Mosaics, Melbourne Cup, and More Sister Time, please!!

Happy November, Blogger Buddies!! I hope you all had a fabulous Blogtober, and that November has been good to you so far!

Am not sure I have enough full sentences in me to tell you what I've been up to since Blogtober finished, so please forgive me for bullet-pointing it!!

- At the end of a poopy weekend of fighting with just about everyone (including a normally-lovely neighbour and the workman breaking up said neighbour's concrete driveway at 7am on Saturday - that should be pretty self-explanatory!!) I spent Sunday doing a beginners' Mosaic in a Day class with my sister. I would never have even thought of trying mosaics until my sister suggested it, and it was amazing fun! It covered all the major Fun Groups: smashing stuff, gluing stuff, learning stuff, getting messy, and hanging with lovely people! It was really quite calming, although the 6 hours just flew by! And so rewarding to have your own little mosaic to take home at the end of the day!

- I had a phone call from my sweet friend Penny, asking me if I'd like the double-pass to the Royal Oaks on Thursday, that she won in a radio quiz, as she can't take the day off work. "I thought you and your sister might like them!" she said, as Oaks Day is traditionally "Ladies' Day" at the Racing Carnival. So, now, Thursday will now consist of a day off, a new dress, a marquee with complimentary drinks and canapes all day, reserved seating by the race-track (should we choose to have a look at the races... I guess it is the Racing Carnival after all), and some quality sister time!! I am feeling excited about it, now that I have found myself a pretty, comfortable and not-unflattering outfit to wear. Yay!!

- The sad but inevitable 2-week countdown to New Job has begun. It's amazing how much work can get done so quickly when the end is nigh - it's a bit like doing a huge clean-up before moving house, and you look at your now-sparkling kitchen/wardrobe/windows/desk and think "why didn't I ALWAYS have it like this?!"

- Buying a stack of new Christmas tree decorations, after deciding not to give my shabby 15yo decorations yet another whirl! And ordering my tree through Oxfam today! Bring it on!

- Loving issue #50 of Frankie magazine (my subscription to which has been an ongoing prezzie from lovely sister! She really spoils me). It's got the most gorgeous embroidered cover, and so many gorgeous articles and stories inside, including interview with Martha Wainwright and an article on how it's actually not a sin to keep "stuff" that you're sentimentally attached to! Lovely.

- My ongoing pursuit of the perfect sourdough loaf. On Saturday I made a rather respectable olive & rosemary wholemeal loaf - uber nommy and about as healthy as you can get, bread-wise. Yay! It's always so much fun to try learning new things.

- I took full advantage of the Spring sunshine on Saturday and getting loads done in the garden. Tomatoes, marigolds and chillis planted, freesias deadheaded, tulip bulbs extracted and in the chiller, camellia fed, and lots of weeds mercilessly yanked out of the earth. And my Vitamin E (and happiness) levels raised substantially. Huzzah!

Anyhoo, that's about as much fun as I can handle!!

Lots of love to you all, friends!

Louki xxx

Days 25-31 - Woops! Happy Halloween!

Oh dear, how slack am I?!?!?

I can't believe I let the blog-ball drop this badly for so many days. It has been an extremely busy week, with rehearsals and a concert (on Saturday night), plus baking (spooky Halloween Spider cupcakes, complete with creepy licorice legs) and a Halloween party with my lovely family last night.

AND, to end the month on a high, off to a concert with my beautiful sister tonight. YAYY!!

I am looking forward to having a bit of a rest over the next few weeks, with any luck.

All in all, it has been a fun time. And it has been great fun keeping this blog (albeit sporadically) during Blogtoberfest! It will be interesting to look back and see how it looks down the track - I'm sure I'll be cringing at my dreadful writing style and half-baked ideas, but it has been so eventful (and is my last full month at this wonderful job) that I suspect it'll be nice little place to retreat to in a few weeks/months/years when I need to remind myself of this nice little period in my life.

Who knows, I might even remember to update it every now and then!!

Thanks to my wonderful sister for hosting Blogtoberfest, with a stupendous amount of bloggers on board! Great job!

And thanks to y'all for stopping by every now and then, my fellow Bloggereedlies. Happy Halloween!

