When you think about it, that catchphrase is pretty disturbing. You’ve got to be made of Milo, and then they would like you to buy Milo, so if you are made of Milo and then consume Milo, doesn’t that make you a cannibal?

Milo advocates cannibalism!

I am having trouble concentrating on this, since I’m sitting in the living room and Tim is sitting next to me on the couch playing GTA4, my train of thought is constantly interrupted by police sirens and random soundbites of NPCs.

I’m going to interview Tim about various aspects of our holiday, just for a different point of view. He has trouble doing two things at once. I wonder how irritated he gets by my questions.

What is your favourite purchase from the US?
Tim: GTA4
Originally, Tim’s answer was “Lucky Brand Jeans”, but I reminded him that he bought those in Canada, not the US.

What’s your favourite souvenir from the holiday?
Tim: I think maybe that skull thing mask that I got for Dad.
This is a small, dark brown tribal mask he got in Canada.

What’s the thing you missed most while you were away?
Tim: Po
Po is our cat. He stayed with Lauren and Nathan (sister & brother-in-law) while we were away.

What’s the thing that you missed the most about Australia?
Tim: Driving on the left-hand side of the road.
Me: Really?  
Time: No… I don’t know how to explain it. Just the way it feels like home here, the atmosphere. I don’t know if that’s a good explanation or not.

What did you like most about the US?
Tim: The Oregon Coast

What did you like least about the US?
Tim: Um.. Some of the people. Like, some of the sales staff and that were a bit brusque.

What was the best food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably that steak at the San Francisco mall.
To explain – that steak was “Char-roasted Sirloin Tri-tip” from “Buckhorn Grill” in the Westfield mall on Market Street in San Francisco.

What was the worst food you tasted in America?
Tim: Probably those french fries we got that night that were cold and… you remember? They had the skin on them and all that.
These were fries we got through a room service thing from a local restaurant. They were cold by the time we got them, and undercooked, and they had potato skin on them, and some sort of seasoning.

What are you going to miss about the US?
Tim: Being on holiday.
Me: I knew you were going to say that. It’s not really specific to the US.
Tim: I know. Um… Probably the views of driving up the coast.

What was the funniest thing that happened on the holiday?
Tim: When I gave the quarter to the homeless man, and he paid me out. No, I gave him the change I had, and he paid me out.
There were these homeless guys standing outside Subway, where we bought dinner. As we walked out, they asked us for money. I didn’t have any cash (I relied on Tim for cash, since my cashcard didn’t work in the US) but Tim dropped what change he had from Subway into their cup. The guy he gave it to then proceeded to complain about how little Tim had given him, and “you coulda at least given me a dollar”. Isn’t there a saying that beggars can’t be choosy, or choosers? Gosh!

I am going to a lot of different places this year. I think it’s the year of travel for me. For the Chinese, it’s the year of the rat. I was in the Valley on Friday night (last night) and watched the dragon dancing around the tables at one of the Chinese restaurants, and listened to the banging of the gong. I also became mesmerised by the fish in the fish pond fountain in the Chinatown mall. I’m not sure if it’s usually there, but last night there was mist coming out from the top part of the fountain where the uplights are. Also, the water in the bottom part of the fountain, where the fish swim around, looked a bit more cloudy than usual, and there were more coins in there too. I felt sorry for the fish.

Anyway, here is the first of my travels:

Not actually the whole of Western Australia, just Perth. The trip over involves a red-eye flight several hours long. I feel like this should mean that people on the Western Coast would be different that the people of the East Coast of Australia, but I guess that we all started out from similar beginnings, and our beginnings weren’t that long ago.

Tim and I are traveling to San Francisco in May this year. It’s exciting because I’ve never been to America before, and this will be my first experience of traveling with Tim. I think we’ll be fine. Tim got the tickets using his frequent flyer miles, which is awesome, because he could have used his miles to get ONE business class return to San Francisco, but instead he got TWO economy return to San Francisco. We’re also going to Canada:

One leg of the trip will be by train, and one will be by plane. Apparently the train trip from San Francisco up to Vancouver is beautiful. I’m looking forward to it. I think we will get a sleeper cabin. Tim was also saying we could spend a couple of days in Seattle, which’ll be good, too. I checked online at the average temperatures for that time of year. The maximum is 17.5 degrees Celsius, which suits me so perfectly you can’t even imagine. I wouldn’t mind it being even cooler than that. Check out the picture of Canada – there are polar bears on there! I swear that means they exist there in real life. I love them. And the elk (if that’s what they are). Yay! It’s going to be amazing.

