Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!

I've been thinking recently about the idea that everyone has something to teach, or that I can learn something from everyone. I started thinking about it because I was brooding about Eliza (it's her birthday on Wednesday, drat her, and I can't seem to forget the date, which means I think about her every time I look at next week's roster) Two years ago I wrote a post in which I mentioned the things she taught me (mainly- not to be her.) While the lesson she taught me was hard, and was not taught by her willingly (or not with my benefit in mind) I started thinking about all the things friends have taught me that were lessons given willingly and happily for my benefit, whether they were knowingly giving a lesson or not.

This list is not conclusive, and I'll probably come back and add to it many times over the next week.

Things my friends have taught me

Seamus: To love and be loved without fear and with total trust
Andrea: To make bread
Elena: To sing "Sweet Kate" and not be afraid to sing properly in front of a friend
Lisa: To make marmalade
Kitty: To play with harmonies
Helen: To act, to get the very best out of my acting
Shayne: That strong friendships can be formed in a few in depth conversations topped up with ten minute chats
Sarah: To not underestimate my own strength
Eva: That nurture and love and kindness make you shine and are the strongest antideppressants I know
Kate: That conflict can be healthy and even if it's scary it's good to disagree with your partner/family/friend sometimes
Anna (J): To felt and craft with abandon
Erica: That "all that Roman stuff" that comes after the 5th century BC is actually interesting
James: To play beach cricket, even when hungover
Lauren: That survival of evil is not just possible- it's pleasurable
Mark: That route learning has it's place (First declension! Second declension!)
Liam: To eat the skin on kiwi fruits
Hannah: To make potato rounds with eggs for dinner when feeling financially poor and needing comfort food
Michael: To listen and remain calm
Andy: The cryptic crossword is not to be feared
Penny: To make mint jelly and strawberry jam
Penelope: The wonders of tapestry
Molly: That I can think laterally in an emergency (eg. finding an English-speaking chiropractor who makes house calls on a Sunday in Rome? No problem!)
Andrew (Fin): To sign off emails that are between formal and informal "Cheers"
Anna (A-C): To cook 2 minute noodles in a microwave
Rachael: To be more thoughtful and considerate
Daniel (Yeowie): To turn while ice-skating and not fear falling over



No where near finished, but it'll do for present.

SATURDAY
-Sleep in,
-Baked cake,
-Light housework,
-Played with cats,
-wrote in card,
-"wrapped" present (tied a ribbon round it),
-Made dinner,
-car pooled with vivienne_aster who has been away, yay!
-Will and Rose's engagement party
-"Twistmas in July" dancing at Trades Hall (WAY too crowded, but still fun for a little while)

SUNDAY
-Sleep in,
-Queen Vic Market,
-Jam doughnuts for breakfast,
-Early afternoon nap,
-Made dinner,
-Iced cake,
-relaxed with a book while Seamus mopped and vacuumed
-Made wasabi bread (like garlic bread but with wasabi butter)
-Parents and brother came over, nice dinner,
-Cleaned up and reassembled table after dinner, then relaxed with book and cup of tea and jazz cds
-Worked overnight, did two hours of paperwork but didn't receive a call

Friends, family, baked goods, nice house, not-much-work= pretty darn perect weekend.

Last night mc_shamo and I went to the East Brunswick Club and had dinner with insomnius and her housemate and ephant, then Stefan, clappamungus, cows_might_fly and deathbyshinies (YAAAY!) came. We saw an awesome Guild League gig, marred only slightly by a small amount of homophobia fail by one of the supports. Then "lj user="deathbyshinies"> and I had a bit of a catch up and caught taxis home. Much much fun :-)

I have decided I need to get out more often.

Friday:
-Trip to Castlemaine
-Very enjoyable car trip with Seamus
-Purchase of soap, included an encounter with two lovely old Great Danes who seemed permanent fixtures in the shop
-Pleasant browse through antique and book stores
-Awesome lunch and great coffee at a cafe- reassuring us that good coffee now does exist in Castlemaine
-inspection of some houses in what will be our price range in 3 years. All very exciting.

