Feedback please?

Can everyone please comment on what you like/dislike about my layout? Check out the new and less busy background!

I mostly hate everything about the layout but I was wondering, from 1 to 10, 1 being nothing happened, 10 being bleeding occurred: how sore are your eyes after reading any one of my blog posts?

Is there something you would like to have changed immediately?

kthxbixoxoxoxo

Weird dreams series #256

I dream quite a bit, and more often than not I am able to remember my dreams, at least for a few hours in the morning and if I am able to re-tell them to someone I can remember them for a lot longer. While M was gone, I had the privilege of renting and watching the 2nd half of the first season of a little show called Glee. I don't know what it is about handsome geeks and show choir that is so appealing to a quarter-lifee like me, but there is a special little nook in my heart for every one of those characters.

Now, I watched the show last week, but it seems my subconscious is only catching up to it now because I have been dreaming with the cast members for 2 nights already. It seems that in my heart I really want Finn and Quinn to get married, because they did in my dream. Oh, and also, Puck totally wants to get with me.

Sorry Puck, I'm taken.

Everyone, meet my new boyfriend:

His name is hottie,  and he IS a hottie. We slept together on our first date and on every evening since then.

I hope M is open minded about polygamy.

Australian English Dictionary

Sometimes I have a hard time understanding the thick Aussie accent. In young people it is very mild, exotic and pleasant. In the older generation it is thick, mumbled and completely unintelligible by the likes of me. So much in fact that yesterday when a plumber came to make a few repairs to our house, he mumbled something or other about the bathroom. Of course the bathroom needed a few fixes and I nodded, smiled, and followed him there. Suddenly he tries to shut the door to find that I am on the way, gives me the look and raises his big old eye brows. The guy simply wanted to go to the bathroom and surely he thought I was a creep. End of story.

To make matters worse, it is not just the accent that is distinct, but also English words can have different meanings. I am compiling an ever growing list of Aussie standards in case you ever come visit, or hear me say something strange. Here is my version of Australian to English translations:

Bikey: Is a motorcycle gang member.
Boot: The trunk of the car.
Bottle shop: Is a liquor store.
Brekky/Brekkie: Breakfast.
Capsicum: This is what they call bell peppers.
Chemist: This is a pharmacy, i.e. "I'm going to the chemist for some medicine."
Dry cleaners: This could be the dry cleaners, or it could also be a bar where you go "pick up a suit". Get it?
Hotel: It can be an actual hotel, or it could be just a bar. It turns out that according to New South Wales liquor laws, it is easier to obtain a liquor license if you declare your business as a hotel instead of a bar.
Hungry Jack's: The Australian name for the chain Burger King.
G'day: means hello :-)
Jumper: Is a sweater.
News agency: A stand or store that sells newspapers, bus tickets, etc.
Note: That's a bill i.e. "Do you have any five dollar notes?"
Petrol: Is gasoline!
Removalists: Those are the movers.
Servillete: Some places around here use this French word instead of the good ol' "napkin".
Singlet: Is a wife beater, the clothing garment, not the domestically violent man.
Take away: The Australian version of "to-go" i.e. "I will have a large burger and fries for take-away."
Unit: Another word for an apartment.

Ranting... I think I need more human interaction

Dear decently-sized-lizard who was playing dead in our garden right up until the moment I got close to you,

Screw you.

Dear spider who keeps knitting webs every night in the back yard after I clean them off,

You win.

Dear everyone else,

Hello hello!!! I totally got started on my list of things to do this week. I bought fabric and I already cut it for my cushion and my curtains *** Then I cleaned like, 80% of the dead leaves in the backyard (the other 20% looks super gross and I refuse to suffer through it alone so I am waiting for M to come back) *** I bought three glasses *** I have also been reading a TON, and sleeping a TON *** I started yoga, and all my muscles hurt *** I also went to visit the BEAUTIFUL Royal Botanic Gardens here in Syd, and I totally and undeniably saw a possum! Oh and yes, that possum saw me right back.

Today I went walking around Oxford St. and bought 2 pairs of shoes for $50. It was a total deal!!! and they are so cute!!! and I don't need any more shoes this summer, yay. I also visited Paddington's market, which like most other markets around here mainly showcase local artists and businesses, which is great, but I also miss the good old flea markets and garage sales, what I need is furniture people! Yes, I also visited 2 garage sales today and it was mostly old raggedy winter jackets and scuba diving suits. People pee in those suits you know? I don't see myself buying a used one...

