I wish I could've been there... so if anyone reading this did attend, what was it like?
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Friends and family converge
It's going to be an interesting Christmas this year. It was really cool to find out that Qiao was going to be flying here on Christmas day, and then even better to find out that Gloria will be here too! From Taiwan! 3 ex-flatmates, reunited again! hurrah! hahaha. And then my brother tells me he'll be in Sydney too, and will be staying with me. What with my obligations towards Bear's family and now friends and little brother, its going to be a different Christmas this year.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Aussie humour
One of the things I like best about australians is their sense of humour, and an excellent example I think would be those teeny tiny briefish speedos we've all seen and had to look away from, which are known here as budgie smugglers!
*grin*
*grin*
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Job vacancy
There is a job vacancy for a research assistant in behavioural neuroscience at my university, to be working under my honours year supervisor! And he was nice, and I might have a shot worth trying for except - i don't know if i can face up to the whole experiments on rats thing anymore.
...
I'm mostly pretty sure I can't.
Hmmh.
...
I'm mostly pretty sure I can't.
Hmmh.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Bear in the Airbus
The new A380 flew into Sydney for the first time last Sunday, and Bear got to visit it! Planespotters everywhere, envy envy! But then Bear did do much work on "the A380 project" as he calls it, so fair enough that he gets to see it all up close and personal, no?
Bear in the captain's seat!
(envy envy envy!!! why are there no perks for the beloved of the aircraft engineers?)
Here is his (briefish preview) account of the event, and he promises to write more about it after he's had some sleep. It's way past his bedtime, poor Bear. But do check back later to hear more about his excursion, there may be talk of "ballasts" and "test equipment" (it being a test flight) and far too many photos of staircases and reflective vests, but it is still a very cool thing, and Bear knows way lots about the airplane so maybe we'll all learn something esoteric to impress people with, okay Bear?
:)
Bear in the captain's seat!
(envy envy envy!!! why are there no perks for the beloved of the aircraft engineers?)
Here is his (briefish preview) account of the event, and he promises to write more about it after he's had some sleep. It's way past his bedtime, poor Bear. But do check back later to hear more about his excursion, there may be talk of "ballasts" and "test equipment" (it being a test flight) and far too many photos of staircases and reflective vests, but it is still a very cool thing, and Bear knows way lots about the airplane so maybe we'll all learn something esoteric to impress people with, okay Bear?
:)
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Rambling through the foods
I know i've been terribly negligent about updating this bloggything, and it really doesn't much tell you about any recent events or habits or interesting things in my life and so I thought perhaps I'll write something about my eating habits, and just ramble on about myself in a self-occupied way for a bit.
Bear and I eat very well. Thanks to our regular food excursions to various food halls, temples of chocolate and growers markets, now i can no longer stomach the taste of cadbury/nestle chocolate, cannot drink most sugary soft drinks with pleasure anymore, look with disdain upon factory-processed foods in the supermarket and get upset at having to pay for mediocre meals. Perhaps this is part of growing up? Bear says he used to guzzle coke and eat at maccas* up till he was 25 then he couldn't anymore. I didn't believe him initially and thought he was just being a silly old food snob but then I turned 25 and have since become fellow food snob.
Thank goodness Bear earns enough money to support all this!
Recently, the launch of a new commercial radio station, Vega 95.3fm made me think about my tastes and habits. I generally like this station, the music they play is usually agreeable enough, occasionally bland, occasionally exciting, but I particularly like their little segments when i'm driving home, usually about food, occasionally about current affairs and all that sort of thing, and you're thinking, well what is your point Ratgirl, and it's just that this station is specifically pitched at Baby Boomers!
I've got baby-boomer taste!!
Wahahahahahah
*amused*
Anyway, whatever.
I think as I've gotten older, I've become a LOT more comfortable in my own skin. I tend to prefer shopping alone - I know what I like and I don't need someone else to observe how big my bum looks in unsuitable things. I think finally, I have wardrobe of clothes I like to wear. This took about a decade to develop you know (thinks back to wacky fashion adventures in late teens)... and also perhaps a decade to accept what I look like, the shape i am, and my enormous cheeks. If i look like a chipmunk, so be it.
After all, I don't think I'm really able to follow some sort of prescribed diet. I've never even taken the notion seriously... which means I am possibly on occasion, inadvertently rude to friends who are trying to.
Not that I would advocate unhealthy eating habits, but aren't most individuals so different in tastes and habits that no strict diet is ever going to be less than pleasant to follow? Maybe food philosophies are the way to go instead. E.g. my latest food theory/philosophy - The Organic, Hard-to-find and Expensive but Very-Yummy Foodstuffs Plan!
Because the acronym for that is nonsense, I'll just call it my Good Food diet. See, now Good Food, and by which i mean grown with care (organic veggies, fruit, meat) or made with care from ingredients grown with care (artisan chocolate, breads, pasta, jams, butter, sausages etc...) are usually a) Extra Yummy, and b) Good For You - nutritionally sound and lacking in pesticides and additives (like those ingredients with numbers for names). Having said that however, such Good Foods are also usually Expensive and Hard To Find (specialty providores, occasional farmers markets, etc).
However, these various capitalised attributes actually work well together. For example, because I cannot eat cheap chocolate anymore, we buy small amounts at a time** of expensive chocolate (valrhona, michel cluziel, dolfin, lindt, max brenner), and, surprise surprise, it actually lasts longer. The chocolate kick you get from one little square of valhrona can last a few hours, unlike those cadbury blocks, which you eat nearly all of in one go and then are not even really satisfied, but slightly ill instead. So, I end up eating much less chocolate because I eat Good Chocolate.
Same goes for other foods. If it's expensive, you buy less of it and less often, but you also need less of it to satisfy yourself - think good olive oils, cheese, sea salt, fresh cultured butter (all the evil type foods that can be oh soooooo good if its Good. Am i making any sense?). Another admirable trait of Good Food is that you can make extremely tasty meals much more easily, simply because fresh and quality ingredients seldom need much effort to make yummy together.
In the end it actually saves us money too, since having easily-prepared Good Food in the fridge means we're much less likely to eat out, which in Sydney, is generally always more expensive than home-cooking, unlike in Singapore. Sigh.
Tonight, for example, we're having three mushrooms ravioli (porcini, field & roman browns in parsley & shallot pasta) from Pastabilities, probably dressed with Tetsuya's black truffle salsa and either Terrabianca truffle oil, Gwydir Grove mountain pepper infused olive oil, or maybe just some melted cultured unsalted butter from Gympie farm, served with shaved auricchio pecorino romano, and zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and pine nuts on the side.
This should not take more than half an hour of preparation and cooking - although i've never seen, much less used zucchini flowers before, so there is much potential for catastrophe and ensuing hilarity!
And then maybe a peach tart, made with the (rapidly overripening) peaches i bought from the Glenwood orchards stall at the Pyrmont growers markets last Saturday.
Have I convinced anyone yet? :P
*McDonalds in Australian.
**According to me, not to Bear, don't listen to what he says. :)
Bear and I eat very well. Thanks to our regular food excursions to various food halls, temples of chocolate and growers markets, now i can no longer stomach the taste of cadbury/nestle chocolate, cannot drink most sugary soft drinks with pleasure anymore, look with disdain upon factory-processed foods in the supermarket and get upset at having to pay for mediocre meals. Perhaps this is part of growing up? Bear says he used to guzzle coke and eat at maccas* up till he was 25 then he couldn't anymore. I didn't believe him initially and thought he was just being a silly old food snob but then I turned 25 and have since become fellow food snob.
Thank goodness Bear earns enough money to support all this!
Recently, the launch of a new commercial radio station, Vega 95.3fm made me think about my tastes and habits. I generally like this station, the music they play is usually agreeable enough, occasionally bland, occasionally exciting, but I particularly like their little segments when i'm driving home, usually about food, occasionally about current affairs and all that sort of thing, and you're thinking, well what is your point Ratgirl, and it's just that this station is specifically pitched at Baby Boomers!
I've got baby-boomer taste!!
Wahahahahahah
*amused*
Anyway, whatever.
I think as I've gotten older, I've become a LOT more comfortable in my own skin. I tend to prefer shopping alone - I know what I like and I don't need someone else to observe how big my bum looks in unsuitable things. I think finally, I have wardrobe of clothes I like to wear. This took about a decade to develop you know (thinks back to wacky fashion adventures in late teens)... and also perhaps a decade to accept what I look like, the shape i am, and my enormous cheeks. If i look like a chipmunk, so be it.
After all, I don't think I'm really able to follow some sort of prescribed diet. I've never even taken the notion seriously... which means I am possibly on occasion, inadvertently rude to friends who are trying to.
Not that I would advocate unhealthy eating habits, but aren't most individuals so different in tastes and habits that no strict diet is ever going to be less than pleasant to follow? Maybe food philosophies are the way to go instead. E.g. my latest food theory/philosophy - The Organic, Hard-to-find and Expensive but Very-Yummy Foodstuffs Plan!
Because the acronym for that is nonsense, I'll just call it my Good Food diet. See, now Good Food, and by which i mean grown with care (organic veggies, fruit, meat) or made with care from ingredients grown with care (artisan chocolate, breads, pasta, jams, butter, sausages etc...) are usually a) Extra Yummy, and b) Good For You - nutritionally sound and lacking in pesticides and additives (like those ingredients with numbers for names). Having said that however, such Good Foods are also usually Expensive and Hard To Find (specialty providores, occasional farmers markets, etc).
However, these various capitalised attributes actually work well together. For example, because I cannot eat cheap chocolate anymore, we buy small amounts at a time** of expensive chocolate (valrhona, michel cluziel, dolfin, lindt, max brenner), and, surprise surprise, it actually lasts longer. The chocolate kick you get from one little square of valhrona can last a few hours, unlike those cadbury blocks, which you eat nearly all of in one go and then are not even really satisfied, but slightly ill instead. So, I end up eating much less chocolate because I eat Good Chocolate.
Same goes for other foods. If it's expensive, you buy less of it and less often, but you also need less of it to satisfy yourself - think good olive oils, cheese, sea salt, fresh cultured butter (all the evil type foods that can be oh soooooo good if its Good. Am i making any sense?). Another admirable trait of Good Food is that you can make extremely tasty meals much more easily, simply because fresh and quality ingredients seldom need much effort to make yummy together.
In the end it actually saves us money too, since having easily-prepared Good Food in the fridge means we're much less likely to eat out, which in Sydney, is generally always more expensive than home-cooking, unlike in Singapore. Sigh.
Tonight, for example, we're having three mushrooms ravioli (porcini, field & roman browns in parsley & shallot pasta) from Pastabilities, probably dressed with Tetsuya's black truffle salsa and either Terrabianca truffle oil, Gwydir Grove mountain pepper infused olive oil, or maybe just some melted cultured unsalted butter from Gympie farm, served with shaved auricchio pecorino romano, and zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and pine nuts on the side.
This should not take more than half an hour of preparation and cooking - although i've never seen, much less used zucchini flowers before, so there is much potential for catastrophe and ensuing hilarity!
And then maybe a peach tart, made with the (rapidly overripening) peaches i bought from the Glenwood orchards stall at the Pyrmont growers markets last Saturday.
Have I convinced anyone yet? :P
*McDonalds in Australian.
**According to me, not to Bear, don't listen to what he says. :)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Introducing our new ratties
Everyone, say hello to Monty and Alfie!
(l-r) Suyin's hand, Alfie, Monty (aka Monsterrrrr!)
(l-r) Suyin's hand, Alfie, Monty (aka Monsterrrrr!)
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Tunes for cash
Finally! the iTunes store opens in Australia. Hoorah!
So far, Suyin has purchased:
1. Let Me Blow Ya mind - Eve (and Gwen Stefani)
2. Come Undone - Duran Duran
3. DUI - Har Mar Superstar
4. I Changed My Mind - Quannum Spectrum
5. Sunday Morning - No Doubt
6. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
7. Four Seasons in One Day - Crowded House
8. I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
9. Punk's Not Dead - Darren Hanlon
Studio executives are stupidheads for not getting this out earlier.
doodooheads.
here have my money!
Now, all i needs is one o' them ipoddys.
whee!
So far, Suyin has purchased:
1. Let Me Blow Ya mind - Eve (and Gwen Stefani)
2. Come Undone - Duran Duran
3. DUI - Har Mar Superstar
4. I Changed My Mind - Quannum Spectrum
5. Sunday Morning - No Doubt
6. Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
7. Four Seasons in One Day - Crowded House
8. I Don't Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats
9. Punk's Not Dead - Darren Hanlon
Studio executives are stupidheads for not getting this out earlier.
doodooheads.
here have my money!
Now, all i needs is one o' them ipoddys.
whee!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Sudden rashness
Did you know lemongrass is spiky? as in, the leaves have minisculey spikey edges? which hurt? Well I didn't. Until i went to harvest some from our garden (we have two small but ambitious mini-bushes near the fence).
Anyway, since i'd walked all the way down to the supermarket to get ONE piece of ginger, a little spikyness was not going to stop me, I was on a roll of movement! and so i donned my stylish white and red leather garden/random-use gloves and proceeded to pull several leaves off, and then later, when i got the hang of it, lemongrass stalks! yay! We're having chicken roasted in the oven with some sort of thai marinade that my Thai auntie is famous for (she gives away the recipe to everyone but no one has yet been able to make it taste like hers - suspicious, no?)... with lemongrass, chilli, onion, garlic, ginger, etc.. the usual.
Happy with my harvest, I came into the kitchen to wash the plump, juicy, practically free (whee!) stalks, when my arms started itching. Guys, I'm allergic to lemongrass! ARGH! and now red spots and scratches are appearing all over my arms..
and swelling up!
*upset*
I hope they go down soon.
..but not before Bear gets back because he needs to see what I go through to make dinner for us. And the story wouldn't be as convincing without evidence.
Anyway, since i'd walked all the way down to the supermarket to get ONE piece of ginger, a little spikyness was not going to stop me, I was on a roll of movement! and so i donned my stylish white and red leather garden/random-use gloves and proceeded to pull several leaves off, and then later, when i got the hang of it, lemongrass stalks! yay! We're having chicken roasted in the oven with some sort of thai marinade that my Thai auntie is famous for (she gives away the recipe to everyone but no one has yet been able to make it taste like hers - suspicious, no?)... with lemongrass, chilli, onion, garlic, ginger, etc.. the usual.
Happy with my harvest, I came into the kitchen to wash the plump, juicy, practically free (whee!) stalks, when my arms started itching. Guys, I'm allergic to lemongrass! ARGH! and now red spots and scratches are appearing all over my arms..
and swelling up!
*upset*
I hope they go down soon.
..but not before Bear gets back because he needs to see what I go through to make dinner for us. And the story wouldn't be as convincing without evidence.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
New garden tenant
Today, Bear found a wee little blue tongue lizard living under our wheelie bin in our backyard!
(Photo randomly borrowed from crocodilehunter.com.)
(Photo randomly borrowed from abc.net.au.)
It was a cold and rainy day today, and the little lizard looked cold and worried and had probably been rained on last night as the bins were taken out... so with me offering helpful suggestions on the side ("let's build him a house!"..."shall we give him a blanket?"), Bear built him a shelter, out of old roof tiles, over a nice patch of soil and weedy scraps. Hopefully he will be okay. If it gets very cold I'll heat a brick up for him even though I think Bear thinks that's silly and is just humouring me.
This reminds me that I forgot to tell everyone about our new ratties, Monty and Alfie, who came to live with us some weeks back... but Doctor Who has ended and Bear is making dinner! Hooray! Oh well, I'll tell you later.
