friday wrap-up

it was pretty embarrassing to be on a crowded tram yesterday morning, to feed all the squandered silver coins from the money box on top of the bookcase into the ticket machine, to try to buy a daily ticket, to have all of it stuffed into the slot bar one coin, and then to get the message "machine returning money" and have it all dumped back out at me, like some fricking one-armed bandit.

but i wasn't in vegas, or even in crown. it was a tram, and it made such a noise and i could feel all the people nearby staring at me.

then i had to reach in, and grab it all back out. that seemed to take ages. those little openings are pretty small, and i haven't even got man-hands.

i decided to get a two-hour ticket then. less coins, less chance of it rejecting my money a second time. and as it turned out, a blessing because i was in and out of town within an hour.

and it was ok, it worked, phew. got my ticket.

later in the day saw me meeting my dad to see gran torino at the george. despite flinching any time he said gook or slope head, which i'm thinking was pretty much the point of him talking like that, i enjoyed it immensely, and cried in the end. it was interesting; the religious themes, the redemption themes, families, bigotry, changes in america, war. all of that really good, meaty stuff. life and death, and what do we know of them? it was also funny in a wry way. and that's the good way.

then i went and had lunch with dad, who is very eastwood'esque himself, with the way he doesn't really ever say much, and he also can make the same kind of growling/sighing sound that clint makes several times in the movie (exaggerated in this case, but think dirty harry and the way he clenches the jaw. that's my dad.)

as an aside, in the same cafe was col'n carpenter, whatever his name is, kym gyngell, and he and his ladee ordered the same focaccia me and dad did - chicken with avocado, cheese, lettuce, tomato. it was very nice, but col'n and dad both had trouble cutting through the bread with their knives, while me and col'n's ladee picked ours up and just ate like pigs. she was very young, much younger than him and i wondered if she were not preggers?

heh. no one is safe when i'm in the hood.

what else. oh, guitar hero. we are enjoying it. i reckon that the kids' brain synapses are being strengthened and stimulated really nicely, it will help with their school work and sport. as for mine, they're in pretty bad shape anyway i reckon, i don't think anything can help mine. but i'm sleeping like a log - fall into bed exhausted after a little guitar hero action. last night we busted clokes using his "character" on our family games, so the money we earn as a group he can then take and buy his dude jaunty fedoras and trilbies with. i said fuck that, make a family character who can earn some $'s and then we can buy her a fedora!

clokes is working on getting another guitar so we can do battles side by side.

bit of a convo on the radio this morning about jen aniston getting dumped again by john mayer. everyone seems to think he's an arsehole, and she's the good one, but srsly, look at her record, and someone has said they dated her, some dude from a band, and that she was high-maintenance, hard work.

what do you think? are you high maintenance in a relationship? i know i am. and clokes knew as well. because i told him over and over. and then i showed him just for good measure.

as for john mayer, read him on twitter. i don't think he's an arsehole necessarily. he doesn't come across as a twat, just an ordinary guy who likes his music. it's quite refreshing the personalities you can follow on twitter. there aren't heaps. the best ones are john cleese, demi moore and ashton kutcher, john mayer is ok, i'm hooked into soleil moonfrye, who is frank zappa's daughter? (pretty sure; i seem to remember her sibs have got some interesting names too - wasn't there moon unit and dweezil?) jamie oliver also tweets, and you can see he gets a bit pissed off with people asking for recipe tips - he's forever saying politely "my website has alot of recipes..."

but twitter generally doesn't have a patch on blogs. 140 characters only? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING? and anyone who's not a celebrity are so boring. sorry clokes. even some of the celebs are boring. the rapper dudes i can't read; and stephen fry gets the gold star for most tweets - it's tedious. at least john cleese is funny, if irregular.

how about the earthquake, ay? i felt it this time, it rocked a bit. and the blackhawk helicopters that everyone is freaking out about. there might be more, there might not. i don't think it's a problem, but who knows.

so, TGIF is all i can say. with ali in the country (princess' dad) my life always gets a little jumpy. been ok this year so far. he's brought a girlfriend with him - she's turkish as well and so heart-stoppingly beautiful, she is gorgeous, like some flashing-eyed gypsy girl. princess is off to sydney twice in a little while, once for a weekend and once for a week. long-time readers will remember the last vigil when princess went to america - oh my god was she really only 8??? - so this time i'm so relaxed and "sure, why not" about sydney. she'll have a fab time. we've delayed her getting her braces on, because i don't want her to be away from home with a sore mouth and unable to eat and miserable on her holiday. the way ali likes to holiday, food is a huge part of it, loads of fresh fruit and seafood; she doesn't want to miss all that. so i've persuaded her to put them off.

so that's about it. i plan to do some writing for the rest of the day. stay away from the blogs. take the gigi for a walk. pop into my mum's.

happy friday to everyone, and enjoy the weekend.

x