postscript: hot and not (#four-and-a-half)

Some further hots and nots which a) were lost in the Wednesday morning brain-haze or b) possibly not going to make it to the page, since next Wednesday I will be ringing out work for 2009 and enjoying K's company before we part for a week and reunite, post-xmas, in Gippsland...

Hot

A hilarious trip with my mate R out to the boondocks (past Ipswich) to see a psychic who, despite being recommended by more than one person, was utterly crap. Apparently I have a spirit guide called Theodosis, a spritely Aegean man, while R's spirit guide Trish was her lesbian lover in a past life. It went downhill from there. Hot though, because we laughed all the way home.

Our first joint furniture heist has furnished the love nest with three sets of old-school wooden drawers from a QUT science lab. Well, maybe it wasn't technically a heist. The University for the Real World is demolishing some buildings (still can't get my head around why), and since I walk through the uni to get to work, I stumbled across the chuck-outs. Replete with dynamo labels, declaring 'buchner funnels', 'clamps', 'qualitative accelerators' and the like. I'm hoping a second swoop tomorrow finds the furniture pile still there.

A most productive op-shop swoop in Paddington, with multiple pairs of jeans and trousers each and a whole rack of shirts for K. Tally, about thirty bucks.

Pre-xmas dinner with K's family at Mondo Organics. Ten words. Callebaut chocolate pudding with bleeding hazelnut heart and cinnamon semi freddo. Yum. Yum. Yum.

A bizarre Christmas dinner at Binna Burra lodge with K's old choir buddies, aka his geriatric harem... I had no idea groups of old ladies charged with cheap red wine could flirt with such gusto. The old ducks worship the ground K walks on, and hadn't seen him for a couple of months, so there were lots of cuddles. And a few wayward gropes of his thighs - eek! The dinner was followed by a sleepless night in my tent, which we added to the list of things I own which K doesn't fit in. (His head nestles my car's roof and his feet get stuck on the wrong pedals, as previously chronicled). The next day, however was more relaxed, with a visit to his mate Tony from choir, who is the son of the founder of Binna Burra Lodge. We had tea with Tony on the most amazing deck I've ever had tea on, with an outlook over Lamington National Park, the Numinbah Valley and the Gold Coast beyond. He showed us right around his place, Alcheringa - the only residence at the top of the mountain, built by his brother in the 70s but still amazingly stylish. He lets it out and lives in the 'granny flat' next door. A decadent yet homely wood-and-slate chalet with high ceilings, an 'infinity' deck, open fireplace, spa bath and outdoor Japanese-styled bathroom. Oh. My. God. I was agog when K said he'd earlier this year turned down an opportunity to house-sit for Tony. Needless to say, we are now firmly back on the short-list for house-sitting in 2010, while Tony will be gadding around Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and half of Europe, guiding for the tour company he established but which is now run by his daughter. What a life.

Not

In a logical segue from some of the above food-fests, I have padded out quite a bit in the latter half of the year. Mainly because I'm not walking as much with ongoing back irks. Cohabitation with the Hollow-Legged Man has also changed eating patterns somewhat. Anyway, trying to get past my ego, get used to the curves and enjoy compliments about being 'womanly'.

hot and not wednesday (#four)

Not (thought I'd start at the ugly end this week and work my way back to nicety)

I am ratty. I walk like an old lady and grumble like one because I can’t shake this back thing (nor the work thing, I'm not sure which is the greater evil at the moment). My wallet is falling apart. Any decision-making capacity I had this year (not a lot to start with, and further diminished by the ethical conundrums wrought by the prospect of a new wallet) has left the building. I badly need a haircut, some new clothes and a hip replacement. Work is driving me nuts, with its frayed personalities and bi-polar pace: busy-one-week, tumbleweed-watching the next. I am so overdue for a very long holiday.

I could kick myself for not sticking to my boycott of the work Kris Kringle. With an 11th-hour peer-invoked reversal, I procured a very satisfactory bejewelled soft elephant from Oxfam, which now taunts me from J's desk across the room. While my crappy ‘hugging’ ceramic salt and pepper shakers remain at home, in a very deep, dark cupboard. Grrr.

Hot

Four working days left of 2009. Yee-ha!