P.s. Bear's birthday is this Sunday (23 Oct), and random well wishes may be sent to his email address at: ihs at iinet dot net dot au.
(Photo randomly borrowed from crocodilehunter.com.)
(Photo randomly borrowed from abc.net.au.)
It was a cold and rainy day today, and the little lizard looked cold and worried and had probably been rained on last night as the bins were taken out... so with me offering helpful suggestions on the side ("let's build him a house!"..."shall we give him a blanket?"), Bear built him a shelter, out of old roof tiles, over a nice patch of soil and weedy scraps. Hopefully he will be okay. If it gets very cold I'll heat a brick up for him even though I think Bear thinks that's silly and is just humouring me.
This reminds me that I forgot to tell everyone about our new ratties, Monty and Alfie, who came to live with us some weeks back... but Doctor Who has ended and Bear is making dinner! Hooray! Oh well, I'll tell you later.
P.s. Bear's birthday is this Sunday (23 Oct), and random well wishes may be sent to his email address at: ihs at iinet dot net dot au.
Chicken!
This is a random plug for the Antagonistic Chicken series my friend YJ has been churning out on his bloggywog. Its very random and I totally enjoy it! Chicken Vs. Mime is my favourite one so far. YJ is very cool.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
The lonely life of the suburbanite.
So last evening, I found myself in the unibar.
Alone!
Long story short, my workmates had failed to contact me about our little night out to see a friend sing at some pub in newtown, Bear was at some work-related dinner thing, and I'd stayed back at uni for the weekly seminar series and to sort some data out... when my phone failed to ring (next time, i will ask for their number too), and as if by some serendipitous (but not really as you'll find out) saccade, I found myself looking at the latest student union mag, which advertised none other than The Bedroom Philosopher! performing at the unibar, 7pm, free.
And i was like, Whee! and then eh? Because he was supposed to have performed last week which I missed, brokenheartedly, in my earnest quest to provide Qiao with a home-cooked meal and really how often does your best friend visit from Dubai (no more than once a month!) and really one shouldn't be encouraging one's big crushes especially when one has the perfect boyfriend and all... right?
Not last night though, I was stranded, left bereft of workmates, best friends and dinner, and all the other research students were beavering away with ANOVAs and suchness and were not persuaded to join me in bludging off for an hour to see some bizzare if inspired musical comedy so I took a deep breath, told my mind to shut up, and decided to be brave (which essentially, is just telling your mind to shut up, or absinthe), and strolled down to the unibar by myself.
On the way there, there was some weird shit taking place on the main walkway - some sort of en masse art student ritual concept performance (there were lots of chairs, people dressed up in random costumes sitting on them muttering to themselves, someone in a mask shooting flares, a group in transparent raincoats, someone with a clipboard taking down notes, someone wheeling about a great big speaker with medieval music, and someone chopping up apples). I was like, ew don't touch me just let me get through thankyouverymuch.
ART!
But anyway The Bedroom Philosopher (aka Justin Heazlewood) wasn't there. Not at the unibar. Student union mag and website got things wrong wrong wrong - i should've guessed? Instead, Greg Fleet (ithinkthatshowyouspellhisname) and Justin Hamilton were the comedians for the night, and despite wanting to stay and boost their efforts by joining the meagre audience, I decided I'd better just go home and make dinner and let the ratties out for their runaround time.
Oh well!
Mr Bedroom Philosopher is moving to Sydney, to write some tv show, so hopefully he'll have more gigs in the near future. I actually first came across him mid-sept, when he was part of the entertainment for Bear's step-father's excellent short comedy film festival thing (The Funnybone500), and he was Excellent! Here's a random review of some show he did some months back (its a bad picture - he'd had a haircut since then)... and apparently he's much better now, what with success boosting his confidence and all. He was very nice when I met him after the show - all shy and sweet and dorky. Sigh! I am a sucker for shy talented dorks. Who can sing. And are funny in that happy-nice way.
It's a good thing Bear isn't the jealous type! :)
Alone!
Long story short, my workmates had failed to contact me about our little night out to see a friend sing at some pub in newtown, Bear was at some work-related dinner thing, and I'd stayed back at uni for the weekly seminar series and to sort some data out... when my phone failed to ring (next time, i will ask for their number too), and as if by some serendipitous (but not really as you'll find out) saccade, I found myself looking at the latest student union mag, which advertised none other than The Bedroom Philosopher! performing at the unibar, 7pm, free.
And i was like, Whee! and then eh? Because he was supposed to have performed last week which I missed, brokenheartedly, in my earnest quest to provide Qiao with a home-cooked meal and really how often does your best friend visit from Dubai (no more than once a month!) and really one shouldn't be encouraging one's big crushes especially when one has the perfect boyfriend and all... right?
Not last night though, I was stranded, left bereft of workmates, best friends and dinner, and all the other research students were beavering away with ANOVAs and suchness and were not persuaded to join me in bludging off for an hour to see some bizzare if inspired musical comedy so I took a deep breath, told my mind to shut up, and decided to be brave (which essentially, is just telling your mind to shut up, or absinthe), and strolled down to the unibar by myself.
On the way there, there was some weird shit taking place on the main walkway - some sort of en masse art student ritual concept performance (there were lots of chairs, people dressed up in random costumes sitting on them muttering to themselves, someone in a mask shooting flares, a group in transparent raincoats, someone with a clipboard taking down notes, someone wheeling about a great big speaker with medieval music, and someone chopping up apples). I was like, ew don't touch me just let me get through thankyouverymuch.
ART!
But anyway The Bedroom Philosopher (aka Justin Heazlewood) wasn't there. Not at the unibar. Student union mag and website got things wrong wrong wrong - i should've guessed? Instead, Greg Fleet (ithinkthatshowyouspellhisname) and Justin Hamilton were the comedians for the night, and despite wanting to stay and boost their efforts by joining the meagre audience, I decided I'd better just go home and make dinner and let the ratties out for their runaround time.
Oh well!
Mr Bedroom Philosopher is moving to Sydney, to write some tv show, so hopefully he'll have more gigs in the near future. I actually first came across him mid-sept, when he was part of the entertainment for Bear's step-father's excellent short comedy film festival thing (The Funnybone500), and he was Excellent! Here's a random review of some show he did some months back (its a bad picture - he'd had a haircut since then)... and apparently he's much better now, what with success boosting his confidence and all. He was very nice when I met him after the show - all shy and sweet and dorky. Sigh! I am a sucker for shy talented dorks. Who can sing. And are funny in that happy-nice way.
It's a good thing Bear isn't the jealous type! :)
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Damn bad people to the badlands!
Why can't people just be nice to each other?
And why can't people raising kids raise them properly?
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!
There must be some solution to this.
Unless it is to get a quiet non-interactive job, forget the rest of the world, and keep only to people i like.
Except that almost everyone I like is overseas.
Is there some law that says i have to like and understand and be fair to everyone else?
No!
I am supposed to be making dinner, seeing as Bear is late at work tonight. I really don't feel like it though. Some days... this is one of those days where I need a sort of turning-off-the-thinking switch that lets me get on with things until i'm over it. Because I think i will get over it... it's happened before and I get over it. But I'm not over it yet and there's dinner to be made!!
Does anyone have a good recipe for soba noodles? There is a packet of them on the kitchen trolley feeling out of place amongst the bananas and pile of chocolate.
I miss everyone.
Fooey.
And why can't people raising kids raise them properly?
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!
There must be some solution to this.
Unless it is to get a quiet non-interactive job, forget the rest of the world, and keep only to people i like.
Except that almost everyone I like is overseas.
Is there some law that says i have to like and understand and be fair to everyone else?
No!
I am supposed to be making dinner, seeing as Bear is late at work tonight. I really don't feel like it though. Some days... this is one of those days where I need a sort of turning-off-the-thinking switch that lets me get on with things until i'm over it. Because I think i will get over it... it's happened before and I get over it. But I'm not over it yet and there's dinner to be made!!
Does anyone have a good recipe for soba noodles? There is a packet of them on the kitchen trolley feeling out of place amongst the bananas and pile of chocolate.
I miss everyone.
Fooey.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Random work conversation
Gemma (age 5): Are you a vegetarian?
Suyin: I've been thinking about it, but I'm really not at all.
Gemma: Oh.
Suyin: Are you a vegetarian?
Gemma: Oh no..
Gemma: I'm Aussie.
Suyin: ...
Suyin: That's cool. :)
Suyin: I've been thinking about it, but I'm really not at all.
Gemma: Oh.
Suyin: Are you a vegetarian?
Gemma: Oh no..
Gemma: I'm Aussie.
Suyin: ...
Suyin: That's cool. :)
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
The Smell of Ratties
Now Kimi, like most other adult boy ratties, smells rather wonderful - like warm corn chips, and the smell of cuddling and cosiness and yummy furry mammal warmth!
*takes deep breath of Kimi*
Mmm!
*has asthma attack*
Linus, on the other hand, also has that warm corn chippiness, but a little something extra as well... which we couldn't identify until tonight... Previous suppositions proposed sandalwood? some sort of talcum powder? expensive perfume?
But on our little post-dinner walk around Epping (too much french camembert and our very first smoked trout!), as the night air wafted all these blossomy smells past us, we came to the stunning observation that Linus smells like cherry blossoms!
Hurrah! Mystery solved, and so satisfyingly so.
Cherry blossoms are so pretty. Like Linus.
*takes deep breath of Kimi*
Mmm!
*has asthma attack*
Linus, on the other hand, also has that warm corn chippiness, but a little something extra as well... which we couldn't identify until tonight... Previous suppositions proposed sandalwood? some sort of talcum powder? expensive perfume?
But on our little post-dinner walk around Epping (too much french camembert and our very first smoked trout!), as the night air wafted all these blossomy smells past us, we came to the stunning observation that Linus smells like cherry blossoms!
Hurrah! Mystery solved, and so satisfyingly so.
Cherry blossoms are so pretty. Like Linus.
Rattie webcam
This is a very cool webcam, of a new rattie mum, Belle, with her litter of (not all that new really) babies! In the Netherlands!
http://www.xs4all.nl/~yolgers/webcam/index.html
(May have to wait a little time for the video to start, but it's So worth it!)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~yolgers/webcam/index.html
(May have to wait a little time for the video to start, but it's So worth it!)
Friday, August 19, 2005
Bear's media phrenzy!
As a result of Bear's nomination for some wacky award thing, I hereby present:
Bear's very first press release
ABC news article
Sydney Morning Herald article
New Scientist article!
UNSW news article
and more to come! watch this space.
(so much for anonymity mwahahaha... *secretly proud of Bear*)
Bear's very first press release
ABC news article
Sydney Morning Herald article
New Scientist article!
UNSW news article
and more to come! watch this space.
(so much for anonymity mwahahaha... *secretly proud of Bear*)
Sunday, August 07, 2005
In memory of Birdy
Sadly, the little grey cockatiel who came under our care on Friday passed away today. He spent yesterday looking unhappy but not too unhealthy, and then this morning, went rapidly downhill and definitely developed a case of SBL (sick bird look - according to the vet).
Being Sunday, it was impossible to contact an avian specialist anywhere in Sydney, and we called and called but in the end Randwick Vet Hospital kindly agreed to take him in and do their best despite not having adequate resources for dealing with seriously ill birdies.
Apparently, birds, once they start looking sick, have not that much of a chance. We left him with hope that some general bird antibiotics would help him out but the vet called at about 4pm and said that Birdy had passed away.
It's hit us unexpectedly badly. After all, he came to us not more than 48 hours ago, and spent most of that time hissing at us, or ignoring us.. but then when we'd leave the room to give him some privacy, he'd give a little questioning squawk and look at us. I really liked this bird. He had spirit, and was obviously very intelligent, and we should have brought him to a vet first thing when we got him, but we knew nothing about birds and now the helplessness is the most painful thing of all.
Goodbye Birdy. I'm so sorry we weren't better able to care for you.
Being Sunday, it was impossible to contact an avian specialist anywhere in Sydney, and we called and called but in the end Randwick Vet Hospital kindly agreed to take him in and do their best despite not having adequate resources for dealing with seriously ill birdies.
Apparently, birds, once they start looking sick, have not that much of a chance. We left him with hope that some general bird antibiotics would help him out but the vet called at about 4pm and said that Birdy had passed away.
It's hit us unexpectedly badly. After all, he came to us not more than 48 hours ago, and spent most of that time hissing at us, or ignoring us.. but then when we'd leave the room to give him some privacy, he'd give a little questioning squawk and look at us. I really liked this bird. He had spirit, and was obviously very intelligent, and we should have brought him to a vet first thing when we got him, but we knew nothing about birds and now the helplessness is the most painful thing of all.
Goodbye Birdy. I'm so sorry we weren't better able to care for you.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Found: Grey Cockatiel
This sweet little cockatiel was found on Friday 5 August, in the evening, sitting on a low branch in Coogee Public School. If you know whose bird this may be, please please contact me! He is staying in our guest room at the moment, with the heater on low, in one of our ex-rattie cages (which really is a bird cage but don't let the boys know) and has a sortof wooden toy and some cockatiel seed mix and a honey treat stick thing but he's not happy.
At least he's not as freaked out as he was last night, when two parents bravely 'rescued' him from the tree, held him squawking madly in a closed fist and then put him in a small box, in which he was tossed about abit on the ride home and he really didn't sound happy, poor thing. I'm not sure how I came to bring him home, but I felt so sorry for the little guy. Hopefully his humans will be found soon and he can go home.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Euphemism of the day
Syn: erp.
Bear: erp?
Syn: Er. I did a bad thing.
Bear: What? What did you do?
Syn: Um. Nothing.
Bear: *sniffs*
Bear: Did you make a bubble?
Syn: ...?
Syn: er. Yes?
Bear: That's okay sweetie.
Syn: ...
Syn: teehee. I made a bubble.
Bear: erp?
Syn: Er. I did a bad thing.
Bear: What? What did you do?
Syn: Um. Nothing.
Bear: *sniffs*
Bear: Did you make a bubble?
Syn: ...?
Syn: er. Yes?
Bear: That's okay sweetie.
Syn: ...
Syn: teehee. I made a bubble.
Readings
I haven't been reading as much as i'm used to... something about having to get up early which means grasping at every available sleeping minute possible. I'm not one of those people who get up early.
But I don't have to get up early anymore! well at least not before sunrise, and so have looked again into my pile of books and found some interesting things. No, haven't yet gotten Half-blood Prince - partly because i cannot remember what happened in the previous book so really shouldn't i re-read that first? - but am slowly working my way through the oeuvre of Diana Wynne Jones, picking up random paperback copies of her books at discount book stores, and recently, thanks to Minzhi's recommendations, have placed orders for Dark Lord of Derkholm, Howl's Moving Castle (finally!) and Castle in the Air from the UNSW bookshop. I like this whole ordering online thing, especially since they charge no delivery fee within the university and offer discounted prices anyway. I ordered the Witches of Eastwick (after reading Yen's review) from them last month and that was easy enough, and yes, so far, plenty of unattractive suburban sex... and some somewhat inexplicable behaviour from these witchy folk. Is the movie any good, does anyone know?
