The eve of 33

I’m sitting here on the eve of my 33rd birthday waiting for orange syrup to reduce down before I crawl up in bed to read another chapter of Optimism by Bob Brown. A book that so far at the start of chapter 34 has had me laughing, crying, smiling, sobbing and pondering.

I have pondered many times over the past years, the updates required to this little blog on my little corner of the interwebs. When you no longer update the blog regularly (hello Instagram) should you do big catch up posts on the miscellany that is my life or should I just post random snippets of this life? It then of course all becomes too hard and the number of unpublished drafts increases in numbers and the pages in my various notebooks that contain my thoughts increase. Please, click here to continue reading πŸ™‚ “The eve of 33”

25 things to do before 26

Well I’m most certainly 25 now; I had a lovely weekend, went to Gerties on Saturday night with some friends, had breakfast at Sassafras on Sunday with N and then a browse at the Paddington Antique Centre, where I picked up the most amazing find; a Figgjo Lotte Salt Box/Cellar. I remember when I first saw one of these listed on ebay, I just was awe; the amazing shape, the placement of the designs, the everything. I also remember the price the auction finished, whoa that was some money. The next few times I saw one come up on ebay, the auction finished at similar prices. I can happily say that I picked up mine for a whole lot less.

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m not sure what I will put in it yet but I can assure it won’t be salt.

A lovely birthday find

Yesterday I had a great day. It was a training day at work so no candidates and a chance to have lunch together as a department. I went to the orthodontist and got the news that I’ve been wanting to hear for the last nine months or so, it’s time to go see the prosthodontist, yay! I have an appointment on Oct 5, which will hopefully be an x-ray to confirm root placement and the like and that we can move forward with the implant procedure. Cross your fingers. It’s now week 9 at Uni which is hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday I was looking at my lecture notes for week 1 and thinking it sort of makes sense. I’m really looking forward to next year. When I got home from uni I was presented with the most amazing bunch of red, magenta and orange gerberas from one of my flatmates as belated birthday present. It’s gorgeous, I’ll have to take a photo later.

Now to to the meat of this post. 25 things that I wish to do/complete before I turn 26 next year.

  1. Be finished with orthodontic work.
  2. Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
  3. Ride my bike more.
  4. Get a will.
  5. Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
  6. Spend more time creating.
  7. Print and frame more photos.
  8. Bake a rainbow cake.
  9. Do more study.
  10. Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.
  11. Go media-free for at least 48hrs.
  12. Make marshmallows and honeycomb.
  13. Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).
  14. Grow my investments.
  15. Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.
  16. Make my own tea blend.
  17. Make strawberry jam.
  18. Get fresh flowers more often.
  19. Write and comment more.
  20. Grow professionally.
  21. Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.
  22. Read some more classics.
  23. Finish my granny square blanket.
  24. Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.
  25. Turn 26

There it is, some things are small, some things not so, some things are little, something things require effort.

And we’ll end off with two books that I’ve been enjoying immensely at the moment. 50/60/70 : Iconic Australian Houses by Karen McCartney and The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury.

Two of my current books

three up

Last night I went to catch a 9pm session of Atonement with Thor. There were four other people in the cinema with us, when the movie finished and we walked out, the others had disappeared. weird. Sweetness was the choc tops we got. Made at the cinema, the sticker on the package cheerfully proclaimed, they were choc tops from outer space. a real ice cream cone (as in conical), real chocolate instead of that weird tasting stuff but what really topped it was the ice-cream. I had after dinner mint and it was a nice pale green in colour and full of flavour. Atonement was good, I liked it, well I liked the first 95%. The ending was such a cop out though. Now I know you can’t always have happy endings but if you want to have a sad/angry ending, how they did it was not the way.

Popcorn, that was actually hot for once.
popcorn & atonement, 14/366

When I was at QAG on the weekend, I picked up this little beauty in the QAG store for 40% off, because two weeks into January, who wants a 2008 diary? I do! A limited edition 2008 Moleskine diary plus a cahier.
2008 diary

Sunday; Pabbi, Matthew and I went to the bookfest. They brought home a wall of books each. I on the other hand brought home a couple of books that I had been looking for and a stack of Delicious and Australian Gourmet Traveller magazines, 15 for $3, bargain.
Bookfest bargain, 13/366

I have to share something

I am 22. Well 22 point something.
For Christmas. I got a few books and a few CDs.
One of those CDs was a box set. 3 CDs of Peter Combe goodness. I have no shame admitting that. I want to know why Peter Combe is not playing at Big Day Out. The man is selling out venues across Australia. Could you imagine him at BDO? 50,000 plus people, many slightly inubriated singing along to Newspaper Mama, that would be magical. If I was booking a festival, he would be one of the first acts on my list.

This morning it is raining. What did I do after waking up? Why play Rain of course.
and the rain keeps tumbling down, listen it’s a wonderful sound. If you want to have a listen press the play button below.
[audio:Peter Combe-Rain.mp3]

The other CDs were from The Mountain Goats and Brindle that evens it out a bit.

Books.
Well one of them was instructing me on how to be an American Serviceman in Australia in 1942. I now know everything I need to know about Australia from the point of view of the Special Service Division, Services of Supply, USAF. It is 54 pages of pure gold. Put out as part of a series by the Bodleian Library, others in the series include Instructions for Instructions for British Servicemen in France and American Servicemen in Britain. Gold!

I particularly like this section.

Australia’s Democratic Traditions.
In many ways Australia is the most democratic government in the world. Certainly in the short space of 150 years, it has made many notable contributions to social legislation in which it has pioneered. it set up one of the first central banks in the world. Also the nation pioneered in social security and workmen’s compensation laws and developed a unique and workable system of industrial arbitration courts which have helped reduce strikes and disputes to a minimum. p.39

or

Australian Songs and Singing.
Australians, like Russians, are natural group singers. It’s one of the great differences you’ll notice between American camps and Australian – the singing. p.21

One thing I have noted is that throughout the book they continually point out that Australia is one of the greatest democracies of the world. πŸ˜€ well yeah.

At the back there is a section on Australian Slang. “Australians can give us a head start and still win”.
I will now use the listed slang to illustrate the bog standard New Years Eve party.
I might go to a shivoo (party) where the plonk (cheap wine) will abound, some people will get shikkered (drunk). It will be ding dong (swell) though. It won’t be a beano (gala affair) but I might be a bit crook (sick) in the morning.

It is a cracker of a book.

One of the other books I got is a cracker read. Titled A Teacup in a Storm: an explorer’s guide to life, it is set out like an instruction manual giving me advice on how to go about organising a grand expedition as well as how not to go about organising such an expedition. The sections include Getting There, Getting Along, Getting Started etc. The book was La Dolce Vita by Isabel Coe.

It is still raining. but now the Old 97’s are playing instead.