Subject: You May Want To Read This

A late afternoon email conversation between myself and Mikey (the lovely ex)

Subject: You may want to read this

Mikey: www.smh.com.au/news/people/halloween-jab-at-irwin

Me: Yeah, I saw it earlier today.

Mikey: You filthy disgusting worm with no respect...

Me: Present.

Mikey: In other news, Ryan Phillipe and Reese Witherspoon have split, so Ryan is on the market again and that's good...

Me: Oddly, I thought of you when I read that.

Mikey: I don't think that's odd. I have been mistaken in the street for Ryan many times.

Me: Err, RIGHT.

Mikey: Yes, odd that they all seemed to be carrying canes, walking dogs and wearing dark glasses. I presumed they were all from some sort of weird religious cult which worshipped the "54" star.

Me: The 5'4" star? Hey, that's me!

Mikey: 5'4"... sure?

Me: What, you think I'm tinier than that? Or bigger? Bigger, right? It's on account of the huge personality, I get that all the time.

Mikey: I plead the common law privilege against self-incrimination...

Me: Coward.

Your Life On The Lawn

There is some sort of council rubbish collection on in the street where our office is located, and consequently the footpaths are piled with people's discards. It's kind of fascinating. None of it is worthy of a Curbside Salvage run, it really is junk. Broken pot plant pots, a single battered work boot, 2 cupboard doors (sans cupboard) - that sort of thing.

It's interesting to see if you can guess what the junk's previous owners are like though. One pile had some discarded soft toys in it - children grown maybe?, or the toys out-grown?, or too battered and grimy to be hygenic anymore? One pile had two appliance boxes in it; a 'mini stepper' home gym thing and a 'dynamic bullet' small food processor/juicer contraption. The sort of cheap quality appliances that are advertised on late night infomercials, promising all sort of life changing benefits for just three low monthly payments.

I like to think of it as an exercise in Urban Haruspicy".

Cute Overload

devil dog
Originally uploaded by image415.

OK, I know some people take issue with dressing dogs up and making them look silly, but this is just too darn cute and amusing. This gorgeous pup belongs to image415 on Flickr, her name is Maddie, and she makes the cutest little devil ever.

Weekend Recap

Monday morning seems to be as good a time as any for two of my favourite things, introspection and The Internets. So in the spirit of navel gazing and work avoidance, I bring another of the semi-regular weekend recaps.

Saturday morning I woke up kind of grumpy, not terribly so, but just working a bit of a "got out of the wrong side of the bed" sort of stizz. I took myself off to a cafe nearby for a mood adjusting breakfast with coffee and the paper, which went a long way towards adjusting said grumpiness. It was Haircut Day, which is always mood enhancing, although this time that was dented a bit by having a cut that is a bit shorter than I asked for and a small price hike that pushes the cost of a cut into the Hard To Justify category in my head.

Afterwards I spent a little bit of time finishing the painting on my poor taste Hallowe'en costume, ironing the rest of my costume and pottering around the house. Morgan came by about 6.30pm and we headed off to Web-Goddess's Hallowe'en Party. I had a really great time, despite deciding to wear a pair of boots that are cripplingly tight and yet always manage to give me blisters. A factor that really came into play on the walk home, meaning that I had to abandon that plan about halfway and get the bus.

Yesterday morning I pottered around the house doing odd bits of housework, reading the paper, having a leisurely breakfast... the usual Sunday morning things. After lunch Mikey (the lovely ex) and I went to see "Little Miss Sunshine" at a nearby cinema, which I really enjoyed. A very sweet film, and laugh-out-loud funny in some spots. We rounded off the afternoon with a couple of beers at The Newtown Hotel, before heading our separate ways in the early evening. A night of being glued to the tv with a pizza ensued, first "Australian Idol" and then the "ARIA Australian Music Awards". I had good plans to go to bed early and compensate for the switch to Daylight Savings Time, but an encore performance of the first episode of Tripping Over (which I missed the first time around) put a stop to that plan. I mean, two words: Daniel. MacPherson.