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot is another book on my table... I'm not sure why i picked it up (did someone mention it recently?) but it's very good indeed! So intense, and written so simply and effectively. Wasn't it some cleverish bookmark/placemat/bookofsayings that stated 'Classics are those books that everyone wishes they've read but no one actually wants to read'? I thought that was clever when I was 14, when clever things were cool and it was important to be clever, but since then I've changed my mind and think it's far more difficult to be truthful and meaningful, which is why i hate sayings. I really really hate sayings(aphorisms?) that are supposed to be wise, and state something (usually simple) as if it were revelatory and (yes) clever, but really isn't, because it's far too simplistic and not true!
*vent*
...
which somehow brings me to the epiphany of today, which, i think, is my best answer yet to the question of what makes a good pun.. or, why are all of Bear's puns so terrible?
The answer, I think, at least for me, is that a good pun is one that a pedant does not find fault with. To wit, it is accurate, and not just arrived at by some tenuous link of association, which makes the pun... rarer? Clever and true. Best.
:P
But I don't have to get up early anymore! well at least not before sunrise, and so have looked again into my pile of books and found some interesting things. No, haven't yet gotten Half-blood Prince - partly because i cannot remember what happened in the previous book so really shouldn't i re-read that first? - but am slowly working my way through the oeuvre of Diana Wynne Jones, picking up random paperback copies of her books at discount book stores, and recently, thanks to Minzhi's recommendations, have placed orders for Dark Lord of Derkholm, Howl's Moving Castle (finally!) and Castle in the Air from the UNSW bookshop. I like this whole ordering online thing, especially since they charge no delivery fee within the university and offer discounted prices anyway. I ordered the Witches of Eastwick (after reading Yen's review) from them last month and that was easy enough, and yes, so far, plenty of unattractive suburban sex... and some somewhat inexplicable behaviour from these witchy folk. Is the movie any good, does anyone know?
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot is another book on my table... I'm not sure why i picked it up (did someone mention it recently?) but it's very good indeed! So intense, and written so simply and effectively. Wasn't it some cleverish bookmark/placemat/bookofsayings that stated 'Classics are those books that everyone wishes they've read but no one actually wants to read'? I thought that was clever when I was 14, when clever things were cool and it was important to be clever, but since then I've changed my mind and think it's far more difficult to be truthful and meaningful, which is why i hate sayings. I really really hate sayings(aphorisms?) that are supposed to be wise, and state something (usually simple) as if it were revelatory and (yes) clever, but really isn't, because it's far too simplistic and not true!
*vent*
...
which somehow brings me to the epiphany of today, which, i think, is my best answer yet to the question of what makes a good pun.. or, why are all of Bear's puns so terrible?
The answer, I think, at least for me, is that a good pun is one that a pedant does not find fault with. To wit, it is accurate, and not just arrived at by some tenuous link of association, which makes the pun... rarer? Clever and true. Best.
:P
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wet.
It's raining!
And has been for what, since last night! yaaaaaaarrh.
So wet. I don't want to go out.
But I have to. Of course. BLah.
The rain was welcome though, probably. Sydney going through drought and all that... although really, like Bear says, how can it be drought when it happens regularly and is actually a characteristic of living in a really Dry country?
I dunno leh. But gee, they grow rice here!
At least this rainy period wasn't as long awaited for as the last rainy period, when apparently small children and puppies were all agog with amazement at what was happening because they'd never seen rain before. And it's true! I heard it on the radio, must be true.
What else is true? I need to get out of my bum grooved seat and get into my car and drive an hour to uni to photocopy a stack of things and then collect exam papers to mark over the weekend.
At least I didn't have to sit an exam this cold wet windy squelching morning.
I am a lucky lucky girl.
To live in a house that is waterproof.
And not have to sit exams anymore.
Wheeeee!
And has been for what, since last night! yaaaaaaarrh.
So wet. I don't want to go out.
But I have to. Of course. BLah.
The rain was welcome though, probably. Sydney going through drought and all that... although really, like Bear says, how can it be drought when it happens regularly and is actually a characteristic of living in a really Dry country?
I dunno leh. But gee, they grow rice here!
At least this rainy period wasn't as long awaited for as the last rainy period, when apparently small children and puppies were all agog with amazement at what was happening because they'd never seen rain before. And it's true! I heard it on the radio, must be true.
What else is true? I need to get out of my bum grooved seat and get into my car and drive an hour to uni to photocopy a stack of things and then collect exam papers to mark over the weekend.
At least I didn't have to sit an exam this cold wet windy squelching morning.
I am a lucky lucky girl.
To live in a house that is waterproof.
And not have to sit exams anymore.
Wheeeee!
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Lindt!
What happened when Bear and I found the Lindt concept store last saturday.
Chocolate tasting party!
Chocolate tasting party!
Monday, June 27, 2005
Melbourne
Some things we saw in Melbourne, when we went there for walkabout several weeks back:
Some bloke painting the coat of arms on the bridge over the Yarra river.
Part of Federation Square, which cost the city a bazillion dollars and has some very weird looking buildings, one of which had walls which open up in front of you all of a sudden and freak you out for a moment after which you go, cool! and then walk through and promptly forget where the door was and then spend some time standing near likely looking walls.
A bunch of red balloons pretending to be red autumn leaves so as to pass unnoticed in their covert bid for freedom. Or, a tree that produces fruit that looks like balloons. Or, a scrum of baboons, bums out.
Some bloke painting the coat of arms on the bridge over the Yarra river.
Part of Federation Square, which cost the city a bazillion dollars and has some very weird looking buildings, one of which had walls which open up in front of you all of a sudden and freak you out for a moment after which you go, cool! and then walk through and promptly forget where the door was and then spend some time standing near likely looking walls.
A bunch of red balloons pretending to be red autumn leaves so as to pass unnoticed in their covert bid for freedom. Or, a tree that produces fruit that looks like balloons. Or, a scrum of baboons, bums out.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Rude scrabble
Bear and I played rude scrabble last night, inspired by Yen's account of some such activity (called sexy scrabble? Bear and I made faces at this so we changed the name) many yonks ago...
Anyhow, it's Hard! i mean, difficult!
The idea was that you're only allowed to make naughty words (notable examples: suck, anal, gonad). This soon became words that might somehow be possibly interpreted as related to sex sortof if only indirectly (like yoga, lips, eel), downright interpretive (prong, devo, juice), spelling be damned (libeedo, dique), and then finally, just dirty words (job, sith).
Heheheh.
It was fun!
We shall be doing it again.
Anyhow, it's Hard! i mean, difficult!
The idea was that you're only allowed to make naughty words (notable examples: suck, anal, gonad). This soon became words that might somehow be possibly interpreted as related to sex sortof if only indirectly (like yoga, lips, eel), downright interpretive (prong, devo, juice), spelling be damned (libeedo, dique), and then finally, just dirty words (job, sith).
Heheheh.
It was fun!
We shall be doing it again.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Star Wars + Lego
Two of my favourite things.
Now see the movie!
Revenge of the Brick (12 mb, quicktime)
It's very cool and even a bit funny.
Now see the movie!
Revenge of the Brick (12 mb, quicktime)
It's very cool and even a bit funny.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Girl, woman or vegetable?
So. When does one become a woman and not a girl, or is it like if you have to ask then you're probably neither or both or something like that? Anyway, I don't know, so i asked Bear. I ask Bear a great many things. If i ask him about mechanical thingymabobs, he is usually quick to supply a carefully worded explanation, because he knows everything about mechanical things, being an engineer by profession and passion, but when asked about things like feelings, or hypothetical moral conundrums (what if i fell into a vegetative state, would you still love me? how about if i grew a penis by accident?).. or other sorts of fuzzy issues, you can see the solid steel barrier crashing down between his mind and the rest of his face, the kind with large red letters flashing DANGER DANGER, and Bear immediately shifts into silent defense mode.
So it was when I asked him, do you think I'm a girl or a woman?
To which, maybe because he really thought so and also because it was safe, he said sometimes you're one, sometimes the other.
And then of course the follow up question is when am I a girl and when a woman?
And Bear said something like: when you're making up silly songs, or doing the spin cycle dance, or asking me random difficult questions to amuse yourself, you're being a girl...
And a woman? I asked eagerly, because I had no idea.
Well, when you're doing your research, or working with children, or.. tutoring, I suppose you're being a woman.
Which is a fair enough answer I guess... because lately, what with being halfway through 25 and having to be serious about being financially independent and tutoring adults more than twice my age and having finally to address my research seriously, it just seemed like i've been acting like an adult - the key word here being acting.
And behind the scenes, sensible outfits and carefully worded conversations, the bit of me that watches all this looks on in marvel and disbelief and hopes that I don't give myself away.
Oh. and then i asked Bear, so which do you like more? the girl or the woman?
Bear: Argh! You know I can't answer that without getting into trouble!
heheheheheh.
So it was when I asked him, do you think I'm a girl or a woman?
To which, maybe because he really thought so and also because it was safe, he said sometimes you're one, sometimes the other.
And then of course the follow up question is when am I a girl and when a woman?
And Bear said something like: when you're making up silly songs, or doing the spin cycle dance, or asking me random difficult questions to amuse yourself, you're being a girl...
And a woman? I asked eagerly, because I had no idea.
Well, when you're doing your research, or working with children, or.. tutoring, I suppose you're being a woman.
Which is a fair enough answer I guess... because lately, what with being halfway through 25 and having to be serious about being financially independent and tutoring adults more than twice my age and having finally to address my research seriously, it just seemed like i've been acting like an adult - the key word here being acting.
And behind the scenes, sensible outfits and carefully worded conversations, the bit of me that watches all this looks on in marvel and disbelief and hopes that I don't give myself away.
Oh. and then i asked Bear, so which do you like more? the girl or the woman?
Bear: Argh! You know I can't answer that without getting into trouble!
heheheheheh.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Clarifications
Perhaps I should clarify that long and slightly angry post about doing research in education, especially after coming out of the other end of a difficult situation.
Because I know Bear got the wrong idea from all my various ranting episodes, I'd better clarify that the reason I was stuck in a rut was because i had to depend so much on the available literature (as flawed or unsuitable as i might've thought it to be), and therefore felt hampered in my attempt to write something original, which i'd thought of, without having to hunt for and stick on other peoples' names after each proposition or idea.
Now, I think i've finally understood what my supervisor was trying to tell me: you need to demonstrate that you can jump through the hoops. It's all about learning the discipline of research, and later, when you have become an expert in your field, then you can set forth and expound upon your own ideas till the jelly sets.
Which, in the sober light of hindsight, finally makes sense to me.
So after all, I am learning something, and have also realised that nobody said it was going to be easy! It's such folly, presupposing that everything must be accessible simply because it always has been.
Because I know Bear got the wrong idea from all my various ranting episodes, I'd better clarify that the reason I was stuck in a rut was because i had to depend so much on the available literature (as flawed or unsuitable as i might've thought it to be), and therefore felt hampered in my attempt to write something original, which i'd thought of, without having to hunt for and stick on other peoples' names after each proposition or idea.
Now, I think i've finally understood what my supervisor was trying to tell me: you need to demonstrate that you can jump through the hoops. It's all about learning the discipline of research, and later, when you have become an expert in your field, then you can set forth and expound upon your own ideas till the jelly sets.
Which, in the sober light of hindsight, finally makes sense to me.
So after all, I am learning something, and have also realised that nobody said it was going to be easy! It's such folly, presupposing that everything must be accessible simply because it always has been.
Ate too many
Ate too many olives.
Urrrrgh.
And too many D'aims yesterday,
and divested Adrian of nearly all of his blue cheese on Sunday.
Must rein in all this careless eating. My tummy feels weird.
*make sick looking face*
Urrrrgh.
And too many D'aims yesterday,
and divested Adrian of nearly all of his blue cheese on Sunday.
Must rein in all this careless eating. My tummy feels weird.
*make sick looking face*
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Alive and angry
I've not gone missing, real life's just been So Full, there hasn't been any space left to fit in any non-essential internet activity.
And today is to be the day I finally finalise my final Instrument (of DOOM! of DESPAIR!)... of measuring students' perceptions of effective teachers based on characteristics compiled from an extensive literature search?
With Any Luck, say I.
Doing research in education is a mystery to me. It was not immediately obvious, considering that I have been decently educated in the mores and principles of psychological research... and you'd think, well, social science, education, psychology, its all more or less the same, no?
No!
Educational research is HARD. And messy. And HARD.
And not straightforward, and goes nowhere or moves along its stated path only a little bit, and is based on so much talk, theory, language and the interference of politics and the practice of real teaching that what you are trying to find out is inevitably blanketed in the tangled mass of needs to be met and weeds to be tiptoed around.
This is contrary to my personal belief that the best research is straightforward, uncomplicated, clear and well-defined. If the particular topic to be studied doesn't lend itself easily to that, then maybe certain kinds of research styles are not suited to it!
There's nothing wrong with case studies, carefully carried out and reported.
There's nothing wrong with simply collecting and compiling information, nothing wrong with a descriptive study, if that's the best way of doing it.
There's no need to have factor analysis in everything!
*angry*
*sick of my research thing*
Perhaps i'm too proud and supposed that I knew how to go about doing things. Now, for the first time in a long time, or ever i can remember, i am stuck in a rut, genuinely trying to accomplish something i don't really understand, or necessarily agree with, and hardly believe in anymore, all under pressure.
How to do this?
Stop complaining on my bloggything and actually start working on it?
Prrobably.
And today is to be the day I finally finalise my final Instrument (of DOOM! of DESPAIR!)... of measuring students' perceptions of effective teachers based on characteristics compiled from an extensive literature search?
With Any Luck, say I.
Doing research in education is a mystery to me. It was not immediately obvious, considering that I have been decently educated in the mores and principles of psychological research... and you'd think, well, social science, education, psychology, its all more or less the same, no?
No!
Educational research is HARD. And messy. And HARD.
And not straightforward, and goes nowhere or moves along its stated path only a little bit, and is based on so much talk, theory, language and the interference of politics and the practice of real teaching that what you are trying to find out is inevitably blanketed in the tangled mass of needs to be met and weeds to be tiptoed around.
This is contrary to my personal belief that the best research is straightforward, uncomplicated, clear and well-defined. If the particular topic to be studied doesn't lend itself easily to that, then maybe certain kinds of research styles are not suited to it!
There's nothing wrong with case studies, carefully carried out and reported.
There's nothing wrong with simply collecting and compiling information, nothing wrong with a descriptive study, if that's the best way of doing it.
There's no need to have factor analysis in everything!
*angry*
*sick of my research thing*
Perhaps i'm too proud and supposed that I knew how to go about doing things. Now, for the first time in a long time, or ever i can remember, i am stuck in a rut, genuinely trying to accomplish something i don't really understand, or necessarily agree with, and hardly believe in anymore, all under pressure.
How to do this?
Stop complaining on my bloggything and actually start working on it?
Prrobably.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Too schmall
The world is too damn small man.
Okay, no, Singapore is .. but yes we all knew already,
but yeah. Like Sammie knows Mr Brown, from working at Borders, and Mr Brown knows Mr Miyagi from ACS, and Mr Miyagi knows me from Sydney, and now he knows Sammie too or at least went to look at her bloggything and commented on a photo of Sulin!
Surrealness!
Weirdshit brigade.
Okay, no, Singapore is .. but yes we all knew already,
but yeah. Like Sammie knows Mr Brown, from working at Borders, and Mr Brown knows Mr Miyagi from ACS, and Mr Miyagi knows me from Sydney, and now he knows Sammie too or at least went to look at her bloggything and commented on a photo of Sulin!
Surrealness!
Weirdshit brigade.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Wretched week
I haven't written much recently.
The week past wasn't much to talk about anyway, filled with disappointment and bits of sheer horribleness, from two major fronts, and then the coping with, which was very angsty and boring.
