Wes Your Head At

It’s been a hectic week, I’m already tired and it’s only the end of Wednesday.

Monday was my fortnightly club night and then basketball spectating. Which is not unusual.

But then that was coupled with a movie night last night.
The new Wes Anderson.

It was awesome. It is now my second favourite.
The Royal Tenenbaums will always be favourite because it is the first one I saw. And I really think his style is so influential so whichever you see first kinds of sticks to you. My second favourite up until this point was The Fantastic Mr Fox. The stop motion, the voice work, just the whole atmosphere in general is just fascinating and engaging and so funny.

I think one of the best things about his films, besides the great 1960s vibe and the way he uses music, is Anderson’s approach to curse words. In Fox the replacement of those words with the word cuss is not only audience age appropriate but also cussing hilarious. In Budapest it’s funny because it’s coming out of the mouth of Voldemort but also because M. Gustave is so proper and speaks in such a posh way.

And then I got an email around lunch today telling me I’d won tickets to a comedy gig.
For tonight.

Unfortunately I need more than a few hours notice and an idea of who the comedian is before I try and pull that off. Needless to say I’ll be staying in tonight.

Speaking of heads I kind of get where Middle Ages physicians were coming from in terms of pains in your brain.
I have had a headache for the past two nights. The pressure in my head is doing it in. And I feel like the only thing that will help is if I drill some holes in my brain.
Modern medicine tells me it won’t, that in fact it may actually cause my death, but the shooting pains almost convince me otherwise.

Coming up on my next blog: Sleep glorious sleep.

Work it Baby

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend an hour and half with the cutest little newborn baby and her parents. She is utterly adorable and so so quiet, I do not believe her parents when they say she cries and screams very loudly.
Being lucky to have her all to myself I was not really prepared for the fitness level and stamina I should have possessed to hold her cradled in my arm for so long.
She started in the crook of my left arm, me being right handed so that I may gesticulate wildly while I talk. But I got hot, she was like a hot water bottle in size 0000 clothing. So I switched her to my right arm. And while this seemed like a good idea as being right handed that arm is stronger, I could barely move my arm after I have her back to her mother. My whole right bicep had seized up and continued to ache for the rest of the night.
The problem is she looks so tiny and light. You think that they weigh nothing, and in comparison to full groan human she is, but is reality two kilos (or less probably) is a hefty amount if you hold it with one arm and in the same position for an extended period of time.
So I’ve decided I need to lift some weights and build those muscles before I go and visit her again.
But I’m not complaining. One and a half hours of uninterrupted cradling time was pure joy.

Coming up on my next blog: The Winter months approach.

Comic Twist

I wasn’t joking when I said that I could find clothes to buy anywhere and anytime.
Last night I went to see one of the funniest comedians around, David O’Doherty.

The plan had been to have a quick bite to eat and then go see him. That turned into proper dinner and a stroll into Newtown before the show.

It also ended up being a little more expensive than planned thanks to some late night Saturday shopping.

Cue in one nine dollar shirt and a purchase a little more expensive from Better Read Than Dead.

Ultimately the stroll was a good idea. Whatever was on before DO’D went really late and resulted in one of the largest queues I have ever seen outside a comedy venue.

It wound up and down Enmore Road and delayed the show by half an hour.

It didn’t matter though, because funny is funny whether it starts at eight thirty or nine.

Coming up on my next blog: Maybe those books.

Show’s Over

This was a great year for the show.
My plans were thrown a little out of whack due to the royal visit. That is, I was supposed to visit the show the day they rocked up in my neighbourhood. So obviously I didn’t go because how often does a future king visit your street? And then I don’t go over Easter because that is a rookie show mistake, plus the royals were there over those days making it even more packed than usual. So in the end this year’s visit occurred on the second last day of the show. And as I said before it was a great day to go.

We got there kind of early, traffic being not as bad a usual so we had time to kill after our twenty four dollar breakfast. In steps the Wrangler clearance store to fill that time for us.

I am always surprised by how late things at the show seem to open. Nine thirty is not really early enough, and so anything that is open ends up doing well because people like to be kept busy.

Honestly, I don’t really go to the show for the animals, so our first stop was the fashion pavilion.

I often end up spending more on clothes and food than showbags and rides. In fact, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had been on a ride at the show and this year I only bought a showbag because it was half price.

It was such a good day for the show that we actually ended up wandering around the Woolworths food pavilion twice. More like eating our way round, and there were so few people (comparative to other years and days of the show) that we could sample everything we wanted to multiple times. My favourite new food thing was a dish I have dubbed meat in a cone. It was an awesome combination of prosciutto, salami and some other cured meats that I think I could have eaten four or five of. And kind of wish I had.

There’s always next year.

