Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
After jumping straight back into work on my return from Adelaide, I had a very lazy weekend, largely occupied reading and watching Dr Who dvds, apart from an excursion into town this arvo to have coffee with friends. I walked back along the Riverwalk from the City to New Farm, accompanied by a storm building up and what felt like 100% humidity. Still sitting around at home waiting for it to hit, and having a beer… (incidentally a beer from Barcelona, Estrella. I’m slowly working my way through a four pack thereof!)…
Click through on the photos and then select “full view” to see a larger version.
Story Bridge by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Old St Stephens by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Lazy Sunday VI by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Lazy Sunday VII by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Riverwalk by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Riverwalk II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Waiting for the storm by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Riverwalk III by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Waiting for the storm II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Lazy Sunday VIII by *phenomenologist on deviantART
First, it was an early rising little one who reminded me, that as I got out of bed to , that my body is no longer young. The knees are a little creaky after cricket on Saturday.
But the local parents are handy and after handing our bundle of joy over to the in laws for a few hours, we went and had a very late breakfast in Terrigal.
And, via the ABC, discoverted Mikelangelo and The Black Sea Gentlemen. Very twisted, disturbing European folk. Check out A Formidable Marinade on their myspace page.
Sarah Blasko at the Forum.
It’s interesting to see how her gig has evolved since the last time she played in Melbourne. Her gig last year had all the songs sounding very similar to the album; the arrangements have changed in various subtle ways since. “explain”, one of her singles, was particularly obviously evolved, though this was probably partly due to not having a cellist like last time.
Anyway, ’twas a great gig.
Last day of the surf club here in north west WA, drinks overlooking a Cable Beach sunset, kids running around playing cricket and footy and chase. Not long before the humidity of the wet season is fully upon us.
Not long before bustling Barry Haase gets the arse, I hope.
Ah, Sarah is lovely. Has she loosened up a bit in terms of her stage persona as well?
Well I emerged from my bedchamber at the highly civilised hour of 11 of the clock, launched into some spring cleaning (those 2 dollar coins turn up the most unexpected places – as do pizza crusts) and received delivery of my new (colour!) TV around 3pm. Having roadtested it on a “Dexter” DVD and then talked political smack with a visiting friend, I felt it was time to then celebrate a surprisingly productive day of rest with some WHISKEY! and a big fat blunt (For the more technically minded, an adequate 10 year old Talisker and a Cohiba Siglo lightly hollowed out for some FNQ grown sensimilla).
Now seriously buzzed and listening to Django Reinhardt on a sultry Melbourne spring night. Also Shaun of The Dead is on TV here later tonight.
Aside from the gaping absence of a young Natassia Kinski buzzing the door to offer me a intellectually sensual footrub, I’d have to say life is pretty good right now.
10 year old Talisker! Mmmmmm, although the older special bottlings are even better.
We had a quiet day at home while Mr Tog attempted to rescue the family room computer from some evil depradations unleashed by the youngster’s overly enthusiastic download and installation habits. He now believes us about malicious spyware and viruses. Bloody computer still won’t play nice on the network though.
Thoroughly enjoying Rainshadow on ABC. Great characters.
Well I emerged from my bedchamber at the highly civilised hour of 11 of the clock,
Normal time, or Daylight Saving time?
I was supposed to have a bushwalk on out west near Clunes. Friend arrived at the door at what I considered to be 7 am, but she swore blind was 8. OK. I took stock of the weather (stinking gale force north wind) and pretended I couldn’t possibly be ready in time, although I really could have.
A couple of hours later the SES was around hauling a very large tree off someone’s house. Hours of entertainment.
Mark: nope. Still chief space cadet…
Mark, there was indeed a nice storm in SEQ tonight, but according to the radar it went south of the city along the usual storm track. Tomorrow they are forecasting isolated, becoming scattered showers and storms, so we’ve got the humidity without the blessed release.
Thurday’s storm arose suddenly here. One very loud crack of lightning and our now 11 years old Blaupunk stereo TV went phut! I think our insurance covers it apart from the first $200, but I suspect we are going to have to upgrade.
Meanwhile when renting to cover the emergency, herself grabbed the 5 years old 51cm NEC they were flogging off for $75. It means we will now have 3 TVs for 3 adults and I get to watch State of Origin and RL and RU test matches by myself without a guilty conscience.
