streaming

Update: Still in grumpy mood. I'm tired. I've got cravings. My personal and professional lives are totally, utterly shit.

And I own the most boring blog in the world. BHG was supposed to be a history blog. No surprises there. Then it kind of turned into a food blog. But I'm too disinterested in life to bother with food at the moment, so there's none of that either. But as I have almost no personality of my own, I'm a terribly easily led person, willing to jump on almost any bandwagon that comes my way.

And I've found a new one. Running with Tweezers is one of my favourite food blogs, and one that doesn't get the press it deserves. Tami has this new thing going when she tries to eat for $30 a week, which is vaguely in line with what people who get some sort of government food assistance live off of. I've done the calculations, or some web based converter has done it for me, and today that's about AUD$45. Could I eat for $45 a week? I've just got back from the shops and I spend over $50 at the butcher alone, although most of that is for the cats, I'm hoping I don't have to feed all four of us on that sum. Yes dear readers, I spend $50 on feeding my cats while thousands starve. No wonder I'm so disliked by so many.

I'm going to be even more selfish and horrible, in that while I'm going to give this a shot, I'm going to wait until after Easter, because I want to eat hot cross buns and roast lamb and organic chicken and all of that sort of thing at Easter. At least this will help me with one of my New Year Resolutions to cut back on my red meat consumption. Which is probably good as the results of research that were recently released indicate the bbq'd red meat is a one way ticket to cancer-ville. Another one of life's small pleasures to cross off the list I guess.

my new favourite book

I spent today at a Tourism Australia Market Briefing. Like most of these things, bits of it were interesting, bits were amusing and bits were totally a waste of my time.

However I was introduced to this title. The GOW in me loves it.

what i did on my weekend

I would like to be able to say that the bad mood I was in last week had drifted away. But I don't want to lie to you all. It's been a crappy crappy week and a pretty average weekend. I can't work out why but a blanket of weary has been draped over me and the energy to get out of bed, let alone do much once I'm up, has totally escaped me. So this weekend I've slept again, and not much else. I was even too tired to participate in Joy's breakfast plans, and I love breakfast.

Today I even invested in some multivitamins. All in all I think vitamins are the world's biggest scam. The body's really good at looking after itself - eat well and all should be right. I'm giving myself 30 days to see if they really make any difference at all. I've gone long distance runner rather than batting great.

However as you can see from this photograph, I had a few little jobs to do. This time last year I was working an easy 15 minute ride from home. These days I go further south, up greater inclines and further distances. I really enjoy it, the ride to work is my favourite part of the day. However this revised route takes me through sparkle land. That's to say that every bogan in town seems to have deposited a smashed vodka cruiser bottle along my route. As it's now still pitch black when I leave home I've had to change four inner tubes in two weeks. Aside from the annoyance of this, and the cost, it detracts greatly from the enjoyable aspect of a cycling commute. I had a delightful 90 minute walk in the pouring rain while pushing a bike with a flat tyre and two fully laden panniers on Monday.

This was exacerbated by the panic of everything I had to do for a 9am meeting. I had planned on doing it the Friday before - I'm not a last minute rush kinda person - but the computers at work had gone down at about 9.30 until around 4.00. What a waste of a day. So I was very mindful of my need to be not only on time, but early on Monday. So after my brisk walk I sat down to get everything done.

aaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

THE FUCKING COMPUTERS ARE DOWN AGAIN.

This really set the tone for my week. Except Wednesday, Wednesday was great, but I'll talk about that when I'm in a better mood.

I'm hopefully that I will wake tomorrow full of beans, have a great ride (I haven't spent more than 10 minutes on the bike since Monday) and will get all sort of important things finalised and all will be well with the world. I also have an exciting weekend ahead next week, so beans are needed!!!

too tired to think of a good title

All in all I should be in a great mood. I've had tonnes of sleep this weekend, am about to head out for a wine soaked afternoon, and most importantly have just been out for breakfast.

An Indian Breakfast.

Now I'm a big fan of Asian style breakfasts. Bacon and eggs and bubble and slice are great. Toast and Vegemite will do in a pinch. Home made muesli always makes me feel self righteous. However big steaming bowls of hot and sour soup with noodles and dumplings and mushrooms, or roti soaked in curry sauce is always a superior way to start the day I feel.

Poor Princess errs on the cup of tea side of breakfast, and when we used to share she found the smells I would create in the kitchen first thing in the morning just a little too much. However her partner, let's call him Mr Princess, shares my view of early morning sustenance, and so we convinced her to try out a new restaurant that's open recently near the central markets, The Village. Mr and Ms Princess had eaten there previously - for lunch. But The Village offers a proper Indian breakfast.

