Latest gadget from Sony
Elizabeth February 28th, 2009
This just in: Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn’t Fucking Work! I’m planning to pick mine up this afternoon.
Archive for February, 2009
Happy birthday, woof machine.
Elizabeth February 24th, 2009
Our little bug turned seven today. The occasion was marked with bellyrubs and a bowl full of warm chicken and rice.
He’s a happy little woofer today. Happy birthday, Harry! x
Self-indulgent Sunday
Elizabeth February 22nd, 2009
Today we had nowhere we needed to be, and it was bliss.
For some reason Tim and I badly needed this weekend. Tim spoiled me with croissants and pastries on Saturday morning, and we spent much of the day hanging out on the couch together playing video games. Later on we gave the dog a haircut and took him to the park, and spent the rest of the evening playing a board game and eating cheese and olives. We even ducked down to the local for a beer, which is pretty indulgent for us. It was fun to just hang out.
We had intended to get up and go to the Camberwell markets this morning, but it just didn’t happen. Bed was too comfy, we slept too late, and besides – we had everything we needed in the pantry to make pancakes! We watched the nationally-televised “National Day of Mourning” ceremony, cringed as Princess Anne referred to her sister as “The Queen of Australia” and devoured our pancakes with lemon juice and icing sugar. Markets schmarkets.
I’m not sure why, but immediately after the service I got off the couch, dragged my easel and an enormous canvas into the living room, and began to paint. It’s been a seriously long time since I’ve painted anything, let alone anything good, so I’m not really sure what came over me. All I know is that I worked at this piece for hours on end today without losing momentum.
It felt good. I ditched the brushes early on and did most of it with my hands. I built textures. I mixed the sawdust from our poor old tree into the paint and slathered it on thick. I painted a design from a single line – two people hand in hand.
Half a day later, there’s still more to be done. I think the rest will involve book pages and gesso, but I’m not sure yet. I like the way it evolved into something completely different from my original plan, and that I had to throw myself into it – body and soul. Once the paint dried I found myself chipping away at the textures, pulling more white from the bottom layers and scraping off lines of dark paint.
I found it all very therapeutic – better than a punching bag! It really makes me wonder how much negative energy I’ve been lugging around with me over the past few weeks.
Plenty, I suspect.
More photos to come as it grows…
Breakthrough!
Elizabeth February 19th, 2009
I recently came across an incredible new diet, and can’t stop telling people about it. It really has changed my life, so I wanted to share it with my readers.
This is a specially formulated diet for women to help deal with the stress that builds throughout the day.
You will notice instant results!
BREAKFAST
1 Grapefruit
1 slice wholemeal toast
1 cup skimmed milkLUNCH
1 small portion lean, steamed chicken with a cup of spinach
1 cup herbal tea
1 biscuitAFTERNOON TEA
The rest of the biscuits from the packet
1 tub of Gino Ginelli ice cream with chocolate toppingDINNER
4 bottles of wine (red or white)
2 loaves garlic bread
1 family size Supreme pizza
3 chocolate barsLATE NIGHT SNACK
1 whole cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)
Don’t forget, “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts”. Coincidence? Not likely.
30 recipes from 30 countries: 6/30
Elizabeth February 15th, 2009
Just a quick update to show you some of the beautiful meals I’ve been making. This task is fast becoming one of my favourites in my 101 Things in 1001 Days list!
VIETNAM: Fresh rice paper rolls, and CHINA: San choy bau
FRANCE: Creme Brulee
SCOTLAND: Shortbread and Cheese & Chive Scones
AUSTRALIA: Damper
MEXICO: Caesar Salad
Look, I was as surprised as anyone that this originated in Mexico – but it did!
So good to expand my horizons a little with this challenge. I am keeping track of my progress over here – your suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Valentines Day 2009
Elizabeth February 15th, 2009
This was our fourth Valentines Day, although only three of them have been in February.
