Tuesday, August 08, 2006
the underpant poll - results
this is a non-discriminatory blog. it is not the author’s wish to pathologise in any way the underpant-wearing conventions of the readers. some participants indicated they felt “abnormal” for wearing underpants to bed. if you feel that you, or a loved one, may be distressed by this, please seek professional help.
Abstract
The intention of this research project was to investigate the underpant-wearing conventions of a sample of bloggers, with specific reference to their bed-time attire. The genesis of this study lies in a conversation which the researcher was involved in a couple of weeks ago, where she was challenged by others present; simply that not wearing underpants to bed was somehow not the normal thing to do. The discussion was initiated after the researcher laughed at the idea of someone wearing underpants under pyjamas, which was met with howls of “of course, that’s what you do! you HAVE to wear underpants underneath your py-JAMAS!”
As the challengers were catholics, and all came from the same family, this researcher decided to take the question to a wider group of people. Participants were asked to volunteer information on two questions:
1. whether they wear underpants to bed
2. what religion they are
Data were collected in the form of comments, and using qualitative methods (Miles & Huberman, 2000), were analysed in an attempt to tease out themes and patterns. A visual data matrix was constructed* which enabled these themes to be cross-referenced, so that conclusions could be drawn.
Participants
The size of the sample group was 53 participants including glenn’s wife.
Results
After careful analysis** of the data volunteered by the 53 participants, several statements can be made. It is important to note that the researcher has made some assumptions, which she will defend if readers wish to criticise. Following is the major assumption:
- citing that you wear undies to bed with a t-shirt if you are a girl does not count as wearing undies to bed. This researcher feels that while technically this sort of answer would be included in the “affirmative undie-wearing” class of respondents, in this case the underpant has become something other than underwear. It has become like shorts, or similar. In this way, the researcher has chosen to count as primary “affirmative undie-wearing” data only those participants who explicitly state that they wear undies under pyjamas. Secondary “affirmative undie-wearing data” includes people who wear undies under nighties, as distinct again from people who wear undies with a t or another top.
31 people stressed they wore no undies to bed. Of these, some said they would occasionally wear undies, if at someone else’s house.
15 people said they wore undies, this ranged from wearing them under pjs, to just wearing undies (mostly men), or wearing undies with a t-shirt (5 people)
Of the undie-wearers, several (3) emphasised the underwear was clean.
"when you’re on your ladytime"
I had trouble deciding whether the above quotation, or “when the painters are in”, was the more delightfully quaint euphemism for menstruation. Nevertheless, 6 respondents specified that while they were non-undie wearing sleepers, they would wear undies when they had their periods.
the converts
There were three stated converts, who have moved from undie-wearing at night-time, to not. Cuntman shared with us a story of how he slept with undies under pjs until a somewhat traumatic caravan holiday he had with friends. The 8-year-old was deemed “wrongheaded” by his friend’s family who then “made” him do the “nocturnal freeballing”. Cuntman is, however, glad they did. Now he would prefer to sleep naked, but kids in the bed make this difficult.
Another convert who also said she was glad she had changed her ways was michellesarah, who stated that she used to wear pjs with undies, but recently did a similar poll amongst friends, realised she was “abnormal” (michellesarah’s own words”, and changed. As michellesarah said:
“feel much better for it, actually. Shits got time to BREATHE. I wear baggy PJ pants. Yo!”
Clokeeey was another participant who also stated he used to wear undies under pjs but recently has changed this practice. He offers no indication of whether this has been a positive experience, or indeed whether the choice was fully made by him.
“a good airing”
Finally, one theme that emerged from this study was that mothers had told their daughters to not wear underpants to bed, as they needed (presumably) to air their vulvas. Some cited that it’s the “most hygienic option” while others (6) came right out and stated that they don’t wear underpants to bed because they need to air “down there” and specifically, their mothers had told them that. Anne Altman was perhaps the most evangelical about this issue, saying:
“[you’re] not supposed to wear underpants to bed”
“shit’s gotsta breathe”
Anne even invokes jesus, saying “no doubt jesus didn’t wear underpants to bed.”
Interesting anomalies, further research ideas
- some people indicated that undie wearing was connected to whether a person was a morning or evening showerer.
- the issue of hygiene was raised by a couple of undie-wearers, which directly contradicts the non-undie wearers following mother-advice.
- yublocka shared that she has a kind of underpant-demotion system, where once day-time undies get a bit ratty, they move into the job of night-time underpant and then eventually get thrown away. it would be interesting to see whether this featured in any other participants’ selection systems.
- dj stated that even when he was a child, he would take off his clothes in bed “seconds after” he was tucked in by his parents. it would be interesting to explore whether patterns were set early on, whether they have changed over time, and what factors have influenced any conventions.
- the man at the pub stated that while he had a “no undie wearing in bed” policy in his household, for lovemaking reasons, “oddly, a warm jumper is acceptable on a chilly night”. interestingly, delightfuljen also stated sometimes wearing a jumper to bed. is this a trend?
- nailpolishblues stated that “at the most – socks” were worn. it would be interesting to do a follow-up study on socks in bed.
Conclusion
The religion aspect of this study quickly became irrelevant. Anecdotally, there seems to be no evidence to support my original hypothesis that catholics would be more likely to wear underpants under their pyjamas. Thanks to everyone who shared about their religious connections.
Postnote
The weird coincidence that I mentioned a couple of days ago is this. Someone told me that at their work-place, people had been discussing this issue: ie, wearing underpants to bed or not. This was kind of freaky, and I wondered whether it was someone who’d read this blog, making their own little poll. I’ve never heard of a blog bleeding into real life in that way.
* this is a lie.
** this is also a bit of a lie. But the results speak for themselves.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
only four to go
thanks to everyone who has contributed to the poll on whether people wear their underwear to bed. i am busily working through all the data while john watches the footy. i still need, however, FOUR more participants. then i will have my even 50, an ample sample.
the next post to follow will not be a comment on the dog that ravaged teddy bears, nor on the fucked-upness of lebanon and israel. it won't be a piece on the racist-tool quotient of mel gibson, nor will it contain any narrative on how much i want to EAT A FUCKING BANANA!
it will be all about the poll. who wears what and why. i will try to draw some conclusions, and answer any questions that people have had about the origins of the study. plus something interesting, and perhaps not so coincidental, that happened during the week, relating to the study.
so four more people. to please say whether you ordinarily wear underpants to bed. and in what manner. or not.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
two women. one lebanese, one israeli.
these are emails i've received through a newsgroup i belong to.
the first one is from liza barki-harrington, a jewish woman living in israel. The second is from zena el-khalil, a lebanese woman living in lebanon.
interesting reading.
first, from liza in israel:
Hi,
Thanks for everyone writing and asking about us. I decided to write an update of what it all looks like from my perspective (not a news agency). So I appologize that this is not a pesonal email.
First of all, I finally surrendered to ongoing pressure from the south and left Haifa for Beer Sheva tonight. This was after Haifa was hit by 10 rockets today, one of which hit a 3 story building. I was at the universityand heard them falling. The Haifa area is particularly dangerous because of the petro-chemical industries and oil refinery located right at the foot of Mt Carmel and surrounding area of over 270,000 people. Since people are being pretty obedient about entering the shelters, no one was killed today.
By the 6th day, the northern part of Israel has been hit by over 1500 rockets and missiles targeting dozens of cities and villages, Jewish and Arab alike. Up until now, our toll count is 13 civilians and 12 soldiers killed. In addition we have 3 kidnapped soldiers, one in Gaza (by Hamas) and 2 in Lebanon.
I think the Hizballah were very surprised by the force of retaliation of IDF. They said they identify a weakness in Israel and that is the "great regard for human life"and that is why they kidnap soldiers. They thought we'd immediately engage in negotiations and refrain from attacking them.
However, it seems that Olmert and Peretz ( P.M. and Minister of Defense), who are not former army generals for a change, are doing a good job at staying calm, quiet and are letting the army do its job. The army is attacking only Hizballah infrastructure and rocket/missiles launchers.
It must be understood that Hizballah are Shiites that use the locals' homes/schools, sport facilities etc to hide an arsenal of over 10,000 rockets and missles, some with a range of over 100 miles. IDF continually warns the local population of areas that are going to be targeted (bridges, Hizballah neighborhoods etc). None the less, any attemptsof the Lebanese or Syrian army to help Hizballah are stopped immediately.
It was the Lebanese Army that used their radars to give Hizballah the exact location of one of our ships, which led to the death of 4 soldiers. These radars do not exist any longer. This is a wide operation that we hope will put an end to the violence of Hizballah against Israel and against Lebanon. Not one country in the Arab world is supporting them because they bring harm not only to us but also to our neighbor. It is that clear understanding that "enough is enough" that brings Israel to refuse negotiations to release prisoners and to accept the on going assaults by Hizballah.
We have reached the point where we are all united in our understanding that we must endure the on going missile attacks on Haifa and other cities so that the army can do its job and make them understand that enough is enough. We are not cold blooded killers that target innocent people but we cannot and will not accept this any longer. So personally, we are ok. Now all of us are in Beer Sheva. I suppose living in the south of Israel has to be justified… however, having had a just a taste of what the habitants of the border cities in Israel are subject to throughout the years on a daily basis makes you appreciate them more. I hope these days will be over soon, with as little innocent casualties on both sides. However, we will endure whatever necessary so that Hizballah understands that this is not the way to talk to us.
Thanks again for writing and please stay in touch,
Liza.
---------------------------
now, from zena in lebanon:
Dear Friends,
The account by Ms. Zena el-Khalil was sent to me via a Turkish-Lebanese friend of mine in Istanbul. She sent it on Friday, July 28th, several days before the unfortunate attack on Qana.
Stuart
From Zena el-Khalil: I have started coughing, but I don't know why. I am not sick. I don't have a cold. I think it's a reaction I'm having to stress. My body feels weak. My mouth is always dry, no matter how much water I drink. And I'm afraid to drink too much water because I don't want it to run out!
Last night was probably the most frightful night I have ever experienced in my whole entire life. I was so tired and exhausted... have not slept in days. When there is finally a quiet moment, the tension in my stomach and heart prevents me from falling asleep.
Last night we counted at least 15 bombs falling into Dahiyeh (Beirut Suburbs).. and these were just the ones we heard. At some point during the night, I said to myself that if I didn't at least try to get some sleep that I was going to go crazy from fatigue; and that that was what was going to kill me. Haven't been able to eat either, so am losing physical strength. It's all psychological at this point. I know I have to be strong, and I will be, but I can't deny what I’m going through.
And I think it's important that people hear about the downside as well as the bravery. So many of us are already working hard to fix things, we are running around Beirut trying to get food and water and medicine to people, we are doing things online, etc, but it doesn't mean we are not scared, sick or tired.So, last night amidst the worst shelling we've had so far, I realized that I was not afraid of the noise anymore; how quickly you get used to it. I realized what was hurting the most was the "UNKNOWN". What is going to happen tomorrow? When will this all end? How are we going to start re-building again? Are the refugees going to be ok? How are the people in the south? And why punish a whole country? What is the real plan behind all of this? How much worse is it going to get?
My husband and I have been housing foreign "refugees" helping them to find their way out of the country. Two managed to leave this morning, a German and Swiss. The other two are British and American. The craziest thing is that out of all people, the American embassy has been the LEAST helpful to its citizens here. The phone line to the embassy has been practically out of service. My friend, Amanda, (whom I just met a few days ago, by the way) had to hire a cab to take her to the embassy (which is a ride out of Beirut) and all they could tell her was that they didn’t know what they were going to do and to keep checking the website. Only thing she has gotten on the website is that she now knows that there is going to be an evacuation (5 days later), but when it happens, she is going to have to pay for it! Yes, they are saying to their citizens that they are going to bill them for their ride out! Can you believe that?!
Trying to evacuate people has put me under stress. The question is what am I to do if I had the opportunity to leave? Would I leave? What do I do with my friends? My family? My art studio? I have a British passport; I could be evacuated with my husband. But what would happen to my best friend Maya? She has a very rare and bad case of CANCER! I have been taking care of her since she was diagnosed a few months ago and I know that my care for her is what has helped her do so well. Her type of cancer is "untreatable", but ironically, the day the shelling started, her doctor told us her tumors had shrunk! Unbelievable- a true miracle. I can't leave Maya!What about art work in my studio? What about all my brushes and paints and glitter and books! All my books! Again- the crazy things that cross your mind. What about our photo albums? All our family pictures? The memories...What about the doodles I drew on my balcony a few summers ago when I was suffering from a bad break up? What about all the love letters I have saved? Letters that document my youth that I wanted to some day give to my daughter.
What about my other best friend? My dog, Tampopo? My beautiful Jack Russel Terrier who has never let me down. Who has always been a source of purity and compassion... Who has eyes of an angle... Dogs are not allowed to evacuate. My American friend Christine is going to have to leave her dog with me; a black pug named Baousi (means Kiss in Arabic). She is heartbroken! She almost didn't want to evacuate. She went to so many embassies to try and register with them and see if they would take her dog. Don't worry Christine, I will take great care of Baousi.
My sister has been volunteering to help the refugees who are being sheltered in public schools. Right now they are calling on Lebanese citizens to help out with money, medicine, food, water, blankets and mattresses. She has been going to people and asking for money and then going out to buy medicines for refugees- her own initiative! My mom has joined in too. A friend has put together a website for accepting donations:http://atrissi.com/helplebanon/
Biggest cynical statement of the day: I
srael has told people to evacuate from the south because they are going to annihilate the south of Lebanon. However, the people can not leave because all the roads have been destroyed/blocked. And yesterday when people did try and leave, the Israelis opened fire on them! A massacre is happening!
Update on the attacks, as of yesterday:
- Israelis have been bombing the south of Lebanon with phosphorus and other chemical bombs.
- Israelis have bombed all ports along the coastline of Lebanon.
- Israelis have bombed all our local army radars and some outposts
- Israelis have bombed/attacked the fire fighting brigade and the Search and Rescue Brigade in the South. Innocent civilian lives were lost. It was a massacre - the buildings were also housing refugees.
- Israelis have continued to bomb the suburb of Beirut, Dahiyeh & Haret Hreik
- Israelis have now killed over 100 civilians and there are several hundreds wounded - and they continue to bomb the south
- Israelis have started hitting roads that lead to the mountains. They hit a main one leading to the Shouf.
- Israelis have hit a gas plant in the mountains... I can't keep up with what they have hit. ***
Israel has begun to target Lebanese army outposts. They have killed Lebanese soldiers. They are no longer just targeting Hizuballah. They mean to kill all of Lebanon.
The reality: Israel is trying to bring Lebanon to its knees. Israel is trying to destroy Lebanon and the Lebanese spirit. Israel is trying to turn Lebanese against each other. Israel is trying to turn us into animals scrounging for food, water and shelter.
Israel and the United States of America are trying to drag Syria and Iran into this too. They are using Lebanon as bait. Lebanon is stuck in the middle. The Americans and Israelis are trying to launch a regional war!!
Please help in any way you can.
Please pass on the message, this email - reprint if you wish.
Please tell people what is going on.
Please put pressure on your respective governments to step in and do something.
Lebanon is a peaceful country. We are the only country in the region in which people of all religions co-exist peacefully.It is unbelievable how biased the news is. They are not reporting the real damage being caused. They don’t report that the Israelis are killing innocent civilians. It seems from this end that all they are focusing on is G8!
Are the Israeli & US government really just trying to wipe us all out?? Well, you can tell them that I'm not leaving. And there are many of us who are not leaving. We love Lebanon. We love what we have spent our lives building. Tell them about people like me.. who build culture and tolerance. Who work for peace and understanding. Who work to educate. Who work to promote love and compassion. There are thousands like me here. What about us?Tell them about people like me, that despite all of this, I have still not learnt to hate. They can take everything from me, but not my dignity. Not my morals and beliefs.
They will never never break my spirit.
Tell the Israeli citizens what their government is doing to us. Tell them that violence begets violence. Remind them that Lebanon is their neighbor and that co-existence is possible. How are we going to ever reach an understanding through violence? We were so close... We were so close...
