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 :/