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