Please stop this brutality!
Still with love, Zena el-Khalil.
the first one is from liza barki-harrington, a jewish woman living in israel. The second is from zena el-khalil, a lebanese woman living in lebanon.
interesting reading.
first, from liza in israel:
Hi,
Thanks for everyone writing and asking about us. I decided to write an update of what it all looks like from my perspective (not a news agency). So I appologize that this is not a pesonal email.
First of all, I finally surrendered to ongoing pressure from the south and left Haifa for Beer Sheva tonight. This was after Haifa was hit by 10 rockets today, one of which hit a 3 story building. I was at the universityand heard them falling. The Haifa area is particularly dangerous because of the petro-chemical industries and oil refinery located right at the foot of Mt Carmel and surrounding area of over 270,000 people. Since people are being pretty obedient about entering the shelters, no one was killed today.
By the 6th day, the northern part of Israel has been hit by over 1500 rockets and missiles targeting dozens of cities and villages, Jewish and Arab alike. Up until now, our toll count is 13 civilians and 12 soldiers killed. In addition we have 3 kidnapped soldiers, one in Gaza (by Hamas) and 2 in Lebanon.
I think the Hizballah were very surprised by the force of retaliation of IDF. They said they identify a weakness in Israel and that is the "great regard for human life"and that is why they kidnap soldiers. They thought we'd immediately engage in negotiations and refrain from attacking them.
However, it seems that Olmert and Peretz ( P.M. and Minister of Defense), who are not former army generals for a change, are doing a good job at staying calm, quiet and are letting the army do its job. The army is attacking only Hizballah infrastructure and rocket/missiles launchers.
It must be understood that Hizballah are Shiites that use the locals' homes/schools, sport facilities etc to hide an arsenal of over 10,000 rockets and missles, some with a range of over 100 miles. IDF continually warns the local population of areas that are going to be targeted (bridges, Hizballah neighborhoods etc). None the less, any attemptsof the Lebanese or Syrian army to help Hizballah are stopped immediately.
It was the Lebanese Army that used their radars to give Hizballah the exact location of one of our ships, which led to the death of 4 soldiers. These radars do not exist any longer. This is a wide operation that we hope will put an end to the violence of Hizballah against Israel and against Lebanon. Not one country in the Arab world is supporting them because they bring harm not only to us but also to our neighbor. It is that clear understanding that "enough is enough" that brings Israel to refuse negotiations to release prisoners and to accept the on going assaults by Hizballah.
We have reached the point where we are all united in our understanding that we must endure the on going missile attacks on Haifa and other cities so that the army can do its job and make them understand that enough is enough. We are not cold blooded killers that target innocent people but we cannot and will not accept this any longer. So personally, we are ok. Now all of us are in Beer Sheva. I suppose living in the south of Israel has to be justified… however, having had a just a taste of what the habitants of the border cities in Israel are subject to throughout the years on a daily basis makes you appreciate them more. I hope these days will be over soon, with as little innocent casualties on both sides. However, we will endure whatever necessary so that Hizballah understands that this is not the way to talk to us.
Thanks again for writing and please stay in touch,
Liza.
---------------------------
now, from zena in lebanon:
Dear Friends,
The account by Ms. Zena el-Khalil was sent to me via a Turkish-Lebanese friend of mine in Istanbul. She sent it on Friday, July 28th, several days before the unfortunate attack on Qana.
Stuart
From Zena el-Khalil: I have started coughing, but I don't know why. I am not sick. I don't have a cold. I think it's a reaction I'm having to stress. My body feels weak. My mouth is always dry, no matter how much water I drink. And I'm afraid to drink too much water because I don't want it to run out!
Last night was probably the most frightful night I have ever experienced in my whole entire life. I was so tired and exhausted... have not slept in days. When there is finally a quiet moment, the tension in my stomach and heart prevents me from falling asleep.
Last night we counted at least 15 bombs falling into Dahiyeh (Beirut Suburbs).. and these were just the ones we heard. At some point during the night, I said to myself that if I didn't at least try to get some sleep that I was going to go crazy from fatigue; and that that was what was going to kill me. Haven't been able to eat either, so am losing physical strength. It's all psychological at this point. I know I have to be strong, and I will be, but I can't deny what I’m going through.
And I think it's important that people hear about the downside as well as the bravery. So many of us are already working hard to fix things, we are running around Beirut trying to get food and water and medicine to people, we are doing things online, etc, but it doesn't mean we are not scared, sick or tired.So, last night amidst the worst shelling we've had so far, I realized that I was not afraid of the noise anymore; how quickly you get used to it. I realized what was hurting the most was the "UNKNOWN". What is going to happen tomorrow? When will this all end? How are we going to start re-building again? Are the refugees going to be ok? How are the people in the south? And why punish a whole country? What is the real plan behind all of this? How much worse is it going to get?
My husband and I have been housing foreign "refugees" helping them to find their way out of the country. Two managed to leave this morning, a German and Swiss. The other two are British and American. The craziest thing is that out of all people, the American embassy has been the LEAST helpful to its citizens here. The phone line to the embassy has been practically out of service. My friend, Amanda, (whom I just met a few days ago, by the way) had to hire a cab to take her to the embassy (which is a ride out of Beirut) and all they could tell her was that they didn’t know what they were going to do and to keep checking the website. Only thing she has gotten on the website is that she now knows that there is going to be an evacuation (5 days later), but when it happens, she is going to have to pay for it! Yes, they are saying to their citizens that they are going to bill them for their ride out! Can you believe that?!
Trying to evacuate people has put me under stress. The question is what am I to do if I had the opportunity to leave? Would I leave? What do I do with my friends? My family? My art studio? I have a British passport; I could be evacuated with my husband. But what would happen to my best friend Maya? She has a very rare and bad case of CANCER! I have been taking care of her since she was diagnosed a few months ago and I know that my care for her is what has helped her do so well. Her type of cancer is "untreatable", but ironically, the day the shelling started, her doctor told us her tumors had shrunk! Unbelievable- a true miracle. I can't leave Maya!What about art work in my studio? What about all my brushes and paints and glitter and books! All my books! Again- the crazy things that cross your mind. What about our photo albums? All our family pictures? The memories...What about the doodles I drew on my balcony a few summers ago when I was suffering from a bad break up? What about all the love letters I have saved? Letters that document my youth that I wanted to some day give to my daughter.
What about my other best friend? My dog, Tampopo? My beautiful Jack Russel Terrier who has never let me down. Who has always been a source of purity and compassion... Who has eyes of an angle... Dogs are not allowed to evacuate. My American friend Christine is going to have to leave her dog with me; a black pug named Baousi (means Kiss in Arabic). She is heartbroken! She almost didn't want to evacuate. She went to so many embassies to try and register with them and see if they would take her dog. Don't worry Christine, I will take great care of Baousi.
My sister has been volunteering to help the refugees who are being sheltered in public schools. Right now they are calling on Lebanese citizens to help out with money, medicine, food, water, blankets and mattresses. She has been going to people and asking for money and then going out to buy medicines for refugees- her own initiative! My mom has joined in too. A friend has put together a website for accepting donations:http://atrissi.com/helplebanon/
Biggest cynical statement of the day: I
srael has told people to evacuate from the south because they are going to annihilate the south of Lebanon. However, the people can not leave because all the roads have been destroyed/blocked. And yesterday when people did try and leave, the Israelis opened fire on them! A massacre is happening!
Update on the attacks, as of yesterday:
- Israelis have been bombing the south of Lebanon with phosphorus and other chemical bombs.
- Israelis have bombed all ports along the coastline of Lebanon.
- Israelis have bombed all our local army radars and some outposts
- Israelis have bombed/attacked the fire fighting brigade and the Search and Rescue Brigade in the South. Innocent civilian lives were lost. It was a massacre - the buildings were also housing refugees.
- Israelis have continued to bomb the suburb of Beirut, Dahiyeh & Haret Hreik
- Israelis have now killed over 100 civilians and there are several hundreds wounded - and they continue to bomb the south
- Israelis have started hitting roads that lead to the mountains. They hit a main one leading to the Shouf.
- Israelis have hit a gas plant in the mountains... I can't keep up with what they have hit. ***
Israel has begun to target Lebanese army outposts. They have killed Lebanese soldiers. They are no longer just targeting Hizuballah. They mean to kill all of Lebanon.
The reality: Israel is trying to bring Lebanon to its knees. Israel is trying to destroy Lebanon and the Lebanese spirit. Israel is trying to turn Lebanese against each other. Israel is trying to turn us into animals scrounging for food, water and shelter.
Israel and the United States of America are trying to drag Syria and Iran into this too. They are using Lebanon as bait. Lebanon is stuck in the middle. The Americans and Israelis are trying to launch a regional war!!
Please help in any way you can.
Please pass on the message, this email - reprint if you wish.
Please tell people what is going on.
Please put pressure on your respective governments to step in and do something.
Lebanon is a peaceful country. We are the only country in the region in which people of all religions co-exist peacefully.It is unbelievable how biased the news is. They are not reporting the real damage being caused. They don’t report that the Israelis are killing innocent civilians. It seems from this end that all they are focusing on is G8!
Are the Israeli & US government really just trying to wipe us all out?? Well, you can tell them that I'm not leaving. And there are many of us who are not leaving. We love Lebanon. We love what we have spent our lives building. Tell them about people like me.. who build culture and tolerance. Who work for peace and understanding. Who work to educate. Who work to promote love and compassion. There are thousands like me here. What about us?Tell them about people like me, that despite all of this, I have still not learnt to hate. They can take everything from me, but not my dignity. Not my morals and beliefs.
They will never never break my spirit.
Tell the Israeli citizens what their government is doing to us. Tell them that violence begets violence. Remind them that Lebanon is their neighbor and that co-existence is possible. How are we going to ever reach an understanding through violence? We were so close... We were so close...
Please stop this brutality!
Still with love, Zena el-Khalil.
Monday, July 31, 2006
i'm waiting on another 20 or so pollsters to kindly leave their comment on my undie poll below
but in the meantime, evidence the world has gone crazy.
i didn't even know this existed, until now.
what's your blog worth on the "fantasy blog stock market"
http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fmelbgirltakeonthings.blogspot.com%2F
also i really really want to buy the red espadrilles from husk. just looking at them makes me feel summer is on the way.
i didn't even know this existed, until now.
what's your blog worth on the "fantasy blog stock market"
http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fmelbgirltakeonthings.blogspot.com%2F
also i really really want to buy the red espadrilles from husk. just looking at them makes me feel summer is on the way.
Friday, July 28, 2006
friday poll - I NEED HELP (please)
last night, i found myself in a conversation where i was outnumbered, four to one, on the following question:
do you wear your underwear to bed?
this means, explicitly, do you keep on your underpants in bed, either under pyjama bottoms, or a nightie. or do you take them off, and then put on your pyjama pants or nightie, or whatever.
now, i don't, as a rule, wear my undies to bed. by the end of the day, they need to be in the dirty linen basket. but the people i was with all most strenuously and loudly argued the undies have to stay on.
men and women.
catholics all.
i would like to know what readers think about this. if i can get 50 people to tell me their position on this question, next time i see these people i can either validate them, or myself. if possible, i would like to be able to group results, ie if you can indicate basically what you wear to bed, varieties if any. and also, if you wouldn't mind, an indication of whether you are catholic or not.
is that too much to ask? forget the religion bit if it offends thee.
and i promise i'm not a pervert. i'm just curious. and a compulsive researcher.
have a great weekend.
* i thought maybe they've been trained to keep as many layers of fabric between themselves and their hands at all times. whereas, in my family, non-practising church of englanders, anglicans now? my parents walked around in the nude, well from shower to bedroom. there was no coyness. to the point where one of my childhood gags with the kids down the street was to mimic my dad and his swinging penis. the penis was simulated first with fingers, then with a ruler until finally the joke got out of control and i remember doing the dad walk with a rake swinging from side to side. of course, there was a silly noise that went with this visual. kind of a duh-duh-duh in time to the swinging movement. i hasten to add the neighbours never SAW dad's nude walk, as performed by him; but it was my duty to reveal all sorts of secret-family business to my friends. what is princess telling her friends about me? actually, i was reading her homework book and she was putting words in sentences. this was one of her sentences:
smooth. My dad's hair is soft and smooth but my mum's hair isn't.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
tim fischer, i think i love you.
tim fischer has got it down. the man is talking sense.
he's saying israel is targeting civilians and the un positions. he says it's happened before, that israel bombed/missiled a un outpost in exactly the same place as the one done a few days ago. the previous time 104 fijian un peacekeepers were killed. he said, there is "form" on this subject, and there is a "rogue element" in the israeli "military machine." he also said he is getting lots of emails from israel-supporters, which is what always happens when anyone speaks out against israel, the government. not israel, the people. [this is not necessarily in the article above; i heard him on the radio. and apart from him not being able to pronounce 'reco[G]nise' he was pretty damn good.]
anyway, it's just not like me to agree with a national party politician. because i'm one-eyed, biased and clearly can't look at both sides of an argument. i also like to wholly embrace stereotypes, and paint all people with the same conservative brush, including alot of labor people.
things that have shitted me so far today:
have you noticed the plastic bags in supermarkets are getting thinner? I KNOW, I KNOW, THE GREEN BAGS. stop shouting, i use those, but on the occasion where i have a leaky jar of golden syrup, like today, i ask for a separate plastic bag. so kill me. and then once i have that plastic bag, i want to load it up, make the fucker work in penance of the environmental havoc it is going to cost our planet. so in goes a bag of bread, in goes 2.5 kilos of meat, and then it starts to break.
the other thing that shits me, but not today [yet] is this. has anyone noticed that "verse" is now used as a verb? ok, we have geelong versus collingwood. and we have "verse" as a noun, ie writing some verse. but now kids of today are saying things like "we versed the other team and beat them". am i the only one who is being constantly deranged by this phenomenon? and it is a phenomenon. it is happening all over melbourne i bet. can we do a small survey? any readers with kids around melbourne please report back to me: do your kids say this? and in which region in melbourne do they go to school? you don't have to say the second bit if you don't want. and if you are overseas and have kids, is this travesty of english happening over there, wherever you are? do you correct your kids? i've corrected princess and she resists me, calls me old fashioned [this is like a slap in the face. moi? old-fashioned?] and says "that's what all the kids say. mum, move into the modern times!"
so, to my today.
i am not taking the gigi to dog training classes.
sad gigi.
i'm also not going to gym.
sad melbournegirl.
reason = i am sick, again, and this is another thing that's shitting me today.
what i am going to do is make boeuf bourgignon (again) and spaghetti bolognaise and upside-down pear cake (this is the best, people have orgasms when they eat this cake. really!). john's family are coming over for dinner. usually we go north to his parents' place on a thursday night for the big italiano feast. but his parents are away in qld having a holiday so i thought it would be nice to have his bro and family and sis and family down south to eat.
it was a good idea, but unfortunately my work has cranked up. the research stuff i am on top of, and thankfully i don't have to go into uni on monday for a meeting, but i am doing stuff for my brother as well, and he has a symposium he's organised at a uni interstate, and i am debugging his software as he writes it, as well as making edits to the userguide. it's really hard and makes my head hurt. i am a text girl, not a computer geek. though i try, and i can use latex and know a bit about using linux. i feel like a hacker when i talk like this. it's like that scene in a fish called wanda where john cleese is wooing jamie lee curtis with his russian and italian etc. and she is going wild. for some reason, hacker-talk does the same to me. i. don't. know. why.
anyway, away. to boeuf. to pears. to mozilla. and to the rest of the day.
he's saying israel is targeting civilians and the un positions. he says it's happened before, that israel bombed/missiled a un outpost in exactly the same place as the one done a few days ago. the previous time 104 fijian un peacekeepers were killed. he said, there is "form" on this subject, and there is a "rogue element" in the israeli "military machine." he also said he is getting lots of emails from israel-supporters, which is what always happens when anyone speaks out against israel, the government. not israel, the people. [this is not necessarily in the article above; i heard him on the radio. and apart from him not being able to pronounce 'reco[G]nise' he was pretty damn good.]
