Jigsaw Snobbery

Wow, it's been a while since I last updated. Will be writing a little about my recent East Canada trip soon, but a few things that have been on my mind first:

• I haven't bought or eaten White Rabbit lollies for at least 10 years. And suddenly, about a month ago, I had a craving. So I bought a packet from the asian grocery near work, and scoffed down a couple. The NEXT DAY, it came out in the news that melamine had been found in White Rabbit lollies, resulting in many countries taking them off the shelves. The timing was impeccable.
   
• Two new Canon lenses have made their way into my collection: 10-22mm and 24-70mm L. Mmm wide and mmm sharp, respectively. I lugged them (the 24-70L weighs almost 1kg!) around Canada for 3 weeks in the Lowepro Offroad shoulder/waist pack, and am now in great need of a shoulder and back massage. Post processing is taking forever, with 23gb and 3000+ photos to sort through, but it's worth it :)
   
• After a long line of little nieces on dad's side of the family, I've had 3 new nephews come into the world in the space of 3 months. One here in Sydney, the second in Melbourne, and another in Penang. I haven't doted on little Kieran as much as I would have liked, considering he's here in Sydney, but it will be one of my new year's resolutions to see more of him as he grows up. And I'll be sure to give my new lenses a good workout around him too :)
   
• Susan and I went as The Veronicas to Dave & Dave's "I wanna be famous" bday party. I was pleased that most people could correctly guess who we were dressed as. It was an awesome party, as their parties always are, and I completely regretted not taking the Pop9 camera along.

This arvo at work, i went to the vending machine to get a packet of caramel snakata thingys. Put money in... and the dooby turned.. but the top of the packet got stuck :/

So i put money in again, in the hope that the second would push the first one out. Packet #1 dropped to the collection slot... but Packet #2 got stuck :/

So i put money in again for one last try.... and BOTH WERE STUCK.

There i was with one packet in hand, staring at 2 dangling packets*. Gave the machine a bit of a hit.. didnt do nothing. Tossed in mind whether to just leave it, or to attempt tilting the machine in the hospital hallways.

Decided I needed moral support so I ran to get Gillian, who laughed, and came with me to the machine. We started hitting the machine, bashing it against the side... and slowly but surely, the two rogue packets dropped down.

I now had THREE packets of caramel snakata thingys. So I gave one to Gillian.


*kinda regret not taking a photo of this

I finally dug down and bought a Wii a few weeks a go. Would you believe this is my first ever console? (Dave, are u proud? :P)

Went on a bit of a spending spree at Parra that day, dragging nug along with me. Final haul:
- Nintendo Wii console with Wii Sports
- Wii Fit*
- Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party for Wii
- Extra Wii controller with WiiPlay

Am totally ruling at the hula hoop in Wii Fit. Not so good at the soccer game :P


*Wii Fit was out of stock at all the stores that came to mind: Myer, JB, EB Games, Target... was about to order it at JB, but the dude there said that Toys R Us had it. Yay, thank you!!

Yummy :)

My first crochet project!

It worked!!

A few weeks ago, Ryan, Tony and I went to our second ever Katie Noonan concert. We had to leave Benji's One Month celebrations early to get to the opera house on time, and even then we only made it into the Concert Hall just when they were closing the doors. This was Katie's "Sublime" concert, together with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

I had originally intended to get A reserve tickets, but the best available was pretty far back. So I had a squiz at the B reserve tix, and lo and behold, front row centre lit up as available. I was ecstatic.. closer seats, and for cheaper! I was having problems with the online ticket reservation system, so I rang up the ACO directly, and enquired about how many rows at the front were B reserve. The dude said that it was the first 3 rows, but that the 2nd and 3rd rows were already completely booked.

Me: Ok that's fine, can I get the 3 seats in the middle of the front row please.
Him: Are you sure? You can't see the whole orchestra from there.
Me: Um, yeah that's fine. (Withheld with difficulty: Uh, I'm not going there for the orchestra....)