And finally, toward the end of the year, Noelle and I are traveling to Europe and the UK. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about revisiting Europe, especially when you consider all the people over there I will get to meet up with: Anna, Ben, Simone&Dave, Ruth… I am so psyched! We’re planning on spending time in London (& surrounds), Amsterdam (yay Anna!), Paris (I forgot to remind Noelle about this one :S), Denmark (yay legoland! and the little mermaid!), somewhere in Ireland (maybe Galway?)… and wherever else we have time to go. I’d love to visit Prague, but time constraints may make that difficult. Also the financial aspect… 

That’s it on the travel front. In other news, I have started my new job (the end of this week marked two weeks there). I’m exhausted, but appreciate the plus side. I guess you could say the end justifies the means. I got a new pair of boots today at DFO without worrying that they would break the bank. The fact that they were only $20 should illustrate my point. It felt so good to have my own money. I won’t be able to be this laissez-faire about my pay every week, but for this week it’s pretty nice. I’m going to start my hardcore savings as of next Thursday. Tim has been extremely helpful with this, and I’m glad that my working has been able to take some stress off him as well. I’m infinitely grateful to him for looking after me this entire time. Although it may seem strange, I feel like there is a good side to this entire experience, and that is to be able to know, without doubt or hesitation, that Tim’s love comes without condition. This is an amazing gift. Tim and Matt are currently playing Guitar Hero III, and bemoaning the insensitivity of the red button on our guitar. We had a nice dinner, a yummy dessert, and there is a Po here for entertainment. Life is pretty good.

These are some ridiculously expensive presents that no one will ever get me because they are too expensive. Like Jem, they’re truly outrageous! But only in the monetary sense, because in every other sense they are just plain awesome.

1. A new Nintendo DS Lite
Yeah. now you totally see what I mean. “But Cass,” you say, “I thought you already had a DS! You’re completely DS-CRAZY!”
Well, you see, the sad part is that I am a DS-o-phile, and the even sadder part is that my DS broke a while ago (maybe a month now?) so now I am unable to finish Zelda, and also I’m getting more and more afraid of the weeding I’ll have to do when I eventually get back on to Animal Crossing

2. DVD: Nadia and the Secret of Bluewater
Don’t even try. You’re so not going to find it at JB. And no, it’s not a porn, it’s an anime. And no, it’s not hentai.

3. A new mobile phone
I’m currently using Tim’s old mobile. I would dearly love to have a phone which can use realtones and also has other fun features.

4. A drawing tablet for the computer
But not the one that’s on display/demo at Harvey Norman Indooroopilly, that one has not worked once in the million times we’ve been there.

5. Anything with mermaids
Okay so this might not be ridiculously expensive. I pretty much mean movies or tv shows. I already have the first two DVDs of the first season of H2o – Just Add Water. Yay!

6. Those little trading arts final fantasy figurines
They are so cute. And awesome.

7. Several out-of-print books, as follows:
* After the Plague – Jean Ure
* Z for Zachariah – Robert O’Brien
* A Gift Upon the Shore – M. K. Wren

I’m not sure about the second and third book, but I am a billion percents sure that the first book is out of print. And I waaaaaaant it

*Edit: I had to cross out the Z for Zachariah book, because Tim bought some books online from fishpond.com.au, and he needed another book to bring up the total for some reason. I was happy to oblige. Thanks Tim!

Tim and I got Guitar Hero II today – we originally looked in Harvey Norman, because Tim had $200.00 of gift vouchers he could redeem there. The Guitar Hero II Game and Red Octane Guitar bundle cost $149.00. Rather than buying then and there, we decided to check out JB Hi-Fi, just to see if there was much of a difference in price.

Not only did JB Hi-Fi have a larger range of accessories, it also had the Guitar Hero bundle for $99.00. Tim and I bought Guitar Hero II (including the red guitar), and we also bought a second guitar – this one wireless, for an extra $64.00.

Moral to this … not-even-a-story is that you should always do the legwork before making a financial commitment. Harvey Norman will price match (as far as my experience with them goes), but you need to actually find the cheaper item first for Harvey Norman to call and confirm its validity.

