Seriously, don't sweep

When setting out into the world this morning I had expected not to return home until Sunday evening. I was not correct in that assumption. The mindless rush of packing flustered my otherwise calm morning, and the surprisingly empty freeway prepared me for an AMAZING cup of coffee that concerningly put a pocket rocket in my grumpy pants and turned my frown upside down.

Today at work, I confirmed that it has not been my lack of skills or talent that has gotten me ill favour with some of the brand managers. Today, I managed to see a work so blindingly beautiful crafted by a contracted outsider shot down for being shite.

I looked at the commissioned work and had to admit, it was stunning. An amazing improvement on the original (that we had borrowed from an overseas brand) and yet still it was not good enough. This tells me two things: I do amazing work, and it is put down all the time, thus my disillusion that I am untalented.

Today, however I start to remake the design from scratch. It was an impossible task for one day. SO impossible that when quittin' time came and I had not completed the work, I managed to slip out unnoticed as everyone readied themselves for the Monday office trip to Asia. It shall be quiet without anyone next week.

This evening, I managed to book into Isobel's Salon for a much needed haircut. Driving all the way down to Wollongong for the snip, I had expected a post hair cut dinner with Glen and Leila. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Such sadness. Isobel however was quick to offer a place at her new pad with Tyson and Nico watching SHOCK TREATMENT (sequel to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW). Let me tell you, it was pretty nifty. Insane, and not as awesome as ROCKY, but the production design was a wet dream.

I must have appeared rude when I decided to jot off on back to good ol' Campbelltown instead of staying at Isobel's... But I rationalised that my bed along with a darkened room could equal a shit load of sleeping in tomorrow. Here's hopin'

Fruit of the Moment: 10pm cheat-a-thon

I dont think it matters if he's gay or not here.

My morning ritual has become somewhat repetitive. Get up. Run 5 miles. Drive to work. Nod off at the wheel. Wait for the the gate guy to open the work car park. Make breakfast. Check Email. Make Tea. Start Work.

I gotta shake this up a bit.

Tomorrow, just for fun I should eat breakfast BEFORE I check my emails.

Today was a day of finance. I assessed my assets and determined that without spending any more money from now until June, I can officially afford my trip to Connecticut this year. Oh BUGGER; I need groceries. Oh well.

The M5 journey home was bumper to bumper for some reason. But I managed to make it home on the limited petrol I had left in my tank. And there goes another blow to my not spending money plan.

I watched BURN AFTER READING with Mum and Dad tonight. It put me in a very hungry mood. I ate my soup dinner, and two extra cups of vegies, and a bowl of sultanas, and two pears and a yogurt and a muesli bar. At this rate I am about to explode. I got to get back into the habit of drinking a litre of water at dinner.

Fruit of the Moment: Penny Play

There once was a sailor named Cameron McFee

I've come to the conclusion that running in the mornings pre-sun-up will only get colder. My hands were like icicles as tried to turn on the shower handles when I returned to the warmth of the insideness.

Work was really productive. Got much work done, with very little procrastination. I did manage to do my usual email and blog list check every hour or so, but that's about it. I was so busy I never even saw Mr Wednesday!?

Dinner was to my surprise FABULOUS! I met Gen for dinner at the china-town and ate the same Spicy green bean dinner I had with the Sean and the Aneesa and the Ruby when we had our city fail adventure last year. It was JUST as delicious as I had remembered.

Meanwhile, due to an enormous cock up from my online printer, the LOVESONG fliers wont be available until mid MAY. Which is a little worrisome. OH NOES!?

On the awesome side of the sauce, the rehearsal tonight was awesome. Got through 3 whole scenes and the cast is really getting into their character. Pete, has actually memorised his lines and receives the STAR OF THE WEEK award for being a Banana Republican.

Fruit of the Moment: Memory Full

Can you do that? Thanks.

Today was all about the LOVESONG promo.



After work, I found myself traveling to Blakehurst to visit Peter who is playing the main character of Bean in LOVESONG. Together, along with help from his mother, brother and a short trip to see his grandfather down the road we put together a fantastic promo which I am currently editing.

Let me tell you, to find the music that I wanted was a little bit of a hassle. It turns out it wasn't written by that Saint Saëns (the Carnival of the Animals dude) but rather was an excerpt from a ballet by Louis Mérante called Sylvia, the excerpt called Pizzicati.

I'm having a little trouble exporting the bugger. As always I am trying to make it as big as possible without being massive in file size. Although, I think i've found a nice balance.