Exhibit A:


So very cute.

Hallowe'en

Here are some pics from the fantastic Hallowe'en party given by Web-Goddess & The Snook on Saturday night. As Kris said the standard and creativity of the costuming on the night was great, the food was yummy (even if not always palatable looking!) and a great night was had by all.

Kris's mom had sent over a bunch of Hallowe'en treats from the US again this year. This time I steered clear of the Marshmallow Peeps (gross) and tried Candy Corn for the first time (underwhelming, I'm sad to say). After The Snook shared the knowledge that Peeps puff up to enormous proportions if you microwave them, Miss Helen kept sneaking into the kitchen to prove the story true.

Festive decorations (left) and Amy (the Music Pirate) with sheriff Miss Helen of Spycore (right). Helen is brave enough to try the grossness that is Marshmallow Peeps.



Jane (left) as Emily Howard (The Not Very Good Transvestite) from Little Britain and Amy & Rob (right) as a Music Pirate and a Corporate Pirate.



It's a Matter of of taste. Morgan eats eyeball (left) while I tuck into a witch's finger (right). Oh, and yes, the finger was delicious - it's my costume that's in poor taste.



More of Kris's pictures are here, and here are all the pictures I have posted so far.

Bevelled & Fractured

Why you should always take a camera into the mensroom.



A self portrait from last night's Flickr meet with the Sydney Photobloggers.

Fonts I Would Like To See

Studz Extra Bold

Studz Extended

Ashtonand Demi ITC

Bruce Sans Demi

Lucida Sans Underwear

Monobrow Corsica

Rapp'n Old Style

The Totally Awesome Corner Store

Where my office has relocated to is a suburb that is largely small apartment buildings and private homes, with a sort of middle to lower income and multi-ethnic mix. The main shopping strip which is a 5 minute walk down the street, has a Korean video store, a shop called "Little Persia" and a Greek cafe, as well as the usual "Cheescake Shop", KFC and other fast food chains. What it is short on is a convenience store or deli.

Or so I thought, until I changed my walking route this morning and discovered the Totally Awesome Corner Store just a few small blocks from here. It's like a treasure trove of delights, the likes of which I haven't seen since the visits I made to John Martin's department store "Magic Cave" as a child, or whatched vintage "Ali Baba" films.

On entry to the Totally Awesome Corner Store one is assaulted by a bunch of stimuli. The heady blend includes:

1. loud (but not unpleasant) Turkish music
   
2. the smell of very strong (and probably very good) coffee
   
3. a large and extremely well groomed man behind the counter, with a king's ransom of gold jewellery on and a big friendly smile
   
4. a gushing fountain/grotto/water feature (inside!)
   
5. a mirrored mural complete with hookah pipes and camels
   
6. a large table piled high with all sorts of exotica - unusual candied things, fantastical looking spicy snacks, bags of things that look like dried carrot strips and cartons of biscuits with indecipherable names and sand dune graphics

Past that there are Mars Bars and tins of beans, like all corner stores, but my oh my those chocolate bars and everyday comestibles take on an exotic glamour! Second impressions include the fact that the store is really well organised and scrupulously clean. Quite obviously not just a source of income, but a source of pride as well.

I think I'm in love.

It's Gettin' Hot In Here...

...so take off (almost) all your clothes.



An out-take from my photo shoot with the very sweet and sexy Steve last night. Manipulated slightly (the image, not Steve) to darken it, add some 'noise' and deepen the contrast. I'm fairly pleased with the result, although I did get some better pics. I'm submitting one into a competition on Flickr, and once that has been judged I'll share that one here - my favourite pic from the night. I'll also post a few more from the evening on Flickr.

