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!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
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1st!?
Ironing referencing problems in one of my thesis chapters, while the family are out having fun. More tedious than it sounds I assure you.
@Rayedish – I feel your pain.. I’m finishing up end of year reviews for work while my partner sends me txts from the Phil Emmanuel show down the coast.
Apparently she’s enjoying it.
After a delicious breakfast at the Auction Rooms, I dropped a friend at the airport and then watched Orlando knock Cleveland out of the NBA playoffs. A nap on the couch was also pleasant. Soon, to the pub for dinner with friends before they return to Geraldton.
Thanks Darin, my pain is such that I can’t even write sentences without missing words. There should be an ‘out’ up there somewhere.
Hardly lazy, Rayedish! But it is the sort of Sunday occupation I can recall in my working years. Somehow one had to be away from maintstream work, social life and even family to get that sort of chore finished. I wonder how long you’ve been putting it off?
I can recall year after year of Sunday cliffhanging completions just on dead-line of a thesis, lesson plans, articles and exam revision. I even did it with things like a fairy dress for my daughter’s school panto. Sundays was always a good baking day, particularly if there was something really urgent needing attention that had a Monday deadline, which meant I often worked late into Sunday night.
Right now I wish I had some of that “last minute late Sunday” brand of adrenaline to get me moving. I have been promising myself and family to sort out a lifetime’s collection of snaps, formal photos and travel shots which year after year I’ve shoved in an old case promising to organise them sometime “soon”. Now after several years retirement the case has been moved a few times and even opened and then shut again.
A recent death in the family has added some urgency to this chore, but I’m still putting it off. Perhaps that last minute habit is so engrained I’m a bit superstitious about finishing this one. Maybe next Sunday?
Patricia@5 “I wonder how long you’ve been putting it off?” This had me laughing. You recognise a kindred spirit, as we share the same MO! Been putting it off longer than I can care to admit, but finally today this chapter is relatively sorted, references suitably wrangled (yes, yes organise them as you go along, I know, I know when will I ever learn?)and chapter ready to show supervisor some time this week. Now if I could just finish editing that proceedings and complete the marking I’ve got hanging over my head I might just be able to relax.
I also have a receptacle of photos non-urgently requiring attention, but that is definitely a post-thesis job. The stars will have to magically align and the wind will have to be blowing in the right direction and all the omens will have to be good etc etc before I get around to that particular job. But good luck with yours.
Bit of a doggy day really. Demi seems to be able to pass that Novice trial at Whyalla next Sunday, tho the bitch did break the sit stay during the lesson!
Helped out with teaching some other classes the rest of the morning. Nice to see some from Grade 1 still doing what I told them and graduating into Grade 3. Then off to Earthdog for a bit of training–Demi is a natural!
About to go make a venison pie for dinner.
Friday: Mu-Meson Archives to hear Jimmy McDonough speak. McDonough is the biographer of Neil Young, among others (he has a book on Tammy Wynette currently at the lawyer-vetting stage), and if what he said about his adventures in trying to write the Neil Young book were true then Mr Young is more of a reprehensible shit than I realised. I got his book on Andy Milligan (legendary filmmaker of legendary bad films; anyone who still believes Plan 9 From Outer Space is the worst film ever made has clearly never met a Milligan film) while I was there, too. After that, off to a DJing gig at a pub, like I did the previous Friday, although I enjoyed it somewhat less this time round.
Saturday: at a club, only because a friend from Melbourne was going to be there. She didn’t want to be there either, it should be said, and was only going because the people she’s staying with were going there. I drank somewhat more than I normally would to make the experience a bit more tolerable, and got some fairly good photos of various people there. Not a complete waste of time, but not exactly an outstanding night of entertainment.
Today: mostly spent screaming in frustration at the inadequacy of my Internet connection. I continue to carve a somewhat leisurely path through J.C. Powys’ Glastonbury Romance (how I could’ve been stupid enough to think I could finish it in under a fortnight I don’t know; by the time I do finish it will have taken nearly a month. 823 pages in, which means slightly under 300 left), and am also working on the playlist for this week’s radio show…
Made quince jelly which has turned out perfectly-perfumed, beautiful wobbliness and colour like ruby-stained glass! However, boiling it over was very much less than perfect!! What a mess! Still cleaning it up hours later; I found a great congealed splosh of it in the cupboard below the cooktop and had to wash all the cooking oil bottles! Gah!!!
