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.)

Terrorism Finger Puppets

For when you require that great political gift for someone special.

Find them here at mossonline.com

My public transport journey…

AM

• Usually begins by missing the green man at the traffic lights and waiting a whole cycle before I am able to cross.
• Moves on to trying to buy a “travel ten” from the newsagency, and perhaps the daily paper. From a man who appears to be blind and doesn’t see me standing right in front of him dangling the paper and a $10.00 note. He could also try smiling once in a while so he seems more like a human being and less like a terracotta warrior.
• Continues with me standing at the bus stop, either being sprayed by a high pressure hose seeking to remove last nights vomit from the sidewalk, and/or being harassed by the possible owner of said vomit as he looms in front of me and try’s to crack on to me. Me responding to his dribble by saying, “I do not want to talk to you” Sounds cruel I know, but you have to cut him off at the pass because if you smile politely he may follow you to work.
• Then I get on the bus and stand like a sardine, pressed up against a rather unattractive male who attempts to look down my top, or read the newspaper over my shoulder. If I am lucky enough to get a seat it will be next to a high school student yelling at her girlfriend down the phone, “Oh my God, did you see what Chantal was wearing yesterday? Oh my god, we so can’t talk to her anymore.” (Please tell me that I didn’t sound like that in high school!)
• Another passenger yelling at the bus driver, for no reason other than they haven’t had their morning fix of coffee yet, and the bus driver didn’t think to read there mind and stop when they didn’t physically push the stop button.
• I then depart bus A and head for bus B, which I squeeze onto amongst throngs of uni students. Though this trip is getting easier the further into the semester they get, and realise that they don’t want to go to uni anymore, or don’t want to sit in that lecture. Yay for me!
• Get off the bus and grab a coffee before getting to the office and scrubbing the public transport germs off my hands. “Aaah, get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off!” (aka Eliot from Scrubs style)

PM
Usually much of the same, yet in reverse, but sometimes deviates slightly to involve the following:

• Bus driver not letting me and a 75 year old man on the bus because he has decided that he doesn’t want a full load, and also can’t be bothered opening the front door for us, only the back one to let people off. (this happened today)
• Large man with no elastic in his tracky dacks, singing on to his very loud portable radio (think he may have had a few screws loose if you know what I mean?) poor guy I felt sad for him, radio is probably his only friend. I stopped feeling sorry for him when he exposed his large butt to me as he alighted from the bus, and I “Vomited in my mouth a little.” (aka Dr Evil style)
• Speaking of vomit; realise I am beginning to feel a little car sick on the bus, and can’t figure out why, realise that a previous passenger has left a little vomit present at the back of the bus that has not yet been cleaned, stench is nauseating. Perhaps it was the same guy from the morning.

Luckily you do find enough nice bus drivers, passengers and non-butt exposing people on the public transport system that keep you from stopping taking the bus.

Snakes on a what now?

Occasionally my husband makes me watch action films, often bad ones. Let’s face is most action films are bad ones. There have been a few goodies, like Bad Boys 2 was ok, the most recent James Bond I found enjoyable, in fact I like most of the James Bond films, and so was Fifth Element (actually I love Fifth Element).

We made a visit to the dvd store on the weekend and after some browsing time, he wandered over to me (meekly) with a dvd in his hand, which one you ask? Well it was the mutha of all cr*p action films, Snakes on a Plane. When he showed me the title my entire body cringed, like it never had before. Not unlike the kind of cringe you may experience when you watch something really embarrassing happen to someone, like when they have a giant booger hanging out their nose and they don’t know it. I felt embarrassed for my husband, who was standing in public with it in his hand, recommending that we watch it (poor guy). I also I felt incredibly embarrassed for the people who made it, cause even though at the time it seemed like a money maker, just how many people are going to take them seriously now? Come to think of it, there are a lot of people out there who love sh*t movies like this, so the producers will probably be able to make something of a similar floor scraping calibre, and manage to make another truckload of cash. If only they were donating that truck load of cash to a third world country instead of buying themselves a new Mercedes, I might be more inclined to go and see more of their cr*p movies.

So Snakes on a Plane more than lived up to its reputation, as you have probably guessed by now. It was cringe worthy from beginning to end, and the song in credits, well that was the absolute icing on the cake. Which was possibly the most hideous thing that my ears have ever had to experience, even more horrible than Paris Hiltons contribution to the music industry.

The only highlight for me was seeing Samuel L Jackson, Which made me think of Pulp Fiction, all the great scenes that Tarantino constructed, how great the character development was, and how d*amn funny and memorable it was, (I have already begun forcing Snakes on a Plane out of my consciousness). I am still a little confused as to why Mr Samuel L. Jackson agreed to be in this film. Was it only to say that totally forgettable line, “I am sick of all these *beep *beep snakes on this *beep *beep plane!” (rude words are replaced with beeps so I don’t get kicked off blogger). Perhaps they should have cast Michael Jackson in his part, I definitely would have seen it at the cinema then, if only for the laughs alone. They could have had one of the snakes flick the end of his nose with it’s tongue and knock it off, like a chip from a porcelain tea cup.

For all the smokers out there...

For all the smokers out there, this site is worth a look. The Art of Quitting

Long ago I was a little bit of a smoker, what I mean by that is that I was in a foreign country and I smoked whilst I was there, in café’s, on the train, in super markets, in the snow, whilst drinking coffee in Amsterdam. It was all very romantic, but in the end I came home, and I decided to stop. I haven’t smoked in ages, years now and I will never smoke again, it was a romance for a while, but it wasn’t meant to last. Also how romantic is it to wake up one day and have self inflicted lung cancer.

There is something about France…

There is something about France and all that is French (well maybe not all) that I find so attractive and enjoyable. I just finishes watching a movie set in France and it made me want to listen to Edith Piaf a much loved and admired French singer, who became a sort of icon I suppose for the French. I was introduced to Edith’s music by my Mum’s partner, and I love to pop it on and listen to her and imagine that I am sipping hot chocolate in Paris. Not that hot chocolate is particularly French, but I loved sipping hot chocolate when I was there, after visiting galleries with my Mum. Other things that I love about France are the galleries, the architecture, the history and even the people (well most of them).

My favourite movie ever is set in France, though it is directed by a Polish director. Trois couleurs: Bleu by Krzysztof Kieslowski is a magic film about liberty or as we mostly refer to it; freedom. Check it out, and whilst you are there watch the other two in the series Trois couleurs: Blanc and Trois couleurs: Rouge.

Aah, I want to go back to France for another holiday. I should learn the language first though, I am sure I would like it even better then.