Back to shoe shopping, did you know I used to be one of those shoe junkies? Now this is a normal stage in most women's lives. I think in college at one point I had collected a record of 39 pairs. Which is absolutely ridiculous now that I think of it. Most of those went off to charity or to friends and now I only have a few basics. Now I try not to buy new shoes unless it is to replace an old pair that has succumbed to wear and tear, which is sort of what happened today. It has taken me years to learn about myself, that I am not nor will I ever be a glamourous girl or look like I stepped right off the streets of NYC (or Caracas for that matter, you should see my girlfriends at home). I now know that I am simple, yet pretty, and casual, and comfortable. I love the idea of high heels. I hate wearing high heels. I look like I am drunk when I walk on them, not to mention I just can't do it for more than a couple of hours.

Also, did you know my brother moved to California? He's a super cool guy and if you live there you should hang out with him.

Did you know the human nose never stops growing?

Did you know that regular coffee has more caffeine than espresso?

Uh-oh

M has had it with me and he's decided to leave me. For 9 days.  I am feeling something like this:

The first part is a joke, or half a joke anyway. He is indeed leaving, to visit his family and also to speak at a conference about some really cool stuff he works on. It feels like in our relationship we go through periods of lots of fighting and then something at work comes up and he must travel, followed by periods of being appreciative and happy in love. I am starting to wonder if he schedules these trips on purpose whenever he feels like we need a break from each other.

Anyway, whatever his mysterious plans are, I will miss him a lot. Plus he is my general heat source at night, I always freeze whenever he is not sleeping right next to me. The only way I can forgive him for this treacherous move involves presents, lots and lots of presents. I hope he is reading...

In order to keep busy and useful in the next 9 days, I am making a list of things that I have been dreading to do, because I hate doing most of them:

1. Clean the stains on our tiled kitchen and laundry floor
2. Clean the backyard of dead leaves and spider webs (I HATE spiderwebs)
3. Clean the funky thing piece of furniture
4. Fix the broken drawers on the funky thing piece of furniture
5. Go to IKEA
6. Look for jobs or volunteering opportunities

There's also a short list of slightly more pleasant things to do:

7. Blog
8. Start going to yoga
9. Make curtains
10. Make cushion seat for my desk stool
11. Go looking for chairs for our dinning table
12. Go looking for glasses so we can stop drinking water out of plastic bottles
13. Visit at LEAST one museum or local attraction

I am also determined to finish reading the book I am currently on, and if possible start a new one. Wish me luck.

Out, about and hard at work...

First, the BIG news...

WE OWN A FRIDGE!!!! :-D!!!! :'-D!

After a long and arduous afternoon of appliance and furniture shopping, we went to Sydney's Factory Theatre for the Delta Spirit concert. They were not the main act, but they were the main act for us, and really the only reason we bothered. 

After a fabulous show (check out the beautiful song called Vivian, above) we ventured back into King St for a late dinner. At this point it is 10:30 at night, and we are not human any more. We are hungry beasts, lions, in the hunt for a juicy innocent gazelle or a tasty baby water buffalo. The roaring, quarreling, frisking and hounding left us with a few bruises and for a few moments I thought we would not survive, but there were simply no restaurants open at 11pm on a Sunday night!!! What's up with that?

Then we found a place called twelve, serving pizza for another 10 minutes, sweet baby water buffalo pizza, and so we're like hell yeah! Our tiresome feat and the short lived famine actually nourished our brains and the old gears started cranking. We came up with an infalible business idea: a restaurant that is open ONLY from 10pm to 6am every night of the week. It would serve an international menu consisting of pizza, chinese, thai, breakfast, hamburgers and mexican food. We are going to call it "Munchies". And that's that. Now we just wait for the cash to start rolling in.

Hair woes

M and I both have long hair. We both are losing it an alarming rate. You think household dust is a problem? No, we have a household hair problem. You should see our pillows in the morning, or the bathroom in the evenings.

I think one, or better yet, both of us should cave in and buzz our heads. It will make cleaning a whole lot easier around here...

DIY desk renovation

For the few of you (sad) who were puzzled about my last post. It's all good now, I took a chill pill and I feel great, in fact I have had a pretty darn nice couple of days since then. So as promised, my first DIY project.

Supplies for this project include: a desk, paint, knobs, glue and pretty paper.

We purchased this beauty from the Salvation Army in Tempe:

$50 bucks, and overpriced trust me (oh, and they were asking for $85). Perhaps they charged me for all those dead bugs I found inside and I'm not joking. The first step to renovation is cleaning the piece, this when I found spider webs and dead flies encrusted on the insides.

The next step to renovation is going to the hardware store and buying the supplies you will need. I needed new hardware (knobs) and paint. I went for white satin spray paint. I went for spray paint because I wanted to avoid having brush streaks all over my desk, I wanted it to look evenly painted, which it does, but I also learned that spray painting is wasteful and inefficient and dirty. Lots of those paint particles that don't end up on the piece will end up on yourself or on the surfaces around the spraying area. I think next time I will simply invest into a good brush/sponge and use the good ol' bucket of paint.

