yaniblog

coco avant chanel

2009-07-14T21:57:00.000+09:30

I don't think there could have been a greater contrast between this week's movie, Coco Avant Chanel (or Coco Before Chanel), and last week's movie...

Unlike last week's exploding robotfest, this was a somewhat quiet, slightly slow and very character orientated movie. Now, other than the fact that she made fabulous clothes (and possibly the most famous perfume in all the world), I don't know a damn thing about Coco Chanel... and while I'm still not sure I know that much about her once she became THE Coco Chanel, it was an interesting look into her background... however accurate or invented it may have been.

It does make me want to find a Coco Chanel biography though...

One of the downsides was that because it was focussed on a particular period of her life before she really became successful, it had to gloss over how she got from where she was to who she became and it was really only covered in a brief montage at the end. So a touch disappointing in that regard.

Audrey Tautou was wonderful as always as Coco, although it was about as far away from as you could every hope to get from Amélie... Coco is a much more prickly character and you often don't get a sense of what she's thinking or feeling (I did wonder at one point whether narration would have helped, although it might just have been because I've seen Audrey in a few things that have narration).

Her co-stars are excellent as well, particularly Benoît Poelvoorde as Balsan, who goes from likeable to repellent and most of the way back again... but then that's people for you... they're very seldom always one thing forever in real life.

I'm also having a big ol crush on the very European sounding but American born Alessandro Nivola, even with the little moustache...

I will say though, that for a movie about one of the most stylish women ever, the clothes (while I'm sure they're completely accurate and appropriate to the period) are actually fairly awful. There are a few stand-out pieces... the "first ever little black dress", and a number of her outfits towards the end, as well as the fashion show right at the end... must it was a little disappointing from that perspective.

I also have to give a big fat brickbat to the focus puller, Hugues Espinasse, who couldn't seem to grasp the concept of his job... and whoever was responsible for the subtitles, because they weren't the best I've ever seen.

But even with those minor complaints, it was still an interesting movie.

yani's rating: 7 chapeau out of 10

unconscious mutterings 337

2009-07-13T17:35:00.001+09:30

It's been an eventful little Monday... I delayed going out for my walk for so long this morning that I ended up doing a super shortened version (down to Montefiore Hill, past the Cathedral, across the street, up around the back of the hospital and up the hill), which meant that I had TONS of time at my disposal this morning. I got to work about 15 minutes early (and left 15 minutes late) so I'm putting the extra time in "the bank" for when we go away to Melbourne (La Ninj said I could).

Then I discovered that I won tickets to Red Cliff next weekend. A simple phone call to my agency about pay slips not looking the same means that I'm now signed up to do my timesheet online (woohoo).

And I'm pretty sure there was something else good, but I can't remember what right now... so behold, the Mutterings of the Unconscious...

Sister :: Nun
Talks :: Incessantly
Electric! :: Boogaloo!
Corner :: Office
Turnstile :: Showground
Swap :: Wife
Young :: Dumb and full of cum
Horrific :: Accident
Block :: Party
Wind :: Machine

Current Mood:

explosions, excursions and excuses

2009-07-12T19:08:00.001+09:30

Today started off with a bang, literally!

I'd turned on my computer, went off for my shower while it was getting itself booted up and organised, got out of the shower and was getting organised. I'd just saved an image and was standing in the bedroom doorway about to put some clothes on when there was a flash of light, a pop sound and then a shower of sparks from the powerpole outside my apartment building.

And because I turned when I saw the flash, I saw the whole explosion/sparks thing.

Then the power went out. Actually it went out somewhere between the pop and the sparks I think... I honestly don't remember. Fortunately it was only out for maybe 20 seconds before the backup system (whatever that is) kicked in. But it was scary for a minute there.

But the rest of the day was kinda like that... lots of flash and noise, but not a lot happening.

I went into town briefly this afternoon as part of my ongoing obsession with photographing numbers... I really should have gone in this morning, but I got sucked into the last third of my book (Casino Royale... and now I wish they'd stayed a little closer to the book in parts, because Bond doesn't mind wandering bareass along the beach) and didn't go out until the middle of the afternoon. So of course, it was impossible to get a park. Eventually I just gave in and went into one of the multistory carparks.

I'd also been half waiting to get a text message all afternoon for a bootay call. A guy I hooked up with forever ago was back in town and messaged me last night... actually I think he was looking for a little sugar there and then, but I was too tired to be bothered... so he said he'd message me today if he could. I really don't know why people say that if they don't intend to do it. And really, you have a pretty good idea of how busy you're going to be on any given day.

Anyway, that didn't happen...

So yeah, explosions and excursions and excuses...

Current Mood:

craft fair saturday

2009-07-11T17:41:00.000+09:30

A fairly straightforward and not overly long day today... even if we did have to endure questionable arts and crafts.

The Supermarket Safari went off pretty much as usual, although with much discussion of SYTYCD and a post supermarket visit to the Honey Man (I think I went through that last batch at a rate of knots ).

Then we headed off to the "Craft & Homewares Fair" at the Showgrounds... mostly because entry was free. And you never know what you might find (not that we've ever been to one specifically like this, but we've been to a few similar things)... okay, I'll admit, I was half on the lookout for more toy soldiers, but with the exception of one extremely questionable example (and really it could have been a toy soldier or it could have been Michael Jackson... so somewhat unclear there) there wasn't a one to be seen anywhere... *sulk*...

While I kinda expected the Fair to be packed with little old ladies (and lordy, was it ever), I don't know that I was expecting it to be filled with quite so much tacky crap. Seriously, there was a whole world of "Primary School Fete" action going on. And there were a bunch of stalls that we've seen in other places... some from the BMP Expo, some from various markets.

I half expected there to be more stalls with "craft supplies" on them (like the fair Andrew went to recently), but there really weren't... instead there were lots of sparkly things, immense amounts of really ugly jewellery, far too many "cutesy" things and a bunch of stuff involving cats.