Wishing you all the love and luck and happiness in the world, for the rest of the year and beyond.

Bring on Christmas, YAYYYY!!!!

Louki xxx

Day 24 - Gratitude and Happiness

I have spent today with a massive headache, so I think I should take a break from being a glum little poopy-pants, and instead think about the things that make me happy. In fact, I think I will post a little list of them right here!

Things that are currently making me happy:

- deciding to leave work early and spend the last few hours of daylight at home instead of looking at a computer monitor with increasing discomfort.

- crazy fun shopping with my gorgeous sister - we discovered Daiso (the uber Japanese department store where everything is $2.80!) earlier in the week. I never realised how quickly Japanese pop music can make you lose the will to live, increasing the need for retail therapy... clever plan, Daiso. I am now your slave.
(Pictured, the care instructions for the fabulous black furry earmuffs I bought there)

- looking forward to playing some beautiful music at our concert on Saturday night, despite feeling nervous about making a big flying fool of myself.

- the rhododendrons and bromeliads which have started flowering in our garden! I am always amazed at their striking shapes and colours, you just can't beat the boundless imagination of Mother Nature!

- my new-found love of baking sourdough bread. I have been dutifully feeding my starter (my "baby"!) every night, and there's something about the rustic activities of kneading and nurturing the dough that just slow time down, somehow.

- having gorgeous workmates and friends, some of whom I know I'll be friends with for the rest of my life. I received a sweet email yesterday from my supervisor who is currently on maternity leave, saying "I just realised that when I come back I won't be your supervisor any more, and I suddenly feel very sad...". And it made me cry, not just with sadness that I won't get to work with her any more, but also with a deep happiness that I have such amazing warm people in my life.

- practising my clarinet (a rare occurrence, for reasons which have always been a mystery to me), and that amazing sensation of flying over the notes when I finally get things right. My teacher once described the push of the air as something that comes from behind you, almost like that rush you get when a plane is taking off - I remember that advice every time I play, and every time I'm about to take off on plane! It's quite a euphoric feeling.

- the books of Alexander McCall Smith. So easy to read and always beautiful - perfect with a cup of tea and a long lie-in on a rainy Sunday morning!

- new episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Words can't describe how much I love that show!!

- the fact that the Director of our big department is presenting some of my recent work at a software user conference interstate tomorrow afternoon! She doesn't have a permanent job for me, but at least she's being gracious enough to publicly admit how much it'll hurt the department to lose me.

- and last but not least, my lovely husband, helping me prepare dinner and constantly asking "is there anything else you want me to do?" despite the fact that he's got a sinus infection, has been home sick for 3 days, and is quite clearly feeling like shit warmed up.

Sending love out into the Blogosphere, to you all, Blogmigos!
Louki xxx

Days 22-23 - Thou shalt sit in the sun and smile

Hello Fabulous Blogger-chums!

It feels like Spring is finally here today - just walking outside to get some lunch, with the sun smiling down on me, makes the world feel like a much cheerier place. And leaving work after 5:30 and it NOT BEING DARK (woohoo!) is amazing. Between seasons it's so easy to forget that it will ever be warm/cold/light/dreary ever again.

All the beautiful flowers that we only get to see once a year are now popping up in the garden again, unfortunately mosquito season has already arrived (and mozzies LOVE me, argh), but the ideas of after-work activities and eating dinner outside seem like real possibilities again! We can even start hanging our washing on the washing line again!! Wow.

Some of my favourite things to do in Spring are:
- swinging on the hammock under our massive jacaranda tree, which has little purple buds appearing. LOVE.
- planting and feeding all my new garden babies, and watching the green appear on my strawberry and raspberry plants, and the tiny ornamental grape bunches on my vines.
- eating stinky cheese and drink wine in the back yard.
- walking!
- starting to look forward to Christmas (I even ordered some tree decorations online yesterday!)
- getting back into cooking and baking, and eating all the amazing fruits that are back in town again now (mangoes, avocadoes, strawberries, mmmmm!)
- having weekend afternoon naps with all the windows open!

Also, now is the time that I start looking forward to my birthday as well, so it's a fun time of year!

