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J O U R N A L
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Wednesday, July 30
[Journeys]posted by peter at 04:40 .......Can't stop now; I'm off to Adelaide.
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[Out of sight, out of]posted by peter at 14:45 .......This computer terminal is beginning to strike fear into my heart and pain into my spine. My soul tells me that the problem is partly a fear of beige flame-retardant polymers, partly CRT paranoia and partly an aversion to ergonomic discomfit. These parts add up to a splendid whole, which I interpret as the last nail in the coffin of an IT career.
That said, an aesthetically pleasing notebook computer might be the answer I'm looking for. I've said all this before, but I still want to be able to put my computer in a drawer when I'm finished with it. Electronic gadgets are almost exclusively unattractive, unless extremely small and obviously expensive. Even then they can be hit and miss. I just hate having vacant screens reflecting a distorted world back at me, and to be honest I think it's bad feng shui to have any reflective surface looking at you while you sleep.
Call me dramatic, but I'd rather peel the skin off my own face than be trapped in a room with an assemblage of monitors, boxes, cables, cords and, worst of all, plastic bags. Far be it from me to dictate what anyone else should do, but component-chic lends a room all the ambience of a socialist bookstore. I swear some branches of technoculture have a lot to answer for. Technoculture should only exist in an abstracted, theoretical space. Take a leaf from techno-Orientalism; it exists only in the minds of the West and is kind of a cool thing. It's physical manifestation in gooby Manga obsession is not so cool, and the same goes for hacker culture; unless you really are breaking into some sophisticated mainframe and wreaking untold binary havoc, you should resist the lure of the old UNIX terminal as an aesthetic tool.
Hmmm. What, really, am I saying?
Given that I might be leaving the country sooner rather than later, I think I need to get my hands on not only a tiny computer, but also a nice, white, ever-so-portable Apple iPod. That way I can store my entire CD collection digitally and lend the physical remnants to my friends who will be more than happy to make use of an eclectic, young and interesting CD library. Let me tell you I've got titles to liven up even the dullest CD rack, and it's all about image you know. Who cares if you never listen to them?
Look, I'll take what I can get. Things to buy, things to acquire. You've gotta get what you can while the getting is good, to quote one wonderful Peanuts comic. Yes, I'm a huge Peanuts fan. Sometimes I think people lose sight of reality and forget that all you really need in this life is wonderful possessions and a finger on the pulse. Everything else means nothing.
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[Moving image]posted by peter at 12:32 .......Television brings happiness, and we have finally gotten ours back after a several-month-saga of dodgy repairs and consumer affairs. I haven't really missed it because I tend not to watch much television, and find that most of the free to air stations other than SBS and ABC have little to offer.
But I have missed the opportunity to watch DVDs whenever I like.
Therefore, this afternoon and evening I'm going to watch films. I don't know what yet – maybe Dancer in the dark, maybe The Matrix, maybe Buffalo '66. I just know that I'll be watching something, all in glorious digital quality that actually has higher compression than standard VHS so is therefore a bit of a quality myth, but people love the 'digital' buzzword. At least there is no tape fuzz. And no fuzzy logic either, while we're on buzz words.
Hopefully this return to DVD watching will save me some money, in that I won't need to go to the cinema as often as I've become accustomed to (I saw Personal Velocity last night, which I loved). When all else fails there is always hope.
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[Bombing raid]posted by peter at 17:22 .......So there we were, the three of us, standing innocuously in the aisle of the supermarket. Just as I was convincing Claire to add some baked beans to her basket, a loaf of MightySoft Raisin Toast crashed at our feet with a dull thud, like a gift from the heavens.
We giggled and looked up, only to be greeted by a further barrage – a hefty Helga's Soy and Linseed smashed into the aisle.
Turns out Jess is lobbing loaves clear across from the baked goods section into canned foods, causing Jessie, Claire and I to quickly seek cover amidst fits of hysterics.
Oh what a few well-timed cocktails will lead to.
[Iraq]posted by peter at 10:06 .......I edited this post to remove emotive hyperbole.
What a stupid war that was.
And seeing people celebrating murder? It makes me sick.
The killing of tyrants is not so much a form of justice as a form of revenge; a removal of power using the same methods by which it was obtained.