Saturday:
-DaySpa visit
-My aunt and uncle came over for afternoon tea and brought with the them wedding present from that side of the family, which is all the glassware we could ever need. A really useful and lovely present.
-Dropped in at Andrew's housewarming where he very nicely plied me with sangria and tequila jelly shots
-Dropped in at Sarah and Daniel's place for a MUCAAS pub with Mark

Sunday:
-Trip to Olinda
-Originally intended to be in Olinda for breakfast but we gave in to our growling tummies when we past a Pancake Parlour about half way.
-Tea and scones at the Pie restaurant in Olinda
-Browsed the shops in the village and bought lollies, chocolates and hand painted china cats (as you do)
-Checked in to Candlelight cottages, where we stayed for our first anniversary of starting to date two years back.
-Had a spa!
-Had a nap
-Had a hot chocolate curled up in the loungeroom and listened to pretty classical music
-Walked back to the village and had a wonderful dinner at Immerse.
-Walked back and cuddled up together watching Breakfast at Tiffanys

Monday
-Wished each other Happy Third Anniversary and Happy 1 Month Until Our Wedding
-Received some very cute red crystal earrings from Seamus which I am wearing right now
-Cooked Breakfast
-Showered, packed and said goodbye to the charming couple who run Candlelight Cottages and their two dogs and one cat
-set off to head back to Melbourne very slowly
-found an antique store and bought a bread bin
-found a chocolate factory and bought chocolates
-lunched at Chateau Yering in Yering which was absolutely AMAZING! I had a heritage tomato salad with goats cheese, Seamus had a duck waldorf salad and then we both had a snapper and wine, and finished with french patries. I got rather giggly from the champagne. We liked it so much we're thinking of coming back next year and staying there a few days as well as at Candlelight cottages, maybe for our first wedding anniversay...
-Got back to Melbourne and met up with our celebrant at the Quiet Man Pub so she could sight legal documents and we could finalise everything.
-Got takeaway Thai from the Asian Kitchen, the best Thai in the area
-Cuddled up on our own couch at home with our cats and watched Roman Holiday

One month left...

The storm was liked by our: basil, strawberry bush, lettuce, nasistrums, marigolds, tomato plants, capsicum plants

The storm was not liked by our: cats

I liked yesterday, which involved a trip to Ceres with vivienne_aster to buy veggies and fruit and some plants.

I liked today, a sleep in then trip to the supermarket with mc_shamo, then I made three meals for over the next few days.

I am looking forward to tomorrow, which will involve a boozy celebratory lunch with impostinator, watching the dancing at the Atherton Gardens Harmony bbq then dinner out with lauren_mitchell.

Life is good.

I awoke abruptly this morning when Loki decided to jump from the shelf over the bed head, at least a metre above where we sleep, directly onto my back. Thanks puss, you twerp.

Went to Pump for the first time in a week and aquitted myself without too much embarassment (though because of my feet the amount of weight I can do on the shoulder tracks is pitiful, pitiful!) It was fun to have a posse, I was there with vivienne_aster, cows_might_fly and _audhumla_, I hope we can do that more often.

I spent the rest of the middle of the day on domestic duties; supermarket shopping, cooking and replanting leeks. I changed the kitty litter but determinidley ignored the dishes.

I have discovered that the organic skincare I won at the expo last week is quite divine. This is how they get you, they entice you with freebies then get you hooked! so I'm thinking maybe the money I was saving up for a dayspa can instead be spent on their other products which I can use at home... By the way, if interested the website for the skincare stuff is here.

Am now at work, and it's shaping up to be one of those nights...

I am:

-2172 words into a 3500 word case assessment due tomorrow and I have very little idea if I'm doing it right.

-planning to write a somewhat scathing assessment of this subject tomorrow in the last lecture (though poutting in a good word for my tutor who seems to be doing the best she can)

-rueing leaving things to the last minute

-struggling to breathe and wondering exactly what would happen if I got an acute asthma attack at work

-still full of the yummy food cooked by mc_shamo's mum today- Happy orthodox Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

-glad I went out last night to Bar Open to see Allyson despite looming deadlines and shonky lungs

-starting to mildly panic as I has my third dose of prednisolone today and for the first time I can remember it does not seem to be helping with the breathing

-about to take a dinner break

My Christmas was lovely.

I worked Christmas Eve. I work in emergency services, so you can imagine that working Christmas Eve could be a little disheartening (I was hoping I would not end up like Turk from the first Christmas episode of Scrubs) Luckily it was quiet, so apart from feeling very sad for two young motorcycle riders it was okay.

mc_shamo came and picked me up at 11pm when my shift ended. He drove me home where he had laid out a candlelight supper on the table. There was organic stilton cheese and a spanish dessert wine and two little french puddings being steamed on the stove. By the time we'd finished it was midnight, and we exchanged gifts. I gave Seamus a pair of Etiko high-top shoes (think Converse but fair-trade with renewable rubber and organic cotton) and he gave me a truly beautiful amber and silver bracelet. It's really gorgeous, and it shows that he has excellent taste and also pays attention to what I like, as he got it to match my favourite amber necklace.