Made spag bog for dinner and have palmed off one jar of the jelly. Intend a return quince engagement later this week for the purpose of making membrillo, a much more delicious and aristocratic name than the pedestrian and plebian quince paste, imo.
Having a new you beaut island cupboard installed tomorrow and expect a few explosions as I haven’t informed the husband as yet. Serves him right for trying to spring a convertible on me. Convertible nipped in the bud immediately and no further correspondence to be entered into. He got his slasher and 100 sheep, so that’s his lot for the next 12 months!
I do intend to swan off to the NGV later for the Dali and Pompeii exhibitions and am also Melbourne bound for the French & Saunders tour in July with the daughter. We could probably combine the 2 events, I suppose. I shall have to consult my partner in crime. Will also be going to see the brother-in-law in Soft Shoe Shuffle in July, and there is also a very interesting exhibition coming up in Brissie. I’m rattling the piggy bank as I write.
Fantastic sunset tonight which lasted for over 2 hours and stained the sea red, orange, pink and purple in succession. Shudderingly beautiful and almost edible! It has culminated in an overcast night sky with a big fat ring around the half moon. Whether this will lead to rain is a matter for conjecture and possibly prayer. Intend to rap the tanks and see how much longer luxurious showers are out of the question.
I’ve never had this cinema experience before: I was a third from the front, and the entire (albeit small) cinema – full house – seemed to sit in complete stillness and silence for fully two minutes after the Samson and Delilah credits had finished, before getting up and leaving. No-one beside or in front of us stirred.
I went to Wollongong on Friday to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday with my brother from Phoenix, my son from Lismore and my daughter from Canberra (plus me and Patricia). Great fun.
Today I tried to research my talk on Sri Lanka and did some half arsed reading. I ended up doodling about Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd, money, and the collapse of reformism in Australia.
made some sweet potato chips with pork chops for tea. Bought several Neil Gaiman books from Amazon UK.
Slept in. Got woken up and pestered by work. Had whiskey for brunch. Wrote a song. Got pestered by work again. Had whiskey for dinner. Watched “The Wild Bunch”. The army train robbery sequence is still a cinematic masterpiece as is their final walk into Malpache’s compound. Drank whiskey every time Ernest Borgnine grinned sardonically. Got drunk. Now commenting on blogs.
And I really don’t know why some call “The Wild Bunch” a nihilist western. It has a lovely uplifting ending, not least because of how that very underrated actor Robert Ryan played it.
Second best thing he did after “Billy Budd”.
Mad dash Sunday for me.
Caught the second-fastest train to Kyoto, the first leg of a day trip to Iga and the Ninja. One of my cameras died on the way — it died last month in Tokyo, got fixed in Brisbane, and died again in Japan. Next time, I’ll leave the bloody thing at home and bring one of my film SLRs as back-up instead.
Went up the Kyoto Tower, and bought two spare camera batteries (one for the other SLR, t’other for the new digital compact camera) at a shop which is something like Harvey Normans, crossed with Myers, and multiplied exponentially by a factor of seven.
Then the train(s) to Iga. First is a Nara train, but you have to get off at a junction on the way.
Which I did, and then, following the advice of the station staff, landed up accidentally catching the next train to Nara, where I had to catch a train back through the junction and along a branch line to the end of the electric wires, followed by a diesel railmotor through some beautiful mountain countryside to Iga-Ueno, to get off and get on a 600kVa electric train to the station nearest the Iga Ninja museum and Iga Castle.
Got there just in time for the last tour. Very professional, conducted by cute young women who have a smattering of English, but I somehow prefer the Koka Ninja estate in Kounan where the guides are women in their late middle-age and can’t speak a word of English.
Then there was a mad dash to get back to Tokyo before the front desk staff knocked off at 11pm.
600kVa electric train back to Iga-Ueno, diesel railmotor east to Kameyama to meet the all-stops 25kVa electric train to Nagano and the fastest fast train to Tokyo and a taxi back to my hotel.
Four-and-a-half hours and $169.12 later, I got to the front door of my hotel with five minutes to spare and discovered that the staff had decided to take an early night. They were nice enough to leave the keys to my new room on the desk for me, though.
And tomorrow, thanks to a magazine story that’s yet to be written, I’ve got to do almost the same thing all over again…
Recovered on Sunday from a day thrashing about in the Lower Florentine. Our party did discover at least 2 more caves on Saturday. Did resist the urge to discuss Forestry Tasmania policy with employee of Forestry Tasmania in the interests of caving group solidarity. Not sure how long that’s going to last. She is tougher than me though so that’s a factor.
