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:

Whee! We couldn't decide between a table or a shelf, so we got a kitchen trolley! Its got a tabletop, and shelving, and wheels! tadah. Only $149. So everything was good, all was well, i had several more bowls and a water jug and a vase to put long utensils in and stripey napkins and tealight candles and tealight candle holders and storage jars and this trolley, and amazingly, it all fit in Bear's little Alfasud!

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.

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.

After 10 years of giving ST news reports out for free online, STI will begin charging readers to access it.

Also,

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 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.

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!

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.

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!

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*

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

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.