We got up on Christmas morning and had a breakfast of fruit and yogurt and cereal. I finished making the food for lunch and we drove to my parents place.

We had a really lovely afternoon. My parents live in Beaumauris, about three houses up from the beach. It was us, my parents, my brother, my paternal aunt Moira and uncle Michael and their daughter- my cousin Tess- and her husband Andrew. Small and manageable. Mum looked a bit disconcerted by my food; she'd forgotten that I was bringing the roast, but relaxed after she took the gladwrap off the salad and said , "Oh, it's cous-cous!" She'd thought I'd made a rice salad and was a bit hurt because she always makes the rice salad at Christmas and everyone always says how nice it is. I assured her that I would never have made a rice salad and was really looking forward to her one. And that there? That was the stickiest moment the entire day, for a family Christmas I believe that's incredibly good going!

For lunch there were four different salads, including mine, then roast ham for the meat eaters, a huge seafood platter and my vegetarian roast, which I'm sure at least my parents and mc_shamo really liked, I certainly did :-) We did well on the present haul too. The night before was my mum's side of the family's Christmas thing, which I couldn't go to as I was working, I'd just sent cards for everyone except my cousin Emily, for whom I'd found a framed Degas print in an op-shop (which Mum said she watched Emily open and she obviously loved, yay!). Mum informed me everyone had disobeyed my "no presents please" request and Seamus and I were inundated with towels, crockery and booze. All of which are welcome. From Dad's side we were given beer glasses (Tess is teh awesome) and some gorgeous serving plates and I got some accessories to jazz up work outfits (Tess again- she is teaching me how to make one expensive outfit actually look like five for work wear). My brother gave us the entire Monty Python's Flying Circus and upped his cool points something chronic. Because we're hippies we gave everyone organic wine, except my brother, who we gave a JB voucher and a keyring of an ugly man who has snot coming out of his nose when you squeeze it. Being my brother David thought this the height of hilarity.

We sat round and vaguely helped with the clearing up and drank coffee until mc_shamo was positive he was right to drive (not that he would have got much over .05 at any point in the day anyway) then drove home along Beach rd. I was really happy. My parents both seemed relaxed and well, and everyone has accepted Seamus as a member of the family. They all like him and include him, and I'm proud of them, because it's the first time someone in this little part of our family has had a "partner" they live with as opposed to a husband or wife. We weren't treated any differently to Tess and Andrew and there are now vague plans for my aunt and uncle to visit us soon for afternoon tea (I wasn't actually sure they'd been told Seamus and I live together). So all was well, and happy. :-)

Christmas night our traditional MUCAAS party was small but cosy and chilled. We had round cows_might_fly, clappamungus, jpom40 (who quickly succumbed to the cat hair he was allergic too, poor thing!) and pseudo-Cambridge-Sam. We talked, watched Monty Python and drank. Lovely. It's a really good way to round off Christmas.

Boxing Day mc_shamo and I hit the sales. Oh boy did we hit the sales. We did Highpoint and the CBD. Our haul:

-Ipod dock
-"All that Alternative" 3 cd set
-men's short sleeved shirts from Jeep
-women's short sleveed 3/4 length summer jacket thing from Jeep
-red zirconia and silver earrings to go with my new bracelet from a jewelers
-a white bra to replace my current one which is now not so much white but grey and has little elasticity left
-two pairs Thai fishermans pants from Ishka
-womens work/casual black pants from Ishka's $10 basket (the clasp had come away from the belt, it took less that ten minutes sewing to fix and hey presto! $60 pair of pants for $10!)
-womens formal/work black pants from Myer
-work top from Myer
-summer dress from Myer (one of those awesome dresses that can be work/formal/casual that Myers is so good at producing)
-mens socks 'n' jocks from Myer
-bananaman t-shirt (whee!I have both now!)
-De Blob Wii game

I also found a perfect suit for jpom40's wedding. Unfortunately it was only available in size 10 or lower. I am a size 12-14. The nice lady at the Cue store in Myers rang around but nowhere in the CBD has it in a larger size. I was bummed, because it was so perfect I was willing to buy it even if James decided he didn't like it and I had to wear something else to the wedding, it would have been worth the suit alone, paticularley at 50% off in the sale. Ah well, cannot win them all. I then found another beautiful one at Antons, but it was $600. I am actually considering it but I'd want James' approval first! It's very nice indeed, the one at Antons, and the jacket could be worn over a dress at later formal occasions.