This time in 2006 Tim and I were planning his upcoming visit to Australia, and the road trip that would ultimately lead to us getting together. Our friendship had well and truly developed into “serious crush” mode by February, and I remember feeling particularly bummed at the fact that we were on opposite sides of the world at that time.
Here is an except from my paper journal from that day:
Valentines Day sucks. I hate everybody, and everything. Except for Tim, who has done his best to share the love from the other side of the stupid world.
Stupid ocean.
Stupid happy people.
Maybe not my most poetic of updates, but that’s pretty much how I felt at the time. I remember Tim feeling very low that day as well.
When Tim visited in April we decided to make one day of his trip “Valentines Day” to make up for February. We chose April 26, which gave us something to look forward to at the end of his trip. We planned a beautiful day – breakfast in Grafton, rainbows and dolphins from the lighthouse at Byron Bay, and a night at Palazzo Versace at the Gold Coast.
It was a happy day, full of beautiful memories. I’d already fallen head over heels in love with this guy by then, but it didn’t exactly hurt to spend that beautiful day together! It was kind of special to show him the beautiful coastline that I know so well, and to discover new things together. I remember watching the dolphins playing in the surf, showing Tim the Eastern-most point of Australia, and dinner on Tedder Ave. Although I ended up getting really (really) sick that night, it was a pretty incredible day.
Three days later, he was gone. I’d reluctantly put him on a plane, not knowing when I would ever see him again. And so began the long and difficult road towards Tim’s migration.
I didn’t know then how things would turn out, only that I was gutted when he left. I slept for 2 days, lost my appetite and wrote in my paper journal a lot. The overall theme of my anguish was “potential” – we’d spent two beautiful weeks together, and I was head-over-heels – but could I really plan my future around some boy on the other side of the world after such a short time together? We’d been friends for years before that road-trip, but was I prepared to put myself through a long-distance relationship while we figured out how to be in the same country?
As it turned out, I didn’t need to make too many decisions – I just did what I had to do. Walking away from this boy wasn’t an option, and so we coped as best we could under the circumstances. Tim lodged his permanent residency visa application a couple of weeks after returning to the US – a show of faith that I will never take for granted – and then we waited. For 16 months.
Valentines Day is a bit special to me, partly because of that lonely February 14 in 2006. And although I get to see Tim every day now, I guess it serves as a bit of a reminder to me of the bullet we dodged – just how lucky we are to have found each other despite being a world apart.
This year I spent Valentines Day exactly as I had hoped – with my gorgeous boy. That makes me the luckiest girl in the world.
101 Things update
Elizabeth February 15th, 2009
It blows my mind that it is already mid-February. I had so many plans for the first few months of this year, and am feeling like time has just disappeared!
I have been making fairly steady progress on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list, even though I had hoped to have a few extra items crossed off by now. I’ve mostly been working on my “works in progress”, so I thought it might be nice to report on each of them here.
To date, I have completed 36 items and have another 18 in progress. These are the ones that are nearing completion:
001 Weight loss goal #1 (50%)
Progress stalled pretty significantly a couple of months ago, due to Christmas and general “holiday mode” atmosphere around here. We’ve had a lot of family staying with us over the past 6 weeks, and playing hosts to the tourists has made me a little too relaxed. It’s been too easy to slip into bad habits because of broken routines, and I’m keen to set things straight before the weather gets cooler. I am sure I can stay motivated to exercise and eat well through Winter if I have already set up healthy patterns for myself.005 Learn 15 new vegetarian recipes (4/15)
I have decided to relax my stance on this task. I find that I am often cooking vegetarian dishes, it’s just that I often prefer to serve them alongside fish! The spirit of this goal was to learn more recipes, not to replace meat and fish in my diet. In hindsight, I think I’ve been a bit too hard on myself.008 Learn to cook a recipe from 30 different countries (5/30)
I have only recently started paying attention to this task, but am already finding it very inspiring. I am keeping a separate page to track my progress.Tim has added fuel to the fire by giving me a recipe book called World Food Cafe 2: Easy Vegetarian Recipes, put together by the owners of World Food Cafe in London’s Convent Garden. The recipes look enticing and the photographs are very inspiring, so I am looking forward to making plenty of progress over the next couple of months! And as the recipes are all vegetarian, this book will go a long way towards helping me with #005 as well.