*shudder*

That being said, I did pick up a couple of bits of tchotchke, a "naked" hourglass (it's not in any sort of frame, it's just the glass piece with the sand) and a sweet little Asian figure. Oh, plus a pendant to put away for Ma for Xmas (lordy, it's starting already... it's only July and already I have three things tucked away). Oh and a couple of those pointless "Super Shammy" things that probably work really well, but you never have them around when you actually need them, and once you buy one, that kinda thing never happens again.

So after elbowing a number of little old ladies out of the way (not really, but I felt like it on a number of occasions... what is it with little old ladies and a complete and total lack of any kind of spatial awareness coupled with that whole slow walking and taking up space thing?) we ran screaming from the building as fast as we can (well, on the inside anyway).

Then we headed into the city, mostly because I wanted to call into JB Hi Fi and I also wanted to look for a new umbrella. The JB visit went well (woohoo DVDs... its a sickness!), but the umbrella search was somewhat frustrating for a while there. I knew what I wanted... a sturdy, decent, reasonably priced umbrella... and not one of those giant walking stick ones either, they're great when it's raining, but crap when you have to carry them around). And I knew where I bought the last one. But of course, I couldn't find any in that store, so they lost out and we went elsewhere. A few elsewheres actually.

But eventually I found a bunch of decent umbrellas in David Jones... and they had the same make and model as the one I currently own. I didn't get that one though (well, a change is a good as a holiday, and what's the point in getting something new if it looks exactly like the old thing), I got the same brand, but a different model with a new and unusual opening mechanism (which will probably go off about three times a day until I get used to it... at precisely the wrong moments) and a faux leather (I'm guessing) handle.

That was pretty much it. We got some food downstairs in the food court under DJ's, picked up some little cakey things from DJ's food hall and came back here to watch Heroes. And we didn't get rained on once... well, until we got back to my place... typical really.

Current Mood:

photo friday: bronze nun and haircut friday

2009-07-10T19:49:00.000+09:30

I went to have my hair cut after work...

As I babbled about doing during my last sugar-fuelled haircut related post, I went and found a completely new salon. I was a little bit early, so I sat there in the "waiting lounge" and felt like a complete and total impostor.

The salon in question was Destination for Men which was started by some random footballer to cater for men. Just men. And the whole thing seems terribly grown up and on that borderline of being hyper-masculine (well except for the queen with the manbag in their looping, and thankfully soundless, in-store commercial). They even offer you complimentary beer or coffee when you get there (I didn't have either... although it would want to be complimentary given the price of the haircut).

Like I said, I was sitting on the big leather sofa and I just felt out of place. I'm so not a grown up... I'm still about 15 inside my head... and I don't especially relate to the concept of being a "man" (note the quotes, we're in the land of stereotypes here). It was just weird.

Once I was called through to the actual salon I was okay (especially since I was the only one in there) because, really, I can talk to most hairdressing girlies until Hell freezes over.

Also not sure how I feel about sitting in front of a floor length mirror... seriously, I'm having my hair done, I don't really need to be able to see my shoes in the mirror. The fact that there were two little flat screen teevee monitors between the three mirrors was nice, plus it gave me and the girly something to talk about.

I'll say this for her though, she was FAST. Maybe its because I was actually paying attention (mostly) to what she was doing, but it all seemed to be over in a flash (not that my hair ever takes a long time to CUT)... and interestingly, she did something I've never had a hairdresser do before, she took me back over to the basin to rinse all the loose hair off my head. Not that it particularly worked that well, I'm still covered in fluff (I'll definitely have to have a shower before I go to bed), but it's the thought.

So I guess the only question is "Will I go back?"... honestly, I don't know, but more because of the price of a haircut than the aforementioned "outcastness". Maybe I'll just go rotating around differing salons for a while... perhaps I can even get my hair cut by a real live homosexual for the first time ever!

Other than that, the day was pretty much slow and quiet. H-San had the day off, and for the first time ever, nothing broke while he was away (woohoo!). It did mean that it was just me and Sugarmonkey for the majority of the day (La Ninj being the Queen of All Meetings Everywhere)... but that's okay, because we generally get along pretty well when it's just the two of us. Actually I had a realisation about that on my way home tonight.

Sugarmonkey, even though he's actually a couple of years younger than I am, is very much like a big brother. When other people are around he'll annoy the living snot out of you, and tease you without mercy, but when its just the two of you, he's fine. Plus he's kinda cool and you want to be a bit like him and make him laugh if you can manage it. I dunno, since I've never had a brother (but then neither has he since he's an only child too), but that's how it feels.

Also, everything I own is currently falling apart. Actually, that's a big fat lie, but I really need a new umbrella, the mechanism that keeps it closed is falling to bits... plus my very expensive $20 watch is starting to show why it only cost $20... the glass covering the face has lifted up a bit on one side and you can now hear it ticking, which I'm pretty sure you couldn't when I first bought it. I'm not really surprised though, since it does keep getting knocked against things (most often the zip of my jacket, but still), and it really has served it's purpose (to see if I could wear a watch without going crazy). The only trouble now is finding a proper watch I like the look of as much as I've grown to like the look of this one.

I also think I might have found us a decent hotel for the trip to Melbourne in October... and because these things have a way of arranging themselves, it turns out that it has an Indian Restaurant in the basement! Although I also entered a competition to see Pink in New York which just happens to be right in the middle of our planned trip (I didn't realise until after I'd entered)... although, really... how likely is it that I'm gunna win!

And now I have a night full of toasted marshmallow and So You Think You Can Dance to look forward to...

Current Mood:

random harry hotness

2009-07-09T18:10:00.000+09:30

Behold the dichotomy of Random Hotness... last week I exposed you to an exciting Australian photographer and her work on gender roles, this week I'm going with very commercial photos from International Jock...

