Melbourne highlights so far

- eating my Mum's delicious egg-lemon soup after a tiring plane journey
- going through all my clothes, shoes, DVDs and wines
- latte!! real, tasty latte, made properly!!
- seeing my brother and sister-in-law's new house (and having house envy)
- wandering through the city streets, checking out old bar haunts and wondering if they've changed
- playing bingo at the Terminus with the old Sensis techie crowd (and extensions)
- variable weather - hot one day, raining the next
- seeing 'Eagle vs. Shark' at the Nova on Lygon St.
- eating a pack of cheese twisties - yum!
- watching Ben rock out on my brother's Guitar Hero game
- hearing Aussie accents everywhere
- just hanging out at home with family

God bless Terry Pratchett

...who assures us that he is not dead, but is only suffering from a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's. Bless him for being such a cheerful bugger! And may he write loads more books while he can! :)

Human milk - add 30p!

This was a sign in my local coffee shop this morning. I looked at it, and looked at it again, and then I asked about it. The guy said, somewhat condescendingly, that it was a joke. Ok, I'm an idiot. But it did make me wonder for a moment there...

The frost has descended

Ah the English Frost. It made its first appearance of the season this morning. I should have known - this week it's been just that bit colder and the wind that much icier. As I left the flat this morning, the first thing I noticed was the little park and playground in our square all frosted over, icicles twinkling in the sunlight. Beautiful! God only knows where all the squirrels are hiding - I just hope the little munchkins are warm!

Counting the days!

It is now 4 days till we take off for Melbourne! I can't decide what I'm looking forward to the most - spending Christmas with my clan, catching up with friends, showing Ben 'my' Melbourne, seeing the Myer Christmas windows, having a summery and BBQ-themed festive season, or eating food that's full of flavour.

I still have my head buried in this project, and won't be surfacing till the last minute on Friday. Haven't even thought about packing, but I am determined not to take much, and do lots of shopping to bring back instead - the pound to Aussie dollar exchange rate is still sweet! I also need to write a few Christmas cards for people over here (I've succumbed... the guilt is too great) before I go.

I'm very excited... I can't wait! :)

Favourite new muso

In the last month or so I have been introduced to the concept of 'filk' aka 'geek folk'. It is highly amusing. Through Neil Gaiman's blog I have discovered Jonathan Coulton who writes some very funny songs of this genre, and even does a cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" (beats me why I've always liked that song...). Check out his listening suggestions! (Warning: if you listen to this at work and laugh out loud people will give you strange looks. I'm used to that but you might not be).

Freaking out

Ever had a day where things are just freaking you out? All was well until I went to have lunch with a colleague and we sat outside a cafe where pigeons were abundant. First I tried moving my chair while sitting on it, and because it was one of those wooden slat/foldy ones immediately got a finger wedged under the seat which caused a nasty, bleeding cut.

Then a persistent pigeon not only wouldn't move away from our table but actually hopped onto it and started nosing into my salad! It scared the crap out of me! We shooed it away but it just wouldn't go! We quickly grabbed our trays and headed inside. I was shaking for the next 5 minutes.

Then I got back to work to find emails from clients asking about the work I was meant to have finished today. (The key client was away so I figured I could get away with having it done by the time he got back. Ok, so I've been completely burned out by work and have been taking it easy since my huge deadline - I'm only human!) So that caused the heart rate to go a bit silly-fast.

Then I thought Ben had invited all these people I didn't know to our housewarming and had a little freak about that too (I was wrong and I apologised).

So all in all, I've had about enough shocks for one day! I feel emotionally bruised and my finger still hurts :( I just want to go home and cuddle my giant toy monkey...