Hooray!

Lots of love and sunshine to you all,
Louki xxx

Days 20-21 - Thou shalt be moved to tears by simple things

This weekend has been full of emotional reactions for me, the majority of which have brought me close to tears... mostly in a good way.

Yesterday I took my mum out for her birthday - as a surprise, I had bought tickets for the two of us to see Potted Potter, a hilarious "unauthorised" re-enactment by 2 British gentlemen of all 7 Harry Potter books in 70 minutes. The auditorium was packed, with ages ranging from very young to less young! Mum and I are both devoted Potter fans, but we had no idea at all what to expect. The show was hysterical, with the whole audience in fits of laughter from start to finish. Luckily I had visited the Ladies' Room before the show, otherwise I'm sure I would have wet myself. I'm sure my abs are much stronger, as a result of all the laughter.

Before meeting up with Mum, I had been to an orchestra rehearsal where, realising that our performance was only one week away, everyone proceeded to finely butcher the music and the conductor, very rightly, ripped us to shreds. The music we are playing is some of the most thoroughly magnificent and moving music of all time - it would be such a shame to play it any less than brilliantly. I really must practise this week.


This afternoon, after a beautiful walk for charity around one of the most gorgeous parts of Melbourne, Mum and I decided to visit an inner-city department store, which was recently renovated in opulent fashion, as a last desperate attempt to improve its damaged image and flagging profits. The place is now stunning, but, as it has been for many recent years, its service is still a big steaming pile of shit. Some turds, it seems, cannot be polished. One particularly rude salesperson, today, in the Christmas section of all places, made me more upset than I should have been, by speaking to Mum as though she were a cognitively-impaired child. So strong was my reaction to her that I actually put my hand up between us and asked her to stop yelling at us, and I wanted nothing more than to punch her square in her hateful hairy face. I'm sure she could see the dislike in my face, and my reaction to her was so strong, that I proceeded to dump our purchases-to-be on a nearby shelf and insisted that we leave without dignifying the place with our custom, and I nearly had an irrational cry on the train home.

Having come home and taken my anger out on some bread dough, and cried my way through the final chapters of J.K. Rowling's new book, I find myself listening to a beautiful excerpt of Cavalleria Rusticana on repeat, and using all the tissues in the house. If you don't own a copy, download a copy of the Intermezzo (it's an orchestral bit without singing), light a candle, turn off the lights, and contemplate everything you love, everything you miss, and all the beautiful gifts you have in your life.

I dare you not to weep.

Love to you all,
Louki xxx

Day 19 - Thou shalt "toughen up a bit"

My colleague just emailed me this gorgeous link, of a very wise little girl giving sage big-sister advice to her little brother:

An Older Sister's Advice

Watch, you won't regret it - it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

It reminded me of being little and confused, and my big sister would look out for me. She would frequently talk me out of doing silly things, she would stick up for me, and she would always have tonnes of fun things planned to keep me entertained when I was sad or when we were going on long drives (mostly to distract me from the inevitable spew-fest that my car travels always became, which can't have been much fun for her either, being trapped in the back seat with me!). There would be bags of games and fun puzzles and always lots of songs to sing.

On one very memorable occasion, she was even entrusted to "fix" my rather strange 3-year-old attempt at cutting my own fringe. She was 7, and, despite having far more advanced scissor skills than me, was (funnily enough) not an expert hairdresser! So hilarity ensued, resulting in tears and me asking my dad if he could just sticky-tape my fringe back on. Dad seemed to fix pretty much everything with stick-tape... and still does! Tee hee.

Up until the age of about 6, I truly believed that I'd end up being a big sister one day - not sure whether I just wanted a little sibling (someone else to be at the bottom of the pecking order, perhaps), or whether I just thought that every little girl got to be a big sister eventually (not sure how I thought my parents might feel about producing infinite amounts of children).

I was so convinced I was going to be big sister some day, but it never happened. And, as it turned out, I always seemed to be the youngest everywhere I went: the youngest niece, the youngest grandchild, the youngest kid in every class, the youngest person at work (not any more!), and in many ways I still feel like "the baby". At least, I still tend to keep things pretty infantile ... tee hee!

