anyresemblance

Remember to breathe, part 199

Why does taking a few days leave mean that I am bombarded with work and deadlines.  I am feeling extremely stressed.  Of course, not as stressed as anyone sane living in the UK right now at the abomination that is the British government.  Anyway, tomorrow I am off to beautiful Kangaroo Valley where I hope to breathe deeply and read my book and eat delicious food.

Flat white

What did I do this weekend? Walked the dog, had lunch with my friend, cleaned my house, walked my dog again.  The kid was here and I cooked a really good rice pilau which we ate with salmon and broccolini and an excellent hollandaise sauce (courtesy of Delia Smith).  We watched some Queer Eye.  Episodes 1 and 2 were good, 3 was meh.

I was trying to work out why there was so much activity in the street opposite this morning and it turned out there was a house contents auction up the street.  S and I wandered up to take a look and flipping heck, there was a house packed with wonderful paintings, at least 10 David Bromley's, Charles Blackman, Brett Whitely, a beautiful little Chagall, some stunning aboriginal painting.   We didn't stay for the auction but later this afternoon I saw a guy walking down the road with a painting.  "Get something nice?" I asked him.  "Pretty nice, " he replied showing me his David Bromley.    Something nice about just walking around suburban street with your contemporary art tucked under your arm.

Skip a beat

I won $10 on the lottery last night but considering the jackpot was over a $100m I don't think that was much of a return.  Guess I'll keep working the day job.

Last night I ate t bone steak and salad with a free drink for $19.95 from the casino restaurant with my work colleague.  I like her a lot but she loves a budget dinner.  I can't blame her as she spends 4 nights a week away from home and is all about saving what she can on her daily allowance.  Then I watched Shetland on BBC first in my hotel room (the glamour), eating malteasers from the mini bar and drinking a cup of tea.  The glamour.  My foot is troubling me and I am looking forward to getting home.  Winter is taking far too long and we're only half way through.

Barbary Lane

I can watch Laura Linney in anything and am enjoying Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City on Netflix.  I'm episode 2 and loving the sly allusion to Mary Anne's self obsession with her Away suitcase (don't get me wrong, I have one and I like it) and her self righteous rightness.  I had forgotten how much I loved his books when I first read them and need to go back and dig them out.

Remember what I said about enjoying Melbourne? Well, I'm back in my hotel room with room service but I did drive to Ballarat and back today and don't have energy for anything.  I had a lot of people coming to me with their problems today so all I was up for was my pyjamas and room service.

If only there were a system...

When my kids were littler and we were trying to get out the door for school or ballet or horse riding or basketball or anyone of those tasks that require people to know where their stuff is and be responsible I would bemoan their lack of personal organisation.

I consider myself mostly organised but I do tend to not know where my glasses are on any given occasion which is helped by now having an extra pair which stay in my bedroom for reading at night.  They are both the same brand so this morning when I opened a case to check which ones they were I found ... my headphones.  I am now kicking myself for a) not putting the headphones in the place they were supposed to go b) using my bedroom glasses to work with yesterday afternoon c) needlessly spending money on new headphones d) forgetting that I had even put them in the glasses case.  In my minimal defence it was because I was rushing from one office to another and packing my stuff up in a hurry but still.

The lesson is ... I have no idea what the lesson is but at least I have a spare pair of headphones now.

Headphones

I lost my headphones today.  I had them for two years and they were perfect so it made me sad to be so careless.  Fortunately, they are end of life (everyone wants ear pods) and Bose had them significantly discounted so I was able to get a replacement even if it were $99 I preferred not to spend.  

I had to do a leadership training webinar today.  It was live cast and the instructor asked us if we knew who Jordan Peterson was.  One guy (my hero) replies "isn't he the right wing nut job?".  The instructor was a bit huffy "that's a rather limiting characterisation."  I pretty much stopped listening after that except for the hero guy saying he thought Jacinda Ardern was a good example of empathetic leadership.