016 Write a budget
This is just about done. Right now we’re making some decisions about how long we want to live here, when we’d like to buy a car, and when it looks like we’d be in a position to buy a house. In the meantime I have set up a detailed spreadsheet that is just waiting for the figures to be dropped in.020 See 25 movies of Tim’s choosing (10/25)
For the remaining 15 movies I would like Tim to actually compile a list. So far we’ve been pretty spontaneous with this item. For those who are interested, here are the movies Tim has given me so far: Secretary, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cloverfield, Batman Begins, The Corpse Bride, Tropic Thunder, Be Kind Rewind, Spiderman, The Thing, The Wrestler. Most have been worth it!022 List 101 things that make me happy (64/101)
I struggled with this list at first – not because I’m a miserable person, but because it’s hard to actually write these things down without sounding like Julie Andrews! I’ve gotten past that block, however, and am well on the way to knocking this one over. You can follow my progress here.023 Build a time capsule
Almost finished – I just need to make some decisions about where to store it, and when to re-open it.024 Read the dictionary from beginning to end
I haven’t started reading yet, but I have made progress of another type! I started by purchasing a book called Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages by Ammon Shea, and am feeling very inspired to get cracking myself. I have also bought myself a new dictionary to further the cause.
Initially I struggled to decide on a dictionary to use for this task. I began by selecting dictionaries that looked like they were the most serious or comprehensive, and then realised that it was unnecessarily ambitious. The spirit of this goal is to absorb new vocabulary – real words that are relevant to me – and to learn a little about the origins of words that I am already familiar with. This task won’t be any more complete by reading all 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary!
The dictionary I have chosen is unlike any I’ve seen before – it has a condensed thesaurus on the lower third of each page that corresponds to the dictionary entries. I suspect that I will learn almost as much from the synonyms as I will from the definitions.
030 Learn to identify 5 constellations (3/5)
Pretty sure I’ve exhausted the major constellations that can be spotted in Southern skies from within the city. Looking forward to familiarising myself with another two when we buy a car, and can get away from the city lights.038 Visit 10 local art galleries (1/10)
I am embarrassed to say that I have only visited one gallery since this challenge began 14 months ago. In my defence, the gallery is split between two sites and I visit both regularly… but yikes. I need to expand my horizons!039 Visit 25 restaurants/cafes (16/25)
I recently edited this item to add “cafes”, since we’re not all that big on fine dining. Melbourne really blurs the line between restaurants and cafes anyway, and has such an incredible food culture that we certainly eat well! I am enjoying this item, and have found that it has encouraged us to try out new places rather than stick to what we know.040 Read 10 novels by Melbourne authors (3/10)
I have made a habit of asking staff at bookshops for recommendations about Melbourne authors, and am constantly astounded at the blank stares that I get. For a city with such a strong arts scene, its authors are not being advocated by the people behind book store counters. What’s with that?I’ve resorted to doing all my research online, as I have encountered only ONE book store assistant who could name a Melbourne author.
057 Read the last Harry Potter book
This one is listed as a “work in progress” only because I have the book here in my house. I’ve enjoyed the other books, but have not been motivated whatsoever to read the last one. I’ll get to this someday!064 Organise my photos, and back them up
I have organised all of my photos in Lightroom, but haven’t yet backed anything up. Dumb, I know!065 Improve my photography workflow
Lightroom has been a valuable tool in helping me to automate some of my workflow, however I am struggling badly with colour profiles. Something goes seriously wrong with my photos when I save them for web, and unless I do them one-by-one I end up with horrible washed-out colours.I have spent hours researching this online, and everybody’s solution uses a different approach. If anybody reading this has a good understanding of colour profiles I would greatly appreciate some help.
