Today I was a slob.

That's all. I blame the damp: the weather and the chaos of my slowly flooding kitchen. I am wearing my oldest sneakers, cos they might get wet in the rain. I tried to make my hair last another day before washing it and that never works on humid days, NEVER DO IT AGAIN, and I have a slight toothpaste stain on my black top, which I have tried twice to wash out with cold water and hand soap and only succeeded in feeling even more damp. Then I was photographed, just to test the camera for a photo of my boss (who looked glamorous), and I got to see myself all wacky-haired and shadowy eye-bags.

Tomorrow I will be so smart, clean and fluffy dry.

KESC 26: Ratu Sari Review

This is a very popular Indo restaurant, a little bit upmarket from the rest of Anzac Pde, and famously spicy. It was very quiet at first because we were so early.

5 challengers eventually found the right restaurant and eventually got the right number of seats for our group. We ordered their specialty beef rendang, very yummy, and the one with the lettuce and egg and satay, some chicken with Bali sauce which was hot hot hot, an eggplant dish and some salad and crackers. It was all nice. I was surprisingly full after it, it didn't look like a lot but I guess big chunks of meat fill you up more than cunningly sliced stir fry meat.

It was $18 each, so that's more expensive than average, but I guess the food and service is more consistently good than the el cheapos around it. It's a safer option than Indo Rasa, which is a little cheaper but they ran out of Rendang when I was last there, which is disappointing. The place was full by the time we left (at 7.30pm) and it was less of a student crowd and more of a "night out" crowd than the cheapos.

We were all happy with the food, service and atmosphere, and I'd give it a 3.5 our of 5, it was a bit on the hot side and a bit on the pricy side and the air-con was a bit strong so I was worrying about the food getting cold. Kevin took photos on his phone, if he sends them we'll post them.

Bus roulette.

It being a wet day, I opted for the bus. I tucked a book under my arm as I left the house. The 400 timetable is always an emotional roller-coaster, because it is such a long route. This morning, the 8.09 didn't come. The 8.13 didn't come. The 8.17 came, but it was an old bus, and I don't like old buses, they are leaky and steamy and also it was standing room only, so I let it go. This was a bit silly under the circumstances, but I wanted to sit and read my book on the bus, and I was prepared to sit at the rainy bus stop for as long as it took. The 8.23 didn't come. The 8.31 came with the 8.23, and they were both new, and I got the seat at the front and read my book for 10 minutes! In the end, I got to work no quicker and only slightly dryer than if I had walked.

Yes, I know there is a thing for texting I could have used.

KESC: Change of venue!!

Eep! My mistake. I said Red Hat was the next restaurant but it's actually Ratu Sari Indonesian Restaurant. 470 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032. See you there tomorrow 6:15pm.

Giant lightbulb.

I found a giant lightbulb on Belambi beach on the weekend, took it home and accidentally dropped it on my driveway. It made a nice tinkly smash. Lightbulbs are amazing, I was told they have a slight vacuum in them to stop them oxidising. I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it's amazing, and they look amazing. It'll be sad to lose the classic incandescent bulb to the energy saver ones. They are not amazing that I know of.

The main amazing giant lightbulb, however, is the metaphor for realising something. Last night at singing I learned that men and women can sing the same note, ie C, and it sounds deeper for the man but is NOT ACTUALLY AN OCTAVE DEEPER, as I had always (in my own simple logic) thought. It's the same C! The lower pitch is an illusion. WOW! I had to do some googling today to make sure, because it sounded so amazing.

Now, I've done sound mixing, I know you can turn the lower and higher frequency up and down to make people sound like Barry White, but you aren't retuning their voice lower… the frequency strength is different to the pitch, so it's like men have a boost in the lower frequencies in their voices. It's all so obvious, and I've never ever got it before in my 20 years of music. This is mind-blowing for me! And at the same time, I don't know how I didn't know it.

Wonderful, there is already a label here for 'lightbulb moments'.

Dental Value.

Back when I was getting my jaw splinted and x-rayed and quoted for orthodontics one of the biggest stresses was making decisions about money. Decisions are hard anyway, but I hate spending big amounts and there is no way to know if one treatment will be better than another. $8000 for this or $7000 for that? What do I know?! When I got the quote for the oral surgeon to remove 3 wisdom teeth for $1600, + more $ if I wanted a general anesthetic, I literally sat down and cried on the street behind Coles. Actually having the teeth pulled was less traumatic than the financial decision. Wisdom came much later, when I was reflecting on it to Elsie. Who didn't have the same struggle as I did, so it was one of those times when you preach to yourself via a listening friend.