I had a dream a year or so ago where i'd booked myself into a rather nice hotel and told no one where i was. I can't remember why, but the feeling of utter liberation and joy surprised me, especially since i thought i was happy. Did i long to be freed? and from what? very strange. I know dreams are often just random scrambled eggs from the chicken of life, but i also think that what you think about what you've dreamt can be meaningful, and that thought stuck with me.
On a particularly wretched night last week, whilst reading Jeanette Winterson's latest offering, something occurred to me that i kept forgetting until i picked up the book again and now that i've finished it i'd better write it down somewhere. It's nothing revelatory, but wouldn't it be nice if we could all escape our lives when we had to, just for awhile?
Wouldn't it be nice if we could put little time-outs on our lives, not necessarily stop time exactly, but er.. duck out of it for a bit? and perhaps book into quiet little time-out hotels and stay within quiet walls and walk around quiet beaches/forests/random geography until we felt we could bear to live our lives again? It's no use running away from most things, i imagine... and i suppose there would have to be a time limit of sorts, and the time would have to be borrowed from the end-wards of one's life, with interest perhaps, but I imagine it would help.
And then i think what a ridiculous girl i am, since i have nothing to complain about, really. It's not as if i have 5 hungry children and an alcoholic husband, or am paraplegic, or terminally ill, or sold into slavery, and i suppose one would say well that puts it into perspective, doesn't it? Which is true, but also a little annoying because that's only one perspective, we could also use the perspective that we're just tiny little dots on the surface of one of many tiny little dots in one of many clusters of tiny little dots and so on... and hence everything is unimportant, or, alternatively, we are each of us an entire world, or at least we build our own world with our friends and families, and scale our experiences accordingly.
It's no use being unhappy and feeling guilty about it too.
So there.
The week past wasn't much to talk about anyway, filled with disappointment and bits of sheer horribleness, from two major fronts, and then the coping with, which was very angsty and boring.
I had a dream a year or so ago where i'd booked myself into a rather nice hotel and told no one where i was. I can't remember why, but the feeling of utter liberation and joy surprised me, especially since i thought i was happy. Did i long to be freed? and from what? very strange. I know dreams are often just random scrambled eggs from the chicken of life, but i also think that what you think about what you've dreamt can be meaningful, and that thought stuck with me.
On a particularly wretched night last week, whilst reading Jeanette Winterson's latest offering, something occurred to me that i kept forgetting until i picked up the book again and now that i've finished it i'd better write it down somewhere. It's nothing revelatory, but wouldn't it be nice if we could all escape our lives when we had to, just for awhile?
Wouldn't it be nice if we could put little time-outs on our lives, not necessarily stop time exactly, but er.. duck out of it for a bit? and perhaps book into quiet little time-out hotels and stay within quiet walls and walk around quiet beaches/forests/random geography until we felt we could bear to live our lives again? It's no use running away from most things, i imagine... and i suppose there would have to be a time limit of sorts, and the time would have to be borrowed from the end-wards of one's life, with interest perhaps, but I imagine it would help.
And then i think what a ridiculous girl i am, since i have nothing to complain about, really. It's not as if i have 5 hungry children and an alcoholic husband, or am paraplegic, or terminally ill, or sold into slavery, and i suppose one would say well that puts it into perspective, doesn't it? Which is true, but also a little annoying because that's only one perspective, we could also use the perspective that we're just tiny little dots on the surface of one of many tiny little dots in one of many clusters of tiny little dots and so on... and hence everything is unimportant, or, alternatively, we are each of us an entire world, or at least we build our own world with our friends and families, and scale our experiences accordingly.
It's no use being unhappy and feeling guilty about it too.
So there.
Random things
Random thing #1: Inspired by Clocky (link via YJ), someone invents Bloggy! The world's first automated blogging robot. Allegedly cuddly and cute. I don't know. It is fluffy though. See its blog here.
Random thing #2: I went with Bear yesterday to watch him set off his latest shooty rocket things, one of which i painted white and black with spunky orange flames for him. Overall, it was a bit exciting when it went swooooosssshh! and went very very high up, and then it was all either exploding into bits or crashing down very fast or coming down slightly more slowly flapping with streamers made of sportsgirl plastic bag (because the colours are nice lah). I suppose it's a bit of fun, and interesting in a physics sort of way, but really, what was that about a whole lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing? ahah. Badly quoted, i know. See Bear's report here.
Random thing #3: I saw the movie Dolls last night by Takeshi Kitano (vcd via the generosity of Ruth), and here is my review of it in five words: slow, gorgeous, meditative, astonishing, and slow. A better review can be found here.
Random thing #4: Bear and i just went grocery shopping, for the express purpose of making spinach and feta pastry triangles. Unexpectedly, we were thwarted several times, with one supermarket distinctly lacking spinach, the second one labelling silverbeet as spinach, and the third,.. well the third had spinach, a rather large bunch of it for $2, and so i thought, Finally! and then bought it. However, after looking at it carefully, am not convinced it is actually spinach. After cooking and eating it, continue to be unconvinced, but have no idea what it could be instead. Should the leaves have sortof curly edges? Not like endive-curly, but more like rocket-curly... oh i don't know. *shrug*
Here is my recipe for Spinach (or random spinach-resembling vegetable), Pine nut and Fetta Triangles (or squares or tarts or whatever you please really):
Large bunch of alleged spinach, chopped and washed and wrung dry
Onion, sliced thinly
Bit of garlic, chopped finely
Pine nuts, toasted
2 or 3 or 4 eggs
Some amount of fetta cheese, crumbled or chopped depending on consistency
Dill
Frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed.
Oven at 200'C
Fry the onions with the garlic and alleged spinach until soft and cooked and wilty, then season with salt and pepper and let cool. Meanwhile, beat eggs together, add dill and fetta and mix about. Add cooked spinach mix to eggs and cheese, and mix mix mix, then add pine nuts in. Mix about somemore, then spoon into puff pastry packets as you like, triangles are the usual style, but whatever keeps the filling in whilst letting a bit of steam out is perfectly fine.
Place on a firm metal baking tray, into the oven at 200'C for about 30mins. Let cool for a little, then eat them all so you won't need dinner later.
Hurrah!
Random thing #2: I went with Bear yesterday to watch him set off his latest shooty rocket things, one of which i painted white and black with spunky orange flames for him. Overall, it was a bit exciting when it went swooooosssshh! and went very very high up, and then it was all either exploding into bits or crashing down very fast or coming down slightly more slowly flapping with streamers made of sportsgirl plastic bag (because the colours are nice lah). I suppose it's a bit of fun, and interesting in a physics sort of way, but really, what was that about a whole lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing? ahah. Badly quoted, i know. See Bear's report here.
Random thing #3: I saw the movie Dolls last night by Takeshi Kitano (vcd via the generosity of Ruth), and here is my review of it in five words: slow, gorgeous, meditative, astonishing, and slow. A better review can be found here.
Random thing #4: Bear and i just went grocery shopping, for the express purpose of making spinach and feta pastry triangles. Unexpectedly, we were thwarted several times, with one supermarket distinctly lacking spinach, the second one labelling silverbeet as spinach, and the third,.. well the third had spinach, a rather large bunch of it for $2, and so i thought, Finally! and then bought it. However, after looking at it carefully, am not convinced it is actually spinach. After cooking and eating it, continue to be unconvinced, but have no idea what it could be instead. Should the leaves have sortof curly edges? Not like endive-curly, but more like rocket-curly... oh i don't know. *shrug*
Here is my recipe for Spinach (or random spinach-resembling vegetable), Pine nut and Fetta Triangles (or squares or tarts or whatever you please really):
Large bunch of alleged spinach, chopped and washed and wrung dry
Onion, sliced thinly
Bit of garlic, chopped finely
Pine nuts, toasted
2 or 3 or 4 eggs
Some amount of fetta cheese, crumbled or chopped depending on consistency
Dill
Frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed.
Oven at 200'C
Fry the onions with the garlic and alleged spinach until soft and cooked and wilty, then season with salt and pepper and let cool. Meanwhile, beat eggs together, add dill and fetta and mix about. Add cooked spinach mix to eggs and cheese, and mix mix mix, then add pine nuts in. Mix about somemore, then spoon into puff pastry packets as you like, triangles are the usual style, but whatever keeps the filling in whilst letting a bit of steam out is perfectly fine.
Place on a firm metal baking tray, into the oven at 200'C for about 30mins. Let cool for a little, then eat them all so you won't need dinner later.
Hurrah!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
Red cross and red tape
On Easter Sunday, Bear and I did a bit of charity work, and went door-knocking for the Red Cross. Technically, I was the one who volunteered, having been at home when the phone rang and the kind of person who cannot say no (unlike Bear, who knows how to say "nothankyou i'mnotinterested" really fast and then put down the phone), and so off we went with our little name tags and little plastic red cross bags and fiddly little receipt books. I even wore my red dress, for the look of it, and Bear put on his good shirt. :P
In the end we did alright, considering half the people in our street weren't home. Everyone else was very nice about it and gave 5 or ten dollar notes, with one guy emptying out his 5 cent collection into the bag. Most common excuse for not giving appears to be "I've given enough money already", which is fair enough, and at one house we were almost mauled by a snarling black dog, but it was good fun nonetheless.
In other news, Bear and I have set off on the road towards applying for a spouse (de facto) visa for me, after working out that the benefits (residence!) would probably outweigh the hassle and costs, although i have to say the hassle has been considerable Already, especially the stupid medical thing. Hopefully, after i make my 4th appointment to see the third medical specialist he will write a letter to the immigration authorities saying: Stop sending this poor girl around making appointments and taking tests and giving her money away there is absolutely nothing wrong with her and so give her a visa please. Thank you.
That's the health check side of things... Thankfully the australian police check was relatively simple and straightforward, but the same can't be said of the singapore version, where i had to visit the police station here three times in order to get a set of fingerprints taken (i have really grubby looking hands now), and answer all kinds of questions about my income and reasons for emigrating! Hilarious.
Living in Sydney has somewhat attuned me to being sensitive to being asked questions that are really quite unnecessary. I suspect there is a bit of a culture in Singapore where the standard is to collect as Much information that could possibly be slightly relevant at all for every person, nevermind if you're never going to use all of that or if it's even any of your business to know!
I remember when i first took over the post of Secretary for our little singapore students' association at UNSW, i was just astounded at the membership form. So many details! From the mundane (address, contact details in sydney), to things like address in Singapore, passport/IC number(!), NS status(!!), race (!!!), etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to fill in your bloodtype. I just scrapped the whole thing of course, no way was i going to make people fill that in, nor was i going to type it all into a database. Bureaucracy! Such a waste of time!
Of course i later found out why there might've been all those details... A singapore overseas organisation (that i won't name) told us, give us the details of your members and we'll give you money. Apparently they did this every year. I told them, no, we can't, its illegal, plus wrong you know. They said, we need their details please, especially things like NS status and stuff, and we'll give you our sponsorship. To which i said, did you not hear me correctly? I am not giving you anyone's details without asking them first, and even then, i don't have all that bloody useless information. To which i think they got angry and said, we gave you the information pack! with all the forms to collect that information with! and i said, what? where? no you didn't! and at that point the (then) president of our little association said um... you know what? now that i think about it, i might have some stuff from them in my room somewhere, err.. kinda forgot about it.
And then i said, oh. well. OOPs.
Still, they had no right to demand those details. As if it was their Right! Ballwipes.
:P
In the end we did alright, considering half the people in our street weren't home. Everyone else was very nice about it and gave 5 or ten dollar notes, with one guy emptying out his 5 cent collection into the bag. Most common excuse for not giving appears to be "I've given enough money already", which is fair enough, and at one house we were almost mauled by a snarling black dog, but it was good fun nonetheless.
In other news, Bear and I have set off on the road towards applying for a spouse (de facto) visa for me, after working out that the benefits (residence!) would probably outweigh the hassle and costs, although i have to say the hassle has been considerable Already, especially the stupid medical thing. Hopefully, after i make my 4th appointment to see the third medical specialist he will write a letter to the immigration authorities saying: Stop sending this poor girl around making appointments and taking tests and giving her money away there is absolutely nothing wrong with her and so give her a visa please. Thank you.
That's the health check side of things... Thankfully the australian police check was relatively simple and straightforward, but the same can't be said of the singapore version, where i had to visit the police station here three times in order to get a set of fingerprints taken (i have really grubby looking hands now), and answer all kinds of questions about my income and reasons for emigrating! Hilarious.
Living in Sydney has somewhat attuned me to being sensitive to being asked questions that are really quite unnecessary. I suspect there is a bit of a culture in Singapore where the standard is to collect as Much information that could possibly be slightly relevant at all for every person, nevermind if you're never going to use all of that or if it's even any of your business to know!
I remember when i first took over the post of Secretary for our little singapore students' association at UNSW, i was just astounded at the membership form. So many details! From the mundane (address, contact details in sydney), to things like address in Singapore, passport/IC number(!), NS status(!!), race (!!!), etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to fill in your bloodtype. I just scrapped the whole thing of course, no way was i going to make people fill that in, nor was i going to type it all into a database. Bureaucracy! Such a waste of time!
Of course i later found out why there might've been all those details... A singapore overseas organisation (that i won't name) told us, give us the details of your members and we'll give you money. Apparently they did this every year. I told them, no, we can't, its illegal, plus wrong you know. They said, we need their details please, especially things like NS status and stuff, and we'll give you our sponsorship. To which i said, did you not hear me correctly? I am not giving you anyone's details without asking them first, and even then, i don't have all that bloody useless information. To which i think they got angry and said, we gave you the information pack! with all the forms to collect that information with! and i said, what? where? no you didn't! and at that point the (then) president of our little association said um... you know what? now that i think about it, i might have some stuff from them in my room somewhere, err.. kinda forgot about it.
And then i said, oh. well. OOPs.
Still, they had no right to demand those details. As if it was their Right! Ballwipes.
:P
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Monday, March 21, 2005
Howl's moving castle
After watching my little pirated copy of Howl's Moving Castle, belated present from my cheapskate brother, I decided, gosh, i need to read the book!
The movie is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and has many of his little touches, particularly in his animation of the inanimate... But i have to say, whether it was simply the fan-subtitling, or the fact that it was obviously filmed in the theatre and had silhouettes of people getting up from their seats.. or because Bear had trouble converting it to a vcd, it somehow feels like we only got half the story. There was a lot of "what? why did she just do that?" and so on. Narrative failure.
This incited me to go and read the book it was based on, by Diana Wynne Jones, and I haven't yet found it, but have already read 2.5 of her other books, mainly in her Chrestomanci Chronicles and they are Very Good!
If anyone is looking for something to fill the void till half blood prince in july, try Diana Wynne Jones! She writes her children's (young adult?) books in that wonderfully simple way, with clarity and brevity, a truly interesting story, and a very wry sense of humour. Also, she's not obvious, in the way that some writers can be, where you read a paragraph and you think, plot device! or suchlike.
There. That is my little bloggy update for now. In other news, I have been to Rise at Darlinghurst twice now, and i think if i save up and am good, i can go back once every week! *mad grin of delight*
Must give thanks to Augustus Gloop of the GrabYourFork bloggything, for bringing it to my attention, and to Sammie, for first sending me the link to that site. :P
Places to go! Things to eat!
The movie is directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and has many of his little touches, particularly in his animation of the inanimate... But i have to say, whether it was simply the fan-subtitling, or the fact that it was obviously filmed in the theatre and had silhouettes of people getting up from their seats.. or because Bear had trouble converting it to a vcd, it somehow feels like we only got half the story. There was a lot of "what? why did she just do that?" and so on. Narrative failure.
