Two posts, one day.

I'm a bit behind the times here probably cause I don't read any music stuff at all, or entertainment/celeb stuff these days.


But was sad to hear of the death of Ari Up from the Slits. These girls were original Fuck You girls back in the late '70s to early '80s.





For me, they represented women who did their own thing and weren't worried about being judged or criticised or labelled as unsexy, unfeminine, uncouth. All the uns.


I had the album above - Cut. For me I think it was all about the cover, I don't think I ever fully loved any of their songs. Just had a quick listen on youtube - discordant, all over the place and terrible production. Oh well. Great album cover.

Let me play you (again I think) another of my faves from that time. I just loved The Damned and this video is pretty good, and it's their best song. I normally don't like these types of videos that just show still photography but this is pretty good.

Wednesday Panic

Panic is looking for and not finding Volume 22 of my diaries which I am going to rely on for a project and also which contains intimate and every detail of my life from 3.13am Friday 20 April 1990, scribed as I sat on the plane (seat 16A) at Bangkok airport waiting to fly to Athens, until 5.10pm Friday 29 June, 1990.

Relief is finding it.

Thank fucking god.

Tuesday Happy Spree

Happiness today is my new short hair being commented upon, and then the drop-jaw looks when I say "oh, I did it myself."

Happiness today is two slices of cold watermelon as soon as I get home from work.

Happiness today is knowing we will have simple pasta for dinner. Requires no more thought.

Happiness today is knowing I have an excellent book to read. Room, by Emma Donoghue. Have read a few pages and I was instantly transfixed.

Happiness is not working tomorrow.

Happiness is the Bento Box I had for lunch today.

Happiness is the colour of my nails. OPI Cajun Shrimp. The prettiest red for summer.

Happiness is having knocked out a deal with two of my kids re walking the dog. Yes it involves money but what the hell. She gets walked, they make some money and everyone is happy.

Happiness is knowing we watch some Lost tonight.

Happiness is knowing we also watch some Big Bang tonight.

Happiness is knowing the caterer is booked for my mum's upcoming 70th birthday party.

Happiness is knowing what my next story is, and having done some good stuff yesterday.

Happiness is knowing I have the heart of an ox (not quite the cardiologist's words) and lungs of steel. So the feeling I've been having in my chest is neither lungs nor heart. Next stop - gastroenterologist.

Happiness is knowing my honey is taking me somewhere nice on the weekend.

Happiness is anticipating the Royal Wedding. I can't help it. I LOVE IT.

Happiness is having the piano tuned tomorrow.

Happiness is mopping the kitchen floor tomorrow. I'm serious.

Happiness is snatching 40 minutes or so outside on the trampoline to soak up some rays. Tomorrow.

Happiness is knowing I could sleep in tomorrow, although I won't. Too much to do.

Monday-itis antidote

It's simple don't go to work.

No, it's not that simple. I'm working Friday so I've done a day swap HOWEVER it means I didn't have to heave out of bed and do the nomal Monday morning thang. It did mean, though, that I had to:

- still get up at 7am to check on Princess and do a "go-to-school-or-not" assessment. She stayed home. She has been having night sweats for three nights, had a raging temp on Sat night (or was it Friday?) and has a sore throat and headache. I swear, the girl has no immune system, and part of me worries about that one time a friend breastfed her (without my permission, I might add) when she was <1 year old, and another part of me worries about all the champagne I drank before I knew I was pregnant (Christmas/NYE in Sydney) not to mention the hessian sack of oysters I ate from Merimbula after coming home. Too much zinc can affect foetal development? So I'm takingher to the doc. We did go on Friday and were told that there was a tiny spot on one tonsil - maybe it's tonsilitis now?

- go to my mother's and help her change her sheets as well as dust some up high spots at her place

BUT it also means I've got the papers and can read them over lunch, I can now do some writing AND it also means I was able to spend more time finessing my new hair. Yesterday I chopped it off (it was mid-way down my back and bush like no other) while now it's a bit Blondie, shoulder-length messy bob with some longer bits at the front and a bit shorter at the back. I've done a pretty fine job if I may say so. Secret #1 - dressmaker shears for dealing with the bulk during stage one. Secret #2 - nail scissors for shaping. I read once that Sharon Stone cuts her own hair at the front with nail scissors. I've got pretty wild hair so it's ok to do this; I wouldn't recommend for people with normal hair. But I've saved a bunch of money and have a good story to tell.