I like Steve's left hand in this pic, not the one going the grab but the one on the arm of the chair. I like the modelling of the shadows and the strong masculine look of the hand. If I took this again I'd change the pose slightly to get Steve to scooch his hips forward, taking a little of the slump out the posture and eliminating the crease mark across his belly, and I'd work on changing the shadows a bit too. Still, for a first attempt at this sort of photography I'm pretty happy with some of the results, and as I said I'll share a few better pics once the competition closes (at the end of the month).

Sorry I Haven't Posted In A While...

Attention fellow bloggers. Need an excuse for inaction? Try one of these on for size.

Curiously, not one says "The dog ate my blog."

[Link via kottke.]

On The Air

A few days short of three weeks, and finally my office is fully connected to the outside world. Rejoice! The only problem is, three weeks of working at about 25% capacity has made me kinda lazy. But if I reach about 40% capacity today, then that's a massive improvement, right? See how that works?

I must remember to mention that, should I ever have a performance appraisal.

A Few Puerile Moments

It's not beyond me to go for the cheap laugh, you know that, right?


Oh, my too!


Oddly, this isn't a dry cleaning store.

Signs seen when out walking with my camera; a fabric store in Parramatta (top) and a women's clothing store in Chinatown (bottom).

Ruby

I saw this gorgeous little creature sitting on her owner's lap at a sidewalk cafe in Newtown on Sunday, and just had to get a picture. Asking people if you can take their picture is hard, it taps into my big store of shyness, but appreciating something that they feel proud of, a pet say, or their personal style, goes a long way to being an icebreaker.



It's a curious thing, this taking pictures. The camera can create a wall between yourself and other people sometimes, but at other times it creates a bridge to communication. Ruby's owner was quite happy for me to take her picture, and while I did he opened up about how he came to rescue Ruby from the pound. When he rescued her she had 2 broken back legs, possibly from having been thrown from a moving vehicle. She's at least part Chinese Crested, with probably some Chihuahua mixed in, with little odd tufts of hair here and there and a couple of bald spots. It's this slightly grizzled charm that makes him sometimes address her as "Monty Burns".

We chatted for about 5 minutes and it was a really lovely moment. There was obviously a lot of love between the two of them and I felt a little bit privileged to be let into their world, if only for 5 minutes.

5 Curiosities About My Weekend

1. In the course of taking photographs I told 2 straight men (on different occasions) that they were "pretty". Judging by their reactions I'd say it was the first time for both of them.
   
2. One of the guys was showing off his sexy back and naked ass at the time.
   
3. If you arrange a photo shoot with someone who kindly offers to strip for you, so you can try your hand at arty nudes for the first time, it will most definately not work to conquer the shyness if the girlfriend is standing by (see point 2). Nor will it work if they are so late that you miss the light, and the only halfway decent light in their dark house is in the kitchen.
   
4. Someone anonymously left me a gift of an electronic pest deterrant device on my front doorstep, with a note about Buddhist vows and care for all sentient beings, including rats. a) It was a kind gesture, b) I never had any intention of harming the rat (not seen again since anyway) but c) Given that it was anonymous and Bodhi & I don't recognise the handwriting and this person knows where I live and reads the blog, I sincerely hope it's from a friend and not a kind minded stalker.
   
5. I met another group of photographers on Friday night, this time at the first get-together of the "Newtown" group on Flickr. I'm beginning to realise that a shared interest, like photography, really can transcend barriers of race, gender, age and sexuality. I had a blast.
   

I'm Resisiting The Impulse To Title This Post "Gay's Anatomy"

Andy Towle is the author of my favourite blog about all things newsworthy to we of the homosexualist persuation, Towleroad. He has just posted about the recent announcement by little puppy-dog-eyes cutie T.R. Knight, "George" of the tv show "Grey's Anatomy", that he's gay.



Sadly it's still quite a big thing for a well known actor to come out these days, although the more who do the easier it should get. So T.R. I salute you. Bravo sweetie.

