around jewellery. Mmmm... shiny)

Anyway, get on with your lives, people, and have a pleasant evening.

Recipes for Katrina afar

Spiced couscousBring 500ml chicken stock to the boil. Cover and remove from heat.Heat 2tbsp olive oil and 75g of butter in a small saucepan. Add 1 small onion, finely chopped, and cook unitl softened. Add 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped and cook for another 30sec. Add 1tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander(optional) and turmeric, 1/2tsp of paprika. Cook stirring for 1min or until spices are fragrant. Add the hot stock. Place 2cups of couscous in a heatproof bowl, pour over stock and allow to stand for 5min covered. Use a fork to fluff up couscous. Stir in 1/2cup sultanas, 1/2cup toasted pine nuts and 1/3cup coarsely chopped coriander (or mint). Can add a tbsp or 2 of lemon juice if wanted. Then serve.

Lamb:

1 tablespoon chilli oil
half tablespoon cinnamon
rack of lamb.

Combine oilandcinnaom to form a paste, then rub it all over the outside of the lamb. Roast for half an hour at 180 degrees.

A long overdue post.

So overdue, in fact, that I'm going to have to resort to dot-point to explain all the zany adventures that have been had since the last post. Once again, for your skim-reading convenience, important points (and "important" points) will be underlined.

Let's see, when I last posted, I was amid a quest for a 1920s costume and a red top. You will doubtless be overjoyed, dear reader, to hear that both of these quests were, in the long run brilliantly successful. I managed to make a blue, fringed 20s dress and feathered, sequined, beaded headband, and also managed to get hold of a couple of garments in red. And, due to being quite outragously nifty and also perhaps some kind of domestic goddess or similar, managed to make a handkerchief hem red skirt with gold edges.

So yes, we went to Spencer's Roaring 20s 21st Party, which was pretty good, except for the fact that Sleazy Dave, one of Tim's friends or friends-in-law, if you will, was there, and kept trying to make Catie and I kiss so he couls take a photo of us. Wierd.

What else? Well, I went to Vanuatu, which was pretty nifty. We stayed in one of those resorts with some suites half on stilts over the water, and stayed in those very suites. We saw lots of starfish and et an awful lot of pineapple. Also we went to another island, called Tanna, and in one day went snorkelling on a reef, saw a cargo cult festival, and went to a volcano. Also, I Tragically lost my camera. With all my photos from the trip, and $50, and my dogtags, and a pair of earrings.

On the upside, however, Christmas was just after this, and I got heaps of brilliant presents, including a new camera and a 2 gigabyte (!) memory card, and a lot of books, and some ultra cool jewellery, notably the necklace in my profile pic after which I've been lusting for some time. (Checkit! Awesome, no?)

Then, unsurprisingly, there was New Years, which was also great, and which included waiting on Bondi Beach for the sun to come up so we could go home, and feuerwerks and all those nifty things.

What else? Well, my sister Alex and I went on zany adventures and saw the powerhouse museum and et at a susi train and bought 4 pairs of shoes in one day.

I heroically rescued a 6 year old from drowning in our pool by dint of jumping in fulling clothed. Which was pretty cool, I mean who hasn't always wanted to do that? Other lifelong ambitions achieved include the purchase of ultra-cool knee-high lace-up boots. Which are, wierdly enough, the second most comfortable pair of shoes I own, despite the heels, and which I have every intention of wearing all winter to keep warm.

My sister Katrina has gone to Albury/Wodonga for a while (weeks? months? who knows?) in order to make a small fortune by being a salesperson extraordinaire at the Betta Electricals there, which are apparently pretty nifty themselves, keep winning Victorian business of the year or something. (not, you understand, that there are whalebone corsets and uptight thinking and anti-sodomy laws, but that they're in the state of Victoria. Although, since it is Victoria, on reflection there may well be anti-sodomy laws, uptight thinking, and even whalebone corsets, but probably not concurrently, I suppose) So we are Katrina-less at present, but she will doubtless return and distribute largess at some point due to having an incredibly well-paying full time job at present. So if you're reading this, Katie, I would like a present. Actually, whoever reads this, that goes for you too. Here at the IB, presents are always accepted.

Nothing else of note has occured, other than the fact that I saw Narnia the other day, and there were some strange Lucy/Tumnus vibes, I rather thought. Tragically, however, there is a total dearth of good/completed fics for this on the internet. But this problem will doubtless resolve in a month or so.

