Gorgeous!

Is this not the most gorgeous girl you have ever seen? She makes me all teary she is so beautiful!

Funny Men

Have you ever read those Mr Men books? I loved them when I was a kid. My brother once gave my husband and I Mr Men books specific to our personalities (it was funny sh*t).

Well I have been collecting a lot of thoughts about Mr Men characters who live in my area. There is Mr Sandwich, who likes to chuck his half eaten ham sandwiches into the alley way behind our apartment building. There is Mr Garlic, otherwise known as Mr Opera when he is in alternate moods, who lives in our building. He really likes garlic, so much so that when he cooks he uses enough to make our eyes water inside our apartment.

There is Mr Fitty Cent, a local guy who asks for money, but only even fifty cents (was that name too mean?) There is Mr (or should is say Ms) Austrian Princess who is the matradee at our local Bavarian Pub. I know that this sounds mean, but he actually introduces himself as the Austrian Princess.

Ok, that;s all I got at this point, will add more as they come to me.

Raining hard

It has been pretty wet here lately in Sydney town. It has also been pretty chilly. I almost feel like we are living in Europe, which is kind of cool. I have been whipping out all of my retired winter clothes, those that were banished to the plastic storage boxes under the bed. I have pulled out my box of scarves. Yes, I have a box of them. Yes, I realise that I live in Australia, but I can always live in hope that one day the climate may change enough that I get to wear a scarf everyday.

I have always loved winter, perhaps being born in our country's capital has something to do with that. I like the beach, but I have to be honest if it got cold enough that I never was able to go again, I am not sure that I would be that disappointed. Blashphemy! I hear you scream. I know that I should love the beach and the sunshine like all other Aussie's, and I do really like the beach , and I love sunshine. But I really love a crisp cold morning, rugged up in a scarf, ugg boots in the evenings, snuggles on the couch, being able to sleep soundly at night, not sweating, autumn leaves falling, open fires and marshmallows, hot chocolates, steaming herbal teas, doonas, turtle neck jumpers, elegant winter gloves and delicate gloves, staring out the window at the rain falling, hearing the rain patter on a tin roof. I could go on forever. There is just so much to love about the colder months. Though I do appreciate the balance of summer, sometimes I think that summer gets too much of a go in Australia, I wish winter had a bit more of an opportunity to shine...is that an oxymoron?

The only annoying thing is getting wet running from your apartment to the car parked under the dead bat tree.

It's been a bit wet.

Husband: Did you hear that car slide?

Wife: No

Husband: It think I just heard that car slide!

Wife: Really?

Husband: Yeah. Unless it was you blowing your nose. Did you?

Wife: No. Why is that relevant?

Husband: Cause your nose blowing sounds like a car sliding.

Wife: (*explodes into ecstatic laughter) That is the funniest thing I have ever heard! I had no idea that you paid so much attention to my nose blowing.

Husband: Well I do. The car definitely slid then.

Has it been a month already?

Wow, I have been really, really slack lately with the ole blog. But I promise itt has all been for a good cause, well maybe not good, but productive. I have literally been working my butt of recently, so much that I have not had a spare moment to really look after myself or do anything that I really care about. Like maintain this blog.

There have been many times I have wanted to write, especially when I have seen and experienced all the strange things that constantly happen to me here in Sydney. Below are a few of the interesting things that I have experienced lately:

• Our car window was smashed
• A person Od'd in the park accross from our building
• I saw a dead body on the street
• A person was bashed with an iron pole two streets away from our house
• This morning at 3am a man was sitting on our bonnet and throwing a giant knife into the wall accross from our apartment repeatedly
• We are thinking about moving

Apart from all of these less than desirable things life has been good. Yes, I have been working a lot but it has been great work, exciting projects, inspiring and creative. I am really proud of the work I have been producing lately, I have really been on the top of my game, and have been having a ball.

Have a good one! I am off to bed to prep for a big day with the ladies over from Perth. Have just stuffed myself with roast beef, steamed vege's and gelato. Mmmm gelato.

Not written in a while

Apologies for the lack of writing as late, we have been a bit busy over here. The day after my last post was out wedding anniversary (Yay!), we had a lovely evening together, dinner, drinks, gifts etc. Since then we have had family staying with us, and have been busily going out on big walks, dinner and other fabulous outings around Sydney. Whilst still working our little behinds of at work. We have a break for a couple of days now, and then we have some more family coming to stay for a few more days.

