anyresemblance

Sunday Stocktake: Nostalgia edition

1. Missing: the streets of Manhattan.  Living in an apartment again, and taking Charlie for several short walks a day, makes me nostalgic for the little routes we would do around midtown, walking blocks through the theatre district to get steps in and seeing theatre goers off for an evening they would remember for months.
2. Wishing: I had a plan to see my siblings.  My sister has a long awaited surgery appointment and I have no idea when I will see her again.  I am grateful for our Sunday evening catch ups where I hear the minutiae of what is emerging for spring in her garden.
3. Eating: delicious food at XO.  It was a last minute booking with my friend who is emerging from convalescence and I was grateful for a 6pm booking (in bed by 9).  We had a to have a set menu which was delicious but still not sure how to eat bok choy with chopsticks
4. Reading: Daisy Jones and the Six which I am finding profoundly irritating.  I listened to an episode about it on Sentimental Garbage so am a bit more motivated to plow through.
5. Wearing: merino wool as the temperature has plummeted.  It was mid twenties on Friday and now it is down to 6.  Winter now a coming.
6. Moving: furniture again.  I think I might have cracked the organisation for now.
7. Coveting:  the B&T book case from here
8. Planning: to go to WA in the winter if I can make the dates measure up to see my niece
9. Regretting: wearing mascara last night.  My eyes have been itchy all day.  I may be down with mascara entirely as it kills me every time I wear it these days
10. Wearing: this top.  It's the one I paid over the odds for but I am getting a lot of wear out of it as my going out top.

 

In haste

I am having a productive day working at home interspersed with a trip to the dental hygienist who is new and will no doubt recommend expensive periodontist work which I will refuse having already spent 10k on that stuff over the past decade.

I had a 7am call with a guy in DC who is mentoring me for something but who was at his mother's house in Mississippi. I really just wanted to type Mississippi.  He was really good and gave me lots of good ideas and it was so nice to speak to someone in another country.

On that, there is some huge piece of gossip about a former colleague which set WhatsApp buzzing yesterday.  It is a nice story, not mean, and it was so nice to connect with people that I worked with and loved working with.  Also, I got more than 40 likes on a twitter reply about something which happened a long time ago but which people found amusing.  Who knew there were so many Gramsci nerds out there?

Procrastination redux

Look at this abomination of a hot cross bun which bought from a supposedly Irish bakery on 10th St.  I'm still cross about it.

My balcony is very long and both the bedroom and the living room open up on to it.  It is still so mild that I leave the living room windows ajar so the cat can pretend he is in the night jungle and wander the balcony at night.  Despite this he has decided to forget the French doors are open and comes and meows at my bedroom door to be let in.  Cue, Charlie awakening in panic and deciding that the whole building needs to know a kitten is in distress.  It was not a peaceful night.

The office is deserted today but I have been flat out.  My colleague with the booming voice is in top form and I have taken to permanent ear buds and soothing concentrating music to try and drown out his hectoring one the phone.  I saw him walking his dogs the other week and he was exactly the same with him as he is with his team, trying to dominate rather than to listen.

I did my tax returns yesterday, finally, so that procrastination is at least over.  It took me four hours but I am so relieved to have just done it.

Joyful Monday

Waking up on a Monday knowing there is no work is a great pleasure.  It was another beautiful morning and I walked Charlie round a different route and was rewarded with some peaceful grazing kangaroos who were fenced off from Charlie so no chance of him setting them off.  

After I had breakfast, I met a woman who wanted to buy a bracelet I had for sale.  She seemed overjoyed which made me think I had probably way underpriced it but I had no idea and it was gathering dust in my cupboard as way too small for me.  Flush with cash, I went to Ikea to buy my first poang chair.  I can't believe I am the only person who has never owned one but I wanted something for the study and after I worked out the sofa I was planning to put in there wouldn't move through the door I decided to go for a comfy chair instead.  I could have bought it on marketplace for half the price but to be honest the only one listed looked a bit grubby and for not too much more I could choose my own.  The room is quite dark and needs light to bounce around so I got a light cover and a mini sheepskin for the footstool to make it appealing to my toes and the cat.  It took about an hour of assembly but I listened to two episodes of Brown Girls Do It Too and did it quite artfully.

I made some zucchini flowers stuffed with a bit of goats cheese and ate them outside while finishing the Donna Leon book.  As usual, you never quite feel that full justice has been achieved but I love her moral ambiguity.  It was really hot outside so after I had finished my book, I went inside and lay on the sofa scrolling instagram.

When I got up, I put away my easter decorations and took Charlie for another walk.  My brother and I were talking to my 75 year old sister last night who was describing 5 miles as one of her short daily walks so I need to increase my step game.   I mean, I already have 10,000 as a goal but I mostly do that with incidentals on top of dog walks.  If I did a 5 mile walk as well, I reckon I would be doing 15,000 per day.  Anyway, my sister is a walking machine and I admire it greatly.  Particularly as she needs a shoulder replacement and NEVER uses her ailments as an excuse to not get out and do stuff.  Old school stoicism for sure.

Now I am preparing for work and discovered my flipping password for work email has expired which it has been warning me for at least a month but now I can't reset it until I go to the office which is super annoying.  