So that's about it. Busy few weeks coming up. The Little Man finishes primary school, the two girls finish Year 8 and Year 9 respectively. We have birthdays galore in December, and next weekend Clokes is taking moi to Nobu. We had a reservation at Bistro Vue and I said no. I'm an incorrigible snob (I didn't want to go because it's the "lesser of the two" though truth be told the menu suited me better - no foam that I could see; but also they do early and late sittings and I didn't want to be rushed. So hah. Cancel that baby.)

- oh, one more thing. Is it wrong to feel relieved having almost finished my ex-step-sister's first book (collection of short stories) and realise that we don't write nearly the same, and while I can appreciate her wry humour (she really is alot funnier in her writing than I remember her being as an 11-year-old) and that she is a talented writer and story-teller, she hasn't at all written anything like my book. Not wrong, normal right?

Happy Monday.

Hayfevered

It's a gorgois day out there so may get onto the tramp for a sun sesh HOWEVER in the meantime I have jobs to do, including right now demolishing poached eggs on toast and scanning the papers and drinking coffee. My new way with the coffee (because before I was having a large latte, and it's really alot of milk) is to make it as normal, then put hot water in (using another protrusion on the machine) and then put a shot of hot milk in. It means more cleaning up but tastes good...

I have a card from the PO, looks like it might be one of Ali's carpets. Not sure though.

Have to call the piano tuner again and tell him I need the thing tuned before December. He's a funny thing, very 'mad-musician' - all shambling and vague.

My mobile plan has finished. Does that mean that they automatically adjust the monthly payments to account for the fact I have paid off the handset? No. Apparently I have to tell them. Bastards. They are all bastards. So which phone should I get next? Princess needs a new phone and 'everyone' at her school has iPhones. I've told her she is not getting one and I don't care how outre it will be to not have an iPhone. I've come to hate Apple; they have made all their products so fucking desirable that The People just need to have mac computers and iPhones and iPads. Why do normal people need a fucking mackintosh computer? It's so fucking stupid.

That's about it. At home today oh yay. Will be a bit writerly, just have to get my mind off all the static, including a conversation about sessual relations with animals on another blog. (I've borrowed that term from another blogger, I don't want sick fucks turning up here looking for dog p*rn.)

Speaking about porn, I'm reading Gail Dines' book Pornland. It's about the sexualisation of society and the mainstreaming of porn and how porn on the Internet is becoming more and more hardcore and 'gonzo' (she calls it) and the effects of all of this on us, especially young people who learn about sex on the Internet by watching porn. It's interesting, it's sordid, it's highly academic and my kids think it's a scream that I'm reading something about porn. I tell them it's for work.

Peace out.

Blech

Not liking the rain, my darlings.

Just read in the paper that if it's raining, it must be a Saturday in Melbourne. Yes. At least I managed to get on the trampoline in the backyard yesterday for half an hour of (blazing) sun to try and top up the old Turkish Tan.

Am going out for arvo tea in Prahran with a friend shortly (D from the diaramas) and I'm going to have to wear closed-toe shoes. Fuck.

Last night had date night with Clokes, and we DID walk and I DID wear my new shoes god they are beautiful. We shared a prosciutto pizza (small) and had a steak each. For a small, unpretentious, innocuous place in East St Kilda, the chef sure knows how to cook a steak. My med-rare was exactly that. They could do something about their dessert menu, though. 'Orrible tartufo (from a box) and baci (ditto) and chocolate mousse that they tip into a martini glass behind the bar. Oh sweet jesus.

So I've finished Rose Tremain's The Way I Found Her. You know when you are finishing a novel and the final pages you don't want to read quickly, you want to draw it out and enjoy? Once I'd done that, and stretched the final pages, to the sweet end, ohmyfuckinggod it is so good.

I'm trying to make a list of writerly things, it's so boring and pretentious to go into detail here, I never wanted this blog to be a writer blog, so I shant let it now, BUT I just want to say doing all this other stuff is far harder than writing the thing in the first place. Enough said but it's doing my head in.

Oh an remember I wrote a while back about a few books I had to read, and was reading, and had read, well one of them was Jon Bauer's Rocks in the Belly, which is doing good things and has received some really good reviews. At the time I blogged that I had bought it and was going to read it, I got an email from him to my yahoo address. It was a little funny, that writers google themselves like that. But I've since done some stalking and the guy is funny, unpretentious and down-to-earth so not at all up himself. He's a bit of a spunk too, which doesn't hurt in addition to being a quality writer.

So, in much the same way that years ago I could summon Andrew Landeryou to my blog with a single tap of the keys (Andy, you rascally old self-googler you), Jon if you do venture this way again and haven't read that I loved your book, well I did. And good luck for whatever comes next, though from what I read online you are on you way and don't need luck.

To finish. I am hoping the cafe in Prahran has some nice cake, preferably with some cream in it.