The conslusion to make here is that I may in fact not be writing much over the next week either. Will do my best to juggle and fit it in.

Woolies

(Wife stands at the deli in Woolies and orders some ham)

(Husband pulls out the mobile phone and calls wife)

Wife: Hello?

Husband: Hey guess what?!!

Wife: What?

Husband: I just saw this dude with a "I Love you long time" t-shirt. (side splitting laughter)

Wife: Haa haa haa, that shirt is craaazzyyy! (side splitting laughter, whilst deli man looks bemused)

Husband: Ok, that will be all. I am going to buy a doughnut.

Wife: (breathlessly) Ok, I am in Woolies when you're ready.

This is what marriage is all about *wink

I can't sew

I really can't sew. I have dabbled in a bit of sewing here and there, and I used to dabble in a bit of knitting when I was a kid. But this morning I only emphasised the fact that I can't sew anything to pefection, not even a button onto my trench.

See above left for the example of how a button should be sewed, then see the middle and right panel of the image to see how a button should not be sewed onto a trench. (I think you can guess which one was mine) I can't even be trusted to hem my own pants! I just picked up three pairs of pants from the alterations shop, where they reduced the leg length for me. All that was required there was a sew in a straight line. I didn't even attempt those, too much sewing.

I just straightened my hair like a pro, that's gotta count for something, doesn't matter so much that a gal can't sew.

Insight

Tweenagers. They are a new market of 6 - 12 year olds that have become a growing target market for advertisers, retailers and product companies. To me girls and boys this age are children, not tweenagers. "Tweenagers" seems to be a new word invented by advertising companies to desribe a new market that they can promote products to.

Despite my thoughts on this, the label tweenagers and tweens are well used terms these days.

I have had a concern for a while, when I have stood in the queue at the supermarket and seen magazines with fully made up young girls on the cover, aimed at young girls. I have also been shocked to see bras, g-strings and bikini's, and other revealing clothing marketed towards young girls. The reason for my concern is that I am not sure that young girls should be exposed to the kinds of imagery and promotional materials that encourage them to seek products that make them appear older, or even s*xualise them. How is this all affecting young girls, the way they view themselves, their bodies, and the way they act. Come to think of it, how does this affect the way that young boys may react to young girls, and women in their future?

It may sound like I have an extreme response to this, you may think that it is solely a parents job to limit what their children are exposed to, and I do agree. I was limited from watching, buying and being exposed to things that my parents deemed inappropriate for my age. Even though at the time I didn't appreciate these limitations, I thank them now for allowing me to enjoy my childhood.

My worry is that a parents limitations and rules, may one day not be able to stand up to the strength of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. Even now, I am sure that there are many parents who find it difficult to enforce rules and limitations with the constant barrage of persuasive marketing campaigns.

I am not in the advertising industry per say, but I am part of the design industry. I have been lucky not have to work on projects that oppose my morals, and I am not sure what I would do if I was faced with the choice. There are many that I would never touch, there are other less extreme projects that I may consider. It is scary though to think that decisions that I make, affect decisions that other people may make about a company or a product, that could then go on to affect the way that they live their lives.

I am glad that I watched Insight this evening, which covered this issue from varying viewpoints, including those of children, parents, phsychologists, doctors, media and advertising representatives. The transcript should be later this evening of tomorrow. Check it out if you have time.

My Screaming Friend

I have not seen the lady who likes to walk down the middle of our street yelling for a while. She likes to wander down the middle of the traffic, singing and yelling to no one in particular. She once exposed herself to everyone on the street, I was one of the unlucky few who had the privelage of viewing the scene from my balcony as I was watching the sunset and sipping some wine.

I wonder where she has been for the past month?

"I want your chicken dinner!"

"I want your chicken dinner!" This was one of the first things that I heard when we returned from our whirlwind tour of Perth this weekend. Yelled from a passing car outside out apartment, a little random.

We just came back from a whirlwind tour of Perth, for my sister in laws engagement party. It was an absolute ball, totally exciting, totally exhausting and full of many emotions (all good ones of course!).

