Mental Note - Must Try Harder

I have been slack in the blog department lately. In fact I get so caught up reading other peoples blogs that by the end I feel have nothing original to write or at least thats my excuse. Is there a relationship between the blogs I choose to read and the friends I choose to keep? It strikes me as funny that even in this alternate reality that I (we) still gravitate to those we can realate too best, (spooky but hardly a radical concept I expect). Anyway enough deep thinking for a Sunday, I promise to get my thoughts together and try really really hard to write more often!

idol no more

No I'm not taking about being voted off Australian Idol (although busking had seriously crossed my mind) rather I have at long last been offered a new job, which I have gleefully accepted. Not that I wasn't enjoying the new found freedom that unemployment brought (sleeping in etc), it simply wasn't paying the bills and interestingly while I had thought that heaps of leisure time would mean more time to spend on more rewarding pursiuts such as blogging, that proved to be the exactly the opposite. However fear not my friends, now that I am once again a tax paying wage earner I am very much looking forward to more regular postings about nothing. Yippee!

Celebrity Spotto

Today I bumped into Katy Steele (Little Birdy) doing a food shop. How rock and roll is that?

bad things happen in threes

They say that bad things happen in threes and I'm starting to wonder if witnessing a hit and run on a cat (ginger not black!) is having some bizarro effect on my life.

Firstly there was the house break-in and now I've joined the jobless. Not that I am paranoid but I am left wondering what will be next?

Will one of my favourite bloggers stop blogging? Already happend but not my fault! or will my beloved Fremantle Dockers yet again miss the finals? High probability but not as dramatic as being hit by a bus?. Best I stay well clear of public transport for a while, which for anyone unfamiliar with Perth is not that hard!

liking alternative music has certain advantages

Despite what some people may say about my musical taste, liking alternative music has certain advantages. For instance I recently had the misfortune of having my house burgled. Apparently the clever burgulars spent some time rumaging through my personal items in my front bedroom before tripping the alarm and legging it. The good news is that despite a number of my most prized new music CD's being convieniently located on a nearby bedside table, the burgulars left empty handed. As a bonus they didn't even touch my PJ Harvey biography 'Siren Rising'!

So my friends before you judge someone for their musical taste remember your average burgular probably listens to Top 40 commercial trash.

brain dead

Not that anyone may have noticed, but April has proven to be a rather non productive blogging month for me.

While I could blame this on my current brain dead state, I will indstead point out that rather than make any contributions I have been quite satisfied reading other peoples blogs.

Love your work tiger(s)!

office pets

Unlike spiders, fleas, cockroaches and other miscellaneous bugs Sea Monkeys make great office pets. Don't get me wrong, bugs are great but all it takes is one visit from the exterminator and its good bye fellas. Unlike spiders, fleas, cockroaches and other miscellaneous bugs Sea Monkeys are seemingly unaffected by bug spray, they don't bite or nibble on your secret stash of snacks in your bottom draw or even suck blood. The main problem is getting the buggers to hatch!

Tip #1 Don't try and hatch Sea Monkeys from a packet you found at the bottom of your wardrobe!

The key to successful Sea Monkey propagation is get yourself a fresh batch from your friendly neighborhood Toy Store or sea monkey distributor.

Tip #2 Stick to the standard tank version as the 'wank' factor associated with some of the more expensive models is overrated (and not suitable for a work environment) as they may detract from the overall excitement of having sea monkeys in the first place.

Once you have your monkeys at hand its a relatively simple process to hatch and grow them.

Tip #3 Follow the instructions carefully as failure to wait for the heavy metals in your office drinking water to be neutralized by the special monkey formula will result in tears (trust me).

Once they hatch, oh and they will hatch, you can sit and gaze at your office pets in wonderment for days on end.

Tip #4 Don't drink the office water. If Sea Monkeys won't grow in it, then should you really be drinking the stuff?

The best part of having Sea Monkeys as your choice of office pet is they require little if any maintenance, so you have more time for exchanging e-mails with your family and friends. A word of warning though, as tempting as it may seem putting sea monkeys in your work colleagues coffee is not a low calorie substitute for sugar.

Tip # 5 Ball games and sea monkeys are not compatible.

Oh and in between times you might want to do a bit of work occasionally or you might find that you no longer have an office for your pets.

the trouble with being healthy

The trouble with being healthy is that I have never been so sick. Despite placing my faith in a sausage roll cure there has been very little progress towards beating the dreaded cough. I can honestly say I have never, I say never been so crook for so long since at the advice of a health assessment I decided to live a healthy lifestyle. Maybe a long weekend of inhaling paint fumes will kill off any bugs remaining in my lungs or kill me, we shall see.

The positive side of living a healthy lifestyle combined with coughing for near on six weeks is I have managed to loose a quite a few kilos, although I have discovered that for the ladies, coughing like an three pack a day smoker is not a good look despite being more buff than before.

what makes a sausage roll?

At the risk of becoming a Jamie Oliver wanabee, due to overwhelming demand here is a simple recipe for sausage rolls.

