The Life, Times and Loves of A Girl From The Rainy City.

Yesterday's moment of the day

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:17:36 GMT

Mum and I were in my car, and I was playing Jeff Martin's Live in Dublin album. The conversation went thusly:

Mum: Who's this?
Me: Oh, it's that bloke we went to see last weekend, Jeff Martin.
Mum: He's got a lovely voice.
Me: Oh yes.
Mum: Sounds a lot like Michael Buble, doesn't he?
Me: *dying inside* Only in that they're both Canadian. They're not even from the same world, much less the same part of Canada.

That's right, you heard it here first... Jeff Martin and Michael Buble - pretty similar, really. *headdesk*

Disappointing

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:56:25 GMT

Turns out when you blanch purple cauliflower in preparation for freezing, one ends up with green cauliflower and purple water :(

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:57:15 GMT

In lieu of real content, since I's sick, again, check out my purple cauliflower!

Three years... and he still puts up with me!

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:46:36 GMT

Three years ago today, I met an amazing man. (Actually, the whole truth is that three years and one week ago today I met an amazing man, and three years ago today we spent our first day together). I'm not sure I can enunciate clearly enough just how much better my life is with him in it, but it's lots.

So, <lj user="teflon2000">, thank you for another lovely year, and here's to very many more. xx

Art wankerism

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:40:23 GMT

Heh.

Yeah, hopefully I'm well enough to go back to work tomorrow, 'cos I'm starting to drive myself mad!

Ahem

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:36:35 GMT

On a whim, I entered a couple of photos from my recent trip to Perth into Jetstar's photo competition. Please vote for them here and here. I suspect this is more of a popularity contest than any sort of merit-based exercise, sso I don't feel too weird flogging it here ;)

Travel journal

Mon, 25 May 2009 06:10:48 GMT

I'm finally getting around to publishing some of the posts I made during my trip last year, and actually writing up some of the other stuff. I doubt they'll be in order, and I'll cut them because they're long and have photos. I did ask last year about setting up a filter so you didn't have to read them if you didn't really care, but I'm sorry, I can't lay my hands on that post to set it up, so scroll on by if you don't care. I'll be posting them one a day so as not to drown everyone's f-lists.

Sat, 02 May 2009 01:51:18 GMT

Does this work?

Edit: Yep. Cross posted from my dreamwidth account.

No, I didn't go to Festival this year...

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:33:37 GMT

Here's what I did instead...

In the middle of the backyard was a nasty wonking great Banksia Rose and a large kennel.

The boys pulled that down Labour Day weekend, and it slowly dispersed itself over the backyard.

We had this bright idea where we were going to mulch it up for the garden beds, but even once we'd left it for a week to dry out it turned out to not be such a great idea. The damn thing was so spindly and interconnected we decided in the end to just hack it up and take it to the tip.

The plan, you see, was to build four 6 metre long by 1 metre deep raised vegetable beds, so I can grow my veg without having to spend quite so much time bending and crawling around on the ground.

We used cypress posts, six per bed, and non-arsenic treated pine support braces to build a basic shape.

The 'walls' of the beds are built from scavenged corrugated sheeting, gods bless hard rubbish collection. teflon2000's sister lives a bit further out into the country, in Chook Shed Territory, so scavving their hard rubbish turned up around 23 metres of sheeting. Score.

The finished boxes. They'll be filled with a layer of weedmat, then crushed rock for drainage, a mixture of local soil and compost, and probably pea straw or possibly sugarcane mulch on top. That's tomorrow's job :)

Of course, I say what I did instead, but obviously, what I really mean is what teflon2000 did instead, while I mostly wandered around taking photos of things, and occasionally holding onto things and generally trying to pretend I'm useful. But you know, same thing from a distance ;)

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 05:34:35 GMT

Oh man, not again. Enough with the earth shaking now, kthnxbai.

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:50:05 GMT

When we were in Northern Ireland last year, we were quite shocked to see the chief constable on tele calmly explaining how the various paramilitary groups were currently vying to be the first to kill a policeman. Seems the Continuity IRA now hold that dubious honour, as they have claimed the murder of Stephen Carrol, a policeman shot dead from behind in an unmarked patrol car. This two days after the Real IRA shot and killed two soliers, leads to some pretty serious unease about the stability of the peace accords. I was, then, please dto see in today's paper that Belfast held a kind of silent vigil, both sides standing together, to denounce the actions of these paramilitary groups. I hope they mean it.

I will write more about this and my experiences in Northern Ireland when I get around to writing up my trip journal, as I definately have more to say. Such a beautiful country, so very, very badly broken.

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:29:42 GMT

Dear Earth,

You know, I feel like Victoria's been through enough in the last few weeks, without you throwing earth tremors at us too.

Also, I'm not really sure Queensland needs a cyclone just now either.

So stop. Just... stop. What is this - natural disaster month?

Love,

Me.

ETA - 4.7 magnitude 96km SE of Melbourne... eek.

I promise I'll shut up after this...

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:30:45 GMT

Under the cut is a short video of Riley etting his tablet...

Since the embed seems to be screwey, you can also see it here.

Riley the Wonder Cat, part 2

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:34:03 GMT

teflon2000 had an early start yesterday morning, and left before I got out of bed. Which meant that he wasn't on hand to help give Wonder Cat his antibiotics. I figured I could always ring mum is needs be, but thought I'd give it a go on my own.