It all began with a very early morning on Friday, where at 5am outside our apartment, awaiting a taxi, I was mistaken for a pr*stitute. Oh yes, I am serious. A stylish woman, wearing a trench and designer glasses was mistaken for a prossie and her husband holding their suitcase was mistaken for her p*mp. I suppose in our area the only people really out on the street at that time of the morning fulfill these certain "job description".

Our flight was delayed a bit, and we both sat in the airport thinking the obvious, "we could have had 40 extra minutes of sleep". The delay wasn't to bad though, we enjoyed some lovely juice, coffee and raspberry and pear bread, and the inexcusable sound of Japanese business men hocking up their phlegm into the airport bins. Charming!

Our flight over was...well...not good. We were on a small plane, in old uncomfortable chairs, hence we had no sleep, and endured a flight that seemed to go on forever. Happiness was restored when we landed, and were met by my husbands family. It was so great to see them again, and I was honoured by the request to be the maid of honour for my sister in law.

It only got better from there, we had a great lunch with her fiancee, his brother, all the bridesmaids and my mother in law. Then wedding dress shopping with all the gals. Then I had the pleasure of sneaking up on both my parents, my brothers, and my circle of girlfriends throughout the weekend. I was also able to meet the most beautiful baby in the world, one of my very dear friends daughter. When I saw her I felt an incredible warmth inside me. She was a little angel, and I couldn't keep my eyes or my hands off her the whole time I was visiting. Her Mamma is so beautiful and I have never seen her as happy as she was holding her beautiful daughter. It was a dream come true to see them and a huge highlight of the weekend, along with the big engagement bash on Saturday night. it was the usual huge family crowd, and it was great to catch up with all of them, and hear one of my father in laws great speeches.

We headed home this morning, leaving Perth at 11:30am, saying goodbye to the family all over again, and all my girlfriends earlier in the weekend. It was tough to do it all again, but at least this time we knew we had a home to go to where we were comfortable and happy. I already miss them all, but I know that we have made a good decision coming here, I just feel like it's where we belong.

Mermaid...it's what's for dinner

Haa haa haa, check this out!

roses

Cars on fire

On Monday last week as my morning bus was making its way down Broadway, I looked out the window to see a burnt out car on the side of the road. I don't think I have ever seen one before, right out there on the street like that. Broadway is a pretty major street, kind of the similar to the West Perth end of Hay Street, that kinda thing. No one else on the bus even gave it a second look, or even a first for that matter.

The next day (Tuesday) I looked out for the car, and it was stuffed with a heap of blown up, colourful balloons. I wish I had had my camera with me, it would have made a great shot. The burnt out Holden, with no windows, full of balloons.

By Wednesday it was gone.

On Thursday on the way home from work, I had left a little late, I looked out the window onto another part of Broadway to see a car parked on the street. It was engulfed in flames. Fire trucks were gathered around it, hosing it down. Police cars blocked part of the road. I couldn't help but stare at the comotion until the bus had passed so far that I could no longer see it. No one else on the bus even took a second look at it, they had a simple glance and then went back to their newspapers, books and mp3 players.

I don't know whether I will ever get used to seeing things like this. Like I will never get used to the drug addict passing out on the street, as I frantically call the cops and an ambulance, who never turn up. (P.S His friend came instead, though she looked almost as bad as he did.)

Doing our bit for the environment.

Since we have been living in Sydney we have barely used our car. We use it once a week to do the groceries and also when we pick up/ drop off our numerous visitors at the airport. Today the fuel light came on in the car on the way to do the groceries, and we both tried to remember the last time that we filled it up. My husband remembered doing so just after Christmas on our way to the New Years Bash, in country New South Wales. I remembered doing it in January, after dropping one of our mates at the airport. After discussing at length we realised that mid January was the last time we had filled up the car! No kidding!

We have done about 410 k's in two and a half months. Crazy huh! We catch public transport almost everywhere we go, and we walk... a lot.