They both, however, boil down to photos of dudes in their undies...

This is the very lickable Harry Tucker, a 20yo British model, who fills out the aforementioned undies quite nicely.

Current Mood:

meme today

2009-07-08T19:22:00.001+09:30

Its been a while since I visited the Land of Meme, so I was doing some "meme spelunking" in Google and came across this one from Sushi For Breakfast...

I tweaked a couple of the questions, but what's the internet for it you can't customise everything to better fit your own needs?

Today is: Wednesday.
Today I got up at: 5:19am, then 5:26am and finally at 5:36am.
Today I have been to: Work.
Today I have spoken to: H-San, Sugarmonkey, Ginja Ninja, the guy at the Organic cafe and several bimbos at Subway... plus other random work-related people.
Today I have made: Changes to a couple of documents and recreated a bunch of images.
Today I heard about: David Tennant starring in the St Trinian's sequel as the villain.
Today I daydreamed about: BlueDragon while I was putting my socks on this morning... I was thinking about when he was here and we were sitting curled up in my old bed while he drew me a diagram of his parent's house back in the States... I don't know why, but it's something I think of every now and then.
Today I am happy because: My feet are warm.
Today I am sad because: I still have a cough (although its much better) and some annoying sinus issues.

Today's outfit: White shirt with blue diamond check, black dress pants (work)... black teeshirt with silver printing, grey Bonds trackpants, green Bonds hoodie (home).
Today's footwear: The same black boots I wear to work every day.
Today's socks: Black athletic socks (work)... white athletic socks (home).
Today's undies: Bright blue Bonds boxerbriefs (actually they're trunks, but I love a nice bit of alliteration).
Today's jewellery: Ear piercing (as always), stainless steel ring (as always, unless I'm doing the washing up or preparing food), handpainted Durga pendant I bought last Friday which I've put on an old chain (I'm still wearing it), silver watch (which really only gets worn to work, at lunch and home from work... seldom actually at work or at home), Bico choker (which gets taken off as soon as I get home... I can wear it all day at work, but as soon as I get changed it starts to bother me).

Today's breakfast: Weetbix with hot milk and honey, same as every other weekday morning.
Today's lunch: Footlong Pizza sub from Subway... at least I always have all the salads.
Today I have also eaten: A "Rich and Famous" cupcake from BTS Cafe (I'm bad, I know).
Today I have drunk: Water and a mediocre hot chocolate from the organic cafe.

Today I have listened to: H-San singing somewhat tunelessly (the songs were "Rainbow Connection" and something else that currently escapes me... but he's been a World of Crazy this week) and Sugarmonkey making really appallingly bad Wookie noises.
Today I have watched: Cute boys on the bus.
Today I discussed: The Muppet Movies, a new Google Map Directions widget, the definition of a fanboy and Twilight. Only one of these things was work related.
Today's websites have included: Google Reader, Gmail, Blogger, IMDB, Adelaide Now and several work websites.
Today's computer programs were: Photoshop, Firefox, Notepad, Word, Outlook and Acrobat Writer.

Today 1 year ago: I was watching queer themed DVD's.
Today 2 years ago: I blogged about going to the sauna.
Today 4 years ago: Ten days from now, I start a blog. I have no idea that it will happen or what it will mean.
Today 10 years ago: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the book) is released.
Today 25 years ago: I was 10... and since 8 July 1984 is a Sunday, I have no idea what I was doing.
Today 50 years ago: The first two of 57,939 Americans died in the Vietnam War.
Today 100 years ago: A week after the jailing of suffragettes, the British government reversed a policy of not meeting with the women lobbying for the right to vote.

Current Mood:

blue sky tuesday

2009-07-07T20:41:00.000+09:30

I really don't have much to say today...

I had entertained the notion of writing a diatribe about bus drivers... and adding some stuff to it about the fact that we no longer have any rubbish bins at work... or how much I hate my computer and it's constant freezing... but really, who wants to listen to me whinge...

So I'm going to watch Grand Designs instead...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 336

2009-07-06T18:07:00.001+09:30

A trying day...

Unconscious Mutterings...

Independence :: Day
Meltdown :: My occasional extreme mental state
Vulture :: Carcass
Hope :: Faith, Charity
Float :: Water
Hole :: Do you really want me to go there?
Trespass :: Piglet (it's an esoteric one, but if you know the material you should get it)
Moving :: House
Extinct :: Animals
Alligator :: Crocodile

Current Mood:

sunday dotpointage

2009-07-05T18:30:00.004+09:30

There's nothing quite as dull or random as a Sunday at my house...

Sometimes, when you can't find the image you want for a blog post, it makes more sense to make one yourself...

My new bed was "christened" last night... not by anybody on my mythical list, but by somebody who proved the old adage "you can't judge a book by it's cover"... or in his case by a single bad quality photo that may have been taken a while ago.

In turn that meant that the early night I'd been planning to have didn't eventuate... two days, two instances of staying up until about 2am.

I don't really understand men sometimes... not only do I not understand guys who kiss by trying to consume your whole face (although admittedly it can be fun for a little bit if you can divert them before they swallow your head), or for that matter why, after one half of a pairing has reached their happy place why the remaining half would continually stop and start with the self pleasuring... it just seems weird, and if I'm being honest, it started to annoy me.

I also don't understand why my ISP would change the way we access the FTP server without telling anybody... suddenly (like, since a week ago) you have to put your whole email address in as the username, and I only discovered that by looking at the log of the failed attempt... who knows how long I would have been trying it otherwise. Would an email have killed them?

While the majority of my cold/flu is gone, my cough remains... this didn't help with the aforementioned scruffage, as there's nothing quite so unsexy as having to cough halfway through making out with somebody.

I have two street directories... one in the car and one in the house (for when it's easier to use a street directory than to use Google Maps)... I got a brand new one for the car the other week so I swapped out the one that used to be in the house for the one that had been in the car. I happened to go through it yesterday when I was tidying up and discovered all these little bits of paper with addresses and various instructions on getting to places. I think most of them are from old bootay calls.