I’m pretty happy right now. You know one thing that could possibly improve on my happiness? If I had a pet rabbit in the same colours as Napoleon, and they kept each other company all day while I was at work, then when I got home they both greeted me at the door. That would be the epitome of awesomeness.

Here are some shiny things:

* Only four days until Tim gets back
* Pay day tomorrow
* Napoleon
* A rabbit the same colour scheme as Napoleon

I know that the last one is not something I actually have, but I just like imagining it.

This pay period I am not going to buy any clothings. I have far too many bills to pay! Maybe I will get a couple of pairs of tights (because it’s getting colder), but that’s it. My goal for this pay: to be good and stick to my budget! I’m pretty sure I can do it. It will be an interesting experiment. I think the main thing is to cook lunches for work, so that I’m not buying overpriced food that tastes like crap anyway. I did mean to do some sewing last weekend, but never got around to it. I won’t be doing it this weekend, that’s for sure. I wonder if I’ll get time during the week?

Hi Tim! I know you will have played at Glendalough by the time you read this. How was it? How is Ye Olde London Town? I always used to say “Ye” as in how it is spelled, until I read somewhere that in the olden days, Y was the symbol for “th” sound. Therefore, “Ye” is atually just “The”. I kind of liked “ye” better. It’s like how Conor used to speak on the net, “how ar’ ye!?” and it made me think of the sea captain from the Simpsons (arrr, ’tis a shame that).

I feel like going to the movies. Anyone wanna go see a movie? Or something? Or maybe I should use this extra time to do some sewing. I have a few things that need mending.

I left the register at Woolworths in the city in a bit of a hurry, with a rushed “thanks a lot!” thrown out behind me as I jumped onto the escalators, hoping I hadn’t missed my bus. I realised after I’d said it that the speedy way I’d said it made the sentence sound like “Thanks slut!” which is pretty funny, but not very nice. Particularly because I have no idea about the cashiers status in the “town bike” stakes. So anyway, I’m going to make an effort from now on to remember not to say that.

Tomorrow is Christian’s first day of work at his new job. Congratulations Christian, and good luck! Hopefully he’ll keep his blog updated with all his hilarious stories about venture capitalist funding and selling non-quantifiable, non-tangible future-beneficial assets. I’m sure it’ll be a barrel of laughs. A barrel! Does anyone remember those barrels of monkeys? And inside they had plastic monkeys and you could hang them from things, and join them onto one another by their tail & arms & legs (I think)? What was the point?

I wish I had a turtle. The turtles at Underwater World were cute, in the way that brown-coloured things floating in the water can be cute. Sometimes they’d move a little bit, then it was all action until the momentum they’d built up with one gentle flipper twitch came to an end and they again became brown inanimate floaty things.

The links are all broken in my harblz pages because I haven’t gotten around to fixing them up yet.

What’s going on this week?

Ruth is back from overseas for a little bit. I’m curious to see whether or not she’s taken on the British accent, and if so, which regional dialect?

What else? hmmm I just got a missed call on my phone from “no number”. I really should have answered it because who has this number? only the people that i sent it to. So, if it was you calling, call back and I’ll answer. Only for the next five – ten minutes though, because after that I want to go to sleep. TIRED!

I got sunburnt going swimming with Christian at the pool in their complex today. It’s a really nice pool – big, and always the right temperature. Well, maybe not first thing in the morning, but if you go just after lunch (perfect time for swimming!) then it’s awesome. Apart from it being during the hottest time of the day and sunburn being a distinct possibility, especially if you’re blessed/cursed with a ghostly complexion such as mine.

We watched Rise of Hitler today. Robert Carlyle played the role too well – he was terrifying. Things that I didn’t know about Hitler included that he was the product of his father fornicating with his niece (his father’s niece, not Adolf’s niece). That goes a fair way to explaining his warped view of the world, and his insane behaviour. It seems that Hitler’s initial rise through the military ranks (which put him in a good position later on) was not due to any particular skill or bravery on his part, but merely his ability not to die where others perished. That’s certainly something to be proud of. He seemed always just to be in the right place at the right time. Germany was depressed and looking for someone to blame, someone to take out their frustration on after the Treaty of Versailles, and here was Hitler giving everyone someone they could lay all the blame on, something they could do – by trampling all over another race to bring themselves a bit higher up. Almost as effective as trying to improve the economy by printing more money.

Anyway, tired tired tired and it’s going to be a big week this week :S

Because it’s just so gorram INFORMATIVE, doncha know?