What makes the story even more interesting is that the catalyst for him coming out is that he was allegedly indirectly the cause of a feud between (my future husband) Patrick Dempsey and actor Isaiah Washington. Washington reportedly used a gay slur about T.R. Knight in an argument with Dempsey. Thereby getting every queen in the tv industry offside, in a spectacularly bad career move.

You know what this means. At risk of overstating it, and perhaps bringing in a strong dose of wishful thinking, it means that Dempsey stood up for Knight. He is making me love him. I am powerless to resist. Patrick & Andrew has a lovely ring to it, non?

Dark Materials

Yesterday I blogged about the fact that on Thursday I was stuck in the office, alone, completely cut off from the outside world (can you tell I'm still scarred by the incident?) and dropped into the post the aside that I read a novel. That novel happened to be the rather fine and entertaining new novel by Stephen McCauley called "Alternatives To Sex".

Let's ponder that title for a moment before we move on shall we?... I'm guessing it's ironic, because I'm stumped for an alternative. Not one. Nup. Nada. Anyone?

Oh, and yes Stephen McCauley wrote the wonderful novel "The Object Of My Affection" that was then turned into a less than wonderful film by the same name. Saved only by the appearance on screen of the very delicious Paul Rudd. (As seen below in a still from the movie, accompanied by an unknown mystery woman, probably an extra.)



Although, I prefer to think of him more like this (slightly NSFW if you work for a Big Christian Charity, but the rest of you should be fine).

Anyhoo, having finished said book I was in the market for another book (desperately so, otherwise I would have been reduced to organising and perhaps even alphabeticising the rubber gloves/disposable aprons/incontinence pads cupboard). Only a block and a half from my new office is a surprisingly good second-hand bookstore and I purchased the 'young adult fiction'* novel "Northern Lights", the first in the "His Dark Materials" series. Loving it.

I know it's kind of a futile debate, comparing one author to another, but although I enjoyed for the most part the Harry Potter books, this is much more my style. Darker. Gothic-y.

So the novel is particularly in my forebrain at the moment, given that I'm around two-thirds of the way through it. I was very pleased to spot, via Web-Goddess, that there are a bunch of sneak peek pics online of the upcoming movie. Looks good, pretty close to the way I imagined the scenes to look. Hopefully it will follow the recent tradition of thoughtful adaptations and stay close to the book. The book isn't huge and is quite well paced, so should hopefully not require significant trimming to fit into a cinematic format. Cool.

* That's me, right? Young adult? I chose to believe so, I mean, if they are going to bandy those terms around without specifying their parameters then it's open to interpretation, if you ask me.

AWOL

Hey there chickens, remember me? Not that I'm inferring you all have ADD-like short attention spans or something, but I automatically assume out of sight out of mind, you know?

I still don't have any computer network access, fax or internet at my office. Can you even imagine? Yesterday they hooked us up with a temporary phone line, and given that I was in the office alone (like all on my own with nothing to do and nobody to talk to) you can believe I worked that phone for the rest of the afternoon. Were it not for the fact that I work for a Big Christian Charity you can also believe that I'd be hitting the 1800-HOTGUYS4U or 1800-HOTJOCKS, *cough* or whatever they're called, just to liven up the afternoon. (Can you imagine the apoplexy if they saw that on the phone bill?) Instead I read an entire novel, re-labelled all my already neat files, arranged and rearranged everything... rivetting, non?

By the time I've gotten home from a long exhaustive day of filing my nails, writing To Do Lists for the next 10 years of my life, and making a detailed plan on how to form a loving lasting relationship with Justin Theroux, I've been too exhausted to blog from home. Not to mention the fact that I have an ENORMOUS and engaging social life right now.

Today I've gone into another office for a couple of hours, so my first thought of course is you. It's all you, and only you in my world, you know that. Oh, except for the big chunk that's all about me, of course.

Footnotes & Addenda On Previous Posts

1. Since I wrote about being largely unmoved by the film of "Rent" I went back and watched the commentary on the DVD, and the deleted scenes, and re-watched some of it. I blubbed during the alternate ending for the film, and actually enjoyed the bits I re-watched a lot more the second time around. I still don't think the film is all that great, but it's nice to know I don't completely have a cold, dead heart, right?
   