I'm not proffering any solutions. I don't lament the fall of the Hussein empire. I just doubt that barbaric actions form a basis for peace. But it's the way of the world.
Whether it's an execution in Texas or the assassination of a despot, a murder by any other name would smell as sour, so spare me the euphemisms.
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[Hyperextension]posted by peter at 09:14 .......My poor sister rang me from the emergency ward of an Adelaide hospital at 2:30am – it seems she's wrenched her knee into some impossible angle. She was, as you would expect, in a lot of pain. Worse still, the ward was so busy that she had to endure a 3-hour wait for treatment. Let's all join hands and send positive energy her way, shall we?
To be honest, her injury comes as no real surprise given the history of knee injuries amongst our family and relatives. My oldest sister has already had a complete reconstruction and multiple cousins have been afflicted, so we're quite convinced that it's a genetic defect in our family lineage. It's a painful legacy, hehe, couldn't resist the lame pun!! :)
I guess it's just a matter of time until my knees explode.
Couple this with dad's fall the other day – he tripped over a kerb and smashed his shoulder into the corner of a wall, causing ligament damage – and it's been quite an eventful week in the biomechanics of my family.
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[A house in New Orleans]posted by peter at 12:06 .......We drove to Ballarat last night – Kate, Brooke and I – in a near-classic retro-green Celica (?). I know nothing about car makes and models, but it felt so groovy cruising down the freeway while listening to Blondie, screaming out House of the rising sun or bopping along to War of the Worlds. We had to hit the fast forward button when Hotel California commenced its ubiquitous chord structure, because life is just too short.
What I find amazing is that people had warned us that the road was long and difficult, and had urged Kate to be very careful on the drive. But what we found was a dual-carriageway freeway to take us the whole way there. Smooth surfaces, lots of lanes and almost no possibility of a head-on collision hardly make for difficult driving.
Maybe it comes down to our rural upbringing. I've met people who have never been outside of an urban environment. When you come from a place that lacks sufficient population to justify infrastructure such as service stations every 5km, let alone the luxury of two individual multi-lane carriageways (think narrow, patched-up bitumen at best), and grew up driving over dirt roads with potholes, corrugations, chunks of rock and rivulets, a freeway just doesn't seem very difficult. In any case, we returned safely from our treacherous trek.
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You've got to wonder why the sale of cigarettes is still legal, what with all the kerfuffle over the legalisation of marijuana, but the simple answer is quite obviously the enormous annual revenue generated by the industry. Here we have a toxic product with known usage consequences (such as death) happily being peddled to anyone over 18 looking to satisfy their cravings for potently addictive nicotine, while the nation's stoners have to traverse a web of illicit contacts (or alternatively just ask their nearest friend) to obtain a product with usage consequences as ill-defined and sketchy as a raver on a comedown. I don't advocate the use of either, but find the double standard confusing.
The current HQ magazine has an article on drug legislation in America. It's an interesting read.
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[Desiccant]posted by peter at 15:43 .......One of the best things I bought in Hong Kong last year was a long sleeved shirt with a plastic panel sewn on the front. The plastic rectangle seems to have been cut out with pinking shears, and it is printed with a manga character that has been further cut up into many smaller, grid-like rectangles. Whether or not this description makes sense is beside the point – the key issue is that this garment must be hand-washed.
That is unless I want the plastic panel to warp and crack.
Due to the extent of after wear care, I only don this shirt once every month or so. It only happens when the exact combination of psychological and meteorological factors allows for it. One such occasion was last Saturday night, at the infamous dinner with Mrs Swan (dinner conversation fragment: "no, my parents aren't upset that I don't have a job at the moment, thanks for asking").
Anyway, I just washed the shirt. It took that long to psych myself up for the task at hand. And I plunged it into cold water in the laundry sink.
Swish, swish, fair enough, but what I wasn't prepared for was that the enzyme-powered cold-water-engineered washing powder seems to have stripped every last trace of moisture from my hands.
Listen carefully and you might hear my skin crying out for emollients. It feels as though the very cellular structure will crack, rupture and split into massive flakes, like vast dry continents drawn inexorably onwards by tectonic drift. Oh where is Jurlique Lavender Hand Cream when you need it? (Actually there is a Jurlique shop just down the street but I'm crying broke.) My poor, aching, crusty hands... when I type it feels like I'm leaving fleshy fingerprints behind.