anyway, it's just not like me to agree with a national party politician. because i'm one-eyed, biased and clearly can't look at both sides of an argument. i also like to wholly embrace stereotypes, and paint all people with the same conservative brush, including alot of labor people.
things that have shitted me so far today:
have you noticed the plastic bags in supermarkets are getting thinner? I KNOW, I KNOW, THE GREEN BAGS. stop shouting, i use those, but on the occasion where i have a leaky jar of golden syrup, like today, i ask for a separate plastic bag. so kill me. and then once i have that plastic bag, i want to load it up, make the fucker work in penance of the environmental havoc it is going to cost our planet. so in goes a bag of bread, in goes 2.5 kilos of meat, and then it starts to break.
the other thing that shits me, but not today [yet] is this. has anyone noticed that "verse" is now used as a verb? ok, we have geelong versus collingwood. and we have "verse" as a noun, ie writing some verse. but now kids of today are saying things like "we versed the other team and beat them". am i the only one who is being constantly deranged by this phenomenon? and it is a phenomenon. it is happening all over melbourne i bet. can we do a small survey? any readers with kids around melbourne please report back to me: do your kids say this? and in which region in melbourne do they go to school? you don't have to say the second bit if you don't want. and if you are overseas and have kids, is this travesty of english happening over there, wherever you are? do you correct your kids? i've corrected princess and she resists me, calls me old fashioned [this is like a slap in the face. moi? old-fashioned?] and says "that's what all the kids say. mum, move into the modern times!"
so, to my today.
i am not taking the gigi to dog training classes.
sad gigi.
i'm also not going to gym.
sad melbournegirl.
reason = i am sick, again, and this is another thing that's shitting me today.
what i am going to do is make boeuf bourgignon (again) and spaghetti bolognaise and upside-down pear cake (this is the best, people have orgasms when they eat this cake. really!). john's family are coming over for dinner. usually we go north to his parents' place on a thursday night for the big italiano feast. but his parents are away in qld having a holiday so i thought it would be nice to have his bro and family and sis and family down south to eat.
it was a good idea, but unfortunately my work has cranked up. the research stuff i am on top of, and thankfully i don't have to go into uni on monday for a meeting, but i am doing stuff for my brother as well, and he has a symposium he's organised at a uni interstate, and i am debugging his software as he writes it, as well as making edits to the userguide. it's really hard and makes my head hurt. i am a text girl, not a computer geek. though i try, and i can use latex and know a bit about using linux. i feel like a hacker when i talk like this. it's like that scene in a fish called wanda where john cleese is wooing jamie lee curtis with his russian and italian etc. and she is going wild. for some reason, hacker-talk does the same to me. i. don't. know. why.
anyway, away. to boeuf. to pears. to mozilla. and to the rest of the day.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
creativity
[warning. what follows is long, rambling and self-indulgent. i hope you won't detest me for being too revealing. i never was good at playing elusive and hard-to-get.]
yesterday morning i woke up really early with period pains and couldn't get back to sleep. i got up. got some books from my bookshelf in the other room, one of which is the black book, by orhan pamuk.
i took panadol and i got back into bed and lay there in the dark with the books on my lap. i intended to put on the lamp and read, but didn't want to bother john.
i lay there in the dark, and somehow started thinking about a story i started writing about 6 or more years ago, when i was in istanbul last.
now that's a long time. 6 or more years, to have started a story, written 60,000 words, felt very pleased with alot of it, inspired and magical, and then to leave it.
there are reasons why i left it. it's like it came gushing out of me, like a torrent of words and ideas, then i dropped it. it didn't run dry. i turned away from it.
several things happened in quick succession that left me no space to write. no space to even contemplate.
my mother was with us in istanbul. she was diagnosed with cancer while we were there. suddenly, pleasant days filled with pottering, and drifting through bazaars and having lunch and absorbing the beauty and sounds and smells of sultanahmet became a jarring mesh of doctor visits, tense ferry rides, trying to keep positive, and worry.
we were given the diagnosis over the phone on christmas eve. our sad little christmas tree, which i had found down a cobbled and twisty alley way, sat fully decorated in the corner of the room. presents were beneath it. plans were made for the midday meal the next day.
it was horrific.
fast motion now. mum flew back to melbourne dec 27 or 28, for more tests and treatment. i struggled on in turkey, guilty and worried. princess struggled with her turkish childcare centre. my marriage was a disaster in itself.
i made the decision to come back to melbourne, in july of 2000. i had no idea of how much time my mum might have. we were careful not to ask that question. when i arrived back i developed pneumonia. my mum was very sick. alot of it was on my shoulders. then my husband came out around january 2001 and told me he wanted a divorce. this was a long time coming but the fact he said it in response to me saying i wanted another baby was pretty cruel. he left, princess had to deal with her parents splitting. my mother was sick, really sick. my sister was pregnant and couldn't really help much with mum. i had gotten a job within 3 weeks of coming home, a great job at a graphic design company where i was studio manager. it was cool, funky fun young designers. the boss was a woman younger than me, but she was great. we had a ball, i loved my job.
it helped me survive.
there were times when i was so depleted. as a parent, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend. lots of people helped me, i had some wonderful friends.
i struggled with money, but i managed. i insisted on buying ali out of his share of our secret-life-of-them flat in st kilda. he tried to buy me out, but i told him that wouldn't be happening. i would be buying him out. this was a huge achievement for me. i out-manoeuvred the best salesman i had ever come across.
there were endless rounds of treatment for mum. visits to peter mac. cooking for her. periods of her living with me. it was really hard, there were times went i felt i was going mad. and i felt so guilty because here was my sick mother, the woman who had helped me all my life, been there for me in times of need, and i was struggling to give her what she needed from me. everything was turned upside down. now i was the mother, she was the needy one. and i wasn't coping at all well.
i did all the right things as a parent to princess. swimming lessons, ballet classes, read to her every night, let her sleep with me when she needed to, gave her hugs and kisses, encouraged her to speak to her dad on the phone, was reasonable and controlled when he brought a girlfriend out here, let princess spend a lot of time with them, let them take her to tasmania for four days when she was only 5. we spent a lot of time talking about feelings. we still do. now princess can say to me, mummy i feel that [this or the other]. she is genius at talking about her feelings. i put a lot of effort into helping her develop her sense of humour, her compassion to others, her generosity and her self-esteem. i have worked really hard at all those things, as a gift to her. and as part of my role as her mother.
princess was having difficulty with her reading at school, i was worried, i was pathologising everything. her school was crap, indeed, but she also had some sort of learning difficulty. i was desperate. i was thinking things like oh well, not everyone is academic, in an attempt to take the parental pressure off her. she's artistic, i thought. how wonderful.
then everything started to go wrong at work. the boss had put me on a pedestal. i'd seen her do this to other people, suppliers etc. and seen them fall. as i inevitably did too. i hung in there as long as i could. i needed to be in a job to rejig my mortgage to pay ali out. on the friday i signed the paperwork, the following monday i gave notice. i got out of there before all my self-respect had completely gone. i did the right thing by her to the end, creating work for myself because she had stopped my work flow. i cleaned the fucking venetians in the coffee room.
the family took a trip to byron bay. it was great. i decided i was ready to have someone in my life. i had felt so alone during the years. even during my marriage, at times i'd felt very alone. so john came into my life and i felt things were possible again. i enrolled back at university to do a postgraduate diploma. i did really well, four subjects in one year, and three top class H1 results. i was also toying with a career as a cop. i sat the entrance exam and blitzed it. my application was halted because i wear glasses, so that was that. i wasn't prepared to have laser surgery and then maybe fail the psych exam. or the fitness exam.
john and i became more serious. things were going really well. taking things slowly, making the kids a priority.
i applied for a scholarship and got one to do a masters. this took off some of the financial pressure. i'd been keeping things together by doing consultancy work for my bro - he was a lifesaver with sending work my way. my credit card was inching up to the limit of 10K. things were pretty dire, but i slept fine at night. luckily.
i moved house to move princess's school. needed to be in a zone for a better school. did that, moved her school, found someone to help with her learning issues. we got a puppy, the gigi. my mother's health had been really up and down, culminating in her being on crutches. she came to live with us again. during this time again i became really really stressed. but then she improved and now she is brilliant.
moved again, this time in with john and his two kids. we are in a fabulous big enormous house with huge garden, tennis court, such a feeling of space. the kids are happy enough. we are happy enough. it's still early days, but we are getting married next year and i have started a scrap book.
i finished my masters thesis a couple of months ago, i've joined a gym, i have some research assistant work and even two days work this coming week for my brother. i have discovered the joys of curb your enthusiasm, the beauty of arrested development, and waved goodbye to six feet under. today at prahran market i looked at how beautiful my mother looks, with her hair grown back all curly and done up in a girly-type of do. i argued with her about how she has decided to give my brother our grandfather's gold rolex for his birthday in september. see, our relationship is back to normal! me ungrateful and bitchy daughter, she patient and loving mother.
i've been blogging since last june i think it was. or even may. i've not written a post dedicated to this, like i thought i would. i've met wonderful wonderful people on here. like a whole new world of friends.
but i think what blogging has done for me that is more important than anything was get me writing regularly again. i kept a diary for years when i was younger. i have more than twenty volumes, all different sizes and bindings, all hand-written, mostly filled with tripe, but alot of my history is there, on the page. and now i have another journal, online, of the last year of my life. not everything is here, but alot of the day to day stuff is. i was looking through my archives the other day, and marvelling at how some of the stuff is really good and i put so much effort into some posts. it got my creative juices flowing again.
so that when i woke up at 6.30 yesterday morning, and the whole house was quiet and still, instead of turning on the light and bothering the ever patient, totally tolerant and wonderful john, i got up, got my laptop, and opened a file on my computer, in my documents folder, called the sugar men. it's 60,000 words long so far. i am proud of it, and it's not finished. i thought i would get back to it in another 20 years or so. but the time has come, perhaps. now.
i opened the file and i wrote a couple of pages. cause while i lay there for ten minutes in the dark yesterday morning, i thought of a way to reorganise this story, a new order, a different way to present it.
and i was excited and inspired.
i never get up early if i can help it. this is evidence of how this matters to me.
wish me luck.
yesterday morning i woke up really early with period pains and couldn't get back to sleep. i got up. got some books from my bookshelf in the other room, one of which is the black book, by orhan pamuk.
i took panadol and i got back into bed and lay there in the dark with the books on my lap. i intended to put on the lamp and read, but didn't want to bother john.
i lay there in the dark, and somehow started thinking about a story i started writing about 6 or more years ago, when i was in istanbul last.
now that's a long time. 6 or more years, to have started a story, written 60,000 words, felt very pleased with alot of it, inspired and magical, and then to leave it.
there are reasons why i left it. it's like it came gushing out of me, like a torrent of words and ideas, then i dropped it. it didn't run dry. i turned away from it.
several things happened in quick succession that left me no space to write. no space to even contemplate.
my mother was with us in istanbul. she was diagnosed with cancer while we were there. suddenly, pleasant days filled with pottering, and drifting through bazaars and having lunch and absorbing the beauty and sounds and smells of sultanahmet became a jarring mesh of doctor visits, tense ferry rides, trying to keep positive, and worry.
we were given the diagnosis over the phone on christmas eve. our sad little christmas tree, which i had found down a cobbled and twisty alley way, sat fully decorated in the corner of the room. presents were beneath it. plans were made for the midday meal the next day.
it was horrific.
fast motion now. mum flew back to melbourne dec 27 or 28, for more tests and treatment. i struggled on in turkey, guilty and worried. princess struggled with her turkish childcare centre. my marriage was a disaster in itself.
i made the decision to come back to melbourne, in july of 2000. i had no idea of how much time my mum might have. we were careful not to ask that question. when i arrived back i developed pneumonia. my mum was very sick. alot of it was on my shoulders. then my husband came out around january 2001 and told me he wanted a divorce. this was a long time coming but the fact he said it in response to me saying i wanted another baby was pretty cruel. he left, princess had to deal with her parents splitting. my mother was sick, really sick. my sister was pregnant and couldn't really help much with mum. i had gotten a job within 3 weeks of coming home, a great job at a graphic design company where i was studio manager. it was cool, funky fun young designers. the boss was a woman younger than me, but she was great. we had a ball, i loved my job.
it helped me survive.
there were times when i was so depleted. as a parent, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend. lots of people helped me, i had some wonderful friends.
i struggled with money, but i managed. i insisted on buying ali out of his share of our secret-life-of-them flat in st kilda. he tried to buy me out, but i told him that wouldn't be happening. i would be buying him out. this was a huge achievement for me. i out-manoeuvred the best salesman i had ever come across.
there were endless rounds of treatment for mum. visits to peter mac. cooking for her. periods of her living with me. it was really hard, there were times went i felt i was going mad. and i felt so guilty because here was my sick mother, the woman who had helped me all my life, been there for me in times of need, and i was struggling to give her what she needed from me. everything was turned upside down. now i was the mother, she was the needy one. and i wasn't coping at all well.
i did all the right things as a parent to princess. swimming lessons, ballet classes, read to her every night, let her sleep with me when she needed to, gave her hugs and kisses, encouraged her to speak to her dad on the phone, was reasonable and controlled when he brought a girlfriend out here, let princess spend a lot of time with them, let them take her to tasmania for four days when she was only 5. we spent a lot of time talking about feelings. we still do. now princess can say to me, mummy i feel that [this or the other]. she is genius at talking about her feelings. i put a lot of effort into helping her develop her sense of humour, her compassion to others, her generosity and her self-esteem. i have worked really hard at all those things, as a gift to her. and as part of my role as her mother.
princess was having difficulty with her reading at school, i was worried, i was pathologising everything. her school was crap, indeed, but she also had some sort of learning difficulty. i was desperate. i was thinking things like oh well, not everyone is academic, in an attempt to take the parental pressure off her. she's artistic, i thought. how wonderful.
then everything started to go wrong at work. the boss had put me on a pedestal. i'd seen her do this to other people, suppliers etc. and seen them fall. as i inevitably did too. i hung in there as long as i could. i needed to be in a job to rejig my mortgage to pay ali out. on the friday i signed the paperwork, the following monday i gave notice. i got out of there before all my self-respect had completely gone. i did the right thing by her to the end, creating work for myself because she had stopped my work flow. i cleaned the fucking venetians in the coffee room.
the family took a trip to byron bay. it was great. i decided i was ready to have someone in my life. i had felt so alone during the years. even during my marriage, at times i'd felt very alone. so john came into my life and i felt things were possible again. i enrolled back at university to do a postgraduate diploma. i did really well, four subjects in one year, and three top class H1 results. i was also toying with a career as a cop. i sat the entrance exam and blitzed it. my application was halted because i wear glasses, so that was that. i wasn't prepared to have laser surgery and then maybe fail the psych exam. or the fitness exam.
john and i became more serious. things were going really well. taking things slowly, making the kids a priority.
i applied for a scholarship and got one to do a masters. this took off some of the financial pressure. i'd been keeping things together by doing consultancy work for my bro - he was a lifesaver with sending work my way. my credit card was inching up to the limit of 10K. things were pretty dire, but i slept fine at night. luckily.
i moved house to move princess's school. needed to be in a zone for a better school. did that, moved her school, found someone to help with her learning issues. we got a puppy, the gigi. my mother's health had been really up and down, culminating in her being on crutches. she came to live with us again. during this time again i became really really stressed. but then she improved and now she is brilliant.
moved again, this time in with john and his two kids. we are in a fabulous big enormous house with huge garden, tennis court, such a feeling of space. the kids are happy enough. we are happy enough. it's still early days, but we are getting married next year and i have started a scrap book.
i finished my masters thesis a couple of months ago, i've joined a gym, i have some research assistant work and even two days work this coming week for my brother. i have discovered the joys of curb your enthusiasm, the beauty of arrested development, and waved goodbye to six feet under. today at prahran market i looked at how beautiful my mother looks, with her hair grown back all curly and done up in a girly-type of do. i argued with her about how she has decided to give my brother our grandfather's gold rolex for his birthday in september. see, our relationship is back to normal! me ungrateful and bitchy daughter, she patient and loving mother.
i've been blogging since last june i think it was. or even may. i've not written a post dedicated to this, like i thought i would. i've met wonderful wonderful people on here. like a whole new world of friends.
but i think what blogging has done for me that is more important than anything was get me writing regularly again. i kept a diary for years when i was younger. i have more than twenty volumes, all different sizes and bindings, all hand-written, mostly filled with tripe, but alot of my history is there, on the page. and now i have another journal, online, of the last year of my life. not everything is here, but alot of the day to day stuff is. i was looking through my archives the other day, and marvelling at how some of the stuff is really good and i put so much effort into some posts. it got my creative juices flowing again.
so that when i woke up at 6.30 yesterday morning, and the whole house was quiet and still, instead of turning on the light and bothering the ever patient, totally tolerant and wonderful john, i got up, got my laptop, and opened a file on my computer, in my documents folder, called the sugar men. it's 60,000 words long so far. i am proud of it, and it's not finished. i thought i would get back to it in another 20 years or so. but the time has come, perhaps. now.
i opened the file and i wrote a couple of pages. cause while i lay there for ten minutes in the dark yesterday morning, i thought of a way to reorganise this story, a new order, a different way to present it.
and i was excited and inspired.
i never get up early if i can help it. this is evidence of how this matters to me.
wish me luck.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
new turkish islamic swimwear
the newspaper tells me that these are now available in turkey. that "conservative women" don't swim because they don't want to bare their flesh on the beach.
well, that's bullshit. more than 15 years ago, i saw conservative women swimming at the beach on the south of turkey. they were wearing their clothes: big baggy skirts/pantaloon things with big baggy t-shirts. and headscarves.
they got wet. they lolled in the shallows. they laughed and screamed and giggled. they stayed in for hours and hours. they were just loving that water.
and then when they got out, their clothes clung to their every curve. their every mountainous bosom, rounded hip, pendulous belly. you could see their bras through the thin, transparent t-shirt fabric.
and i thought to myself "that looks sexier than a high-cut maillot."
which is exactly what this little number will look like, once it hits the med.
well, maybe not sex-ier. but pretty damn RAUNCHY nevertheless.
