Stuff

um, Tuesday night I finally made it to one of the International Film Festival shows. I saw Contraptions, an animated string of shorts about interesting "inventions". Half the shorts were done by one team (narrated by Andrew Denton) like art and war and economics and sex, and were largely very lefty and cynical about the world. The other half of shorts were more conventionally contraptiony inventions which Wallace (of Wallace and Gromit) came up with and showed him testing them out with Gromit. Highly amusing.

Thursday (last) night I went to a meeting of this group concerned with globalisation and the imminent and scary Free Trade Agreement we have with the US. Essentially the new agreement gives corporations the right to sue countries if they interfere with their profit-making. Scary stuff. They have a smallish group of really smart fired-up people though. Hopefully I can help a bit. See here: http://www.tradewatchoz.org/.

8:55:00 PM

 
Ooh - other news: a couple of weekends ago, Loud (have I mentioned she's an english teacher?) mentioned she had a yen for Scrabble. We'd seen a little Travel Scrabble at a gift shop a few weeks previously, so no suggestion from me (really truly!), I let her convince me to splurge on it. We and the occasional visitor or housemate have played about 5 games so far. She's rather miffed with my aptitude despite reigning myself in and not playing dodgy two-letterers (including Greek letters, or any letters actually, which I think are totally legit) and very often declining any really high-scoring words (eg. have only played one seven letterer out of a fair few opportunities). I feel somewhat deceitful, but if I totally scare her away straight off my shiny new game will sit there unused...
12:29:00 AM

 
Well, legitimately postponed the "coffee" due to a house meeting and strategizing session about a rent increase. How do you be clear about something ("coffee") when they haven't been clear either? It seems very presumptuous to negate expectations when expectations haven't been clarified in the first place...

Anyway. Had a rather nice weekend. Got to hang with Muso a bit and caught up on his busy three band and full-time job life on Friday night. Went to the birthday party of his best friend at a surprisingly posh pub just north of my place. Not surprisingly posh because of the location (in Poshburb), but because Muso and his friend and their general crowd are hippies. Had a couple of beers at home first, with the housemates, then we went to this pub and had maybe 4 pots. Then bloody Loud's cousin bought a round of bloody-mary shots with oysters (!) for our little subgroup. So (interspersed with a couple more beers) I had to buy a round of Cuervo slammers, and then Loud's other cuz bought a round of some baileys/midori/kahlua concoction.

Got up to go to the gym on Saturday morning, then napped for most of the afternoon. Then went and met Sabinne, who was down from the City Under the Mountains for the weekend. Took her and her friend for drinks in the city, and went for a boogie afterward. Had a very very good night.
10:00:00 PM

 
Possible dilemma: Have agreed to "meet for coffee" in North Hippieburb with a girl I-like-but-not-in-that-way. She is another of the natives who seemed really familiar from the moment I met her - there's just something familiar about her hair/eyes/colouring/style. Am pretty sure (fingers crossed) I haven't led her to expect anything.
11:02:00 PM

 
Yoga on Monday night was really good. Hippy is very into yoga. And is also into spirituality. She's got some disturbingly new age inclinations for someone in traditional science research. Some quite difficult, but not too potentially injurious poses. Got quite warm just holding them. Don't manage to attain the mind altered state Hippy gets, but I guess I should be patient for the time when my body actually knows how the poses go and I get my breathing in order.

The gym experience in general was pretty good (is very big and shiny and new and high tech), except the bit where I almost caved to Oscar's high pressure salesmanship to pay a $50 "admin fee" for 2 weeks instead of the not properly advertised 1 week totally free (not quite) with a present donation to a charity. But no, I resisted his oleaginous manipulations and have a (mostly) free week at the gym. It officially started this morning (so yoga on Monday was a freebie) when I took my donation in (a Christmas in July present for a kid under 10 - got a dinosaur reader primer and a rubber Allosaur) at 6:15am and did my first Body Pump class (and first real exercise) in 4 months. Went a bit lighter on the weights than previously, but it was still hard work. Am considering doing an evening session tonight too. Just to make sure it hurts to move tomorrow.
10:56:00 PM

 
Am trialing the Hippy's gym this week. Starting tonight with a yoga class. Am going to be embarrassingly inflexible.
11:38:00 PM

 
Tripping
in the field last week went reasonably smoothly. Was pretty bored with the mostly 4 days of driving though, so it's good it's the last trip to those particular sites for the foreseeable future. Even the hours on the 4WD track were getting monotonous, I think mostly due to getting to know when a "Rough Surface" is coming up (or "fucking Rough Surface" as someone had amended one of the rare and somewhat redundant signs), or a sandy stretch, or one of the undercut cattle grids (which you don't want to go over at 110 kph).

