Who gives a rat's arse?

No one apparently, as far as my health is concerned from what I can gather. It's now day 3 into my little experiment and so far no comment still. What is the 'little' experiment? Hmm, let's call it Operation Cry Wolf, 'cos I am crying wolf to some extent. Here's the rationale for my wolf crying:

I am once again helping out with another wedding & this time am only doing a pre-wedding party. Always one to speak my mind (ha, NOT!) I obviously advertised such as appointment on my Messenger msg thingy, which for about a wk, read "Working on wedding stuff". No sooner than I put that msg up & my contacts started coming online, everyone has been msging asking me when the big day is. Not entirely disgruntled, I thought I these ppl actually did care about me in general or just my 'getting married', thus the little experiment. After a couple of wks with the msg reading "no, I'm not getting married so STOP asking" I recently changed it to "OMG, I'm dying" with a little crying face at the end. It's been on for 3 days now and so far not 1 single msg asking about my 'dying'. 1 can only speculate that weddings draw more attention than deaths. Contemplating switching msg again to see what 'crowds' other topics draw.

Birthday, actually

The day has finally arrived and yesteryday was once again my birthday. As usual, I tried to keep it as low-key as possible but alas it didn't go according to plan. For no reason at all, Peter (my boss) looked up the staff files on Monday and to his surprise, after working with me for over 4 years, that yesterday (Tuesday) was in fact my birthday! So, when I turned up at my normal time (8:30) the trusty Barb was already at her desk clicking away. She said happy birthday and that caught me off-guard. That's when the Peter-looked-up-staff-files story got spilt. Ah well, secret's out. And guess what? After all that, still no cake!?! Cheap bastards!

Afternoon meeting went long but productive. Finally culled down the Blacktown indicators & now can bum around & wait for Area Health Service to give us stuff that we asked for. Also starting tutoring again next wk. Originally Kev said he won't be needing help in the 3rd yr course anymore so he gave me an extra session of 1st yr, but then later on (after I've accepted the extra 1st yrs) he changed his mind & said he needed help after all. Now I'm stuck with four hours straight of 1st yr workshop/tut classes on Tuesdays and the 5 wks of online 3rd yr tuts. At least they're only online tuts & I don't actually have to be there.

Today is Wednesday & is my usual stay-at-home day. I usually spend the first few hours of my waking moments recovering from tennis the night before & today was no exception. Watched a little bit of TV & played some video games before sitting down for Project Runway 2 while having lunch. After that I baked the 4th batch of doggy biscuits (parsley & tarragon) because we've run out of the previous batches (see May/June 2006). I thought about changing the shape of these biscuits away from my usual balling technique & decided on sticks instead. Unfortunately they all turned out looking like turds. With the freckles of shredded herbs poking through they give these turds a green tint. No sugar like usual so no intention of taste-testing said 'turds'.


p.s. a birthday shout-out to Baboon. maybe I'll see you in HK in Nov/Dec

B'day feast #2

My actual b’day is not for another 2 days & so far I’ve had a pretty good pre-b’day wkend. Let’s have a quick mental re-cap:

Finally finished re-writing my methodology chapter of Friday & started working on the banana article with typing up potent quotables from a big book. Anyhow, dinner at the Fung’s & finally a game of mah jong since the World Cup has come & gone. Rotten luck though, didn’t even ‘eat’ 1 game! ‘Called’ many times, but did not ‘eat’, sigh… Finished the day off with more quote typing & a few comp games.

