Elizabeth September 15th, 2009
Ross Horsley, author of My First Dictionary describes himself as “timid librarian by day… frenzied fan of gory slasher movies by night!”. His dictionary for depressives has been a source of constant amusement over the past few weeks, and I hope he never runs out of words to define.
Read more about the creator of this magnificant project at No Juan Here.
Elizabeth September 13th, 2009
Down with sandcastles!
Hope you’re having a fab weekend. I’m off to catch the last bit of Sunday while I can!
Elizabeth September 6th, 2009
There are certain sounds that are guaranteed to make my dog howl. Any sort of woodwind instrument will do it, as will repeated high notes on the piano. And, of course, the word “sing”.
This morning I recorded him singing, thinking it would make for a funny blog post. However, it got a whole lot funnier when I played it back on my phone…
I love that weirdo ♥
Elizabeth August 31st, 2009
The Thursday night before Tim’s birthday I gave him an early present – a box with a shiny silver bow on top. Inside was a luggage tag, already printed with his name and address.
“You’re going to need this tomorrow”, I said.
The accompanying card held a photoshopped copy of our itinerary, the destination replaced with question marks. He spent the rest of the night trying to figure it out, naming various cities from Perth to Auckland, but didn’t even come close.
“You’re going to need your beanie,” said one member of my family helpfully. “And your snorkelling gear”, said another. We had way too much fun messing with his head, and eventually he gave up and went along for the ride.
It wasn’t easy getting up and going to work the next day, but I imagine it was even harder for Tim!
The next night my brother dropped us off at the airport, and it wasn’t until we checked in our luggage that Tim found out that we were headed for Adelaide. Once we boarded the plane Tim got out some comics to read, which made the next part of my plan even funnier. I waited for the plane to climb, and for the seatbelt sign to go off, before giving him his next present. I handed my iphone and played him this video:
(I think the 2.30 mark is my favourite point in the video…)
This masterpiece was created by DigiGifts, who make a bunch of other personalised movies too. Just between us, he nearly ended up in a Dora movie.
Anyway, Tim was forced to endure 27 minutes of his own sneering face on top of Spiderman’s body at forty thousand feet. It’s been a really long time since I have seen him laugh as hard as he did that night. We both had a good laugh at his expense, and by then it was time to start our descent.
Once we landed we picked up a hire car at the airport and drove the long way through Adelaide to our hotel. It was nearly midnight by the time we got to the Stamford Plaza, and after a long day at work we were both completely beat. We pretty much fell into bed, and I told Tim about the plan for the rest of the weekend. Adelaide was just the beginning.
After a luxurious sleep (and some yummy room service) we packed up the car as early as we could and headed towards Clare Valley – home to some of the best wine in the country. I’d done plenty of research about which wineries to hit, knowing that we had a very limited amount of time in which to see everything. Neither of us were able to take any time off work, so we really didn’t have much time to lose.
Clare was a couple of hours away at a leisurely pace. We managed to stop in at Annie’s Lane, Penna Lane and Kilikanoon before our 1pm reservation for lunch at Skillogalee.
Skillogalee came highly recommended by a number of my workmates who know the area well. We were seated by a fabulous lady in her sixties who wore a plastic iced vo-vo on her blouse, and then treated us to an unforgettable meal. Afterwards we sampled some of their wine at the cellar door, and that’s when I found a new religion in the form of their liqueur muscat. It’s sweet and syrupy, and warms you from head to toe with liquid sultanas. Bliss.
We visited several more cellar doors that afternoon; Tim Adams and Kirrihill among them. We finished our day at Sevenhill, where I stocked up on more lovely liqueurs and tawny port.
By then, the last cellar door in Clare had closed. It was time to find our Bed & Breakfast, get some dinner and sleep off our wine-tasting brain haze. Chaff Mill Cottage was just a few short minutes away.
It was overkill for just one night, but would have been perfect to settle in to for a week. In future, when I had more time to work with, I’d consider staying there while I traipsed around Clare, Barossa Valley and the Adelaide Hills. It was very luxurious to be able to spread out in our little apartment and watch the ducks in the river below, but we really didn’t have time to take full advantage of the place.
