Ever since we got back from Europe, I’ve been having mangoes whenever I can. Lunch and dinner most days (we’ve only been back for a week). They are pretty expensive. Last week they were being sold at Coles for $3.96 each, and at Woolworths for $1.99 each. Now, Woolworths is also selling them for $3.96 each! Rip off! Don’t they know we’re in a recession? We need to give the economy a boost, not beat it down further!
Mangoes are so good for several reasons. First off, they smell like Christmas holidays, like summertime, like picnics on the headland at the beach. They taste like Christmas morning, like camping out in your own backyard with your cousins who’ve come to stay for the holidays, like swinging out over the tops of the saplings on the homemade swing on the huge gumtree in the middle of the backyard, or like jumping on the trampoline with five other kids from the neighbourhood, and not learning the lesson when someone got hurt.
That’s a lot to attribute to the smell and taste of a mango, I know. I guess I’m using it as the physical manifestation of everything that I love about Christmastime. I’m hopelessly nostalgic.
I’m a little tired, my ankle is a little sore. My right index fingertip is stinging. Um… Not sure what else I can complain about right now. Today is Thursday, the day before Friday, the day before my favourite day of the week. Friday rocks my socks because the weekend and all its possibilities are stretched out before me. There are still two whole nights being non-weeknights. Sunday is a little bit sucky. Despite the fact that it’s a lazy day most weeks, it’s too close to the end of the weekend, and the sudden, cold drop back into work mode. Like waking up by someone splashing your face with cold water. Out of this dream land for me!
I’m so happy words exist. I’m so glad that I can learn new words whenever I like. Making them stick in my brain is another thing altogether, but for the most part I seem to do okay.
To our postman – on rainy days, instead of leaving the mail half sticking out of our mailbox, how about taking that extra half a second to push it all the way in, thus ensuring that our mail isn’t completely soaked by the time we return home from work?
To the people who restock the paper towels in the bathrooms at work – how about NOT refilling the paper towel dispenser to bursting point, so that people don’t have to rip the paper out bit by bit, and can actually dry their hands without wasting a million sheets in the process?
Thanks. I’m obviously still jetlagged. I think. Or else I’m just grumpy. Hmph.
The title of this post is a quote from the Singapore Merlion. We can’t actually see the merlion from where we are (at Changi airport) but, you know, that’s exactly what it would say.
Noelle and I are currently on a stopover in Singapore, waiting for our flight to Barcelona. Apparently we have a quick stop in Milan before heading on to Barcelona. Another international airport to add to my “airports I have visited” list. I haven’t made that list yet, but you can bet when I do that I’ll be putting Milan on it.
We haven’t done the whole “official announcement” thing, if there is such a one, but I’m just putting it out there right now.
I haven’t written a blog entry for a while because I’ve been a bit despondent about things – namely, Anthony’s death, but the more recent issue that has me down is the fact that Tim is so far away and won’t be back until the 22nd June. I feel ill-equipped to cope with things on my own, but I have been speaking to Tim every day, and he just bought a webcam today from Singapore airport and so we’ll be able to have video calls now also. We chatted for a while tonight when he was in the Qantas/British Airways lounge waiting for his flight to London, and it was really good to actually be able to see him. It made me feel less alone.
Also, Noelle has been staying over quite a bit, and she bought Dexter a couple of days ago for us to watch because the movie we planned on seeing wasn’t even out yet, so we went home and watched the pilot for Dexter, and I have spent the rest of the weekend watching the entire season. I just finished the finale this evening. I will have to check and see when it’s on paytv.
Also, Lauren, Nathan, Rosie and I went to Yum Cha this morning. I had a good time, I felt happy and positive for a little while. Everyone laughed at me for not knowing that “ranga” and “ginga” meant the same thing, and not knowing that “ranga” was short for “orangutan”. It made me laugh, the fact that they’re now being connected to orangutans, but I guess it’s logical. Sort of. I can’t wait until Nathan sorts out his photoshop issues and makes the fullmetal jacket parody.
I am sooo tired. I will go to bed in a minute.
I didn’t go to any other things this weekend. I don’t really feel up to social interaction. That’s a stupid place to be, I know, but right now I’m working on doing things that make me feel okay, and that’s all I can do for now. Sorry to Noelle, for not going to your Cardboard party, and sorry to Chris & Doon, for not going to your drinkies tonight. You know I’d totally be there if I was feeling like myself.
Happiness is a bell ringing
At the back of your throat
And when you open your mouth
Shiny sounds tumble out!
Those who told you
“Life is lived through sunshine alone!”
Will stay silent when night falls
And they don’t know how to live!
I watched them all gather in a corner
Pronouncing us a lost cause
And, with a sigh, moving on.
Next order of business! …
Killing time!
Minute taker, take an hour
I’ve got no use for all this time
The day’s stretched out before me
Like a blank page
And me without a pen!