Excuse me, but I'm off to consume tea, water, hot cocoa, anything to replenish and rehydrate my hands, and I don't want to hear about the diuretic properties of hot drinks.
Sometimes I just don't know if fashion is worth the pain.
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[Scatter]posted by peter at 21:49 .......Does this page load properly on your computer? I'd love to know. One thing's for sure: this site definitely doesn't work in Netscape 4.7 anymore. And I've no way of testing what it looks like on a Mac. Any observations would be appreciated.
I've tried to make it all table-less and whatnot, you know, supposedly promoting web standards while conveniently ignoring the fact that the W3C validator would slaughter the site at the moment. Everything comes at a cost.
[Glitch]posted by peter at 20:13 .......Please bear with me. Something is afoot.
[Not far from Flinders]posted by peter at 10:05 .......The movie was great. It was at the Forum Theatre and the screening was a Who Weekly Melbourne International Film Festival preview, so it was all very corporate. Luckily I had my takeaway soya-latte in a cardboard cup.
Shortly afterwards, Brooke (who'd broken a seat at the theatre, I might add) and I were traversing the film festival crowd to get to Blue Train. On the way we passed what looked like a kiosk selling steak sandwiches and the like. Brooke had expressed a hankering for a steak, I told her she was a creep and suggested she could quench her yearning at the kiosk. She pondered aloud whether people were dining in (the kiosk was actually a large van with lots of people inside), and we wondered whether the food would be any good and what sort of choice there might be. Not to mention pricing.
And then we realised the van was one of those ones that distribute food to the homeless.
We actually felt quite awful because we'd come *this* close to making a mockery of a charitable institution. Sometimes, talking loudly and animatedly in a crowd is not a recommendable course of action.
It was fun catching up with Kyle and Craig again, and we were joined by a few others too. Unfortunately I had developed a mildly pounding headache, which dampened my spirits somewhat. I really hope it doesn't signify the beginning of another mutation. As in a viral or bacterial mutation. Like another cold or whatever.
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[Heard yr name the other day]posted by peter at 16:50 .......What a strange day, marked by extremes of spontaneity and nothingness. At one point I agreed to leave for Canberra tomorrow morning – Sally was to hire a car and away we would go. However I received an SMS during Terminator 3: Rise of the machines, which told of cost blowouts that led to the cancellation of the trip. It's good to be spontaneous but it can be such an emotional rollercoaster.
I liked T3 by the way.
Also, Brooke contacted me and thus tonight I'll be off to a preview (? ... or a screening of some sort) of The Spanish Apartment, which promises to be excellent. A film with Audrey Tautou can only be glorious.
In between all of this, I did absolutely nothing. Zilch. I mean I ate breakfast and everything, and I burnt out a copy of Sonic Youth's Murray Street, but other than that there isn't much to report.
Kyle and Craig are in town tonight, so I hope to catch up with them after the movie. At least I'm not off to Canberra anymore, so there's always the option of meeting tomorrow if plans fall through. Something is inevitable... at least we can derive hope from the knowledge that Hong Kong is present. Up there in Asia, something is happening.
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[Songs are like tattoos]posted by peter at 22:04 .......I passed the afternoon by listening to three of the most starkly beautiful albums that have ever graced my CD player. Each is a masterpiece in its own right, and what ties them together so well is that they are at once fragile and yet tremendously powerful. Yes, that's a hackneyed assessment but it's so true. I listened to two full rotations of them all...
Now, I seem to have embraced pappadams as THE new quick and easy snack food; they make a wonderful replacement for potato chips (which I never eat anyway, so I really don't know what I'm going on about). It's probably a widely known fact, but the easiest way to prepare pappadams is to simply place them on a plate in the microwave and zap for about 40 seconds, depending on the power level. It's so easy! Some people spray them with olive oil first but it's unnecessary; they can simply be microwaved straight out of the pack, and turn out really well (probably not quite as evenly as fried pappadams, but close enough). I prefer the ones with peppercorns.
I struck a particularly good carrot tonight. You know how every now and then you get one with precisely the right balance of crispness and sugar levels, with no bitterness whatsoever? Well I got one of those while preparing dinner tonight. Carrots are so hit and miss, but when you come across a nice one they are quite spectacular, albeit in the most understated way.
