A Big Day

Had a couple of friends stay a night - took them to Treehouse in Belongil for pizza, as we normally do when visitors are here. We are probably more excited to go there than visitors. As usual hubby and I were pretending for a few minutes that we might order a pizza and a salad to share; followed by ordering a pizza each.

Today is a big day. Today, for first time since June 2010 - am getting my hair cut. There shall be NO before / after picture. Sorry to disappoint. It had somehow passed me by - but have recently realised hair is disaster of gigantic proportions. Looks bad, also hair falling off leaving piles of it all around house. And I hate vacuuming.

So today is the Day. Going to be something of a challenge for hairdresser.

By the way, I have great respect for hairdressers. Used to think hairdressing was probably really easy; until unfortunate incident involving myself, a pair of scissors and hubby's hair.
That sad episode ended with hubby's mother having to shave his head. Ever since then, I respect hairdressers and appreciate the difficulty of hairdressing.

Back in the day, when living in Sydney's Inner West - used to be so lucky as to live with a (former) hairdresser. Was so sweet. He would cut hair in exchange for two bottles of Yellow; one for me, one for him.
Yellow was consumed during styling. Not sure how this was possible, but always thought it looked absolutely great after it was done and the bottles empty.

Hmm.

Birthday

Birthdays are a good time of year to reflect on changes that occur as we grow older and wiser. According to tradition I always think back on previous birthdays as far as I can remember; what did I do, where was I - and so on.

Until I get to about 2006/7 - anything before then is kind of a blur.

Anyway.

2011: Byron Bay: Lovely meal at restaurant outside Byron - early night, home.

2010: Sydney: Out on the town with bunch of friends - in spite of having some sort of eye-ailment rendering me practically blind, still managed to have too many drinks and stay out too late. Was middle of week but friends are hardcore drinkers...

2009: Amsterdam: Japanese restaurant with a couple of friends. Fairly early night, rode bikes home - nobody fell over.

2008: London: Was terribly depressed, hated what was doing and also thought was getting too old. Can now look back on this moment in time knowing life was about to get a lot better; also I was not bloody old! Now I am old.


Things I have said in recent time which I would have sworn blind I would never say if asked 10 years ago:

"Old toothbrushes are excellent for cleaning purposes"
"I need a good grater"
"I don't eat dead animals"
"I couldn't live in a big city"
"I'm always asleep before 10"
"I have to do some gardening"
"I just ordered five new recipe books"
"I simply must get a leaf-blower"
"No thank you, I am not drinking today"
"Is it Friday? I didn't realise"


Hubby took me to lunch this year - awesome little cafe called the Concious Cafe, in the Bay.

Raw cacao and banana rice-milk smoothie - very nice, as it would want to be for 8 bucks! But the food was quite cheap...

Lista

Sett en till kul lista som jag tänkte fylla i, när jag ändå sitter i någons annans hus och passar hundar... (fick se den här hos Emmy)

Namn: Anna

Stjärntecken: Fisk

10 ord som beskriver mig: Otålig, snäll, organiserad, glömsk (därför viktigt att vara ytterst organiserad), envis, empatiskt, ostabil, känslig, generös, okonventionell.

Ordspråk: "A free coffee is a free coffee"

Yrkesdröm i gymnasieåldern: Yrke?

Hur gick det med drömmen: Alldeles utmärkt.

Det viktigaste (och jobbigaste) som hände mig 2011: Det var ett ganska lugnt år på många sätt. Renoveringar kan vara mycket stressiga.

Var jag firade milleniumskiftet: Madrid.

Fem vanliga maträtter jag gör: Wok, Lasagne, Burritos, Veggie-Burgers, Falafel.

Godis top 5: Chips, chokladbollar, banan-muffins, valnötter, vindruvor

Fem saker jag är bra på: Laga mat, snacka, dricka te, organisera projekt, festa.

Tre saker jag är dålig på: Ha tålamod, hålla huvudet kallt i en kris-situation (se nedan för ett exempel), och sova.

5 hobbies jag gillar: Läsa, yoga, film, resa, dricka öl / vin

5 saker jag inte gillar: Kyla, jobb, insekter och små djur i allmänhet, folksamlingar, korkade människor

Fulaste kläderna: String-tros-bikini, shorts som är skyhöga i midjan men så korta att man ser hela häcken (??), oformliga tält-klänningar, one-piece (vill gärna ha en dock), allt i läder.

5 favoritleksaker: Är inte speciellt pryl-intresserad.

Viktigaste världsfrågan: Luftföroreningar, nedsmutsning av hav, coal seam gas mining, svält (och den västerlänska kost-hållningen som ingen vill ta moraliskt ansvar för), och så vidare...

Ovanlig talang: Jag har en mycket flexibel tunga.