Anyway, here it is, a poor quality post to get me back in the habit of posting. Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Oh, and Trivia Question: Which Austen book features a main character named after the author?

Quests for Clothes

Today I was all enthused, when I got up (not about getting up, though, because that would be Deeply Unhealthy. Getting out of bed in the morning is one of life's Trials, in my opinion. I'm highly suspicious of those who claim to be "morning people". They're clearly up to something. "Getting the most out of the day" indeed. What about getting sleep out of the day? Besides, there will, almost by definition, be other days. Juice those.) ...because I had a Plan. Not, you understand, an "I've got a Plan" in hte whiney sense like that James Blunt chap, which consists of whinging about how pretty my ex is in the hope that she'll leave the guy she was with on the subway, or whatever it is he's going on about, but a real, honest-to-goodness plan. With steps and a Procedure and everything.

You see, next Friday, I'm going to a 1920s themed 21st, (as well as another, on the same night, but this complication is irrelevant to Our Story). The problem with which is that your average 1920s fashion plate is all about the 12-year-old-boy-ish figure, which, I think I can safely say, does not describe me unless you have those very modern types of 12 year old boys that they keep talking about on Today Tonight ads (and, presumably, Today Tonight itself, but I'm Principled enough to not ever ever ever watch it, so I couldn't swear to it.) So the day before yesterday I hit on the rather nifty plan of sewing rows and rows of stiching on a simple shift dress to make a flapper dress. The bugger of this, it turns out, is that shift dresses cannot cheaply be bought for love nor money (although obviously, expending vast quantities of money in order to get a cheap dress would be pointless. Much better to just go ahead and buy the slightly more expensive one, and ignore all that bribing of the shop-assistants rigmarole. But there wasn't a slightly more expensivve one eaith, sadly, so that was a washout). Further, fringe costs 8 or 9 dollars per metre, which doesn't seem like much until you realise that to completely cover a dress in fringe would cost closer to $100 than $50. And I don't want to go to a costume shop, because I always feel that that's just cheating.

On the other hand, the Terrible Draught of clothes that are Actually Red lifted momentarily, and I bought a red top. Which is nice. But still, the Hunt For Red is currently set to continue until next October. (heh.... geddit? No? Well. The Fletcher brothers will have. Hey guys)

Also, Katie-with-a-K,-the-one-who's-my-sister, who was ridiculously not at school again today bought muppets pyjamas, which are naturally the coolest thing since Iced Bread. (geddit again)

Anyway, It's now the 29th of November, which means its' (a) damn near Christmas, so a red top will be particularly useful, and Christmas earrings are now the go, and (b) 2 days until summer. If someone wouldn't mind reminding the lead singer of Matchbox 20, who might even now do well by putting all this rain back into it's boxes with little yellow tags on every one, therefore, it might be a good idea. (Holy third obscure pun in a row, Batman!)

Anyway, on what day of the year was Ned Kelly shot? Bonus half star for knowing what else happened in Australian history on one of the shooting's anniversaries.

Monorail Expedition! (Now Illustrated!)

Last Thursday Catie and I went on our great Monorail Expedition. We went around Sydney pretending to be tourists, talking occassionally in Terrible Accents, and generally enjoying ourselves.


First we caught the tram to Darling Harbour, which is (tragically, but excitingly) further than I've ever caught the tram before. I always enjoy the lightrail in a markedly 6-year-old sort of way. Then we bought day-passes for the monorail, so as to be able to do otherwise financially untenable things like what we did next: caught the monorail the one stop to the other side of Darling Harbour, where we got off and wandered for a while, and took photos of the Christmas tree, and us in the fountain thingy.



Then we caught the monorail from Darling harbour, where we began the official photo competition (niftiest/most artistic photo at any given site wins)

to World Square, which was an enormous hole in the ground when I last caught to monorail.


The competition continued, with photos of the sculpture there, and of the christmas decorations.

Also, we both tried on dresses, mainly because the one I tried was red, and currently my shopping life revolves around the quest for nice clothes that are Actually Red.

Heaps of stuff is coral, or magenta, or pink, and even orangey red, the problem with which is that I look awful and sallow in orangey reds. So yes, currently questing for bright red clothes. Then we wandered down some niftily dcorated arcades,

and took notes on our progress (what d'you mean "tragically nerdy"?).