Finally: Chinese broccoli. Or Choy Sum as it's otherwise known (I think – there are two very similar varieties which I easily confuse). I find the florets to be the most delicious part, so I usually snap off the bottom of the stems and remove any large leaves. They wilt so quickly in the fridge, but I find that wrapping them in damp paper towels and placing them in a plastic bag helps, I just try not to think about leaching xenoestrogens. But my question is, am I preparing them correctly? Plates of Asian greens tend to have big long stems, but I remove a lot of this. And is it proper to wilt them in a stir-fry context, or should they be cooked and served separately? Obviously there are no hard and fast rules and I can do what I like, but food traditions often emerge for a reason and I'd be interested to know whether I'm breaking with convention.
[Look at me with scorn]posted by peter at 11:13 .......Thoughts trail silently on dark freeways, but compressed waveforms produce sonic explosions. Behind the cold glass, every passing truck is a supernova. And I am everywhere. Each overpass brings a new country. I blink and I am in Austria. Japan. Switzerland. The rustle of shifting concrete, and we cross another border. It is somewhere on the outskirts of Warsaw that I catch a brief flicker in the dim interior light. The hand of my lover is reflected in the window but the seat beside me is still empty.
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[Addendum]posted by peter at 20:54 .......Well we would have gone to the choral evensong if I hadn't gotten the time wrong. So instead Melita, Jess and I went for dinner at Gurkha's and coffee at Globe.
I am so glad I kept my chocolate brown velour jacket – I'd considered donating it to charity prior to my move. I don't know what I was thinking. It used to belong to my now-dead grandfather and is actually great. I think I'll keep it forever, until the very stitches that bind it together begin to fray.
Finally, it seems that Lumiere Monday is off this week, as I've now seen every single film that is currently screening at that wonderful cinema. Fortunately there is no shortage of must-sees at other, larger establishments.
[Trail of events]posted by peter at 15:04 .......Forgive me, but I'm a little overwhelmed by the news that CAT POWER IS COMING TO MELBOURNE!!!!
*ahem*
So after a Greville St enriched day with Melita, I get the dreaded phone call from Brooke: "oh let's just have a few drinks, shall we?" before the prearranged dinner and whatever. Of course, next thing I know we're walking down Punt Rd drinking decent white wine out of plastic cups, heavens above that sort of thing just ISN'T done.
In a few short minutes we arrived at the ever-tasty Mikoshi and settled in to be loud. Fresh from the pharmacy fair, in breezed Jess, Claire and Mrs Swan, although one suspects they may have found time to visit a bar in between. They reported an interesting array of pharmaceuticals, and also told me they'd discussed some of my health issues quite audibly on the tram. Thanks girls.
I'd promised myself I'd never drink saki again, but somehow in the blink of an eye Brooke was pouring a round. The food was so delicious – I had a vegetarian bento box again, and also nicked some tofu with miso paste from Brooke – but gosh it was weird being at dinner with Mrs Swan. We had decided there was no cause for appropriateness and away things went. And there was more saki.
With appetites satiated and Mrs Swan sent away in a taxi, the rest of us trudged down to the Espy for live music and viscid carpet. No saturnine demeanours here; we got ourselves a booth and enjoyed the music. I had to go home after 1am as my tab had just about reached breaking point, but it seems the girls blazed on in to Weekender.
Today has been pleasant; I slept late and then went to the beach with Kate (who's finally back from Adelaide), Mark, Marc and Brooke. Had a great chat to Deb too. Tonight Melita and I are going to the choral evensong at one of the cathedrals, and then the planet will turn and expose another empty week.
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[Snow falls brightly]posted by peter at 11:07 .......*slump*
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[Ski]posted by peter at 22:53 .......Back in Melbourne. Spent about 4 hours stranded in a country town. By myself. At least it was picturesque. A kid on the bus kept asking me questions about clutch problems and local geography, I wasn't very helpful. And I endured a mind numbing movie called Blue Crush.
I think it's best if I leave any commentary until tomorrow.
PS. the trip was fantastic.
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[And Jupiter aligns with Mars...]posted by peter at 22:39 .......This is the sticky date pudding created by Jess and Melita in our kitchen today. I kind of just hovered around in the background while the preparation went on. They doubled the quantities in the recipe and served big slices drenched with sumptuous caramel sauce.