Saturday was a whole new ball game. The re-re-scheduled ramen outing finally happened even though it wasn’t completely hitch-less. With petrol prices so high I opted to bus into the city instead, which meant that I was there ½ hr early. Despite that, Ichiban-Boshi at Town Hall still had a line of 5 deep & because there were 7 of us we needed to wait extra long for a big table. Luckily Anne was there even earlier than I was & she put her more than fluent Japanese skills to great use by sweet-talking the waitress into seating us at a big table instead of splitting us into 2 tables of 3 & 4 (there was only 1 table big enough for up to 8 in the whole premise). People arrived at various level of tardiness because of the anti-war protest down George St right outside & they closed the City Circle train stations for maintenance work. Quick orders & very lovely presents. Adding to what I got last wk at Clem/Gek’s I got:

1. a bottle of South Australian white
2. a Japanese paper photo album
3. book voucher for much needed books
4. a swag of Snoopy products that can’t be bought here in Aus, including coin purse, mobile decorations, notebook, & towelette among other things

Spoilt I am I tells’ya. Spoilt. Ended day with a Swans game (watched at home & not at SCG), fabulous (& much needed) win, more quote typing & comp games.

Set alarm for 9am to be ready for movie down at Towers but decided to turn it off at 9 & continued zzz-ing until ¼ to 11 when I suddenly woke up, saw the time, & rushed out of home for the 11am session. Luckily there was no queue at the Tower side (as always) & we got there for Superman Returns with a little bit of time to spare. No brekkie though, only the green tea that I managed to grab on my way out. So FREAKIN’ long it was! And so S-L-O-W…… Rather implausible beginning, the plot just became very predictable as it went on. It was an ok movie nonetheless, I’ve seen worse. Kate Bosworth simply didn’t look scared enough, & Brandon Routh was, well, wooden/steel-ly. Good thing he looked so much like the original then. Wonder if the Superman curse will befall on this lot (Chris (& Dana) Reeve dead, Margot Kidder (original Lois Lane) institutionalised)

Start of Session 2 & am teaching FOUR tuts this time to reap in some $$ for lack of scholarship & upcoming weddings. Still no word on how I can change my enrolment to part-time. Damn university administration so slow!

B'day feast #1

My b'day is yet again approaching & there are several things happening for the, umm, 'occasion'. The 1st was today, when I forced Gekko & Clement to cook me dinner. To make things 'easier' for them, I was personally there to supervise their grocery shopping, preparation, & cooking. It was a really 'simple' meal for 7 - 1 kangaroo ravioli with capsicum, mushroom, & tomatoes; 3 thin-crust pizzas with pancetta, danish salami, capsicums, mushroom, tomatoes, & kangaroo (obviously we repeated ingredients to cut down on preparation time); 1 vegie salad; mashed potatoes; & a two-nut chocolate cake. The cake was actually made by Wendy. Very nutty. See below for pic of the feast.

Coming up this Saturday is the re-scheduled lunch at Ichiban-boshi down at Town Hall. Do not have a clue what I'll be doing on my actual b'day except probably be at work (if not, then uni) & tennis at night (if no rain). Wonder if there'd be a cake at Ichiban-boshi?

Plotting about my little experiment... stay tuned.

Kev's 40th

Right, so all the big (late night) sporting events have come to an end for the moment, which should have meant no more sleep-deprived days. Unfortunately this plan had not exactly worked to the plan. Let's have a quick re-cap. Rewinding back to last Saturday...