Their website is very much like the business - the English leaves a little to be desired, and it's slightly disorganised. The almost seemed surprised when we walked in: 'oooo... customers. Well, we hadn't planned for that!'. Ordering tea also seems to flummox them, which considering it's an Indian gaff was a bit of a concern.

However the food totally made up for any disorganisation and certainly made up for the extended period we had to wait. I had the Vada Sambal, which is often a favourite of mine. Wonderful lentil doughnuts in a, well a lentil sauce with lots of sambal and coconut chutney. Princess has Chole Bhaturra. This was a favourite of mine when I was in India, and I had stayed away from it so as not to be disappointed, but hers was very nice. The fella had Puri Bhaaji, a fantastic curry of potatoes and peas served with a bread that was almost half way between a roti and a parantha. This was voted the winner of our dishes and what I will be having next time I go, and there will be a next time! The waiters also fawned all over baby Princess and sat with him at the next table to play, which allowed all to eat without little hands going into our dishes.

So, yes I should be feeling great. However I feel decidedly under the weather. A little queasy in the stomach and certainly not in the mood for a wine soaked afternoon. I was going to ride down to West Beach to get soaked, but that's a good 45 minute ride each way and it's windy here so it'll be blowing a gale down near the coasts, so I think I'll drive, have a glass of water, say hello and leave again.

Maybe I'll stop in town on the way home for some dahl......

we try and we fail

There used to be a lot of ritual in my life, constant practices that allowed me to measure out the week and know where I was. Wednesday night: DJ at the Exeter. Thursday: Lost In Space at the Governor Hindmarsh. Friday: Slumberland at Proscenium. Saturday: Gig at The Grace Emily or Crown and Anchor. Sunday: Day of rest.

These days everyday is like Sunday. Last night I had the lounge room disco. Put on some CDs that I burnt with my friend Tom for a cold Christmas Day in London, had a bit of a dance around and then suddenly was extraordinarily tired and in bed by 10.30.

Saturday is my day of rest now, because I sleep through most of it. I got up at 11am, have had a two hour nap and now at tea time am ready to go back to bed. I'm just too old for this rock and roll lifestyle.

Speaking recently to my friend Princess, who I used to go dancing with regularly and who is now the proud owner of a eight month old, we reckon there's a market out there for a new kind of club. One that opens at 5pm, plays the music we like to dance to (not this young people's stuff), and shuts up shop around midnight so that we can go home to bed and the whipper snappers can move in. I guess a childcare centre would be a good addition to. And Coopers on tap please.

If there are any independently wealthy types out there who would like to fund this, we even have the venue picked!

really

God
Bless
The
Lounge
Room
Disco

five reasons it'd be good to live in melbourne

reason number one
the NGV

reason number two
trams

reason number three
the corner hotel

reason number four
movida bar de tapas y vino

reason number five
bike victoria. bike victoria rocks my world

I am not a good blogger

It's been nearly a month since my last post, and I just realised I had a comment sitting there all un-loved and un-attended to (sorry Gypsy). It's also been more than a week since I checked my emails - so many jokes sent from France, photos from Newcastle and messages from my local council about library tours and historical walks.

I'm slack. I'm lazy. I'm self-absorbed.

I also have a more than full time job (I've only been working there since before Christmas had I have over 50 hours owing to me), a cycling habit, a feline boarding house (or it feels like it some times), one of whom has medical problems (I gave my vet - who is wonderful - $350 yesterday), I cook, I clean, I do all the normal stuff. Saturday is great. Saturday is the day I catch up on my sleep, and today was pretty standard with a five hour middle of the day snooze. And I'm ready to go back to sleep right now. NOW!

And so BHG suffers.

And I have nothing really to report.

Seen two films recently. Slum Dog Millionaire. If you haven't read the book I'm sure you'll think it's great. If you have read the book, you'll probably go away feeling just slightly let down.

And Milk.

Milk was interesting. For those of you living in a coma (or the deep south), it tells the story of Harvey Milk who became the first openly gay man elected to office in America. He also was active in overturning a lot of very homophobic laws and as a result was assassinated.

Really, I've grown up quite protected. I have gay family members. My mother had several close gay friends when I was young, and they were all out with her and therefore me. I've never even thought that them being gay made them different anymore than being female made me different, or being Chinese made my best friend different (I was also blessed with growing up in a very multi-cultural world in boring, bland 1970s Australia). Intellectually I knew that gay and lesbian men and women didn't always have life as easy as they do today, and that today it isn't as easy as it should be. But the level and the openness of the homophobia took me back a bit.

How stupid of me. I always forget that humans are vile creatures.