Evening
of Friday I got home at 6:30pm, and as I walked in the door, Loud asked me: "Do you want to come to my cousin's party?"
Me: "Um... tonight? I guess so",
She: "You have half an hour to shower and get ready".
[15 mins later after I've had a bowl of muesli and a shower]
She: "Are you ready? Our ride's here".

Sleeping
for most of Sat and Sun was rather lazy of me. Drank too much Friday night, and didn't get enough sleep on Saturday morning. Also didn't go see Adam Freeland Sat night as I should've :P Lay down for a nap at 10pm, and conveniently woke up (momentarily) at 1am, but couldn't make myself get out of bed (until 11am on Sunday). On Sunday I also started albuming my backlog of photos. Found out that I've been saying "I'm a year behind" for more than a year. So am actually two and a half years behind :P

Reading
during the field trip and on the lazy weekend let me finally finish The Satanic Verses (Rushdie of course), which was reasonably readable, although not particularly satisfying. I really couldn't be bothered reading for symbolism or analysing how the different parts interrelated or trying to recall the Old Testament, so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I should've. Also read Tepper's The family tree, which was a rather facile and immature wish-fulfilment against the Environment Despoiling American Capitalist Patriarchy.
9:53:00 PM

 
Am going to start eating healthier. It's rather annoying how easy it is to fall into the habit of eating just a little unhealthily.
7:04:00 PM

 
Bollywood
went rather drunkenly. There was a nice show of saris, a few kurtas, some bad moustaches, bad polyester suits, and a couple of turbans. Mine didn't work too well :( The material wasn't quite right (they didn't have plain fine cotton at the place we went), too slick, so it didn't wrap and cling properly. I also only had a couple of metres when you're really meant to have like five metres. I think the shirt with a few too many buttons undone and a couple of gold chains worked quite well though. We had good Bhangra music, and a few Bollywood dvd's in the background. We also hung lots of sari material from the ceiling, and Loud had also scored several cheesy movie posters, and we took out the couches and just had mattresses and cushions. We also had Bombay Sapphire, and I found Indian Tonic water - aren't quite sure what was Indian about it... We made heaps of food beforehand - samosas, raita, eggplant curry dips, felafel, pakoras, roti, channa, tikka kebabs, I was *sure* we'd have some leftovers for the rest of the weekend, but somehow it all got finished. There was dancing and drunkenness, and I got to meet a few more of the housemates' friends who I'd heard a lot about. E&M didn't make it :P But they made up for it by having me over for an amazing dinner last night.

Underland
was bloody excellent. It started out a bit dodgily with a solo by this one guy who wasn't that great (I thought - although maybe he just suffered badly in comparison to everything else later), but the next piece had like the entire Sydney Dance Company cast of performers out there (um - like 17 of them maybe?), and the choreography was brilliant, the way the dancers interacted and had to know exactly where everyone was in relation to everyone else. There was one girl there who came out amongst the rest, in a quite minor supporting position, but you could tell almost instantly that she was a cut above. Her movements were minutely precise and controlled, her body in the exact most elegant position at every moment. She had a solo later, and then at the very end took her bow last, but it was amazing how perfectly clear it was from the first piece, what an amazing dancer she was. From looking at the brochure later, I'm semi-sure her name is Katie Riley. Some of the pieces I didn't think were particularly connected to the music and beat, but were still impressive with the amount of co-operation and interaction and physicality. At other times though, Nick Cave's music was ideal for what they were doing. There was a kind of amusing but also very sensual piece with just four dancers to The Ship Song. Other pieces which made an impression were Stagger Lee and (the last, of course) Death is not the end.

Tapas
last night by E&M and Quill and Barmy was a gastronomic experience. We started with a bit of wine (I brought the McWilliams Hanwood 2001 Riesling which people seem to think is quite nice - I don't tell them how ridiculously cheap it is), and a capsicum and walnut dip and a herb and cheese dip with sourdough bread, followed by a tequila shooter. Cuervo is so much smoother than normal tequila. It hardly needed the lemon and salt. Then out came the main dishes: apple and camembert salad, tangy red wine marinated octopus, spinach and fetta galettes (hm... spelling brain is having a hiccup over that - gallette? nah...), saganaki, mussels saganaki (no relation), tomatoes stuffed with wild rice and pine nuts, little vegetable pies with ginger and onion marmalade, and herbed cheese sausages. Washed down with another shot of Cuervo :P We let our stomachs settle a little before Barmy layered us a Port Antonio (grenadine, benedictine, cointreau, gin? and a cherry), a Poets Dream (um - lime? gin? galliano?), an Inspiration (cherry brandy, lime, ...) and one more I think. We washed down the mini blueberry muffins I'd brought for dessert with a dessert shooter of vodka with a slice of lemon coated in sugar. Sweeet baby. Strolled home with a bit of a buzz.
6:43:00 PM

 
Didn't get sherwani, kurta or kamiz. Got material for turban, and some tacky gold chains. Will hope someone has eyeliner for a moustache.