I had to do 3 coats of paint (about 2.5 cans, good news is spray paint dries fast!) to convert this desk from black to white. I chose white "satin" because it was the in-between medium between glossy and matte.

I let the desk dry for 24 hours before I did anything else to it, and I also sprayed the inside of the drawer with a single thin coat because I wanted a white surface for the next step.

Not too far from the hardware store, there is also an arts and crafts store. I found the most *beautiful* hand made Japanese paper there. The sad part is that it costs $24 per sheet :((( so Instead I went for a pretty floral pattern for $8 per sheet.

I measured my desk drawer and cut the paper to size. I also cut off the corners because sometimes you have to cut corners when the paper doesn't fit into them...

Apply regular white craft glue generously... not. I learned from this that when it comes to glue, less is more. If the paper gets soaked in glue then it will develop little wrinkles and even stains (happened to a different project). So just apply a little bit of glue and spread it around with a brush or bundle of paper.  Spread it all the way to the edges, and if more is needed then apply a little bit more. I worked with halves of my surface instead of all of it at once.

Let dry. Install hardware and voila!

I have pretty new desk and I really, really like how it turned out. I bought that little stool for it and I want to make a little cushion so it is more comfortable to sit. I have no plans on how I will do that yet.

Stressing

I don't know if you know this about me, but stressing is one of the things I do best.

We finally moved into the new place last Saturday. It is beautiful, but also scary (oh, and also dirty). Everything is so uncomfortably unfamiliar and empty. I am not yet fulfilling my dream of finding cheap stuff.  We went to the Salvation Army store, their biggest store around here, in Tempe, and while we got an OK deal on the items we bought (comparatively to the price they were asking for) I still felt cheated a little bit. I have been to garage sales in the USA where chairs and lamps are $5 each. Here they are $20, $50 or even hundred's if you find something mildly resembling retro. Let it go people!!! It's junk!!! It's junk that I want, too, so please top selling it as if they were relics.

As I was saying, we bought a few items. These include a desk for moi, a little stool that will serve as a desk chair, a dinning table and funky drawer something, we decided to just call it "that funky thing".  We also have a bed, but that one we bought brand new, although it was pretty affordable. I also bought bedding and I will admit I went all out and bought fancy bedding. It makes me feel like royalty, plus the sleeping quarters are important aren't they? That's all for now. It's not enough. You know what else is not enough? Money! It looks like I will have to tap into the job market a lot sooner that I wanted to. M and I are starting from scratch, and I am starting to feel like it is not fair to him to carry all this weight alone. Right now I feel like I will be looking for employment before the end of the week.

So yeah, stress, stress, stress. Any tips on how to relax? Clear your mind? Preferably in a cheap/free and rewarding way?

I was working hard on my first renovation project today which is my desk. I snapped a few photos with my phone, but it is not finished yet so I will post about that next.

Our first week in Sydney

Sydney is still rocking my socks off.

We found a great place to live, actually M found it, and he has been complaining about me not giving him enough credit ever since I tweeted "I found an apartment". Next week we will be moving to a lovely little house in the heart of a trendy, hip, artsy neighborhood in Sydney. We will have 2 bedrooms (well, a bedroom and a office/guest room), a gas kitchen and gas water heater, one bathroom, living room and a backyard big enough for barbecuing and maybe a tiny patio table.

Ever since we found the perfect place I have been spending time scavenging for the perfect furniture. The truth is, I rather find crappy old stuff and try to renovate it myself, than to buy brand new everything. So I have been scavenging for places that sell this stuff and will try to write a blog post on my research later on.

The neighborhood itself is quite fabulous, there are SO many restaurants. Even if we ate out every night, it would take us a solid year to check out every restaurant. There are not one, but two yoga studios on our street (let's see where that gets us). The bus stop and train station are a 5 minutes walk, and the grocery store is about 6 minutes. Basically, it's perfect.

... Except for one thing: rental properties don't have appliances :( So we will need to either buy or rent our own fridge, washer, dryer and/or dishwasher (in order of importance).

Yesterday we went to a bike sale sponsored by the City of Sydney and benefiting Erskineville Public School. Volunteers took the time to fix and clean old donated bikes, and sold them for profit for the school. I bought myself an old road bike, a bit dirty but in good shape and with working gears. M has higher standards and he wishes people donated brand new bikes, so I think he is holding out for the perfect thing to come his way.

After the bike sale we headed back to the harbour (or harbor?) and went on a ride on the Thunder Jet. We received a gift certificate for this ride from our friends in Zurich. It was a LOT of fun, I would describe it as a roller coaster on water. Here is a photo of M before we sailed off:

M is coming down with a cold today, so we are staying put and enjoying a movie/internet marathon in the hotel. This week will be a lot mellower... I will need ideas to keep busy.