I miss the Northern NSW/SE QLD storms. Terribly beautiful displays of nature. Though they seem a little savage early into the season. The surrounds of Lismore copped it bad on Friday and when I ran my folks in Grafton this evening, they were in darkness after a storm had moved through the area and took out the power.
Still, that is better then what befell them 10 years ago next month when they lost their house in a storm.
The other day I was watching the latest AC/DC DVD release as a storm approached. And,I tell you no lie, during a performance of Thunderstruck, there was a massive clap of thunder right in time with the chorus.
Worked, changed all the clocks, worked, had a chat on the phone to my best mate, worked, cleaned up cat vomit, worked, watched Shaun of the Dead (thanks for the reminder, Nabs), worked. Read blogs, hooray.
not quite, worst we’ve experienced in yonks…hit us early eve & even did a ball retracting white squall midway thru the adventure…& handed out lots of ice for my Midori in the process. Loud as buggery & apocalyptic looking as the sky lit up like the force field in ‘Forbidden Planet’…menacing…& the rumblings were reminiscent of the poundings on the bedroom door in the ‘Haunting’. Freaky stuff. Brill for the garden but.
once the shock had worn off we tucked into a mouth watering vege roast, w/ homegrown herbs & chillified potatoes, pumpkin, parsnip, turnip, onion & Yorkshire puds drizzled w/ gravy…w/ olive oil roasted mushies & ripe tomatoes doin’ the Umami thing for our taste buds. Add minted peas, cheesy cauli, horseradish, cranberry…& a strongbow cider. Bliss.
Then took in ‘Days of Glory’…the French ‘Saving Private Ryan w/ a sad Islamic twist. I reckon it’s right up Graham Bell’s alley.
All up, one interesting, enjoyable day, w/ a heart stopping moment or two.
Hang on to your hats northerners; there’s another line of storms marching through Nth NSW at the moment. I watched Der Untergang on SBS after Ck’s oblique recommendation on another thread. It was excellent although I preferred the straight documentary based on Traudl Junge’s memoir.
Took children bike riding. The 7yo taught herself how to ride by zooming down our driveway while we weren’t looking (over protective I guess you’d call us). Off she zoomed around the big netball courts like she’d been riding all her life. amazing.
Tried and failed to finish assignment for animal breeding/genetics course I foolishly enrolled in. I’m not very confused about QTL’s and multi trait selection indexes and expected responses and gah! Failure is on the horizon – should probably have attempted something a bit easier first rather than jumping straight in at the deep end.
Rain on the tin roof was lovely until it turned into a big, typical Armidale storm (all sturm and drang and lightning hitting the ridges on either side of town). Children did not wake up in a panic which surprised me given how loud some of the thunder was. I keep expecting the enormous elm tree near our house to come crashing through the bedroom, but it stands impassive, cloaked in it’s new suit of foliage and tut-tutting like Windschuttle gilding the willy (thanks su, funniest thing I read all weekend).
Steps to an FDB-style “lazy” Sunday:
1 – Pick up a box or item of furniture or musical equipment.
2 – Carry to car/trailer.
3 – Repeat 1+2 until trailer and car full, arms falling off.
4 – Drive car to new house.
5 – Move things from car to house.
6 – Repeat 1-5 until old rental is empty and looking great, recently purchased house choked with shit and unliveable.
Apart from some amusing, cute moments with the kittycat freaking out, it really sucked.
I hope it was as fun to read about.
After a deliciously social couple of days, Sunday was designated lazy day (though racing off to work to get some info needed to complete my BAS marred it a little). Slept in, well if 8am daylight savings time counts as a sleep in, thanks to the neighbours not doing a post-clubbing come a few metres away from my bedroom for a change. To avoid the north wind we went to see “Control” – fantastic dramatisation of the short life of Ian Curtis/Joy Division. Then picked up a stupidly expensive mac wireless router and spent the night playing Facebook tetris from the comfort of the lounge room while watching TV.
sat – 9 – 7pm – writing thesis at uni and doing experiments
sun – 10 – 6pm – writing thesis at uni.
sunday dinner – bruschetta alla my place – turkish bread, fetta and avocado (with tom of course)
next weekend will be a repeat i’m afraid!
m
Knocked out a chicken green curry, a beef rendang, and a vegetarian pumpkin curry for seventy on Saturday night. Apologised for weather to visiting English friends.
Cripes, 70 mouths? Nice one.