"In the end, dentistry is one of those areas you can't ever be satisfied about the price, it is always expensive. You just have to be satisfied with some peace of mind about your dental work. You will forget about spending the money in 12 months time, but if something goes wrong you could be in for long term problems and more money as well, so don't worry about the money as long as you are comfortable about the dentistry."

Probably also applies to expenses relating to cars and tradesmen.

KESC this Friday night at Red Hat Noodle

This is the restaurant Georgina has eaten at either 60+ or 110+ times (I couldn't remember the exact figure). I ate there quite a bit in my undergrad days too. I suspect we will order shan dong chicken and salt & pepper squid/calamari, judging by our previous orders at the past Chinese restaurants. And probably sweet & sour pork...haw haw haw!

6:15pm <- Note the earlier start time!
Friday 18 March
Red Hat Noodle Restaurant (Chinese)
466 Anzac Parade
Kingsford 2032

We are doing the earlier start time so we can go to UNSW Astronomy Outreach Public Viewing Night afterwards :) Something a little different from super fudge brownie ice-cream ABCafe.

Come see the stars with UNSW Astronomy Outreach at our FREE public telescope night!

Date: Friday 18th March, 2011
Venue: Physics Lawn [map]
Time: 7:45 pm - 9 pm
Objects of interest: the full Moon, Orion Nebula, Jewel Box open cluster

Please note, in the event of heavy cloud and/or rain the viewing activity will unfortunately be cancelled.

This event is suitable for all ages.

Wild TV.

When I watched The man from Snowy River I lamented the lack of any gritty outback dramas today. The farmers are all wooing their harems (hateful FWAwife) when they should be galloping and shooting and solving crime and stuff.

Have I heard right? That woman who died on Rafters told Adam Hills she is going to be in a show LIKE THAT! The name isn't promising, Wild Boys or something. But at least it's not a suburban/police/doctor show. Hallelujah!

"Wild Boys will combine horses, gold, bushrangers, power and corruption - all set against the backdrop of an 1850s penal system."

Unfortunately Daniel MacPherson is in it. I don't hate the guy, but he is just so… suburban/police/doctor. He hosts talent shows. Why don't they just cast the Bondi Vet as well to be really sure.

I shall certainly be watching with interest.

Shoemaking.

I had a FANTASTIC IDEA YESTERDAY. I am going to make a pair of shoes. Possibly using this pattern, but it would be fun to design my own and problem solve through it, like with my thong-and-tshirt-lined gumboots. Sticking jeans to thong bases, for example. Great minds think alike and I found this knitting pattern for thong slippers.  Or this would be an interesting craft, so I'll keep an eye out in op shops for old woolly jumpers.

In terms of usability, they are just to wear at work really. I walk to work in expensive joggers and I don't want to waste the jog value by wearing them under my desk. Also not professional to look at. Whereas home made thong slippers would be just so cool.



There are some pretty cool homemade shoes out there on the internet. Using old car tyres as soles and stuff. Some of them look really well made and frankly a lot of shop footware is not all that supportive or hard wearing for the money you spend. If anyone else wants to have a go too I'd be interested in the results! I'm not going to buy a last or do a course, I'm just going to glue junk together and experiment.

KESC 25: Ying Something Review.

Pork ribs in Beijing Sauce

Yong Jing + 10 people: 2 new people and 1 brave man with 9 ladies. We ordered 7 dishes between 10 of us, plus spring rolls. We had the favourites Shan Tong chicken, Salt and pepper squid, Beef with black pepper, Pork ribs (in Beijing Sauce) and also a few different things, mushrooms with greens, shredded pancake stir-fry and combination noodle.

Shredded Pancake

The Shan Tong was generous, but ungarnished, and while the sauce was quite interesting it wasn't the tasty garlicy sour soy I like the best, and there wasn't much sauce. The sauce on the ribs was very nice we agreed, and the plum sauce with the spring rolls was also a little bit different and very nice. The squid, both in the combination and the salt and pepper, was probably the softest squid we have had so far. Not rubbery at all. The shredded pancake dish was savoury and very yummy too. Just about everything asians do with pancakes is delicious, I've noticed. So the food was all in all very good, and the place was full and noisy with students.