Oh and Gossy was here, bringing Haigh's and arriving safely via tram 72 despite the powers of Mercury. That crazy planet, causing violent dreams about drug-laced cigarettes and falls from staircases. We are subject to an astral alignment that breeds general clumsiness and near-misses in traffic – Jess was nearly taken out by a white BMW this morning and I was close to being crushed by two Mercedes this afternoon, each coming from opposite directions. I have no astrological beliefs by the way; I've just been told that it's Mercury month or something. Jo, Gerry and Lindsay joined us later; it's so nice to have visitors.
I bought sunglasses. They are not couture so I will say no more at this point.
I'm off to the snow tomorrow. I leave early and true to form have not packed yet. There's no hope of remembering everything so I think I'll simply leave it to fate. I wrote in travel how I'd contemplated bringing fresh ingredients along, but Gossy clearly pointed out the absurdity of that notion. As if I'm not going to take virtually every meal at restaurants, after all.
Anyway, depending on how much the Internet facilities at Falls Creek have changed, I probably won't have another chance to post until I return. As a parting sentiment I'll post two photos of my new hairstyle, as these things must be documented. Do feel free to snigger.
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[It's okay, we're fine]posted by peter at 09:38 .......The air is thick tonight, it's summer, there are insects. Pick up a guitar, sit on the couch and experiment with harmonics. Or maybe speak of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Yevtushenko. At the very least there's television. The neon hums, it bleeds, it dies. That sign is missing the 'a', thin glass pipes flanked by darkness. Look up! There's the signal, analog waves in a vast sea. Hey you, maybe if we weren't friends we could be lovers. But that night we sat watching city lights, each and every beam shot a hole through our reflections.
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[Rip ya cat]posted by peter at 22:53 .......I just saw a news article about the 'burgeoning' trade in dog and cat fur, and it has left me livid. At the outset of this post, I wish to state that I abhor the fur and skin trade in all its forms, but I am also sick and tired of the massive double-standards that exist in the discourse surrounding it. Just because dogs and cats are 'domestic' animals, it is somehow unacceptable to raise them as livestock, and people seem to throw their hands up in horror whilst conveniently forgetting about their leather shoes and rabbit akubras. (Although hopefully not too many people sport akubras anymore, they are such a faux pas.)
And now the government is "considering a ban" on the importation of dog and cat fur, whatever that means. Ummm, what about local battery hens? No fear, we wouldn't ban that atrocious practice because the almighty Farmers' Federation would be up in arms in two shakes of a kitten's tail. The meat lobby may not want to tell you about the means by which meat-bearing creatures are slaughtered but they'll happily claim that vegetarianism causes homosexuality. (I'm being unreasonable here, as this claim was made in the 70s.)
Much of the furore seems to centre on the means by which these poor cats and dogs are killed; that is by bleeding, clubbing or asphyxiating them to death. Everything about this is horrendous (and all in the name of causing the least possible damage to the fur), but some of the reports I've heard about Australian abattoirs do little to reassure me that humane methods are adhered to. Maybe I'm spreading misinformation now, oh how the tables have turned.
The whole tone of the news article just served to infuriate me. It was subjective, sensationalist journalism that took a 'can you believe it' approach and failed to view the issue within a wider framework.
Further reading: a similar issue set me off on a rant sometime last year.
[Chop and change]posted by peter at 17:32 .......And the visits continue... this morning my cousin Gerry was in town and we had brunch at the Queen Vic markets (actually I only had a coffee)... I may see him again on Saturday and will definitely catch up in the snow next week!
I can't believe I only have to wait a few more days for the snow!!!
Then this afternoon I caught the train to Williamstown where the delightful Gossy, Jo, Gerry (a different one!) and Lindsay were strolling. We had lunch at one of the many food purveyors – my vegetable baguette had many nice vegies but I'm a bit worried that they may have been cooked in duck fat, which is a bizarre flavour 'booster' that some carnivorous types endorse. More walking around the lovely seaside community completed the afternoon.