2. No scuttling, scrabbling or sudden 'corner of the eye' movement seems to indicate that my recent visitor is gone. And I know what you're thinking - but it's been hot and so far no smell, so I'm pretty sure he/she didn't bite the big one under my dishwasher, at least I really hope so.
   
3. As it turns out I was maybe a little premature in saying that it was
   already hot at 10am yesterday because it climbed to 38C by late afternoon. HOT.

It's Getting Hot In/Out Here

33C (91F in old money) at 10am, on a Spring morning? Good thing there's no truthiness in this Global Warming thing, right?

A Short(ish) Post On A Theme Of Eating & Drinking

I was of a mood to go out for a few bevvies last night and be in the company of my fellow homosexualists, so I rang up my friend Bernard* and arranged to meet at The Newtown Hotel. I hadn't eaten, and we all know that drinking on an empty stomach is a doubleplusungood shortcut to potential embarassment, so I heid off down the road into Newtown proper to grab something to eat. Newtown is well populated with restaurants and take-away joints, and I had a mind to try the taqueria that is So Hot Right Now. Unfortunately it turned out to also be So Packed Right Now with a queue right out the door. For tacos! Who knew?

I settled on Thai from the vegetarian Thai place. I normally avoid food that masquerades as something else, you know? "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" for starters. This Thai place specialises in bbq 'pork' and red curry 'chicken', to name just a few dishes. I threw caution to the wind and tucked into some I Can't Believe It's Not Peppered Beef and I Can't Believe It's Not Duck. Actually, very yummy, although in the back of my mind I was trying to fgure out just how you would make tofu etc resemble these things. The texture was spot on for starters. Sometimes I think too much, I decided.

Afterwards I saw the face of God, or at least had some sort of epiphany. Who knew that the one thing that had been missing from my life, that would make me whole and complete, would be... Green Apple & Ginger gelato. Thank you Jeebus! It was a stinking hot night and inside my mouth it was like a chilly perfect green apple, with a bit of zing.

I met up with Bernard and chanced upon a few other friends and we had a series of beverages at The Newtown, played Who's Cute? for a bunch of hours and watched a couple of generally disappointing drag shows. Bernard's boy (Seven Foot) Stewie had finished final dress rehearsal for the opera he is singing in (we're real gay 'round these parts) and was home, so Bernard and I went back to their place with a kilo of mixed chocolate icecream and a 6 pack of beers to hang out for a while. I could have done without the beer in hindsight, but you would have had to walk over my cold dead body to wrestle that bowl of 4 kinds of chocolate icecream from my hands. Just so you know. Bernard lives close by and I headed home about 1.30(ish), it wasn't too late a night. Good times.

* Oh, I know. The bitch could update that thing once in a while.

so anyways...

who around here thinks that two back-to-back double espressos is too much coffee because i'd really like someone to tell me if it really is or if i'm just making this up because it kind of feels like maybe i should have stopped at the first one oh and that's right i had a cup of instant too which i forgot about or at least tried to black out of my memory because it was kinda gross but what can you expect from instant anyway right?...

You Dirty Rat

I almost didn't post about this because I don't want you all to get the wrong idea about my living conditions, but here goes anyway...

I've posted a bit about my house here and there over the years, not enough to clue in any stalkers of course, but little tid bits. It's a tiny cottage, the sort that was inexpensive worker housing when it was originally built, in an inner city suburb of Sydney. Think the classic Sydney terrace house, but only a single story (if that helps). In the past 30 or so years my suburb has gone through the classic inner-city renewal, and like mine most of the homes in my street have been renovated and added to over the years. A living room and bathroom extension which was done by my landlords prior to my moving in has meant that it is still a fairly small house, but it's nice and comfortable. Some original features, polished floorboards etc, but modernised.