The service was super quick, they brought water too. But they didn't clear away plates as we finished. The interior was pretty nice, I don't remember but it wasn't gross like the cheap places usually are, and the menus were full colour pictures and laminated.

Shan Tong

Speaking of cheap, the meal came to $9.60 each, which is tremendously affordable, obviously partly because we ordered 7 for 10 which is on the tight end of the dish to diner ratio. But we ate enough. And had room for ice-cream.

4.25/5, or 5/5 if you are just going for the S&P squid.

Breakfast serves are not big enough.

Single sachets of porridge are a handy breakfast to keep at work so that if I go straight to work from a swim or something I can eat brekky at my desk. Convenient and a bit fancy. But my normal breakfast is a bowl 2/3 or more full of oats and other dense low GI things, and these fancy porridge sachets are only about a quarter of a cup of quick oats with some dried apple and powdered flavouring.  THAT IS NOT A MEAL! It's like having a small fries for dinner. Not a meal! Even worse at breakfast because it's the most omportant meal of the day. I just made up that word Omportant. It means all important. And cereal sellers KNOW they are mocking me, because in the ads they have big full bowls of hearty steaming porridge and similar big amounts of Just Right and multiple Weet Bix. But when they sell me a single serve it is like starvation rations. Arrgh. rage.

Sample twitter.

I'm not giving jelssie as much love these days. I need to lower the bar a bit to get back in the swing. So I'm posting today's experiment in twitter. I do actually have a twitter, jess_is_ but have never tweeted anything. Seems pointless, since my only internet access is at work, and I all do at work is work and eat and think of jelssie posts (which take up more than 140 characters). To prove it, this is an offline day of tweeting.

8.50 - I see icing sugar crumbs from friday on my desk. I want turkish delight. [this prompted a facebook status]
9.25 - I wonder where I can find chord chart for For All The Saints by Indelible Grace.
9.30 - Just as well I'm checking this FA. Centre column lines too tall in places.
9.50 - Morning tea! Water and a nice bit of cracker barrel sharp cheddar cheese.
10.02 - Don't really need chords, do I. It sounds easy.
10.36 - Eating 8 almonds. Have finished all the work that was on desk, tidied desk.
12.49 - Most disappointing tin of tuna ever. Watery puree thai green curry, with khaki peas in it.
2.29 - I think it would be awesome for Matthias Media to have a tea lady with a trolley to bring me snacks. [this I facebooked]
3.34 - Hope: finding a forum thread on my exact same InDesign problem. Despair: nobody has a solution.
3.36 - I am unusually hungry today. Must be stomach missing all the good food from the weekend. Or my slightly faster walk to work.
5.12 - I read today that pumpkin is high GI. Next time I make soup I'm adding in ground chickpeas. Will put chickpeas in to soak tonight.

The best one is probably Tin Of Tuna Review.

Fortuitous error

Is there a phrase or word that describes a good discovery when you make a mistake?

Case in point: I was after genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice), but I bought sencha (green tea) by mistake. Boo hiss :( But I drank some sencha and discovered it was quite nice. I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Fortuitous error.

I still want my genmaicha though!

Making life easier.

Ring pull tins. Best packaging invention ever, although I'm always nervous about using them without breaking them. Second is the pop-lid Moccona jar. Third is the the 2 litre cordial bottle with a handle you can fit your fingers in placed low down for comfortable centre of gravity. Cottees were amply rewarded by sales growth when they developed that, while the competition still had ouchy little handles up near the lid. Why don't they do that with milk bottles, I wonder.

CS Lewis is the hammer.

When I name posts I just type whatever comes into my mind after I've written the post, I think this one doesn't make much sense. It has nothing to do with hammertime. But on to business.

Friday morning I was checking a friend's gift registry list. I've never used one before. I discovered I felt a bit envious, not that I wanted all that stuff especially anyway but because people who get married get presents and a holiday and the whole party, and single people don't, although if you are chinese I guess the red envelopes at CNY make up for it. I think I've blogged before about the singlemoon, the luxurious holiday on a tropical island or whatever I'd like to have one day whether I get married or not, because why live in a state of delay for an uncertain event like marriage to enjoy a holiday? Like that book I haven't read, called something like Single Women Should Have Nice Plates Too. Grrr, another friend getting a scanpan and I'm not. Although I could buy one if I wanted too, but that's not the point.

