Thursday Thirteen

Because I have no ideas of my own, here are thirteen (multiplied by 3 minus one) recent faves from other Flickr photographers. (And because I couldn't blog this straight from Flickr - don't know why - you'll have to go to my photostream to see who the pics all belong to.)

 

Last night....

My brother's birthday, so we all went to a little Italian restaurant/pizza joint near their place. Good food and plenty of it. I decided to have pizza and have the half I didn't eat in the fridge here for lunch :)
It was a bloody noisy place though - one of those places where the sound just bounces off the walls, getting louder and louder. I really don't like that. It really gets to me after a while. So I stood up and said "I'm going outside for a smoke." Outside I went. Peace and quiet. Georgia came charging out, "What are you doing!?" "Having a smoke" I said and popped a piece of gum into my mouth.
I just had to escape the noise.
After dinner we went back to Pete and Denise's for coffee and cake.
Pleasant.

Yesterday....

Clare has started her new uni course in the city. She doesn't finish till 9pm on Tuesdays so I've agreed to pick up Georgia from her school and babysit her till her mum gets home. (which was about 10:30 last night.)
We went for a stroll along the river, cameras at the ready. I tried to teach George about long exposure and stuff like that. I haven't seen her pics, apart from on the cameras display, so don't know how successful the session was.



We did see a clutch (is that the right word?) of the cutest baby ducks swimming about at one stage. Very cute! They took off down the river and obviously didn't have the power to stop themselves against the current. Some of the adult ducks formed a sort of line and stopped them going too far. Kind of herded them off to where they were meant to be. Sweet.



I took heaps of river shots which will no doubt end up on Flickr over the next few days.

It's an hour's drive from here to Warburton. That's the longest smoke-free drive I've done so far. Wasn't so bad on the way out there because of the stop to pick up George and then having her to chat to. The drive home was a nightmare. It was well after 11pm by the time I left their place. Long and dark. Thank goodness for Led Zeppelin CDs!
(Note to self: Must wash car - the windscreen is filthy. Made it hard to see with oncoming headlights shining at me. Of course, due to water restrictions, cars can only be washed at a commercial car wash that uses recycled water.)

Another night out tonight too. My brother, Peter's birthday today. 51 he is. Gawd, we're all getting old. Paula will be 50 next year too. That'll just leave Clare yet to reach the half century.

Speaking of old - poor old Tash. She was really wheezing and pottering about even slower than usual last night. Made me a bit teary watching her.

Why don't we have a third arm and hand?

Because I need one.
One to hold a stack of books, one to place books from stack into space provided, one to stop other books already on the shelf falling into that space first.

And a fourth one to pick fallen books up from the floor would be handy too.

Monday morning and grumpy

I didn't sleep well at all last night. Tried reading, which usually does the trick. And it did in a way but I had to keep waking up to remove the (big hardback) book off my face, take my specs off, turn off the light. Then I'd be awake again. Toss, turn, toss. So I resorted to the television. Haha, ended up watching an episode of The Avengers at 3am. I used to love that show; the whole family would sit around and watch it together. (Which gives me an idea for T13.) God, it's corny now, especially all the highly choreographed fight scenes. Quite risque for its time though - picked up a lot of innuendos (some not so subtle either) that I obviously missed when I was a thousand years younger. I think I got some sleep after that because it was 5.30 the next time I looked. Then 7.30, which meant I had to get up. Did not want to. If there'd been any ciggies lying around I think I probably would have had one this morning. Fortunately, there weren't.
So, I'm struggling today, mainly because I'm very tired. Got that head full of cotton wool thing happening.
It's a bit chilly here today and I put a jumper on this morning. As soon as I did I thought "what's that smell?" Haha, people always say that smokers' clothes smell of cigarettes but I'd never noticed before.

We finished off the Moroccan chicken last night. Bit of a hit with the rest of the household. Of course, I'm eating way too much - going back for seconds instead of the after-dinner smoke. Will have to stop that! Come to think of it, that's probably why I couldn't sleep.

And now to work - got 75 Agatha Christies to process, price and shelve. Which means I'm going to have to rearrange the whole A-C section of crime fiction to fit them in. The trials and tribulations of bookselling. The good thing that they will sell so it won't be a wasted effort.