I’m staring down the barrel of at least a few months with a horribly second-rate kitchen. Not quite sure how I’ll cope, but the days of dinner parties for 15+ punters are well and truly on hold.
FDB – make not the classic “new-old house” mistake we did. We yanked the (incredibly grotty) kitchen out of our old house, then rang the kitchen place. 8 months later, we had a kitchen. Get the quotes, get the arrival time, do not yank old kitchen until last minute. We thought it would be a trivial matter to organise a kitchen, but apparently not.
The barbeque on the front veranda got a bit of a workout
Thanks for the tip D.R. – unlike the floor-sanding advice, this time it’s early enough to make a difference!
The floors look frickin’ superb, by the way, so your “you’ll enjoy the feeling of achievement” prediction was spot-on too.
Woke very early Saturday morning, read some of Ian W. Toll’s “Six Frigates. How Piracy, War and British Supremacy at Sea gave Birth to the World’s Most Poweful Navy.” Magnificent narrative history. A must for Patrick O’Brian and Forester fans. Went up to Armidale Mall, handed out Socialist Alliance electoral material to passers by.Came home. Blogged. Read more of Six Frigates.W#atched New Tricks, The Bill, read more of Six Frigates.
Sunday. Woke, changed clock. Watched Insiders, Sunday show. Not enough about new Brad Pitt movie.
Blogged. Read more of Six Frigates. Blogged. Read more of Six Frigates. Watched Sunday TV – 10 News. Captain Cook series. Excellent. Rainshadow. Switched to SBS. Watched Downfall. Commercials not too bad, second time I’d seen it. Read Six frigates till 4 am. Thunderstorms.
It’s an easy way to feed the masses. Just needed three stock pots, a very large rice cooker, a stack of those cardboard chinese takeaway boxes, and plenty of sporks and hey presto. Adding half a kilo of green curry paste to anything takes some convincing though.
Sucks on the second rate kitchen, first thing I got while the mortgage money was swirling around was a decent oven – that’s about all I’ve done; trying to avoid the David Rubie Experience (one week only at the Peppermint Lounge!)
Yairs, the oven’s gotta go pronto. Roast leg of… um… gnat anyone?
Being an art deco unit from the 40s, there’s a wall between kitchen and living room. I’ll get a consortium of my architect mates (where do I find them all?) over to devise its demise, then do the cabinet stuff piecemeal. It’ll always be a bit pokey whatever we do. I can live with that, but kinda pine for the Nedlands Food Processing Facility-cum-distillery I inhabited back over your way round the turn of the milennium.
“…cum-distillery…”
Could’ve put that better in hindsight. I suppose I could just not hit the submit butto
Isn’t rum designed for seamen?
I dunno – there were a few funnies in the DR experience, although not exclusively on sunday:
A rats nest under the (original) built-in pantry. Thankfully, the numerous occupants were dead (albeit of advanced age). Sadly, 80 years of rat wee-wee had soaked into the floor boards which smelled very interesting when the sander hit it. I can still taste it in the back of my neck.
A gas oven, gas plumbing by previous home owner (i.e. a hole in the floor and some dodgy flexible piping leading to an unknown vintage propane tank). We were frightened enough by it’s looks (1970s model, covered in a thick layer of grease). Out there, somewhere, is someone who has no idea that frying isn’t the only way to cook. Perched over this monstrosity was a rangehood, whose exhaust backed straight onto the wall.
Two kitchens for the price of one: A 1940s era kitchen in the garage, butchered into benches, a 1970s era sink surround and very little else still installed. Hideous red/speckled bench top and an assortment of rodent leavings inside. What else they used for kitchen furniture is open to conjecture (my guess: wooden packing boxes or a chep pallet on 2×4s). I gleefully took to this with the back of my block splitter.
Floor: lino under lino tiles under lino under newspapers under lino under another layer of cooking oil, dirt and some kind of rat speedway circuit. Under that? Lovely, untouched cypress pine floorboards which came up a treat, except for the ratty bits.
Old houses: they are fun! Especially when the work is finished. Oh, and we received no discount for removing the old kitchen ourselves. Live and learn.