And then I checked my inbox and read my CSLewisDaily twitter:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.

Nail on the head. Well, I went to Magnolia Square on Saturday and was all inspired to use my art and craft skills, so she'll get something home made now, which circumvents the envy enormously, I'm much better at loving people by making things.

Randomness and insanity.

It's been rather too quiet around jelssie for some reason. Here is some gap filler:

An underground ping-pong revival has sprung up in New York. All the hip, cool people are playing it. There are even hip, cool ping-pong bars.

I don't like apes in ads. Orangutans are the fashion at the moment. And sometimes they are people dressed up as apes. But I find chimpy faces off-putting. And I don't trust animal smiles. 

Does anyone actually watch Two and a Half Men? If so, is there a more horrifying reflection of our society then the fact that TAAHM is prime time TV?

WSFM has a digital station playing only Billy Joel all month. Awesome. I didn't realise so many songs I know are written by Billy Joel. They have a limited playlist unfortunately but I still get to sing along to Uptown Girl and For the Longest Time every day, there is nothing (musicly speaking) that makes me happier than a doo-wop backing vocal.

KESC 25: Ying something.

This is a Save The Date: Friday the 4th March, at the place to the left (north, towards UNSW) of Wang Wang, number in the 470s Anzac Pde, the name is Ying something I forget.

Socks.

I peg my socks on the line in pairs, 2 on one peg, to save pegs. And fold them together as I take them off. It's an efficient system I invented myself, but a bit fiddly to find your wet socks in the basket and pair them up.

I recently bought a 10 pair pack of socks, so that I don't have to wash as often, and I made a terrible mistake. I bought the pack with all pretty colours, instead of the 10 white pairs. I realised my error when I hung out my washing and had a basket full of different coloured toed socks to match up. If I had bought all white, I could be saving a lot of time. Stupid, stupid me.

So the logical solution, other than getting rid of the colours and buying whites, is that I now don't match up my socks. I pair them, and if they have mismatched toe colours I don't care. No one else knows if my toes are a different colour. I bet that's really annoying some of you.

One further revelation was that if I take a pair of sock off and they go inside out, don't turn them back in. Wash them, peg them and the wear them inside out and next time you take them off they will turn back through again. Again, nobody knows! I can now wear odd socks with one inside out, and it is LIBERATING!

The other trinity

Diet, sleep, exercise. I like to call that the other trinity. Or small-t trinity. I've realised how important those three things are to my health, general well-being, and how inter-connected they are.

For example, when I start sleeping badly, it starts to affect my diet. When I'm tired, I crave junk food more, so I eat more junk food than usual. This in turn makes me feel bloated, lethargic and I put on weight. Being heavier makes running or exercising that little bit less pleasant, and when you add tiredness on top of that, it makes exercise really unappealing. People generally find life harder to cope with when they are tired.

However, when everything in the trinity is going well i.e. eating healthily, sleeping well and exercising regularly, you have a much more positive outlook on life and you deal with situations a lot better.

KESC Review: Tensaya

• We went to this in October last year.
• Really lovely to have an authentic, reasonably priced Japanese restaurant in Kingford!! They greet you in Japanese when you walk in etc etc. I would definitely come here if I felt like having affordable and tasty Japanese nearby.
  
• Saw the sashimi dude run this hands through his bleached hair and then massage the fish. At least they use a fresh whole fish! I think Jess K was put off and vowed not to return. I've been back :D I still like it.
• Near the door there is a sign that says " I Heart Tensaya". I agree.

KESC Review: Wang Wang Shanghai Silverstar Restaurant

Speciality: whole fish in Szechuan sauce with noodles

Jellyfish

Chicken in wine (drunken chicken) at the back. Some pork dish with pancakes in the front. Latter was sweet.

Dumplings aka xiao long bao 小龍包

• They have seating upstairs, so can cater to slightly larger groups. We had nine peeps.
  
• They served us with disposable cutlery: wooden chopsticks, plastic spoons, plastic cups
• The tables looked quite new
  
• Their sizzling plate was not in the shape of a cow
• The food came quickly
• They were reasonably attentive with water.
  
