the most boring post in the world

Not that proof was needed, but here is the proof: I am a damned procrastinator. Again. I know.

Today
5.30am
Feed and medicated animals

6.10am
Fell back asleep. Soundly

11.45am
Woke. Shite. Didn't realise that I was that tired

11.45am-2.30pm
Ate dumplings, took a couple of phone calls, lay on the bed with the animals, brought the laundry (still soaking wet) in from the line. Did today's sodoku, checked my email accounts, generally fucked around

2.30pm
Drove to University. Killed sometime visiting colleagues working at the Open Day. Sold the benefits of an archaeology degree, practiced my French with Monsieur.

3pm
Hit the library. Got more work done that I have all week, including finding new references, photocopying chapters from books that were almost due back, and then even reading those photocopies

6pm
Library closed, so returned home

6.15pm to present
Heated and ate soup. Kissed the kittens. Emailed friends. Broke up cat fight outdoors.

the horrible reality is, I will have to start going to the library on the weekend.

dog people may not understand

midnight shenanigans

After a quick trip to the Seacliff Hotel last night to farewell a young lass from the office who's off to find fame and fortune in Darwin, I headed home, ears aching, throat aching, brain aching.

I managed to stay conscious until about 8.30, which is pretty good really before I fell into slumber. Around 1.15 I woke to the sound of a mighty gale, rain pounding down. However the gale and the rain was not outside. It was in my toilet. I rearranged cats and struggled out from underneath my winter layers of quilts and blankets to find a geyser in the loo. Honestly, I was still half asleep and it took a while to work out just what was happening and where it was happening. I was instantly aware that the hall represented the Tiber in full flood (soggy socks), but the actual cause of the inundation took me a while to locate. Actually I had to pad around outside in the afore mentioned soggy socks and a torch to turn the water off at the mains before I had any idea what was going on.

On my return in doors, I discovered this

The bracket that takes the pipe from the mains to the cistern has completely rotted away. I spent the next 90 minutes mopping and soaking up water, moving the books that were my reading material au commode and drying them in the kitchen, saving art work waiting to be hung that was propped up in the hall and generally mopping up.

This morning the damage seems minimal, although young Tony (hail Caesar) is obviously bemused by the proliferation of towels in the hall.

I did make a quick trip to the GP and am now dosed up on penicillin and have cancelled all my, sometime important, Saturday plans to sit at home and wait for the emergency plumber. I've bought a carton of spring water for drinking and teeth brushing, but showering is out (hurrah). So is washing the dishes (not fun, but essential) and the flushing of the toilet (so the garden is now the venue and nature at my demand). Hopefully the plumber can plug the hole when he arrives and I can get some laundry on and do the dishes. Luckily my poor healthy has limited my interest in food, so there's not much to wash. But a general indicator of my diet is how many empty tins of cat food I have. Currently I have 7 (which is about four days in my house). But only one bread and butter plate and a Tupperware container that used to contain lentils.

mmmmmmmmmm.....maybe some vegetable soup or something is on the cards for today.

the most glorious feeling in the world

Most of my friends will tell you that I'm addicted to sleep. It's my favourite state of being and my favourite thing to do. Better than cooking. Better than swimming. Better than a good book. Almost as good as sitting at a taverna in Greece with the waves lapping the shores metres from your feet, while you work your way through palates of beer and plates of mezedes. Almost.

But the best feeling in the world is the one I have right now. I'm tired. Bone tired, the tired that consumes your whole body and weighs down every limb so that your fibiae almost drag themselves towards the bedroom. But my mind is a million miles an hour. I've done more than 30km in the saddle today (which is a lot in this heat). I've been to my mothers for dinner so I'm full of chicken with sumac but have ridden home with the cooling nighttime air streaming through my hair and my clothes. Right now I'm sitting here receiving emails from around the globe, a wickedly strong gin and tonic on one side of the keyboard and a puring cat on the other. The temptation to put on the Arcade Fire's album Funeral at a volume detectable by NASA and dance like a crazy thing until three in the morning is almost all consuming.

Of course I won't. I'm far too old and sensible and have a 7am breakfast meeting, so in the not too distant future and I will finally take my shoes off and put my head on the pillow. I will be asleep in seconds. But right now a sense of total and utter euphoria is taking over me.

mmmmm...... maybe one more gin before I turn in......

second day of christmas

On the second day of Christmas, gingerbread cupcakes are the go.

There has been much talk of gingerbread houses, and ginger cake, and I had Chinese beef with ginger, snowpeas and coriander for lunch the other day, so why not I say?!

Gingerbread Cupcakes
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 tpsn baking soda
1tspn grounder ginger
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
1/4 tspn ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
90g butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tblspn golden syrup

then simply sift the dry ingredients into a mixer bowl, add the wet and mix together until golden and light. Put into 12 cups and bake for 20-25 minutes at 170 degrees

Simple Cream Cheese Icing
Mix 30g butter, 80g cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar, add a squeeze of lemon and a bit of zest.

These were rather nice. Needed more ginger, as the cinnamon flavour sort of took over, but they were still good. Just not particularly ginger. But the spice combination added a Christmas feel. They were a little dry, so I might think about putting a little cream or milk in next time.

What I'd really love to do is the whole gingerbread house thing. Maybe next year.

But also a cat update. Thurston's sulking and crying at the door. Apollo's constantly trying to get out and Tony's eating everything.

I like kittens......

good friday dinner

OK, bear with me, this might go on a bit....

after breakfast i 'tided myself over' with a small bowl of organic icecream

and a few sour worms
at dinner time i went to my dads, where we started off with a few olives

before we moved on to a delicious leg of lamb, with a spice crust


which was served with couscous and yoghurt
and a salad.... and a couple of glasses of wine of course. and as a distraction, here is a photo of their new kitten poppy. she's a cutie!