I think I've already mentioned this, but it seems like J has been playing a game of "I'm not going to call him until he calls me" since I caught up with him at Glenelg... I did say to him that even though he was back in the country I didn't need to see him every 15 seconds since I'd gotten along for over 12 months without him, so it's possible he got the hump with me. On the down side for him, if he is playing that particular game, then he's playing it with the wrong person, since I've "played" people right out of my life this way. On the down side for me, I really need to talk to him about picking out a laptop/new computer.

Can I fit another movie in between now and the start of Bones? That will make three today...

On that note, I'm a fan of movies with cock in them... but more than that, I'm a fan of movies that have instances where there should naturally be cock that actually show cock instead of all this coy covering up and fake framing to avoid showing the cock. Just a thought.

Do I have to go back to work again already? Surely I was just there like five minutes ago...

Current Mood:

contemporary art saturday

2009-07-04T19:33:00.001+09:30

You know what's really bad... having been somewhere and not being able to remember the name of the place you've been... especially when you know exactly where it is. Add to that a computer that freezes up for no good reason and, well, yeah... so I've been trying to track down the name of the place for about the last hour... BLAH!

It kinda matches up with the start of the day, I kinda felt like I was playing "catch up" for a good chunk of the morning... I went to bed late last night, which meant I got up late this morning, and I was shopping on my own due to Ma's haircut, and I'm not sure I bought much worthwhile. Then as I was driving home I saw Ma's car ahead of me, and basically followed her down the road to my place, so she was already there when I made it to the apartment with all the shopping...

After I'd unpacked everything and we'd gone through a number of the stories we would normally have told each other on the way to the supermarket we headed down to the Smiggle store at Burnside since Ma somehow managed to break the stapler I bought her for her birthday. Fortunately they replaced it with no dramas (and no receipt either which was even better) and we had a quick little wander around Burnside. We went into the cute little gift/card store we've been into a bunch of times and I happened to see a toy soldier... okay, granted it was a squeaky baby's "rattle", but it's still a toy soldier. They also had a tin wind up one that I've seen on previous occasions (and in other places), but I decided to get them both (actually I was going to buy them, but Ma was all Snatchy Sue, so she actually bought them). Then we wandered over to a little toy store at the edge of the complex and they had a little plastic wind-up toy soldier (who admittedly doesn't actually walk like he's supposed to, but I got him cheaper because of that).

Then, because we were planning to go to that place I couldn't remember the name of and that didn't open until 2pm, we headed into the city to do some random wandering and poking about in some of our favourite places. They've just realised the second series of the cheap Penguin Books, so while we poked around in Borders I picked up three new ones (Casino Royale, The Witches of Eastwick and The Big Sleep)... I didn't have the best luck with enjoying the last ones I bought, but hopefully these should be better.

I also gave in to my DVD addiction again (Macbeth and Molière), picked up a very cheap plastic rosary (I've been having an ongoing obsession for a while and it was only $1... although it's too small to wear), and generally wandered about.

Then we went back to the car and drove to the other side of the city to That Place...

I eventually worked out that That Place is actually the "Anne and Gordon Samstag Museum of Art" at UniSA... which is somewhere that we've been wanting to go for ages, but I think it originally wasn't open on Saturdays and up until recently we didn't know that that had changed.

But we specifically went along to see the two pieces on the right (actually the image on the far right is part of a series)... The Young Family by Patricia Piccinini (I just wish there had been more of her work on display, because I love her stuff) and The Regal Twelve by Alexia Sinclair.

There was some other reasonably good stuff too... although I can't quite believe Ma and I sat there for 35 minutes watching Hayden Folwer's Second Nature video... very odd stuff...

Once we had our fill of art and culture, we headed back to North Adelaide, picked up some food and watched Heroes... so a slightly different day, but it finished better than it started...

Current Mood:

photo friday: two twenty

2009-07-03T21:32:00.000+09:30

TGIF!

I am officially knackered... and my feet hurt (those skater shoes aren't at all "like buda", in fact they're going to need some serious wearing in)... and I feel all wonky. Actually the wonky has been going on for about a week now, I'm fine in the mornings, but once the afternoon rolls around I start feeling not exactly nauseous, but decidedly odd. I thought it was the various potions and pills I've been taking for my cold/throat, most probably the ventolin, but I haven't had any since this morning, in fact I haven't had anything except the last of my antibiotics all day and I still feel weird... ahhh, wait... lightheaded, that's the word I'm looking for I think... it's kinda more than that, but that's a big part of it. Me no like!

Anyway, it's been one of those days today... it was Little Miss Marmoset's (formerly Little Miss Bipolar) last day today, and it kinda feels like I've done nothing but stuff to do with that for the last two days (not really... but kinda)... mostly things involving "presents". First there was an outfit for a naked Barbie doll (because she doesn't like naked Barbies, and I hate badly dressed Barbies... plus I was in Toys R Us anyway... just don't ask why she had a naked Barbie), then a Ty Beanie Baby "marmoset" (I think it was actually another kind of monkey, but we won't tell her that since she absolutely adored it) bought on the same shopping trip and putting together a card with a marmoset picture on the front (but that was from the whole team... which reminds me, I must remember to extract some money from everybody on Monday)... then today I finally got around to getting her some Guatamalan Worry Dolls from the Central Market, because really, she needs them. Then I got roped into helping set up for her going away do... then was distributing the pink scarves we made everybody wear... and somehow was one of the last ones there and got involved in the clearing up. All of which meant that I didn't actually leave work until after 5pm, which is a novel experience... it was all dark and stuff, which is a bit bollocks.

But I also got to ogle her stepson the Tall Handsome Doctor who was a sweetie and her son who was all skinny and cute... so, really, I no complain...

