out and about

Mark and I at the FBi radio fundraiser gig last bank holiday Monday, 8th June.

[ not my photo, taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/fbi945/3610396077/ ]

http://www.fbiradio.com/

will pose for $$$$

new haircut wooo!

It is SO COLD. It was 14 today and is going to be 1 degree overnight apparently!!!! Woe. I am going to wrap up in bed now and read The Wasp Factory until it worries me too much to sleep.

planting passionfruit

Mark insisted I poladroid all these photos for some reason. They're not too good I'm afraid, the light was starting to go.

After a super-annoying trip to Macquarie Shopping Centre this morning to get some decent soil-y stuff we dug up the side bed and put the passionfruit vine in. It seems happy.







It looks so teeny. I hope it's ok.

The original photos are on Flickr. You can just about see the state of our lawn in them. After all the rain and walking on it today, it's pretty much just turned to mud :(

We are being naughty and staying up too late to watch the 20/20 West Indies - Australia from the Oval. The weather looks dismal in London. The sun came out here today! I might actually get in bed and let Mark update me in the morning.

whinging pom

Oh hello there.

I am so fed up of winter! It feels so odd complaining so much about it since it still hits 17-18 degrees most days which for most Englishy types in England is lovely and warm. BUT it is just SO COLD?? Things don't really get a chance to warm up properly because of the short winter days, so 18 degrees in wintery Australia feels significantly cooler than the same temperature in summertime UK. The house is freezing because all the older houses here are just made to not get too hot in summer, rather than stay all warm in winter. Mark has taken to wearing two jumpers, a dressing gown, gloves and a blanket whilst working at home, which is an amusing sight to behold. No washing dries and consequently everything just smells of damp the whole time. It doesn't help either that we are now well into our FOURTH WEEK OF RAIN. EVERY DAY. I can't actually remember what the sun looks like? Not good enough, Australia, not good enough. The house is dark and depressing all the time because, like most houses in Australia seem to be, it is built in a way that no direct sunlight comes into the windows (presumably again to prevent excessive summer overheating). WA WA WAHHH!!!!

Ok enough complaining.

We have mostly been sitting in and getting over our colds and watching DVDs. Last night watched Charade, a 1963 thriller with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, that Mark's parents got me on DVD when I was in Paris, cus it's set in Paris. It's a good, silly film. Good but silly. I wish they'd remaster it or something though. The sound quality is quite poor, particularly in the first 30 minutes and in the scene on the boat, and the picture quality varies throughout. It's a shame cus it's a good film, I bet there's lots of good, forgotten classic films out there that could be rereleased quite successfully with a bit of polishing up.

Bank holiday weekend this coming weekend, for the old Queen's birthday, would you believe! I intend to do gardening - we acquired a passionfruit vine that needs putting out. I'm pretending it's Bank Holiday for My Birthday. One week tomorrow and I'm 25, officially a bit old. I suppose nothing much changes. I suppose I might have to finally accept the fact that I'm not going to grow out of my bad skin. I've been living for years in the mistaken belief that my greasy, blotchy visage will soon develop into nice, normal, smooth adult skin, and that I'll be able to gander about in public all fresh-faced without a layer of oil-control foundation coating my face for security. But no. Oh well. For any miserable 14 year olds reading this who are currently battling the terrors of adolescent skin, here's a bit of news: IT MIGHT NEVER END!!!!

failure to be sensible, ill, too much rain

Not much has happened recently that has been particularly conducive to bloggery as of late. I apologise once more to those people (all two of you?!) who may or may not have been on tenterhooks awaiting the next exciting installment of my life.

Mark and I are both currently ill with colds. Mark with his second cold in only a couple of months. Mine is not quite as bad as his, although I fear that since he had it first and I may therefore be a couple of days behind in the cold timeline... To be quite honest I think I deserve lifelong immunity from colds after the horrific, almost-3-month-long cold I had starting immediately after we arrived in Australia, which included a period of almost a solid fortnight during which I could not breath through my nose at all. Not even slightly, not even with all the decongestants money could buy.

