Category: The Life of Lara

It’s all here. Adventures in extreme knitting, the house of poop, and suburban permaculture. You may also find rants about politics, ecology, humanitarianism, responsible living, toe floss, and other topics not covered here. Expect profanity and irreverence. You have been warned.

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.

Week 3 of new job

It’s friday. Day 15 of my new career. And I sold something. Something with enough margin in it to pay my wages for about 2 weeks.

Perhaps I could make a go of this after all. The client seems happy that I am on the ball and respond to his requests in a timely fashion, so perhaps that is all I need. And time, so that I can learn my way around the medical profession, the equipment, and the connections I have to use to make a go of this.

I think I need to buy a suit 😉

Todays favourite thing

After a very late night last night, I found a personal letter in the mailbox this morning. This is exciting in and of itself – personal mail sticks out like a sore thumb in our rusted letterbox. Usually it’s just bills, the Coles meat catalogue, and medical journals for the retired chap next door. And the occasional offer of an amex card for someone who moved out more than four years ago.

In this envelope was a photocopy of an article from Good Living Magazine (the foody section of the Sydney Morning Herald for those of you not in Sydney), with a post it note on the front that read “Let’s go here!”.

This is the article in question, and I am seriously excited about making a pilgrimage. Mahjong, excellent chinese vegetarian food, and beer, all in one outing. If only it also had a mirror ball and a yarn shop next door, I would never leave.

Principles

When you believe in something passionately, it’s easy to get caught up in the principle of the thing, and forget the big picture. Conversely, it’s also easy to focus on the result and forget about the principles that get trampled in getting to the end.

Sometimes, the end justifies the means, and sometimes the means is the end. When you are arguing a position of principle in politics, the waters get even muddier.

Say I believe that global warming could be stopped in its tracks if we all wore pink underwear on thursdays. Say I also believe that wearing underwear with tassels helps me reduce my own “personal” greenhouse emissions.

What if the boss of underpants says, “I can help you with the pink underwear, but the tassels have got to go.”? In the big picture, the tassels aren’t important in the slightest, but if I cave on the tassels, then I place myself on the big slippery slope of being vulnerable to the boss of underpants forevermore. I open myself up to scrutiny that I am willing to do a deal with the boss, and I compromise my principles about tassels.

What I want, is pink underpants with tassels. What I can get without help, is khaki coloured y-fronts (which really don’t do anyone any favours). With help, I can get 90% of what I want, and I end up feeling like Lady Macbeth.

Spinning Day

Is actually the 3rd – this sat!

Date: 03/03
Time: 10:00 am, wrapping up before 3:00pm
Place: Burwood Park in Burwood
Bring: wheels, spindles, fibre, a good sense of humour, food/picnic lunch, knitting, crochet, etc.
Open to: anyone who feels up for a bit of spinning, or wants to learn, or just feels like hanging out with people who are spinning.

And thanks to Yarnivorous, this link might make you rethink your next chicken dinner.