My big sister still looks out for me, and we still have lots of fun times together. She's probably the only person who will stick by me when I put ABBA on full-blast and dance around in my pyjamas with a glass of champagne, and who will always encourage (rather than judge) me in the eating of half-a-packet of Tim Tams. Hooray!

So keep your family close, fellow Bloggerifics - they are usually the only ones who will still love you the next day.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Louki xxx

Day 18 - Thou shalt not be a total obnoxious twat-burger

Riddle me this, fellow Bloggerinos...

WHY oh why do people keep sticking microphones in front of Anthony Mundine and writing down what he says?

and why oh why do I read this crap?

Anthony Mundine talks shit, again.

Makes no sense.

It just makes me sad.

The world has gone whacky.

Seems every lunatic with something stupid to say gets a hearing.

Arghhhhh!!!! Anyway, this lunatic is signing off for today.

Stay sane, my friends,
Louki xx

Days 16-17 - Thou shalt not be self-absorbed and boring

Hmmmm, it appears, not unexpectedly, that I'm terrible at blogging regularly.

Apologies for the inconsistency - I don't really feel like I have anything particularly interesting to say at the moment, and I'm very wary of becoming massively boring and just writing shit about myself for the sake of it.

Also, given that this blog is in the "public domain" and is being read by people I don't know, it's also hard to know how much to say or not say, while still being interesting yet avoid being abused/tracked down or causing offence.

In so many ways, I am glad that there was no facebook, blogging or wide-spread internet use when I was at school. I was bullied a lot during those years, at first for being excessively shy and anti-social (and for being an academic over-achiever), and then for being a socially-awkward "wog" with a big nose. In many ways, the bullying made me stronger, but it also gave me some extremely deep-rooted insecurities about many things, not least of all my appearance (both physically and socially).

Social media just gives stupid bullies another avenue for torture people who do not deserve it.

I read recently about that beautiful girl who was stalked and bullied over social media to the point where she was driven to drinking bleach and, ultimately, to killing herself. I have also read articles about self-confessed "trolls" who think it's ok to bully and torment people who apparently "deserve it for being insecure". Gah.

I also see stories of young people who think that plastic surgery is the sensible way to go, and their parents encourage them to change their appearance instead of telling them how beautiful they are AS THEY ARE. And of course surgeons are more than happy to exploit these poor kids and their stupid parents.

What the hell is wrong with the world? Since when is it ok to treat people however the hell you want? Whatever happened to empathy, to unconditional love, to discipline?

I realise that bullies have their own insecurities/problems which make them behave the way that they do, but it really feels like there's such a sense of entitlement to bad behaviour these days, and it makes me feel sick. If I had turned around and bullied someone in return, I would have totally expected to have had my arse kicked.

Anyway, sorry for being so ranty and pissed-off, but I think I just needed to get all that off my chest. The world just feels like a scary place sometimes.

Yours in solidarity and Bloggerific-ness,
Louki xxx

Days 13-15 - Thou shalt be all kinds of purest awesome

Apologies for the hiatus, my fellow Bloggerissimos! I DO have a good excuse though... I'm a total lazy-arse.

In breaking news, I have accepted my new job with all kinds of mixed feelings. Excited (and terrified) at the upcoming challenges and learning-curves, sad as can be about packing up my ol' kit-bag and saying "toodle-pipski" to my beloved colleagues, and angry as all hell that management have turned our department into such a pig's breakfast that they're losing competent staff who so desperately WANT to stay.

But it turns out that I CAN control my own destiny, even if it doesn't always feel comfortable at the time.

So, another chapter ends, another begins. As for my gorgeous colleagues, it's not really goodbye after all... it's just "meet you at the pub after work". :-)

And check out the beautiful flowers my sister had delivered, which were waiting for me when I got home! Love.

Take care, and stay AWESOME, Bloggeroodlies!

Louki xx

Day 12 - Thou shalt remain hopeful when the world is topsy-turvy

My goodness, fellow Bloggerchums, what a week this has been.

Birthdays, injuries, abusive train-platform drunkards, cat spew, sunshine, storms, fire-drills, new friends, macarons, and now.... a job offer.