I also picked up some tomato pasta, which is all pink and interesting looking, I'm not sure how "tomato-ey" it tasted, but it looked interesting. I'm not quite sure why, but I seem to have an obsession with putting broccoli in pasta sauce at present... *shrug*...

I discovered a cool new blog this week... and not something I would usually have looked at... Bakerella... but it was this Father's Day cupcake hamburger that really sucked me in (I mean, c'mon, how awesome is that)... plus Bakerella takes some seriously awesome photos of her work. Although her photos and her cupcakes give me a big ol' sugar craving...

Also, I would have had this post finished hours ago had it not been for "So You Think You Can Dance"...

Current Mood:

random young hotness

2009-07-02T18:01:00.001+09:30

Sometimes a Random Hotness post will just fall out of the sky into my lap. This week's post comes via ABC's Sunday Arts program... and it wasn't even like I was watching it, in fact I had the sound turned off and was in the other room, but just happened to wander back in as they were featuring photographer Lyndal Walker and her Stay Young series...

I'll let Lyndal explain in her own words...

This series seeks to capture the fleeting beauty of men in their early twenties. The photographs also document a lifestyle that is fleeting as the boys live in share households or their parent's homes and have part time jobs in areas such as hospitality.

So here we have Jake and Ford...

Current Mood:

wednesday blues

2009-07-01T18:09:00.001+09:30

Almost twelve months ago to the day my hot water heater stopped working... and there was way too much drama about getting it working again.

Well, I came home last night to discover that I had no hot water. In some ways it wasn't a huge surprise, we'd had a very windy day... but the problem is that I can't relight the stupid water heater. I don't know why, I have the instruction book, I follow the instructions, but it won't light. So I have to call my stupid Land Agent. When I did that last night it was around 5pm which seems to be the time they stop for the day (which seems insane to me)... and I'm sure I got through to somebody when I called, but then the call cut out and when I called back I got the machine (RUDE). And even though I called the After Hours number it all added up to a big fat nothing.

After Hours Man tells me that the plumber had already been out to look at some of the other water heaters that weren't working (so obviously I'm not the only one who can't light the fucker), but he never bothered to check to make sure the rest of them were still lit (or he did and mine hadn't blown out at that stage, who knows). I tell him to call the plumber and get him out anyway. I go to the movies. Nothing happens.

Cue this morning, I call the Land Agent, speak to a person, tell them the plumber can happily come out while I'm not there because everything he needs to fiddle with is outside. I call as I'm heading home, "he'll come over at 4:30" I'm told. I get home, not only do I not have any hot water coming out of my hot water tap, I have NO water coming out of my hot water tap. More phonecalls ensue.

Plumber has his mobile switched off or it's out of range or something. So now I'm facing a second night with no hot water and will have to improvise my Pot Bath again tomorrow morning.

ANNOYED!

I'm going to be ALL over the Land Agent tomorrow, and if they can't get in touch with this plumber, well they'll just have to call a different plumber! I mean there isn't even any point in my going out there and attempting to restart the water heater, because now the water is off and I'm not sure how the hell to turn that back on.

Add to this the fact that I got rained on during my walk... and then again a little bit at lunch... and somebody else won the $53 million dollars in Oz Lotto that should have been mine (all I got was a lousy $5.25)... because if I had I could have told the Land Agent to stuff their hot water system and gone off to a hotel or something.

So yeah... I'm all feeling sorry for myself again... plus I'm still not over my cold/flu/whatever... and work was incredibly dull today... *blows big fat raspberry at the universe*

Update 7pm: Obviously sometimes you just need to stand on the edge of the shore and scream at the gods... Mr Plumber just rang me to tell me that he had indeed been and fixed my hot water, and seemed surprised when I told him that there was no water happening at all. He then told me which lever I needed to turn in order to have hot water again. Woohoo!

And just to ensure my karma is fully paid up I called the Land Agent, left a message on the machine telling them what was going on and thanking them for everything this afternoon.

*does the "I have hot water" dance*

Current Mood:

transformers: return of the awesome

2009-06-30T22:39:00.000+09:30

Do you think it's tacky to wear an Optimus Prime teeshirt to go and see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen if your age can be expressed as double digits?

Ah well... I did it anyway...

Well, I'll say this for the Transformers sequel... it delivers exactly what it says on the box!

You want giant transforming robots, you got it... you want explosions, this is a Michael Bay movie, you better believe we've got those... you want Megan Fox very nearly falling out of her outfit, personally I don't see the appeal (and not just because I'd much rather have Shia LaBeouf... there is just something about Fox that is unappealing for the most part), but it's there if you want it... you want more Transformers than last time, sure, we've got that too, even if some of them don't get very much screen time (and a couple get way too much)... you want far flung locations, we've got Egypt, how does that grab you (even if parts of it do kinda end up looking like the Middle Eastern village from the first one).

And because this is a sequel, there really isn't any need for a slow build to the reveal of the robots, we can just rush right in there and give you lots of Transformer action right in the opening sequences... and then we'll have some more action... and we'll maybe work in a little character stuff, but then we'll have lots of action and blow up a bunch of stuff... how does that sound?

Honestly, it sounds freakin awesome!

And you know what, if you go into the movie knowing that that's pretty much what you're going to get (not to mention it being what you're looking forward to), then you won't be disappointed.

It does have it's flaws... mostly stuff that could very easily have been removed from the movie and that I don't think anybody would miss, but even with that I really enjoyed it.

I watched the original last night just to "prepare myself" and was kinda surprised by how much I actually still liked that too (although I don't know that I should be surprised, since I gave it a 9 when I first saw it)... and this movie is kinda like the first one cubed... there's just so much more movie to it (not plot, because really, transforming robots, how much plot do you need), but they definitely upped the ante on this one. And where you could say the first one felt more like an action movie, this one kinda feels more like a war movie in some ways. Not that I've seen a lot of war movies, but the conflict and the stakes feel much bigger.