Then we went to the Galleries Victoria
and competed about photos taken from a little bridgey thing,


and went to Kinokuniya (where we found out decisively that it will be completely impossible to order in the Studio Ghibli box set from any shop in Australia because it hasn't been rated (although surely it's clearly a strong PG at worst. Maybe slightly more for "supernatural themes" or, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, woud yu believe, "quirky situations"). At Catie's insistance, we went to the bathroom in the Arthouse Hotel, because she'd heard from Bec that they were outstandingly tzujy bathrooms, as indeed they were.

Then (and theeenn...) we went to Darling Park and the Aquarium in order to have icecream (an important part of any tourist day)




and watched the people in formal clothes promenading. This became an exciting game: taking photos of the formalgoers without them spotting us. Hehehe... so much dodgy fun... and lots of pretty/not pretty dresses too.



We considered getting a token cocktail, since it was now 6 ish,


and we were, according to the monorail voiceover guy, in "one of Sydney's hottest nightspots", but decided not to on account of (a) being nearly broke, and (b) thanks to the good people at the RTA, if I have 1 drink, then want to drink hours later, I can't. This being the case, we went twice around the full monorail circut, going "oooh" at the chinese gardens and so on (and having a private carriage all to ourselves by the last circuit).


Then we Trammed home, and went out to Quest for Scrubs season 2 part 2, and had burritos and Scrubs for dinner. Mmmm.... starchy.


A 4.5 star day, all in all. That elusive last 0.5 star would only have been attainable if the camera hadn't run out of batteries.

Today's trivia question: What is the name of JD and Turk's dog?

New Post! Also: EXTRA! Ang's appellatory imagination hits all-time low!

Yay for everything!
Today's featured articles are8 things you didn't know about ROTK http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/film/returnoftheking.html
and The Suicide Guide http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/suicide.html

Today's trivia question is this: what are the colours of the flags of Germany, France, Italy and Ireland, respectively?

World Cup! Yay!

We qualified for the world cup! How unusual (no really, it really is, it's been, what, 32 years?) for us! Yay for everything! But not the creme brulees that were a bit of a disaster today. But kind of yay for the orange cake-thingy we also made, because it has meringue icing, and the creme brulees used two separate yolks, so you have to make something meringuey to use the whites up. The cake completely (completely) disintegrated when we took it out of the tin, but we glued it back together with meringue, so, y'know, that's a yay on balance!

And it's nearly Christmas time! And I'm going to have High Tea tomorrow! And.... and... yay all round!

Trivia: What fruit flavour of beer is available at the Lowenbrau Keller?

Yay for the holidays! And by extension Christmas!

The exams are over! Yay! *dances* This is weird, actually, I have that strange aimless feeling of directionless guilt I always have after the exams end. Y'know, I've been feeling guilty about doing stuff for so long that I now have nothing I should be doing, I now feel guilty pretty much all the time. Meh. It usually passes within the week. And today I slept in! For the first time in aaaaggges. And, and, I'm currently reading a book! A Book! I haven't read a book in about a month.

And as soon as I get motivated (tomorrow?) I shall make Creme Brulees! Yay!I've been meaning to do that so long that the ingredient cream I bought went off.

Anyway, this afternoon I went to my old school because my sister Alex won a maths prize. It's always odd to go back there. It's strangely the same but also weirdly different. Also, they had a guest speaker who was a maths lecturer for UNSW, who gave us a maths lecture! With powerpoint slides! The first day of my summer holidays and someone gave me a lecture! Waaahh! Anyway, moving on...

This evening Catie and I bought groceries, it was terribly fun. We got all kinds of groceries, including the really fun kind like toffee apples, and a BBQ chicken and had a picnic on our living room floor! Yay picnic! Also, and even more excitingly, I got pjs for $8. Best purchase everrrr. They have a sheep on them and say "Shleepy time" on them. They remind me of a pair of pyjamas I had when I was (very) little which had Cows on them and said "Too tired to Moooove", and I thought they were great. Anyway, the pyjamas are nifty, is more or less my point here.

And then, we Quested(tm) for Scrubs Season 2 on DVD. It was a successful quest indeed, it only took us 3 video shops to find what we were after, so, y'know, yay again!

This post is sort of dull, but really it's just a vehicle for today's question, so that's ok. The question in question is this: Tell me all 50 states of America... no wait, that'll be really boring to check. How's this: what does "Tutto è giusto nell'amore e nella guerra" mean?