So, my point is that yes it's an old house but it ain't no filthy pit.

Anyhoo, I think I've set the scene. So last night I was watching tv,
Jamie's Kitchen to be exact (about the lead up to the opening of Fifteen in Melbourne) when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. A sort of scuttle. Two seconds later I was squealing like a virgin at a prison rodeo, as a rat quickly turned tail and shot back out of my living room into the kitchen. A rat. In my kitchen

My house has a few draughty gaps here and there where the old house meets the newer extension, ones that have been plugged as they've been discovered. Little hidden places where the creature might have found a tiny hole to squeeze through. I have had very little problem with any kind of pest, so it's not a regular occurance by any stretch of the imagination. The rat just got lucky, or unlucky perhaps.

So anyway, cue freak-out. I used to have a pet rat many years ago, and I think they are prefectly lovely creatures, but the idea of a wild one running through my house does freak me out. To make matters worse, post freak-out he (or she) must have managed to squeeze themselves somehow under the baseboards of my kitchen cupboards. Yup, I could hear it scrabbling around in there - but a cautious opening of all the cupboards revealed nothing. It was like underneath the dishwasher or something.

After an hour of so I then noticed silence. In one respect this is even more daunting, because when I could hear it I at east knew where it was. Best case scenario: it found it's way back out of my house the same way it came in, and it has gone off to live on a nice farm in the country. Worst case scenario: it was elsewhere in the house. Actually, the other bad, bad scenario would be if it had a massive coronary brought on by the shreaking of one very small, but very loud, queen and turned up it's toes - somewhere unreachable. ::shudder::

I inspected the rest of the house and couldn't find it, so eventually I went to bed... but not before I sealed up the gap under my bedroom door with one of those long sausage shaped draught excluders. Now I'm faced with the daunting moral dilemma of whether to buy baits or a trap, just in case it's still alive somewhere. I really don't want to kill it, it has a right to live as much as I do, but I don't like the idea of having it running around in my house. The hygiene of it especially. As it is, my kitchen is about to get the spring clean of a lifetime this weekend.

::shudder::

Anyone got any advice?

I Got The Music In Me

Last night was that precious rarity of late - a quiet night in. Just me and the tv.

I had left the office a couple of hours early, on account of the complete lack of any functioning office equipment meaning that I, well, basically had nothing to do (and normally I'm so thoroughly fine with that so long as My Friend The Internetz is to hand). Working in a new suburb, a new suburb filled with new shops, meant that I was powerless to resist the urge to do some Retail Therapy on the way home. Powerless. Not my fault. Those wily shopkeepers.

Anyhoo, I'm not too proud to admit to trawling the bargain bins of JB Hi-Fi. DVDs are like men, most satisfying when they're cheap and easy to lay your hands on. I missed seeing Rent when it was on at the movies here earlier this year, and never saw the stage musical, so when I saw it at like 75% off the original price I couldn't resist. Plus, you know, it being a musical and me being a big musical loving homo, plus the praise it got from other big homos, my curiosity was piqued.

I wouldn't say it blew exactly, but I struggled to get into it and was kinda underwhelmed. Don't start hating on me for not loving it - I'll give it another watch without prejudice, and try and picture myself in a darkened theatre with a full Big Gay Audience (and a Big Gay Cast), and see if my opinion is revised. Maybe I'll try a new drinking game, and do a shot everytime the lipsynching in the film is really, really obvious.

I would be very drunk by the closing credits.

Keeping to the evening's theme of music, I then tuned in to see who was voted off the island on Australian Idol, and of course the general public (aka 14 year old girls with mobile phone accounts and a serious case of texting induced thumb strain) again got it wrong. One of the best voices in the comp gone whilst the obvious choice to go, a teenage girl who has forever tunelessly wrecked my passion for the song "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, gets to sit on the Big Ugly Couch until next week. Ech, whatever.