After completely talking myself out of getting my hopes up on Wednesday, I received news from my referees yesterday that they had been called for questioning in the morning. That completely knocked me for six - I had, up until that point, been preparing myself for the "rejection and constructive feedback" phone call.

So, there we have it. I now have a decision to make. My almost-new supervisor voluntarily (and very kindly) offered me some time to "have the chats" with my current employer and husband before responding to the offer, which is lovely.

The difficulty is that I love my current job - I am challenged and I learn new things on a weekly basis. I still have so much more room to learn and grow, and so many new skills I was looking forward to developing. But alas, budget-tightening and job insecurity has increasingly dimmed any prospect of ongoing employment in the team - and unfortunately for me, it's the team where I finally re-discovered confidence in myself to learn new things and to present that confidence to the outside world, where I made amazing contacts and developed relationships with a strong foundation of mutual trust and respect, and where, more importantly, I looked forward to going to work each day, even after long weekends and holidays.

I have worked in plenty of toxic environments, where I dreaded going to work, where I felt swamped by emails and phone messages and a million things to do, the majority of which I knew I would never get around to dealing with. Where I had vile colleagues, bullying supervisors, and obnoxious students to deal with, and it always came down to me having to rise above it all and be the "bigger person" (aka Punching Bag). Where I would desperately hope to get hit by a tram on the way to work so I could have a good excuse not to show up. Where I would be practically catatonic with depression on Sundays and at the end of holidays, unable to speak due to the dread of returning to work the next day.

Not that I'm expecting the new position to be anything like that, but it was my current employer who rescued me and to whom I will be eternally grateful. Out of the toxic swamp I was headhunted, I was appreciated, I was empowered, and I was welcomed with open arms. I had never known anything like it before. But, on a fixed-term position, and with permanent-staff departures leaving holes which will now never be filled, it has reached the point where I'm not sure that gratitude is enough to keep me there.

Take care, my Blogosphere Buddies. Until tomorrow...

Louki xxx

Day 11 - Thou shalt pick thyself up and dust thyself off

Hello fellow Bloggaloonies!

I hope this post finds you all well and happy. :-)

Today was hubby's birthday, so after taking him out to a lovely new pizza place at lunchtime (we work at the same campus) and coming home with every intention of having a yummy (but slightly experimental) dinner ready for when he got home from cricket training, it ended up with him coming home to find me lying flat on my back on the kitchen floor unable to move.

During dinner preparations, I dropped a piece of zucchini on the floor, bent to pick it up, and got stuck halfway down. My back completely seized up. I couldn't move up or down, so ended up just dropping myself onto the floor in agony. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened, although more often than not, it's when i'm doing something extreme and athletic, like getting out of bed, sneezing, or getting up off the loo.

At the risk of being tasteless, dear readers, I once had my workmates in stitches with the tale of having just been stuck in a toilet cubicle at work and having to walk my hands up the walls in order to lift myself up off the seat. Once I'd managed to be almost fully vertical, I looked down... only to realise that my pants were around my ankles where I couldn't reach them. So, after a few Mr Bean-like efforts to squat down and reach my pants, I had to lower myself down (again, with the aid of the walls) and start all over again.

Fortunately for my colleagues, mobile reception is extremely bad in our building, otherwise one of them might have been summoned for a special workmate-bonding activity of having to pull my undies up for me! Yeah, it was probably for the best that it didn't come to that!

Anyhoo, thought I should share that with you all - hopefully you've got a nice picture in your minds now!

After plenty of ice, pain killers and tears, I'm now lying comfortably and hoping that I'll wake up feeling better and that a proper celebration tomorrow night instead will do just as well.

Happy Birthday, Gorgeous Husband!!

(FYI, Husband did very kindly point out that one of the hazards of having birthdays and getting older is that your wife becomes an injury-prone old fart alongside you!)

Day 10 - Thou shalt dunk thy tongue in thy brain before thou speakest

OK, I don't often talk about politics. I hate it. I hate listening to politicians speak, I hate the way they lie, the way they sneer, the way they smirk, the way they use disguises of humanity and sincerity to peddle any old crap that will get them the largest number of votes when the time comes. I hate them.