Today mc_shamo and I are going to his mum's place for Christmas lunch. It should be fun!

All in all, the last few days have been relativley stress free (even the sales are mostly stress-free when done with mc_shamo!) and filled with family and friends and laughter and fun. I have had a wonderful Christmas so far. I know for some people reading this this is not the case, and I truly hope you are as physically and emotionally well as possible and that things improve soon, and that next's year Christmas is better. I'm thinking of you.

Merry Christmas all.

Well, I seem to have struck a lull, so while I wait for more work to come along (which it just did, I started to type this an hour ago, but have again hit lull) I may as well update about my weekend.

Friday I went to cows_might_fly’s place after work and hung out with her and _audhumla_ for a bit before Sarah nicely drove Eva and me to gym where we went to Pump. Getting home proved interesting as it was pouring with rain and the taxi we called didn’t show. Once we did get home with pizzas and junk food we and mc_shamo and clappamungus had dinner and watched through to the end of Press Gang (Don’t worry vivienne_aster, by the time you’re back and in the swing of gym etc. again I’m sure I can persuade people we need to go back for you to watch the eps you’ve missed!).

Saturday mc_shamo and I braved the horrible weather to meet _bounce_ and go to the Artist Market on at the local Scout Hall. This was silly in retrospect as the weather was truly bloody awful. Still, I got some pot holders and tea towels for various relatives for Christmas, and I think Lisa did well too. We all caught the train into the city and I got drenched waiting for the 86 tram to take me to Fitzroy, where I picked up my new shiny boots which are Made of Awesome.

Once I made it home I decided going out again would be a really stupid thing. I texted clappamungus to beg a lift to the party that night then sat and played with my new toy guitar for a couple of hours before my parents and brother dropped in on their way home from my grandparents’ place. It was nice actually, Mum and I just sat and chatted while dad occasionally woke from his doze enough to join in.

I wore my new boots to _audhumla_ and ragedc’s housewarming. I had a great time. I also wore my old green dress, and old favourite- unfortunately a combination of my diminished daring and my more-developed chest meant I was slightly uncomfortable with the neckline. It was a lot more risqué than I remember it being when I was younger (as I said, either that or I didn’t care so much at 19) All in all, I’m glad it was a MUCAAS party with not too many people I didn’t know very well! I was on a nearly empty stomach, which I then filled with beer, shapes and corn chips... but mainly beer. I talked to lots of people and had a good chat with vivienne_aster who is going off to do fieldwork for a few weeks in other bits of Australia. I also got a mite bit tipsy. When clappamungus and cows_might_fly very kindly gave mc_shamo, Kate and I a lift home Kate and I were sufficiently intoxicated to be incapable of putting on our own seatbelts without collapsing into helpless giggles and confusion. In the end Eva had to get out of the front of the car, come around and buckle us in like children.

I was profoundly grateful that the next morning involved our new traditional Hot Poppy hangover breakfast.

I was supposed to go to the gym with _audhumla_ on Sunday afternoon, but I cried off when I realised I had the increasingly rare opportunity of spending a whole afternoon with mc_shamo without distractions or anyone present or something pressing to do. It was pleasant. Then he left and I played with the guitar some more, I can’t remember Under the Bridge or Stairway to heaven to save my life.

And then last night I made vegetarian sweet and sour pork which worked extraordinarily well and prawn crackers and impostinator and I ate it while watching Spaced and drinking pomegranate and cherry juice. We discovered pomegranate and cherry juice is much enhanced by the addition of either vodka or gin, and my hot chocolate recipe (my real one with real chocolate and cinnamon sticks and cloves) is enhanced by a healthy dose of Franjelico and Crème de Cacao. Yum.

So: friends, gym, good food, alcohol, party, cats, beloved, boots.

Weekends are nice.

It’s my birthday! Yaaaaay!

I woke up early so had plenty of time to get ready for work. mc_shamo gave me a card and a present; I can go to Vegan Wares and have pretty much any boots made up that I want! Win! I can’t wait to go in on Saturday and look at all the pretties.

Work has been alright today, am hanging out for lunch when I can go sit on South Lawn with friends for a blessed half hour. I still have pad tai from last night to eat, yuuuum.

I've started bidding on a djembe on Ebay, I know some of my friends can play them, if I win is there anyone willing to give me a crash course?

Tonight I will go home, get changed and go out with Seamus to the 100 Mile Café in the city. I’ve never been there but have heard good things.

So, sleepy but happy, generally content with where my life is now and where it’s heading, feeling loved and appreciated by many wonderful people.

This has possibly been the best birthday yet. :-)