Exempel på kris-situation, samt min hantering av densamma:

Helt plötsligt för några timmar sedan upptäckte jag en äcklig vit liten mask (bara en cm lång ungefär) på golvet i köket - jag tänkte fy vad äckligt - sen såg jag en till, och en till - och insåg att hela golvet var fullt av hundratals små sådana där jävlar!!! Jag som hatar alla former av kryp! Maken är förstås på jobbet så det var ju bara att börja städa och försöka sopa ihop de jävlarna... Varje gång jag sopat finns där 100 stycken till... Jag släpar ut sopkorgen och återvinningskorgen utanför och dumpar dem utan att titta efter (så nu står de ute i solen och stinker), och sopar igen, städar lite i köket... Men fortfarande finns maskar var jag än vänder mig... Jag har tagit hur mycket rescue remedy som helst för att undvika panikångest... Vad FAAAAN- städar aldrig de här människorna??? Hur Zen-like får man bli?! PEST! *nästan gråter av panik*

Jag hatar kryp!!! Och jag är knappast OCD, jag dammsuger aldrig i princip - men lite rent får man väl hålla omkring sig!!! Jag känner för att ropa på mamma... MAMMA hjälp!!!

Holiday?

Going to be very busy looking after dogs again, realise blog has had just about enough dog-pictures - so will hop on next when have got something interesting to say - which is not dog-related!

Almost like mini-holiday.

Assembly Repeat and Paperwork

Hubby, angrily: "Didn't we say we were never effing going to get effing assembly furniture again?!?"
Me: "What other kind of furniture would we get?"
Hubby, in finest you're-an-idiot-tone-of-voice: "PRE-Assembled furniture!!!"

Behold, new addition to office...

In other news, have re-entered Immigration-Authority-Hell.

High time to organise self and get Citizenship. Indeed, could just not bother and continue to enjoy freedom from having to participate in elections and other such things - but, all things considered, better to have aussie passport.

Hello paperwork. Forms, forms, forms. This that and the other which has to be signed by such and such a person who has to have known you for atleast a year and bla bla bla - not easy at the best of times and certainly not when new to a place.

I understand standards have to be in place and rules followed. But honestly. Have been here since 2002, and am married to a local. Yet, have to have identity certified by someone who, for example, is boring enough to have worked at the post-office for five years. Hurrah.

Lucky

Main Beach this morning - how gorgeous is that!?! I'm so lucky.

Life Lessons

Life lessons as per Winnie the Pooh:

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

&

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?" "What's for breakfast?" said Pooh


― A.A. Milne, Winnie-The-Pooh

Surfing Comps and Rain-Events

Headed north yesterday to take in a surfing competition in Burleigh Heads with Louise. Did not see very much of the actual competition though.

Burleigh Heads, with the cityscape of the Gold Coast in the background. This area is a lot more developed than our immediate vicinity around Byron. Thankfully.

Was mostly a beautiful day - got burnt in spite of factor 30 and an overcast morning.
Also got stuck in Downpour-from-hell when on highway going back south - approximately 2 metres visibility and going 70 in a 110 zone - accompanied by the usual hyperventilating and ordering of self to stay calm. No choice - had to keep going. Have heard on news that worst thing to do is to pull over on side of road in case of severe rain-event; cars behind you may not see that you have in fact stopped - and "follow" you - resulting in them crashing into you from behind.

So kept going. Was trying to work up nerves to reach for Rescue Remedy inside handbag, when finally rain stopped and sun emerged again as if to pretend nothing happened.

Oh the life living in a rainforest!

Brunswick & Vegan Cooking

Brunswick Heads yesterday, for those of us who prefer to swim without waves...

Also tried new yummy vegan recipes:

Chickpea Cutlets (served with vegan gravy)

Sweet Potato Fries

Sad...

A very sad day today as we farewell our much loved little birdie.

Thanks for helping me overcome my fear of birds! See you again.

Happy travels Faygo!

Artwork and an Empty Screen

New Artwork for office (as you know I very much like art):

Lovely piece. Just have to hang it and it will be prefect.
Did not make it - no, have found that am nowhere near as arty and creative as had initially assumed - it was a gift.

Office pretty much complete.

Except for office chair and a desk-light, still need those. Other than that - is all ready to go. Get going. Get creative. Write.

Only - about what?

Always used to feel that had lots to say and had it in me to be a creative writer - if only it wasn't for... (insert: school, uni, work, too busy, nowhere to live, London not being a creative environment, Sydney not being a creative environment, no laptop and so on).

So here we are now. Just me and the lappie.

And an empty screen.

Beach Again!

Have not done this in a while:

Main Beach this morning...

Swell too high for me, but the surfers looked happy.

Cool Flower in Jungle

Might have briefly touched on the issue of having jungle where garden should be? Anyway, most awesome flower can now be seen in garden! How cool is this, I LOVE it - hubby had no interest in its awesomeness at all however.

The Commodore

Loving the Commodore at the moment. We have become friends.

Back when was still terrified of driving, used to try to imagine that car was safezone - while remaining inside car nothing could possibly go wrong. This never worked, until NOW!

Am not saying that I would drive through Sydney. Or, for that matter, Brisbane. But am not getting bogged down with details. Am just pleased to be able to get round the Northern Rivers without needing psychotherapy afterwards.

Today for example. Had very important matters to attend to, so booked Commodore for the day (that is to say, I let hubby know that if he wished to go to work he would have to cycle).

Very Important Matter #1: Lunch with Louise in Causarina (north of Pottsville, so very far away).

Very Important Matter #2: Facial.

But enough about my day.

Close enough!