To help me along: more corn :)

Pete was a real sport for helping out this afternoon. But i'm so gosh darn tired.

Fruit of the Moment: Tuesday Groceries

The Jam was imported

Look at how far I ran this morning. In miles. I must have passed by about 20 people on my travels of Port Kembla. Everyone was in a real good mood. They all said hello back for once. Perhaps it was the public holiday.

It was a beautiful day for a birthday too. Unfortunately it was not my birthday, rather Glen's 27th celebration. During breakfast he came back from surfing, disappointed that the waves had not swelled as the forecast had promised they would.

I decided today would be a great day to stay still. To stay dormant, and to catch up on a few creative projects that have been running around the lap track in my brain.

Glen saw to it that the day was to be spent out and about in Bowral and Fitzroy Falls. He used the cunning and ultimate Power of the Birthday to "make us get ready". Leila and I were compelled to get ready quick smart.

The Power of the Birthday you see, grants the birthday person anything they desire. Washing up, cleaning, fetching bowls of delicious foods, all these could be yours to delegate with the ultimate power.

So, we set off for Bowral. It was the perfect day for it. Beautiful sun and the perfect temperature. The Coffee was superb and the drive was picturesque. I even got to refine my small talk techniques with Leila's Aunt Marianne on the drive there.

Not surprisingly, our lunch turned into a spotlight on how difficult I can make life for others. I had planned on ordering the Vegetarian Burger Salad Platter. It was discovered that the vegetarian ball of lentils and chickpeas were in fact prepared in a deep fryer. This eliminated that option. So, I tried the salad toasted wholegrain sandwich option. This turned into an abundantly disastrous choice.

The manager took it upon herself to change my order into something more presentable. And so after I had settled on my sandwich, she asked me If I wanted an arty looking salad instead. I hadn't thought this question through and assumed that the previous waitress had written down all my instructions with the previous order. (She hadn't) But wanted to please the manager, so agreed to her new plan.

As a result, the wholegrain bread was forgotten and replaced with white, the greens and tomato salad magically turned into roast sweet potatoes, covered in (of course) oil along with wanky lettuce soaked in dressing.

I decided to not send the whole meal back. But instead complain about one thing. This turned out to be the bread. So I told the waitress, that this wasn't the bread I had ordered and that I in fact originally wanted multigrain, and that as there had been so much confusion I just wanted additional bread on the bill. When it came out finally, the bread was thicker than a deck of cards and there was four enormous slices.

I'm just over it at this point. I didn't want to eat anymore. Meanwhile, no one else at the table had gotten anything to eat and Leila's aunt continued to go without the water she ordered despite our coffees.

I ended up with no food and a foul mood. Leila was angry at me; most likely for being difficult at a cafe she really likes, one which I wont have the opportunity to go to again, where as she will. The difficult thing was really when she told me I wasn't allowed to complain about something, change the order and then not eat whatever it was they replaced it with. And of course I'm allowed. As long as I pay for it, why not?

And the waitress seemed to find my salad sandwich with no butter, oils, cheeses or avocado obscenely difficult to manage along with her temper.

No one won here. It was just like Monopoly.

Thankfully, the mood lifted when a waiter arrived with everyone's orders AND my original order. It was perfect (ironically). Besides the bread which I removed. I was so amused I couldn't stop laughing with Glen... It lightened my mood immediately. And I ate my cubed cucumber with gusto.

Glen was even happy to drive me all the way to Campbelltown after our visit to Fitzroy Falls as I had forgotten to pack my Video Camera for tomorrow night's LOVESONG promo shoot with Peter. I got to ride with him on a motorcycle for 2 hours and 2o minutes with a 5 minute break at my house to pick up the camera.

The ride back to Woolongong was bitter cold. So cold, my legs were unable to stand on their own properly. It was concerning when I fell into the shower recess while climbing in. I didn't slip, my legs just gave way and buckled. The hot water soon woke them up. But I was still very shaky on my feet.

We were joined by Pam, Greg and Marianne for dinner. The roast for two turned into a roast for five. Our post roast Catan game was disappointingly boring. We resolved to amend the amendment we originally made to the extended player rules back to the official rules as it would liven up the game play.

Interestingly, even with the least amount of pieces on the board I ended up with five victory points, (the most out of everyone) when we decided to call it quits at 10pm. Greg and Pam needed to drive back to the Blue Mountains. So a half victory for me.