DR – unfortunately for my innate demolition urge, our place has held together nicely, with only a few maverick home renovations. The worst part is an electrical re-fit (circa ‘87-90 judging by the fittings, on which I am something of
an experta tragic nerd) where because rendered brick is apparently just too difficult they did all the wiring in that shitty flimsy conduit on the outside of the interior walls. Somebody tell these people about hammer drills FFS.We were actually really lucky to find a place where so little had already been done badly by hacks – apart from the wiring it’s all original built-to-last 40s goodness. Double brick, solid timber everything, Tas oak boards. The only problem is to make our modifications fit the aesthetic – a fun challenge involving much salvage-yard and rural op-shoppery. Much of which will no doubt result in my tools and vinyl collections bulking up still further, requiring more modifications. And on it goes.
“cleaned up cat vomit”.
Being a cat mum is really tough. Bloody pukey buggers they are.
Keeping up the TV theme, yesterday my friend gave me the TV her ex-boyfriend gave her. So thanks to a broken relationship I now have a TV….is Big Brother still on?
I purchased the DVD of Summer Heights High on the weekend, and spent most of Sat/Sun trying to get the sounds of Mr G singing “she’s a naughty girl, with a bad habit, a bad habit for drugs” out of my head.
FDB wrote:
See, that sounds very nice, especially the tassie oak floors.
I can sort of understand the plastic conduit wiring: I’ve seen inner city monstrosities where the wiring was plastered into the walls, which hides it nicely but costs an absolute bomb to sort out to modern (safe) standards. Those wacky old electricians used to run the wiring inside metal tubes, which must have been interesting from a work safety point of view. At least rodents didn’t chew on it (oh, except where it exited the tubes and was most vulnerable to touching them and causing a fire). It’s a pity there are no obvious demolitions though, it’s the only fun bit (other than the self satisfied beer afterwards).
My cat keeps everything down. It’s the toilet breaks he has trouble with. I’ll just stop there shall I?
Cheers, David! And I fully understand about the tree anxiety; our place is surrounded by Tallowwoods and Flooded Gums. The big southerlies we get this time of year scare the heck out of me.
I made some coconut icecream with lime syrup yesterday; a Dreary Delia recipe using (avert your eyes, anthony if you are reading – this could be painful to a genuine chef) coconut milk powder.
Ahh su, I’m not a genuine chef, so I can’t be genuinely outraged. It’s written that it’s better to have made coconut ice-cream with powder than never to have made coconut ice-cream at all.
How was it?
Loving the renovation talk. The roof space in our 40’s bungalow has electric wires just running across the beams and trusses like elaborate trip wires – fixing the aerial connection was like Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment, plus a few kilos.
We interrupt the cooking and renovation discussion to bring you some more photoblogging. These are from my late afternoon walk earlier on:
Timber and tin II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
One tree on the hill by *phenomenologist on deviantART
White picket fence by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Jogger by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Woolstore sunset by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Woolstore sunset II by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Lush foliage by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Waiting for the ferry by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Woolstores by *phenomenologist on deviantART
Those are beautiful photos, Mark!
Cheers, j_p_z!
I reckon I’m getting better but they’re still a bit uneven in quality. I like the last one best.
But yay for digital cameras and web 2.0! I really really enjoy getting to record my home town and share!
The photos are good, Mark, but the light is still not Brisbane light. Too dark. Can you adjust the thing or does it just give you what it gives you?
Speaking of cats, there was much sadness and some tears around here this afternoon. Our little Burmese cat lost the unequal struggle and had to be put down. It was only 6 and a half years old, but had a hereditary potassium absorption problem. Apparently they are genetically not robust at the best of times.
Anyway we buried puss in the back corner of the garden near the bench seat where you can sit and look at the bush vista forgetting that the city exists.
I was doing reasonably OK until our son decided that puss, wrapped in a blanket, should rest in peace in her little sleeping hutch.
It’s not true, Mark, that I don’t like cats. I just like them to respect my personal space and this one was smart enough to do that.
Probably, Brian. I’ve never really opened the instructions. Mind you, there wasn’t much light around 5.30 to 6.15 pm this arvo when they were taken.
I’m sorry to hear about Mischief!
Sounds familiar. You don’t live at no.1 Archdeacon Street in Nedlands do you? Me and my housemate Killer rigged the front two rooms from a home-made switchboard for certain “settings”. One was just little lamps pointing upwards in the corners (TV watching), one full-bore flouros (craft/poster-making etc) and one with a mirror ball and pinspot (duh). Never got round to the automated turntable with a Barry White single on it.
Mark – nice shots. Is Timber and Tin a play on Cattle and Cane? You Quincelanders!