There's a stool in the kitchen that I use when I'm cooking, as soon as I picked up the tablets off the shelf he ran into the kitchen, leapt up on the stool and purred at me. Interesting. So I thought I'd just try holding the tablet out to him on my hand, like we do with treats. He sniffed it, licked it, then et it. My cat really *is* self-medicating. He did it again for teflon2000 last night, and again this morning.

I really hope he doesn't grow out of all this lovely as he gets older. He's currently curled up on the couch sulking because I won't let him outside.

Here's a litle pic of him playing in his travel cage yesterday...

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:24:23 GMT

Let me tell you about my kitten. He's five months old now, and still a real sweetheart. Little bugger went missing yesterday, and rolled up at sundown with a paw he wouldn't let me touch. Sigh. Trip to the vet.

I got his travel cage out from where I hide it, put it in the living room, opened the lid, and he jumped straight into it. No fighting, biting, scratching, hissing or carrying on. Just walked over, sniffed it, and jumped in. A performance he repeated later for the vet.

Turns out he got in a scrap with another cat or possibly a possum and got bitten just above the paw. Antibiotics are required. Oh goody. Whoever first wrote this had clearly met The Stripes, so I was a bit apprehensive. I picked him up, teflon2000 put the tablet in his mouth, missed a bit and sort of balanced it behind his teeth instead of pushing it down the back of his throat, and Kitten Features makes a bit of a face, then swallows it down.

My kitten puts himself in his cage and medicates himself. We've achieved a nasty vet visit without a single scratch or bite or being hissed at even once. He's such a lovely boy.

ETA - he's now belting around the hallway thwacking something around, having cracked it because I won't let him outside. Doesn't seem to be worrying him too much.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:38:55 GMT

The Upwey fire was controlled overnight, easing the immediate threat, at least for now. We did have a particularly tense moment around 10pm last night, when we heard sirens blare past, and checked to CFA website to discover four units at the Basin-Olinda Road, presumably Wick's reserve again, which is around 1.5km from here, and a much bigger problem to us if it goes up. Within 15 minutes it was marked as a false alarm, fortunately.

So, short version, we're staying alert, but there is no current cause for alarm. Let's hope it stays that way.

Oh shit

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:38:53 GMT

We're safe. Belgrave is looking pretty sketchy, which is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. The fire front is around 10km away from us, so we're blanketed in smoke, the sky is orange and full of helicopters, but we *should* be safe.

Still, closer than I like it.

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:07:27 GMT

They've caught the bastard responsible for the Churchill fires. I have never been more serious when I say that we could do with taking a leaf out of Tudor England's book, and hang him up somewhere so people can chuck shit at him.

I love my cats, really, I do... part 4284930

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:16:51 GMT

Riley just brought me in a mouse, a really big dead one. These are usually teflon2000's problem since, despite being pretty much the antithesis of Great Big Girl, I can't deal with them at all. I heard him jingling away and went to see what trouble he was getting into, and there he was ON MY BED with this fuck-off great mouse.

Ring mum. Not home. Ring teflon2000's parents. No answer. Shit shit shit. Don welly boots, rubber gloves and dustpan. Feel like enormous spazzy.

After about 15 minutes of this, he puts it in the bedroom rubbish bin. Ah-ha thinks me. Crisis over. Then he starts to try to remove it through the side. After a little bit of throwing the whole rubbish bin around the room with the mouse still attached, he took it into the ensuite. Now I can't brush my teeth, but at least it's out of the way, and teflon2000's penalty for laughing hysterically at me when I called to ask his advice is to deal with it when he gets home.

Riley's slinking around the place alternating between trying to find his shiny thing, and making big kitten eyes at me. He's in trouble for at least another ten minutes yet, I reckon.

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:30:00 GMT

Fuck bushfire season in its stupid arse.

We're okay, and it looks like we'll stay that way, there are fires nearby but they're small and far enough away that as long as the cool change does turn up tonight we'll be fine. It's pretty smoky, but that's the worst of it at the moment. But fuck, this sucks.

ETA: View from my back porch:

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:51:54 GMT

I'm so excited. I can breathe. It's not supposed to get any hotter than about 29 today, which will be nice given the three days over 43C last week. My poor veg aren't quite sure what hit them. But mostly seem to have survived, thankfully.

In the latest installment of Bush Week, this was in my front yard this morning...

via moonborn

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:59:06 GMT

1. Texture By * Lynne, 2. sundried tomatoes, 3. Norwood Junction Station Subway, 4. PURPLE HAZE, 5. Whitlam in Newtown - Tim Freedman, 6. Summer Sangria, 7. Trans-Siberian Railway, China/USSR, 8. Banofee Pie, 9. Ballet Dancers, Adam’s Mark Hotel, Denver Colorado, 10. Heirloom Tomatoes, 11. CRAZY CAT LADY PLAYMOBIL FROM GROC!!, 12. Talamanca (I) Dedicada a mi amigo PEPE (Jovisur)

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Just in case

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:06:37 GMT

I suspect everything is going to be fine, but there are people who I only really "know" here who I'd hate to lose touch with if anything went pear shaped. I've created http://thepurpleempire.insanejournal.com/ as a replacement for this journal. I am also on blogspot, albeit warbling about my garden, at http://www.eat-my-garden.blogspot.com .

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:58:42 GMT

As usual, the New Year's honours list contains some interesting decisions, but I was very excited to see that Terry Pratchett, OBE, is now Sir Terry Pratchett. Nice one.

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:32:22 GMT

I don't know if this will work, just testing...

My Garden Design