and then there's Blake (In stereo where available)

Yesterday I craved pikelets.
So this morning I created them using my two hands and just a sprinkle of magic.



Bippity Boppity Boo

Lazy Sunday.
Another Monday.

Most of yesterday I was dabbling with the idea of having a week long blackout. No music. No movies. No internet. One week without to see what else I would do with my time. It was my intention to start today, that is until I woke up humming along to a Smokey Robinson & The Miracles song that I was previously singing in a dream. Suddenly it seemed much more difficult to justify intentionally starving myself of so much of what makes up who I am, especially the music. I scrapped the plan.

Ended up having a long lunch with Sehee today. Conversations were about music we like and the way people are. We both talk too much but are also equally happy to listen, which explains the three hours in the restaurant. The aging monosyllabic waitress kept giving me looks that seemed to be asking, how long are you going to sit in my fucking restaurant?. I had a Bacon + Chicken Burger, it wasn't great. Neither was the coffee but that was to be expected.

yuh-huh

» Made a banana smoothie but it was too sweet.
» Received my first mix-cd from Jenny. ^[1]
» Received a text from Yen just before she flew away.
» Bought some new trousers.
» Walked around the Bell Tower and the river.
» Met Dion and his friend Paul for lunch at Bells Cafe.
» Ate an Egg & Bacon Burger that was absolutely delicious.
» Bought a few DVD's courtesy of Peter & Tracy's Christmas gift card.
» Took Dion to the airport at five o'clock in the morning and said farewell for the year.
» Was amazed at the number of people on the road that early and how many of them were speeding up to 20km/h over the limit.

Tomorrow, Yen will be moving many thousands of kilometres away to Canberra. I'm going to miss our fun times (typically involving the eating of pizza or the drawing of blood for donation purposes).

Twenty people turned up at Sebastian's Italian Restaurant in East Vic Park for her farewell dinner. Luckily I happened to know two of the people sitting next to me which made the night that much more enjoyable. I had Grilled French Cutlets served with a creamy mash and a rich demi for my main course. It sounds nice but it wasn't very satisfying. We all had to ask what 'demi' was and we were told it's just a fancy term for gravy.

We had our 'last lunch' together a little over a week ago. This is note worthy because afterwards I ate my first and last ice cream of 2007. I won't lie, it tasted magnificent. It is mind boggling to think I hadn't eaten an ice cream all year. I wonder when I will have my one ice cream of 2008?

Sunday night I watched 2 Days in Paris at the cinema with Peter. It wasn't too bad but I expected a bit more from Julie Delpy.

On Christmas morning I watched two Charlie Brown Christmas specials.
During the day and night I ate a lot of trifle. I want more trifle. I love trifle.
I'm eating left over potato and egg salad at the moment.
Why do we only eat this stuff at holiday time?

My brother Dion flew in this morning. He will be here for two weeks before heading back to London. He has made fun of my beard twice so far. I expected more.

I want to waste some money in the post-christmas sales but cannot think of anything I really need or want.

Apparently it was 43º today. Stupid summer and its heat making me sweat.

Nuala took me to Jimmy Deans for lunch. I had never been there before. It is one of those places that attempts to look like a rock and roll diner. The theme is understated, thankfully.

I had a Whoopie Burger (150g meat patty, mayo, tomato ketchup, salad, tomatoes), Chips, and Pineapple Juice.

The view from my seat was of the beach. It reminded me of when I was young and used to always go to the beach. Although the water looked lovely I have no strong urges to ever set foot in the ocean again. I have nothing against the ocean but I prefer to appreciate it from a distance these days.

I want to try and finish my gift shopping tomorrow.

Today was simple. My head was buried under the covers when I heard my phone ringing (actually I thought it was my snooze alarm). Nuala was on the other end saying something about going out and buying things. I slowly wrestled myself out of bed. We completed her task, bought a new mobile phone for myself, ate KFC for lunch, watched a movie, and retired ourselves to some afternoon lounging. Good times. More please.

Earlier this week
While walking along William Street I noticed a sign for a noodle house on the side of what looks like an apartment block. Yen and I were starving so we checked it out. The business card for this place says Café Asia. It's not the most aspiring name when you want something good to eat but names can be deceiving. There is plenty on the menu. Almost every noodle dish had the word lamian written somewhere. Neither of us had a clue what lamian noodles were and we didn't want to try something we mightn't like. We were hungry and wanted needed a satisfying meal. My Fried Kway Teow was delicious and the beef was beautifully tender. I had received more satisfaction from this meal than expected which made me curious about the rest of the menu. The location is interesting since it's down a side street. I doubt they get much foot traffic aside from people like us who are curious. They also serve a variety of coffee which I decided to leave until I am with a more coffee conscious friend.