And for some reason, this evening I was so hungry that my dinner just wasn't enough. An extra 2 pieces of toast just 10 minutes ago attempted to satisfy the munchies. And even my yogurt dessert which I bulked up to include cut up fruit didn't hit the spot. I STILL continue to starve, should I eat a little more before bed? Yes.

Happy Birthday Glen. Sorry for being a fussy pain in the ass.

Fruit of the Moment: Sultana Weevil

But, candles aren't flamable

My 5 miles of Campbelltown scenery this morning was coupled with an overcast sky and a light drizzle. The weather not being very accommodating, it was difficult to call such a grey, rainy day Sunday. Also I found leaves to be much wetter when I ran into low hanging trees along the side of the road.

There were less cars than I would have thought for an ANZAC morning. Perhaps their users were all too busy inside the various open bars, RSLs and pubs around the city.

I had left around 1 hour to pack for four days of backpack living. Apparently that wasn't enough, and I left over an hour late to attend a rehearsal for the Arcadian's Contemporary Musical Theatre Workshop.

The day was a complete mixed bag. What I most despise about musical theatre is the standing around waiting for nothing to happen. Rehearsals you see, often result in your waiting around for an hour only to be rewarded with 10 minutes of work. This definitely was the case today. Luckily, the performance is next week and practice now is on my own time, which is just peachy.

At short notice, I was informed my bedroom at Leila's was to be given away to a visiting interstate Aunt who was in need of some TLC. I meanwhile will look forward to sleeping on the amazingly comfortable red couch. All I have to worry about is fighting my Godson for space.

I once again had Risotto for dinner. Leila made pumpkin risotto after I had stupidly thrown away her entire celery supply, placing our Catan game on hold while she went to Woolworths to yield some more. Actually, what I really had was a large spoonful of Risotto and half of my pre-cooked Friday night pasta.

Once the dinner was complete, and the chestnuts were shelled and consumed, Catan was resumed and Leila won. Its funny how I continue to love this game, regardless of my consistency in anti-winning.

Fruit of the Moment: Exploding Chestnut

Increased my Geek Cred

Apparently when you have an abdominal ultrasound for reasons that are not explained to you by your doctor, there is some kind of universal understanding that states scans are to be picked up in advance by you prior to revisiting the doctor for the results they wanted.

In addition to this, vaccinations for various immunizations required for overseas travel actually cost $80+ a hit. That's a whole lotta mula for all those pesky viruses.

Also, when you ask WHY you are getting these scans and paying for these vaccinations you were told you had to get without explanation, doctors will look at you like you have

a) spoken a language forien to them (or possibly made up dialect given their chances of knowing a forien language to be relatively high. You know, because they're smart). And

b) acted wrongfully and rudely

Im so glad I got to (therefore) spend the remainder of my day parading around Peters of Kensington with my sister. I got to induct Louise into the wonder that is that store. Luckily she did not spend upwards of $80 on Vera Wang Stationary, instead opting for the heart shaped pie dish. A wise investment.

I was rather taken aback however when for lunch at their overpriced cafe when I was not allowed to order a sandwich because it was not on the menu. And "the chef does not take special orders when we are busy" But I DID manage to modify their club sandwich after establishing they were out of vegetarian wraps.

My order of a club, without butter and with multigrain bread, toasted instead of fresh, without pesto, oils or any meat and extra salad. The waitress looked at me and said after this very long and painful quest for a salad sandwich: "Why don't i just get you a salad sandwich?"

My knowledge of modern etiquette told me that to answer with "Because, you Fucking incompetent underpaid lackey; YOU informed me that this was an impossibly difficult task for Chef to acheive." was not the correct course to pursue.

I merely smiled of course and said "that would be perfect." Louise was relieved she wasn't going to be eating alone. I really am high maintenance.

Such is overpriced service now-a-days.

This evening after whipping up a vegetarian feast in the kitchen, Louise and I threw an early birthday for Glen with servings of Bruschetta, Cheese and Mushroom Risotto. I also made Hazelnut Cupcakes for Leila and A White Chocolate Raspberry Butter Cake for the lighting of candles.


And here is the best news of the day: The Mushroom Risotto tasted FABULOUS. And I know for a first hand account! I had three whole scoops of that mountain of deliciously cheesy piled goodness and could have no more. The butter was an ingredient that my mouth could isolate like a lost friend whom it was very glad to see. There was much embracing.

Once again, Our Catan night was superiffic. Glen even WON a game. I, meanwhile continued my not winning strategy which is luring everyone slowly into a false sense of superiority. Mwah ha ha har....

Fruit of the Moment: Delicious Delicious Butter