Friday, July 21, 2006
how are you with scary movies?
last night we watched this:
i don't quite know what possessed me. i am pathetic when it comes to horrors etc. i have seen many. from cutting my adult molars on "disaster movies" like earthquake, the poisidon adventure, killer bees, towering inferno, the devil's triangle, death ship, then moving onto friday the 13th, nightmare on elm street, when a stranger calls, texas chainsaw massacre. then i think i started resisting the teenage thing to see scary movies because they were too scary. once i got over that peer group pressure thing, i just stopped. it was easy.
then a few years ago i watched blair witch project and scared myself shitless. couldn't watch it with the sound on. the sixth sense almost killed me. a couple of years ago i tried to watch the ring and couldn't get through the FIRST MINUTE with the sound on. had to then watch the entire thing in fast forward, scene by scene, then rewind and watch again.
so why did i want to watch wolf creek? i really don't know. today i've been having flashbacks. it was disturbing and so creepy.
who's seen it? what did you think? am i a wimp?
i don't quite know what possessed me. i am pathetic when it comes to horrors etc. i have seen many. from cutting my adult molars on "disaster movies" like earthquake, the poisidon adventure, killer bees, towering inferno, the devil's triangle, death ship, then moving onto friday the 13th, nightmare on elm street, when a stranger calls, texas chainsaw massacre. then i think i started resisting the teenage thing to see scary movies because they were too scary. once i got over that peer group pressure thing, i just stopped. it was easy.
then a few years ago i watched blair witch project and scared myself shitless. couldn't watch it with the sound on. the sixth sense almost killed me. a couple of years ago i tried to watch the ring and couldn't get through the FIRST MINUTE with the sound on. had to then watch the entire thing in fast forward, scene by scene, then rewind and watch again.
so why did i want to watch wolf creek? i really don't know. today i've been having flashbacks. it was disturbing and so creepy.
who's seen it? what did you think? am i a wimp?
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
not too good today. thanks for asking.
i'm not feeling well today. had a sore throat last night. my throat is my vulnerable spot. if i'm going to get sick, it will start there. so no gym today. but i have some work to do, and now that i've taken panadol i feel i can do some of it.
i'm starting some research with a lecturer at uni. he got a grant to get an assistant so he and i will be investigating identity in grade 6s. should be interesting.
i'm pissed off i missed an interview with an academic on the radio who spoke about the lebanon-israeli thing. apparently he was balanced and measured, and explained what is going down, and why. might check if it's been podcasted.
what do you think about podcasting? what have you listened to and have you ever done one yourself?
reading this morning in a section of the weekend paper about how the People are taking over the mass media, with things like blogging. there was some statistic about tv viewing falling to an all-time low in the states, and at the same time a figure was released about the number of myspace members. coincidence?
you'll be happy to know that r.kelly and his diabolical trapped in the closet is now receding from my every waking moment. what has helped this was a very disturbing dream last night, of which i can only recall woody allen and his enormous penis. i don't know anything about mr allen's appendage. is it large? i have no idea. but in my dream 'twas enormous, and exposed in a room of socialising chit-chatterers.
in the meantime i leave you with this. just to replace that image you now have in your head of woody's wood. sorry about that, but i like to share.
World watches as another onslaught shatters families
Carol Nader
July 18, 2006
MY GRANDMOTHER stared death in the face last year. Her heart became so weak that it almost stopped beating. She has been battling poor health for many years, has been in and out of intensive care, and can barely walk. But last weekend, she had no choice but to walk. With the frightening sound of bomb blasts nearby, her children dragged her 86-year-old frame from her bed, bundled her into a car, and fled their home in the Bekaa Valley.
My uncle has also been forced to desert his home. A few days ago, he closed his business in Sidon in the south of Lebanon, gathered his family and headed for the peace of the mountains.Another uncle lives in Saudi Arabia because he cannot find work in Lebanon. He has been in Beirut, visiting his family. Now he is stuck there. He is unable to return to work. He does not know how he will support his family while the bloody mess continues.
There are so many stories like this. And for thousands of Lebanese who have already lived through too many years of war — and who, with the war showing no signs of abating, are once again stocking up on supplies — the events of the past week are very much a case of "here we go again".
The events have conjured up memories of the way things used to be, back in the 1980s. Visiting Lebanon 20 years ago as a child, in the middle of the war, was a shocking experience. The sound of gunshots. The overwhelming poverty. Buildings blemished with bulletholes. The dangerous exercise of trying to get around the country. The electricity constantly cut off. Beggars who had lost limbs dragging their bodies along the floor.
Lebanese Australians are shattered that this tiny country that has already been through so much is under siege again. The civil war in Lebanon ended 15 years ago. It has taken since then for the country to lift itself up and start the slow, arduous process of rebuilding.
There have been so many setbacks. But there have been good signs in recent years: the withdrawal of Israeli troops in 2000, the withdrawal of Syrian troops and spies last year.A few days ago, there was reason for hope in Lebanon. At least people could walk the streets freely, without fear.
That hope has all but gone.
More than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed. Israeli civilians caught in the middle of Israel's war with militant group Hezbollah are suffering too.
Civilians in northern Israel are, like the Lebanese, innocent victims in all this. They are paying the price for a war that civilians in neither country started, or want.
Meanwhile, the world watches, does nothing and waits for the situation to intensify, as it inevitably will.
from the age online today, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/another-onslaught-shatters-families/2006/07/17/1152988472653.html
i wanted to put a photo here, but blogger is not letting me upload right now. so go here and see it for yourself. or if you have the age at home, just open it. front page.
i'm starting some research with a lecturer at uni. he got a grant to get an assistant so he and i will be investigating identity in grade 6s. should be interesting.
i'm pissed off i missed an interview with an academic on the radio who spoke about the lebanon-israeli thing. apparently he was balanced and measured, and explained what is going down, and why. might check if it's been podcasted.
what do you think about podcasting? what have you listened to and have you ever done one yourself?
reading this morning in a section of the weekend paper about how the People are taking over the mass media, with things like blogging. there was some statistic about tv viewing falling to an all-time low in the states, and at the same time a figure was released about the number of myspace members. coincidence?
you'll be happy to know that r.kelly and his diabolical trapped in the closet is now receding from my every waking moment. what has helped this was a very disturbing dream last night, of which i can only recall woody allen and his enormous penis. i don't know anything about mr allen's appendage. is it large? i have no idea. but in my dream 'twas enormous, and exposed in a room of socialising chit-chatterers.
in the meantime i leave you with this. just to replace that image you now have in your head of woody's wood. sorry about that, but i like to share.
World watches as another onslaught shatters families
Carol Nader
July 18, 2006
MY GRANDMOTHER stared death in the face last year. Her heart became so weak that it almost stopped beating. She has been battling poor health for many years, has been in and out of intensive care, and can barely walk. But last weekend, she had no choice but to walk. With the frightening sound of bomb blasts nearby, her children dragged her 86-year-old frame from her bed, bundled her into a car, and fled their home in the Bekaa Valley.
My uncle has also been forced to desert his home. A few days ago, he closed his business in Sidon in the south of Lebanon, gathered his family and headed for the peace of the mountains.Another uncle lives in Saudi Arabia because he cannot find work in Lebanon. He has been in Beirut, visiting his family. Now he is stuck there. He is unable to return to work. He does not know how he will support his family while the bloody mess continues.
There are so many stories like this. And for thousands of Lebanese who have already lived through too many years of war — and who, with the war showing no signs of abating, are once again stocking up on supplies — the events of the past week are very much a case of "here we go again".
The events have conjured up memories of the way things used to be, back in the 1980s. Visiting Lebanon 20 years ago as a child, in the middle of the war, was a shocking experience. The sound of gunshots. The overwhelming poverty. Buildings blemished with bulletholes. The dangerous exercise of trying to get around the country. The electricity constantly cut off. Beggars who had lost limbs dragging their bodies along the floor.
Lebanese Australians are shattered that this tiny country that has already been through so much is under siege again. The civil war in Lebanon ended 15 years ago. It has taken since then for the country to lift itself up and start the slow, arduous process of rebuilding.
There have been so many setbacks. But there have been good signs in recent years: the withdrawal of Israeli troops in 2000, the withdrawal of Syrian troops and spies last year.A few days ago, there was reason for hope in Lebanon. At least people could walk the streets freely, without fear.
That hope has all but gone.
More than 100 Lebanese civilians have been killed. Israeli civilians caught in the middle of Israel's war with militant group Hezbollah are suffering too.
Civilians in northern Israel are, like the Lebanese, innocent victims in all this. They are paying the price for a war that civilians in neither country started, or want.
Meanwhile, the world watches, does nothing and waits for the situation to intensify, as it inevitably will.
from the age online today, http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/another-onslaught-shatters-families/2006/07/17/1152988472653.html
i wanted to put a photo here, but blogger is not letting me upload right now. so go here and see it for yourself. or if you have the age at home, just open it. front page.
Monday, July 17, 2006
snippets from the brain of mg, today, monday 16 july, 2006
"open war"
"civilians burnt alive"
death toll in lebanon 90+, ALMOST ALL CIVILIANS
two israeli women and one boy dead
one israeli sailor found dead, three missing
no pressure from us government to see if israel can be persuaded to ceasefire
150 lebanese targets hit by israel, fewer than a dozen of them linked directly to hezbollah
tens of thousands displaced lebanese, mainly poor, forced to flee for safety
"israel's crushing military onslaught against gaza and lebanon has killed scores of people"
*
other things in the mix:
r.kelly "melodies"
the green fairy and thoughts that it was quite good
research work i should be doing now
maybe i have to go to canberra in a couple of weeks to help with some training at a conference
it'd be nice to have a holiday in the sun somewhere this year
it won't happen. we are trying to keep expenditure down
but when that carpet sells... maybe...
no, it's best to keep any extra money for the trip next year
roquefort is really a bit watery. castello blue beats it hands down
should i take gigi for a walk, it's not raining anymore
i need to vacuum
i need to have a shower before i pick the kids up
i can vacuum then and maybe we'll take the gige for a walk then too
yay geelong
poor collingwood
i loved stick it. it's a great movie and i will tell anybody and everybody probably several times to see it
wonder when we are going to get a chance to watch some of the david attenborough planet earth shows i've been taping
i love the way attenborough is just referred to as david by me, princess and my mum. princess is a long-term fan. she's been learning about all things nature from david for years. when other kids were dancing to wiggles and watching play school, she was learning about giant water pythons that can ingest a whole cow; breeding cycles of almost everything that breathes and the difference between mammals and marsupials.
david is the best. it'll be a truly sad day when he dies. princess cried when, after watching an abba documentary, she learned that they broke up decades ago. she also was very upset to hear roald dahl was no longer with us. but i think when david moves on, we will have to light candles and have some sort of ritual.
"civilians burnt alive"
death toll in lebanon 90+, ALMOST ALL CIVILIANS
two israeli women and one boy dead
one israeli sailor found dead, three missing
no pressure from us government to see if israel can be persuaded to ceasefire
150 lebanese targets hit by israel, fewer than a dozen of them linked directly to hezbollah
tens of thousands displaced lebanese, mainly poor, forced to flee for safety
"israel's crushing military onslaught against gaza and lebanon has killed scores of people"
*
other things in the mix:
r.kelly "melodies"
the green fairy and thoughts that it was quite good
research work i should be doing now
maybe i have to go to canberra in a couple of weeks to help with some training at a conference
it'd be nice to have a holiday in the sun somewhere this year
it won't happen. we are trying to keep expenditure down
but when that carpet sells... maybe...
no, it's best to keep any extra money for the trip next year
roquefort is really a bit watery. castello blue beats it hands down
should i take gigi for a walk, it's not raining anymore
i need to vacuum
i need to have a shower before i pick the kids up
i can vacuum then and maybe we'll take the gige for a walk then too
yay geelong
poor collingwood
i loved stick it. it's a great movie and i will tell anybody and everybody probably several times to see it
wonder when we are going to get a chance to watch some of the david attenborough planet earth shows i've been taping
i love the way attenborough is just referred to as david by me, princess and my mum. princess is a long-term fan. she's been learning about all things nature from david for years. when other kids were dancing to wiggles and watching play school, she was learning about giant water pythons that can ingest a whole cow; breeding cycles of almost everything that breathes and the difference between mammals and marsupials.
david is the best. it'll be a truly sad day when he dies. princess cried when, after watching an abba documentary, she learned that they broke up decades ago. she also was very upset to hear roald dahl was no longer with us. but i think when david moves on, we will have to light candles and have some sort of ritual.
Friday, July 14, 2006
the green fairy. she's mine
i have the absinthe. she sits on my sideboard, green and gorgeous. what a pretty bottle. i fully expect to not enjoy her insides and then she can remain, a guest in my house, for a couple of decades. people will notice her, and comment on her.
is that...
they'll say
yes
i'll say
tastes like shit
full report sunday night, monday at latest.
but to other matters.
i was browsing through my current bible, larousse gastronomique. this is like part dictionary, part encyclopaedia and part recipe book. my copy here was published in 1966, but the original was 1961.
it is seriously funky, with black and white plates and the most amazing information on all things french food. i got it from one of my favourite second-hand bookshops, down at sorrento. dahling. you know, i think a whole heap of richo fucks emptied out their bookshelves of GOLD, pure GOLD, while they were renovating and buying in, and tanning and filling their summer closets with espadrilles and caftans.
i love my larousse gastronomique.
it has snippets and even poetry.
witness, a most fitting ode to brie:
Now then, let us shout with all our might:
Blessed be the land of Brie.
Pont-l'Eveque, get thee behind us!
Auvergne and Milan, out of our sight.
Brie alone deserves that we
Should record her praises in letters of gold.
Gold, I say, and with good reason, Since it is with gold that one must compare
This cheese to which I now pay homage.
