Month: March 2007

Stoush

We all know that I love a bit of stoush. But this is just silly.

More here, here, here and here.

Now, if you have a mind to look into this a little further, read here, and you’ll see that local decisions are made locally, and that they are made by the people in the local group. Not by the candidate, and not from “head office”. The Greens don’t have a head office that makes policy decisions from on high. Believe it or not.

And here’s the thing about party politics – the guy who does the right thing for the party isn’t always popular locally, and the guy who does the right thing locally isn’t popular with the party (and doesn’t get preselection). That is, in “traditional” parties – the Greens work a little differently.

Let’s look at a little issue in the Ryde electorate (where I will vote in the state election).

The Lane Cove Tunnel.

I am against it for two reasons. Because a) I believe the money would be better invested in public transport instead of profiteering “public/private partnerships”, and b) because the emissions from the tunnel should be filtered.

I went so far as to speak at a Ryde Council meeting in favour of independent air quality testing both before and after the tunnel opened. I pointed out that taking air quality studies provided by the developers at face value was akin to taking advice on lung disease from tobacco companies. Apparently this had never occurred to the three Labour councillors. Michael Butterworth, Gabrielle O’Donnell (the less said about her the better), and Nicole Campbell (who works as an environmental scientist, natch), all argued passionately against air quality testing. Why? I can’t say, but I can’t help thinking that it may have something to do with the fact that it was a Labour government that signed off on the tunnel, and it was a Labour government that made the tunnel happen – and decided that we didn’t need filtration to protect us from the evil cancer causing fine particles.

Now, I could be wrong. These people could be kind to animals, old people, and the underprivileged. But I haven’t seen it. So the thought of preferencing Labour in the state election was pretty far from my mind. And I suspect the decision was similar in all the seats that were being complained about.

Here’s a little tip for anyone who wants Green preferences. Think globally, act locally.

Three out of six

Had an all day training session today, and some sandwiches were ordered in. Three out of the six people were vegetarian, which left a pretty poor choice. Not to mention that the “veg” sandwiches were on the same plates as the meat ones, and probably cut with the same knives. I picked up an egg sandwich out of desperation, and it had a thin slice of chicken roll in it – which I only discovered after I had taken a bite. I still feel ill 4 hours later.

It’s now 6pm, and “my” car is on its way back from Newcastle. The boss has offered me a ride home, but not for half an hour (or so). And I’m supposed to be going out for dinner tonight. It may be hours before I get there, and I am hungry.

Cross too.

Wiiiii!

Off early this morning to pick up Mark’s birthday present, and swap my GPS. Except it seems to be working well, so I’ve decided to keep it rather than risk going through the teething problems with a new unit.

Late for Rubi+Lana’s, and we left early to go to Mah-Jong Playlunch with Celia and a lovely friend of hers. We had a very tasty vegetarian chinese lunch, and excellent instruction to improve our game.

Then it was back to Mark’s parents place for dinner. After dinner he set up the Wiiii, and the Nettles played virtual sport while I knitted. Shoulder still giving me grief, I didn’t play, but Mark seemed to have fun.

Home for more play.

Found a bunny picture that made me smile today.

Mariza

Apologies to Kate for not getting this up sooner. I have been having technology issues. Yes, me.

Anyway. The amazing and generous Kate had some tickets going for an Opera House show around the time of Mark’s Birthday (which is actually not till the 13th of this month, but what the hell). I put my hand up, and we were thrilled to be met at the stage door by Kate, who took us through to the Green Room before the concert.

Mariza is a Portuguese Fado singer – a style I was completely unaware of until I looked up the opera house website to see where we were going. The music is powerful, and passionate, and full of love and loss. Very emotional. I won’t go on, because she isn’t doing any more shows in Sydney, you missed out.

After the show, we met Kate back down in the Green Room, had a few drinks and a lovely chat (Kate is a very interesting person – you should talk to her), and then had a wander through the dark and empty underbelly of The Sydney Opera House.

Here are a couple of silver and royal purple velvet chaise lounges that they clearly stole from my house. I want them back. Stat.

This is from the set of Sweeney Todd.

This is the theatre where a Patrick White play is on. The house rotates, and cameras inside the house capture action that can’t be seen from outside, and project onto two screens at the front of the stage.