I have had a stupid, stressful week. The only thing I want to do right now is take like… two weeks off work and not think about anything.

ANYway… I had a dinner party last night. I wasn’t in the most energetic, effervescent, happy mood. Apart from that, the evening was pretty good. I appreciate the effort everyone took to come. Thanks!

First course: Lemon & herb grilled haloumi on a rocket & sundried tomato salad
Second course: Butter steaks with field mushrooms on a bed of wilted baby spinach
Third course: Chocolate & kahlua parfaits

The parfaits really needed to be made just before they were to be served. Timing is the most difficult part of any dinner with more than one course. It inevitably involves being in the kitchen while your guests are out waiting for their next meal. Not that it’s a big problem, conversations continue whether I’m in the room or not, but perhaps another time might have been more suited to the occasion – where I had more energy, and was in a better mood.

Chris and I went to Chermy today. Christian was sure we would have a problem finding a park (Chermside is notorious for difficulty in finding parking spaces, and especially with everyone going so hard at Christmas Shopping…) but we had practically no problem at all. It was an entirely different story trying to find particular shops inside Chermy. It seemed like we walked the entire length of the shopping centre about six times, because each time we tried to find something and found we’d been heading in the wrong direction, we just kept going in that direction to eventually come full circle back to where we needed to go, rather than double-back. I think this was partially because we had no time constraints or any agenda, partially because people watching is fascinating.

I bought a new pair of sunglasses from Myer (it took some convincing from Chris, I was weighing up a few different options), some new tops from Cotton On (Cott On! Cott On!), and a stuffonmycat.com 2007 desk calendar, so that I don’t have to look at stupid quotes from WGP or Anon. anymore. BORING! Stuffonmycat = awesome. Napoleon’s favourite of my new shirts is either the apple one or the one with owls on it. Go owls! What are they doing? They’re all over the place atm!

A couple of photos of some disturbing doll Chris and I spotted at Target at Chermy:

Try me? Well sweetheart, it looks like someone already did! Nobody’s gonna buy the cow if you’re giving the milk away for free! And other unrelated pearls of wisdom.

Does everyone remember the day last week (not sure what day it was… maybe Wednesday?) when Brisbane was sepia toned? As in, the sky was overcast, but had a brownish hue rather than grey… and even the air seemed to be painted over with olden-days colours. It rained that day, and apparently (according to my sources, which I cannot reveal) it was acid rain. I can sort of remember the rain feeling a bit wrong, and there was a funny smell in the air too… I took a photo that evening, because Calum pointed out that the sky looked like someone had smeared shit across it (you can also see some rain falling over some area of Brisbane in this picture… acid rain! maybe.):

So, those of you who washed your cars in the last couple of days, you’re pretty lucky and maybe even prescient. Those of you who haven’t forked out the money to have your car washed, do it soon to prevent permanent damage to your paint job.

Anyway, I’m tired! We have to put up the Christmas tree tomorrow, because I ended up not having any time to do it today. I’ve been at Chris’ this evening, chilling out and watching Pay TV. And normal TV too, I’m not a TV snob like you are.

Tomorrow morning will be our department’s first day in the new building, Brisbane Square, on the corner of George and Adelaide Streets. The picture below is just some of the concept imagery from before the building was finished, but that’s pretty much what it looks like.

The awesome new logo design on this website is by Nathan. This weekend (Saturday afternoon), Christian did a photoshoot with Nathan and Lauren and some of their friends for My Bestest. Christian, being a super duper amazing fashion photographer, got some rad shots. You should go check out his gallery. A highlight for me was being able to purchase one of the My Bestest T-shirt packs – they’re not even on ebay yet! Score. That’s going to be chapter one in my new book: Making Nepotism Work For You.

So anyway, here is My Bestest new T-shirt:

Over the last few days I have come to realise something: I am as prepared for moving out and living independently as I was when I was 16. Less even, because at least back then I had made some sort of effort toward getting things together that I would need, eg. kitchen utensils and a lamp. Here are some things that I believe you must have to live successfully on your own:

1. Fridge - Very important. It’s not too bad that I don’t already have one. There is always one person with a fridge in a share house, and then there’s everyone else who just take advantage of the fridge being there. I was always part of everyone else.

