The next obsession

Thanks to Hebby I am now addicted to another bloody number puzzle.

I present... Hitori!

Hebby suggested I try it and sent me the link. Yesterday (being a day off after working the weekend) I decided to give it a go. Two hours later I realised it was two hours later, and that I had been playing for two hours.

It took me a while to develop some strategies and suffice to say now that I have the hang of it I can't stop playing. I catch myself saying 'just one more, then I'll stop'. I'm starting to worry that I have an addictive personality.

Fairy godmothering

I had a lovely surprise visit from my fairy god-daughter, Cynthia (CJ), today. She (and her parents) were down in Melbs to introduce their southern family to Patricia (now 14 weeks old).

Being the good fairy godmother that I am I had a box of Duplo (like giant Lego - did anyone else have that when they were a kid?), bags full of soft toys and lots of hats and treasures to put on and show off. I am also SUCH a good fairy godmother that I gave CJ several 'wizzy dizzies'* in the back yard, despite it making the two of us incredibly, um, dizzy (as the name implies).

I love surprise visits, especially when it means I get to go to one of the Greek cake shops, stare longingly at the cases until they offer to just pick out cakes for me to save me the heart breaking decision of leaving some cakes behind. mmmm, cakes....

Pictured here is Cat JK (aka 'mummy'), myself and CJ.

Who knew it would be so hard to explain to a two year old what a Thelma and Louise photo is?

It was lovely to have a cuddle with little Patricia, who is a very happy and wriggly baby. It was doubly lovely to see Cat JK and Euan again, even though I saw them at Rup & Bek's wedding it was nice to sit down with a caffeinated beverage, several sweet things and just chat. A lovely way to round off my Monday/Tuesday weekend.

_________________

* In my family a 'wizzy dizzy' is when a big person (usually my poor dad) held you by the hands an spun you round in the air. Not sure what everyone else calls them. Dear god it made me feel sick though. The older I get the easier I get dizzy and the less I like it.

A cultural weekend with Nellie

I was lucky enough to have little blister Nellie down in Melbs for the weekend (due to certain stinky boys whose name is an actual word, which is just silly, and as if you would have orange as your favourite colour - what.ever.). She flew in Thursday night and our planning of a very culturally inspired weekend began to take shape.

Friday morning saw us trotting off to Melbourne Museum to see the Great Wall of China exhibition, as well as some of the other permanent exhibits (Phar Lap, Bugs Alive, blah blah blah). A couple of interesting hours there and it was back to Preston to pick up our aunt who took us to Heide, contemporary art gallery. It's always beneficial to have an art teacher along with you when visiting galleries.

Friday night we went out to a Japanese restaurant in Northcote with said aunt, Niinz and Anne. Yummy! I'm sooooo loving Japanese food right now.

Saturday was slightly less than cultural and more than a bit indulgent. After a quick breaky at the mall (mmm, muffins) we spent THE WHOLE DAY reading the new Harry Potter book. Which we enjoyed. Every ten minutes or so we'd have to do a quick 'where are you up to? what did you think of...' I managed to finish mine off that night. I enjoyed it, very different to the others. A little on the predictable side, but seeing as it is children's fiction I suppose I can let that one slide!

Sunday saw us back on track with our cultural plans - breakfast at the Vic Markets (well, jam doughnuts anyway) was followed by a visit to ACMI to see a Pixar exhibition. Tasty lunch was followed by a visit to the NGV Ian Potter gallery at Fed Square - both this and Pixar we inspiring and made me miss painting a lot.

Monday Nellie and I caught the train into the city (much less stressful than trying to work out where to park) and went to NGV International to see the Guggenheim Collection. We hired iPods and did an audio tour, which was brilliant. Several hours later (and a quick trip to the NGV shop, I lurve shops at galleries) and we were back on the train home.

A Sodoku race on the train kept us entertained and distracted from the schoolies. A kebab made with Turkish bread kept us warm for our windy (blowy, not curvy) walk home.

Then it was off to the airport!

All in all a lovely weekend, filled with giggling, walking along arm in arm singing stupid songs we made up about each other, lots of chai tea, lots of dog licks and excited squeaks, both wearing jeans and red cons every day, rolling our eyes about random adventures by our bruvver, drinking champagne and doing Marilyn Monroe impressions at each other.

Yay for us and Boo to stinky boys (not you hubby, you are lovely and good and I love you).

LOL Dogs

LOL cats seem to be taking over the world, and admittedly I have a leetle chuckle at them every now and then. There is even an article on Wiki!

But ultimately I am not a cat person. Whilst husband and I were busy yelling 'oh noes' and 'i can haz insert various item here' at each other last night, I took some piccies of Buster and Beans.



Yes, terribly witty I know.

When I grow up I want to be a robot.

You Give Me Fever

Not sure what it was that did give me a fever on Sunday night, but it was not welcome.

Have you ever done that thing where you know you are about to get sick/suspect the milk is off/seen that the bread is mouldy but pretend that you haven't in case it isn't true? I went to bed at a nice reasonable 10.30pm on Sunday night and laid awake for about two hours. I was attributing this to having drunk too much tea throughout the day and was pretending that my joints weren't aching, because that would imply that I had a fever coming on. And having a fever just wasn't on my list of priorities for a Sunday night.

