Just for the Sake of It ...

... some more photos.

Total Blonde Moment

There was a report on the news about Christina Applegate's breast cancer treatment.


When I saw the name 'Applegate' on the screen, I completely spaced on what her surname was, and said "They're calling it Applegate??", thinking that her facing cancer was being compared in some way to the Watergate scandal.

Of course, this led to much confusion - and maybe a slight degree of offense - on the part of both Ben and Carol's house guest, Luke. I'm still not sure whether or not they thought I was referring to her as an "it".

It wasn't until hours later that I realised my gaffe, and felt suitably embarrassed.

I am such an idiot sometimes.

Leaping Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

My latest Internet addiction?

Google Earth! Specifically the Street View.

It's so freakin' awesome! Type in an address and 'Whooooosh!', around the world you go, flying like Superman. Arrive at your destination, double-click on the map and zoom down until you've landed in the middle of the street, with a 360 degree view of whatever you've gone to look at, whether it be the Eiffel Tower, Hollywood Boulevard, or even your old childhood home. (Of course, being the big geek I am, I actually make the flying 'whoosh!' noises as the camera spins through the sky. Simone can attest to this).

Of course, it's as creepy as it is cool. The whole thing feels a bit Enemy of the State.



When you look at my street, you can see my car in front of my house! In full detail! Spooky!

Mighty Boosh Series 3

Possibly even better than series 1 & 2!

You want a unique challenge, though? Try explaining it to someone who's never heard of it before. It's not an easy thing to do!

The following is one of my favourite parts. I sent it through to both Luke and Simon, being the thespians that they are, but I figured I'd put it up here, too.

Indicator Switches & Seagulls on the Roof

Yesterday I wrote about how I was off to an author event, about which I was feeling somewhat anxious. Turns out, like everything in life, I was worrying needlessly about it.

I drove there in my new company car, a Ford Focus, which looks something like this:


When I got offered the rep's job, I initially asked about using my own car, because I don't want to sell it and I don't want to have two cars. But with everything going on, it was just easier to take the car that was being offered and worry about parking in my time-restricted street later.

It's an awesome car, with all the mod cons. I'm very happy that it's a sedan rather than a hatchback (like all the other reps have ... I hate driving hatchbacks!!). The only thing that really shits me about it is that the indicator switch is Eureopean-style, which means it's on the opposite side to what I'm used to, and that to indicate left you have to push it down instead of up.

This means I have to re-wire my brain after seven years of being on the road. I'm constantly having to think "Left is down. Left is down.". That's when I'm not switching on the windshield wipers by mistake.

Aaaaaaanyway.

The bookshop the event was being held in was beautiful. The author was an extremely nice guy, and I ended up chatting not just with him, but a number of the people who'd come along to hear him speak. His book's a non-fiction title about a sniper in Gallipoli who was half-Chinese. Fascinating stuff.

Because the bookshop was in Frankston, you could hear seagulls cawing outside and on the roof as the author was giving his talk.

The whole thing had a very laid-back feel, and I ended up being very glad I went .... even if I didn't get home until after 10.

I got my new business cards today .... which means I now have about three or four hundred out-dated ones I have to throw out. Ah well.

Bring on the weekend!

How Saucy!

The other day I had a craving.

Across the road from work there's this steak place that has a reputation for doing the best steaks in Melbourne. We've been there a couple of times for business lunches, and I have to say the reputation is well-earned. But what I like even more than the steak, what I often find myself with a desperate craving for, is the garlic sauce that you can order there.



Oh God! This sauce! It's so delicious!

Every now and then I get a distinct hankering for it. The problem is that this steak place isn't cheap, so it's not something that can go on the menu all that often.

On Wednesday I started wondering what it'd take to make that garlic sauce. I figured it would be pretty simple; garlic, thickened cream, and butter. But surely it'd be more complicated than that!

Getting home from work early, I found myself in the very rare mood to cook. I headed down to the local supermarket to get my ingredients. Luckily, there was a beautiful cut of rump steak waiting for me, which is very rare given how crappy the meat section in this market tends to be.

I picked out my cream, got some lettuce and olives to make a salad as well as crinkle-cut chips for a side dish, and headed home.

I poured the cream into a bowl and added minced garlic, thinking all I'd do was zap it in the microwave. Oh, poor, sweet fool! It quickly became evident that all this would result in was garlic-flavoured cream. Not all that appetizing.

I started up the stove as I stuck the chips in the oven to see if I could salvage the sauce. A good deal of heat, stirring, extra scoops of cream, butter and garlic later, and VOILA! I had a sauce that, while it wasn't EXACTLY like the stuff I craved, was pretty damn close!

I thought about taking a picture of the end result (including the picturesque salad with raspberry salad dressing!) but I couldn't hold out with how much my mouth was watering. So just imagine something like this with a hearty side helping of greens (I forgot to mention the blue cheese-stuffed olives I included in the salad .... mmmmmmm!).

All in all, it made for a pretty damn good Wednesday night meal, and because I started making it so early, I had eaten and washed up all the dishes by about 7.15. This rep life has a lot going for it!

I'm thinking I'm going to try to experiment with making more sauces, but I don't know if I'll be able to avoid making the garlic sauce as much as I possibly can.

God, I want some more right now!!

I've Got a Bad Feeling About This ...