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OK, I think I've got to be honest and admit to myself that all this talk of nonconformance and relaxation is probably just hiding the fact that I am quite disappointed that I have not yet found work here. I think I just wanted it all to come easily, but that's not how the world operates. At the same time, I'm acutely aware that I haven't tried very hard, and that probably does stem from those notions of nonconformance and relaxation. I think maybe once this month is over I might start to get it all together. Might.
One thing's for sure: this rest has been good for me. I think back to my old job sometimes – I enjoyed it at the time and worked with some wonderful people who I still keep in touch with – but I could never go back to it (even if it did still exist). I don't want to turn this post into another "what should I do with my life" session, but as I've said before, the more I think about it, the more I feel that I need to follow a different path.
I don't think I've ever mentioned that straight out of high school I was offered a job at an Adelaide newspaper, which would have ultimately led to a cadetship. But for various reasons I declined the offer, and decided to go to uni instead. To study engineering, of all things.
That was career change #1.
After 1.5 years I fell into a depressive abyss and changed to computing and multimedia.
Career change #2.
Before my final year of that degree commenced, I decided that no way in hell was I doing an honours project, and thus I transferred to the double degree that I now possess.
Change #3. Sort of. #2.5 maybe.
How many are we allocated in a lifetime? Seven or something is the average, I think? Obviously we can do as many different things as we want, but in some ways I really envy people who find a groove and stay on track *cliché retch*.
I don't regret any of the decisions I've made – sometimes it's interesting to wonder what might have been but I don't let those thoughts consume me because things can't be changed and it's not as if I'm dead. And at 23 I don't think I'm a 'might have been' yet. I just have to figure something else out.
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[Car crash]posted by peter at 21:46 .......Lame Blogger won't let me publish anything at the moment, so this post will appear late. Oh I need Movable Type!
For some reason I'm half-watching a stupid Princess Diana psychic séance festival on Channel 9, and I've never before seen a bunch of people so effectively masking self-promotion with affected care and concern. I'm not denying a spiritual world – I just find this whole tele-psychic thing incredibly hard to believe and I think it's a shame that they are supplementing known facts about Diana's life with myth and speculation.
I'm no Di fan, but I do remember where I was when she died (leaning on the kitchen benchtop reading a newspaper and listening to Triple J, as it was) and I think it's sad that even in death she has found no escape from the power of rumour, guesswork and shameless self-congratulatory sycophancy.
One of the séance participants just said something about Diana's ghost having a strong link to the spirit world in Zimbabwe.
Whatever.
I can't believe that they are assigning a personality to her ghost!!! Diana is now nothing more than a well-documented memory, and tonight a small number of people are wielding tremendous power over the shape of this memory.
Now they are praying to her like a deity. Yuck. I think I'm going to turn off the television.
Where were you when Princess Diana died?
[Chickpea curry]posted by peter at 08:28 .......More from the cheap-eats file, this one's a variation of a recipe from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook.
It's a chickpea curry and is meant to take about 15 mins to prepare (excluding cooking time) but I find dicing vegetables to be one of the most interminably time-consuming activities in the world. The actual cooking part is more fun.
Overcome the psychological obstacle (really, it's quite empowering) and dice up some pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot and a stick of celery. Slice up an onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Heat olive oil in a pan (ideally you'd use ghee but I didn't have any and wanted to keep it vegan anyway), add the onion and garlic and then add about a teaspoon each of chilli powder, salt, turmeric, paprika (we'd run out of this), ground cumin and ground coriander.
Whoosh the oil, onion, garlic and spices around for a while and then throw in all the vegetables plus a can of chickpeas. You need to let this simmer over low heat for ages; I added a significant amount of water to ensure the vegetable chunks cooked, and then it all reduced down nicely. You could, in theory, also add a can of crushed tomatoes for extra liquid and flavour... I'd probably prefer to use fresh tomatoes because I find that 'canned' flavour to be a bit pervasive.
Once it's all cooked (probably about 20-30 mins) you can stir in a teaspoon of garam masala, but I forgot this step because I was on the phone at the time. That's pretty much it – I served it with rice to ensure complete protein.
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[Scattered fragments]posted by peter at 14:06 .......- I really resent having to pay rent this month, because such a sum of money could be applied to much better ends *thinks dreamily of a certain pair of couture sunglasses*. It's an exciting time to be alive.
- Every now and then I remember that I completed 1.5 years of an electronic and microengineering degree and wonder where that knowledge has gone. It probably dissipated when the associated depression evaporated.
