Article of my week:

No, I'm not talking about the hilarious one about the Expedit I facebooked, which you can read too if you like.

This one about Gen Y maybe wanting to leave the inner cities, against all the trends.

I wouldn't say I ever missed the suburbs, but I'm trying to see the bright side now. I'm sadly giving up my carfree lifestyle and figuring out which car to buy. Enjoying my walking-distance-from-the-beach location every swimming-weather day I can, before I go inland. Even breaking my No Takeaway rule because the days of easy access to cheap asian food are slipping through my fingers.

But on the bright side, there will be a vast improvement in my finances—the proportion of my income spent on rent will be reduced and even buying a place will be within reach one day. I'll be able to own and play a real piano as loudly as I like, no shared walls. I'll have a front door that goes outside instead of onto a corridor. I may even have a BACK door! I may have access to dirt I can grow things in, instead of a concreted common driveway area. This is all stuff I can live without, and have lived happily without, but they are upsides.

Should watch Hart of Dixie again.

Surprise Lord's Prayer.

We usually remember to pray before music practice at church. I decided to to the Lord's Prayer once. So the three of us shut our eyes while I recited it, and it was good but weird. And it seemed a lot more epic than music practice requires. As those familiar sentences loomed in my mind the split second before I said them out loud I kept feeling "wow". YOUR KINGDOM COME. FORGIVE US OUR SINS AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST US. THE KINGDOM THE POWER AND THE GLORY ARE YOURS NOW AND FOREVER. It was big stuff compared to what we normally pray at 4.10pm.

Fashionable shoes.

I found out last night what the trendy shoes are for teenage girls at the moment. Because a mum was wearing her daughter's shoes. If you had asked me what was fashionable with the young ladies I would have said thongs and ballet flats, but these shoes are the opposite of thongs and ballet flats. They are black clumpy sandals from Windsor Smith. The sort of thing you choose for comfort over fashion. From the sort of brand that sells work shoes for adults. Until now.

See what I mean here.

Post holiday Monday.

There are some good things about being back at work. I moisturise my hands regularly, for example.

Getting out of the house on my own to do something fun is hard.

I enjoy doing things on my own, but I find myself unmotivated to actually get out of the house and do things unless I have an appointment to meet someone to do it with. Like, whenever I think "I could see a movie this Saturday" I just never get round to going. That happens all the time. But if I've made a plan with someone, I go. I'm happy to go by myself, but sigh, when Saturday comes around there's a 99% chance I'll stay home and read a book instead.

Voting.

I'm a swinging voter. I've swung about 4 times since the election started. And I'm in a marginal seat now so it actually matters! Woohoo!

I always decide on the day, and then walk in and realise there are TWO pieces of paper darnit, the little easy one I just decided and the big other confusing one that I always fluff. This time, however, I have gone to belowtheline.org.au like a nerd and cleared up that big confusing sheet. I've made that decision in advance for the first time EVER! The little groups are very interesting. I feel so responsible.

Age perception.

People, mainly young people (kids, teens and early 20s) THINK an age is old, until they meet someone that age. Especially a single person that age, cos anyone without kids is "younger" than anyone WITH kids. If they find out you are 35 or whatever, they can be totally stunned that you are SO OLD cos they thought you were like 25!!! But really, you aren't old, it's just that you have an old-sounding age number. Age shmage.

Cheese without a cracker.

If you have many sorts of cheese but no crackers, this may be a solution. One of the cheeses here is a low-fat cheddar. Boring. Might as well be yellow cardboard. Use a piece of low fat cheddar as a cracker, and put tasty blue cheese on top of it, and voila! A pleasing cheese-on-cracker substitute. Using up tasteless cheese and being resourceful about lack of crackers. Ticks so many jelssie boxes. Thank me later.

Too much dessert.

I had a very nice Friday night. Elsie and I saw Ben (and others) do amateur standup comedy in Glebe. Before that we did Japanese things like eat Japanese for dinner and shop in Daiso for Japanese plastic things that all cost $2.80 (I bought 2 laundry bags!!). After comedy we went to the cafe in Glebe that does churros and chocolate. (I don't think the churros were nearly as nice as the ones Lindeback and I made for dessert for bible study people one time.) I had a sundae with 3 scoops of ice cream and brownie in it and it was too big, I didn't finish it. I think I've reached some sort of grown-upness where there is such a thing as too much dessert. I'm putting that on a list of "will regret eating" right after Burger Rings.

e

You've probably never wondered this, but now you will, and then I will relieve your wondering. I've noticed a large lowercase e on the back of nail polish bottles. And on other cosmetic containers, after that. It's in a particular font. And then today I noticed it on a meusli bar! So it's not just a random cosmetic thing, it's an everywhere thing! But I've never noticed it everywhere before! But it isn't everywhere everywhere, I think it's only on certain things, probably only small things like nail polish and meusli bars, but not big things like bottles of shampoo and boxes of cereal.

Here is the most likely answer (and I found some other ones, but this is my best guess).

http://www.intelligentanswers.co.uk/index.php?topic=5566.0

I feel like a new me.

This is the after-effect of the '6 months no shopping challenge'. I recently started culling my summer/autumn stuff that no longer deserves a place in my wardrobe. Shirts I didn't wear all summer because of slight size creep or change in my style, going to my sister. Cardigans that are only fit for the bin, going into the bin. And I am restocking very carefully, with the shirts I have been making in staple colours, and some obsessive cardigan browsing. (NEW CLOTHES ARE AMAZING I LOVE THEM) So I feel a bit proud of my wardrobe, it's getting marginally easier to get dressed in the morning. Also, I now have a mirror, so I can see what I look like before I get to the bus stop. That kind of helps.

