We went for one last (though I didn't want to call it such) midnight cat calling and biscuit box rattling wander through the neighbourhood, as we've been doing every night. Tonight, he came meowing and running, one street from home. He was gone an entire week and it's eight hours until mine and the cats' ride to NSW is due to leave. He appears to have been eating and looking after himself. I've been wondering whether someone was actually keeping him in... if so, hopefully they got a guilt trip from the posters we've had up everywhere.

Relief.



Goodbye, Melbourne. It's been an interesting ten years and I think it's turned out rather well in the end.

Thankyou for the well wishes.

xox

I'm not so good with goodbyes.

Eighteen and a half hours and I'll be gone. Twenty eight and I'll hopefully be at the new house.

Very bad time for a cat to go missing, though F will be here until tomorrow evening and there's still hope he'll come home (or someone will recognise him from the posters we've put up and call).

The kitchen is packed and I need to wipe down surfaces. Then, just the bedroom and laundry to finish off.

Tired, tired, tired.

More later.

Happy Darwin Day!

New depths to sink to - starting up a Death Knight and wailing on citizens of New Avalon while listening to Roxy Music.

Tags: wow
Current Mood: perverse
Current Music: Roxy Music - Avalon

Wollemi pine squidmas tree.


We all need glitter dinosaurs.


Charles Darwin looking festive.

Somewhere in the background, surprise card from Splozza. Thankyou Splozza!

Tags: domesticity, festivity

Tags: baking, domesticity, edibles

Tags: baking, domesticity, edibles

Tags: baking, domesticity, edibles

So.

After a couple of years' consideration and a decision made a year ago, Felix and I are heading for the hills. Or rather, moving to the mountains. The blue ones in New South Wales.

It'll be sad to leave Melbourne, as we both love the city, but we've been amassing reasons to head up to the Blue Mountains for a few years now and it feels like the time to go. It'll be good to be closer to F's family - if I could build a portal to Fremantle to be nearer to my dad, things would be idyllic. We're both really looking forward to clean air, bush, space, growing fresh produce and working on projects together.

Our moving day will be the 19th of February or thereabouts. I suspect we'll have some sort of farewell gathering before we head off, which we'll organise closer to the date.

--

Oh - and our current abode is spoken for, sorry to anyone needing a house to rent.

Tags: moving

On the off chance that somebody reading this is familiar with sugar at high temperatures and could suggest what may be going wrong:

Twice, I've attempted to make a caramel fudge using the recipe behind the cut and twice I've ended up with hard caramel. I thought that perhaps I'd taken it off of the heat too early on the first try, so I kept going when I had another go this morning - forty minutes of stirring and still no luck. I don't know whether there's a fault in my method, or it's just a bum recipe.

( recipe )

As much as I don't want to admit defeat, I might have to try a chocolate based one instead.

I've been finding a lot of US recipes which call for 'marshmallow fluff', which freaks me out somewhat. I'm in this for the challenge of turning the simplest possible ingredients into a treat for F, short of condensing my own milk and churning my own butter. I don't even know what marshmallow fluff is made of.

Tags: baking, domesticity, edibles

See this.

Tags: wow
Current Mood: several layers of nerdy

Happy - so very happy. :D

Here's hoping that the ballot on Prop 8 has a similarly positive outcome.

[Golden Fish Sticks] - The Golden Crumpets advertising jingle. Was later adapted to also be about [Golden Sansam] when I rolled a character with herbing.
Golden.. Fish Sticks.. filled with love!

Swamp of Sorrows - Man of Constant Sorrow, the version from O Brother, Where Are Thou?
I'm... in the swa-amp, the swamp of sorrows... it is a swamp... which is a swamp... swamp, swamp, swamp, swamp... swamp, swamp, swamp, swamp.

[Khadgar's Whisker] - The Flintstones' Theme, with the last line recalling The Simpson's version.
Khadgar... Khadgar's Whisker... it's the greatest herb in history. From the... Marsh Dustwallow... I'm about to run into a tree. (accompanied by the appropriate action)

Ghost Wolf - Jesus Walking on the Water by The Violent Femmes. Water walking in ghost wolf form.
Ghost wolf, walking on the... wa-ter... sweet ghost wolf walking in the sky...

Myrmydion (Goat from Russia) - Dominion (Mother Russia) by The Sisters of Mercy. Whenever I roll a draenei and take it through the naga caves on Azuremyst Isle. I initially mispronounced myrmydon as myrmidion and don't feel inclined to stop, as it ruins the song.
Some day... some day... some day... myrmidion!

[Terocone] - Highway to the Danger Zone by... I just looked it up, apparently it's by a Kenny Loggins.
I will pick some Terocone! I will pick.. some Terocone!

And when I'm fishing for Mr Pinchy, I get Ezekiel 25:17 recited in my head by Samuel J Jackson in Pulp Fiction.
The path of the righteous fisherman is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men / And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and [Furious Crawdad] those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.

---

Surely it isn't just me.

Tags: wow

Don Burke v Peter Cundall

Gardening personality Don Burke has been hired by timber company Gunns to help win support for its northern Tasmanian pulp mill.

The move pits Burke against former ABC TV gardening identity Peter Cundall, who has been a vocal critic of the controversial project.

The $2 billion proposal has stalled as tighter credit conditions force Gunns to look overseas for funds.