- A few years ago I used to attend poetry / spoken word / jazz sessions on Monday nights at a club in Adelaide's west end. I wouldn't mind seeking out something similar here.
- For a delicious breakfast: mix up some porridge, I like to use water as a base and then add some soy milk later, gotta keep it vegan, don't forget a pinch of salt and obviously some sugar, then stir through two spoonfuls of St Dalfour blackberry jam (or similar, it has to be proper jam with only real fruit, thickened only with pectin and natural sugars, none of this vile conserve stuff) and garnish with slices of banana. You can still eat well in times of economic clamp-down.
- It's a good day for hip hop.
- Who would have thought I'd become so obsessed with my Game Boy Advance? I dug it out of the drawer and am playing Golden Sun again, which I've never completed. Actually, I've never completed any of my three games (the other two are Sonic Advance and Kuru Kuru Kururin, both great, the latter is insanely addictive) so that demonstrates that I'm not too big a video games geek.
- My hyacinth is in full bloom, brandishing a lovely stalk of white flowers. It's a pity the perfume is intolerable – it's several levels below the stench of paperwhite jonquils but is still redolent of feline urine.
- Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction.
- Hey there, put it all behind you.
- Some people seem to fall in love so easily, I wouldn't know anything about it.
- I spent about half an hour yesterday sitting on a bench in the street like a vagrant. I used the time to delete some text messages.
- After the Lumiere we crossed the road to a cafe and freaked out some young-ish corporate types. Maybe I should shave the top of my head, grow dreadlocks at the back and spend my days ferrying water back and forth from the ocean to beached whales. It would be more fulfilling than waiting for parcels to arrive in the post.
- Two presents are on their way though... how exciting!
- I've never been one for careful wrapping and I don't tend to give cards, although there is a certain sense of accomplishment in producing a beautifully wrapped gift.
- Even the most mild rumours lead to misunderstanding and uncomfortable interrogation.
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[$uper]posted by peter at 22:56 .......Oh how we laughed!
Whale Rider was terrific too.
As was the Japanese restaurant. Yes, another restaurant. I went to the ATM and shuddered at the receipt.
And Deb has finally posted again... why not leave her a cheery note? :)
[Stop the light]posted by peter at 09:19 .......It's not as if I needed any validation for my decision to move to Melbourne, but I found out that the job I used to have in Adelaide has dried up due to funding cuts. So I would have been in much the same situation right now, but it's more interesting to be unemployed in a new city.
I'm much more mentally alert this morning, having slept long and sound. Today we'll be seeing Whale Rider and Charlie's Angels 2; I'm all for diverse cinematic experiences.
When amidst the rows of retail outlets, I must resist the temptation to put ridiculously expensive sunglasses on hold while I 'think about it'. My goal for the week (I must have some deadlines I suppose) is to buy a new pair – I need them for the snow after all – but I must use all the powers of frugality and discover a moderately priced pair that still makes a stylistic statement. Whatever that means. I'm bound to end up with something vile as I've become convinced that there are no sunglasses that suit me apart from that pair.
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[Toothpicks hold my eyelids]posted by peter at 19:51 .......Tired, sketchy and now pissed off, since the front door slammed against the fuse board, thus causing my computer to reset and discard an entire post. Just awful.
Anyway, very tired, very sketchy. Fun in the sun in St Kilda with Brooke yesterday afternoon turned into a gauntlet of insanity, oh how I wanted those Armani sunglasses but the brand just isn't me. I came frighteningly close to making the purchase though.
Oh we're young and we have energy in the winter sun, so we will be raucous beneath banana palms at a streetside cafe. We will spend beyond our means (Brooke fell victim to Hunter Gatherer again) and eye off consumer items that are, for all intents and purposes, unattainable. The evening was supposed to consist of a home-cooked budget-conscious vegetable korma followed by a few drinks at Brooke's place, but when we got all the ingredients out it just seemed so hard.
The Japanese restaurant was sleek and inviting, and since we knew one of the waitresses, a free bottle of white wine came our way. A perfect supplement to the drinks previously consumed on empty stomachs. Japanese food is so light and delicious, but try telling that to the hefty stranger who left a crack in a window after mistaking it for a thoroughfare.