It is as yellow as the gold worshipped by man,
But without its anxiety
For one has only to press it with one's fingers
For it to spit its side with laughter
And run over with fat.
Why then, is it not endless
As indeed its circular form is endless
As indeed its circular form is endless?
Why must its full moon, eternally appetizing,
Wane to a crescent?. . .
now, before anyone says this is cheesy, i love it because it's pure, unadulterated deification of a most yummo cheese, and i love anything that is that passionate.
write a poem to a cheese. why not.
is that...
they'll say
yes
i'll say
tastes like shit
full report sunday night, monday at latest.
but to other matters.
i was browsing through my current bible, larousse gastronomique. this is like part dictionary, part encyclopaedia and part recipe book. my copy here was published in 1966, but the original was 1961.
it is seriously funky, with black and white plates and the most amazing information on all things french food. i got it from one of my favourite second-hand bookshops, down at sorrento. dahling. you know, i think a whole heap of richo fucks emptied out their bookshelves of GOLD, pure GOLD, while they were renovating and buying in, and tanning and filling their summer closets with espadrilles and caftans.
i love my larousse gastronomique.
it has snippets and even poetry.
witness, a most fitting ode to brie:
Now then, let us shout with all our might:
Blessed be the land of Brie.
Pont-l'Eveque, get thee behind us!
Auvergne and Milan, out of our sight.
Brie alone deserves that we
Should record her praises in letters of gold.
Gold, I say, and with good reason, Since it is with gold that one must compare
This cheese to which I now pay homage.
It is as yellow as the gold worshipped by man,
But without its anxiety
For one has only to press it with one's fingers
For it to spit its side with laughter
And run over with fat.
Why then, is it not endless
As indeed its circular form is endless
As indeed its circular form is endless?
Why must its full moon, eternally appetizing,
Wane to a crescent?. . .
now, before anyone says this is cheesy, i love it because it's pure, unadulterated deification of a most yummo cheese, and i love anything that is that passionate.
write a poem to a cheese. why not.
almost there, happy bastille day
guess what?
i got a four-hour park in carlton today.
i know, that's almost impossible.
this meant i could have my meeting at melb uni. THEN go to tiamo's for a mucho rapido plate of spaghetti marinara (have i mentioned on here that during my uni days i used to eat a lot of spaghetti marinara, like everywhere i went that served it, with the intention of enjoying the centenary marinara in italy? this plan fell off its wheels around marinara number 60-70 when i got a bit tired of them. the palate will let you down like that. i had a bit of a break, and now am re-engaging with the marinara. anyway, tiamo's is one of the original sources of this indulgence. i know, their marinara is not gourmet, and it eats like one of those supermarket mixes, which i DETEST, however i will argue to the death that tiamo's marinara has a well-deserved place on my list, in much the same way you never forget the person who took your virginity. tiamo's took my marinara maidenhead.)
you can tell i'm getting excited because i'm talking too much.
then after the tiamo-spaghetti-bolt while reading the paper, i went around the back of readings to the french deli sublime-ation tipped me off about.
it's not there anymore.
it's now in lygon street, next to the anz bank, at no. 290 i think.
on my way there from the old laneway place, i stopped at that food and wine store on the corner of lygon and help me out here, elgin? it runs up to the uni, almost at the sidney myer asia centre.
and there i bought a cote du rhone for $20.
and their absinthe was $70 per (very spesh) bottle.
i didn't buy it. i thought, more cash for cheese.
but then i went to the cheese shop, they had gay* little french flags going and the server-girls had parfait french accents. there i got:
roquefort - $10
a brie'ye type of white cheese - $10
and some gruyere. also $10.
so that's only $30.
i've decided to make french onion soup for entree which won't be expensive. so now i think i might go to dan murphy's to price the absinthe.
i want to try the fucking absinthe.
thanks to everyone for suggestions. the caramelised onion tartlets sound gorgeous fluffy. i might email you anyway for the low-down.
so this is our menu.
1. french onion soup made the nice way
2. boeuf bourgignon
3. cheese
i think that will all work well.
* this meant in the enid blyton way. princess yesterday mentioned something about someone in the harry potter book we are reading together now (number 5? the phoenix one) "behaving queerly", as in suspiciously or oddly. it was so quaint and so very very blyton. i suppressed a smile. i love her so much.
i got a four-hour park in carlton today.
i know, that's almost impossible.
this meant i could have my meeting at melb uni. THEN go to tiamo's for a mucho rapido plate of spaghetti marinara (have i mentioned on here that during my uni days i used to eat a lot of spaghetti marinara, like everywhere i went that served it, with the intention of enjoying the centenary marinara in italy? this plan fell off its wheels around marinara number 60-70 when i got a bit tired of them. the palate will let you down like that. i had a bit of a break, and now am re-engaging with the marinara. anyway, tiamo's is one of the original sources of this indulgence. i know, their marinara is not gourmet, and it eats like one of those supermarket mixes, which i DETEST, however i will argue to the death that tiamo's marinara has a well-deserved place on my list, in much the same way you never forget the person who took your virginity. tiamo's took my marinara maidenhead.)
you can tell i'm getting excited because i'm talking too much.
then after the tiamo-spaghetti-bolt while reading the paper, i went around the back of readings to the french deli sublime-ation tipped me off about.
it's not there anymore.
it's now in lygon street, next to the anz bank, at no. 290 i think.
on my way there from the old laneway place, i stopped at that food and wine store on the corner of lygon and help me out here, elgin? it runs up to the uni, almost at the sidney myer asia centre.
and there i bought a cote du rhone for $20.
and their absinthe was $70 per (very spesh) bottle.
i didn't buy it. i thought, more cash for cheese.
but then i went to the cheese shop, they had gay* little french flags going and the server-girls had parfait french accents. there i got:
roquefort - $10
a brie'ye type of white cheese - $10
and some gruyere. also $10.
so that's only $30.
i've decided to make french onion soup for entree which won't be expensive. so now i think i might go to dan murphy's to price the absinthe.
i want to try the fucking absinthe.
thanks to everyone for suggestions. the caramelised onion tartlets sound gorgeous fluffy. i might email you anyway for the low-down.
so this is our menu.
1. french onion soup made the nice way
2. boeuf bourgignon
3. cheese
i think that will all work well.
* this meant in the enid blyton way. princess yesterday mentioned something about someone in the harry potter book we are reading together now (number 5? the phoenix one) "behaving queerly", as in suspiciously or oddly. it was so quaint and so very very blyton. i suppressed a smile. i love her so much.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
saturday night gourmand-fest, i am getting very excited.
well. even though we ate boeuf bourgignon last night, my bro-in-law has decided that is what he is cooking for saturday night. i sensitively didn't mention my little jump-the-starting-gun effort last night.
so it is up to me to do entree and dessert.
dessert i am thinking to go with one of my oracles, an advisor who is a veritable font of wisdom in all things food, magical_m, who suggested i just do an awesome cheese platter. one of my other oracles, sublime, has told me where to get the cheeses [Les Pates Parisian in the lane behind Readings in Lygon Street.] my third oracle, elaine, gave cheese to be had at victoria marche, however i will be parking once and once only in carlton. as sublime said, the parking is the worst. thanks also groverjones for validating the cheese choice, and i'm not craig for validating the desire for absinthe [or for one of those really spesh bottles, anyway.]
so cheese platter it is. platter. that's so '70s. cheese board? cheeses. and perhaps some chocolat if they sell that too.
HOWEVER, while all this is really nice and groovy, i still need an entree.
i was thinking the freshest oysters from prahran market? but then huitres are not symbolic of france. someone mentioned mussels, but none of us are partial to mussels and my sister had a really bad experience of eating about 5 huge bowls of steamed garlic mussels in france simply because she didn't want to offend her french friend who was insisting she eat them. i don't know that she's done a mussel since.
so, please to be providing some suggestions for entree. we could do a salade nicoise or similar, but that would be really boring. especially considering for a few years it was the only thing my sister served on the few occasions we were invited to dinner at her place.
so i say non to the nicoise.
oh, i just had a brain wave.
vol-au-vents!
why not embrace the '70s with vol-au-vents and a cheese PLATTER.
and just in case anyone is going to suggest fondue, i have no equipment so that's out. too much mucking around also, and with cheese for dessert that wouldn't work.
another thought: garlic prawns?
so it is up to me to do entree and dessert.
dessert i am thinking to go with one of my oracles, an advisor who is a veritable font of wisdom in all things food, magical_m, who suggested i just do an awesome cheese platter. one of my other oracles, sublime, has told me where to get the cheeses [Les Pates Parisian in the lane behind Readings in Lygon Street.] my third oracle, elaine, gave cheese to be had at victoria marche, however i will be parking once and once only in carlton. as sublime said, the parking is the worst. thanks also groverjones for validating the cheese choice, and i'm not craig for validating the desire for absinthe [or for one of those really spesh bottles, anyway.]
so cheese platter it is. platter. that's so '70s. cheese board? cheeses. and perhaps some chocolat if they sell that too.
HOWEVER, while all this is really nice and groovy, i still need an entree.
i was thinking the freshest oysters from prahran market? but then huitres are not symbolic of france. someone mentioned mussels, but none of us are partial to mussels and my sister had a really bad experience of eating about 5 huge bowls of steamed garlic mussels in france simply because she didn't want to offend her french friend who was insisting she eat them. i don't know that she's done a mussel since.
so, please to be providing some suggestions for entree. we could do a salade nicoise or similar, but that would be really boring. especially considering for a few years it was the only thing my sister served on the few occasions we were invited to dinner at her place.
so i say non to the nicoise.
oh, i just had a brain wave.
vol-au-vents!
why not embrace the '70s with vol-au-vents and a cheese PLATTER.
and just in case anyone is going to suggest fondue, i have no equipment so that's out. too much mucking around also, and with cheese for dessert that wouldn't work.
another thought: garlic prawns?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
boeuf bourgignon is bubbling in the oven at 350F
my dad is coming to dinner tonight, so i thought i'd cook one of his favourite all time red-wine and jazz dishes - beef burgundy, or boeuf bourgignon.
i'm using stephanie's recipe from her big orange book, and i was surprised that larousse gastronomique doesn't reference it. the closest i could find is entrecote a la bourguignonne which tells me to use a garniture which includes red wine, small mushrooms and small onions. which i am doing. i'm not sure what entrecote means, perhaps a cut of meat. i'm guessing garniture means sauce or stock. i can't be bothered dragging out my big red french dictionary.
anyway i am on the right track and it smells fucking fantastic.
* * *
on the other side of this week's topic - poliwood and how pete and john are getting it on in the schoolyard, we now have backup for pete from brother tim.
pete: my parents always told me if you have done nothing wrong, you have got nothing to fear by telling the truth. i told the truth.
tim: i can confirm that our parents taught us to tell the truth.
what you can't see behind these words is the half-nelson pete has got tim in, to make him speak on his behalf.
the other thing you probably didn't realise is the ENORMOUS FUCKING IRONY of a liberal politician saying you don't need to worry about telling the truth IF YOU'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG.
read between the lines here.
if you have done nothing wrong, you should be scared of telling the truth. therefore don't.
so, is john going to hand over that lolly he promised to peter in december 1994?
i heard costello's press conference this morning, and at the beginning his voice was shaking, he was very emotional. at first i was convinced he was sad, and was going to announce his retirement. then it became clear he was STAYING PUT. he has decided to go with the stubborn sit-out approach; look at him, arms crossed, face red with anger.
HE WANTS THAT LOLLY.
and john is taking the prufrock defence: "no, he's got it wrong, that's not what i meant, that's not what i meant at all. i'm keeping the lolly, and i don't care what your brother says.
* * *
finally, i have a meeting with princess' teacher for parent-teacher get down at 2.45. i have it written on my hand because LAST year i was the worst mother in the world and friggin forgot.
sheesh.
i know. how could i forget something like that? well, my only defence is my life was a lot madder than it is right now.
so, looking forward to hearing how well behaved she is in class, how she applies herself, works hard and doesn't waste too much time flirting with the boys. (grade 4 you know, that's when it all starts.)
i'm using stephanie's recipe from her big orange book, and i was surprised that larousse gastronomique doesn't reference it. the closest i could find is entrecote a la bourguignonne which tells me to use a garniture which includes red wine, small mushrooms and small onions. which i am doing. i'm not sure what entrecote means, perhaps a cut of meat. i'm guessing garniture means sauce or stock. i can't be bothered dragging out my big red french dictionary.
anyway i am on the right track and it smells fucking fantastic.
* * *
on the other side of this week's topic - poliwood and how pete and john are getting it on in the schoolyard, we now have backup for pete from brother tim.
pete: my parents always told me if you have done nothing wrong, you have got nothing to fear by telling the truth. i told the truth.
tim: i can confirm that our parents taught us to tell the truth.
what you can't see behind these words is the half-nelson pete has got tim in, to make him speak on his behalf.
the other thing you probably didn't realise is the ENORMOUS FUCKING IRONY of a liberal politician saying you don't need to worry about telling the truth IF YOU'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG.
read between the lines here.
if you have done nothing wrong, you should be scared of telling the truth. therefore don't.
so, is john going to hand over that lolly he promised to peter in december 1994?
i heard costello's press conference this morning, and at the beginning his voice was shaking, he was very emotional. at first i was convinced he was sad, and was going to announce his retirement. then it became clear he was STAYING PUT. he has decided to go with the stubborn sit-out approach; look at him, arms crossed, face red with anger.
HE WANTS THAT LOLLY.
and john is taking the prufrock defence: "no, he's got it wrong, that's not what i meant, that's not what i meant at all. i'm keeping the lolly, and i don't care what your brother says.
* * *
finally, i have a meeting with princess' teacher for parent-teacher get down at 2.45. i have it written on my hand because LAST year i was the worst mother in the world and friggin forgot.
sheesh.
i know. how could i forget something like that? well, my only defence is my life was a lot madder than it is right now.
so, looking forward to hearing how well behaved she is in class, how she applies herself, works hard and doesn't waste too much time flirting with the boys. (grade 4 you know, that's when it all starts.)
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
short break in french theme, to bring you
SOME LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
first you need this:
then sit back and watch the show, which has it all. intrigue, betrayal and lots of sex.
who will win?
i don't care; anything that will destabilise the federal government can only be a good thing.
is it poli-wood perhaps. where two young bucks fight it out over the ultimate prize?
is it a western, where there is a standoff, threats are made, and then a showdown, pistols at dawn?
a romance? a tale of broken promises, a la mikado.
whatever it is, it's very interesting and very entertaining.
enjoy.
first you need this:
then sit back and watch the show, which has it all. intrigue, betrayal and lots of sex.
who will win?
i don't care; anything that will destabilise the federal government can only be a good thing.
is it poli-wood perhaps. where two young bucks fight it out over the ultimate prize?
is it a western, where there is a standoff, threats are made, and then a showdown, pistols at dawn?
a romance? a tale of broken promises, a la mikado.
whatever it is, it's very interesting and very entertaining.
enjoy.