The musical portion of the evening concluded and then it was on to The Biggest Loser. My verdict? Quite a moving and satisfying episode; what with the care packages from home, the missing out on the care packages from home, the lovefest on the Blue Team, the surprise loss (and subsequent lesson in over confidence) for the Blue Team. Grand themes.

I'm kind of gobsmacked at the numbers these people are losing though. I mean, I know 'water weight' and all that, but the numbers are HUGE. Can that be healthy? And, how can I get some of that action? Healthy or not. Trainer Bob I need you, seriously. Speaking of which, he just gets hotter to me every darn week - even with the mullet.

Afterwards I was channel surfing and saw that a gay comedy I saw a while back and enjoyed, the German film Balls, was starting on SBS. So of course I watched it again, staying up way too late and completely blowing my intention of an early night. It's such a sweet film, with two very charismatic leads, and is one of a handful of films I can think of that disprove the prejudice that "German" and "comedy" are words that make strange bedfellows.

Open Day. Open Smiles. Open Hearts.

It's way too early on Monday morning, but I woke up an hour earlier than I really needed to this this morning, and so decided maybe I shold put this time to some use. This early sunrise thing, someone really needs to fix that. Thankfully we start daylight savings time (aka Summer!) soon.

Besides, who knows if the telecommunications brownies will magic up a phone, fax and internet connection in our office today? It may well be another day of being disconnected.

Soooo. I hope you had a great weekend, because mine was pretty cool - and you know how I'd hate for you to feel left out, right? It was mostly about the Open Day at my Buddhist centre. It exceeded our expectations in that quite a lot of people turned up, and most importantly quite a lot of the local residents and our neighbours from the street.

Initially there was quite a bit of resistance from the residents and local council to our move into the neighbourhood; it's a very quiet street lined with beautifull big homes and they were worried about traffic volumes, noise and I guess general weirdness. So one main aim of demystifying the place and showing that we are interested in being part of the community was acheived. Lots of people came through and I got a chance to catch up with some students I hadn't seen for a while, and meet some new people, like some friend's of Bodhi's who came along to check the place out and attend some of the talks that were on. It was also really nice to have so many members of the Tibetan community in attendance also, and to have the opportunity to see some traditional musical performers.

The photo exhibition was an incredible success. It looked fantastic, everyone was very taken with how professional it looked and how beautiful the photos were. My aim was to make something interesting and beautiful for people to look at during the day, and to give some fellow photographers the opportunity to show their works, with any sales being a bonus. We sold lots, well beyond what I had hoped for. One of the photographers sold almost half his works, which is a great result for an exhibition.

After the open day I was pretty exhausted, but I girded my loins and rallied the troups and trekked over to the home of one of my Flickr buddies to celebrate his 30th birthday. He and his boyfriend put on a lovely spread of food and drink, and it was fun to spend the evening chatting with my Flickr peeps and geeking out with them by sitting down to watch the season finale of Dr Who.

I didn't do a lot yesterday but take myself out for breakfast, read the newspaper, do some laundry and basically relax. I had some tentative plans for the day, but I decided to just hang out and recharge the batteries. Which thankfully worked pretty well.

I'm having problems uploading photos from my cranky old home pc these days, but if the office internet is up and running later I'll post some pics from the weekend.

Well Hung

I snapped a few pics last night as we were hanging the photography exhibition for the Open Day at the Buddhist centre I attend.



This exhibition is my little pet project. My wee babee. It's great to see it coming together, and these pics aren't the best but it's looking rather fabulous. The large picture in the centre of the pic above is the eyes of Maitreya (the Buddha to come, or 'future Buddha') and the white silk 'khata' scarfe is a traditional Tibetan honourific.



There are 4 photographers in the exhibition with a range of works taken in Tibet, Nepal, India and Australia. Fantastic stuff.



I've been working with a professional hanger, also a student at our centre, and it's been long and tiring work but fun. Since I took these pics we have almost finished, just 4 more images to hang, the labels to mount on the walls, and a bit of obsessing with a spirit level to make sure everyhting is perfect, and it's done. A bit of tweaking of the catalogue for the exhibition is this afternoon's job and then tomorrow we open.