Browsing IKEA is a lot of fun for me. After half an hour of looking around I was trying to work out if a flat packed bookshelf would fit in my car. It would not. In the store I can see a million reasons (possibly foolish) to buy anything. I do love wandering through the displays and testing all of the furniture. At the end of the line we rewarded ourselves with those suspicious IKEA hotdogs. It did not kill me.

I bought Jenga for $13.

I spilt Boost Juice in the car. That wasn't fun.

I have caught up with the current season of Dexter. The direction they decided to take the show is interesting. I am in high suspense for the final two episodes.

I love the song Fade Into You by Mazzy Star. Peter introduced it to me as "that song in lots of movies". We didn't know what it was called but through the situational context and years of male bonding I actually knew what song he meant. We have the song now. I always have a moment to myself when it comes on. It makes me feel like I am in my own movie. That may sound cheesy but I think it's the coolest thing ever.

Late yesterday afternoon I donated whole blood for the last time this year. Yen said she'd come and donate too. I liked that idea because she was the one who came with me to my first ever donation at the beginning of the year. It was like completing a story. As I said to her, it's not necessarily a great story but it's a story nonetheless. She beat my donation time by three minutes, damn it. Afterwards we ate pizza. Wednesday night is pizza night at the bloodbank. Give blood, get pizza. I like that deal.

I made an appointment to donate plasma in four weeks. That will surely be interesting.

Today was the first day in three weeks I actually felt like I was on holiday. It's about time that feeling kicked in because it felt good.

Went out for tea this afternoon with Peter and received what I think was 'regular-customer respect'. The waitress was being very nice and we even received a good discount.

Tonight I had dinner at Zebra's African Steakhouse with a few classmates from my Korean units. We decided to each bring a guest along to make it more interesting. I invited Nuala (truthfully it was more of a demand than an invite) and she said she enjoyed herself. Zebra's never fails at pleasing my senses. I had the Stuffed Cheese Fillet: A thick fillet filled with blue cheese and topped with a creamy pepper sauce. It's one of the most expensive things on the menu and it was worth every cent. It wasn't the greatest experience though because they took a very long time to serve us. It wasn't even that busy. We had a theory that we were being treated poorly because half of our table didn't turn up.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in about six years. Akey and I used to study design for industry together. We were both very lazy design students. I eventually dropped out and unwittingly relinquished contact with my favourite Chilean lass. It's taken until now for us to reconnect through to the wondrous powers of facebook.

I had imagined a somewhat subdued get together but it was actually very lively. We treated each other just like we did all those years ago. The way we communicate had not changed - a subtle blend of of arguing, taunting, teasing, and belittling (all in jest of course) amongst regular conversation. We sat around for about three hours gathering the events of the past years and updating each other on everything that matters. At times like this I always feel like it will be difficult to piece enough information together. That is not the case though because people ask questions you don't necessarily expect which then bring back forgotten memories. We managed to piece together what really happened the day we accidentally got high. I had forgotten so many of the finer details from that bizarre adventure. I think we both miss the daily entertainment we got from being young art students.

I like how I've been meeting people lately. It's interesting.

Starting from this week I've been trying to save money by not buying frivolous items. It's going well so far but I seem to like buying lunch and dinner. I've got wads of receipts that detail the reason behind my declining bank balance. A quick glance at them reveals that I like eating pizza and drinking lemon lime & bitters.

Let us begin by mentioning the weather. A sweltering 39º day is unacceptable. I will happily brave a cold winter but not these hot summer days. They have never been my friend nor do I think they ever will be.

As the harsh sun made me sweat from every pore, I walked from Northbridge into the city centre to find Yen. We always meet in the same spot but never have a precise plan of what we are actually going to do. I was only interested in the cool conditioned air flowing through all of the shops that surrounded us. We dawdled around a few places with some Icey Ice in hand. She wanted to help me go Christmas shopping but soon realised how bad I am at thinking of gifts. We gave up.

Two hours later we walked back to Northbridge and had dinner at The Moon with Kim. I've been to The Moon countless times but I'd never had The Moon Burger. It was huge! Lettuce, tomato, cheese, a freshly made beef patty, and beetroot, incased in turkish bread with mayonaise. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. It was surrounded by chips too. The burger itself sat on the plate with a large wooden stake stabbed through the centre and it was about 10 inches tall. It had to be squeezed so tightly for me to try to get my mouth around it. Yen helped me with the chips but there were still a handful left at the end. No more could fit in that tummy of mine. The burger was pretty damn good and may even be worth the $16.

The rest of the night consisted of walking around and a sit down while drinking bubble tea. We had a conversation about balls, naming as many kinds as we could. Yes, it's as interesting as it sounds.

A couple of weeks ago I watched and purchased The Fountain. I tried to know as little as possible about it because I didn't want to spoil a movie by Darren Aronofsky with too much expectation. The movie turned out to be very good. The story was actually a bit different to the what the marketing would have you believe. I recommend not paying close attention to any blurbs for this movie. At the moment I think it was fantastic but I will watch it a again before making a more concrete assessment.