This incited me to go and read the book it was based on, by Diana Wynne Jones, and I haven't yet found it, but have already read 2.5 of her other books, mainly in her Chrestomanci Chronicles and they are Very Good!
If anyone is looking for something to fill the void till half blood prince in july, try Diana Wynne Jones! She writes her children's (young adult?) books in that wonderfully simple way, with clarity and brevity, a truly interesting story, and a very wry sense of humour. Also, she's not obvious, in the way that some writers can be, where you read a paragraph and you think, plot device! or suchlike.
There. That is my little bloggy update for now. In other news, I have been to Rise at Darlinghurst twice now, and i think if i save up and am good, i can go back once every week! *mad grin of delight*
Must give thanks to Augustus Gloop of the GrabYourFork bloggything, for bringing it to my attention, and to Sammie, for first sending me the link to that site. :P
Places to go! Things to eat!
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Late night blah blahs
Its late, and I should be going to bed but i don't . quite .. want . to.
I miss my late nights. Being awake and having the night all to myself. Maybe I have a moonlight deficiency. hahaha. It's no fun leh, being hardworking and all that rubbish. And it's not even as if i do allll that much work. Its just the sortof annoying constant tugging on your mind when juggling one full-time study commitment and two part-time jobs... the day never quite ends. Even if i've spent the morning fiddling with my research design and then the afternoon managing kiddies, i spend the night thinking i should be doing readings for the next tutorial or something. Thinking only lah, i'm not that hardworking. Or i find myself staying up late at night to wrestle with MS Excel and Word and their little formatting disputes because i couldn't be arsed to do this over the weekend (MY weekend! Mine!) nor any other day because sometimes, its not so much the actual hours worked, its the preparation, the commitment, the planning, coping, and recovering from those hours that takes up all the time in my day. Like Qiao said about sleeping, she considered it part of her job because if she didn't sleep, she couldn't work, and because she had to sleep, she couldn't go out and enjoy herself. She's a flight attendant though, so going out and enjoying oneself is more interesting for her, but the point is similar. :P
One reason Bear and i get on so easily might be that we're not really do-ers.. We start interesting projects and then complete them only as far as we have to, or leave them to collect dust somewhere.. We also tend to wander, rather than zooming from point to point, and occasionally we get nowhere, which is frustrating but it is more frustrating not having the time and space to mosey about a bit. We're not very hectic people.
I don't mind not getting many things done if it means i have time to do nothing.
And time to stay up late and mooch about online.
Unfortunately, i take my sleep very seriously too.
I'd better go to bed.
Bleeeeaaaah.
Goodnight goodnight, all you spiders and flies, and those bugs in the microwave who somehow survive.
I miss my late nights. Being awake and having the night all to myself. Maybe I have a moonlight deficiency. hahaha. It's no fun leh, being hardworking and all that rubbish. And it's not even as if i do allll that much work. Its just the sortof annoying constant tugging on your mind when juggling one full-time study commitment and two part-time jobs... the day never quite ends. Even if i've spent the morning fiddling with my research design and then the afternoon managing kiddies, i spend the night thinking i should be doing readings for the next tutorial or something. Thinking only lah, i'm not that hardworking. Or i find myself staying up late at night to wrestle with MS Excel and Word and their little formatting disputes because i couldn't be arsed to do this over the weekend (MY weekend! Mine!) nor any other day because sometimes, its not so much the actual hours worked, its the preparation, the commitment, the planning, coping, and recovering from those hours that takes up all the time in my day. Like Qiao said about sleeping, she considered it part of her job because if she didn't sleep, she couldn't work, and because she had to sleep, she couldn't go out and enjoy herself. She's a flight attendant though, so going out and enjoying oneself is more interesting for her, but the point is similar. :P
One reason Bear and i get on so easily might be that we're not really do-ers.. We start interesting projects and then complete them only as far as we have to, or leave them to collect dust somewhere.. We also tend to wander, rather than zooming from point to point, and occasionally we get nowhere, which is frustrating but it is more frustrating not having the time and space to mosey about a bit. We're not very hectic people.
I don't mind not getting many things done if it means i have time to do nothing.
And time to stay up late and mooch about online.
Unfortunately, i take my sleep very seriously too.
I'd better go to bed.
Bleeeeaaaah.
Goodnight goodnight, all you spiders and flies, and those bugs in the microwave who somehow survive.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Vet visited
When it was finally time to go to the vet last Sunday, we went into the living room and found all but one of the windows in the fort blocked up by paper towel. Clearly Linus had been at work since we'd last checked, but the fort lifts right up, having been a cardboard fruit box in its prior life and having no floor when upside down, so the ratties were easily collected, installed in their little takeaway hut, and off we went!
It was a good visit, the lump on Linus was thankfully nothing cancerous and turned out to be no more than a sebaceous cyst, which was ..er.. expressed by the vet (i.e. he stuck a needle in and then squeezed white gunk out). Linus behaved surprisingly well throughout, despite his expressed reservations about vets in general and all things to do with being outside of his cage or the living room.
Which reminds me... one question that takes me by surprise when people ask about my rats is "do they run away?"... which should really be no surprise since i have owned hamsters in the past and running away seems to be the pinnacle of hamsterian achievement and goal fulfillment.. but anyway, that's not the case with ratties, who seem to know a good home when they've got one, and get rather attached to their cages and play areas. They like going home to have naps and take care of business in their litter tray, and hang out on their hammocks, even when they're let out for play time. Also, they're very good about boundaries, particularly in our living room, where the doors are usually left open to let the aircon in, and nothing more than a low cushion is placed as the barrier between rooms. Linus especially likes to jump up on the cushion to survey his domain and look at the room beyond, but will not venture past it. Even then, he knows he's not really allowed on the cushion, and if i clap my hands or say his name loudly, will turn around and quickly jump off the cushion. Kimi is a little less familiar with this notion of "not allowed", but he keeps within the boundaries anyway. Maybe it's just a territorial thing, but it certainly makes a difference to have a pet that isn't trying to get away from you all the time.
Ratties rock my world.
:P
It was a good visit, the lump on Linus was thankfully nothing cancerous and turned out to be no more than a sebaceous cyst, which was ..er.. expressed by the vet (i.e. he stuck a needle in and then squeezed white gunk out). Linus behaved surprisingly well throughout, despite his expressed reservations about vets in general and all things to do with being outside of his cage or the living room.
Which reminds me... one question that takes me by surprise when people ask about my rats is "do they run away?"... which should really be no surprise since i have owned hamsters in the past and running away seems to be the pinnacle of hamsterian achievement and goal fulfillment.. but anyway, that's not the case with ratties, who seem to know a good home when they've got one, and get rather attached to their cages and play areas. They like going home to have naps and take care of business in their litter tray, and hang out on their hammocks, even when they're let out for play time. Also, they're very good about boundaries, particularly in our living room, where the doors are usually left open to let the aircon in, and nothing more than a low cushion is placed as the barrier between rooms. Linus especially likes to jump up on the cushion to survey his domain and look at the room beyond, but will not venture past it. Even then, he knows he's not really allowed on the cushion, and if i clap my hands or say his name loudly, will turn around and quickly jump off the cushion. Kimi is a little less familiar with this notion of "not allowed", but he keeps within the boundaries anyway. Maybe it's just a territorial thing, but it certainly makes a difference to have a pet that isn't trying to get away from you all the time.
Ratties rock my world.
:P
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Linus holds the fort
The ratties are off to the vet again. Now that Kimi's sore foot has cleared up and he's prancing around again, Linus has turned up a little lump around his left hind leg... I don't know what to think, so haven't thought about it much, but a visit to the vet is probably the best thing we can do now.
Perhaps I shouldn't have called and made the appointment with Kimi on my lap, nor should i have told him why we were going back to the doctor because he must've told Linus. The boys were given free rein in the living room this morning, and when Bear went in to offer them some lemon sugar pancake, he found them both in the fort, and Kimi, ever alert to the presence of food, stuck his nose out a window for his pancake, which was quickly followed by Linus' nose. Linus surprisingly didn't accept his pancake, but, having assessed the situation, proceeded to stuff paper towels through the window to block it off. Bear then tried to offer the pancake through the main entrance, which was finally accepted by Linus, but then immediately followed by a stuffing of paper towel to seal off that entrance. Two seconds later, some extraneous paper towel was removed from the main entrance blockade and emerged upstairs, stuffed into the entrance to the second level of the fort.
It's not the most thorough job, several of the windows are still unsealed, but i think his intentions are clear.
Perhaps I shouldn't have called and made the appointment with Kimi on my lap, nor should i have told him why we were going back to the doctor because he must've told Linus. The boys were given free rein in the living room this morning, and when Bear went in to offer them some lemon sugar pancake, he found them both in the fort, and Kimi, ever alert to the presence of food, stuck his nose out a window for his pancake, which was quickly followed by Linus' nose. Linus surprisingly didn't accept his pancake, but, having assessed the situation, proceeded to stuff paper towels through the window to block it off. Bear then tried to offer the pancake through the main entrance, which was finally accepted by Linus, but then immediately followed by a stuffing of paper towel to seal off that entrance. Two seconds later, some extraneous paper towel was removed from the main entrance blockade and emerged upstairs, stuffed into the entrance to the second level of the fort.
It's not the most thorough job, several of the windows are still unsealed, but i think his intentions are clear.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
She survives!
And makes only a small fool of herself. By the time the third tute came along, i was a pro. I knew what to say, what questions to ask, even understood what people were saying back to me most of the time! Triumph!
I am now officially tutor. Someone even left the class saying "that was really good". Yeah!
Next time, with any luck, maybe more than one out of 65 will think that.
Hurrah!
Bear says "I knew you would be fine."
Well hindsight is all very well and good isn't it. I was a rather frazzled bundle of nerves nearly all of last night, and said to Bear, "Do you know what i'm most worried about for tomorrow?"
Bear: Not being confident enough?
syn: no..
Bear: Saying the wrong thing? Making a fool out of yourself?
syn: noooo...
Bear: Not knowing the subject matter?
syn: no no no.. *shakes head*
Bear: Well what then?
syn: What am i going to wear?!?!
Bear: Of course!
:P
In the end, i wore my favourite tiered brown skirt, one of my many black t-shirts and brown doc marts. Good outfit for sitting on desks and swinging one's legs about whilst surveying one's new domain.
Yay!
In other news, apparently i have asthma, which has been dormant practically all my life but was rudely awakened by that truly terrible bout of bronchitis in January. I had envisaged a small army of evil bacteria holding fort in my lungs somewhere, having survived the onslaught of antibiotics, striving only to make mucus, reproduce, and survive another day.
I thought maybe a last course of antibiotics would do the trick.
Instead, I have a puffer! very exciting.
Die, you evil bacterium, DIE.
I am now officially tutor. Someone even left the class saying "that was really good". Yeah!
Next time, with any luck, maybe more than one out of 65 will think that.
Hurrah!
Bear says "I knew you would be fine."
Well hindsight is all very well and good isn't it. I was a rather frazzled bundle of nerves nearly all of last night, and said to Bear, "Do you know what i'm most worried about for tomorrow?"
Bear: Not being confident enough?
syn: no..
Bear: Saying the wrong thing? Making a fool out of yourself?
syn: noooo...
Bear: Not knowing the subject matter?
syn: no no no.. *shakes head*
Bear: Well what then?
syn: What am i going to wear?!?!
Bear: Of course!
:P
In the end, i wore my favourite tiered brown skirt, one of my many black t-shirts and brown doc marts. Good outfit for sitting on desks and swinging one's legs about whilst surveying one's new domain.
Yay!
In other news, apparently i have asthma, which has been dormant practically all my life but was rudely awakened by that truly terrible bout of bronchitis in January. I had envisaged a small army of evil bacteria holding fort in my lungs somewhere, having survived the onslaught of antibiotics, striving only to make mucus, reproduce, and survive another day.
I thought maybe a last course of antibiotics would do the trick.
Instead, I have a puffer! very exciting.
Die, you evil bacterium, DIE.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
More weekend food adventures
Feeling intrepid, Bear and I decided to invite his family over for brunch last Sunday. In hindsight, it might've been a cunningly conceived plan to motivate Bear to clean up the bathroom, kitchen, and mow the backyard. heheheheh. And it worked!
We spent all Saturday shopping for food, and then some of Saturday night visiting one of Bear's friends, who was getting engaged. He was so nice! Bear has such nice friends. Anyway i digress, we bought lots of food, then we cooked some of it and prepared some for the next morning. Here is the menu that we sent out, along with the invitations:
Brunch
Choice of Bread Rolls (served with Truffle Butter, Marinated Goats Cheese and Strawberry & Black Pepper Preserves)
Banana, Almond and Chocolate Chip Muffins
Sandwiches – Chicken Tea Salad with Almonds, and Ham, Gruyere & Mustard
Caprese salad (Cherry Tomatoes and Bocconcini) with Basil Vinaigrette
Greek Salad with Grilled Lamb
Smoked Salmon Frittata
Fusilli with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Chicken, and Pine Nuts.
Dessert
Fruit Salad with Vanilla Yoghurt
Mango Pudding
Lemon Creme Brulee Tart
Beverages
Fruit Juice
Banana & Strawberry Smoothies
Selection of Tea
And here are some pictures! Unfortunately, we were too busy cooking and preparing food to take pictures before a lot of it was eaten, but we got some anyway.
Muffins! Caprese salad, marinated goats cheese and little disks of truffle butter, and smoked salmon frittata.
Fusilli with sundried tomato pesto, chicken and pine nuts.
Greek salad.
Tadah!
We spent all Saturday shopping for food, and then some of Saturday night visiting one of Bear's friends, who was getting engaged. He was so nice! Bear has such nice friends. Anyway i digress, we bought lots of food, then we cooked some of it and prepared some for the next morning. Here is the menu that we sent out, along with the invitations:
Brunch
Choice of Bread Rolls (served with Truffle Butter, Marinated Goats Cheese and Strawberry & Black Pepper Preserves)
Banana, Almond and Chocolate Chip Muffins
Sandwiches – Chicken Tea Salad with Almonds, and Ham, Gruyere & Mustard
Caprese salad (Cherry Tomatoes and Bocconcini) with Basil Vinaigrette
Greek Salad with Grilled Lamb
Smoked Salmon Frittata
Fusilli with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, Chicken, and Pine Nuts.
Dessert
Fruit Salad with Vanilla Yoghurt
Mango Pudding
Lemon Creme Brulee Tart
Beverages
Fruit Juice
Banana & Strawberry Smoothies
Selection of Tea
And here are some pictures! Unfortunately, we were too busy cooking and preparing food to take pictures before a lot of it was eaten, but we got some anyway.
Muffins! Caprese salad, marinated goats cheese and little disks of truffle butter, and smoked salmon frittata.
Fusilli with sundried tomato pesto, chicken and pine nuts.
Greek salad.
Tadah!
Friday, March 04, 2005
Back to Uni.
I've been busy recently, and haven't updated because i need my sleep.. or lunch.. or need to leave ridiculously early to find parking/get photocopying done/find mysteriously located classrooms...
I think i've worked out some of the parking-at-uni-during-the-daytime puzzle... and have settled on a relatively weekly meeting schedule with my supervisor.. Also, have attended workshop on tutoring, which was somewhat useful and somewhat nerve-wracking (now i know what i've gotten myself into), and met (well, viewed at a distance) my students-to-be at the lecture today. They're a feisty bunch, them 2nd year teachers in training... so earnest.