Monday, July 10, 2006
from the serieux to the fanciful
hello, dear bloggers.
last week's theme of bring the hicks home was a great success. i have received an email from john howard saying "oh all right, then, you win, i'll push to get him back here."*
so that business is done with.
onto my next project. a french dinner next saturday night at which my sister, bro-in-law, fiance john and i will gorge ourselves senseless on french delicacies and assorted bevvies, all as a tribute to la belle france, and the good old tour.
it's a year now since i was introduced to the delights of the tour de france. much like shifty drug pushers, my sis and her hubby last year INSISTED that i sit down and watch a fucking bike race. quickly i was hooked. apart from thrilling to the french country-side whipping past, the deviants along side les rues and the incroyably interessant tidbits of information regarding testicle friction, lance armstrong's triomphs et how some people kill themselves in this race [the tears, the joies, etcetera], it was fascinating to see how their legs can just keep on going, even up hills.
so, this week presents a count-down to this feasts of feasts; a grotesquely laden table at which 4 gourmands will sit, and over-indulge, and masticate their way up to 10.30pm pedal-off.
another reason for hosting a french dinner is for years i have been wanting to try absinthe. there's something most attractive about drinking something that is green, alcoholic and which was only until recently illegal in this country.
so, here's the deal. by friday, which will be when i do my food shopping, i am soliciting suggestions for the menu. my sis and her husband will be doing maybe one main course and either entree or dessert. and we will do another main course and either entree or dessert.
i am betting i will be doing dessert, so am trying to think of suitably french dishes. so far, i don't think i can top souffle. only problem is, i have never cooked souffle before. and i know they are temperamental. i will do a test run on thursday night, to make sure they work out ok.
any suggestions on other dishes? drinks?
to get myself in the mood, i will be doing a french theme this week.
grosses bisoux
mg x
* enormous lie
last week's theme of bring the hicks home was a great success. i have received an email from john howard saying "oh all right, then, you win, i'll push to get him back here."*
so that business is done with.
onto my next project. a french dinner next saturday night at which my sister, bro-in-law, fiance john and i will gorge ourselves senseless on french delicacies and assorted bevvies, all as a tribute to la belle france, and the good old tour.
it's a year now since i was introduced to the delights of the tour de france. much like shifty drug pushers, my sis and her hubby last year INSISTED that i sit down and watch a fucking bike race. quickly i was hooked. apart from thrilling to the french country-side whipping past, the deviants along side les rues and the incroyably interessant tidbits of information regarding testicle friction, lance armstrong's triomphs et how some people kill themselves in this race [the tears, the joies, etcetera], it was fascinating to see how their legs can just keep on going, even up hills.
so, this week presents a count-down to this feasts of feasts; a grotesquely laden table at which 4 gourmands will sit, and over-indulge, and masticate their way up to 10.30pm pedal-off.
another reason for hosting a french dinner is for years i have been wanting to try absinthe. there's something most attractive about drinking something that is green, alcoholic and which was only until recently illegal in this country.
so, here's the deal. by friday, which will be when i do my food shopping, i am soliciting suggestions for the menu. my sis and her husband will be doing maybe one main course and either entree or dessert. and we will do another main course and either entree or dessert.
i am betting i will be doing dessert, so am trying to think of suitably french dishes. so far, i don't think i can top souffle. only problem is, i have never cooked souffle before. and i know they are temperamental. i will do a test run on thursday night, to make sure they work out ok.
any suggestions on other dishes? drinks?
to get myself in the mood, i will be doing a french theme this week.
grosses bisoux
mg x
* enormous lie
Friday, July 07, 2006
bring david hicks home
带来大卫hicks 在家
breng het huis van David hicks
apportez les hicks de David à la maison
holen Sie David hicks nach Hause
φέρτε το σπίτι του Δαβίδ hicks
porti i hicks di david a casa
デイヴィッドのhicks を家に持って来なさい
데비드 XXks을 집으로 가져오십시요
traga hicks de david para casa
принесите hicks Давида домой
traiga los hicks de David a casa
bring david hicks home
komma med david hicks hem
أحضرت دايفيد هكس إلى البيت
david hicks eve getir
Thursday, July 06, 2006
on david hicks, waleed aly tells it like it is
this is going to get me on a few more lists, no doubt. luckily i never plan to be a politician, minister of religion, school principal, director of a major corporation or member of a royal family, otherwise there would certainly be dirt to dig and bring out later on.
on the subject of nadine's guilt-free three and fluffy's guilt-ridden three, i've had a lot of trouble working out what mine would be, and where the line is between the two categories.
but for today, waleed aly is my poster boy for justice. it was michelle g in canberra the other day; see how fickle i can be?
check him:
today in the age on page 21, waleed's article on hicks is headlined "rights reduced to rhetoric".
let me pull out two paragraphs:
when several UN special rapporteurs, on behalf of the UN commission on human rights, labelled the treatment of guantanamo detainees "torture", the howard government relied on the assurances of the white house, and spent more energy defending the regime than ensuring an australian citizen's human rights. we have left hicks there for 4 1/2 years. we left mamdouh habib there for three. then he was released without charge.
the right to a fair trial; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment - in the human rights landscape, these are colossal landmarks. without them, other human rights become mere rhetoric. immediately after world war II, anyone could have told you that.
and:
we talk of human right being as important as security. but in truth, we subordinate them to political imperatives.
that should be unthinkable in a nation that pioneered human rights.
but then, perhaps, we are no longer that same nation.
on the subject of nadine's guilt-free three and fluffy's guilt-ridden three, i've had a lot of trouble working out what mine would be, and where the line is between the two categories.
but for today, waleed aly is my poster boy for justice. it was michelle g in canberra the other day; see how fickle i can be?
check him:
today in the age on page 21, waleed's article on hicks is headlined "rights reduced to rhetoric".
let me pull out two paragraphs:
when several UN special rapporteurs, on behalf of the UN commission on human rights, labelled the treatment of guantanamo detainees "torture", the howard government relied on the assurances of the white house, and spent more energy defending the regime than ensuring an australian citizen's human rights. we have left hicks there for 4 1/2 years. we left mamdouh habib there for three. then he was released without charge.
the right to a fair trial; freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment - in the human rights landscape, these are colossal landmarks. without them, other human rights become mere rhetoric. immediately after world war II, anyone could have told you that.
and:
we talk of human right being as important as security. but in truth, we subordinate them to political imperatives.
that should be unthinkable in a nation that pioneered human rights.
but then, perhaps, we are no longer that same nation.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
For subby
Don't Lie
this one goes out to sublime as a cheer-up. keep up the good work, you're almost there.
this one goes out to sublime as a cheer-up. keep up the good work, you're almost there.
haiku for hicks*
how lonely you are
in a foreign cell, just one
adelaide boy. shit.
you must be so sad
or are you depressed much?
suicidal, yes?
what do they feed you?
do you get some exercise?
letters from loved ones?
do they beat you, dave?
taunt you, or hurt your psyche?
or do they do worse?
do they leave you there
alone, night and day, alone
with no one to see
not even a rat
a friendly living creature
that might comfort you
just to see whiskers
poking, twitching through the bars
do you have bars there?
do you wear orange
every single day, dave-o
do you have a beard?
are your eyes sunken?
is your skin really pallid?
can you sleep at night?
do you know at all,
do you have any idea
that some people care?
there are people now
who are writing to the press
sending letters in
there are journalists
who are trying hard for you
to bring justice home
to bring david home
not just bleeding hearts and lefts
but normal people
people who just care
about things like right and wrong
and bringing you home
* apols to la nadine, for hijacking her most lovely art form and besmirching its beauty and turning it into a naff form of political protest.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
hicks, grattan and me
well, apart from the loverly dxxxx and mars who have left comments, it seems it's me and the other mg on this topic.
say hi to michelle.
i'm not criticising anyone who didn't leave a comment; i know there are bigger and more important issues to focus on right now*, other than a man who has been left to rot in a jail overseas without a fair trial. or any trial.
michelle tells me today on page 9 of the age that the people who are against the government on this are: major michael mori, hicks' lawyer; david mcleaod, adelaide lawyer for hicks; the greens; australian democrats; fairgofordavid (support group). ok, thus far we have a list of people who could be argued to have vested interests.
what about the following?
nicholas cowdrey, nsw director of public prosecutions; law council of australia; international commission of jurists (australia); lex lasry qc, he of the fight for the underdog fame. and cindy sheehan, mother of killed us soldier, ok she has a vested emotional interest.
then there's lord goldsmith, british attorney-general; reverend john sentamu, archbishop of york; brigadier gerard fogarty, a soldier somewhere i guess, doesn't specify and gerard brennan, former australian high court chief justice.
oh, plus 76 lawyers who signed an open letter to the pm; people who were willing to put their names to this protest.
and then there's me, and maybe you.
against this is listed, as supporters of america's treatment of hicks:
john howard and the federal government
kim beazley and the federal opposition
george bush and the us government
the final word has to go to mori, hick's us lawyer. he's a marine, and he looks like one. he says that "marines love underdogs. i'm a marine" and always signs his emails with "sf" which refers to the expression semper fidelis (always faithful.)
again i ask.
send david hicks home.
and if howard says one more time "i believe, and i think most people would believe" i will fucking scream. i am not most people. most people in this country are idiots because they voted that government back in again. i'm sorry, if you voted liberal at the last election, you are no friend of mine. let's get that out there.
and by the way, are people not commenting because:
a. they don't give a rats about this
b. they're scared of being associated with me, ms sedition? in which case i will have to do the GOB cocococo chicken dance at you most promptly.
c. i have no readers?
i welcome feedback, even in email form so you don't have to have any visible connections to this most incendiary of blogs.
melba_grrrl@yahoo.com
* this is my disclaimer. if you happen to have a post currently on any of these topics, DO NOT TAKE OFFENCE. it's not aimed at anyone in particular, i'm just trying to be funny, so please don't get cross my friend. you know who i'm talking to. yes, you. just move your little green hand away from the delete-melbournegirl-from-blogroll-button, nice and slow.
[insert smiley face here]
i'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore.
say hi to michelle.
i'm not criticising anyone who didn't leave a comment; i know there are bigger and more important issues to focus on right now*, other than a man who has been left to rot in a jail overseas without a fair trial. or any trial.
michelle tells me today on page 9 of the age that the people who are against the government on this are: major michael mori, hicks' lawyer; david mcleaod, adelaide lawyer for hicks; the greens; australian democrats; fairgofordavid (support group). ok, thus far we have a list of people who could be argued to have vested interests.
what about the following?
nicholas cowdrey, nsw director of public prosecutions; law council of australia; international commission of jurists (australia); lex lasry qc, he of the fight for the underdog fame. and cindy sheehan, mother of killed us soldier, ok she has a vested emotional interest.
then there's lord goldsmith, british attorney-general; reverend john sentamu, archbishop of york; brigadier gerard fogarty, a soldier somewhere i guess, doesn't specify and gerard brennan, former australian high court chief justice.
oh, plus 76 lawyers who signed an open letter to the pm; people who were willing to put their names to this protest.
and then there's me, and maybe you.
against this is listed, as supporters of america's treatment of hicks:
john howard and the federal government
kim beazley and the federal opposition
george bush and the us government
the final word has to go to mori, hick's us lawyer. he's a marine, and he looks like one. he says that "marines love underdogs. i'm a marine" and always signs his emails with "sf" which refers to the expression semper fidelis (always faithful.)
again i ask.
send david hicks home.
and if howard says one more time "i believe, and i think most people would believe" i will fucking scream. i am not most people. most people in this country are idiots because they voted that government back in again. i'm sorry, if you voted liberal at the last election, you are no friend of mine. let's get that out there.
and by the way, are people not commenting because:
a. they don't give a rats about this
b. they're scared of being associated with me, ms sedition? in which case i will have to do the GOB cocococo chicken dance at you most promptly.
c. i have no readers?
i welcome feedback, even in email form so you don't have to have any visible connections to this most incendiary of blogs.
melba_grrrl@yahoo.com
* this is my disclaimer. if you happen to have a post currently on any of these topics, DO NOT TAKE OFFENCE. it's not aimed at anyone in particular, i'm just trying to be funny, so please don't get cross my friend. you know who i'm talking to. yes, you. just move your little green hand away from the delete-melbournegirl-from-blogroll-button, nice and slow.
[insert smiley face here]
i'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take it anymore.
Monday, July 03, 2006
BRING DAVID HICKS HOME
the following is from michelle grattan, in the age, yesterday 2 july, 2006.
"John Howard is obsessive about David Hicks - there is no other word for it."
GO MICHELLE. YOU TELL IT LIKE IT IS, BABY.
"The PM has become a crusader against someone who, whatever he did - which was unsavoury but in the end didn't amount to anything with tangible consequences - has alread paid the price many times over.
Hicks' training with al-Qaeda did not break the Australian law at the time. It didn't produce any terrorist act, or plan for one. It can't justify the extreme punishment to which he has been subjected."
"Yet nothing shakes the Howard Government's conviction, or its willingness to go along with what George Bush wants to do about the Guantanamo prisoners. It remains unswayed by the intense and mounting international criticism of Guantanamo Bay."
"If it had been behaving rationally, the Australian Government would have insisted on the return of Hicks long ago."
like britain.
"Now that the Howard Government has been hung out to dry along with Bush by the United States Supreme Court's king hit against the President's military commission system, a pragmatic response would be to say, "Enough, send him home please." Instead, Howard is simply stepping up efforts to paint Hicks as a major villain."
the last word must go to michael mori, hicks' american lawyer, who said:
" The Australian Government was the only government that ever said the commissions were appropriate for their citizens, that they (would) provide a fair trial. Not even the US (accepted the commissions for its citizens)."
THE ONLY GOVERNMENT
NOT EVEN THE US ACCEPTED THE COMMISSIONS FOR ITS CITIZENS
have a great day all.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/guantanamo/
"John Howard is obsessive about David Hicks - there is no other word for it."
GO MICHELLE. YOU TELL IT LIKE IT IS, BABY.
"The PM has become a crusader against someone who, whatever he did - which was unsavoury but in the end didn't amount to anything with tangible consequences - has alread paid the price many times over.
Hicks' training with al-Qaeda did not break the Australian law at the time. It didn't produce any terrorist act, or plan for one. It can't justify the extreme punishment to which he has been subjected."
"Yet nothing shakes the Howard Government's conviction, or its willingness to go along with what George Bush wants to do about the Guantanamo prisoners. It remains unswayed by the intense and mounting international criticism of Guantanamo Bay."
"If it had been behaving rationally, the Australian Government would have insisted on the return of Hicks long ago."
like britain.
"Now that the Howard Government has been hung out to dry along with Bush by the United States Supreme Court's king hit against the President's military commission system, a pragmatic response would be to say, "Enough, send him home please." Instead, Howard is simply stepping up efforts to paint Hicks as a major villain."
the last word must go to michael mori, hicks' american lawyer, who said:
" The Australian Government was the only government that ever said the commissions were appropriate for their citizens, that they (would) provide a fair trial. Not even the US (accepted the commissions for its citizens)."
THE ONLY GOVERNMENT
NOT EVEN THE US ACCEPTED THE COMMISSIONS FOR ITS CITIZENS
have a great day all.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/guantanamo/
Sunday, July 02, 2006
the mg-hicks polemic series, part two
BRING DAVID HICKS HOME
this is just one of many shameful things the australian government has allowed to happen, if not purposefully enacted.
hicks is an australian citizen.
howard says he has no sympathy for a person who trained with al-qaeda.
that is irrelevant. howard is playing god. regardless of what an australian citizen has done in a territory other than their home country, it is the duty of this government and its representatives to assist that person so that they receive support, in ways both legal and humane.
if there is a case against hicks, lay it on the line.
if there isn't, fucking do something about it.
either way, he shouldn't be left to rot there.
bring him home.
let it run its course.
stand up for what's right, and true and just.
for fuck's sake, howard, it's not as if anyone is asking you to APOLOGISE or anything.
sheesh.
this is just one of many shameful things the australian government has allowed to happen, if not purposefully enacted.
hicks is an australian citizen.
howard says he has no sympathy for a person who trained with al-qaeda.
that is irrelevant. howard is playing god. regardless of what an australian citizen has done in a territory other than their home country, it is the duty of this government and its representatives to assist that person so that they receive support, in ways both legal and humane.
if there is a case against hicks, lay it on the line.
if there isn't, fucking do something about it.
either way, he shouldn't be left to rot there.
bring him home.
let it run its course.
stand up for what's right, and true and just.
for fuck's sake, howard, it's not as if anyone is asking you to APOLOGISE or anything.
sheesh.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
it's time to bring david hicks home
this week, all i will be blogging about is david hicks, how he is being left to rot in cuba by john howard, who has no "sympathy" for him because he trained with al-qaida, how his human rights are being ignored, how australians must demand he be brought back to australia, charged with something, and allowed to answer any criminal charges in court. we have to remember that a person is innocent until proven guilty. and even if a person is guilty of crimes as charged, that person, that human, is offered a certain amount of protection by his or her civil rights.
why is david hicks being painted as the boogie man?
he did not cut up any bodies and put them in a barrel. he did not rape and murder a girl in a toilet in a shopping centre. he did not drug and degrade a woman on a cruise ship. he did not kidnap and murder hitchikers between melbourne and sydney. he did not kidnap three children from a beach in adelaide, nor did he cut a fly wire screen from a bedroom window in beaumaris and steal a child called eloise. he did not fly a plane into a building, and he did not put a bomb on a london bus.
david hicks has not done any of these things.
he should be brought home, charged with an offence and then dealt with in the proper manner.
why isn't this happening? because like an incompetent parent, john howard has backed himself into a corner. also, there probably isn't a charge that they know would stick, ie no evidence, so they have no where to go with this. and if he is kept at guantanamo, then it's the "out of sight, out of mind" scenario.
bet howard is shitting himself at the thought of guantanamo being shut down. then we might have to take him back.
and what will they do then?