I turn off the news when the current Leader of the Opposition is interviewed, I hit the "mute" button when the Prime Minister is speaking. We appear to have no Australian political leaders in whom we can have any faith at all. So, as a general rule, I figure there are better ways to spend my time than listening to creepy people who don't represent my interests, and who just piss and whinge at (and about) each other.

Our previous PM was an articulate intellectual who worked people to hard and made enemies by appearing smug and overly aware of his own intelligence. However, I never actually felt that he would ever put the welfare of his people in jeopardy to serve his own political needs. As the daughter of an academic, and as a graduate and long-time employee of a tertiary institution, Rudd and so much about Rudd was familiar to me. But, you never know what goes on behind closed doors.

Today, despite my desolate feelings about our current Prime Ministerial options, I found myself quite moved by footage of yesterday's Question Time in parliament, which has today gone viral.

For the first time in a very long time, I saw humanity and genuine raw emotion in a woman who has been looking hard and cold - and more than a little bit lost - of late.

The video is here (it's long, but worth sticking out to the end for her closing line): Julia Gillard Destroying the Joint

(For anyone who is not in Australia, or who may have avoided all news over the last few weeks, our PM's father died recently, and one very charming radio "personality" decided it might be appropriate to state that the Prime Minister's father had actually "died of shame" as a result of his daughter's political performance... and he said this in a speech to a dining-room full of young Opposition supporters and media representatives)

Anyway, not wanting to get preachy and political-like, but I really just wanted to record here and now how this video made me feel.

Take care and be proud, my lovely Bloggamigos.

xxx

Day 9 - Thou shalt not fret about things over which thou hast not control

No news on the job yet, so I'm thinking that it's going to be a "thanks but no thanks". Whenever I start feeling a bit miz about likely rejection, I remind myself about the list I made - for exactly this purpose - when working on my application.

The list had 2 columns: If I Get the Job and If I Don't Get the Job.
Under each, I wrote down all the good things that will come of each outcome.

The first list item under If I Get the Job was "It's ok to be sad". Basically because I really do enjoy what I'm doing now, I get a lot of satisfaction from this job, and I love the people I work with. I've never ever left a job that I didn't WANT to leave before!

The first list item under If I Don't Get the Job was "It's ok to be disappointed". Even though, ultimately, it will be nice to be able to stay where I am, it's always a bit poo to feel rejected.

Ultimately, I've done all I can do, and it's in the hands of others now. If I'm not what they're looking for, that's ok. Might turn out they want a doormat, or a bully, or a hard-arse, or even possibly just a BLOKE. And, frankly, I wouldn't want to work in a place where I'm not going to fit into the position or the environment.

So either way, it'll work out for the best!

Happy thoughts, fellow Bloggeramas. And when all else fails, go for the cookies!

Louki xx

Day 8 - Thou shalt not be a dick on public transport

OK. It's time for a Public Transport rant.

And, just for something different, it's NOT about stupid Metro Trains and their ridiculously bad service, and the fact that they run nowhere near enough trains to get home between 5 and 7 pm, and you can't even get on the damn things let alone sit down and then they go ahead and bluddy cancel the fugging things at 5:30 right when everyone wants to get home so you just stand there on a platform for an hour wanting to cry because you feel like you may never get home again and why oh why is it so difficult to just get home at the end of a horrible day and you end up getting home after 7pm when you just work a stupid 9-to-5 job and that just SUCKS and then you send them complaints and get some indifferent revolting mail-merged standard letter telling you basically to get stuffed because they don't care that you pay over one hundred bucks a month NOT to be able to get home.

No, for once, it's not about that at all.

This time, it's about PEOPLE on Public Transport.

Quite often, I listen to my iPod on the train. As a considerate human being - with, y'know, EMPATHY - I always check that my music isn't turned up so loud that other people can hear it leaking out the side of my earphones. You know, just being human and not really wanting to piss other people off when I can avoid it.

BUT, without fail, there's always some complete knob-jockey who has their music on SO loud that I can hear it OVER THE TOP of my own music (which, let's face it, is about as close to my ear-drums as it can possibly get without having the speakers surgically implanted inside my head).