Unconscious Mutterings

1. Protocol :: Kyoto


2. Girlfriends :: boyfriends


3. Shoulders :: arms


4. Coming home :: from work


5. Let it in :: or out


6. Honor :: has a u in it - honour


7. Tyler :: Steve


8. Thriller :: novel


9. Angela :: 's Ashes


10. The winner is :: The Saints!

from here

Sainters!

Saints won again yesterday. Beat Geelong (the team that won everything there was to win last year) by 5 points. Yeah!

Still smoke-free. Seems to be getting easier to resist now. Practice makes perfect as they say. It's still a struggle though so I'm not getting complacent or anything.

Made a big pot of Moroccan chicken last night - chicken, eggplant, zucchini, red capsicum, tomato, onion, dried apricots, raisins, pine nuts, chicken stock, garlic, black pepper, cinnamon sticks, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Cooked the onion, garlic and spices a bit first then browned the chook pieces in the spice mixture and just threw the rest in, mixed it all together then added the stock and let it simmer for an hour or so. Served with couscous. Delicious!

I think I've discovered the drawback of Nicabate gum.

Toothache.

Hahaha, I'm falling apart at the seams!

Saturday Photo Hunt

This week's theme is "wooden". Can't get much more wooden than a tree...

Made it

through day 3. Yay!

Busy fingers/Not worth reading really

I just very nearly went next door to bot (ie, get one for free) a smoke. Purely through boredom. Nothing much is happening here today and I've had enough of putting books on shelves for now. Everyone seems to be still at work or gone off travelling so there's no flow of emails to distract me either. So I'm just going to sit here and waffle about absolutely nothing just to keep my fingers busy. There is absolutely no obligation to read any further.
I added a few of my Woolomai sunsets to the Australian sunsets and sunrises group on Flickr when I got back from Phillip Island. They have a link on the front page of the group that shows the most interesting shots in the group according to a thing called flickriver. Two of mine are in there. I'm a bit chuffed by that. :)
The supermarket where I get my Nicabate has run out. Haha, I bought all they had when I saw they were running out. They better be getting more in and soon.
Crappy weather today. We had a couple of very hot days earlier in the week but, in general, it's heading towards Autumn in a hurry now. Very grey out there. :( Not that I like it hot but I do like a bit of sunshine.
G-Man dropped in for a visit yesterday, instead of the usual daily phone call. Gawd, he's so full of shit. He's quite happy to make all sorts of suggestions and promises but if I even hint at calling his bluff he suddenly has to rush back to work. Don't start if you're not going to finish, matey.


The pic is from a trip we did around Tasmania - sometime in the early 80s. I was still a learner then but managed to ride my little Honda all the way without incident. It was cold though, I remember that. Fun though.

Okay, I think the crisis has passed. You can all wake up now.

Friday Fill-in

1. The open road, the new places, the opportunities for great photographs is are the best thing about traveling. I can't think of a single bad thing about travelling.
2. I love a good scotch when I'm cold.
3. I often use my camera, this computer, garlic, coffee, Nicabate gum.
4. I'm reading Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough right now; I am immersed in the detail and scope of it.
5. Sad things is something I dislike talking about.
6. When I visited Phillip Island I most looked forward to seeing the beach and the ocean.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to nothing at all. I have to hide away from all temptation, tomorrow my plans include watching and/or listening to the Saints win and Sunday, I want to finish off a smoke-free weekend!

Go here to play

Meme time

Saw this at Shirl's

You Are a Seeker Soul

You are on a quest for knowledge and life challenges. You love to be curious and ask a ton of questions. Since you know so much, you make for an interesting conversationalist. Mentally alert, you can outwit almost anyone (and have fun doing it!). Very introspective, you can be silently critical of others. And your quiet nature makes it difficult for people to get to know you. You see yourself as a philosopher, and you take everything philosophically. Your main talent is expressing and communicating ideas. Souls you are most compatible with: Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

The dreaded day three

And it's a Friday too. So, no pub after work. That's just too dangerous. I'm just going to pretend that it's a day 2 'cos they're easier to deal with.
Another crappy start to the day with another dirty great spider in the loungeroom. Fortunately Laurie was still home and dealt with it. Then Sylvia fell down the stairs and hurt her back and elbow, nothing serious though but she'll be bruised and stiff for a while. Smashed a couple of glasses too. So far no-one's rung to tell me we owe them money so that's a positive.
I feel like I've been doing this forever but it's only been 2 weeks. So, although not completely to plan, I reckon it's going okay so far. Could be better, but could be a lot worse too. This is further than I've ever got before without giving in and not bothering at all. So woohoo me.