*cough*
I guess I don't really know what to expect. I think there is some nasty sort of irony in having me, of no teaching experience or qualifications, be the sole tutor to a bunch of student teachers on the subject of Effective Teaching. I suppose it'll have to be a case of do as i say, not as i do, unless it's what i said, and if not, or if there is any confusion, just do as the lecturer said and leave me out of this.
Thank goodness the lecturer is a really nice guy, and tried to quell some of my anxious bellyrumblings by helping me plan and structure the first few tutes. At the very least, I will be paid fairly well, still nowhere near the disgusting financial benefits that others speak of, since the school of education is dirt poor... although i think the pay structure is actually across the board and all faculties pay the same, so maybe my attitude towards the remuneration has been somewhat tempered by anxiety and worry about utter incompetence and amount of work i have to do to justify my position.
Ah well, wait and see. Next Thursday!
Will i tutor or will i embarrass myself? Will i do both? Only time will tell!
I think i've worked out some of the parking-at-uni-during-the-daytime puzzle... and have settled on a relatively weekly meeting schedule with my supervisor.. Also, have attended workshop on tutoring, which was somewhat useful and somewhat nerve-wracking (now i know what i've gotten myself into), and met (well, viewed at a distance) my students-to-be at the lecture today. They're a feisty bunch, them 2nd year teachers in training... so earnest.
*cough*
I guess I don't really know what to expect. I think there is some nasty sort of irony in having me, of no teaching experience or qualifications, be the sole tutor to a bunch of student teachers on the subject of Effective Teaching. I suppose it'll have to be a case of do as i say, not as i do, unless it's what i said, and if not, or if there is any confusion, just do as the lecturer said and leave me out of this.
Thank goodness the lecturer is a really nice guy, and tried to quell some of my anxious bellyrumblings by helping me plan and structure the first few tutes. At the very least, I will be paid fairly well, still nowhere near the disgusting financial benefits that others speak of, since the school of education is dirt poor... although i think the pay structure is actually across the board and all faculties pay the same, so maybe my attitude towards the remuneration has been somewhat tempered by anxiety and worry about utter incompetence and amount of work i have to do to justify my position.
Ah well, wait and see. Next Thursday!
Will i tutor or will i embarrass myself? Will i do both? Only time will tell!
IKEA part II
Bear's been carrying around the cracked board from our kitchen trolley set in his car for a few days, and finally gets some time after work to drop by and pick up a replacement. So he calls, and they tell him there are 10 in stock. Bear thinks, well that's 5 more than the 5 nonexistent ones they had before so chances are good, so he rocks up, and lo and behold, there are none.
Lo and behold.
The IKEA inventory system sucks rocks guys!
We are thinking that if we turn up once again having been promised for the third time that there will be intact trolleys in stock, and then are disappointed, we will demand recompense!
Free meatballs!
For life!
Lo and behold.
The IKEA inventory system sucks rocks guys!
We are thinking that if we turn up once again having been promised for the third time that there will be intact trolleys in stock, and then are disappointed, we will demand recompense!
Free meatballs!
For life!
Monday, February 28, 2005
I heart IKEA
This weekend, Bear and I went on another big day out, but it wasn't driven by the pursuit of food! No. Instead, we desperately needed more surface area to store all that damned food, so we went to IKEA! The "biggest IKEA in the southern hemisphere" no less.
Yay. It was fun. It was colourful. We collected things as we wandered around with our sticky sticky hands and after a brief sit down with meatballs and chips and a surprisingly yummy cheesecake, we decided to get this:
So happily we went home, we heart IKEA, etc etc etc. Dismantled the packaging, started assembling, and then discovered halfway through that one of the boards was cracked.
"Aaargh" said Bear.
"Aiyah" said Suyin.
So off we went back to IKEA after calling up and checking they had stock (5, apparently, although the online inventory said they had none and we'd gotten the last one in that big collect-it-yourself section)... So, half-trusting but wary, we drove back, got our little ticket. waited, and then were told, surprise surprise, in the half an hour or so since we'd called, they must've sold all 5 trolleys, because there were none in stock. Hurrah.
I still heart IKEA, because they sell those wacky perspex and blue LED light-art installations, but we're not the happiest little swedish meatballs at the moment.
Yay. It was fun. It was colourful. We collected things as we wandered around with our sticky sticky hands and after a brief sit down with meatballs and chips and a surprisingly yummy cheesecake, we decided to get this:
So happily we went home, we heart IKEA, etc etc etc. Dismantled the packaging, started assembling, and then discovered halfway through that one of the boards was cracked.
"Aaargh" said Bear.
"Aiyah" said Suyin.
So off we went back to IKEA after calling up and checking they had stock (5, apparently, although the online inventory said they had none and we'd gotten the last one in that big collect-it-yourself section)... So, half-trusting but wary, we drove back, got our little ticket. waited, and then were told, surprise surprise, in the half an hour or so since we'd called, they must've sold all 5 trolleys, because there were none in stock. Hurrah.
I still heart IKEA, because they sell those wacky perspex and blue LED light-art installations, but we're not the happiest little swedish meatballs at the moment.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Straits Times delusions
Stupid straits times interactive. Also, interactive my foot. wishful faddish word attachment, never could stand the site, not only does it hang and load slowly and fail to keep archives, its just shit lah. But people kept sending me links to articles, so i registered, and answered a great many unnecessary rude and intrusive questions in order to do so, and then what, 3 weeks later, they say, we're going to start charging money for this, and so there. Their stupid notification email was so rude too! As if they didn't have to sell it, just had to notify the public, whether they liked it or not.
My god.
It was a flawed product to start with, but still somewhat useful, because people live overseas or don't get the print edition or just prefer to scroll and click rather than turn pages, Whatever. But now, they're going to charge money for it, because that would make their business plan tenable, and in return, you'll get something that's only marginally better than before, and still less than one might expect of something you Pay for, considering the sheer volume of free quality news and everything else available on line.
Tenable Business Model!!!
I can't get that phrase out of my head now.
As YJ put it best, good riddance.
I'm not paying for propaganda.
My god.
Also,After 10 years of giving ST news reports out for free online, STI will begin charging readers to access it.
We believe that we have a good and valuable product that users will want to pay for. It's also not a tenable business model to charge for the print edition of the newspaper and not for its online edition.This last bit is my favourite:
You can almost taste the rather particular and .. tiny little shrivelling mindset that thought that up, wrote it down, and then decided, yes. that makes sense!You will want to know whether you will get anything more, now that you have to pay.
The answer is yes.
You will notice that up till now, you get only three reports from Life! and Sunday Life through the week. If you subscribe, all the showbiz gossip and lifestyle features you see in the print edition of Life will be available online.
The weekly tech magazine Digital Life is available online now but a day after its print edition goes out with the newspaper. If you subscribe, Digital Life and the health magazine Mind Your Body -- now not online -- will become available from 6am on the same day they are distributed with the newspaper. The fashion magazine Urban will also go online, but later this year.
All news reports in the Money section will be available from 6am daily, instead of 6pm.
The last perk is that the archive will grow from the current three-days to seven-days. This means you can search back a week's worth of STI editions.
It was a flawed product to start with, but still somewhat useful, because people live overseas or don't get the print edition or just prefer to scroll and click rather than turn pages, Whatever. But now, they're going to charge money for it, because that would make their business plan tenable, and in return, you'll get something that's only marginally better than before, and still less than one might expect of something you Pay for, considering the sheer volume of free quality news and everything else available on line.
Tenable Business Model!!!
I can't get that phrase out of my head now.
As YJ put it best, good riddance.
I'm not paying for propaganda.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
On rattie sensitivities
We've recently discussed the need for Kimi to lose a little weight. He's getting a little... squishy. We've been careful to not say the word 'diet' in front of them though... i can just imagine, both ratties would stop in their tracks, stiffen, and Linus would say, that's it. we're leaving. And pack his brown leather suitcase and put his hat on. Kimi would also look in his pile of stuff and emerge with a long stick and all his worldly belongings (i.e. stash of yoggies) wrapped up in a piece of red cloth tied to the stick, and a straw hat to put on his head, because he saw Linus had a hat on, and then they'd leave.
Waiting for the weekend
I had a fed-up-with-work day today. Nothing particularly bad happened, i'm just so over it. So i came home and Bear, wonderful Bear, had already done the shopping and was making his hamburgers which are the Best hamburgers in the world! and i had a bier. beer. beeer. wheeeeeee!
I never drink.
Never meaning of course here and there if it's proffered but not otherwise because Bear doesn't drink so it doesn't come proffered many often.
Still, we had beer in the fridge because i felt bad paying by credit card for my $5 bottle of wine (to cook with) the other day so i also bought two bottles of steinlager. yum.
Steinlager goes very very well with marinated goats cheese. And marinated goats cheese can be wrapped up in lettuce and eaten as a sort of semi-healthy salady lie, because that cheese is richer than buttered cream cake.
haha. goats cheese disguised as lettuse! (which is how its pronounced properly in Suyin's World)
rhymes with obtuse.
and profuse.
and refuse.
and infuse.
and defuse.
and fuse.
and.
syracuse!
I never drink.
Never meaning of course here and there if it's proffered but not otherwise because Bear doesn't drink so it doesn't come proffered many often.
Still, we had beer in the fridge because i felt bad paying by credit card for my $5 bottle of wine (to cook with) the other day so i also bought two bottles of steinlager. yum.
Steinlager goes very very well with marinated goats cheese. And marinated goats cheese can be wrapped up in lettuce and eaten as a sort of semi-healthy salady lie, because that cheese is richer than buttered cream cake.
haha. goats cheese disguised as lettuse! (which is how its pronounced properly in Suyin's World)
rhymes with obtuse.
and profuse.
and refuse.
and infuse.
and defuse.
and fuse.
and.
syracuse!
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
It was a hot day today
Came home all sticky today, from the hotness of the day, to find Bear fresh and shiny, having taken a shower in expectation of going out for dinner.
Bear: I took a shower, am clean.
syn: Ahah! I shall be sticky upon you!
Bear: Do your worst.
...
La la la la laaaaa...
Cushions!
Isn't it sad that the last album I was really excited about after buying it was by the White Stripes?
I think Beck is releasing his new album soon. Yay!
You know what, if there were aliens, who just happened to look like yoggies (Kimi and Linus' favourite treatie), and then they decided to visit earth and landed by chance in our living room whilst Kimi and Linus were running around, they'd probably come across Linus first, because Kimi likes to sit inside the fort and rest his sore ankle, and they'd say to Linus, Hello Earthling! We are beings from the planet Dumdeedum and we are here on holiday! Bring us to your leader please, we wish to exchange presents. And then Linus would think, oh dear, the yoggies are talking to me, I don't know if i should eat them, perhaps it might be unethical or wrong somehow, hmmm.. and then Kimi would come out to see what all the fuss was about, see the aliens, think, Yoggies! and then go chomp! crunch crunch, and that would be that.
It might even have happened already!
*gasp*
Bear: I took a shower, am clean.
syn: Ahah! I shall be sticky upon you!
Bear: Do your worst.
...
La la la la laaaaa...
Cushions!
Isn't it sad that the last album I was really excited about after buying it was by the White Stripes?
I think Beck is releasing his new album soon. Yay!
You know what, if there were aliens, who just happened to look like yoggies (Kimi and Linus' favourite treatie), and then they decided to visit earth and landed by chance in our living room whilst Kimi and Linus were running around, they'd probably come across Linus first, because Kimi likes to sit inside the fort and rest his sore ankle, and they'd say to Linus, Hello Earthling! We are beings from the planet Dumdeedum and we are here on holiday! Bring us to your leader please, we wish to exchange presents. And then Linus would think, oh dear, the yoggies are talking to me, I don't know if i should eat them, perhaps it might be unethical or wrong somehow, hmmm.. and then Kimi would come out to see what all the fuss was about, see the aliens, think, Yoggies! and then go chomp! crunch crunch, and that would be that.
It might even have happened already!
*gasp*
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Vet visit
We went to the vet today.
The ratties weren't too happy as it was rather hot and the airconditioning in my car is not very effective... but they were nevertheless very brave and very well-behaved!
There was mild entertainment to be had while we were waiting at the vet, when out of one of the examining rooms emerged a walking orange keg, attached by leash to a human, who was discussing the rather urgent need for his dog (the keg) to lose some weight quickly. I know animal obesity is not really a laughing matter, but damn that was the happiest, roundest dog in the world. And it proceeded to wander happily around the office, doing a wee and dribbling poo out of one end, while the other end was excitedly sniffing everything in sight. It was great fun to watch, especially when the little doggie presents were discovered by the vet nurse, and gave some relief to the worrying. Poor Kimi's left hind leg had swollen up by this point, and he didn't look very happy at all, poor boy.
Thankfully, the vet diagnosed a sprain, rather than a broken bone or fracture, and recommended plenty of rest and relaxation for the little guy. Kimi was beautifully behaved and graciously allowed the vet to move his feet around, only trying to burrow into my arms when it hurt (aww...), and Linus was quiet and stayed well hidden away (I'm not here! I'm just a furry piece of bedding! Tell the vet Linus stayed at home!) whilst Kimi was being examined.
The vet was very cool, and i have to say, much much nicer than any doctor (for humans) i've seen in the last 2 years or so.
Hooray for nice and knowledgeable vets!
If you're in sydney, I highly recommend the Balmain Vet Hospital, and Dr Steven Cooney. Unfortunately, I think he's married.*
*Disclaimer for Bear's benefit: It's unfortunate for all the nice young and available ladies of my acquaintance, and not myself. Okay? :P
The ratties weren't too happy as it was rather hot and the airconditioning in my car is not very effective... but they were nevertheless very brave and very well-behaved!
There was mild entertainment to be had while we were waiting at the vet, when out of one of the examining rooms emerged a walking orange keg, attached by leash to a human, who was discussing the rather urgent need for his dog (the keg) to lose some weight quickly. I know animal obesity is not really a laughing matter, but damn that was the happiest, roundest dog in the world. And it proceeded to wander happily around the office, doing a wee and dribbling poo out of one end, while the other end was excitedly sniffing everything in sight. It was great fun to watch, especially when the little doggie presents were discovered by the vet nurse, and gave some relief to the worrying. Poor Kimi's left hind leg had swollen up by this point, and he didn't look very happy at all, poor boy.
Thankfully, the vet diagnosed a sprain, rather than a broken bone or fracture, and recommended plenty of rest and relaxation for the little guy. Kimi was beautifully behaved and graciously allowed the vet to move his feet around, only trying to burrow into my arms when it hurt (aww...), and Linus was quiet and stayed well hidden away (I'm not here! I'm just a furry piece of bedding! Tell the vet Linus stayed at home!) whilst Kimi was being examined.
The vet was very cool, and i have to say, much much nicer than any doctor (for humans) i've seen in the last 2 years or so.
Hooray for nice and knowledgeable vets!
If you're in sydney, I highly recommend the Balmain Vet Hospital, and Dr Steven Cooney. Unfortunately, I think he's married.*
*Disclaimer for Bear's benefit: It's unfortunate for all the nice young and available ladies of my acquaintance, and not myself. Okay? :P
Monday, February 21, 2005
Ah!