Yay for weekend!
11:39:00 PM

 
I sooo wish you guys could all come!
7:46:00 PM

 
Oh yeah - better remember to pick up some Bombay Sapphire sometime too (could do it last minute tomorrow).
7:44:00 PM

 
Oops - accidentally slept in this morning. Got up at a quarter to nine, managed to get in by ten. And may leave early today to shop for pagri (turban material) too. I've been very slack and not invited you guys yet, but we're having a Bollywood Party on Friday (sheesh! tomorrow!!) night. From about 8pm. But come earlier if you want, we'll probably start drinking and things as soon as we get home and start setting up and making snacks and things (wrapped samosas last night). So consider yourselves invited. Am half considering looking for a long kurta or even one of those cool (but expensive) indian suits (um - sherwani?) but that might (would) be a bit extravagant considering how often I'd actually wear it (not regularly). But it would be very cool. Like, I could wear it to all those black-tie events (that I don't go to) instead of a tux.
7:42:00 PM

 
Recently read...

Crossroads of twilight (R. Jordan): this is actually the tenth (!) book of the "Wheel of Time" series. Yes [*embarassment::shame*], I admit, I do sometimes (often) read cheesy fantasy. And I enjoy it. Fortunately, I've been getting over this particular series over the last three or four books, and read this one only because of inertia and because it fell off the library shelf onto my bookstack. Also fortunately, my over-it-ness buffered me from the utter pointlessness of this latest volume. So very very little happened. And the little which happened was dull dull dull.

Whose body? (D.L. Sayers): which was enjoyable as expected. However, Lord Peter Wimsey seemed rather more annoying than in the couple of later books I've read.

Birds, beasts and other relatives (G. Durrell): also nostalgically enjoyable as expected.

9:14:00 PM

 
Went to a pretty cool public lecture on genetics last night. It was part of the XIX International Conference on Genetics currently being held here. Two Nobel Laureates (Eric Wieschauss and Sydney Brenner) and the head of the Human Genome Project (Francis Collins?) spoke on their work. Didn't really have any revelatory moments, but there was a nice vibe, and it was good to see all these people lined up around the block for a sciencey thingo at night in the middle of town, and to see the town hall packed out with interested people. Got home and Loud fed me risotto, and one of her friends was over, and turned out to be in town to present at the conference on spider genetics.
6:36:00 PM

 
Weekend was rather quiet. Didn't go to Underland - we got cheap(er) tix for the matinee next Saturday instead. Spent lots of money (a nice warm jumper, ticket for aforementioned, four birthday cards and presents, groceries, beer). Hardly went out at all. Baked a really nice loaf of cheddar, sun-dried tomato, olive, and herb bread and ate that on our sunny porch with a beer and a housemate. Had a bit of a dinner party last night with Loud and friends. We made an Eggplant and Spinach Curry, a Chickpea and Tomato Curry, a Potato Curry, Dhal, brown rice, and had a Marbled Chocolate Pound Cake with Chocolate Sauce for dessert. Was good. Also finally finished The Mill on the Floss (George Eliot), which had a nice turn of phrase, and, I think, some nice human characterization-and-observation, but a rather dull plot. I was rather impressed, however, that... (see comments for spoiler).
9:57:00 PM

 

So I managed to go yesterday without The Drug. Although it took a croissant and nine pieces of Green & Black's "A Darker Shade of Milk" to do it. Which probably had some Drug in them anyway, so maybe amend that to "managed to cut back intake of The Drug by cutting my hit severely with a whole lot of other drugs" :P

Last night went to a dinner for a guy going back to France after a few weeks in my department. We went to an Irish Pub in Brighton. They had handtools (hacksaws, hammers, vices, files, etc.) attached to the ceiling. I ate the roo - I may have decided to try and avoid hoofed animals when getting my red meat fix. It was pretty average (tender, but a little bland).

My weekend is sadly looking mostly formless.

But am seeing Underland tomorrow. By the Sydney Dance Company, with music by Nick Cave. Hm - middle-brow culture?

10:55:00 PM

 
-sigh-
craving...
7:05:00 PM

 

Is rather brisk this morn, have actually worn my scarf to work. Is also rather atmosferically foggy.

In other exciting news, today I'm going to totally go without coffee! Haven't gone without coffee (at work, that is) for *weeks*!

6:26:00 PM

 
[*realization*: "-ah-". It's the end of financial year - I should really be more proactively cunning and have planned to take advantage of this time of year]
12:12:00 AM

 
No Way! The Computer Guy just handed me my very own USB Mobile Disk stick/key/thingo. Yeah, it can only hold 128MB, but it's sooo much quicker than burning a CD. And I totally wasn't expecting it! *beam*
12:03:00 AM

 
Bored...
11:26:00 PM