Happy wet Saturday you Melbourne people, and anyone from elsewhere with sunshine, well stuff you, you smug bastard!

Happy Friday

Sorry no diarama today, I am running behind, also have stuff to do. But in the meantime, some bits and pieces:
Loving my new shoes they are too sexy and I can't stop looking at them and touching them and putting them on. Will I be able to wear them out tonight for our date night? Depends if it is pouring with rain at about 7pm. If it's dry, we walk and therefore I can't wear them. If it's wet, we will drive and I WILL wear them. I don't know what to wish for because I kind of like walking to the restaurant. It's romantic.
Bugged by the recent news about a certain school in Ivanhoe not allowing a Year 11 girl to take her female partner to the school dance. There's a lot of 'that's not what we said' and 'this is the reason' and 'no, we are not being discriminatory.' There is anecdotal evidence that past students have been allowed to take female partners (whether to other year level functions, I don't know.) All I know is that the school has come off looking very bad, especially the principal for her unbelievable comment of (paraphrasing): I don't think they have any reason to be upset.
(Actually I just went and found the direct quote, it's even more unbelievable "I don't think it's appropriate they feel discriminated against, and I'm very upset they feel that," she said.
I tell you what. It would be a deal-breaker for me if I knew my kids were at a school which didn't allow same-sex partners at school dances etc. All the reasons this school has given are ridiculous. That is all.Actually it's not all. Loving John Birmingham's response in the paper yesterday. If you've got a spare hour, read the comments as well. Choice. Make that two hours. Just saw they have doubled since I read most of them yesterday. I will catch up on them later.
Loving me for having worked very hard on my writering stuff. But fuck me, synopses are satan's children.
Bugged by the wind and hayfeverishness it is creating. Blech. But I guess at least it's not locusts yet.
Loving me again because I have just organised my wardrobe, and bagged up two hefty orange garbage bags of winter stuff to be stored. I am so ace. I really am.
Loving The Big Bang Theory. My own quite non-physicist theory about the BBT is that Sheldon is the most awesome fictional TV character on at the moment. Perhaps ever! Who is your favourite TV character?

Not liking

Just a quickie cause I'm busy busy busy with other stuff.

1. Hating the maxi dress at the moment. It's a horrible fashion item and I wish it would go away soon. I mean, come on. Two summers?

2. Really don't like the square (or oblong) dinner plate. It's also too horrible for words.

3. Loving left-over rice panfried with diced red capsicum, mushrooms, spring onions and those cute little grape tomatoes. Then crumbled feta over that. Mmmm.

4. Loving a day to myself. I am lucky enough to get two of these per week (in addition to the weekend.) Yes I know. I'm a bit smug about it.

5. Loving Rose Tremain. Am now reading The Way I Found Her. Adored The Road Home. Brilliant writing and characters.

6. Unimpressed by the print media coverage of the Big Race. Talk about bad losers. All the sneaky adjectives attached to the winning horse implying (not really implying, stating) the cup was stolen, snatched, grabbed. And the xenophobic sub-text of previous "foreign" winners also stealing the cup from its rightful owners, Australia. Come the fuck on. Is it not an international race? Attracting international entries? It's things like that which prove we are still just so green and unformed. Embarrassing. But some pretty classy fashione pics in the paper as well, so nice to see that. (Not looking at you Brynne, but you're okay baby. It's your hubby that I'm worried about now, especially his lack of humour. One Dame Edna Everage handled badly.)

7. Unimpressed also with Bronwyn Pike's gaffe. Come on woman.

8. Loving the series of Lost. Have introduced Princess to it, and have created a monster. Clokes and I watched several seasons a few years ago then caught up to the telly. Will watch to the end now. Oh yay.

9. Uninterested by the Neighbours-for-groan-ups, and this week's "shock horror death." Meh, who cares? Have never watched the show but I'm sure I'm right in thinking it's a piece of crapola.

10. Slightly anxious about what I'm sure is on the horizon conversation-wise with Princess. She has been talking about drugs a bit lately, and has (over the years) shifted her knowledge and attitude from one of thinking drug takers are rare, and the scary people you see on the streets, dishevelled, dirty and crazed (we lived in St Kilda for a major part of her formative years) to now knowing that it's a lot more common and there are different types of drugs and a lot of young people try them as part of their growing up development.

She's not yet asked me if I've ever taken them, I must be prepared and I'm not sure what to say. I have to be prepared, for I will not lie, but I don't want to condone them either. And reading in the paper today that alcohol comes in 1st at 77/100 and heroin 2nd at 55/100 (or something) on a list of most harmful drugs is a worry as well. What do you do with that?