I followed the path but it
turned out to be a furrow in
a field of angry red flowers,
where I am standing, dismayed
and disenchanted.
I followed a path of angry followers on
an angry mission to rid the world
of amibvalence
Anything to feel something!
There was smoke curling in tendrils
From the corners of your mouth
You were on fire and I was
on the edge of my seat
But you are all burnt out and black inside.
That’s how I began.
Wait for the green to start over again, and
it will grow. It won’t become what you want it to be,
but I was much more impresed by the ending anyway.
Tell me again.
Last night while I was trying to get to sleep, I kept wondering if my subconscious would respond with a dream where I could say goodbye, where I could say all the things I never said when I had the chance. What a good friend he was to me. How much he meant to me. How much he brightened my days.
I didn’t have that dream. I dreamt I saw Anthony underwater, as a calm, graceful being undulating gently in the currents of dark, silent seas. I dreamt a wizened, withered old man sitting high above in a golden cloud pointed an ancient, knotted wooden staff at a group of group of indistinct figures standing far below in hazy, grey surrounds.
What is your favourite shape? Tim: Dodecahedron. It’s not but I just said that. I saw that you basically copied my responses word for word the other night.
Me: Why is dodecahedron your favourite shape?
Tim: It’s not, I just said it. It’s weird.
Me: Can’t you tell me your favourite shape?
Tim: Probably a rhombus.
Me: Can you tell me why?
Tim: Cause it’s like a square that someone’s gone “poke” at and put it off centre.
What’s been the best day of your life so far?
Tim: Um… best day of my life… was meeting you. Haha is that corny enough?
Me: Can you say that without making it into a joke?
Tim: No, it was. Meeting you.
What is your most treasured posession? Tim: you. A Cass.
Me: What if I said it had to be an actual posession?
Tim: If it had to be an actual posession… My PS3. No… probably… my iPod Touch. No… yeah. My iPod touch.
What are you afraid of?
Tim: Heights.
Me: Why?
Tim: I don’t know… because I don’t like it (said in a defensive tone).
Have you ever been scared in a movie? If yes, which one/s? Tim: Um.. yessss… Event Horizon um… and when I was younger any movie where people used to get cut… Oh actually when I was really young, in Robin Hood at the beginning where that guy got his hand cut off for stealing, I always had to fast-forward that part.
What’s your favourite ad?
Tim: There ain’t no bugs on me, there ain’t no bugs on me…
Me: Is it really?
Tim: There may be bugs on some o’ you mugs… My favourite ad of all time though is “It’s a big ad, for Carlton Draught…”
What’s your funniest memory? Something that can make you laugh when you think of it?
Tim: When I almost ran a quad bike into a lake, cause I was trying to pull the accelerator, but at the same time I was pulling the handlebars and it went around off the track and towards the lake. It’s funny now.
Me: why didn’t you say that… what was that you used to call… Matt and your cat?
Tim: Oh… colostomy swiss and swiss Junior. Poor rambo, he couldn’t help that his teeth were holey. Holier than swiss cheese. Hence the name Swiss Junior. Thanks for making me laugh.
Me: Can you explain the names?
Tim: Colostomy Swiss was Matt cause he didn’t clean his teeth, so “Swiss”, and the colostomy was just a payout. It was just a dirty name that we came up with. Swiss Junior was Rambo, our cat, because he had holes in his teeth.
What are some nicknames you’ve had?
Tim: Rochey, Scholar, Brain.
Me: Why?
Tim: Because I was intelligent at high school. I was smart. I did well at high school. That sounds better, then I’m not blowing my trumpet as much.
Me: What’s the worst grade you’ve ever gotten?
Tim: Um… probably a… I got a 4 on an assignment at University.
Me: That’s not a fail though is it?
Tim: No, it’s not a fail. It’s just a pass.
Me: What about in high school?
Tim: B+ I think.
Me: Were you ever in trouble at school?
Tim: In primary school I got in trouble cause I gave someone the finger in class and … that’s about it. Oh no, I got in trouble in grade three because we were talking about time, and the teacher said the abbreviation for seconds was “secs”, and I laughed.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Tim: I would invest it. I would … well it depends on how much money we won. But 1) I would probably give some away to family, 2) I would pay off the mortgage and if there was enough, buy a proper house to live in, keeping this one to rent, and 3) if there was a super amount of money, I would quit my job, and tell Cass to quit her job, and she could do some studies, and I could do some studies and we could live off the income from our investments.
What’s a funny looking animal?
Tim: That one that we saw at the zoo, what was it… it’s sort of got a half-elephant-snout on it… was it “tapir”?
Me: Yeah it was a tapir.
Tim: yeah.
What’s your favourite country? Why?
Tim: Australia. Cause it’s home.
Me: Other than Australia?
Tim: It’s probably a tie between New Zealand and the UK. I just like the climate and the people, and they’re both very beautiful.
Who’s your favourite female celebrity?
Tim: Jessica Alba.