Pop in if you're in Sydney and feel like having a look. The Open Day goes from 10am - 4pm, and I'll be giving an opening address to the exhibition at 10.45am. The address is 9 Victoria Square, Ashfield.

So Now Go, Walk Out The Door, Don't Turn Around Now...

I heart my new office. I heart Fridays. I heart my boss.

I heart the fact that no computers (still) and no telephones (still) in the new office + the fact that it's Friday = being told to go home at lunch time on a full day's pay. That rocks.

Poor Amenities

I spent all day today with no 'phone, no computer and NO INTERWEB. It was positively medieval. We moved into our new office today, a cute little old sandstone cottage, and so when I wasn't unpacking something and cleaning something else I was staring longingly at my monitor thinking wither thou, interweb? I almost considered drawing a picture of at least one of my favourite haunts and taping it to the screen, just so I didn't feel so alone, you know?

Bad news is, Interweb is probably going to take a few more days. Isn't anyone going to hold me?

I Want Candy!

I swear I am not making this shit up...



Anyone for a Death Adder?

On the way back from delivering boxes to our new office we stopped off for some fortifying chocolate. You know I had to buy these as soon as I saw them, and then you know the first thing I had to do is photograph them. Read the ingredients, I sure as hell am not going to eat them.

A Little Something For The Gay Boys In Da' House

More of a celebration than a How-To Guide.

I Wasn't Built For Manual Labour

We're moving offices tomorrow and I've spent most of yesterday and all of this morning packing boxes. Me. Packing. Boxes. The indignity of it all.

Eh, truthfully it's no so bad. One of the first things to get packed up was my In Tray. I'm not stupid. Next to be packed, the incontinence underwear* and lastly the espresso machine. Priorities.

*Not mine, I'd like to add. We deal with the frail aged, it always pays to have some absorbent underwear to hand.

EatFest 2006

Even though this weekend was only a 3 day long weekend, somehow I think I managed to fit in about 6 day's worth of eating. Yeah gods, will I ever be thin again?



Saturday was a special BBQ to celebrateKris becoming an Aussie. Of course this meant novelty food, how could it not? Aside from the Fairy Bread (above) and the patriotic cocktail sticks (below) there were chocolate crackles and lots of yummy bbq.



It was a fabulous afternoon, lots of great company and laughs. The crowd was a mixed bag of Aussies and Americans, knitters and non-knitters, photographers and non-photographers, bloggers and non-bloggers, gay and straight... you name and we pretty much had that base covered. A small collection of my other photos from the afternoon are here.

On Sunday I went into the Buddhist centre early to start working on the photo exhibition for next weekend's open day, and the off to DV and Daen's house for a bbq. See where the food theme comes in? Yet. More. Eating.

One fact that was much in evidence at the bbq is that the great baby boom amongst my friends continues apace. Thankfully they all specialise in turning out incredibly cute ones, so no polite "My, what an interesting looking child!" comments are required.

Exhibit A: The gorgeous Mattias, who resembles nothing more than a Cupie Doll made flesh.



Exhibit B: Oliver, owner of the bluest of blue eyes.



It was a long, hot and lazy afternoon of eating, drinking and being amused by the antics of children... big...



...and small. It made for a perfect afternoon, and one that felt a lot more like Summer than Spring.

In order to prove that you can never ingest too many calories over a long weekend, I had a lovely lunch yesterday at a friend's house. After lunch we sat outside in his backyard for a while, soaking up the heat of the afternoon. Afterwards I headed back into the Buddhist centre to meet a photographer who was dropping off his photos for the exhibition next weekend, and I stayed there until early evening doing stuff in the bookshop.

What else would be the perfect end to a three day binge-fest? None other than last night's new season premiere of The Biggest Loser of course! Bring on the shame storm.