Listen to me... talking about a Transformers movie like it has substance! I will admit to getting all choked up at one point though... tragic, but true.

I also really loved that we got to see Soundwave this time around (and with his original voice by Frank Welker *all hail Frank, lord of all voice actors*), as well as Ravage (what can I say, I have a soft spot for them both even though they're bad guys)... but as I mentioned before, the downside of having so many new Transformers is that quite a lot of them get very little screentime outside of the action scenes (I would definitely liked to have seen more of the three female motorcycle Autobots). Also on the downside was having to put up with the "comedy relief robots" again (Skids and Mudflap, I'm looking mostly at you). Seriously, get rid of them... it didn't work with the annoying little Decepticon in the first movie, it still doesn't work... even less because they're not even appealing in robot form. Also, Transformers that are less than people sized, not really interested... make them big and make them grand, but don't make them out of a blender, okay!

While we're at it, can we just get rid of Isabel Lucas too... not only is her character completely pointless and, honestly, pretty damn stupid, but also the bitch can't act.

My only other real complaint is a similar one to the one I had last time... on the big screen it's sometimes very hard to tell which giant robot is doing what to what other giant robot with all the camera shake and fast movement and suchlike. Having said that though, I didn't have any real problem with the first one when I watched it last night, so I think it's just the fact that on the big screen the image is so large that your eye/brain can't always take it all in at once.

But for the most part, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ROCKS!

yani's rating: 9 ancient Primes out of 10

unconscious mutterings 335

2009-06-29T18:14:00.001+09:30

I swear, I'm taking so many different pills and potions at the moment that I may well rattle if you shook me...

Unconscious Mutterings...

Guest :: Bedroom
Impact :: Deep
Unplanned :: Pregnancy
Tactic :: Battle
Delayed :: Gratification
Bombastic :: Mr
Comfort :: Cold
Trumpet :: Dizzy
Joe :: Cool
Budget :: Rental

Current Mood:

panthera uncia

2009-06-28T18:09:00.001+09:30

You Are a Snow Leopard

You have learned that you must rely on yourself, and yourself alone, to live a happy life.

You understand the world better than most people you know. You are very perceptive and intuitive.

You need lots of space to think. If you don't get the space you need, you're likely to bite someone's head off.

Because you are so thoughtful and solitary, people find you to be intense and mysterious. You're even seen as intimidating.

What Big Cat Are You?

Current Mood:

frugal saturday shopping

2009-06-27T19:08:00.000+09:30

Given the shopping excesses of the past two weeks, plus the fact that I only worked three days out of five this week, I was decidedly frugal in my spending this Saturday...

Basically you could sum up my purchases today by saying I bought a Christmas decoration and a piece of punctuation.

We started as always with the Supermarket Safari, which has kind of turned into being whatever fresh stuff I need and any other miscellaneous bits and pieces. Although it was made all the more difficult this morning because they were doing their semi regular stupid stock counting thing. I hate when they do that, because suddenly all the aisles are full of people with little machines counting stuff and generally taking up space... and all the cute supermarket boys are either on their knees or standing on boxes with their butts up at face level (more or less)... so it's all very distracting...

Anyway, once that was all over we headed down the road to some random "chichilala useless object homewares" store that I noticed earlier in the week was having a sale that ended today. Ma and I have been in there before to drool on the overpriced merchandise so I figured we may as well go back while they had 30% off everything.

Ma managed to find a few bits and pieces, some more jewellery amongst other stuff, but there really wasn't anything I wanted... except for the lowercase letters... I've seen the uppercase letters you can get, which all seem to stand up on their own, but I don't think I've seen the lowercase versions anywhere other than this store. The only problem was that they either didn't have the right letters to spell out certain things ("homo" and anything containing an "e" were out), or some of the letters wouldn't have stood up under their own power (so "gay", "slut", "fag" and "yani" were all out)... but what they did have was a &... which was kinda groovy all on it's own, so in the end I bought Ma an "m" and myself an ampersand. Cute!

Next stop was the frame store (and we won't even discuss the fact that we got semi lost on the way and had to double back) to drop off the two little Chinese outfits we bought for La Cousina's Christmas present. The woman in the shop thought they were adorable and I think we picked out a nice option for the framing. Pricey though... I think it will possibly work out being the most expensive present Ma and I have ever given her either individually or collectively. I know she'll love them though.

Then we headed off to Marion, mostly because we haven't been in quite a few weeks what with bed-buying and construction and whatnot. And because it's coming up to the end of the financial year, everybody seems to be having big fat sales... but really, there wasn't anything that even tempted me. Ma bought a few bits of stuff, but nothing of any earthshattering importance really.

After we'd done the full Marion Circuit, had a minor spat because we never seem to be able to make a decision when we're together, ended up cutting off our own noses to spite our faces, got back in the car and made up again (all very dramatic really) we decided to stop off at the Christmas Shop. And that place still scares me...

We'd actually gone their on the off-chance that they had a specific kind of stuffed animal (they didn't) for a farewell gift, but we can't resist wandering around the general scariness that is that store, especially in Winter when there's nobody else in there. And I found another little toy solider... all wooden (or faux wooden, I'm not sure).

Then I happened to see the GIANT tin toy soldier standing up on the top of one of the shelves... and it was marked down 50%. And Ma offered to get it for me for Christmas... woohoo. He actually looks like he could do with a good bending so he stands up straight... and there is some damage to the base, but other than that it's pretty good.

So that, as they say, was that...

Also, you know when you've cooked something in oil the night before and the air in your apartment still has that vague "grease" smell about it, and it's so gross... or is that just me and my stupid apartment?

Current Mood:

photo friday: abstract green

2009-06-26T19:03:00.000+09:30

I currently have a headache that you could use to grate cheese with. And having said that, I have absolutely no idea what the hell it means. I just have a very bad headache.