Filling. Mix: 500 gm pork and veal, or pork mince, or pork and chicken- or at a pinch beef (or vego substitute).
2 finely grated carrots
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 finely chopped onion
1 tb fresh thyme leaves
4 chopped sage leaves (or other herbs to taste)
3 crushed cloves garlic

Pastry: You can use filo, puff, or flaky (flaky is best cause it makes more mess when you eat).
Roll up the filling in the pastry. Don't make it too thick, or the pastry will burn before the insides cook, but don't make it stingy either. About the thickness of two or three sausages is perfect. You can make long or small rolls.

Bake at 200C for15- 25 minutes, or till light brown- small rolls will take less time to cook. The rolls are best straight from the oven but can be reheated.

Great with tomato sauce or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods.

Get baking America.

moment of madness

In what can only be described as a moment of madness, not once but twice these week we (mostly I) have stuffed ourselves, well OK myself, on sausage rolls. My god they are tasty!

Of course this was purely for scientific reasons and if by some miracle I stop coughing (almost five weeks now!) due to the intake of sausage roll(s) I will be seeking to publish my findings in a medical journal.

four year old film critic

When asked if he wanted to be my first photo blog posting, Charlie (the four year old film critic) responded in the usual fashion.

why we blog

If you have already visited Guacamole Lane then you'll already know that when she isn't blogging Caron Spector is a second year graduate student at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. She is currently embarking on a masters thesis project researching the uses and gratifications of bloggers - basically, why people go to blogs.

As part of her work Caron has set up an a brief (15-20 questions) online survey. Caron would really appreciate your assistance with this project so I encourage you to take part in the survey. It just went public today and will remain open for about one month.

coughing for australia

Last week I had my first day of work sick in ten years. Its not that I don’t ever get sick like normal people I just tend to do it on weekends and holidays. The other thing I rarely do is visit the doctor, but seeing as I was two weeks into a coughing marathon it seemed an appropriate thing to do. The result of seeing a Doctor was that I didn’t have a temperature or any other signs of illness apart from a sleep depriving cough, but hey, have some antibiotics and take two days off work. While your at it take yourself down to the beach go for swim in the ocean. According to the Doc this will be 'very good for me’.

Thanks Doc great idea, I haven’t slept properly for two weeks and the best thing you can offer me besides the standard issue antibiotics is a swim in the ocean. I can image the headlines ‘Coughing attracts shark – bites man on sicky’. How Aussie would that be!

Come to think of it, I’ve never felt less healthy since I decided to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Two days off work, one visit to the doctor, two courses of antibiotics and three highly ineffective cough mixtures later, I’m still here, still coughing and not sleeping, but hey I’m back at work!. I think what I really need is a sausage roll and a very long lie down.

don't panic

In a vain, possibly delusional attempt to open myself up to a more international audience I have altered my profile to feature non-Australian bands in the favourite music category.
Don't panic, I have not abandoned my love of alternative Australian music but rather plan to lure in some international interest and then convert them to listening to what alternative Australia has to offer (no Delta here thank you very much!).
The only exception is The Triffids which remains listed for Lynn. Also by way of explanation you may have noticed that I have listed bands in the favourite book profile, this is simply because I don't tend to read many books (other than bedtime stories). Having said that I am not totally without the capability of reading the odd novel or two when the mood grabs me, its finishing them that I struggle with (sometimes).

bum rejects banana

No this is not another Richard Gere story, but rather a true story as told on a Perth (commercial) radio station.

Trevor (not his real name) was walking with friends in Fremantle when they come upon a homeless person searching through a rubbish bin. Feeling slightly uneasy with this (most likely due to the spoils of commercial radio in his wallet) Trevor simply passed homeless by. Unperturbed by this encounter Trevor went about his business which as will soon become apparent involved a fruit stall (and possibly a latte). Anyhow, on the return trip Trevor (and friends) encountered homeless again, albeit at a different bin. No doubt feeling guilty Trevor offers the homeless person a banana. The homeless persons reply?

“I don’t like bananas”!

This brings me to ponder two things, what has become of the world when a homeless person prefers scraps in a bin over fresh fruit and or are Carnarvon bananas simply overrated?

sausage rolls banned from office

In an attempt to stay in shape and quite possibly live a little longer, I have suggested that sausage rolls be banned from the Office. While receiving some support for proposing the blacklisted morning tea item, I realise that as the main offender it may only be a matter of time before the once revered Joe’s Bakery sausage rolls call my name. Only time will tell.

in the begining

I guess everything has a beginning so here it is. It has taken some time and much thought to finally start a blog but after stumbling across athousandthings some weeks ago on a totally unrelated exercise the inspiration has at long last been realised!.

This blog is about life, in particular mine and those around me much like the life of the certain person that I have derived its name. It keeps me amused so hopefully you'll be similarly moved?

For anyone interested in what irks me be sure to check out Dear Friends and Enemies and The Pursuit of Happiness for reviews of what I've been listening to, watching and even reading.

Big thanks to Lynn at athousandthings.