 

Sunday Stocktake: Easter edition

1. Finding: the spare little brush thing for the robot-vac.  I'd been looking for it for a week and finally found it behind some stuff.
2. Cooking: roast pork with all the porky deliciousness for Easter lunch.
3. Reading: Donna Leon's latest, I am trying not to rush
4. Enjoying: A long weekend, the changing of the clocks and the extra time in the morning
5. Liking: finding a small path where I can run Charlie off lead.  This evening I met a friendly coal black dog who was a German shepherd/kelpie cross called Ninja who had a good game of chase with Charlie.
6. Disliking: a pair of track pants I bought on line which turned out to be in a horrible synthetic material and I don't know why I didn't send them back but I wore them and I already despise them with a passion
7. Buying: Carla Zampatti jacket on e-bay.  Vale Carla but thank you for the tailored work wear
8. Watching: Marriage or Mortgage on Netflix.  BONKERS, BUY THE HOUSE EVERY TIME
9. Wearing: t-shirts, it was flipping 30 today which is bizarre considering the time of year
10. Sorting: my study.  Moved the desk, finished painting the bookcase, hated the day bed so moved it out
    
    

What if

Not going to Brisbane had the upside of an evening at home with my dog. 

I am sure you will be relieved to know that the undercoat was dry before this nap.

snap lockdown

Well, that's annoying.  I'd packed my suitcase for the first time in a year,  arranged a glass of champagne with my fellow promotee and dinner with my friend who I have not seen since in a year and then the Qld premier announced snap lockdown. Oh well, at least I get to sleep in my own bed and better to be safe.

Sunday Stocktake: autumn edition

 

1. Worrying: Poor old Charlie has not been in good form this week.  What we thought was a routine dental visit ended up with him having to have 4 teeth out and he has not been himself since.  I took him back to the vet yesterday and she thinks it is a combination of a number of minor things all of which actually mean, he is getting on in years.  Poor sad boy but he seemed much more himself when I took him to run our favourite walk this morning.
2. Watching: Season 6 SATC.  I realise it is my least watched season and I reckon I had never actually seen the episode where Miranda gets married.  Nearly there.
3. Listening: the Tonya Harding episodes on Your're Wrong About, great episodes of Soundtracking with Henry Jackman and Song Exploder with Jon Batiste.
4. Enjoying: the Shipping Forecast on the Calm app.  I miss Finnistere.
5. Eating: mediocre pasta at a celebrated local restaurant.  I did enjoy going for a birthday lunch on a Saturday.  It felt so grown up.
6. Pondering: if I am really getting on a plane to Brisbane tomorrow or if another flash lockdown is going to ensue.  I am not going to be sad if it does not happen as it is a work trip.
7. Reading: the latest Donna Leon - her thirtieth book!  Her prose is so palate cleansing.
8. Organising: the spare bedroom where I am setting up my alternative study.  I need to get my airbnb act together but honestly since most of my potential customers would be parliamentary staffers I feel like I need an additional questionnaire before accepting anyone in my house.
9. Cooking: chicken schnitzel with a parsley, lemon rind, parmesan and panic crust which was absolutely delicious.
10. Finding: my long lost car key in a bag I had not used for 9 months.  Hooray, now I have the one with the remote locking back in my palm.

 

Narnia

I was listening to a sleep story on the Calm app last night about a railway journey in Ireland but I was jolted awake when the reader started to explain that CS Lewis grew up in Northern Ireland and the landscape of the Narnia stories was heavily influenced by the NI landscape.  I had never even thought about it, so influenced are we now days with New Zealand as a stand in for middle earth and its associates.  Ganching and I went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the small cinema in Batemans Bay with my girls which means she ought to be planning a twentieth anniversary return.

Sunday Stocktake: Delayed Version

It has been raining and given I submitted a proposal this week a beautiful time for doing nothing much this weekend.

1. Watching: SATC - I am half way through season 5 and looking forward to something else
2. Listening: The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley which I hadn't read since the late 80s.  I remember how much my mother loved it and its recognition that the war made a lot of freedom from conventional social norms for some people.
3. Cooking: macaroni cheese with crab.  I recognise this is a controversial choice but I saw some crab meat in Coles and I was trying to think what I would use it for.  A little bit of chilli and it's delicious.
4. Enjoying: doing the ironing and having order restored in the linen cupboard
5. Pondering: why a clothes shop I have frequented for nearly 20 years sold me a top (which I love) from a brand I did not know and when I then googled the brand I found that it was available $100 cheaper in several on line outfits.  I get bricks and mortar carry costs that on line shops don't have and comes with styling advice but $100 mark up really irritates me. 
6. Sorting: my jewellery and thinking about how much it would cost to remodel a necklace into something more contemporary.
7. Drinking: a perfect glass of Prosecco from a little arcade Italian deli.  I was 20 minutes early for dinner last night and saw they were still open.  The owner is a young man who bafflingly is also the son of a beautiful woman I used to work with.  Of course, in my head he is still ten but instead is a mid twenties owner of a successful small business.
8. Wishing: I could decide whether to get a bigger tv to cover the stupid power outlets which is preventing me from deciding where to put the paintings up
9. Reading: not much but read a great article on N Ireland crime writers and have ordered a ton of books
10. Enjoying: life in my neighbourhood.  Still loving the sky and the walks and getting to recognise people.