Sometimes I even just end up taking my earphones out and turning off my iPod, because it's just not worth trying to enjoy my own music with someone else's second-hand shit playing through it.

But, despite this massive unforgivable assault on the senses of everyone around them, nobody asks them to turn it down, probably because they don't really feel they can, just like me.

Only a couple of times, when the culprit actually looks NICE and seems unaware of the noise, have I tapped my ears and then pointed at theirs as if to say "oh golly gee, you know what? silly me, but i'd quite like to be able to hear my OWN music and enjoy it, just like you are listening to and clearly enjoying YOUR cacophonous shit, ta."

My question is: Why is it so hard for us to ask people to stop being dicks on public transport?

Is it because we don't believe it can actually be so necessarily to point out to grown adults that they're being so repulsively obnoxious?

Is it because we think that they MUST be aware of the impact of their behaviour, but they must be doing it on purpose, in which case...

Is it because we're scared they'll get shitty and knife us?

Whatever it is, I'm goddamn sick of it.

And that's my profound rant for today. Thanks for listening, fellow blogga-liciouses!

L x

Day 7 - Thou shalt not fall behind on your blogging

OOPS.

Day 6 - Thou shalt pay attention

So.... I'm sitting in Dorkestra rehearsal, not paying attention to the boring committee announcements and blogging instead. Is that bad? Blah blah blah, something about concert ticket sales being down, yep yep blah de blah de blah.

If anyone's interested, our next concert is on 27 October!

Day 5 - Thou shalt not blabber like an idiot

Today was job interview day! So scary. Interviews in the afternoon are the PITS - you have to spend the first half of the day trying to (pretend to) concentrate on stuff and not run to the loo every 5 minutes.

I think it went ok, insofar as I'm not rethinking it and kicking myself for saying dumb things (yet). It's so hard to know how you come across in these things. Hopefully I didn't seem like too much of a jabbering idiot or arrogant turd, and hopefully I didn't have snot on my forehead or anything like that.

And luckily I read the newspaper article about Jill Meagher's funeral AFTER the interview, otherwise I would've turned up with mascara smeared down my cheeks.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, please, dear fellow Blogsters! :-)

(Apologies that this is going up a day late - I fell asleep on the couch past night, woops!)

Day 4 - Thou shalt not be a lazy sod

Happy October 4th, Fellow Bloggerinos!

Do you ever have those days where you look at your list of Fun Times Ahead, and suddenly you can't be bothered and just want to cancel everything?

Maybe it's just because it got to over 30 degrees (celsius) today and all I wanted to do all day was stretch out on a sandy beach with a magazine and a cocktail, instead of staring at a computer in noisy air-conditioning under fluorescent lights all day.

Maybe it's because I've got a job interview tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit like I'd quite prefer to hide my head under a nice cozy blankie somewhere and come out when it's all over.

Maybe it's just because I'm lazy.

Whatever the reason, I'm starting to feel rather BLAH about all the fun things I was so looking forward to up until now.

I expect (and hope) things will start looking up once tomorrow's interview is done, and I can start looking ahead a bit further. Hooray!

In the meantime, Blossoms, I'm going to get an early night with my new book (pictured below) which arrived in the mail today (yay)! Not sure what to expect, am only about 15 pages in so far.

I'm not much of a prude, but I must admit it was a bitofa shock reading the C-word for the first time in a J.K. Rowling book... We're not in Hogwarts any more, Hedwig!

Which reminds me of something funny I saw today: a woman reading Fifty Shades of Porn on the train this morning. She was clutching her handbag unusually tightly and was chewing her gum in a frenzy! Everyone else looked thoroughly embarrassed on her behalf. Funnily enough, the seat next to her was the last one to be taken...

Sending lotsa love out into the Blogosphere,
Louki xx

Day 3 - To chocolate or not to chocolate...

... that is the question.

So it turns out that some habits are good and some are bad. I'll put this out there right now, I've never been a smoker, a gambler, a stealer, a stoner or a vandal. I even moisturise before bed and flip the lid back on the toothpaste tube after EVERY use, for Christ's sake.