• I didn't pay too much attention to the food, except that I was satisfied
• I was surprised to find the Szechuan fish a bit sweet. I am not familiar with Szechuan cuisine (except that it's spicy). Is it meant to be sweet?
• Very pleased to have three newbies join us
• Very pleased to see people try jellyfish
• They have dumplings and I squirted Hayley I think. I like pan-fried buns.Mmm...bunly goodness
  
• I quite liked it. I'd go again :) Next time I'd like to try more of the fried/oily stuff e,g, shallot pancakes, taro cakes/buns, pumpkin thingys and egg custard bun which is one of my favourite buns!
• Quite good value. I think it came to $84 for nine people? Can't remember how many dishes we ordered.
  
• ABCafe ran out of super fudge brownie ice-cream! So Dave and Felix got two scoops of another choice instead. Also you don't get a mini biscuit with a hot chocolate; only with a chai latte or coffee.

Hairdresser, style thyself.

Getting your haircut is totally a matter of faith, because if you were going to base the decision to let someone cut your hair on the hairstyle of the person with the scissors, no WAY would you trust them near your head. Hairdressers have the ugliest, unhealthiest, weirdest hair. And half of them don't know the definition of the word "trim". I place my faith ultimately in the unchanging truth that hair re-grows.

The one redeeming skill they have is that they can do amazing styley things with a hair-dryer, and I can only use it to dry my hair.

Mango cheesecake, Re: lack of.

Dear Sara

One week ago I was looking for a mango cheesecake. There are none. I bought a chocolate cheesecake, and it was very nice, but I feel that there is a hole in the market and if you developed a mango cheesecake it would be very popular.

I am in general a satisfied customer. Please accept my appreciation of your other fine dessert products, and consider my suggestion in all seriousness.

Regards,

Jessica

Write it out.

Tests have been done: worry takes up brain space. Writing about what you are worrying clears the brain before the worrying event, e.g. speech, exam, swim race or whatever. Then with a clear brain you perform better. It only works if you write about your worry, apparently.

This is proof, in my opinion, for the helpfulness of lists. Lists take things out of your brain and put them on paper, so you don't have to remember them anymore.

KESC: Wang Wang Shanghai Silver Star

Jelssie is your "someone special" this Valentine's Day. Join us at 6:30 pm on Monday 14 February at Wang Wang Shanghai Silver Star Chinese Restaurant, 476 Anzac Parade. Here's a penalty notice to put some thrill into your life, and a review or two.

Come on time or let us know beforehand you're coming otherwise risk being a nigel.

No news is good news.

I heard that the new channel ten all news all evening lineup isn't rating well. I could have told them. I'm their target market, and I don't want more news. Who wants more news? I watch a rare fragment of news on ABC or SBS, if it isn't about sport or anything depressing. Gen X and Y get a drip feed of news all day long, on the car radio and smart phone, and I personally don't want to sit down and watch the same news again at night, in a big block, with ads. Boring. I want to watch How I Met Your Mother or QI.

KESC 23. Tasty Eating House REVIEW

Monday night went off. Who would have known you could have so much fun on a school night? Monday morning we had 4, by the time we sat down we had 10 challengers, 1 a newbie.

This seems to be Chinese food.  They had no banquet menu so we just ordered off the menu: 2 entrees and 8 mains, I think. The rice came right away, then the mains interspersed with entrees, which was an interesting way to do it. I guess if you don't have to wait for your main the entree is redundant anyway. The staff were very efficient and fast, giving us chairs and water very quickly.

We ordered some Aussie fav dishes like mongolian lamb and sweet and sour pork, some more adventurous like a fried potoato and eggplant thing and cumin beef, and some special favourites like San Dong chicken and honey pepper pork ribs and salt and pepper squid. A few of the dishes were a little bit too salty or soy or oily, but overall they were tasty, as the name promises. They had lots of meat, but not much veggies: onion and capsicum was in every dish, must have been on special this week. The San Dong was good, although I prefer it with nuts as a garnish, not herbs. The cumin beef was unusual and a pleasant surprise, cumin not being a tradition Chinese sort of flavour.

We were in and out in an hour and it was pretty busy. It came to $13.50 each, so was good value, considering we all got to eat so many dishes. I think the last 2 thai places we went to were better, but this was at least 3.5/5, and one of the better Chinese joints on the street.

Kitchen real estate.

When you have a small kitchen or you share a kitchen with a flatmate who also has kitchen stuff, there just isn't much space to stack plates and pots, let alone store appliances.