My spunky little cabbage moth. For his own little ‘hot and not’ email to me last Thursday morning, which declared yours truly his ‘hot’ item. And a missed opportunity for, well, morning cuddles, his ‘not’!  

*Swoon* 

And for his stellar ability to put up with my increasing grumblings about work, and encouraging me to see the delight in every day. 

To play... write up your own 'what's hot and what's not Wednesday', link back to loobylu and add your name to the widget.

hot and not wednesday (#three)

hot

An oldie but a goodie… the problem of sound was resolved many moons ago, through a surplus set of Dell speakers K gave me, which do the trick amp-ly (pun intended) for the small space we inhabit.

Also on the problem of sound, I have been expanding my musical horizons via a nifty little doodad (oh, I am so technical) called BitTorrent. Seriously, I have existed in web 1.0 far too long…

Some of the funniest out-takes in ages…

My DVD player carked it (presumably a 'not') as we were about to watch the fabulous Once (a birthday present – thanks S!). Having the bus across the road is proving a winner at crucial moments. K popped over the road and retreived his DVD player, averting the resort to laptop/desktop viewing. And the movie? Brilliant music and a somehow satisfyingly unsatisfactory (weepy) ending… if that makes sense?

Twelve more work days and counting...

not

My best mate R’s date with routine surgery turned very nasty and she wound up seriously sick, with stomach acid in her lungs. The doctors told her she had great karma and was lucky to have made it through. Eek. Which makes the rest of my ‘nots’ seem trifling really...

Burnout. At the very end of my very frayed rope. Putting it down to the continuous slog of more than a year at work without a real break… and ongoing back irks which make me feel a gazillion years old. Upper back and neck now seizing up. We blacklisted mid-week alcohol in an effort to regain energy and be good to ourselves, which admittedly has helped, though the larger struggle to get through the weeks til xmas remains.

Whole-screen pop-up web ads. Grrrr! Also in the media realm, there has been lots of bemoaning at the Hill of the ABC's news programming, which has been sliding, with live crosses to reporters in studios in Adelaide (?) and the holus-bolus feeding on the Tiger derailment.

To play... write up your own what's hot and what's not wednesday, link back to loobylu and add your name to the widget.

hot and not wednesday

It's still Wednesday in Queensland...

Hot.

Five days beachside in central NSW. Throw in a wedding, dancing, swimming... and float away on a daydream of getting out of Brisvegas. 

Using the new Creative Space (aka the spare room) to make a driftwood/riverstone/paua shell mobile which now adorns the entrance. Ta-da!

Cohabitation has brought access to a cordless drill with many-sized drillbits for craft activities (see above). And probably power tools I haven't even dreamed of yet. And don't get me started about having my own web solutions maestro / help-desk in the next room. Oh I could rave...

The third bedroom/storage shed/second pantry (aka Alice the bus). Now parked over the road. Running out of pepper as dinner is served has never been such an easy fix.

K's choir has a CD out!

15 working days until xmas break. And hanging out at Bingi. Think I might create some sort of advent calendar in my Outlook. The count-down will be punctuated by work xmas parties. Which actually promise to be ... fun!

Leave loading. And a core agreement increase, backpaid to August, due any day... woo! Handy, since I've dog-eared some xmas wishes. Oh. And an appointment with the dentist, including multiple x-rays, which cost me $13. $13! Tallying the cost of items in my 'free' care pack, I think I actually walked out ahead! My first ever 'yeah!' for private health insurance! And a clean bill of health, with two remaining wisdom teeth declared fine to stay.

Not

Brain-fry. Courtesy being up to my eyeballs in policy quandries and deadlines on the secret squirrel welfare reform project which Anna is now earmarking as the centrepiece of Queensland's social inclusion agenda. Despite Kevin having virtually gazumped it. Eek!

Missed lunch breaks, emails, life etc (see above).

Federal politics... sheesh! 

Back irks are ongoing. However I have given up my Amish ways and am experiencing the revelation of Nurofen. Sitting at desk with minimal discomfort - the joy! Walking up hills without pain... hallelujah!

Summer hit about two weeks early. Hot. Wind-less. Blah. The first of many cold showers of the season.

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To play... write up your own what's hot and what's not wednesday, link back to loobylu and add your name to the widget.