It was more than likely caused by going to work... although I didn't feel too bad for most of the day, but this headache kinda snuck up on me late in the afternoon. Other than that work was reasonably okay... there wasn't a ton of stuff lurking in my email, and even though there was only really H-San, La Ninj and me, it wasn't too stressful.

As it turns out, I may have infected Sugarmonkey, since he's been away since Wednesday too... and I know I gave it to H-San before that because he was away Tuesday (and Wednesday too as it turns out). Whoops!

So yeah... nothing much to report really... went to work, came home, took my various pills and potions throughout the day... and still I have a headache...

Current Mood:

random bedroom hotness

2009-06-25T17:26:00.000+09:30

It seems to have been a very long week... and a good chunk of it has been taken up with thoughts of my new bed... so I figured that this week's Random Hotness should have a bed theme to it...

So here we have 22 year old Miami model, Joshua Michael Brickman (don't you just love a boy with three names?) languishing exquisitely on and around a pleasingly rumbled bed as captured by uberphotographer Rick Day.

Current Mood:

actually blogging about noodles

2009-06-25T09:32:00.003+09:30

I've actually been reduced to the level of actually blogging about things involving noodles... somebody shoot me...

While I'm feeling quite a bit better today, I still didn't go to work... partly because I'm going to take the doctor's advice and "rest" and partly because I slept in until about 9am. But I figure that was what my body needed, so it wasn't a bad thing.

And for the record, my chicken soup worked out pretty good (thanks Andrew). It is the first time I've ever had to dismember an entire chicken though, which was interesting... and less gross that I thought it might have been. I'm not big on the whole "meat with bones" thing.

A large amount of the stock is sitting in the fridge as we speak, waiting to have the fat removed, but the rest of it kinda got absorbed by noodles.

Once it was finished doing the cooking thing last night, I removed most of the liquid from the pot, put some of the veg back in, added some of the chicken and some capellini tagliati ("broken angel hair") pasta... only I added TOO much pasta, and instead of it being soup with pasta, it ended up being pasta with a small amount of liquid... d'oh!

It was tasty though... although perhaps a little subtle for my cold-affected tastebuds. Definintely something I'm going to have to have another go at when I'm feeling better though.

Current Mood:

sick day

2009-06-24T17:08:00.000+09:30

I didn't go to work today...

Originally I'd just decided to skip my walk and get up an hour later, but I was kinda coughing and wheezing on and off during the night, so I figured the best thing was for me to stay home.

I even made an appointment to go and see the doctor too, which I never do... but this cough felt different, and, honestly I wanted to make sure I wasn't infected with Swine Flu or anything. Which I'm not as far as I'm aware, so big tick there.

My previous doctor up and vanished at some point between "whenever the hell I went to see him last" and "whenever the hell I wanted to see him last and found he had vanished"... not the most concrete set of time frames, I know, but that's about how often I go to the doctor. But I got a leaflet a few weeks back that had another surgery listed, so I figured I would give that a go.

Its all very new and swanky looking, but like just about ever doctor's surgery I've ever been to, it had obviously started out life as a house or some other kind of building before being converted. So I killed ten minutes filling out pointless forms (yes, I'm currently experiencing a cough, that's why I'm here... no I don't have anxiety or erectile dysfunction, but thanks for asking... seriously, how many people go in there for one particular thing and then tick all the other boxes) before the doctor came out to get me. And he was quite cute too, in that shaven headed "I feel like crap, but you look great" kind of way.

One thing that sometimes annoys me about doctors, or annoyed me about him at any rate is that just because I'm both a person of size and a person of gay, it doesn't mean that either of those things are relevant to the reason I've come to see you today... that would be my cough, genius, not where I put my dick or the size of my trousers. Thanks for taking the holistic view, now shut your cake hole.

It was also slightly annoying that most of the advise he gave me was stuff I'd seen on their website earlier in the day...

But he did give me some antibiotics... and of all things, a ventolin inhaler because I'm all wheezy and stuff... so that's a whole world of "okay then!". And he charged me $100 bucks for the privilege although I got $63.75 of that back as the Medicare rebate before I'd even left the clinic (woohoo direct credit Medicare).

Then I had to go and spend another $35 on the medication... fun!

While I was at the shops I decided that I was going to attempt Andrew's Chicken Soup... because, you know... Chicken Soup, it's the Jewish penicillin (I read that somewhere recently... I don't remember where though). But I think it only works if you don't have to make it yourself, because it kinda turned into one long headfuck. And the soup isn't even made yet.

I bought a chicken and some vegetables at my supermarket, but when I got home I realised that none of my saucepans were large enough to accommodate it. Damn! So I headed off to the supermarket we visit every weekend because I remembered seeing some there in previous weeks.

But first I took a little detour Atlantic DVD where (as H-San had told me on Monday) they were having a 3 for $26 sale... now remembering that this is Atlantic DVD where I last spend a good couple of hours and an embarrassing amount of money... fortunately this time it was only the time... it took me forever to find three movies that I wanted... then when I had two and was looking for one that I'd seen earlier to make up the three, I couldn't find it anywhere... even though I went up and down every aisle more than once. Found it eventually though, under W.

Then I headed off to the supermarket, and of course, they didn't have the pots any more... so I looked everywhere else. EVERY! WHERE! ELSE! Part of me was about ready to give up, shove the chicken in the freezer and come home to have soup out of a can, but eventually I did find a pot that seemed like it would do (it's still a tiny bit shallow, but I'm not complaining).

So the soup is on... how well it will work, if at all, I have no freakin idea... but it's on, and I'm going to let it do it's thing for the next couple of hours, then we'll see...

Same goes for whether or not I bother going to work tomorrow I think...

Current Mood:

atypical tuesday with music

2009-06-23T20:04:00.000+09:30

Its been a very atypical day...