074 Revive my online recipe book
I began work on my recipe site when my 101 challenge first began, but haven’t progressed a great deal since then. It would be really nice to have a block of time to concentrate on this, as I miss filing my recipes away online.086 Make some jewellery
Two Valentines Days ago Tim and I were in Connecticut, and he bought me a beautiful bunch of pink roses. I racked my brains to think of a way to bring them back into the country on my return, and decided to make them into beads. It was time consuming, but they got through customs!I have bought most of the supplies I need to make the beads into a necklace. First, I’d like to investigate methods for sealing the beads.
092 Keep a paper journal for a year
There was a time when I wrote every single day, and I’m very proud of some of my visual entries from that time. However, I have found it difficult to commit to writing by hand in recent times, and this item isn’t going very well. Need to get back in the saddle.
I know there are other 101ers who read this site sometimes, how are you going with YOUR list?
Marry Me
Elizabeth February 15th, 2009
Directed by Michelle Lehman, last year’s Tropfest Australia winning film, Marry Me, tells a little love story about “a little girl who likes a little boy and a little boy who likes his BMX bike”. The film was inspired by a true story when director, Michelle, at 5 years of age, would chase Jason Mahooney around the school in a pretend wedding dress (her mother’s nightie).
Enjoy this beautiful little film, especially if it’s still Valentines Day where you are! You can watch it in higher resolution by going to its YouTube page and clicking “watch in high quality”.
- Art , Australia , Cool stuff , Videos
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It’s V-Day!
Elizabeth February 14th, 2009
It’s Valentines Day, at least in my little part of the world.
Happy V-day, lovers.
How we can help
Elizabeth February 10th, 2009
Here are some of the ways that we can all assist the survivors of the bushfires, which have claimed at least 173 lives.
Donate to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal, providers of on-the-ground support to victims of the bushfires. They are not currently accepting donations of goods, preferring instead to support local businesses and to cut down on transport costs.
St Vincent de Paul is taking donations of material goods throughout Australia at Vinnies Centres. Phone 1800 621 349 or visit http://www.vinnies.org.au/
Project Hope Horse Welfare Victoria is coordinating offers of support for bushfire victims and their horses.
The RSPCA has an online form for those who can offer assistance to animals stranded by the disaster. If you can provide a temporary home to displaced pets or offer your veterinary experience, register your interest. If you would prefer to donate money to those who are working with animals on the ground, you can do so here.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service has been overwhelmed by donors, and does not currently require further supplies. However, due to the limited shelf life of blood they will need further donations in a couple of weeks time. Register your interest to donate blood using this form, and the Red Cross will contact you when they need your help. Please encourage others to do the same – not only for victims of the bushfires, but for all patients who will need blood in the coming months.
Something all Australians can do: Coles is asking customers to plan their supermarket shop for this Friday (13 Feb), to help raise badly needed funds for the victims of the Victorian bushfires. Coles, BiLo, Pick N’Pay and Coles Online are donating this Friday’s profits from all stores nationally to the Bushfire Appeal Fund, and hope to raise between two and four million dollars.
Hell on Earth
Elizabeth February 10th, 2009
Errol Shearsby and his wife Beverley stand stunned among the ruins of their home in Skyline Road. Photo: John Woudstra
I have been glued to the news over the past few days following this weekend’s tragic bushfires. While we were hanging out in our airconditioned living room on Saturday, passing the time with crosswords and Guitar Hero, thousands of people were losing their homes and their lives. Some of the bushfires were just half an hour from where I live.
The last time I had this much trouble unplugging from the news was when 9/11 happened. Already it is being described as Australia’s biggest natural disaster, and four days on the threat isn’t over. With strong winds forecast for later this afternoon, and fires still raging, there is potential for lots more damage.