So how is it that I can still be made to feel so bad and wrong and irresponsible everywhere I turn?

Yes, I love big serves of pasta.
No, I don't drink a litre of water every day.
Yes, I sleep on my tummy.
No, I don't do Pilates.
Yes, I cook with butter.
No, I don't chew my food 1,000 times before swallowing.
Yes, sometimes I get a bit too excited and over-water my plants (and drown them).
No, I don't remember to file my nails in just one direction.
Yes, I slouch at my desk.
No, I don't wear chiropractor-approved insoles.
Yes, I watch TV in bed.
No, I don't buy organic frigging desiccated coco-frigging-nut.
Yes, I watch the South Park movie and widdle my pants laughing. Every time.

And yes, I eat chocolate. I love chocolate.

So sue me.

Does that make me a bad person? Really?

Should I really be aspiring to some sort of cold robotic existence where everything is regimented and I sit on the loo for 19 hours of every day because I'm so full of water that I'm bursting despite having fabulous skin and a happy digestive system and a sunny disposition as a result?

Or can I just be myself?

Yours, in all my sloppy lazy farty wobbly giggly glory,

Louki xx

P.S. Here's a photo of The Squishy, for all you furry-beast fans out there...

Day 2 - Moti Gori and Morey Cakey

Yesterday I did a spot of do-gooding, and pitched in to sponsor a new TV show pilot project!! Have a lookie-look here: www.pozible.com/motigori



It's a comedy starring one of my old colleagues in the lead role, and the producer (a Melbourne boy) is raising the last blob of budget through crowd funding, so if you have some spare cashola to fund what looks like a really fun new project, you can sponsor it at the above website.

And there are also some cool rewards you can score for any donation over $3!! Can't go wrong, really.


And in other exciting news... I've been baking. Wooo!

It was my colleague's birthday yesterday so when she returned from her celebratory long weekend today we had a morning tea in her honour. Pictured are my never-ever-fail Orange & Lemon Syrup Cake and easy-peasy-yummo Chocolate & Raspberry Cupcakes :

But don't worry, the cake has got so much Vitamin C in it that it's practically health-food. *

And the cupcakes have dark chocolate and raspberries in them, and EVERYONE knows antioxidants are good for you. **


(if any fellow cake enthusiasts are interested in having the recipes, just post a hoy-hoy in the Comments below and I'll post them up!)

Yours in sugary (and slightly flabby) goodness,
Louki xx


* if you ignore the large quantities of sugar.

** and butter has calcium, right? essential for strong bones. avoid osteoporosis, people!

Happy Blogtober!

Hello fellow Bloggeroonies!

OK, I've never done the blogging thang before, but since my lovely sister is hosting Blogtoberfest 2012, I thought it would be fun to get involved and see what's going on out in Blog-land. Hooray!

It will be quite a challenge finding time to blog every day for a month, but hey, if I can find time to sit on my bum on the couch in front of the TV every night, there's no reason why I can't stick a laptop in front of me while I'm doing it!

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to post about, or what my goal is, but no matter how it goes, it will be fun to have records from a whole month to look back on - like the little time capsules we used to bury in the school yard back in the 80s.
Come to think of it, I don't know if the school ever ended up digging those up (to find a tonne of crappy drawings from 8 year-olds, and probably some daggy gems like a Boy George tape and some hot pink glow-in-the-dark shoelaces!). Anyway, I digress...

For me, October promises to be an eventful month, after all. There's every likelihood it will see me through at least one job interview (yawn), a fair bit of baking, some gardening, and plenty of cat photos (to the cat non-lovers: sincere apologies in advance, this will not be the blog for you!!).

I'm also trying out some new cruel and un-yoosewal diet-type things this month, so you might also get some very grumpy sugar-free posts from me along the way. (argh)

And hopefully plenty of time with my gorgeous sister and my cutie-pie niece, and my squishy cat and lovely hubby (who's about to turn a year older).

Warning: there might also be some unsavoury crazy-lady rants about public transport in Melbourne, just to be a bit different (not).

Anyhoo, I hope you're all having a super October so far, and can't wait to meet you all out in the Blogosphere!

Lots of love,
Louki x