I woke up feeling monumentally crap this morning... my cold/flu has developed a new and irritating nasty cough, and I did find myself considering semi-seriously during my walk whether I should go and get myself checked out for Swine Flu. Oink...

Which, considering that I will avoid going to the doctor unless something is catastrophically bad, should tell you how I was feeling...

And had it not been for the fact that I had to work on a particular project today, I might have considered staying home. In fact I may still do that tomorrow, or at least skip my walk so that I don't have to go out before dawn and expose myself to the frigid morning air.

But, like I said... whole world of project that I had to do today. It was something that I REALLY didn't want to have to do, but I'd been roped into it, and there was no getting out of it, so I figured I'd make the best of it. Part of me does wonder if that is partly why I felt so crappy this morning, a psychosomatic response to this thing I didn't want to do... but I don't really feel any better now, so I doubt it.

I'd organised as much stuff as I could, so when I went in this morning with my Iced Coffee I got myself settled, plugged the headphones I bought on the weekend in, fired up the five or so CD's I ripped onto my work computer last week, put up the sign which read "I am not here, this is an optical illusion, do not disturb" (which actually came in very useful on at least three occasions when I could point to it and make people leave me alone without having to speak) and got myself into The Zone.

I was very much "in my head" the whole morning. I was "in my head" because I'm sick, which always makes me somewhat hypersensitive to the world around me as well as making me super aware of everything above my neck. I was "in my head" because I had headphones on and was pretty much cut off, aurally anyway, from everything that was going on around me. And finally I was "in my head" because I was concentrating completely on the project.

Unfortunately, while I generally live "in my head", I don't always spend that much time paying attention to the fact that I'm there, and after a while my head is kind of a scary place to be...

Its also been kinda weird that for the last few days while I haven't been feeling on top of my game, I've also been ravenously hungry... so much so that my stomach was growling several times since the weekend... I think I woke up with a growly tummy on Sunday actually.

Fortunately, even though I'd pretty much blocked off the entire day to work on this project, I was finished with it around 1pm, although I hadn't been to lunch and I'd been thrashing my way through it since 8am. Pretty good actually.

I didn't even get the opportunity to go straight off to lunch though, since we had a meeting with the Big Boss who imparted some news that didn't really come as a great shock to anybody (well, not to me, certainly since I'd heard something on the grapevine last week)... then I scrambled off and grabbed a bit of lunch before coming back, not really getting much of anything done before we headed over to the Hilton for an offsite team meeting.

And because it was offsite, La Ninj said that we could take off straight after the meeting instead of going back to work... sadly the meeting went from 2:30 until 4pm, so I didn't get any kind of early minute. But there was actual work-altering news imparted at that meeting too... and while I knew there had to be SOME reason for the sudden decision for an offsite meeting, I will admit that I didn't actually see that particular piece of news coming.

So yeah, that was my day... a morning spent listening to music and going all project hardcore... and an afternoon of meetings...

I really just want to go back to feeling like a person again though... I hate being sick...

Current Mood:

unconscious mutterings 334

2009-06-22T18:32:00.000+09:30

The bed was better last night... I, however, feel positively craptacular! Not enough to stay home this morning, but enough to take the edge off my game. My cold has developed a cough thing, which I'm not doing a lot of fortunately, but when I do it's not nice.

And tomorrow is a day that I haven't been looking forward to... and also seems like it could be a day with some big, fat, juicy gossip/announcements, which I will have to hear second hand afterwards because I'm tied into doing this stupid project all day.

Unconscious Musings...

Divorce :: Heterosexuals
Napkin :: Napery
Camera :: Club
Leather :: Restraints
Fractures :: Bones
Flip out :: How very 70's
Coroner :: All those medical/crime teevee shows
Atomic :: Bomb
Liz :: Taylor
Leave :: Form

Current Mood:

exposing my new bed

2009-06-21T18:16:00.000+09:30

While I can't honestly say that I had the worst night's sleep of my life last night... I've definitely had better.

By the time I crawled into bed last night it was pretty late and I was totally exhausted, so you would have thought that my body would have just crashed out. But instead of sinking into the lumpy softness of my old mattress, I felt like I was laying on a sheet of timber.

And I was SOOOOO high up... I don't think I mentioned, but this new mattress is a full foot thick... it was totally able to stand freely on it's side before we put it on the bed yesterday. And the frame is about a foot off the ground too... so that's two feet above the ground.

I'm pretty sure that my old bed would quite happily fit under this bed with a little room to spare (as it is I discovered that all the shoes I've previously had lined up along the front of the dresser will slot nicely under the end of the bed, plus I've got a couple of rollaway containers under there with all my different sets of bedding in them, so now I have space in the top of my wardrobe... which will result in some sort of cleaning/reorganisation frenzy at a later date).

So anyway... very, very high up by comparison.

Add to that a new set of pillows (which weren't too bad actually... but still new), and I had trouble getting comfortable.

I also seemed to overheat really easily last night which resulted in me waking up from time to time, which meant that I would roll over and then have to get comfortable... but considering how I felt when I woke up (and still feel now), I think that the overheating thing was more about the cold or flu or whatever I had yesterday really kicking into high gear. So if I'm being honest it probably wasn't a fair test of the new bed, since I'm obviously not well.

It's still a very imposing piece of furniture in the bedroom though... but I can't get back far enough or fit enough into a shot to really show it, so you'll just have to take my word for it (and for the record, the bed is in the north-west corner whereas my computer is in the north-east corner of my snug little bedroom).

Yes, that is a toy lion in the middle of the pillows... it's not a permanent fixture, but it just seemed right when I was making up the bed yesterday. And in place of artwork, I have my kite hanging over my bed... plus the first ever look at the incredibly dodgy curtains I crafter a couple of years ago...

I'm just glad all the messing about is over with now and I can settle in and start getting used to this new bed. But given that it's so radically different, I can tell that the first time I have sex on it is going to be a whole new adventure...

Current Mood: