August 2007 Archives

everything is moving slow.

we're moving slow. mostly because we're probably not moving at all. after looking at a bunch of places around melbourne, it looks like we are getting ripped off by our landlord to an acceptable degree. sure, we might be able to find something cheaper, but it probably wouldn't be much cheaper or, if it was, it wouldn't be once moving costs were factored in. we could find something nicer, but it would cost more. i suppose if we were diligent and lucky, we could find something nicer and cheaper and manage to rent it... but then we'd have to move.

and i like our place. i like our neighbourhood. i like our neighbours. i like our terrace house. i feel at home here. and the last thing in the world i want to do is move. moving sucks. i'd rather buy us a barbeque and prepare for summer which seems to have arrived two months early.

my impending gigs are moving slow. i decided to work for the company i swore not to work for again when they agreed to my new rates. they were supposed to call this week, but haven't. quelle surprise. that's why i swore not to work for them again. so it goes, as the man says. so my schedule is moving slow.

my movable type installation is also moving slow. really slow. this reminds me that i also swore to ditch my web host this year when my current subscription ends next month. i've always hated them and their lousy customer service and wonky interface. and now (still) it's running much slower than it should. is anyone in love with their hosting provider? do you get a referral bonus? hook me up.

today at the cafe i ordered some fruit toast.

this, on it's own, is probably not fascinating to you. it is only interesting because it means that finally, after nearly a year, i've given up on trying to get what i expect breakfast to be and accepted what breakfast is.

i can order a bagel and cream cheese here. what is delivered is invariably unsatisfying, though. so today i gave in and ordered the fruit toast. fruit toast is this amazing concoction in which sultanas -- the fruit of the sultans! (or raisins, whatever) -- are baked directly inside bread! which is toasted! plus, they serve it with butter.

it's not bad.

also, if i'm hearing correctly, it goes well with a lah day. lah day? lah day? you want a lah day? nah, mate. i'll have a flat white. too much milk in a lah day for me.

this reminds me of a quaint story that occurred whilst visiting my wife's maternal grandmother, the lady eve. being somewhat under the weather, i found myself a place on the couch and an illustrated book about finches and parrots to peruse.

my wife sees me. she says, "what are you reading?"

i reply, "a book about birds."

"birds!" she laughs! "birds? did you hear the way he says it? birds!"

"sorry," i respond. "i'm reading a book about buuuh'ds."

that they understand.

oooooohhhhhheeeeiiiioooooooo.

that is the spooky sound.
that is the spooky sound because i am READING THE FUTURE. i am reading it in chinese, though, so it's a bit hard to understand.

see, i'm doing this job where i am editing/translating/writing next year's chinese horoscopes for a calendar. as a yang water rat, i am destined to do a good job at this because i am forthright and meticulous. my natural scepticism when it comes to things like astrology will have no effect on my efforts at all. i bow to the stars! i swim with the rats! i am also sure to make a bazillion dollars because it seems like the stars are planning on shining on my efforts. at least if the chinese woman who's material i'm working from is to be believed.

that's awrsome. a bazillion dollars! i can afford diamond studded contact lenses!

i'd like to thank the stars, and my wife, and all the little people, especially peter dinklage.

last week i wrote a press release for this guy ian who makes nifty fruit bowls that look like palm fronds.

next week i will be writing the letter "q" over and over until i see the face of god.

it's a living.

actually, i've got these jobs because my mate ruth had to take her maternity leave a bit earlier than planned and she passed some of her clients off to me. she's got a wee wee baby (two months early, but healthy, whew!) named scarlett. i've got chinese horoscopes to write. it's almost the same thing. both are the future in practically identical ways.

here in the antipodes we're thinking about moving house. we heard back from our "landlord" and he "says" that he "won't fix shit" and he's still going to raise our rent by "more than is right" and that he needs to rest his "quote fingers" before he gets a "repetitive stress injury." we responded by giving him the thumbs up sign because we learned in Ghana that means, "your mother."

basically, they're raising our rent so much that it might be worthwhile finding something just a wee bit more expensive but much nicer. our lil terrace house will soon be priced almost as much as places in awrsomer suburbs such as north carlton and north fitzroy. places, say, with heat and a reliable oven and within walking distance of downtown.

we're not yet sure we can find one of these places and then convince the landlords to let us rent it, but we have some time. until the end of october, at least, when our lease ends and the rent jumps 10%. then we can always go month to month or just suck it up and stay where we are.

as a yang water rat, my inclination is move, but to move into a damp sewer pipe on the maribyrnong river. mostly because after a year i can now pronounce "maribyrnong."

my wife is sick again. i think she has rickets. or maybe it's a sinus infection. but it's probably rickets.

lately, i've been feeling like mulch.

by that i mean that i feel inclined to decompose for a while, so that something healthy and new might sprout. i keep sitting down to write things, but i'm just not inspired to say anything these days. thus the lack of blogging recently.

it isn't a bad thing. i think having successfully completed stage one of operation "live in australia", i'm just rebuilding energy, establishing my footing, taking stock, and mulching.

and stage two is coming. the stage in which we have friends we like, we have enough money not to stress about it, and we sleep well.

sleeping well should be easy now that we have purchased a new mattress! it just got delivered!

man. those things are expensive.

our bed does like extra inviting now, though. perhaps i will get my wife to take some pictures with her fancy new camera so you can see.

yes. i know that i have been talking for some time now about starting a new blog. i have actually been working on it despite all outward signs.

thing is, i'm just not really feeling it.

i'm not driven to write for it. to work on it. to enjoy it. that's not so good. i'm well aware of how much work it will take to turn a new blog into something even a reasonable crew of regulars read. if i'm not going to enjoy it, should i bother?

on the other hand, i might just be dawdling because it's an intimidating process and i've got lots of other things to work on (taxes, rent negotiations, feeding myself). i also seem to have, for a change, set the bar for myself a bit high.

things in melbourne are well. my mate ruth is going on maternity leave soon and wants to hand all her clients off to me until baby is suitably bouncy. the higher-up at MSN referred to me in a meeting as "our extremely talented blogger" (sic) which bodes well for future work. rachel's friend shrimp-on-the-barbie-dave has made contact with us and invited us to some weird video art performance he's part of (chorus line dancing drunk, it appears to be). also, in an odd turn of events, bartlebee's labmate has moved in next door with dorje the crazy irish (ex)chef.

all in all, good times.

last night i made middle eastern meatballs.

you wanna meatball?

i'm back on the sofa. nothing has burned down since i left home. no possums have taken up residence and devoured the drapes. it's a bit chilly and one of the fire alarms was beeping, but otherwise we're back to normal.

normal melbourne. normal australia. normal me.

i'm pretty happy with that.

all told, the live earth gig went swimmingly. the visit to san francisco, while exhausting (uh, can you say baby-explosion?) was also satisfying. and now i've returned to oz and troublonia.

hi troublonia!

so i'm back on the sofa. bartlebee just left for uni and wilco is on the ipod and i've slept for a dozen hours and there are errands and wish lists and futzing in the near future. i thought i'd blog first, though. les was subtly noting that i'd not-blogged a lot lately and he's right. i've been away from home. it's good to be back.

i'm still trying to focus in on what my "new / public / for profit" blog will be, but i'm making progress. right now i'm thinking it will be about amusing yourself cheaply and about just trying to enjoy yourself in simple ways. the anti-glum.

i'm thinking about that topic precisely because i'm not an expert at it. writing about simple pleasures will sneakily force me to think up and experiment with simple pleasures, thus making my life simply pleasurable. i hope.

also: we had a letter from our rental agency. they want to raise our rent by about 10%. i'm thinking that's fairly lousy so we may be looking to move come october. or we may be paying a lot more in rent.