Saturday, May 27, 2006

new Snoopy products


After searching thru 3 Kmarts I've finally found this ceramic Snoopy dog bowl. No, I'm not going to give it to da dog. I'm keeping it for myself & eat off it!!! Well, not quite off it, but I'm going to use it as a candy dish instead (see below). Still have a few tic-tacs & sticks of gum lying around. Perfect.

Other new Snoopy products came courtesy of Betty, a little bit of present from HK. Look at how cute the little mug is :D

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Keep ducking



Currently having a bit of a duck obsession. I mean, I've always had a bit of a thing for rubber duckies, but I never had 1. Until last yr it was. When one thinks of rubber duckies you of course immediately think of Oslo, Norway (just go with it for now) so when I was there for 5 whole wks las northern summer I went around the city a lot. At one of these bathroom specialist stores (Saap! I think it was) I cam across one of them that was on sale for NOK10 (1st 1 on left of pic). Ijust had to jump to the opportunity now didn't I? Soon after, I found 2 more on sale at a rival store (the 2 non-yellow 1s). The 3 of them sat on my shelf & were quite lonely for a while. When I went down to Geelong/Melbourne this January with Rae we were looking around Holy Sheet! & I was yet another rubber duckie on sale (middle, between the 2 non-yellows). And since then the duckie collection had been growing steadily: 1st the Darling Duck from BUD, then back to smaller 1s again to fill out what's left of my shelf. 2 days ago I was @ Holy Sheet! Bondi Junction buyiing them down-filled booties for mum & grandma & I saw BUD now have these giant ducks @ AUD30 a pop! Luckily there are only 2 designs so far, otherwise I'd have to go broke!?!?! Not that I ended up buying them or anything. Just too big. Bought a green apple pamper pack instead, in which thee was a green apple duckie. Have yet to find a BUD official website, but have some some sites that specialise on rubber duckies, with some listings of BUD ducks. I so far have seen 47 designs (excluding giant ducks). I only have 1 (green apple.coconut/lavendar pamper pack ducks are not listed as BUD ducks even thought they're from the BUD team). Oh crap! Must stop obsession or make more money.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Peach nesting


Peach nest
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

Autumn has arrived and as nature's intended, deciduous trees have started shedding leaves. This is what the peach blossom in our backyard now looks like. & THAT is a nest (of some native pigeon or something) that I found in the last few days, nestled behind the now shedded green leaves. It's nest No2 that I can see from my window, the other being the kookaburra nest at the top of the gum tree that stands just outside our fence & in the playground place adjacent to our house.

Doggy biscuits


Doggy biscuits
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

With ever increasing petrol prices 1 is always trying to find ways to curb spending in order to offset this growing weekly expense. I, not having to drive regularly anymore, also need to curb my spending after reasonably hefty expenditures in the last month or so. It all started with my groomsmaning and related activities, then followed by things that weren't really that necessary, like more new clothes, books, etc. Now that I've kinda decided to take a yr-end trip to HK & surronds, that can only mean for $$. So, my first step of curbing expenditure starts with spending less on things that I can spend less on, and the 1st sacrifice, da dog. Yes, da dog. I'm not really cutting back that hard. he's still getting his main meal,evening snack, plus his usual duty as a garbage disposal on things like apple cores, broccoli stems, carrot tops and the odd pieces of fruits. In all, he's eating more than he should, really. But in recent yrs, the $$ of dog food has gone up quite a fair bit. Back in the days when B started living with us, we could easily feed him for around $1 a day. Now, it's more like $2. I know, I know, $2 is still very cheap, but if you add it up his annual bill would be doubled to what he cost a mere 5 yrs or so ago. In an attempt to battle purse strings, & for his health, no more store bought snack biscuits!! Instead of the $15 a box doggy treats, it's home-made doggy biscuits. Considering all the ingredients (a stick of unsalted butter, 89c; a 1kg bag of self-raising, 87c; 3 eggs, next to nothing; an owner's love & care & the 6+ dozen doggy biscuits out of the oven, priceless), it would only cost 10% to make as many treats as store bought! & all done while watching 1 (albeit very long) Rome final between Federer & Nadal. What a bargain. Taste-test result? It's a 'swallow straight down, no need for chewing' gooood!!

Just so u know, I'm not just cutting back expenses on others. I'm also cutting back expenses on myself. Like, no more clothes & accessories (until the next big sale, at least :P), & spend more time writing PhD & planning Dan's cellar party instead of the customary end-of-the-day 15 min shopping trips. So far so gd.

Update on TV-quarium II: finally went to Parklea & ordered the tank. Should arrive in 2 wks. No need to hurry really. The happy couple is not expected back to report for regular duties for another couple of wks, & then it's months of looking for a new place before finally settling in. I'm guessing I have until the end of the yr to finish the project. Easy...

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Starting all over again


Another old TV shell
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

It's trash time again so the streets in the surrounding neighbourhoods are of course littered with, well, trash. Like usual, there are 'good' trash, and there are 'bad' trash. An example of 'good' trash would be this old TV set. I'm not sure if it still works or not, but it's old, it uses dials to change channels manually, and worst of all, has no remote!! Then why did I pick it up & brought it home? Well, for those of youse who know me, you'd know that I made a TV-quarium a couple of years ago (see Aug 1st blog). I also have a couple of other shop-bought aquariums, 1 of which is no longer in use. But I digress. The reason why I’ve picked up this, smaller old TV set was to, yes, you’ve guessed it, make another TV-quarium!! :D There actually isn’t any more room in the house to accommodate another TV-quarium, and no I’m not actually making it to re-sell (although I once saw them on sale at a market at $200 AUD a pop!). It is actually going to be a house-warming present for my bride & groom (see Apr 23rd blog). They’re on their honeymoon now & when they return they’d start looking for a bigger place to move into. Judging by their previous house-hunting effort, I’d say I’d have till xmas to finish this present (rotfl!!!!!) In any case, if the last time was anything to go by, it took a long time for the custom order glass tank to arrive (from memory it took nearly 2 months) so I can just take my time with it. Just as well, gives me time to work out the intricacies such as fixing the dials back on without the unpleasant mechanisms in the box, spraying it to go with their furniture, & to order accessories online.