Turns out the orchestra was pretty awesome. They had a casual feel about them, yet I was captivated by their amazing technique. Whenever I wasn't watching Katie, I was observing the lead cellist, fixated on the ease with which he navigated the strings. Ryan and Tony, meanwhile, perved on the young blonde violinist.

It also happened that an ex-colleague of Ryan's and her boyfriend were sitting next to us, and we discussed with them the demographic of the audience. We saw a lot of white hair (presumably there for the orchestra), interspersed with the occasional younger face (presumably there for Katie).

Katie was AMAZING, of course, and the song set (all covers) ranged from classical English songs in the first half, through to more modern songs after interval. Even though I didn't know most of the songs, I was entranced by the clarity and elegance of her voice. Though I occasionally had to rest my neck from being seated so close, I could see all the expression on her face, which fascinated me further. It was clear how much joy she got out of singing. Having the opportunity to see her perform Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for the second time was the icing on the cake.

After her album launch concert at the Metro last year, I managed to acquire an event poster. I wanted to frame it, but thought I should wait till her next gig, so I could get her to sign it. So it had been sitting in a postpak roll for a couple of months, patiently waiting to be adorned with Katie's autograph. Come Sunday, I rocked up at the Opera House, postpak roll in hand. The poster background is black, so I even thought to bring a gold paint pen along, in case her pen was black (and it was).

After the concert, Tony and I rushed to the signing desk in the foyer and ended up 3rd and 4th in line. Five minutes later, Katie came out, and I was so not prepared. I scrambled to get the poster out of its roll, rummaged through my bag for the paint pen, and thrust the bag and empty roll at Ryan who was standing on the side. It got to my turn, and I was all, "Hi, I actually brought a poster along from the Metro for you to sign", etc, and handed her the gold paint pen. It didn't work. It came out really faint and streaky. So I quickly suggested to her to press the nib down on a piece of paper, to get the paint flowing. It still didn't work properly. So Katie just signed her name by pressing down as she wrote and retracing over some bits, but it didn't turn out very clear. Inside, I was a bit disappointed, but was still appreciative that she signed it, and that she did the best she could with that pen.


I got a photo with her, and then another person sneaked in before Tony. In that time, I tried pressing the pen down on the outside of the postpak roll... and of course it started working. So I gave it to Tony so that he could get her to use it to sign his program. He handed it to her, and she was like, "oh that pen..." and shook her head. But we assured her that it was now working, and she tried it, and exclaimed "oh it works now" and looked sympathetically at me.

Of course in the grander scheme of things, the pen not working isn't a big deal at all. But when I packed the pen into my bag that morning, I actually wondered whether I should test it out first.. and decided against it cos I was running late, and cos I thought it should be ok. Grrr-ness to the max! Though, as Tony said, at least I have a story to tell about the signing now. And now that I look back at the autograph, it looks better than I remember :)

Now that I have Montreal to look forward to, I thought I should jot down some things that I wanna do when I hand in my thesis next year. Ok pretty much anything that ISN'T my PhD could be on the list, but here goes, in no particular order:

1. Cello lessons - have been wanting to do this for a long long time.
2. Travel - anywhere. Let me know if you're going somewhere after Feb/March next year, and I might come with.
3. Bedroom makeover - I want to get a built in wardrobe installed, so I'll also have to repaint my room first.
4. Sew - must use all the akira and batik fabrics that I've accumulated.
5. Cross-stitch - finish the big one I started 5 years ago.
6. Get fit - especially since I would've been sitting on my ass for 6 months writing.
7. Nothing - this is also a highly appealing activity.
8. Dance lessons - of any kind. Anyone wanna join me?
9. Cook - and eat.
10. Bug nug - incessantly :D

Sitting at my desk at work, having lunch, and listening to the Sweeney Todd OST.  Two minutes ago, my right earphone fell out of my ear, bounced off the table, and into my blueberry yoghurt :/

I've become more and more discouraged by my PhD project lately.  I have my annual review coming up, and I've realised I don't have anything new to tell them. Mainly because I recently concluded that one section of my project, which I've spent about 2 years on, is just not going to work. Which means, I have to scrap it. As a result, I've been pretty down about my PhD recently, and have been finding it particularly difficult impossible to find the motivation to keep going. There're just so many things I'd rather be doing right now, and part of me just wants to quit and do something more enjoyable.

I've noticed that de-stressing discussions in the lab between us PhD students have become more and more frequent in the past 6 months.. and have been lasting longer and longer. So its not just me who's stressed, but I just feel like I'm stuck in a rut. I'm stressed, I know I need to get things going again, but I don't have the motivation to do it. So I end up procrastinating and procrasting. Time is just passing by so so quickly, with one year to go till my projected thesis submission date. This means I have to finish up lab work by July-ish... unlikely, with my current (un)motivational state. *sigh*.

Tho at least I have one thing to look forward to... intending to go to Montreal later this year for a conference!! I don't even care that the conference is smack bang in the middle of my writing up time. It's Monreal, baby!

I never dreamed it was possible. Eight years after being axed, GNW has returned. Thank you US writers strike!


The first taping was last saturday, no longer at Global Studios, but at the ABC studios in Ultimo. No, it's not back on ABC. I have to say, lining up at the carpeted ABC studios is much more comfy than the cold corridors of Global. Good thing too, cos we ended up waiting more than an hour to get in, due to set up problems. Excusable, its been eight years since they did this last. Mental note: GNW fans are massive pusher-in-erers.


When we finally got our first glimpse of the new GNW set, there was a slight feeling of deja vu. The set is exactly the same, except that they've added some more coloured panels and a motherboard motif. Looks alright tho.




The old gnw ball is still intact too.


Claire Hooper is Julie's replacement this time round. She was pretty quiet during the whole thing, probably nervous and a bit overshadowed by Mikey and Paul. Unfortunately, her funnier lines were off-camera, and as nug pointed out, it's a good thing the Chaser dude was on her team cos she was a bit lost with the news stories. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, and hope that over time she overcomes her nerves and cautiousness to be able to handle Mikey and Paul the way Julie used to. Mikey is looking particularly trim (Mikey to Ted: "I'm not fat anymore, I can catch you"), and a notable loss is Paul's chunky patent leather Docs.


Previous games were back again like Strange But True and Warren. Bad Street Theatre has been renamed So You Think You Can Mime, and look out for Frank Woodley's extremely obscure miming when it airs tonight. This episode had an added bonus round, with special guest Jensen Ackles from Supernatural. Blatant cross-promotion, but at least he was pretty funny in it. After he left the set, Mikey and Paul carried on about how pretty he was, and how pretty Paul wasn't... Mikey: "It was like a rose being interviewed by a turd".


All in all, I was satisfied with the script. It was sharp, witty, and touched on taboo issues the way it used to.

... is complete! Been a long time coming, but once i finally got started on it, didn't take too long at all:




(pattern from Spotlight)

All the seats were taken on the bus this morning, and I found myself standing face-to-belly with this gigantuan of a guy. I'm really bad at estimating heights, cos really, everyone to me is just tall. But I'd say this dude was possibly 7 foot. His head almost touched the roof of the bus (and we were standing at the front, not where the floor is elevated at the back). I kid you not, my eye level was just above his belly button, and the top of my head was a full head below his armpits :/

The public was advised to avoid Sydney CBD this week. So in keeping with the OPEC APEC spirit, we decided to get away from Sydney for the long weekend. Started looking at Blue Mountains accommo last weekend, and most of it was already booked out. We came up with a very short shortlist of places which still had vacancies, and decided to book the first place the next morning. Come next morning, it was booked out. Nooooooo. Ok ok, calm.. we'll go with the second choice. Had to check out a few details of that place first, and half an hour later, we were ringing to book. It had just booked out. Nooooooo. This continued as such, much to our chagrin. So we decided to expand, and consider the Central Coast and the Hunter... *insert repeat of Blue Mountains accommo disaster*. Wtf? Everyone else stole our idea of escaping Sydney.