We have become very kind to the environment since we came here. Very, very kind. We no longer have a garden, only a solitary Aloe Vera plant (Amy the Aloe), so we use a small portion of the water that we used to. We hardly use our car. We don't power heating or cooling, except for a solitary fan when the humidity becomes unbearable. In the evenings we use a singular lamp to light the living room, with its energy saving globe, and we rarely inhabit other rooms of the house at lengths that require a lot of light. We always turn off lights in rooms that we are not using, I have been guilty of turning lights off in rooms that I leave, even when my husband is still in them.

Last but not least, my husband is a recylcing nazi. He recycles everything you could possible recycle. He even rinses and leaves to dry each piece of recycling (apart from the newspaper) so that it is super sparkly and clean for the recycling company. Not that is will be like that for long after it is mixed with the rest of our building's recycling, non-rinsers the lot of them! (snorts in disgust) But you gotta give him credit for at least trying to smoothen the recycling process.

We participated last night in Earth Hour. I was so committed that I did the dishes to candle light! How good is that! I don't know how seriously a lot of people in our area took the whole Earth Hour concept, as there were people with heaps of lights on, heaps and heaps. Even the terrace house across from us that "supposedly" support the Greens. Oh, yes! I saw you people with your Greens poster out the front, and ALL OF YOUR LIGHTS ON!

I suppose the only thing that we are guilty of, is leaving our tv, dvd, sound system on standby, and my husbands computer. Also, occasionally I put my laptop to sleep, instead of turning it off and unplugging it. Not bad, though we are constantly trying to do better.

Porridge

I have been making a lot of porridge lately. Dad has always made us kids porridge, for as far back as I can remember. He makes the best porridge, with lots of muesli! It's so much better with muesli as well as oats.

Everytime I stand infront of the stove and make our porridge, I think of my Dad, and how he taught me to make it just right. With the right balance of each of the ingredients, spooned into the saucepan. Then after it's served, adding a raw or brown sugar sprinkling to the top of it. Mmm yummy.

At the time you learn these things, you don't realise how special those moments are. When your parents teach you something, that becomes a tradition through out your life. Treasure the moments.

Farts and Marriage

Husband: Oh dear god! Do not breathe through your nose!

Wife: You are so lucky that I have a cold. (As she walks away from the stench at the couch to clear the table) Else you might be signing some papers about now.

Husband: Oh my god, my nose is burning!

Wife: Well you brought it on yourself!

Tulips

On the weekend I bought some beautiful tulips, the same ones that we had at our wedding in the bridesmaids boquets and at the reception. They are a lovely brilliant orange with yellow tips. I love them. They are so perfectly rounded and structured, they are living even after they are cut. They continue to grow in the vase, like the cream ones in my boquet that grew about an inch during our wedding day. They also continue to react to light after they are cut, they sleep in the dark and open up when exposed to light.

Hard to beleive that we have been married almost a year.

Bus trip turn around

A few days after my bad bus experience post I had a great bus day! The morning didn't start that well, the guy at the newsagent still stared right through me, and my first bus driver did manage to drive into the trunk of a tree! Oh yeh, I am not joking! But that resulted in a lovely walk to the next bus stop with the little 75 year old lady who was sitting next to me on the 'tree' bus. She was visiting her daughter and was heading to central to go on a little day trip to meet a friend. She was sooo cute!

On the way home from work that evening I met another lady, she was wearing the same perfume as me and was visiting a friend in my subhurb. I also met a little old couple who required bus advice, which I am not that good at giving, but I managed this one well as they needed the same bus mine. The old guy was born in my home town and grew up on Rottnest Island! His Dad designed this open air cinema in the middle of Perth, that has now been torn down. We had a lovely chat on the way home, and I was actually dissapointed to get off the bus, when I normally rush of there like a drug addict running from the cops. (Too politically incorrect? Ok maybe, I'm sorry. I have been trying sarcasm on for size, I think that in the right scenario's that it fits.)

Colour my Betty

Two posts in one day! It must be Christmas!

I stumbled across this on the Mighty Goods online store, which has some hilarious wares. At first I couldn't beleive what I was seeing, then it all sunk in and all hell broke loose on the hilarity front.

Make sure you hang on this site long enough to read all of the clientelle endorsements. My paticular favourite is, "I didn't know I still had a Betty, thankyou for reminding me..." (Haa haa haa haa)

(P.S. Betty is such a polite name for a woman's anatomy, much more polite than my cheeseburger label.)