However, there is another change afoot, which isn't to do with what I am buying or wearing, but how I am wearing it (probably thanks to the mirror):

 I have started tucking shirts in. This is a small behaviour change, to be sure, but it is a radical change in my presentation. This is a total revelation to me, because I have been an untucker forever. Tucking in a shirt is something Dad does. But suddenly I have reconsidered. There is something confident and put-together about a tucked-in shirt. It turns casual clothes into smart/work clothes instantly. And it doesn't even have to be a business shirt, it can be any shirt long enough to tuck in. A "good" tshirt can look nicer tucked in than untucked. Every outfit gets poshed up a notch simply by tucking the shirt in to the skirt or trousers.

White crockery overrated.

Subjects in an experiment were served identical hot chocolates in different coloured cups… all white on the inside but on the outside they were glazed white, or dark cream, or orange or red. And the result, the white cup was voted the least delicious. The orange and beige cups were equally the most delicious. Red in the middle. I had serious doubts about the orange and purple MKR decor last night, so it just goes to show the far-reaching psychological effects of colour. We instinctively like cafes that are full of wood and brown paper and warm natural things rather than a shiny bright decor. I think this revelation should begin the long-awaited decline of the popularity of giant heavy white plates.

And we danced to a melodica.

This is a song I like. Nothing amazing about it, but one night, ages ago, it came on the radio and I danced around my bedroom. Yes, I was quite surprised. It was a nice moment though, so I've liked the song ever since. Anyway, what I didn't know until watching the music video today that there was such an instrument as the melodica. I had to google "little piano that you blow through". Now I want one.

http://www.amazon.com/Hohner-37-Key-Performer-Melodica/dp/B0055DAC1O

Buying the physical thing.

You'll never guess what. I bought a CD today, Sigh No More was $10 at jb hifi so Christmas ahoy, brother. He doesn't read my blog, I bet. Anyway, I got myself one as well. (See, Spotify HASN'T killed MY music sales.) I can't remember when I last bought a CD. I had a little moment of nostalgia. I forgot how clear and shiny a new plastic jewel case is, it used to be as magical to me as new car smell or unbroken book spine. I forgot that you can see the album art bigger in a CD than you can on your iTunes screen. I forgot that they come with booklets with song lyrics in them and pictures of the band and stuff. It was a journey of rediscovery. I still will buy downloads mainly, because I think the CD experience is often clutter rather than nostalgia or excitement, but it was delightful to remember the excitement of my youth, except that this time it's not an *NSync album.

By the way, I trialed ordering online at JBhifi and collecting it in store. It saves looking around for ages in the shop (I had a few things to get) and it's quicker than postage as well. Order at my computer, get emailed a few hours later saying I can collect it, and pop out at lunch.

Early morning.

I had an ortho appt booked for 7.30 am yesterday morning. It's a good time for not missing any work and having breakfast afterwards without being much hungry. It's an unreasonable time for getting up in the morning and catching a bus to the city. Except that actually, a lot of people are doing that. Although probably half as many as at my normal time, and a higher percentage of them are wearing orange. It was a bit more peaceful. The moon was still up, big and ghostly, and there was a lot less traffic, and the bus wasn't full. A change in routine is very refreshing.

Priorities.

Here is a bit of The Course Of Your Life which I am laying out at work.

Graphic of young woman’s checklist (handwriting sort of font maybe):
1.    Find a job
2.    Save enough to travel
3.    Find a boyfriend
4.    Have memorable experiences

We are so transparent...

Keelhauling.

It's a weird saying, to "get keelhauled". I never knew it was an actual thing! You do it on boats. You apparently get tied to a chair or just dropped over the side tied to a rope, then you're dragged around the outside of the boat, bumping against the side of the boat and being scratched by barnacles, and getting half drowned depending on the generosity of the rope-holders. How did I not know about this? Here is proof from wikepedia.

Thanks 702 radio, your segment on "ways you have been punished" was very interesting.

Are you where you thought you'd be?

Wendy's son is doing trials and choosing his future from the UAC book. Are you where you thought you'd be, when you chose a career? I am, if you count plans not wishes. I thought I'd like to be a mum by this age, but that's not something you can plan. As far as plans go, I'm where I wanted to be. I remember having a planning session with Dad about deciding what to do in year 11, because I was pretty aimless, happy enough to hang around the house playing the piano and reading, and we planned that by 22 it would be nice to have a job that was quiet and sort of creative like illustration, and have moved out of home. Aim high.

I discovered the B Design at the Uni open day some point in year 12, which was a relief because it gave me something to put down for my UAI preference. Got the marks, did the course. Thought it would be nice to work somewhere like Matthias Media, and at age 22 I started working here. Dad calls it "lap theory", when you just potter away unambitiously and eventually God drops something in your lap.

Rather boring story, but I'm glad that it worked out this way.

Nectarines are nectarines.

I have been under the impression for many years now that a nectarine was a cross between a peach and a plum. Many people have agreed with me. Last Saturday I was picnicking with Jess K and she disagreed. She was firmly of the opinion that it was a peach and an apricot. How silly. Plums have smooth skins, so that's where nectarines get their smooth skins, and the reddish colour, whereas peaches and apricots are hairy, so how could you get a nectarine from that? But nothing would change her mind, so as we wandered home we stopped in at Randwick fruit shop and asked the man stacking the nectarines what nectarines are made of.

His answer: nectarines are just nectarines. We were both wrong. Then he gave us each a slice of nectarine. We were only 50% convinced, and 50% still in favour of our own theory, so we vowed to google it: and lo, wikipedia backs up the fruiterer. They are in fact a sort of peach with a recessive gene for smooth skins, but they aren't a hybrid or anything. So there you go. Nectarines are nectarines.