I have succumbed!
and got a livejournal account. So, now, all those lj people who kept pestering me to get one, add me to your friends list or whatever it is that your wacky insular community does to induct new members.
lj username: iloveratties. Yes, not very imaginative, but consistent.
and got a livejournal account. So, now, all those lj people who kept pestering me to get one, add me to your friends list or whatever it is that your wacky insular community does to induct new members.
lj username: iloveratties. Yes, not very imaginative, but consistent.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
More food excursions
Bear and i had another big day out yesterday, we went to the Simon Johnson store at pyrmont, then walked to the fish markets.
It has occurred to me that our weekend activities are increasingly driven by the pursuit of chocolate. And other increasingly expensive foodstuffs. I don't know how far we should let this go, because when you can (will) only eat valhrona and can no longer even stomach the taste of toblerone, not to mention cadbury, life could get very poor.
Oh well! I shall tell you what we bought. Simon Johnson has a little store in pyrmont, and its kinda crowded and cramped and woody and is quite charming i suppose, with all kinds of stuff everywhere in sacks and bottles and barrels full of colourful sweets and lollies... We spent an hour in there, going over the produce several times, musing over the coarsely ground cacao beans, the array of infused oils, the pasta section, the tea section, the locked cupboard ($5000 per kg for whole truffles! teeny little bottles of vanilla extract for $50!), and then the chocolate wall, where we collected several items... and then Bear found the Cheese Room.
It was a little intimidating. We just sortof looked at the blocks/rounds/logs of cheese sitting around on tables, some oozing away quietly, others shrivelling up into blue-grey moulds as we watched... In the end, we decided on a small little sheeps milk camembert, and a jar of marinated goats cheese from Meredith Dairy, which was the Most Beautiful Cheese i have ever had! You get a little taste of it, and you go HMmmMmm! and then you look at the jar in awe for a few minutes... and then you insist Bear has to come into the kitchen and try some.
Apart from the two afore-mentioned cheeses, we finally emerged from the cheese room with a wedge of Parmigiano Dolce, which was really mild and sweet, as well as a slice of Reggiano Roca, which turned out to be sortof dry, and deep flavoured (fruity, said Bear)... I am under the impression that these two cheeses are types of parmesan. Can anyone correct or confirm this?
In addition to cheeses, we also had to have several items from Valrhona, including two bars of their 66% caribbean chocolate, a bag of their 100% cocoa powder, a block of orange flavoured dark cooking chocolate, and a bar of something called Grand Couva, which is described as a "vintage" chocolate made only from beans grown from some plantation in Trinidad, harvested by machete and probably hand-made by virgin albino monkeys who happen to be born blind and therefore have an exquisite sense of smell but despite all that, it is easily one of the best chocolates i have ever had. Sigh! It was a day of bests. And spending money. We also took with us a skinny little bottle of terrabianca truffle-infused oil. I am a little obsessed with truffles now.
Then we went to the fish markets. But enough about food for now. Suffice it to say, there was fish and we ate some and then we brought some others home.
There was also a great big wooshing wild storm on the way back, which was scary in parts because visibility was about 50% and then hail started pelting down on us. Especially scary because my insurance doesn't cover hail damage, but we got home safe and unshattered.
And then we had cheese for dinner.
Yay!
It has occurred to me that our weekend activities are increasingly driven by the pursuit of chocolate. And other increasingly expensive foodstuffs. I don't know how far we should let this go, because when you can (will) only eat valhrona and can no longer even stomach the taste of toblerone, not to mention cadbury, life could get very poor.
Oh well! I shall tell you what we bought. Simon Johnson has a little store in pyrmont, and its kinda crowded and cramped and woody and is quite charming i suppose, with all kinds of stuff everywhere in sacks and bottles and barrels full of colourful sweets and lollies... We spent an hour in there, going over the produce several times, musing over the coarsely ground cacao beans, the array of infused oils, the pasta section, the tea section, the locked cupboard ($5000 per kg for whole truffles! teeny little bottles of vanilla extract for $50!), and then the chocolate wall, where we collected several items... and then Bear found the Cheese Room.
It was a little intimidating. We just sortof looked at the blocks/rounds/logs of cheese sitting around on tables, some oozing away quietly, others shrivelling up into blue-grey moulds as we watched... In the end, we decided on a small little sheeps milk camembert, and a jar of marinated goats cheese from Meredith Dairy, which was the Most Beautiful Cheese i have ever had! You get a little taste of it, and you go HMmmMmm! and then you look at the jar in awe for a few minutes... and then you insist Bear has to come into the kitchen and try some.
Apart from the two afore-mentioned cheeses, we finally emerged from the cheese room with a wedge of Parmigiano Dolce, which was really mild and sweet, as well as a slice of Reggiano Roca, which turned out to be sortof dry, and deep flavoured (fruity, said Bear)... I am under the impression that these two cheeses are types of parmesan. Can anyone correct or confirm this?
In addition to cheeses, we also had to have several items from Valrhona, including two bars of their 66% caribbean chocolate, a bag of their 100% cocoa powder, a block of orange flavoured dark cooking chocolate, and a bar of something called Grand Couva, which is described as a "vintage" chocolate made only from beans grown from some plantation in Trinidad, harvested by machete and probably hand-made by virgin albino monkeys who happen to be born blind and therefore have an exquisite sense of smell but despite all that, it is easily one of the best chocolates i have ever had. Sigh! It was a day of bests. And spending money. We also took with us a skinny little bottle of terrabianca truffle-infused oil. I am a little obsessed with truffles now.
Then we went to the fish markets. But enough about food for now. Suffice it to say, there was fish and we ate some and then we brought some others home.
There was also a great big wooshing wild storm on the way back, which was scary in parts because visibility was about 50% and then hail started pelting down on us. Especially scary because my insurance doesn't cover hail damage, but we got home safe and unshattered.
And then we had cheese for dinner.
Yay!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Random photo: Pillars of society
Jo and I, contemplating a rather drab bit of campus on the day of my graduation in May, 2003.
Jo and Bear kindly accompanied me to this major milestone event that I wouldn't even have bothered going to since those friends i was graduating with were not in the country (Qiao, for example), and even my parents were not able to travel due to the SARS scare. Nevertheless, they insisted i attend and take many photos so they'd have something to frame and send to the grandmothers, so we did. And then I went home and slept all day.
Milestone fooey.
Cannt sleep
I'm still up, somewhat past my bedtime, not able to get to sleep because every few minutes or so, some strange salty transparent mucusy fluid travels up my oesophagus and makes my throat whistle when i breathe. It's really hard to sleep when your throat is going wheeeooo wheet whit wheeeeeyeeee so you have to get up and cough it out and then lie down again but it is very futile because 2 minutes later its all wheeeoooo whiirrr wheet wheet again.
So frustrating!
So frustrating!
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Random photo: Desktop furries
When Kimi and Linus were still widdle, they would hang out on my desk while i did work on my laptop, and chew on various cables when i wasn't looking. Linus especially. I think he personally left his mark on my modem cable, mobile phone charger cable, mouse cable, and bit some chunks off a knob on my laptop power adapter cable. Because he never really bit through any of those cables (except for the mobile phone charger), i thought he merely wished to remove the black rubber casing and look inside. As a result, i was never really that paranoid about keeping him away from wires. This was, of course, stupid and foolish. He later went on to separate Bear's mouse cable into 5 or so roughly equal sections, and also to neatly bisect Bear's multi-wire keyboard cable, thereby consigning it to the dusty unopened box of stuff that doesn't work anymore but could perhaps be fixed one day.
In this particular photo, Kimi is in the middle of washing his face (never sit still, that boy), and Linus is just lounging and looking relaxed, probably contemplating the dangerously close telephone cord.
Random photo: Birthday 2004
Qiao and Kelly, at Tamade in Singapore, displaying the effects of two rather strong and yummy cocktails (also in frame) and some very very (strong and yummy) chocolate cake. This indulgence was conducted in honour of my turning 24, which wasn't very long ago at all, despite having turned 25 recently. Its too fast, you know? this passing of time business.
Foot rubbs
Another thing i learnt from yesterday but forgot to include:
Tips on giving foot rubs.
1) Use lavender oil - it relaxes the person
2) add a drop of tea tree oil - gets rid of tinea
3) covering the foot in liquid paraffin is also a good idea, gets rid of bunions and scaly bits and stuff.
4) liquid paraffin is not just melted lamp wax, apparently.
hrm.. must see if this radio show has a website... *search search* well it doesn't really, but its local ABC station 702 AM, and its called "Spotless", previously known as Spiders and Lemons (?) and the woman who knows Everything is called Shannon Lush. If i'm not wrong, she's some sort of fine art restorer, and for half an hour or so, answers questions from listeners on how to fix clothes, household items, etc, that have been damaged. It's quite fun to listen in, not only do you get expert advice on all manner of stain removal, its also highly entertaining when listeners call in, all nervous and cowering... "i know i shouldn't have done this.. it was very foolish i know.. but now that its all a mess, is there any way i can possibly fix it?" and then Shannon sighs, and in her drawly superior tone gives them their miraculous solution all the while imparting the sensation that this is really terribly beneath her but because she has nothing better to do this afternoon she might as well sprinkle some divine wisdom onto the mere mortals of this earth.
She's sooo coooooool!
:P
Tips on giving foot rubs.
1) Use lavender oil - it relaxes the person
2) add a drop of tea tree oil - gets rid of tinea
3) covering the foot in liquid paraffin is also a good idea, gets rid of bunions and scaly bits and stuff.
4) liquid paraffin is not just melted lamp wax, apparently.
hrm.. must see if this radio show has a website... *search search* well it doesn't really, but its local ABC station 702 AM, and its called "Spotless", previously known as Spiders and Lemons (?) and the woman who knows Everything is called Shannon Lush. If i'm not wrong, she's some sort of fine art restorer, and for half an hour or so, answers questions from listeners on how to fix clothes, household items, etc, that have been damaged. It's quite fun to listen in, not only do you get expert advice on all manner of stain removal, its also highly entertaining when listeners call in, all nervous and cowering... "i know i shouldn't have done this.. it was very foolish i know.. but now that its all a mess, is there any way i can possibly fix it?" and then Shannon sighs, and in her drawly superior tone gives them their miraculous solution all the while imparting the sensation that this is really terribly beneath her but because she has nothing better to do this afternoon she might as well sprinkle some divine wisdom onto the mere mortals of this earth.
She's sooo coooooool!
:P
Monday, February 14, 2005
Things learnt today.
Things i learnt today, from listening to ABC AM radio.
If, having sent one's angora cardigan to the dry cleaners to be cleaned, you collect it and find it all flat and non-fluffy, the key to reviving it is:
1) Wash the cardigan in hair shampoo and conditioner.
2) Dry it on a white towel
3) Fold it up neatly, flat, and place in a plastic bag.
4) Place in the freezer for a few hours at least.
5) Take out and wear!
Apparently, freezing your fluffy items prevents the fluff from coming off on your furniture and other clothes and thingybobs.
Also, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar will remove most stains, but don't leave it on for hours on carpet, because it might bleach it. Apparently, just sprinkle the bicarb on, then sprinkle the vinegar, let it fizz, then wipe off and vaccuum up the dried bits. Hurrah!
Lastly, if you have bicycle grease stains on your pants, they can be removed with baby oil, which is a mineral oil, to help break up the grease.
All useful stuff, no?
heheheh
If, having sent one's angora cardigan to the dry cleaners to be cleaned, you collect it and find it all flat and non-fluffy, the key to reviving it is:
1) Wash the cardigan in hair shampoo and conditioner.
2) Dry it on a white towel
3) Fold it up neatly, flat, and place in a plastic bag.
4) Place in the freezer for a few hours at least.
5) Take out and wear!
Apparently, freezing your fluffy items prevents the fluff from coming off on your furniture and other clothes and thingybobs.
Also, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar will remove most stains, but don't leave it on for hours on carpet, because it might bleach it. Apparently, just sprinkle the bicarb on, then sprinkle the vinegar, let it fizz, then wipe off and vaccuum up the dried bits. Hurrah!
Lastly, if you have bicycle grease stains on your pants, they can be removed with baby oil, which is a mineral oil, to help break up the grease.
All useful stuff, no?
heheheh
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Sunday cricket
Bear: You know what we haven't done yet? We haven't brought you to the cricket!
syn: Yep. Let's go, wanna see Vettori. Vettori's hot.
Bear: I think new zealand's finished with their australian tour.
syn: Oh... Nevermind then. Anything will do i guess.
Bear: Its really quite embarrassing and I feel bad, especially since David (Bear's boss) just gave me a ticket to a domestic one-day match.
syn: Just the one?
Bear: Yes. *makes apologetic face*
syn: Hock it.
Bear: ...
syn: sell it on eBay, we'll buy something nice.
Bear: (laughing) you can't hock a ticket to a corporate box!
syn: corporate box? qantas? OOOooooooh...
Bear: hey.
syn: well, you might as well enjoy it then.
Bear: I guess so. Wish you could come.
syn: I don't, i've got nothing to wear.
So Bear is off today at the SCG watching pyjama cricket (where they wear colourful uniforms instead of white) - NSW vs Victoria, and i stayed at home like a good girl and did not do my work. Instead, i watched my Fast Times at Ridgemont High DVD, which was rather good. Very cult-movie-ish. Now i'm bored. Anyway, the way i see it, he's really at work. After all, how enjoyable can a day be, being holed up in a room with bosses and work colleagues and having to be on one's best behaviour?
And then Bear calls me up after lunch. He sounds like he's enjoying himself... and says something about having pepper steak with mashed potatoes, smoked salmon, etc etc for lunch and that it was really quite fun after all.
*stick tongue out*
Now i want to go to new zealand to see Vettori! Isn't the australian side touring there soon?
:P
syn: Yep. Let's go, wanna see Vettori. Vettori's hot.
Bear: I think new zealand's finished with their australian tour.
syn: Oh... Nevermind then. Anything will do i guess.
Bear: Its really quite embarrassing and I feel bad, especially since David (Bear's boss) just gave me a ticket to a domestic one-day match.
syn: Just the one?
Bear: Yes. *makes apologetic face*
syn: Hock it.
Bear: ...
syn: sell it on eBay, we'll buy something nice.
Bear: (laughing) you can't hock a ticket to a corporate box!
syn: corporate box? qantas? OOOooooooh...
Bear: hey.
syn: well, you might as well enjoy it then.
Bear: I guess so. Wish you could come.
syn: I don't, i've got nothing to wear.
So Bear is off today at the SCG watching pyjama cricket (where they wear colourful uniforms instead of white) - NSW vs Victoria, and i stayed at home like a good girl and did not do my work. Instead, i watched my Fast Times at Ridgemont High DVD, which was rather good. Very cult-movie-ish. Now i'm bored. Anyway, the way i see it, he's really at work. After all, how enjoyable can a day be, being holed up in a room with bosses and work colleagues and having to be on one's best behaviour?
And then Bear calls me up after lunch. He sounds like he's enjoying himself... and says something about having pepper steak with mashed potatoes, smoked salmon, etc etc for lunch and that it was really quite fun after all.
*stick tongue out*
Now i want to go to new zealand to see Vettori! Isn't the australian side touring there soon?
:P
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Aren't they gorgeous?
BUT,
We've eaten them all.
Bear: let's go to max brenner to buy some more?
Hurrah!
What a clever bear!
Friday, February 11, 2005
Wacky chef dude
(via New Scientist)
The new york times put out a similar article on this chef last week, but wouldn't load the second page for me so i said pah! in disgust and forgot about it. But i've found it again, on one page, go see it if you've registered. I particularly like this paragraph:
point and clicky whee bumsie, said the mouse.