Chiffonier

I've been on eBay for a while but only recently listed a whole bunch of stuff in my clearing out my closet phase.  I hate this make an offer thing.  I listed stuff at reasonably low starting price but have found myself inundated with people offering me $5 on an item that was only $10 to start with.  The annoying thing is most of them are resellers anyway.  It's like those ghastly people who turn up one hour early for your garage sale and try and persuade you to sell them everything on the cheap.  For that amount of money I would rather donate the stuff.    I get that everyone is trying to turn a dollar but when I turn down $5 don't come back to me two hours later with $6. Is there a name for these people?

The day was bitterly cold yesterday.  I walked the dog to the coffee shop where he is now a regular.  They know his name even if they can never quite remember my coffee order (hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just Charlie's agent).  I went back again later when the kid came over and we saw a delight of good dogs.  We went to Costco where I managed to spend $200 on not much in particular and then the markets and then home.  I made beef bourginon, ironed all my sheets (miracle) and tidied the house.  A friend dropped by for a cup of tea and Charlie was insanely annoying as it coincided with walk time so after they left I trudged around the park with him.  I watched 3 episodes of Lucifer at my youngest's recommendation (it's her latest craze and can I say thank god after a year of Criminal Minds) but it was not really catching my attention.  I started the latest Adrian McKinty, The Chain, and while I am delighted he is getting financial reward for his writing finally I found it sad that the only way was to write an ordinary thriller set in N America with standard characters and no hint of the humour in his Northern Irish Duffy series.  

*that dog is way too well behaved to be my dog, but he and his brother are coffee shop regulars

 

Irwin

Last night I was supposed to go to the movies with a friend but the weather was so grim she understandably bailed.  I was opposed to spending the evening alone so I went late night shopping and bought a cute set of flannelette sheets radically reduced.  I think they actually escape kitsch but I am prepared to hear counter arguments.  

I then had a solo dinner at the bar at a restaurant that has just opened in my suburb.  There are very few places in Canberra where you can eat at the bar which I always prefer on my own so this is a good addition.  I had a negroni, 6 oysters and some duck with lentils and felt like a grown up. The fact that it was also payday which helped this indulgence.

 

High winds

It continues to be super windy and the flat roof of the garage creaks rather threateningly when wind gets underneath it.  Yesterday, I dropped my car off for Hari, the Sikh mechanic to do some budget fixing and took a taxi to work.  I had a productive day which included announcement of a new acquisition going through and free lunch for everyone around the world.  Unfortunately the lunch was domino's pizza which, not withstanding their cool hacker credentials, the guys in the research lab had scoffed anyway by the time I stepped into the room.  Our CEO is a woman of great charisma but, as usual, I spend half my time looking at her amazing jewellery and pondering if she has a jewellery buyer and what job niche exists being stylist and shopper for female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies? A niche market, sadly.

I spent the evening catching up on Masterchef and packing up one of my eBay parcels for someone.  Two people are in a bidding war for an item which  should pay for 2 new fuel injectors on my car which is super exciting.

 

Melbs

You know how Melbourne is the hipster capital of Australia and full of delightful independent shops and restaurants and creative types? Yeah, well, even though I am there every couple of weeks, I fly in, go to an office, eat in the food court or the cheap restaurant on the Casino floor and come home again.  I really have to plan something better for my visits.

Yesterday I did a day trip which involved the 6.20am flight which meant getting up at 5 (thank god for a city where I can leave at 5.30 to get on a flight at 6.20). Once you're up it is ok but getting up the dark is not a pleasurable activity.  I ate very bad dumplings for lunch, had two successful meetings and was supposed to be on the 6.30pm flight home.  Sadly, high winds stymied that plan and I eventually got through the door at 9pm, had a shower, made a cup of tea and went to bed.  I did finish the latest Kate Atkinson, Big Sky, which I enjoyed very much though I do find the intersection of lives and coincidence a teeny bit tedious.