So apparently the new animated Star Wars movie depicts Jabba the Hutt's uncle as some sort of gay stereotype, speaking not in Huttese with sub-titles like his nephew, but in a voice that Lucas told the director should be based on Truman Capote. Seriously.

What the hell happened exactly? When did Lucas go from being master storyteller and visual magician to ... I don't know ... how would you even describe it? The producer of America's Funniest Home Videos with a budget of a billion dollars and a total brain cell count of 1?

It's like he was driving along one day and took a wrong turn right up his own arse.

In fact, it's kind of like watching Anakin's downfall; a young, idealistic guy with natural talent and the drive to capitalize on it, falling to the dark side of tyranny and empire-building.

Short of his son redeeming him moments before Lucas's death (before his son then heads off to a bitchin' Ewok party) I can think of only one other thing that can be done to insure that Lucas ceases his comprehensive assault on not one, but now two beloved franchises (including the trainwreck that was the new Indiana Jones movie);


Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

Sweating Bullets

As part of my whole "new job" thing, I have to go to Frankston tonight for an author event. No one from the publicity team can make it, and as the bookshop that's holding the event is one of my accounts, the ball falls to me. Don't people know I don't like going places or doing things??

I'm completely unsure of what I'm supposed to be doing. As far as I know, I'm going there simply to hang out with the author beforehand because he gets a bit nervous about public speaking, so my being there is intended as a gesture of support. I don't know if I'm going to have to do the publicist thing of standing at the head of the signing line and writing down the names of peoples wanting to get their book signed on little post-it notes that then get stuck to the cover for ease and economy of time. I hope not, but I imagine that'll probably be the case.

I won't be getting home until after 9.30. It's not such a big deal, as today has been soooooo quiet. I don't think it'll be until week after next when I'm actually doing sell-ins that my new job will get genuinely busy.

Even so, looking forward to when tonight is over and done with.

Promises, Promises

Okay, so it's been a good while since I promised to update .... but I always keep my promises!

..... more or less ....

Aaaaaanyways, here's what's been happening lately (as in, the past two or three months)

Sarah's Birthday.

First of all ..... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH!!!

Not that that really needs to be said because, in addition to it being very belated, it would seem to all onlookers that Sarah already had an awesome birthday, as evidenced by this one of many, many photos -



Seriously, how good a photo is that?? Of course, it feels a little like the end of A League of Their Own (with the random old woman saying "Let's all take a photo! The original Rockford Peaches!!"). (I should also mention that this photo has been culled from Ben's Facebook page).

Sarah's birthday was an awesome and awe-inspiring affair - a giant dinner party where Sarah, Cara, and AK (Cara's bff BF) put on an amazing spread of Indian underneath a blanket of fairy lights. Not even the bone-chilling cold was enough to dampen our enlivened spirits! Or something!

A really fantastic night, immortalized by a really awesome photo. Much like ....

My birthday!!

For the sake of easiness and comfort, I elected to have my birthday celebrations in Tonik, the bar across the street from home.

I had a really great night - even though I was anxiously trying to bounce from one group of people to another and make sure everyone was enjoying themselves. Thanks to everyone who came along and made it so memorable! (This is also another photo culled from Facebook ... I believe it's Sarah's profile that you'll find this one on!).

The morning after my birthday drinks, Simone and I packed up and headed for Apollo Bay. It was a long drive, but not an unenjoyable one, and when we arrived at the cottage we'd booked, this was the view that awaited us:



That view of the ocean spread from the far left to the far right, 180 degrees. The cabin itself was beautiful .... and made for an excellent place to have toast while watching the TV in the mornings ...

I impressed myself greatly by building a fire. In fact, it was such a strong, blazing fire that, when Simone tried to photograph it, the flames angrily denied their image to appear on camera!

But trust me, there's a fire in there!

Which leads me to fire of another sort ... namely, the fire on top of my birthday cake. Or, more accurately, birthday COOKIE.

Simone not only had the brilliant idea of getting me a birthday cookie, but also managed to pick it up and hide it in the car, all without me being any the wiser!

On the Sunday of our stay (we had taken the Monday off), Simone and I packed into the car to take in the sights of the Twelve Apostles. We ended up stopping off at the site of an historic lighthouse, which was both a blessing and a curse. The lighthouse and the view from the top of it was great, but the cold and the 3 hour drive to the Apostles took its toll.

(Simone and me on top of the lighthouse).

We made it to the Twelve Apostles in the end, however, and ... well ... I'll just let the pictures Simone took speak for themselves.

Pretty cool, huh?

We drove home the next day, and the first thing I did upon getting through the long drive was have some more birthday cookie.

Mmmmm .... that's good cookie!

In the weeks that followed that, work got insanely busy as I prepared for our half-yearly conference, the event that I'd been made responsible for. It all went well in the end, even though I got sick the day before it and had to miss the first two days (there are also photos of this event, which you can find through my profile on Facebook)

I'm currently in the middle of training for my new job as a sales rep. I get my car, phone and laptop on Friday, and I'm starting to think I might actually be able to do this job and not get fired, so that's a bonus.

In any case, this is already a large post after not blogging for so long, and I'm kind of over it. I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, as the anecdotes were a little on the poor side. All in all, I'd rate this post a B minus. High on content but low on information.

See ya next time.