Mark had his birthday t'other week. I got him RayBan Wayfarers, crème brulée tea from T2 and the two Yeah Yeah Yeahs EPs ('Yeah Yeah Yeah' and 'Is Is'). He also has some books, including David Starkey's Monarchy which arrived from Bristol which he has already finished and which I am now reading - it's really exciting! And I now understand the Wars of the Roses which would have been helpful *before* I went to see the plays. Gah. We went to Ice and Slice in Newtown for dinner with USyd phil dept. (usual wednesday night dinner). Some of them didn't realise it was Mark's actual birthday until near the end of the meal, then started singing Happy Birthday and the WHOLE restaurant joined in!! Mark looked like he wanted to die a bit, it was so funny.
After food Mark and I went for cocktails in Madame Fling Flong, then had to head home because it was a school night.

Not much else has occurred. It is torrentially raining. Has been for a few days. Some towns in Vic/NSW are flooded.....this country seems to be permanently on fire or underwater....hmm. I am trying to save a lot of money, but keep failing by shopping. Had 17 minutes to wait for the train home from work last night and instead of waiting patiently in the station I went and bought another new top and new skirt! Aghh. Sense, pie. Sense. *shakes head*

Birds and Tofu

These lovely bright shiny birds seem to be around a lot in our garden at the moment, they come to eat the flowers on our big bush. I have no idea what they are, but they are fascinatingly bright. There were two faffing around out there earlier today, so I photographed them.

Today was a lazy Sunday, got up late and ate two lunches. Then we walked down to Rhodes to the IKEA, to buy a mixing bowl and a doormat. Mark is making his own honey nut muesli for breakfast, hence the need for a huge bowl to mix it all up in. He has toasted all the oats and nuts in honey in the oven and it tastes so good already.

Just had a tofu stir fry for tea, drained tofu for 45 mins then marinated it for 45 mins in teriyake sauce before frying today. It came out SO good. I love tofu, it is brilliant if done the right way, it can get so flavoursome. Mark started pondering how tofu was made and where it originated, so I looked it up on wikipedia. Apparently it originated in Ancient China, and is made from soy milk in a similar way to the process of making cheese from normal milk. Fascinating! I remember when we first came to Australia and were so amazed at the extent of tofu on sale. In the UK you could barely get more than one brand, tucked away in a weird part of the supermarket, whereas here it is awarded it's own section of the supermarket! Our grocery store has a whole aisle of tofu products even! We got addicted to the deep fried crispy tofu they have until Mark read the nutritional information and realised it was really unhealthy, so now we cannot have it anymore.

The Wiki article is here: Tofu on wiki and is very detailed and interesting. Who knew there were so many types of tofu ??!

Pootling and bumbling

After two weeks of running every morning at 7am (well, 90% of mornings!), I can now not only get all the way up the hill but half way down the other side without my heart and lungs feeling sick! Today is Saturday and involved a successful extra-long run. I will become healthy, I will! I feel much better already!

We went to see Mary and Max, Adam Elliot's new claymation film. I really enjoyed it, it was so funny but also really heartwarming and I almost cried at the end! It's about the friendship that develops between a lonely 8 year old girl in Melbourne and an equally lonely obese man with Asperger's Syndrome in New York.
She picks his address out of a US phone book and writes to ask him where babies in America comes from. Receiving her letter triggers an anxiety attack in Max, but eventually he writes back, and the film follows the ups and downs of their relationship and their separate lives over 20 years.
It's also quite funny in its send-up of Australian suburban life and you should all watch it. There's a bit where Mary sends Max a Cherry Ripe too and it reminded me that I must send EVERYONE a Cherry Ripe. Best chocolate bar EVER. UK Cadbury's should SO make them.

I went to the dentist on Wednesday and had my teeth prodded and cleaned to within an inch of their lives. It was so good, even if it did cost me $200 ! OUCH. I also got to go on the new Epping-Chatswood rail link which was exciting (yes I am tragic).

This week was SO cold. A couple of days were only 15 or 16 degrees and it apparently went down to 5 degrees overnight! Waa. The platypus, Mr L. Rogue, even registered a formal complaint about the cold with the platypus embassy, although we doubt he got very far. We bought a big electric radiator on Friday, and it is SO good. Heating me up all nice. Today the weather was much nicer though - it felt like a lovely English summer's day. After my run I did not one, not two, but THREE loads of washing and pegged it all in the garden. We had eggs and toast and coffee for late brunch and now Mark is working away on his shiny new Mac. I am going to work on a short story I have been poking around with for about 3 months. Spaghetti for dinner with Pie Special Tomato, Garlic and Basil Sauce, if I can remember how to make it!