Last saturday (8Jul) was Big Kev's medieval party to celebrate his 40th (for those who don't know, Big Kev has been my supervisor since the dawn of time) so us bunch of lunatics, all trapsed in our, umm, costumes and headed up to the Blue Mtns for the festivities, including the promised 'yeomanry games'. Some of us made bigger efforts in the costume department (photos below) while so were just plain slack. Anywho, seeing that the party was all the way up in the Mtns I headed up early & tried to get to Blackheath for a late lunch & antique hunting. Remembering my now financially-deprived status + the fact that I left home a little late, I didn't quite make it up to Blackheath. Instead I had a quick stop at Wentworth Falls (for whatever reasons that still escape me at the moment) before heading back down to Blaxland for the party. Nursing my recent stint of 'cold' I tried staying indoors for as long as possible, but alas the yeomanry games of archery, pillow fight on plank & jousting (yes, you read/heard right, JOUSTING) were all outdoors activity, so all of us were forced out into the ungodly Mtn chill. Apart from that, it was a gd feast for the 40 or so in attendance, with big plates of roasts, drunken Poms & Irish acting all 'medieval', & of course kids running amuck. I ran out of steam around 11 & headed home, just in time to catch the beginning of the 2nd set of the ladies' final. Who would've thought the tight(er) scoreline after the 1st set blitzing? Followed similar schedule on sunday except had Swans games in the afternoon instead. Kick-ass seat at row C (that means 3rd row) just right of the goalposts! & we were even on TV towards the end when play got stuck right in front of us for a little while. I've still yet to see th footage, but I've been told of it. Maybe I should go to afl.com.au & check for replay videos? Anywho, stopped for a quick break in Fox Studios (& naturally Sunday shopping) before heading down to Taylor Square for some photos for thesis chapter. Ended up getting to bus 5 minutes late becos of another impromptu stop to buy ϋberstone linen pants that were marked down from 129 to just 20 smackaroons! So much for limiting my spendings now that I'm on half-income! Watching Caribean Pirates I made me late for the men's final so only ended up watching 2 points of the 1st set. Again, who would've thought of the long drawn-out battle after that 1st set blitzing? I thought it would finish quickly so I could catch 40 winks before the World Cup final. OK, so I did end up catching 40 winks. Well, more like 400 winks becos I told the alarm clock to bugger off at 4am & just slept on without watching 1 sec of the final. Which is just as well, cos I had a relatively productive day on Monday rewriting, doing stuff got upcoming Cellar party, b'day dinner, & b'day lunch. More than half way thru this current rewrite. Have been staying up late again, not becos of rewriting though. Couldn't sleep Wednesday night until 2:30 in the morning & listened to the 51-hr Kyle & Jackie O broadcast instead, & last night was just from working on the Cellar party. Why do I put myself thru these wedding things time & again?? Must have been on some trip when I volunteered for wedding job...

the medi-evils!!

the guinea (pig) race

So thirsty

Oh crap! He was @ Moore Park today & I missed him again!!

Damn, missed him by THIS much!!

Hulk food

Hulk food
Originally uploaded by ragde2507.

So what's 1 to do when he's sick as a dog & have 4 ripe avocadoes? Make muffins of course! Even though I'm supposed to be fixing up my chapter 3, my heavy dose of cold/flu has left me incapacitated (at least I'd claim so). Having heavily drugged myself (on Panadol/Herron, chinese cough medicine, & Soothers/Strepsils) I simply have no mental/intellectual capacity to do any writing/re-writing, let alone the mood to do as such. So, with 4 ripe avocadoes that've been sitting on their sorry arses for the past wk or so I proceeded to put them out of their misery & baked them! First, you stripe (ha, stripe!) then dice, followed by moosh. When they're at a softened-butter consistency, mix in sugar as per normal muffin baking (minus the butter & eggs, ie avo as butter/egg replacement), followed by self-raising. Decorate with almonds & sesame seeds, & bake at 200'C for 25 minutes & wah-lah! Green muffins! They're not exactly 'spring lawn' green but more like a soft green tint. Kinda like the puss-green the Hulk has on while in the midst of transforming. My scoops of dough were a bit big so I ended up 1 short of a full dozen. Ah well. And the verdict? Only a hint of avocado, but that light sprinkle of salt on the scooped dough really brought out the flavours. I've already had 3 today!

p.s. That should teach me for staying up late to watch the darn Socceroos play the World Cup. Have been feeling horrible since wednesday (not just because we LOST after the most RIDICULOUS penalty decision!) but battling cold/flu + sleep deprivation. Ooh, Lucas Neill is at Sunrise tomorrow! Maybe I should stop by before heading to uni?

p.p.s. Damn! My Mozilla is mal-functioning again!!

p.p.p.s. Stupid dry cough!