christmas post

tee hee. This picture was just too moi not to steal it from some other poor, unsuspecting blogger's site.

Well, I had quite a list of things to get through last time I posted. How's all that going, I wonder?

1. Run a highly underfunded international conference
I am pleased to be able to report that I lived through this conference. Only one complaint. Mind you this was screaming-abuse-at-me-at-the-registration-desk complaint, but from someone largely considered in the industry to be insane. There were a few hiccups with the catering, and the bar lost a bucket of money, but Dr Space Junk and I managed to make it through alive. Then we both slept. I mean really, really slept. I'm still sleeping as I write this, actually. I am hoping for a minimum of 12 hours a night until I get back to work.

2. Finish the fucking course review process that has destroyed the last three months of my life
This is somewhat connected with old Father Darth up the top. Unfortunately this still lingers on. And it really has destroyed the last three months of my life. This is the reason that I am so tired, and so despondent, and so totally utterly physically, emotionally and mentally rooted. I took this job 12 months ago to try and reduce the stress in my life. It has done anything but. It's a good thing that the people are great and my academic supervisor is just down the corridor, or I'd be outta there.

3. Cook Christmas dinner for 30 workmates
Survived this too. Exhausted and plastered (it only took about three drinks). I will be eating the left overs until Easter.

4. Write a conference paper
I should be doing this now, but am writing this post as a form of procrastination

5. Have Christmas
Christmas has turned me into an eating machine - pate, dip and dukkha, grilled lemon quail, roast beef with aioli and potatoes, cheese course, ice cream, pavlova and cake. All washed down with gallons of booze. I think it's stretch my stomach, because I've been perpetually starving since. I'm waiting until 4pm before starting to prepare dinner....

6. Drink far too much Frangenlico with my choice-bro who will be down for Christmas
Too much eating for Frangelico. But he's here until Saturday!

7. See if I can find someone who wants to go to the ODIs with me.
Some possible action on this front. I am helping my conference paper procrastination along with lots of watching the Boxing Day test with eating ham sandwiches and cherries. I'll start on the voddie tonics in about an hour.

Merry Christmas to you and all your nerf herders.

I'm off to see the pandas tomorrow!

another list, but this one has rhythm

Polling is on for the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time. This event is bound to cause heated front bar discussions, pointing of fingers and thumping of tables. At least it has in my world in the last couple of days.

So to bear my soul, wear my heart on my sleeve in a way that could not be any more meaningful, here are the ten songs that I was able to narrow down to my top 10. Some are classics, some are new favourites and some are in here just because of the way they changed the musical landscape.

In no particular order:

1. Joy Division - Transmission
2. Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood #1
3. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
4. The Go-Betweens - Bye Bye Pride
5. My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise
6. Okkervil River - Black
7. Pavement - Loretta's Scars
8. The Pixies - Hey
9. The Saints - Know Your Product
10. The Smiths - How Soon is Now

Left, heart bleeding on the cutting room floor:
The Cure - 10.15
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry Lee
The Stone Roses - Bye Bye Badman
Jesus and Mary Chain - Happy When It Rains
Leonard Cohen - So Long Marianne
Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
The Charlatans - Only One I Know
The Beatles - Day in the Life
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket
Husker Du - Don't Want to Know
Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck

... and many more.

you're not going to eat that are you?

I found this while wondering around today, on Desperately Seeking Crab (great name). The list below was done up by a guy from Britain called Andrew Wheeler. It's a list of what he thinks all omnivores should eat once in their life. Some of them are great. some of them are gross. some of them I will be googling in about 10 minutes to work out what the hell they are.

Here’s what to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (I need to work out how to do this using blogger).
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black Pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich (I think it's fair to say Australians don't eat these)
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (again, not an Australian thing)
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle ('fraid to say, I don't understand what the fuss is about)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (why?!)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (seafood makes me gag)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (but I prefer sweet!)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (but only if you count the ones that fly in by accident when i'm riding)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (in Switzerland. I was sooooo drunk)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (you can get them on the east coast, but not Adelaide. hey it's a doughnut. Give me a jam doughnut from the Royal Adelaide Show any day!)
50 Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (many, many moons ago. oh, the shame)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (well, absinthe, not sure what brand it was)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (but I have a funny road kill story, remind me to tell you one day)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (I take it this is a brand. is it like a mince pie? I hate mince pies)
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (zucchini flowers stuffed with blue cheese. and sugared violets. and rose petals. and nasturtium salad)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate (but I've had Haighs)
91. Spam (Maybe, I remember a can being in the pantry when I was young. i guess someone ate it)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I'm afraid I've only just made it over the half way mark. I couldn't work out how to cross through but there's a lot of fish or seafood on this list. Fish makes me vomit. literally. I'm a big fan of squid and octopus (as long as it's not stewed), but most other types of seafood inspire repulsion or apathy. There's also some stuff that I don't think you can get in Australia, like hotdogs from a street vendor, or Hostess Fruit Pies. Then again, horse butchers are a bit thin on the ground - I had horse when I briefly lived in France. So I'm going to go to wikipaedia and work out what I can/wish to add to my list.

Let me know if you do this, so that I can come and check it out!