Quitters Inc.

A short (thankfully) story by Stephen King. I knew I didn't like him. Sorry Janet, but that is just a dumb story.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things I can buy with $12.

1. 8 or 9 litres of petrol, depending on what day it is.
2. 6 litres of milk.
3. 2 packets of Scarborough Fair, Fair Trade organic coffee.
4. Half a new book, or one third if it's trade size.
5. 36 pieces of Nicabate gum.
6. One kilo of free range, chemical and hormone free, chicken breasts.
7. A movie ticket.
8. 5 or 6 kilos of bananas.
9. A whole bunch of vegies, although as the drought persists the bunch is getting smaller.
10. Almost half a CD.
11. A decent bottle of red wine.
12. One 80th of a Canon macro lens.
13. A packet of cigarettes.
T13

Yesterday and today, a tale of two moods.

Yesterday I was pretty miserable, questioning my resolve and all that. I was beginning to think I wasn't capable of carrying this thing through. But, a little chat with Madame Snape and things have changed around again. Today I feel much more positive and on top of things again. Thanks bud. :)

Of course, today has started badly. The bank's been on the phone - not enough money in the account to cover the rent cheque. *sigh* So I had to run (figuratively) down there and deposit most of the cash sitting in the till (cash register) to appease the financial masters. I just hope the first customers don't have big bills 'cos I won't be able to change them.
Customers? Ha. Seems the majority of people who wander in these days want to sell their books, not buy mine. *bigger sigh*
Speaking of books, Phone today is basking in the light of THE BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN. And that's the truth.

oh yeah, I forgot.....

Yesterday I ran into a friend who gave up smoking a couple of years ago. She told me that she did a course. It's one day, costs about $500. It's guaranteed to work or your money is refunded - you have to prove that it hasn't worked of course. The only drawback, to me at this stage, is that you have to take a packet with you and smoke it all during the day. She told me that when she did it she was like me - in the process of giving up already. Apparently, the two groups who are most likely to fail are those who've already started to give up (damn!) and those faced with amputation. (I'd have thought the latter wouldn't need any encouragement to give up whatsoever.)
Anyway, my friend did the course and now feels sick when she just catches a whiff of cigarette smoke.
So, if it's getting towards my deadline and I'm still pissfarting about I might investigate this course more closely.

Also, I worked out that the macro lens I want is equivalent to about 80 packs. So, provided I save that money and don't spend it on other stuff, I should have a macro lens in 80 days. :)

And Janet, this is for you:

*sigh*

I just can't seem to get through the three day barrier. It always seems to be the third day when I slip up/weaken/give in. So today is back to day 1 again. I didn't weaken too badly but just once is bad enough. Fucking hopeless I am.

Yesterday, as a whole, was pretty unexciting. I did a lot of running around for minimal return. No photography either, except for Phone. :(
I did finish typing up a paper for a customer. He's an older gentleman who still hasn't progressed beyond the biro. I said I'd type his paper for him. (He's a regular customer so why not? He wants to pay me for the typing but I don't really want him to.) Anyway, "The Meaning of Apostasia in 2 Thessalonians 2:3" is typed. Oh my gawd, what an effort. To say it was not my cup of tea is a bit of an understatement.

Today's Phone photo was with Odinn's Child by Tim Severin. I had a quick look and decided that I'll start reading it.



I need a new shop book as I finished Dangerous Lady by Martinia Cole on Monday. That wasn't a bad book. British crime thriller. Quite gritty, as they say. The central characters are all crooks so I didn't feel a lot of sympathy for them. I was pissed off with the 'happy ending' though.

Question

Do used tissues go in the recycling or the ordinary bin?