And this is Mark and Kate examining the horror, the sacrilege that has taken place. The original seats which were designed for this room and made from the same beech that many other design elements in the building are made from, are being replaced by these plastic pretenders. Mark has his hand on one of the original seats.

On our way out, we saw Mariza and the band heading for their hotel. We thanked them for a wonderful concert, and walked past our wonderful harbour to a cab home. An amazing evening.

More Croc Joy!

So now I have a real job (as opposed to a job where I can turn up in jeans and a free t-shirt), I have to scrub up a bit. Kate may well fall dead when she sees me in a suit tonight when I pick up the tickets. In case you don’t know, Kate gave us free tickets to see Mariza at the Opera House tonight.

Anyway, back to the point. I still don’t have a reliable source of Croc joy in Sydney. I have rather a collection, but that has more to do with perseverance than ease of purchasing. I only have one (ONE!) pair of the Mary Jane style, no ballet slippers, and am clearly going to have to find an online retailer that will ship to Australia.

Because today I found this.

Help?

Are you an expat American living in Australia (or an Aussie that used to be American)?  Or an Aussie that lives in the US?  Or some other permutation of person that fits the following requirements?

Do you have a credit card with a US billing address?

Do you have an Aussie bank account?

Can you help out a sister who is jonesing for a heroes fix?

If you can hook me up with some credit for the iTMS, I will abase myself with gratitude.  Or just say thanks.  A lot.

BTW, Heroes is freaking AWESOME.  If you’ve seen one or two episodes, trust me, the mind bending goes on, and you are in danger of developing an addiction.  Like I needed another one.

And tonight, I made Pho Chay (Vegetarian Pho).  It wasn’t utterly terrible.  In fact, it was almost bloody good.  It needed a bit more seasoning in the stock, but the flavour was spectacular, and I look forward to refining the recipe a little next time.

Here’s a picture of the stock, made with veggie stock, onion, garlic, charred ginger, cinnamon and bay leaves.  It was supposed to have Star Anise in it too, but I couldn’t get that at Round Corner Coles.

This was simmered for about an hour (TAH – the adorable husband was home late), and then ladled (after straining) over warmed through rice noodles, and garnished with slivers of raw onion, bean sprouts, fresh lime juice, and torn basil leaves.

Just like vietnam, but without the dead cow.  Well, maybe not just like – but damn close, and on take two I’ll do better.

Tuesday

Melon Scarf Progress

Here is where I was at this morning.  But looking at it while I waited to get my foot x-rayed, I decided that I wouldn’t be happy with the finished item unless I ripped it back and started again.  So I did.  Good thing I spent so long at the hospital today, I am back up to three pattern repeats.

And my foot is fixed.  Well, fixed enough to give up the boot.  No football for another 6 weeks, but I should be fine after that.

Bought a suit, for the increasingly likely NZ trip (Jussi, I don’t know what the itinerary is, but I’d love to catch up).  Also picked up a really cheap GPS – advertised for $299, got it for $290.  Which would be absolutely spiffing if the damn thing would talk to the satellites.  Works perfectly, but doesn’t seem to want to do the “P” part of “GPS”.  Pretty sure it isn’t a carbon unit error, Mark couldn’t make it behave either.

PS.  Today I passed another milestone in my knitting career – I ripped something back for purely cosmetic reasons.  A first for this goal oriented knitter.

PPS.  Bloody shoulder hurts again.  Asked the foot man “WTF”, he reckons disk injuries can wax and wane, but to be sure, best see the specialist again and get another MRI.  That’s $600 at least – and the outcome would be the same as before.  I can choose to have surgery, or wait for it to go away.  If only it wasn’t affecting my knitting, I’d cope better.

Advertising

There’s a new chip ad that made me smile. Builders, singing a version of “So Happy Together” by the Turtles. The song Mark sang as I walked up the steps to the rotunda @ Observatory Hill at our wedding.

So it’s been a while between posts. I kinda got on a roll during that month when we challenged ourselves to post every day. And since I fancy myself as a journaler (if not a journalist), I have been trying to keep up.

This weekend I was too busy having fun to tell the world about it. We had a lovely day at “Spinning in the Park”, did some muggle outreach, and I managed not to strangle some children that were gagging for it.

Here’s a small taste of the action.

And just because I am a big fan, here is a picture of Lee.

Sunday, we had a family do so that everyone could meet TBA, and then we drove up to Newcastle to see my friend Dionne finally tie the knot. It’s a long and wonderful story.