Unfortunately I couldn't actually trick my immune system, so it did what it does best when it comes to things invading my body, and gave me a raging fever. Until about 4am. Well done team.*

Husband said he had thought about telling me to go and take a panadol, but thinks he fell back to sleep instead of actually saying it. Never mind actually offering to get up and bring me panadol in my fever ravaged state! I thought about getting up and doing it myself but I was cold! So cold!

The fever induced some bizarre dreams (more bizarre than normal anyways) such as tracking down kidnapped children using GPS in small dark sewer-like tunnels and finding them drugged and almost dead. Very comforting.

Feeling much better now but am curious what could have set the fever off (or who?) and why I always get fevers in the middle of the night?


---------------
* Not sure if I mean that sarcastically or not. I mean, yes, it is good that my body fought off infection, but really, is the wee hours of the morning a suitable time for this?

Dancing in the mall with strangers and my new handbag

Yesterday I had a weird experience in the mall. Here I was, strolling along, proudly toting my new handbag (merci maman!), pleasantly relaxed because I wasn't at work and had just had a massage. I had a series of a about three people almost run into me in a row, and each time we both did that thing where you decide to go around each other on the same side, then both go the other way, and then again, coming to a stop, finally make eye contact and you both realise you're doing the weird 'get past a stranger' dance and negotiate who is going where and mumbling sorry through a bit of a giggle.

Although not unusual for this to happen, it happened about three times within one minute.

I think it was because I was trying to watch people to see if they were checking out my new fabulous handbag, rather than paying attention to where I was walking. But where were the other people looking? They didn't have fabulous handbags to distract them! My new purse doesn't quite fit in, but what price beauty?

Foggy Days

Today has brought with it lots of fog. It is pretty chilly and I'm about to nip off to the hairdressers for about three hours (that's the average length visit anyway).
As usual the dogs have found the toastiest places the laze around (before I cruelly eject them into the cold). Beans has taken to laying under the millions of clothes horses I've got set up to attempt to dry washing. They create nice warm pockets of air which this pretty little boy seeks out.

Good old Melbourne weather. Came across this in my lazy day reading today:

"The day had brightened as much as it was going to, just before the sun prepared to leave. This is a Melbourne weather custom and never fails to annoy both inhabitants and visitors. Melbourne is the only city I know of where you must, at all times and in all seasons, carry an umbrella and a pair of sunglasses. A full change of clothes, a lot of coins to buy tram tickets, sunscreen, a snakebite kit and a charm to repel beggars are also useful. No, I exaggerate. You don't often need a snakebite kit... Late morning would bring clouds and by afternoon it would be either (1) raining or (2) freezing or (3) both. That's why the sunnies and the mac are essential on any day in our great city, where there are four seasons in one day. If there were six seasons, there'd be six."

Kerry Greenwood, Devil's Food

_____________________

UPDATE:

Was at hairdressers for three and a half hours! Gah! Oh well, had time to finish my book.

Visit from the Ho and should I visit Home?

Well, that's what I call my little bro anyways. I call him 'Ho' he calls me 'Mo'. It all works out pretty fair...

So, Ho and Kaz (Ho's girl) came down on Saturday for a little weekend visit (hurrah for Virginblue sales!) and we had some small adventures. First stop was the Vic Markets, which was uber busy. The jam donuts helped though. Most of the stalls were very samesy, which was disappointing. The Old Bus Depot Markets in 'Berra are good because when they take bookings for stalls they don't allow doubles (although it is considerably smaller).

We went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant in Northcote with Ho's best friend, Ray (aka Sing Star addict). They went out for drinkies and dancing afterwards and I took my sickie-moo-la-la hubby home for more drugs and some sleep.

A lazy Sunday morning for us all - although I got too hungry and had to wake the kids up at around 11am for breaky. They disappeared to go shopping at DFO (I resisted, having been only two weeks previously) and husband and I spent the afternoon playing X-Box and reading, respectively.

The evening brought with it Ray and a Play Station and eight Sing Star discs. And some random Estonians who I didn't really know (gotta love when guests invite people over without telling you). We sang the night away, although I kept getting cranky because I wasn't winning. Damn that Kaz! I drank a bottle of champers, so lets pretend that's why I wasn't winning.

The parentals also flew back in from OS on the Sunday, and it was nice to speak to them in the same time zone. The mater had, of course, an entirely dramatic flight and customs experience (as is her right and royal duty) and the pater a small hiccup with one of my (many hundreds? hopefully?) presents at customs which had bark on it.

Looking forward to seeing the parentals soon, as it has been many many months and I am in bad need of some presents. Trying to think of a good way to either guilt them into visiting, or convincing myself that I feel like driving home for a week (and perhaps visiting the grandparentals ont he south coast who are continually guilting me about not visiting although I now live 12hrs away not 3hrs).

Problem with going home is that I'll have to sleep in the spare bed - evil of evils. It's a double (not a queen - oh the shame!) and much shorter and squeakier than my bed. And it is next to the bathroom, so a bit noisy when you are trying to sleep in.

Would be nice to see my little Nella though...

Hmm, will sit and ponder small holidays.

Lady Bird Mouse!

How awesome is Glen - he sent me a new mouse for my putey at work! Soooo cute! If only everything in my life came in lady bird versions... my car, my house, my bed, my clothes (practically already are), although perhaps not my husband.

Something about the phrase "check out my new lady bird husband" just doesn't sit right.