Simone and I are off to a workmate's wedding on Sunday night and, tired of wearing the same old stuff, I went and bought a new shirt and tie today. I actually went with my boss and my workmate (the guy whose wedding it is) and picked out a fancy European-cut shirt (at least, I'm told by Simone it's European-cut, and I tend to trust her) and a swish black-and-white tie (the whole wedding theme is black-and-white).
Photos of my swankiness will no doubt appear here in time ... although given that I'll be with Simone, I'll be lucky to not end up being the shabby guy standing next to the beautiful-woman-who-could-quite-obviously-do-much-better.
Yes, you can all gag now.
Anyways, as the shirt was European cut, it quickly turned out that a pair of cuff links would be needed.
My boss (we shall call him PK) offered to lend me some, but when I found a pair for a reasonable price I decided "To hell with it" and bought my very first pair of cuff links.
This, combined with some exciting news on the job front, leaves me feeling like a responsible and upwardly mobile man, rather than the slack and directionless guy-child I often function as.
And finally, to wrap up ... Things I still need to blog about;
- how the conference went
- how I managed to turn our living room into a mini-theatre for just over 24 hours.
Upcoming things to blog about;
- the wedding, and the awesomeness therein.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Does This Mean I'm a Man Now?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Stylistic Comparison
To wit;
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - UK edition
[Ramsay's] Kitchen Nightmares - US edition
I think we can all agree how horribly annoying the American version is; hell, the one I watched on TV was even worse, seeing as instead of the gentle Scottish voice-over guy it had a terrible American narrator.
I don't think I've ever seen a better illustration in the different approaches that people on either side of the Atlantic have to making television. It's really quite staggering.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Riddle Me This
"It's a place in Australia."
That's the clue we were given last night at Trivia as a clue to the answer of "the Baffler", a multi-round side-quiz where clues are given out and the first team to write down the correct answer wins.
Given that that was all we had to act on, we dismissed filling anything in for it until later rounds, where we'd have more clues. But with the quiz lady prompting us to give it a shot, I wrote down the first place that came to mind.
"Byron Bay".
And that's how I won a bottle of wine in the first round, with only one clue to go on.
A complete fluke!
For the rest of the night, throughout all the other rounds, our team ("H.P. Pennypacker") was in the lead ... until we got to the last round, which was entirely concerned with cricket. Our combined nature as a group of drama nerds and dandy boys was exposed, and we were soundly drummed out of the competition.
Ah well, there's always next time. And until then, I have my fluke wine to comfort me.
Monday, February 18, 2008
"As You Wish"
No words can describe my shameful level of excitement.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
You Know What's Frustrating ?
Trying to protect a single red rose from sudden, sharp, violent bursts of wind.
That is all.
Off to Torquay Tomorrow !
It's gonna be off the chain, yo!
And also a little boring I think, given that I'll be in a room listening to presentations for the majority of it.
Offered Without Comment
"Defamer Australia was fortunate to attend the massed gathering at Melbourne's Federation Square this morning, where around 8000 people watched Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver a moving, intelligent, compassionate and, yes, long overdue apology to the members of the Stolen Generation and for the damage and hurt that it caused Australia's Indigenous people.
Unfortunately for just about everyone there, we also watched opposition leader Brendan Nelson deliver his "apology", which was about as sincere as Jonah saying "Sorry, ranga!" and went a little something like this (and we're paraphrasing, so no quoting us in your school projects): "My mum said I had to apologise to you, but you lot should take a long, hard look at yourselves and get your hand off the bottle and the petrol can, after all, our grandfathers died in the war for you, or something, and no one wants to be born in a remote Indigenous community, anyway, so we did the right thing - it's not our fault you're having a cry about it now."
As one increasingly incensed young professional type next to us shouted, "You're demeaning the whole f--king country with your words."
And while we were moved to tears by Kevin's speech and by the faces of the members of the Stolen Generation who attended Parliament as distinguished guests, we were equally moved - in a slightly different way - when Melbourne decided en masse to tell Brendan what we thought of his speech ... "
" ... Yes, Melbourne turned their backs on Nelson (not before one memorable skater dude in front of us stood for a good two minutes with double flipped birds aimed at the screen), a fact that was duly noted by the ABC's Tony Jones the moment he returned to the telecast following the adjournment.
The Age has footage of the moment here, and we were proud of both parts of Melbourne's reaction to this wonderful day - proud to be a part of saying "sorry", and proud to tell Brendan Nelson he is, in fact, a dickhead."
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Found This While Searching for an Audrey Hepburn Picture ...
Uck!! Who does she think she's kidding ??
What Kind of Day Has It Been?
I’ve just gotten back from a full day of listening to publishers talking about the books on their upcoming slate. Some were interesting, others were a bit dull, but overall it was very worthwhile (even if it means my entire day’s work went pretty much undone!)
The day started off with all of us in the boardroom, putting off the official commencement of our activities to take the time to listen to the Prime Minister’s apology to the Stolen Generation. I found it to be incredibly moving, eloquent and about bloody time (and as my boss said after watching it, “Really, was that so hard?”). Curious to get your opinion on it, Mr Pree!
We then launched into guest authors talking about their soon-to-be-published books. I don’t know how much I can write about on here, but I will say I now have an amusing anecdote about a florist who’s written a book about flowers. The initial impression of him is that he’s a bit Mr Humphries from Are You Being Served? (“I’m free!”), but then he turns out to be a bit more like Bunny (that’s the guy’s name, right, Ben?) from Extras, as he animatedly talks about his wife and kids. There are many more author/publisher stories from today, but like I said, I’d go into more detail if not for the possibility of jeopardizing my career.
Although now that I think about it, I’ll add this one; one of the publishers was this woman in her 50s with a very soft, beautiful German accent, attired immaculately in crisp, dark clothes and sitting with a collection of gorgeous looking books in front of her, with covers consisting of black-and-white photos and very tasteful fonts. She then, very quietly and almost sadly, asked if they looked mass market enough, as she’s wanting to sell into the airport market and wanted to know if they’d compete with the stuff they sell there (read; the disposable thrillers that are picked up and thrown away when one is travelling).
It was like watching Jackie Kennedy or Audrey Hepburn walk into a Sportsgirl and ask for a makeover, and it broke my heart. I wanted to affirm to her that she was publishing beautiful, truly worthwhile books, and to take pride in how dignified and artistic her output was, rather than go chasing the lowest common denominator. But I did not.
About forty of us are going to a Mexican restaurant on Toorak road tonight that I’ve been eyeing off for ages and that I’m told is delicious (and is only open for dinner, the bastards!). As you all probably know, I have a particular fondness for Mexican (well, good Mexican) and am very much looking forward to this.
After that, Simone is very graciously picking me up and escorting me back to my house, which I’m very happy about as I haven’t seen her in days as she’s been away for her division’s conference.
All in all, a very different, but quite pleasant Wednesday.