Time slows down in a vinous world, it's almost a relativistic phenomenon, E=mc^2 and what have you, but we got back from the restaurant, finished the red wine and then it seemed like such a good idea to head to the city.
Humming wires and blue sparks propelled our rumbling tram to town. Brooke led the way to a venue I'll never be able to find by myself where me met a couple of her friends and enjoyed a few beers in the sea of rock kids. At some point we knew we had to leave immediately and found ourselves on the street talking to people in fake accents – a crazy hybrid of Scottish and Irish inspired by Lars von Trier's Breaking the waves. Chocolate sounded great so we hit the 24hr supermarket and oh my gosh I was walking the streets drinking iced coffee through a plastic straw. VERY BAD FORM. Thank goodness for taxis; quick, efficient service to your door and a failed EFTPOS machine in a cab with a driver who was more than happy to steal Brooke's phone. Time after time we rang the purple gadget, which had clearly fallen from her handbag, but the bastard driver thought it would be a good idea to switch it off and disappear into the night.
A few frantic phonecalls, a lot of chocolate, a couple of searches in the street and the night was over.
Very tired, very sketchy. Somehow I managed a day of fun with Melita, Brunswick Street seemed a natural choice and I thought "why start saving money now?" as I pushed open the heavy door of the Vegie Bar...
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[*cough*]posted by peter at 08:13 .......Yesterday was Jairus' birthday so we had a celebratory dinner at the Afghani restaurant on Brunswick St. The food is a bit of a fusion of Indian and Middle Eastern, is highly delicious and comes recommended from me!
We then went down to St Kilda for a time, but my throat had begun to swell and ache so it could never be a late one for me. It's still a bit painful this morning, and I'm a bit worried because the symptoms match those experienced by some friends who subsequently coughed up heinous entities resembling this. Best carry some tissues methinks.
Josh has been in town again, and we caught up for coffee last night and will do so again this morning before he heads back to Adelaide. Probably not the ideal thing for my apparent cold, but I will never compromise my cafe lifestyle for the sake of health and wellbeing.
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[A rare lack of sleep]posted by peter at 11:32 .......The realisation that you’ve spent about four weeks’ budget in the last two days cannot diminish the fun you had during that time… Canberra details can be found here.
Despite all the vigorous activity of the past few days, I couldn't contemplate sleep until very late last night. My own sleeplessness reminded me of this time last year, when a bored, insomniac Filthy Ange would drive the dark streets of Adelaide in the small hours. We could expect a visit at any time, and the latest of her late visits was at about 5am on a strange winter's night when all the power transformers in the street had exploded. As I've said before, those were odd times indeed, and that night we ended up in the supermarket.
I found out last night that Sally and Sally's neighbours are Joni Mitchell fans. They told me I was born in the wrong time, but said I was lucky because I might have self-destructed. We listened to Pink Floyd over another glass of red wine.
PS. I love how it's a new Blogger system and I'm already having archive problems... :(
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[Another day, another road trip]posted by peter at 22:38 .......Well I'm back, safe and sound after my journey on the Hume Highway. The most spectacular sight was the massive plumes of white cloud resting on the snowfields. Other than that, lots of hills and trees and grass and foliage.
We thought we were never going to get out of Albury. It seems to go on forever. I had a wonderful friend at uni who came from there, but lost track of her in a flurry of textbooks and arts essays.
Flying is a lot easier than driving, but not necessarily as much fun. A woman two seats down on my flight tried to intimidate me with her Burberry handbag, but such an amulet has no power over me... take a chill-pill bitch, I'd rather stand up than have you clamber over me. Luckily I had my own young-and-interesting brandnames which strike fear into the corporate heart. And my Zoo York belt set off the metal detector. Having to reveal my stomach region and remove the belt in the middle of a rampant line of air passengers was quite embarrassing.
And don't let anyone tell you Qantas is worth the extra money, unless you have a penchant for soggy vegan sandwiches.
I'll post a big report about Canberra tomorrow. I'm really tired now and feel that I'll forget some important detail if I continue.
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[Alphabet street]posted by peter at 07:58 .......So I awoke at 7 but got up at 8. It's now nearly 9, I'm eyeing off my garments but still haven't packed 1. Lucky I'm only away for 2.
Back in 5... I've got a flight to catch at 12.
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