I work in a school, and given the size of our community I expected to hear that at least a few of our staff and students would be directly affected by the fires. What I didn’t expect was that at least one student and her family are feared missing. Several staff passed through my office yesterday in various states of distress – some because they didn’t know the fate of their friends and family, some because they did. The two people that I work most closely with were both touched personally by the event.
Jayne Amatnieks returns to her property at Kinglake to find that her bike survived but her house and car were destroyed after a bushfire decimated the area. Picture: Stuart McEvoy
The car accident on the Kinglake-Whittlesea Road where it is estimated that 4 and possibly more people died. Picture: Jon Hargest
A man is comforted as he waits to hear news of his wife and children. Picture: Fiona Hamilton
Fire crews prepare themselves in Stanley before heading into bushland to fight fires near Beechworth. Picture: Ben Swinnerton
The intense heat of the fire literally melted the car rims. Picture: Stephen Harman
Trees, looking like burnt matches, show the fury of the fire. Picture: Mark Smith
My “tram buddy” helped his friend at Broadford defend his home against the fires on Saturday. When he was refused entry at a police roadblock, he and his wife found a way in through a golf course. They abandoned their car halfway in and walked the remainder of the way. His friend survived, but on the drive home they saw hundreds of kangaroos sprawled over the road – burned alive, or hit by cars as they tried to escape on the road.
There are stories of sheep set alight by the fires, running for their lives. A fireman who stood and watched his house burn down – pets and all – while he defended a neighbour’s home. People burned alive in their cars as they tried to escape fireballs that travelled 60km/hr. Reports that suggest 10,000 native animals lost their lives this weekend, and that most of the survivors would likely starve due to lack of food.
CFA volunteer David Tree helps a distressed koala in burnt-out forest at Mirboo North. Pic: Russell Vickery
A bushfire burns in the Bunyip State Forest near the township of Tonimbuk. Picture: AAP/Andrew Brownbill
The loss of human life currently stands at 173, with this number expected to grow to 300 as bodies are recovered from ruined buildings. It has been hard to stomach the news that so many of these fires were deliberately lit – and even re-lit.
I’ve been hugging all my people extra tight over the past few days.
Scorcher
Elizabeth February 7th, 2009
Melbourne’s all-time weather record has been broken and the city is sweltering under the twin effects of high temperatures and hot north-west winds.
The city hit 46.4 degrees at 3.04pm – the hottest day since the Bureau of Meteorology started keeping records 150 years ago.
The previous record was 45.6, set on January 13, 1939 – a day otherwise known as Black Friday.
“I’ve got a massive spreadsheet here of maximum temperatures and it doesn’t mean anything any more. The whole thing’s gonna have to be rewritten,” BoM senior forecaster Terry Ryan said.
“Most places around the state will break all-time records.”
- The Age
For those of you who are still operating in Fahrenheit, that’s 115.6 degrees.
We have family in town this weekend, and with only two non-working days to give them the tour of Melbourne it would have been nice to make use of today. Instead, my cousin ducked out early to stock up on croissants, muffins and pastries… and from that point on we just bunkered down in the living room with our feast and one little airconditioner. There was plenty of Wii tennis and golf, plenty of Guitar Hero and I suspect beer and SingStar will soon follow.
The six-year-old in the house stripped down to his undies hours ago, and whenever he takes a turn at Guitar Hero he looks like a short (and cuter) Iggy Pop. Very funny – especially with the victory dances!
Anyway, I just thought it important to note this record-breaking day in some way. I have just taken a completely cold shower, and I guess my bathroom got so hot today that the shampoo felt like gravy when it hit my hand. I’ve never experienced this kind of brutal heat before and I’m feeling very sorry for anybody having to endure it without airconditioning.
Stay cool, Melburnians. Tomorrow it will be a gorgeous 24C, which should make for an utterly perfect St Kilda Festival. One more sleep!