Friday, June 30, 2006
the good guys at the intersection of north and grange roads, at fast food junction
well done to the P plater in the red commodore at the intersection of grange and north roads at 5.55pm.
there was a person in a wheelchair that was operated by a probe on his head. he was struggling to complete his way across the pedestrian crossing. you were patient and waited, even though the light was green for you, without tooting, until he managed to tortuously and ever so slowly get that fucking probe into the little doo-dah to make his machine proceed.
it was awful to watch. i was in a right-hand lane waiting for a green arrow. i was about to jump out to see if he needed any help. i was frozen. watching, agonising over whether he would get that shaking probe, extending out from his metal head band into the socket.
he did.
and well done too, to the young and intimidating looking maybe-a-gang-member man, in baseball cap and other sundry cool-guy items of apparel who dropped his bmx-style bike near the intersection, just outside kfc, and ventured half-way across to help the wheelchair guy.
these two acts of kindness, which did not take much but were a beautiful thing to see, brought my just-below-the-surface tears to the, um, surface. they were ready to brim because this afternoon my mother and i took princess to see polanski's oliver twist.
it was pretty dark, and oh so sad. princess was goraning and twisting in her seat, clasping my arm, crying and sniffing for a lot of it. i was thinking "fuck, this was a mistake", my mother was repeatedly sniffing into a tissue. princess was asking me whether anyone in the movie was going to be kind to oliver. she whispered really loudly, "i just want him to be happy."
of course, oliver was subjected to abuse after abuse, and then when there seemed to be hope, it was taken away from him. at one stage, princess said "i don't like this story" and i was thinking, oh shit. am i creating for her a traumatic memory, much like my own ones from when i was little?*
but there was a happy ending, and princess told me about two hours later, after we had a little distance from the emotion, that she'd enjoyed it, she liked it, and would like to read charles dickens "when i'm older."
* tommy and sybil.
there was a person in a wheelchair that was operated by a probe on his head. he was struggling to complete his way across the pedestrian crossing. you were patient and waited, even though the light was green for you, without tooting, until he managed to tortuously and ever so slowly get that fucking probe into the little doo-dah to make his machine proceed.
it was awful to watch. i was in a right-hand lane waiting for a green arrow. i was about to jump out to see if he needed any help. i was frozen. watching, agonising over whether he would get that shaking probe, extending out from his metal head band into the socket.
he did.
and well done too, to the young and intimidating looking maybe-a-gang-member man, in baseball cap and other sundry cool-guy items of apparel who dropped his bmx-style bike near the intersection, just outside kfc, and ventured half-way across to help the wheelchair guy.
these two acts of kindness, which did not take much but were a beautiful thing to see, brought my just-below-the-surface tears to the, um, surface. they were ready to brim because this afternoon my mother and i took princess to see polanski's oliver twist.
it was pretty dark, and oh so sad. princess was goraning and twisting in her seat, clasping my arm, crying and sniffing for a lot of it. i was thinking "fuck, this was a mistake", my mother was repeatedly sniffing into a tissue. princess was asking me whether anyone in the movie was going to be kind to oliver. she whispered really loudly, "i just want him to be happy."
of course, oliver was subjected to abuse after abuse, and then when there seemed to be hope, it was taken away from him. at one stage, princess said "i don't like this story" and i was thinking, oh shit. am i creating for her a traumatic memory, much like my own ones from when i was little?*
but there was a happy ending, and princess told me about two hours later, after we had a little distance from the emotion, that she'd enjoyed it, she liked it, and would like to read charles dickens "when i'm older."
* tommy and sybil.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
happiness for me today, part 2
happiness for me today was cooking ms fits' delightful and charming soup.
and eating it.
happiness was also cuddling a sweet-smelling dressed-in-pink baby girl who coo'd and smiled and charmed my pants off.
happiness today was going to the europa cake store and buying up because we had visitors coming for lunch.
happiness was also buying the three kids a new book each. princess got the next harry potter, the phoenix one. we start tonight.
[rubs hands gleefully and tries not to cackle]
happiness for me today is knowing i am going to the gym shortly and can watch neighbours and big brother while pounding the belt on the treadmill. i really don't like that perry chick. she is beyond annoying, and i reckon rivals nikki for first murder candidate on bb, like evah.
happiness for me today was a chat on the phone with mum, talking about books, among other things.
me: you should read on beauty when i'm finished with it. you'll really enjoy it, i think. it's got everything in it. remember the early john irvings, but then he went off the boil? well, this girl is so talented. she's only 30. THIRTY!! she's writing like he did in his early days. i think authors have only got a certain number of books in them. he reached the end.
mum: i will. you know i wish roald dahl had been around when i was a kid. when princess and i read mathilda i really loved it, and i just didn't get the twist until right at the end.
me: well, he wrote some adult short stories. you know how his kid stuff can be a bit macabre? well his adult stuff he takes up a few more notches, it's really good. lots of twists and plot turns.
mum: well, i'm reading a book about mothers and daughters. i've been thinking of you as i read it. it's really wonderful. edited by joyce carol-oates. have you heard of her?
me: yeah, she's someone i've been trying to read for a while now. i got one of her books in a 2nd hand shop, haven't read it yet. she wrote an excellent book on marilyn monroe years ago, not sure, is it called blonde? anyway, apparently it's really good but hard to get... i've looked for it-
mum: have you tried those internet- is it out of print? you know, [sister's name] found those peter [so and so] dream books, you know the dream interpretation books, on one of those websites, they're in queensland and they got them from overseas and sent them down. they were really cheap and quick to get
me: yeah, i've used those sites a few times, they're good. i must remember them when i'm looking for something.
and on and on and on.
we have made a plan to take princess to see polanski's oliver on friday. i don't think it will be too dark. do you? my mum didn't think so, but then she was the one who took me to see the stage show of jesus christ superstar when i was 10, the rock horror picture show (live) when i was just a couple of years older, and sybil when i was about 12 as well. she also let me read the exorcist* (and do a book review on it for school) when i was 15.
one sadness today. gigi had to go back to the vet. she threw up again this morning, and hasn't been eating. so we went back and got some more antibiotics. hopefully she'll pick up again.
poor baby.
* mum may not have actually known i was reading it. i'm sure she also wasn't aware i was ploughing through my father's erotic novels: all the emanuelles, the fan club and the story of o at about the same time.
and eating it.
happiness was also cuddling a sweet-smelling dressed-in-pink baby girl who coo'd and smiled and charmed my pants off.
happiness today was going to the europa cake store and buying up because we had visitors coming for lunch.
happiness was also buying the three kids a new book each. princess got the next harry potter, the phoenix one. we start tonight.
[rubs hands gleefully and tries not to cackle]
happiness for me today is knowing i am going to the gym shortly and can watch neighbours and big brother while pounding the belt on the treadmill. i really don't like that perry chick. she is beyond annoying, and i reckon rivals nikki for first murder candidate on bb, like evah.
happiness for me today was a chat on the phone with mum, talking about books, among other things.
me: you should read on beauty when i'm finished with it. you'll really enjoy it, i think. it's got everything in it. remember the early john irvings, but then he went off the boil? well, this girl is so talented. she's only 30. THIRTY!! she's writing like he did in his early days. i think authors have only got a certain number of books in them. he reached the end.
mum: i will. you know i wish roald dahl had been around when i was a kid. when princess and i read mathilda i really loved it, and i just didn't get the twist until right at the end.
me: well, he wrote some adult short stories. you know how his kid stuff can be a bit macabre? well his adult stuff he takes up a few more notches, it's really good. lots of twists and plot turns.
mum: well, i'm reading a book about mothers and daughters. i've been thinking of you as i read it. it's really wonderful. edited by joyce carol-oates. have you heard of her?
me: yeah, she's someone i've been trying to read for a while now. i got one of her books in a 2nd hand shop, haven't read it yet. she wrote an excellent book on marilyn monroe years ago, not sure, is it called blonde? anyway, apparently it's really good but hard to get... i've looked for it-
mum: have you tried those internet- is it out of print? you know, [sister's name] found those peter [so and so] dream books, you know the dream interpretation books, on one of those websites, they're in queensland and they got them from overseas and sent them down. they were really cheap and quick to get
me: yeah, i've used those sites a few times, they're good. i must remember them when i'm looking for something.
and on and on and on.
we have made a plan to take princess to see polanski's oliver on friday. i don't think it will be too dark. do you? my mum didn't think so, but then she was the one who took me to see the stage show of jesus christ superstar when i was 10, the rock horror picture show (live) when i was just a couple of years older, and sybil when i was about 12 as well. she also let me read the exorcist* (and do a book review on it for school) when i was 15.
one sadness today. gigi had to go back to the vet. she threw up again this morning, and hasn't been eating. so we went back and got some more antibiotics. hopefully she'll pick up again.
poor baby.
* mum may not have actually known i was reading it. i'm sure she also wasn't aware i was ploughing through my father's erotic novels: all the emanuelles, the fan club and the story of o at about the same time.
Monday, June 26, 2006
you know that a television show has entered your family's life in a most fundamental way when
1. on a road trip, the categories for a popular guessing game are animal, vegetable, mineral and neighbours.
2. your daughter is calling all her nintendogs sky, steph, dylan, stingray and jp.
3. the first item of business at the dinner table is discussing "neighbours theories"
4. you keep having this conversation* with your daughter as follows:
princess: i just can't believe it
me: what? carl and susan?
princess: yessssss! isn't that an affair?
me: well, it was just a kiss-
princess: but they went up onto their KNEES...
me: well- as i was going to say, it was a kiss. if they did more and carl didn't tell jenny, then that would be an affair-
princess: i just can't believe it
5. the mosaic-style promos that run immediately after each show can sometimes send our family into paroxyms of collective excitement and confusion (in equal measures) with hearty demands for a rewind, sometimes twice, before we all kind of settle down, muttering about theories, and highly-pitched chatter from princess about what's coming next on this show of shows.
6. much thought and time is invested in considering which neighbour is the favourite. princess says she likes sky and mishka.
7. on mishka, i myself have given much thought to whether mishka, admittedly almost my favourite character, is truly a russian laydee. i have seen her in other things, though, i am sure. i feel she is just acting well, though of course with all the vodka and overuse of the infinitive, it strays well inside stereotype-territory. i am impressed with the authentic phrasing of her "bad english". someone on the script team has done some english teaching and one stage, is this not true?
* i swear. i have been over this with her about six times now.
2. your daughter is calling all her nintendogs sky, steph, dylan, stingray and jp.
3. the first item of business at the dinner table is discussing "neighbours theories"
4. you keep having this conversation* with your daughter as follows:
princess: i just can't believe it
me: what? carl and susan?
princess: yessssss! isn't that an affair?
me: well, it was just a kiss-
princess: but they went up onto their KNEES...
me: well- as i was going to say, it was a kiss. if they did more and carl didn't tell jenny, then that would be an affair-
princess: i just can't believe it
5. the mosaic-style promos that run immediately after each show can sometimes send our family into paroxyms of collective excitement and confusion (in equal measures) with hearty demands for a rewind, sometimes twice, before we all kind of settle down, muttering about theories, and highly-pitched chatter from princess about what's coming next on this show of shows.
6. much thought and time is invested in considering which neighbour is the favourite. princess says she likes sky and mishka.
7. on mishka, i myself have given much thought to whether mishka, admittedly almost my favourite character, is truly a russian laydee. i have seen her in other things, though, i am sure. i feel she is just acting well, though of course with all the vodka and overuse of the infinitive, it strays well inside stereotype-territory. i am impressed with the authentic phrasing of her "bad english". someone on the script team has done some english teaching and one stage, is this not true?
* i swear. i have been over this with her about six times now.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
happiness is...
happiness is pottering around in a garden on a mild winter's day.
the lavender is blooming lovely.
happiness is then being served a candlelit meal, cooked by three beautiful children.
burgers with the lot, and wedges. and every condiment you can think of.
handmade menus, place settings and cutlery holders.
then having two-tiered blue and red jelly with hundreds and thousands on the top.
this is what happiness is for me today.
Friday, June 23, 2006
E R R O R C O R R E C T I O N
i must point out that my last post contained an error. i stated that keith windschuttle is a holocaust denier. this is absolutely inaccurate, as he is a denier of aboriginal massacres and other horrible things enacted by white european settlers in australia upon the indigenous peoples. clearly nothing to do with the holocaust of wwII.
the person i was thinking of, as the holocaust denier, was david irving.
i just don't know how i possibly mixed the two of them up, as they clearly have different ideologies.
so in the interest of accuracy, and non-fabrication of history (which last friday's post now is) i state my error and apologise if i offended any delicate-flower racist* readers or any other sensitive types who were understandably upset by this mistake.
happy weekend everyone.
be nice to people. it's easy, give it a go.
and look after yourselves.
* i guess even racists get pissed off when someone mixes up their poster boys.
the person i was thinking of, as the holocaust denier, was david irving.
i just don't know how i possibly mixed the two of them up, as they clearly have different ideologies.
so in the interest of accuracy, and non-fabrication of history (which last friday's post now is) i state my error and apologise if i offended any delicate-flower racist* readers or any other sensitive types who were understandably upset by this mistake.
happy weekend everyone.
be nice to people. it's easy, give it a go.
and look after yourselves.
* i guess even racists get pissed off when someone mixes up their poster boys.
Friday, June 16, 2006
things that are bothering me today
sorry for being so negative but here they are.
1. the obstruction for david hicks trying to get out of his hell hole. it would be a hell hole, that is not fancy talk. the paper tells me today that he may soon be a british citizen. i hope so. regardless of what he has or hasn't done, the whole point of the geneva convention was to protect the HUMAN rights of HUMAN individuals who are prisoners of war. if he's a prisoner of war, he should have his rights observed. if he's not a prisoner of war, what the fuck is he doing in guantanamo.
and why has the mealy minded* john howard person left him there to rot?
2. i checked in an indonesian dictionary and apparently being "understanding and sensitive" to their policies equates with "turning a blind eye" and "ignoring" things such as government army atrocities and not only lack of freedom and democracy for citizens, but persecution and oppression. east timor. papua. i'm scant on the details but we all know it's fundamentally true. why would the australian government be willing to compromise the strong principles and ideology we have come to know and love? might be the same reason for iraq. something with three letters, starting with o, ending in l and with an i in it.
3. a state opposition front bencher andrew mcintosh, who had a diary pushed under his office door, which has notes in it saying that there was to be a dirt digging exercise on ted baillieu's wife and three children, the youngest 8, has said that "i'm sure every single victorian is devastated by the fact that their elected official, their government, is prepared to use the unbelievable power of a victorian government to trawl through all of those matter that are personal and private details relating to our families and our loved ones."
NO andrew, NOT devastated. not this baby here. not surprised either. so count me out of your every single victorian and back the fuck up.
4. finally, HOW IN GOD'S NAME DID KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE GET A BERTH ON THE ABC BOARD? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? THIS IS A MAN WHO ARGUES THAT THE HOLOCAUST DID NOT HAPPEN.
DID NOT HAPPEN.
IS THIS AN ATTEMPT AT BALANCE? ARE THERE ACCUSATIONS THAT THE ABC BOARD IS BIASED (yeah, towards sanity, perhaps?)
i just don't know what to believe in any more.