Burke has told ABC Local Radio he does not feel his role as an adviser to the company compromises his integrity.

I'm sure it doesn't... the man has always struck me as being a genuine arsehole.

Here are some photographs of sprouts which I find rather unsettling. Terrible future visions of damp germination vats and harsh fluorescent lighting. I'm sure I'll feel better once the sun comes up.

( bleak sprouts )

On the other hand... germination, yay. Mung on the upper tier, alfalfa, cress and wheat (wheat came as a free sample) below.

Current Mood: afraid

Martin Short plus Martha Plimpton equals Bill Maher.

This is the sort of thing I think about when I can't sleep.

Current Mood: super bon bon

New ankle photos. Three weeks in and it's pretty much healed, though it's been through some awesome peeling. Commentary on Flickr.

Tags: ink

It's creepy Jesus at the Vic Markets:



And a roadside puffball breakout in Kensington:

It's Disproportionate Vegetable Hour!



With your hosts, 26cm Eggplant, 25cm Zucchini, 4.5cm Baby Roma Tomatoes and Regular Tomato Thrown In For Comparison!

Current Mood: fed up with waking up at 5am - very much so

Ah ha! Found it.. the bird on the field in last night's football game getting hit by a ball from Lucas Neill:

Tags: futbol

Happy birthday, spinner and mikey_ob!

This photo was taken only a few hours after I brought him home, so he's a bit swollen and is slathered in Bepanthen. The above is just a thumbnail of a fairly big photo on Flickr, if you fancy a better look.

He was done in one sitting which went a little over four hours by Louie at Vic Market Tattoos, who I'd strongly recommend for any Japanese work - really nice sharp lines, very smooth shading and a very professional manner. After several consults to get the template for the maneki neko as I wanted it, I gave him free rein on the blossoms, placement and all shading and I'm really impressed with what he's done with it. So was he, it seems... he wants it for his folio and to submit to magazines, which I'll admit makes me chuffed to have it on my leg.



Honestly, I think that three hours should have been my limit.. it was a fairly tough sitting. If you're interested in anecdotal evidence based on one person's physiology as to whether fibromyalgia causes tattoos to be more painful - fucking oath, it does. Granted, this one is a lot more elaborate than my older ones, but even the initial lining was a lot worse than my other ankle. And the top of the foot.. bloody hell. I feel like a trooper and have a sense of pride about having done so well. Tough!

This has been a few years in the planning and it's bizarre to finally have it done. Each element of it contains personal symbolism, but I'm going to skip the Miami Ink heart warming tale of adversity and triumph of the human spirit (heh!) until I can work out a way to write it without it sounding too naff. Which will probably be after I've slept some more. I've currently my leg wrapped in cling film, which is covered by an old striped legwarmer, which goes from under my knee to my toes. This arrangement worked really well earlier (I crashed soon after I got home this afternoon), so I'm not laying in bed fearful of it rubbing on the bedsheets or needing to be peeled off of one when I wake up. It's still hurting like hell though... enough to keep me awake at the moment. That and I sat with my knee bent awkwardly while the outline was being done and have managed to stuff it up. Perverse as it might seem, it's kind of pleasant to actually have a purpose for hurting for once... heh.

I'm looking forward to seeing it when it's healed. It's a bit difficult to photograph, as it wraps around my leg, but I want to get some detail shots of the separate bits anyhow. He initially told me he thought it'd be too fussy and intricate to do, but he surprised me by scaling the little carp. I like the carp! I also like the placement of the blossoms and the way the eye is drawn either down to the foot from the side or up to the cat from the front.

Tags: ink

The message I got here from the creative directors of the Beijing Paralympics opening ceremony was... 'diverse rainbow of gimps'.

I am pleased to report that I have discovered a new recipe that I will happily make again in the future and that these are now in my belly.

Tags: nom

A belated thank you for all of the birthday wishes!

I'm not at the computer much at the moment, as I'm in a vile, vile mood. Quitting smoking, you see. That said, I've avoided bursting into tears or losing my temper, so it's going much better than it has in the past.

Current Mood: snappy

Happy me day, world!

This is the ceiling in our bedroom. Our lamp fixture clashes badly with it, but I'm really not certain that I'd want something that coordinates.

( ... )

I've spent three years staring at it and I still don't know what the person who designed it was intending to get across. Were they the same people that pressed the tin, or was a separate tin presser involved? If so, did the tin presser understand what the designer was thinking without question, did they ask about it or did they just accept it as it was? Who chose the combination of ceiling rose and border and decided they'd be ideal for this house?

Greek keys (which I can't help associating with Chinese restaurant menus), floral wreathy trumpet things (my prowess with language knows no bounds), ribbons and piped cake icing around the borders. I just don't know.

Occasionally, I imagine garish colour combinations I could paint it. Mostly, I just try to ignore it. Not tonight.

And then, there's the rendering on the wall...

Current Mood: 5:41am

Gracious.. business actually does seem to be meeting the needs of the nation (and planet) where government has failed.

Aust firm unveils plans to build 'world's biggest solar plant'.

Given the number of times that the things I feel are in our best interests have been given the finger by the invisible hand, I'm not quite prepared to place my faith in capitalism. Still.. this is good.

...

Perhaps I should have thrown a fisting analogy in as well.

( She has serious crazy eye going on in number four. )

Tags: poppy

Girls can't thrive in a puff of pink.

Tags: five - strongly agree