Your/MY short, turned the corner into a ‘feature’ by the time you made it back to the junction for the second time terangeree (so just watch it ok?) God only knows we can’t go over budget–. But I’m liking it and the change of scene-ery. I’d like to do the bit: got to do almost the same thing all over again… in time lapse?
Back in Ostraya, I got held up at crossings, by two coal trains, one empty, one full, which comprised the extent of my train encounter weekend. But I did experience a refreshing and oxygenating weekend deep canyons and ‘flew’ by lots of pretty scenery ‘n stuff on way home.
I hear its pretty cheap to Japan on ‘rocket’star next month. Good.
jane @ 9, I can’t imagine what landed your comment in the mod bin. Must have been a naughty word in there somewhere.
Spent a fair bit of Saturday reading and note-taking from Christopher Duffy’s The Military Experience in the Age of Reason – a delightful example of the ‘new’ military history (which has been around for several decades now) going beyond batttles and campaigns and deeds of great commanders, looking at the everyday life of officers, soldiers and hangers-on, fitted into a socio-econbomic context as well as a military one and ranging over the whole of the eighteenth century.Also dipping into A. R. Humphrey’s The Augustan World: Society, Thought and Letters in Eighteenth Century England. (1954, 1963)An examination of 18C English history through its Literature. Love it.
Enjoyed the new New Tricks on Saturday night. Bit annoyed though that the Torchwood scheduling on ABC2 clashes with Friday Night Crime later this month. Stupid, stupid programming.
Sunday morning, put myself through Insiders again. (Don’t know why I do it.) Reading LP inspired me to do a post on my blog on early reading experiences. More note-taking etc. Loved Dr. Who on ABC TV. Filth, with Julie Waters tight-lipped performance of Mary Whitehouse was okay, but a bit over the top. How I hate those Festival of Like mob and their ilk. Hypocrites all, the few I’ve been unlucky enough to run into. Also thinking deeply about a book review I have to start on for GLW of Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke. (Though its an enjoyable read, I’m not exactly over-impressed with it as history).Tried to stay awake for The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernal (b/w movie version) but I was too tired.
Spent yesterday monitoring my cold to see if it was swine flu. Fairly sure it isn’t.
I wouldn’t worry about Torchwood, Paul. I tried watching about half an episode when it was on the commercial tv, and it’s shite.
Agree about Festival of Light. We had some of the pricks in Adelaide, and they were a blight on our otherwise reasonably cosmopolitan Large Country Town.
Nabs, if you want more Robert Ryan watch him in Ophuls’ ‘Caught’, if you haven’t seen it already. He does a great Howard Hughes. He’s also in that fine Nick Ray film, ‘On Dangerous Ground’. A truly underrated actor adept at playing shifty psychopaths.
Brian @18, not unless writing quince several times got up the mod’s nose. Perhaps an unsuccessful jelly expedition. I shall reflect on this possibility as I scoff a slice of toast, jelly and cream. Perhaps the savage attack re the convertible and perceived injustice to the husband.
New cupboard installed and slavered over. No explosions, so may take the very risky path of commissioning a new pantry. Am very aware of not pushing my luck, but will try currying favour with a bunny casserole which will include a largish dash of the aforementioned quince jelly.
I may even go completely ott and take up the hems of some trousers which have been glowering at me for months, although I am concerned that this may be a cause for deep suspicion regarding cupboard-inspired fiscal irresponsibility on my part by the husbandy substance.
Quince? Surely not. I’ve just released your comment @ 23 and on the swine flu thread @ 102, so it definitely doesn’t like you at the moment. With a bit of luck it will learn. i’ve given it a stern talking to but that doesn’t seem to help!
Brian @24, it may be that I’ve had to change my email address and forgot to alter it. I’ve amended it on this thread, so will see if that does the trick.
Since the Indian thread is closed I guess I’ll post this here.
Caroline,
“Rocket Star” isn’t so cheap this month ($100 difference between them an Qantas, or $1000 more expensive if you want the same level of service — and a main meal (for $10) that consists of an almost-cold meat pie that at best would be worth $1.00 in the shops isn’t really something to rave about).
The next day landed up with me in a small restaurant in Kyoto where I got merrily drunk in the company of six beautiful 20-year-old female university students and their beautiful 49-year-old teacher who were celebrating one of the students’ birthday, then missing the last train back to Tokyo…
I like Kyoto. Everytime I go there, a beautiful woman gets me drunk.
It must be the protocol…