* i don't know if you can be mealy minded or just mealy mouthed. but i'm making him mealy minded.
1. the obstruction for david hicks trying to get out of his hell hole. it would be a hell hole, that is not fancy talk. the paper tells me today that he may soon be a british citizen. i hope so. regardless of what he has or hasn't done, the whole point of the geneva convention was to protect the HUMAN rights of HUMAN individuals who are prisoners of war. if he's a prisoner of war, he should have his rights observed. if he's not a prisoner of war, what the fuck is he doing in guantanamo.
and why has the mealy minded* john howard person left him there to rot?
2. i checked in an indonesian dictionary and apparently being "understanding and sensitive" to their policies equates with "turning a blind eye" and "ignoring" things such as government army atrocities and not only lack of freedom and democracy for citizens, but persecution and oppression. east timor. papua. i'm scant on the details but we all know it's fundamentally true. why would the australian government be willing to compromise the strong principles and ideology we have come to know and love? might be the same reason for iraq. something with three letters, starting with o, ending in l and with an i in it.
3. a state opposition front bencher andrew mcintosh, who had a diary pushed under his office door, which has notes in it saying that there was to be a dirt digging exercise on ted baillieu's wife and three children, the youngest 8, has said that "i'm sure every single victorian is devastated by the fact that their elected official, their government, is prepared to use the unbelievable power of a victorian government to trawl through all of those matter that are personal and private details relating to our families and our loved ones."
NO andrew, NOT devastated. not this baby here. not surprised either. so count me out of your every single victorian and back the fuck up.
4. finally, HOW IN GOD'S NAME DID KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE GET A BERTH ON THE ABC BOARD? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? THIS IS A MAN WHO ARGUES THAT THE HOLOCAUST DID NOT HAPPEN.
DID NOT HAPPEN.
IS THIS AN ATTEMPT AT BALANCE? ARE THERE ACCUSATIONS THAT THE ABC BOARD IS BIASED (yeah, towards sanity, perhaps?)
i just don't know what to believe in any more.
* i don't know if you can be mealy minded or just mealy mouthed. but i'm making him mealy minded.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
this week's six feet under. only one to go.
last night i watched most of sfu from behind my hands, and a cushion off the couch. i was convinced really bad things were going to happen.
there was a toing and froing of maya between brenda who has clearly been all over the place since nate's death six weeks previously. ruth wanted to keep maya, george pleaded on her behalf, brenda agreed, then changed her mind.
ruth had a conversation with george, and said "we could raise her [maya] couldn't we?"
he gallantly ignored the "we" and what it implied, and agreed that yes, they could.
brenda was having weird dreams about billy; especially after nate appeared and told her she and billy could "be together" in all senses of the expression, that they should as they belong together, that they could go away somewhere new and set up as a couple and fuck. that last word just hung in the air. so confronting. then brenda has a dream, only of course the viewer doesn't know it's a dream. she enters billy's room (he is staying with her) he's in bed. they end up hugging, he is naked, she looks at him, he suggests she touches it, she does. they kiss. so twisted but so well done. so like a dream.
claire is going off the rails. she is drunk all the time, or stoned. drives and totals her car. so we see the end of this beautiful beast, one of the visual icons of this show for me:
in another scene she confronts two women leaving the funeral parlour, who have just been making arrangements for their son and brother. we know the dead man was young, a returned soldier, legless and missing one arm. he was horrifically injured. we know also his sister helped him kill himself. on the back of the mother's vehicle, a huge petrol guzzling suv, is a sticker that says "support our troops".
claire catches sight of this while she is drunk; she lets rip a poisonous invective against the two women, ranting that it's because of cars like this that america has invaded iraq, for oil, also that the support the troops sticker is misguided, people are dying over there, she screamed, iraqis, children, women, etc etc.
she has no idea that their son and brother was a soldier and was dead.
it was a wonderful scene, and hard to watch.
also hard to watch claire spitting abuse at the kindly ted who has been her rock the last couple of episodes. a man not more than an acquaintance but clearly a decent person who has supported her and been there for her, and, we hoped, a potential long-term, happily-ever-after future husband. claire pushed him away, told him to fuck off, told him he was a jerk etc.
david continues to lose it with his panic attacks. it's just all spinning out of control and i really fear for next week. i won't be able to watch it until probably tuesday night. and then i will mourn its finishing.
and move onto something else.
there was a toing and froing of maya between brenda who has clearly been all over the place since nate's death six weeks previously. ruth wanted to keep maya, george pleaded on her behalf, brenda agreed, then changed her mind.
ruth had a conversation with george, and said "we could raise her [maya] couldn't we?"
he gallantly ignored the "we" and what it implied, and agreed that yes, they could.
brenda was having weird dreams about billy; especially after nate appeared and told her she and billy could "be together" in all senses of the expression, that they should as they belong together, that they could go away somewhere new and set up as a couple and fuck. that last word just hung in the air. so confronting. then brenda has a dream, only of course the viewer doesn't know it's a dream. she enters billy's room (he is staying with her) he's in bed. they end up hugging, he is naked, she looks at him, he suggests she touches it, she does. they kiss. so twisted but so well done. so like a dream.
claire is going off the rails. she is drunk all the time, or stoned. drives and totals her car. so we see the end of this beautiful beast, one of the visual icons of this show for me:
in another scene she confronts two women leaving the funeral parlour, who have just been making arrangements for their son and brother. we know the dead man was young, a returned soldier, legless and missing one arm. he was horrifically injured. we know also his sister helped him kill himself. on the back of the mother's vehicle, a huge petrol guzzling suv, is a sticker that says "support our troops".
claire catches sight of this while she is drunk; she lets rip a poisonous invective against the two women, ranting that it's because of cars like this that america has invaded iraq, for oil, also that the support the troops sticker is misguided, people are dying over there, she screamed, iraqis, children, women, etc etc.
she has no idea that their son and brother was a soldier and was dead.
it was a wonderful scene, and hard to watch.
also hard to watch claire spitting abuse at the kindly ted who has been her rock the last couple of episodes. a man not more than an acquaintance but clearly a decent person who has supported her and been there for her, and, we hoped, a potential long-term, happily-ever-after future husband. claire pushed him away, told him to fuck off, told him he was a jerk etc.
david continues to lose it with his panic attacks. it's just all spinning out of control and i really fear for next week. i won't be able to watch it until probably tuesday night. and then i will mourn its finishing.
and move onto something else.
Friday, June 09, 2006
some geelong football friday news, and other sundry matters
blogger is being a fuck-arse so i can't post what i've been working on.
so in the meantime...
[throws some raw fish to the seals]
or should that be...
[throws some hunks 'o meat to the lions]
1. apparently, gary hocking is the best coach that's been down geelong way in a while. he is coaching one of the young teams. my prediction is he will be the next coach for the seniors when thompson leaves. more on thompson's destiny and what's going down at the club at the end of the weekend. my source will be reporting back later.
2. the other gary, ablett senior, "mowed off half his foot when he was doing his lawns recently"
me: fuck! shit! he must have had bare feet!
geelong deepthroat: he was wearing thongs, or something.
otherwise, i am making seafood risotto for dinner. think, beautiful coral-red tasmanian salmon, some peppery rocket leaves, some red capsicum and green peas. with shavings of pana granado.
3. if you google "pana granado" my food blog comes up in first position. i am astounded. perhaps i have misspelt it.
4. oyster bay is my new signature wine. it's on special locally for $14 a bottle, and it comes in two flavours; sav blanc and chardonnay. this is very, very good.
5. the grand hyatt melbourne is promoting a mystery package where you pay from $240 per room and on arrival every guest has to roll a pair of dice to discover what prize they have won. prizes are things like room upgrades, massages etc. they don't mention having to go and rape a neighbour, which was the ultimate roll-option in luke rheinhart's the dice man, but i wonder if they got their inspiration from said novel. check it out if you can find a copy. changed my world. almost.
6. speaking of neighbours, i want toady and katya to get it on big time. i also half wish elle had blown up in the car explosion.
7. six feet under. nate died, and i am just clenching my shoulders with dread about what is going to happen to the rest of them. i refuse to believe that he was the main character and will be the only one to have some sort of resolution. i'm hoping that other stuff happens, but also hope it doesn't.
8. watched big brother last night. it's so fucking boring. maybe because i haven't been watching it, but that conversation between blondie girl and headband boy in the spa was so dull. talk about him just not being interested in her. does she get it yet? are they a couple? she is fucking cueless if she's not getting the message. it's like they were having a couple conversation, in her mind, but he was just so not there. i reckon he fancies someone else.
so in the meantime...
[throws some raw fish to the seals]
or should that be...
[throws some hunks 'o meat to the lions]
1. apparently, gary hocking is the best coach that's been down geelong way in a while. he is coaching one of the young teams. my prediction is he will be the next coach for the seniors when thompson leaves. more on thompson's destiny and what's going down at the club at the end of the weekend. my source will be reporting back later.
2. the other gary, ablett senior, "mowed off half his foot when he was doing his lawns recently"
me: fuck! shit! he must have had bare feet!
geelong deepthroat: he was wearing thongs, or something.
otherwise, i am making seafood risotto for dinner. think, beautiful coral-red tasmanian salmon, some peppery rocket leaves, some red capsicum and green peas. with shavings of pana granado.
3. if you google "pana granado" my food blog comes up in first position. i am astounded. perhaps i have misspelt it.
4. oyster bay is my new signature wine. it's on special locally for $14 a bottle, and it comes in two flavours; sav blanc and chardonnay. this is very, very good.
5. the grand hyatt melbourne is promoting a mystery package where you pay from $240 per room and on arrival every guest has to roll a pair of dice to discover what prize they have won. prizes are things like room upgrades, massages etc. they don't mention having to go and rape a neighbour, which was the ultimate roll-option in luke rheinhart's the dice man, but i wonder if they got their inspiration from said novel. check it out if you can find a copy. changed my world. almost.
6. speaking of neighbours, i want toady and katya to get it on big time. i also half wish elle had blown up in the car explosion.
7. six feet under. nate died, and i am just clenching my shoulders with dread about what is going to happen to the rest of them. i refuse to believe that he was the main character and will be the only one to have some sort of resolution. i'm hoping that other stuff happens, but also hope it doesn't.
8. watched big brother last night. it's so fucking boring. maybe because i haven't been watching it, but that conversation between blondie girl and headband boy in the spa was so dull. talk about him just not being interested in her. does she get it yet? are they a couple? she is fucking cueless if she's not getting the message. it's like they were having a couple conversation, in her mind, but he was just so not there. i reckon he fancies someone else.
Friday, June 02, 2006
friday update*
1. when i run a bath, it always comes out too hot, and then i have to let some out and put in more hot water. this is starting to annoy me.
2. we just bought arrested development on dvd.
3. last night i was loading songs to mypod, and i was rapt to see that john had cool for cats by squeeze on an 80s compilation.
4. the gigi is well, thank you all for you support and concern. we are walking very nicely now; i step out with mypod blaring.
5. i am so enjoying nikki on bb uk. also am waiting for more on the lisa and pete saga. you should check out the trilogy of terror that appears here.
this one first
then this one
and finally, this one.
6. what the fuck is happening with david hicks? he should be sent home. what the fuck is happening in iraq? we should get the fuck out of there. democracy? what a laugh. civil war is just around the corner. the war america thinks it is fighting, or says it is fighting, two different things perhaps, is unwinnable. now american soldiers shoot some civilians, it's just fucked. they went on a rampage because their mate got killed?
the julia gillard thing - abbott can call someone a snivelling grub, and then retract by saying he apologised if he caused offence to grubs, or something similar, but when gillard used the exact same words, and the exact same retraction, was suspended. haven't read today's paper so don't know what more has happened there.
7. the indigenous situation is moving off the front pages. it sickens me how the media just move on. i understand it though. what sickens me more is that there is not one politician with any power prepared to stand up and say this is going to stop, and put some money into it, and really seek solutions.
8. i am feeling really quite relaxed now having handed in my thesis. i am already thinking about a phd, and while this might seem mad, i found that i really loved the research and the intellectual stimulation. my supervisor said i should make it into a book. i have other ideas for books though.
9. in the last two days i have eaten at borsari's in carlton and di stasio in st. kilda. the food was good but i can't really be bothered describing it. i will say the oysters at borsari were outstanding, and the penne with rabbit ragu was excellent at di stasio's. the di stasio tiramisu beat borsari's. yes, i like tiramisu.
10. when i was first a student in carlton i discovered the joys of spaghetti marinara. i would eat it everywhere it was on the menu. i kept a little notebook and recorded how many times i had it. my goal was to have my centenary spag marinara in italy. i got sick of them at about the mid 70s. now i order it sometimes. i cook the best spag marinara. i don't like it with tomatoes, it must be olive oil base. i don't like the coral on scallops either. not that that's particularly relevant. and i do like parmesan cheese on it, even though that's not what you're meant to do.
how did i get onto spaghetti marinara? oh, one other thing, when i was studying for my hsc exams, i went down to my dad's holiday house in inverloch. he came down one weekend, and cooked me spaghetti marinara. he couldn't find any fresh seafood (strange, i know, being a beach side town) so bought frozen packet fish and washed off the breadcrumbs. it was fairly foul but this is a memory that i have that proves to me that he loves me. the effort he went to, with that meal.
* this is a day late cause our server went down last night.
2. we just bought arrested development on dvd.
3. last night i was loading songs to mypod, and i was rapt to see that john had cool for cats by squeeze on an 80s compilation.
4. the gigi is well, thank you all for you support and concern. we are walking very nicely now; i step out with mypod blaring.
5. i am so enjoying nikki on bb uk. also am waiting for more on the lisa and pete saga. you should check out the trilogy of terror that appears here.
this one first
then this one
and finally, this one.
6. what the fuck is happening with david hicks? he should be sent home. what the fuck is happening in iraq? we should get the fuck out of there. democracy? what a laugh. civil war is just around the corner. the war america thinks it is fighting, or says it is fighting, two different things perhaps, is unwinnable. now american soldiers shoot some civilians, it's just fucked. they went on a rampage because their mate got killed?
the julia gillard thing - abbott can call someone a snivelling grub, and then retract by saying he apologised if he caused offence to grubs, or something similar, but when gillard used the exact same words, and the exact same retraction, was suspended. haven't read today's paper so don't know what more has happened there.
7. the indigenous situation is moving off the front pages. it sickens me how the media just move on. i understand it though. what sickens me more is that there is not one politician with any power prepared to stand up and say this is going to stop, and put some money into it, and really seek solutions.
8. i am feeling really quite relaxed now having handed in my thesis. i am already thinking about a phd, and while this might seem mad, i found that i really loved the research and the intellectual stimulation. my supervisor said i should make it into a book. i have other ideas for books though.
9. in the last two days i have eaten at borsari's in carlton and di stasio in st. kilda. the food was good but i can't really be bothered describing it. i will say the oysters at borsari were outstanding, and the penne with rabbit ragu was excellent at di stasio's. the di stasio tiramisu beat borsari's. yes, i like tiramisu.
10. when i was first a student in carlton i discovered the joys of spaghetti marinara. i would eat it everywhere it was on the menu. i kept a little notebook and recorded how many times i had it. my goal was to have my centenary spag marinara in italy. i got sick of them at about the mid 70s. now i order it sometimes. i cook the best spag marinara. i don't like it with tomatoes, it must be olive oil base. i don't like the coral on scallops either. not that that's particularly relevant. and i do like parmesan cheese on it, even though that's not what you're meant to do.
how did i get onto spaghetti marinara? oh, one other thing, when i was studying for my hsc exams, i went down to my dad's holiday house in inverloch. he came down one weekend, and cooked me spaghetti marinara. he couldn't find any fresh seafood (strange, i know, being a beach side town) so bought frozen packet fish and washed off the breadcrumbs. it was fairly foul but this is a memory that i have that proves to me that he loves me. the effort he went to, with that meal.
* this is a day late cause our server went down last night.
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