Ah, technology. Somewhere in South Australia, on the side of a country road, Tim takes a birthday phonecall from his mum in Connecticut.
The next morning we slept in a little longer than planned, and had only a few hours to get back to Adelaide airport. Before leaving Clare we made time for one more winery, Jim Barry, where we bought another dozen bottles to ship home. By the time we left the valley we had bought 3.5 dozen bottles to ship home to us in Melbourne, plus a few strays packed away in our luggage. It was lots of fun to dig through the packages that arrived during the next week!
The weekend didn’t end there. When we arrived at Melbourne airport we found a coffee shop and sat with my brother and Dad while my brother waited for his flight back to Brisbane. Then Dad, Tim and I drove home to finish off the birthday festivities…
(Sorry Louise: To be continued…)
Elizabeth August 26th, 2009
It doesn’t take much to make me laugh at the moment, so I will understand if nobody else finds this as funny as I do!
Source unknown.
Elizabeth August 2nd, 2009
Food Court Musical from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.
Remember the improv group that staged the Grand Central Station crowd-freeze? I had a browse through their other videos tonight, and discovered this little gem.
Watch the video, and immerse yourself in the journey of a girl in her search for a napkin. Or just enjoy the faces of the humourless spectators!
Elizabeth July 16th, 2009
One of my guilty little pleasures lately has been the fabulous Awkward Family Photos blog. Any website that makes me feel better about my own weirdo family has got to be good!
Here are a few other favourites.
Head of the family
Mommy-the-Pooh
Bon Family Blowout
Naturally, if you have any awkward family photos of your own you’ll need to post it here in the comments. It’s the rules!
Elizabeth June 21st, 2009
I have an aunt who refuses to acknowledge alternate toilet paper configurations. When confronted with back-to-front paper, she finds herself unable to leave the situation as she found it.
Secretly, I am proud of her stance on line-of-sight paper positioning, and feel exactly the same way.
(But that doesn’t stop me from deliberately flipping it over if I know she’s coming over to visit…)
via gunaxin.com.
Elizabeth June 6th, 2009
Today I discovered literal music videos, which probably makes me the last one to the party. And now I’m hooked!
As one YouTube commenter said, if I could double-favourite this I would!
At about the 2-minute mark I remember having to actively choose between watching and breathing, as I seemed to be unable to do both with all the laughter getting in the way. Other videos are less cleverly-written, but I did enjoy White Wedding and Take On Me.
If you know of any other brilliant ones, tell me!
Elizabeth May 21st, 2009
Brian & Eileen’s Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.
Now that I have watched this twice I am experiencing some localised aches – possibly recurrant singstarsepticemia. It’s a nasty condition that can only be alleviated with a red or blue microphone.
Excuse me.
Elizabeth April 30th, 2009
It hasn’t taken people long to come up with this stuff, has it?
And thanks to Josh Spear for the following:
What would you do if you were an out of work art director with some free time and you wanted to help fight the Swine Flu epidemic plaguing Mexico (and looking pretty grim all over the place)? Irina Blok decided to get creative with some fashionista surgical masks. She says: With all the paranoia about swine flu i think there’s an opportunity to do something cool – design fashion surgical masks! Not only they are aesthetically pleasing, they can save your life (well.. not really.. they mostly just look good.)
My favorite by far is the awesome Domo-Kun reference (in the center). She’s going to produce limited quantities of these masks and sell them for $10, and you can email her if you want one! All proceeds go south of the border to help fight the flu epidemic. No word on where she’s donating though.
Elizabeth March 22nd, 2009
Another lightweight post, but at least it will make you laugh!
Found this brilliant Frontline ad at Idle Musings. Spotted in an Indonesian shopping centre.
And I know that most of you will have seen this by now, but I’m posting it here in case anybody has missed it. But be warned – this will probably make you want to go out immediately and buy a dog…
I could watch this video every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.
| Completed: 73/101 | |||||||||
Keep track as I complete my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge (commencing Jan 1st, 2008).