What fun!Excerpt: It is not quite the stuff of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but the fare coming out of Homaru Cantu's kitchen is just as bizarre. In Roald Dahl's famous children's book, chewing gum is made to taste like a three-course meal. Cantu, a cordon-bleu chef, has modified an ink-jet printer to create dishes made of edible paper that can taste like anything from birthday cake to sushi.
The new york times put out a similar article on this chef last week, but wouldn't load the second page for me so i said pah! in disgust and forgot about it. But i've found it again, on one page, go see it if you've registered. I particularly like this paragraph:
Links: New Scientist article, New York Times article.He is testing a hand-held ion-particle gun, which he said is for levitating food. So far he has zapped only salt and sugar, but envisions one day making whole meals float before awestruck diners.
point and clicky whee bumsie, said the mouse.
Yay!
My favourite person in the education faculty just asked me to tutor for him this semester!
Undergraduateewiddlys, here i come! mwahahah.
In a less effusive voice, if anyone out there has undergrad tutoring experience, please throw advice at me. *would be grateful*
:D
Undergraduateewiddlys, here i come! mwahahah.
In a less effusive voice, if anyone out there has undergrad tutoring experience, please throw advice at me. *would be grateful*
:D
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Morning treats
So i rock up to the rattieboys' cage to say good morning, and find Kimi on the top level having some breakfast, and His Royal Highness Linus is sortof hanging out in his tissue box downstairs. I say Good morning boys! and Kimi looks up, still holding his pea, and says, Treatie? I give his furry head a little scratch between the ears and say, Kimi, i've just got to do a few things then i'll come and give you a treatie, okay? Kimi says Okay! and gets back to his pea. Linus hasn't moved.
A few minutes later, cup of tea made and laptop opened, i wander into the living room (where they live) to retrieve my water bottle. I happen to glance over at the cage and there's no one in sight, they're both down on the bottom. I walk up to the sofa (next to the cage), and whooosh! Kimi has jumped up two levels, and is standing up, sticking his nose through the bars and is very definitely looking at me, and is also very definitely saying, Treatie!! Even Linus is interested and has come out of his box to investigate.
What can I say, you've gotta keep your promises! :D
A few minutes later, cup of tea made and laptop opened, i wander into the living room (where they live) to retrieve my water bottle. I happen to glance over at the cage and there's no one in sight, they're both down on the bottom. I walk up to the sofa (next to the cage), and whooosh! Kimi has jumped up two levels, and is standing up, sticking his nose through the bars and is very definitely looking at me, and is also very definitely saying, Treatie!! Even Linus is interested and has come out of his box to investigate.
What can I say, you've gotta keep your promises! :D
Holiday spirits
So how are everyone's new year festivities so far?
Not much is happening here leh.
Have to go to work too, although that's not too bad since i get paid, and it's been fun trying to festoon the care centre walls, ceilings, and ceiling fans with all manner of red, gold and shiny decorations. heheheh.
I got several kids making those "Fu" signs, on red squares of paper that we liberally splashed gold paint over, and that was fun, until i realised i'd forgotten how to write it... or rather, had forgotten exactly what the left part of the character was. Good thing i guessed correctly, or it would've been embarrassing... That is, if there were any chinese-literate people around to comment on it.
Very boring lah, being the only person who thinks chinese new year is a big thing.
At least Bear helped a bit, gamely agreeing to model his newly-bought red item of clothing for me, and wear it all day. heheheh. I love my Bear.
Which reminds me... Is anyone actually doing a valentine's day thing? I think Bear and i agreed from the start we couldn't stand the whole manipulative exercise and wanted nothing to do with it... but that's now evolved to using valentine's day as an excuse for buying ourselves a rather nice box of chocolates, and then eating it.
I think that's nicer. Don't need to pretend its not happening and do nothing yourself while scowling at the kissysmoochy people trying to enjoy themselves. Use this overly packaged event to honour yourselves and your loved ones (pets counted) with the confectionery/yummy thing of your choice (disqualified if it's covered in red ribbons or pink foil, and especially if it also comes with a rose), and then sit around enjoying it, being thankful that you're not toting around overpriced flowers, trying to purchase pre-packaged romance in the same way, on the same day, as everyone else.
Not much is happening here leh.
Have to go to work too, although that's not too bad since i get paid, and it's been fun trying to festoon the care centre walls, ceilings, and ceiling fans with all manner of red, gold and shiny decorations. heheheh.
I got several kids making those "Fu" signs, on red squares of paper that we liberally splashed gold paint over, and that was fun, until i realised i'd forgotten how to write it... or rather, had forgotten exactly what the left part of the character was. Good thing i guessed correctly, or it would've been embarrassing... That is, if there were any chinese-literate people around to comment on it.
Very boring lah, being the only person who thinks chinese new year is a big thing.
At least Bear helped a bit, gamely agreeing to model his newly-bought red item of clothing for me, and wear it all day. heheheh. I love my Bear.
Which reminds me... Is anyone actually doing a valentine's day thing? I think Bear and i agreed from the start we couldn't stand the whole manipulative exercise and wanted nothing to do with it... but that's now evolved to using valentine's day as an excuse for buying ourselves a rather nice box of chocolates, and then eating it.
I think that's nicer. Don't need to pretend its not happening and do nothing yourself while scowling at the kissysmoochy people trying to enjoy themselves. Use this overly packaged event to honour yourselves and your loved ones (pets counted) with the confectionery/yummy thing of your choice (disqualified if it's covered in red ribbons or pink foil, and especially if it also comes with a rose), and then sit around enjoying it, being thankful that you're not toting around overpriced flowers, trying to purchase pre-packaged romance in the same way, on the same day, as everyone else.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Happy New Year!
Gong Xi Gong Xi Fa Cai to Everyone!
May you all be happy, healthy, wealthy and well-fed this new year. :)
May you all be happy, healthy, wealthy and well-fed this new year. :)
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
More on Tetsuya's again
Yes, we're still talking about Tetsuya's!
Now bringing you, the colour pencil artists' version!
Thanks Adrian!
By the way, we also forgot to draw the oysters and petit fours... and the 'something else' in the picture with the gazpacho and tuna was trevally sushi... oh! and we also forgot the thing that came with the strawberry shortcake.. i think it was mandarin sorbet with honey and cracked pepper.
hhhrmmgh.
Is everyone sick of hearing about Tetsuya's yet?
truffle truffle truffle truffle truffle truffle butter!
yeah!
:P
Now bringing you, the colour pencil artists' version!
Thanks Adrian!
By the way, we also forgot to draw the oysters and petit fours... and the 'something else' in the picture with the gazpacho and tuna was trevally sushi... oh! and we also forgot the thing that came with the strawberry shortcake.. i think it was mandarin sorbet with honey and cracked pepper.
hhhrmmgh.
Is everyone sick of hearing about Tetsuya's yet?
truffle truffle truffle truffle truffle truffle butter!
yeah!
:P
Monday, February 07, 2005
Soap bubbles
Spotted whilst channel surfing though the dead hours of monday morning television:
Girl: But you lied to me! You said it was over between you two, there were so many fights and arguments, and when you had a chance to sleep with her, you didn't!
Guy: Yes, but that was different. I sensed something had changed with her, it wasn't really her, just that zombie walking around pretending to be her while she was really locked away in a block of ice in that underground cave!
Girl: But how could i have known that?
Guy: You couldn't.
Girl: So you lied to me to get me to sleep with you? You've totally ruined my life!
Guy: I'm sorry.
Girl: But you lied to me! You said it was over between you two, there were so many fights and arguments, and when you had a chance to sleep with her, you didn't!
Guy: Yes, but that was different. I sensed something had changed with her, it wasn't really her, just that zombie walking around pretending to be her while she was really locked away in a block of ice in that underground cave!
Girl: But how could i have known that?
Guy: You couldn't.
Girl: So you lied to me to get me to sleep with you? You've totally ruined my life!
Guy: I'm sorry.
Lunch today
consists of:
Fusili tossed around in black truffle salsa and extra v olive oil, mixed with slices of marinated sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden. And then some grana padano was grated on top, because!
Yum! It is Very Yummy! and also looks good, in the way that simple pasta dishes look good, with all that red and green and little black truffly bits with curly pasta shapes all jumbled up together happily.
happy is my tummy today.
:D
Fusili tossed around in black truffle salsa and extra v olive oil, mixed with slices of marinated sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden. And then some grana padano was grated on top, because!
Yum! It is Very Yummy! and also looks good, in the way that simple pasta dishes look good, with all that red and green and little black truffly bits with curly pasta shapes all jumbled up together happily.
happy is my tummy today.
:D
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Bear and Syn's big day out
We went out today!
We left our cars behind and took the train down to the city for a good walk around.
I wanted to see the chinatown markets, and was sorely disappointed. It was just a really boring trade fair! yargh. I mean, the australian tax office had a stall. That's how exciting it was. Really poor attempt at cashing in on chinese new year festivities shoddy shoddy money making lousy merchandise cheap ass decorations nothing to eat but fishballs and fried dimsum. pleah!
Then, we wandered down to the David Jones food hall and things got much better. We had lunch there because i was very curious to find out what a ploughman's* lunch was. Turns out, its a bunch of salad leaves, couple of gherkins, a slab of pate, a squashy but sweet preserved onion, slice of cheddar, a couple of crackers and some baguette slices. Kind of interesting. I like dishes which come unassembled without instructions. Fun. Like lego.
On our way out, we collected a bottle of walnut oil, Tetsuya's truffle salsa (!!!), and chocolate! and then more chocolate! and when we left the food hall to wander around outside guess what we passed?
Max Brenner!
Hello!
We probably would've gotten more chocolate if the Lindt concept store had been open. It's probably better that it wasn't. We do still have a slab of that Lindt 70% stuff as well as the fantastic candied orange and almond slivers one... Hmmmmmm...
At last count, we'd bought several truffles (darkchocolateandchilliganache, lushlemonganache, hazelnuthedgehog, darkchocolatewithmarzipan, and two shiny little Godiva nuggets), a tin of Valrhona Carre de Caraibe dark chocolate squares, and a small box of Max Brenner beauties (darkchocolatewithorchidoil, whippedmilkchocolateganache, milkchocolatewithcaramelisedpecans, milkchocolatewithwalnuts, darkchocolatewithroastedcoconut, darkchocolatewithspices, um. i forget the rest.)
So! we have enough chocolate to last us for a little while. Perhaps a week or so. :P
In other news, we also went clothes shopping and Bear has now got something red to wear! heheheh!
* (if i remember correctly, its pronounced ploh-man... hangon oops Bear says its PLOW-man! Remember! the Man Who Drives The Plough! argh. I think Bear is fed up with me asking... but its hard to remember! sniff.)
We left our cars behind and took the train down to the city for a good walk around.
I wanted to see the chinatown markets, and was sorely disappointed. It was just a really boring trade fair! yargh. I mean, the australian tax office had a stall. That's how exciting it was. Really poor attempt at cashing in on chinese new year festivities shoddy shoddy money making lousy merchandise cheap ass decorations nothing to eat but fishballs and fried dimsum. pleah!
Then, we wandered down to the David Jones food hall and things got much better. We had lunch there because i was very curious to find out what a ploughman's* lunch was. Turns out, its a bunch of salad leaves, couple of gherkins, a slab of pate, a squashy but sweet preserved onion, slice of cheddar, a couple of crackers and some baguette slices. Kind of interesting. I like dishes which come unassembled without instructions. Fun. Like lego.
On our way out, we collected a bottle of walnut oil, Tetsuya's truffle salsa (!!!), and chocolate! and then more chocolate! and when we left the food hall to wander around outside guess what we passed?
Max Brenner!
Hello!
We probably would've gotten more chocolate if the Lindt concept store had been open. It's probably better that it wasn't. We do still have a slab of that Lindt 70% stuff as well as the fantastic candied orange and almond slivers one... Hmmmmmm...
At last count, we'd bought several truffles (darkchocolateandchilliganache, lushlemonganache, hazelnuthedgehog, darkchocolatewithmarzipan, and two shiny little Godiva nuggets), a tin of Valrhona Carre de Caraibe dark chocolate squares, and a small box of Max Brenner beauties (darkchocolatewithorchidoil, whippedmilkchocolateganache, milkchocolatewithcaramelisedpecans, milkchocolatewithwalnuts, darkchocolatewithroastedcoconut, darkchocolatewithspices, um. i forget the rest.)
So! we have enough chocolate to last us for a little while. Perhaps a week or so. :P
In other news, we also went clothes shopping and Bear has now got something red to wear! heheheh!
* (if i remember correctly, its pronounced ploh-man... hangon oops Bear says its PLOW-man! Remember! the Man Who Drives The Plough! argh. I think Bear is fed up with me asking... but its hard to remember! sniff.)
Friday, February 04, 2005
Random photo: Wheels
Wacky house Bear and I saw in New Zealand, in some little town we were stranded in after taking the steam train (steam engine?) one way and then realising we had to wait a few hours to take it back. To our car. Luckily, it is not at all terrible to be stranded in a quiet happy little town in New Zealand with a station cafe that has really BIG and yummy hot breakfasts, and then a path by a little creek nearby to walk it off afterwards.
addendum
just added a wee bit more information to the Sailor's Girl post. Go see it! registering was a breeze in the park.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Ah buggrit
Looks like i'm going to the reception after all. Maybe i will get away with not talking to anyone and not answering questions about my research. Feel so out of place. The education faculty is generally speaking really really nice, but i Always feel awkward around them, even my own supervisors. I haven't yet figured out how to behave around them. Being graduate research student is so scary when so clueless.
The earlier plan for nice glass of wine, book and maybe nap was interrupted by handyman turning up out of the blue to fix our gate/garage door/leaky pipe. They NEVER call! They just turn up! Once, i received a few terse messages on my voicemail from a plumber who'd rocked up at our place one afternoon without any notice, and then was Angry, when no one let him in or answered the phone. We were at work!
Crazy people.
The earlier plan for nice glass of wine, book and maybe nap was interrupted by handyman turning up out of the blue to fix our gate/garage door/leaky pipe. They NEVER call! They just turn up! Once, i received a few terse messages on my voicemail from a plumber who'd rocked up at our place one afternoon without any notice, and then was Angry, when no one let him in or answered the phone. We were at work!
Crazy people.
Supposed to be.
I'm supposed to be going to a reception later today, welcoming a certain Professor to be director of research at this organisation at UNSW. I wonder, would it be inappropriate to tell her that i went on a monkey hunt through the labyrinthian libraries of two universities to find an article she had sourced quite regularly in her book and seminars, only to find it had nothing of what she'd said in it? Not only that, but it was a lousy article. Waste my time. Can only presume it was some research assistant's mistake. In which case would it be inappropriate to ask her for a job?
Probably.
I took the day off from work, ostensibly to get some work done on my research design and then to attend said reception... It's just that I'd much much rather stay at home, drink a very chilled glass of white wine, and then curl up in bed with an easy book. Sleep would not be declined either, if gently proffered.
Indeed, self-discipline is not winning out today.
But it must!
Why?
Because!
Poor argument. I might stay at home after all.
Oh Suyin.
Whaat?
nothing.
Probably.
I took the day off from work, ostensibly to get some work done on my research design and then to attend said reception... It's just that I'd much much rather stay at home, drink a very chilled glass of white wine, and then curl up in bed with an easy book. Sleep would not be declined either, if gently proffered.
Indeed, self-discipline is not winning out today.
But it must!
Why?
Because!
Poor argument. I might stay at home after all.
Oh Suyin.
Whaat?
nothing.
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