Thursday, August 18, 2005

my life is measured out in bagels [apols to ts eliot]

i have been sick. it hit me like a train on Tuesday morning. i couldn't get out of bed to start with, but then HAD to so i could get PSP off to school. i couldn't even get dressed so just pulled on bad tracksuit pants, tucked my nightie inside them so it looked all bunched around the waist [did i give a fuck?] and then drove her the short distance, trying not to crash because i couldn't really open my eyes properly.

then came back and got into bed with a fresh hottie. i felt so bad i couldn't even read much. i lay there, feeling sorry for myself, pissed off that i was not able to work [the transcription machine was sitting in the other room, hunched evilly on my table, laughing at me] i wasn't hungry [this is me near-death, dear reader] and i thought back to how smug i had been just a short time before as it seemed the dreaded melbourne plague had struck down person after person, and left my little household untouched. the dark angel would wing past our sleeping house, carrying her bad germs on to others. not visiting us.

i had to mop my floors before and still i was weak. so weak. so pathetic.

usually i am so robust it probably sickens others. i am a typical saggitarian. i find it hard to be around weak and ill people [steep learning curve there in compassion 101 with my mum], i can't understand when people are not bursting with energy and joie de vivre.

but i know when i'm feeling better because then, other more normal things start to invade my mind

like bagels

across the road and down from me is a shop. a bakery. but not just any bakery. it is a place run by an israeli family, and they make the most divine PROPER bagels, as well as a bunch of other stuff. there's a whole range of pastries and biscuits - baked cheese cake, cheese blintzes, chocolate babka, special bread, [including 'challa' which i mispronounced most shamefully and most non-jewishly the first time i bought it.]

then next door they've got a little eat-in restaurant. there's tuna and egg salad, the chicken schnitzel, meat balls, soups.

i hadn't had a bagel for days, so i walked down and got two [with sesame seeds] and a cheese blintz. i had never had a cheese blintz before. it was good.

then other things started entering my mind. like, i should write a blog. why are my white hand-towels always so dirty looking, even when they've just been washed? why is my hair so bouffy? where the fuck is my fatboy slim cd? why is everything in the newspaper so depressing? what should i cook for dinner?

this is the only way i can cope with today - break everything down into tiny bits. meditate on the small stuff. everything else is too big and hurts my head.

so here i am, transcribing machine turned on and ready. here's a picture of her, isn't she cute?

















note the hello kitty headphones. the ones i got from the shop are like forceps that kill my head after about 20 seconds

11 comments:

LadyCracker said...

I love this machine. So much better than my crapppy one.

To help soothe your mind I will try to answer you questions

Yes write a blog post - why not?

Hand towels always look dirty something to do with perceptions of guests I reckon.

Your hair is bouffy because you are an angel and this is god's way of giving you a halo.

The fatboy slim CD is under you driver side seat


the newspaer is depressing because we are living in a very sad time. I suggest NW for life relief.

For dinner please cook toasted brown bread with plum sauce, brie or blue cheese and avocado

LadyCracker said...

Life relief I meant Lite. (sigh)

Aleks - Anarcho-Syndicalist said...

Mmmm, Chocolate Babka. Your food post didn't have me drooling, but the mention of Chocolate Babka did. I must remember to beg my Mother to make one this weekend; she hasn't in a long time.

Just a note on Babkas, they are not an exclusive Jewish cake, but a Slavic Polish and Polish Jewish Cake that both groups make because at one time 90% of the worlds Jews lived in Poland.

Glad to here you are feeling better. I know the feeling of smugness to the sick. Up until a few weeks ago I hadn't taken a sick day off work in 4 years, and I let everybody know about it.

elaine said...

ladycracker, NW is life relief as well as lite relief.

And my vote for dinner is soup. A hearty vegetable and so easy. chuck everything in a pot, add stock, boil and leave. Topped with parmesan it is guaranteed to make you better with it's vitaminy goodness.

Melba said...

hey everyone

nw is a staple on my weekly shopping list anyway!! but it only last a day or two before it is devoured.

so when i get to thursday, it's the newspaper. and whichever book i'm on.

i like what you said about my hair, lc. thank you.

elaine i did soup last night, i am always doing soup. my mum is babysitting while i go out with girlfriends. i will be very quiet and demure because i am still feeling a little 'delicate'

aleks, thanks for the geo-political history of the babka. my people across the road put in a liqueur, which i don't like. i prefer the plain chocolate or the plain plain babka myself. DELICIOUS

see, it ALWAYS come back to food.

ps lc The Transcriber is a rental. nevermind. it helps me in my hour of need.

GS said...

welcome back - glad your appetite has returned. Its too late for dinner now, but i made a delicious veggie and fish red curry with brown rice. ( I figure the 'goodness' of the brown rice makes up for all the coconut milk :)

Darcy said...

I LOVE challa! I am obsessed with all things baked, flaky and pastryish at the moment. Obviously trying to put on a winter coat.

My Jewish step mother swears by chicken soup with mazzo balls for the sick. Perhaps your shop will make some for you?

Melba said...

ended up going back to the shop at dinner time and getting take away:

1. chicken schnitzel, mashed potato and green salad

2. kebab lamb in pita with hommus with lettuce and tomato

the first was for my mum who came to babysit, the second for PSP

first they had leftover soup from last night for entree.

it all worked out and i had an unsatisfactory duck leg confit on risotto at veludo's in acland st, fitzroy. at least it was cheap.

AND the news of the night. one of my girlfriends and her hubby have bought a holiday FARM in kilmore. it has a lake, a tennis court, 40 acres and we are all so there.

how is that, to just decide on a whim to buy a holiday house, and then just do it. this time last week they weren't even thinking about it. huh.

Melba said...

make that acland st, st kilda

the duck was so bad i was trying to move it into another suburb

LadyCracker said...

well you have to be a careful with duck.

BEVIS said...

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY TO ME!

BEVIS