We started to panic a little, with lots of "oh noes" thrown around. Until R got the brilliant idea of going where everyone else was avoiding... A five star hotel in Sydney CBD. Woot!! Since we booked here, we managed to get an awesome discounted package here, which included buffet breakfast, 2 movie tickets, and access to the leisure centre. Score. And being APEC weekend, there was no traffic (=screw you, clogged up highways!), hardly anyone in the hotel (=we got an awesome room), and police guards outside the hotel (=we felt extremely safe).

The best part? We didn't end up settling for crappy accommo just to get away from Sydney.

Further to a previous post, I can finally announce that I HAVE FINISHED PAINTING MY STUDY.

Ryan had helped me with a lot of the prep work a few weeks ago, which took about 2 days all up. I painted one of the walls on Sunday arvo, and did some of the edging of the second colour. Woke up a bit late yesterday morning, heard the thunder outside, and thought "screw work.. i'm gonna finish painting my study today". And I did :D Took allll day, cos had to do the skirting, door and doorframe too, and ended up with almost-blisters on my hands..

So all up, the painting took about 4 days. Doesn't sound too bad but have to consider that those 4 days were spread over several weeks :P So now I just have to get some new shelves from Ikea for my study, then I can finally tackle my Akira fabics :D

p.s. It sucks to be home after housesitting. Tho I'll admit I'm glad to be sleeping in my own bed again.

A colleague asked me if i would house/dogsit for her, while she went away for the week. I jumped at the chance cos i knew her place is: i) 5 mins drive to work and, ii) 5 mins walk from the beach. Perhaps i should've written the second reason first.

It is now Day 3 here, and i could soooo get used to this. It's a rustic sorta place, two storeys, and well.. aweSOME. They have twelve guitars here... Twelve!!! Count them and weep. I sure as hell did. Add to that a keyboard, cello, double bass and sitar... I've died and gone to Heaven. Now all they need is a grand piano :D I shall suggest it to her when she comes back.. *giggle*. I also fully intend to raid their sheet music collection. But first I have to get rid of the small spider that's dangling in front of it =/

There's three of us staying here, and we've been cooking for six every night, so that we can pack leftovers for lunch the next day. First night was pasta and chicken, second was pizza (6 of them!), and tonight is japanese curry. YUM.

  

The dog is placid and easy to look after. She's a gorgeous golden retriever called Paris (they didn't name her), and according to my colleague, lives up to her name cos she's blonde, beautiful and dumb. Heh.

And adding to all this, mum has lent me the car for a few days, cos she's on holidays and doesn't need it. Woot! This is a GOOD WEEK.

There was another Akira sale last week, at which I picked up a bag full of fabrics for $30. Woot! Sooo many nice pieces of clothing there too, but my wallet wouldn't let me buy :(

I still haven't made anything out of the fabrics I got at the previous two sales, so I now have a 30L box full of unused Akira fabric pieces. I blame it on lack of time for creativity.... So once the walls in my study are finally* painted, I fully intend to do something about these fabrics. The pieces aren't that big, so would probably have to be just tops and bags. Stay tuned for updates on my progress :)

I've also been shopping waaay too much lately, so making my own tops and bags will be a good way to save some money *nods*.

*Been intending to do this for about a year.. hopefully wil be done in the next week or two.

I recently joined the "Facebookaholics Anonymous" group on Facebook. Perhaps a little ironic. I would say that Sam and I are competing for the title of most hours spent wasted on Facebook per day. Sam is a bit ahead of me tho... must be his long legs.

I often wonder if I would have joined, had I known how much time would be consumed Facebooking. Scarily, the answer is probably yes. As I've commented over and over and over again, this world is SMALL. And Facebook has made it EVEN SMALLER. I guess cos when u click on a random person's profile, it shows you who your mutual friends are.. which is followed by the obligatory "what the #%$*! how do u know so-and-so???"

*pauses* Does writing about Facebook on my blog count towards Facebook time?

Omg I just found out that the fifth book of the Obernewtyn series will be released late this year:


To put some perspective to how long I've been waiting for this book, lookit the release dates for the previous four:

Obernewtyn (1987)
The Farseekers (1990)
Ashling (1995)
The Keeping Place (1999)

That's twenty years since the series began, and 8 years since the last book!!!!