Coming up on my next blog: The books, the books.

Picture Perfect: Mountains Memorabilia

Coming up on my next blog: Easter Show Round Up

Pomp and Circumstance

You know how there are some things that are so amazing that you’re just not sure how to write about them. You know you should write about them, and if you have a blog this is the kind of thing that should go on it. But it’s hard to find the words and make it sound interesting to others because often these moments are also

you just had to be there

moments.
Well I had one of those this week.

And it started with a little obstinance on my part.

So I almost missed this amazing opportunity to do some Royal gazing.
I was supposed to be going to the Easter Show but at the insistence of my family, stayed at home in anticipation of a Royal Visit. Now with hindsight I know I would have hated to have missed seeing them, but in the lead up to the day I didn’t really care.

I thought it would just be a quick, drive by type thing. A wave and maybe a photograph. It wasn’t. It was way better than that. It basically turned into a huge street party. From nine til eleven in the morning I hung out with friends and family, chatting and waiting. And that was almost more fun than even getting to see Kate and William. We placed bets as to whether my sister would cry or not when they arrived.

This is what I did end up getting to see.

Unfortunately that great picture in the middle was not taken by me but by a friend who I was there with.
My best picture looks like this.

But I feel entitled to claim the other one because I was there when it was taken and helped wrangle her small children so they were both entertained and out of harm’s way during the whole thing.

Her picture made it onto Sunrise and another friend had hers picked up by Today on Instagram and Twitter.

All in all it was not too bad.
And my sister didn’t cry, in case you were wondering.

Coming up on my next blog: I write more often and about more books.

Picture Perfect: Right On Dude

From The Philosopher’s Mail because everything there is so interesting.

Plus it lets me use words on what should be wordless Wednesday.

Coming up on my next blog: I should perhaps relate these virtues to my own life.

What is best?

On a whim I have decided to enter a blogging competition.
This one:

I saw it on twitter yesterday while I was returning home from a seminar on the train. And in some kind of public transport delirium I thought to myself

that seems like a good idea

But now that the entry form has been sent I am having some competition regret. Do I really want to open myself up to judgement? It’s not really in the spirit of is blog, but then if I didn’t want people to respond and react to what I thought I wouldn’t put it on the Internet in the first place and the go on to send it out on twitter as well.

I don’t know if you can remember back to last year when I started instagram for the first time? And I kind of got a little carried away with instagram competitions, so that all my feed was was subliminal promotional material for multinational companies. Well I promise that won’t happen this time. I don’t even think there is a prize for what I am entering. I think it’s just the prestige. To be honest I am not really sure because I don’t really understand the terms and conditions. That’s probably not a thing I should be admitting to.

And that’s the other thing. This year, you know, has not been my best work. Blogging every day last year forced me to be more creative. Remember the alphabet series? Or those weeks where I used homophones (or is it homonyms? I can’t remember). Those are the blogs I recall fondly. I couldn’t even tell you what I wrote is year.
This is where my foggy understanding of the rules of this competition leave me with a little doubt. Will I just be judged on this year’s work?

All that being said there is a ‘People’s Choice’ aspect to all this. And if there is one thing I am proud of, it is the number of people who seem to be interested in what I have to say. This, in turn, makes me feel like what I have to say is worthwhile, and so perhaps I shouldn’t regret entering after all (?!).

Coming up on my next blog: I’ll try to sound a little less self conscious.

rakas ystävä

So I am into month four ofmy karmic throwdown challenge, that thing where you do random nice things for people without the, asking in the hope that they will spread that good feeling by doing something nice for someone else.

This is what it has looked like so far.

But I have come to realise that it needs to be more than commercial. I’ve always been for cheering others up and showing appreciation to them through a little treat. I feel that having a physical representation of my feeling is a lot easier (and more substantial) than a verbal one. But I’m thinking this may not always be good and other people don’t really feel the same.

So this month I am admitting to my so strikes terrible skills in the friend department and pledging to be better.

At the moment I have a very good friend who is living overseas. And I have been less than a very good friend in the communication stakes. I haven’t skyped, I don’t write often enough, and even that most easy form of communication, email, has proved slipshod (I don’t know if that’s the word I want but it’s too early to think of another one). In reality what I have been is lazy.

No more.

This month I will be emailing every day. My poor friend is going to be overwhelmed with the mundaneness of my every day life. I want her to know that I miss her, and even though I hope she is having a good time, I can’t wait til she come home at the end of the year.

So consider this first one a very public email rakas ystävä, all the others though will come straight to your inbox over that great distance of ocean between us at the moment.

I also want to say thank you to my own karma buddy for this little treat that came in the mail.

You’re an awesome friend!

Coming up on my next blog: I should probably get back to books.