2. Washing machine - Also very important. And very expensive. I would like a front loader, because they seem to be more energy efficient and water efficient etc. But it is irritating that you can’t open a front loader once it’s started the cycle. I always forget things that I need to wash, and then they have to wait until the next time I work up the resolve to do some washing.

3. Towels – This is including but not limited to bath towels, floor towels, hand towels and washers. I feel this needs no explanation. I have a grand total of three towels: 1 pink towel given to me as part of a set for my 18th birthday by one of mum’s friends; one purple towel given to me by mum for Christmas one year; and one Harry Potter towel given to me by Ruth for my birthday a couple of years ago. I would <3 to have lots of big, fluffy, soft towels in nice colours.

4. Culinary tools and serving ware – Including (but not limited to) cutlery, plates, bowls, cups, wine glasses, coffee mugs, cooking utensils (my favourite is the pasta spoon thingy that picks up spoonfuls of pasta and drains water off them. Yay). I used to have SOME decent things, but over time all my wine glasses broke, and all my crockery somehow became mismatched (I don’t think I have a full set of anything). Also, all my pots and pans somehow became mixed up with mum’s, and are now all in the cupboards and I no longer know what is mine and what is mum’s.

5. Furniture – Stuff like… lounges, dining room table and chairs, coffee tables, bookshelves… (I have a small bookshelf at the moment, but I have all these books packed away because it won’t hold all of them. I <3 my books.)

I’m bored of stuff I don’t have. Let’s list the stuff that I do have:

1. Bed – Very important. One of the most important, I think. It’s a nice bed, with a good mattress. It’s currently in mum’s room because it’s pretty big, and hers is the biggest room.

2. Entertainment – TV, DVD player (x2 - the new one plays divx, so I might leave the other one for mum), PS2

3. Work stuff – I have two laptops, a desk, a chair, a printer…

4. Your mum

Yeah it’s a pretty solid list. I guess one of the important things I need is a stereo. I haven’t had one for so long, because I’m living with other people, I always feel like at any moment they’re going to come and tell me to turn whatever I’m listening to down, so I can’t really enjoy it that much. However, if I were to live on my own, the only thing I’d have to be worried about is the neighbours. And who cares if something’s annoying someone that you don’t even know?

I probably would still care. I don’t want to be a bad neighbour.

Oh also, I have a cat to take with me too. That’s a pretty big thing. You’re never alone when you have a cat. Except when your cat wants to do it’s own thing and goes off somewhere.

My favourite objects acquired over the last few days:

Nintendo DS Lite
I have the white one. I got this on Friday, when Christian and I had lunch. I’ve been playing it off and on over the last few days. It’s pretty much the most awesome portable gaming system I’ve ever owned (that’s not saying much because I’ve only ever had one of those huge old-skool gameboys, plus a little mermaid handheld game, and one of those water games where you press the buttons and it sends a pump of water up and levitates the little ball); but if you concentrate on the fact that I’m older now, and more discerning in my choices of entertainment, and I’ve seen a lot more of the world, then it should mean more that I think it’s awesome now. I’m a nerd and this is a ridiculously long and drawn out paragraph.

DS Lite rocks. Go buy one.

“Groggy” Ice Crusher
I bought this from Ikea, when Chris and I visited the new Logan store on Saturday. We also managed to have a minor accident in the car park. Bloody Swedish drivers. (I’m kidding, of course. I think they were actually Norwegian). Something good did come of the day though. Groggy is my new favourite kitchen thingamy. You put ice in the top bit, and then turn the handle, and it crushes it and it goes into the clear bottom bit. Then you can put it in a cup and have a sort of poor man (or woman)’s slushy. You can have whatever flavour you want (depending on what you have at home), plus the sound it makes as the blades crush the ice is really satisfying.

***

I didn’t end up going out last night. There were several reasons for this – none of which I’m going to bore you with now. I stayed in instead, and watched Happy Gilmore and spent some quality time with Napoleon. It was good to just do nothing, especially after the pretty full weekends I’ve had lately. I’m relaxing and recharging for next week, because there are quite a few things coming up, including Noelle’s 22nd Birthday (Wednesday 15th Nov), Noelle’s birthday party (Friday 17th Nov), and Lauren & Nathan’s engagement party (18th Nov). Then, the next week on Tuesday I have my second 8-week orthopedic review for my arm. It’s not that big a deal, it just seems like it because I used to go to the hospital twice a week for my arm, and now I haven’t been in two months.

I might go see if I can have a catnap, like Napoleon