There are essential appliances, like toaster, microwave, mixmaster, kettle. There are also so many appliances it's really handy to own, like a breadmaker, electric wok, rice cooker, food processor, cafe grill, slow cooker… let alone the novelty things like donut maker, milkshake maker, popcorn maker, deep fryer...

What do you reckon is the most useful appliance in the 'handy' category? I'm trying to decide. Grill? Slow cooker?

Bonus thought: I reckon a great idea for bible study dinners or something similar would be everyone taking turn cooking with a rarely-used appliance using the appliance cookbook. Soup from the food processor, skewers from the grill. Use those forgotten kitchen treasures.

Puma Love Run

Puma Love Run. Meet someone fit. The weekend before Valentine's Day. Love the concept!

Dessert/clothes analogy.

From lunchtime conversation with some members of the cheesecake club (a worthy alternative to Eat Street! just get together to cook and eat different cheesecakes):

Cheesecake is the dress of desserts. i.e, you wear a dress, which is an easy thing to wear because no matching the top and bottom, and you get compliments because you look a little bit more fancy than normal. Cheesecake isn't always hard to make, tastes great even if it doesn't work 100% (I have been known to freeze a chocolate cheesecake I messed up, and it was like a bavarian, whereas a failed normal cake is not really presentable), and you get MASSIVE kudos for having a go! Like dresses, they are expensive, because of the creamy ingredients. Like mud cakes they are best made the day before, rather than needing to be baked fresh on the day—I can't find a parallel dress analogy for that one.

Mud cake is probably little black dress, a trusty staple, non-spectacular but quality. Cupcakes are the high heel of desserts. Pretty but useless. Cookies are sneakers. Always loved, but don't have the fancy factor.

That's as far as I've got.

CNYE Dinner

When Chinese New Year comes around, it's a really big deal to have dinner with your family on the eve of the new year (think of it as the Chinese Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner). My family has started going out to Chinese restaurants for that meal since it's a lot less hassle than cooking up a storm. That's great for us, we get to gather as a family on an important date. But what about the Chinese restaurant workers who are serving us? Kinda ironic that in order for us to eat at said restaurant, they have to miss out on the same meal with their family and relatives.

Happy Chinese New Year. It's on 23 January next year.

Hot nights, cold cuisine

If you go out to eat during this hot weather, cold cuisine is definitely the best. Think Northern Chinese (cold jellyfish salad, cold mixed noodles, cold sliced meat) and Japanese (sushi, sashimi, seaweed salad, cold soba, other salads).

I don't think the Cantonese do cold food except for dessert. So you might want to rule out yum cha (but I guess you'd be in air-conditioned comfort).

Sydney should have a Cold Food Festival (you heard it here first). Cold desserts. Cold drinks. Cold mains. Get Sensodyne to sponsor the event. It'd need a jazzier name. Can someone make it happen?

Hair, no hair

I spent $2.50 on new hair ties. Then I went and chopped off my hair, so that those new hair ties are useless for the next five months. WHY?

Dressing for an Aussie summer

Summer's here and I'm wearing a lot of sleeveless tops because I don't like what I call the farmer tan (i.e. t-shirt arm tan line) and it feels cooler than wearing sleeves. However, I've noticed a lot of freckles, moles and sunspots appearing on my arms (even though I wear sunscreen sometimes), so I don't know if cancer scare and vanity will get the better of me and I start wearing long sleeves in summer.

I know I've mentioned this before somewhere, but I really feel we should dress like this in summer:



With sunnies.

If I weren't so self-conscious and I knew where to get an outfit like that from, I'd wear it.

Hmm...Jess can sew though...

KESC 23. Tasty Eating House

Monday 7th Feb, 6.30. Elsie's last proper feed before her wisdom teeth are ripped from her jaw.

Girly gigs

PROS

• No bad B.O.
• No fear of being squashed up against shirtless, sweaty guys
• No fear of drunken males

CONS

• Epic toilet queues

Have I left anything out?

Tea.

I'm a late-comer to the tea world. A year or so ago Wendy told me that if you drink green tea all day you don't get PMS or something, so I gave it a go and was obsessed for a few months. I tried to keep black teabags handy for my parents etc when they visited, but usually didn't. Then I discovered Chai Lattes, and it's like a hot chocolate version of tea. And then I discovered flavoured green teas and herbals with lemon myrtle and stuff. So I actually have 4 types of tea now. I now call myself a tea drinker. Pity it stains teeth and that's bad when you have braces, but oh well.

When I was buying some loose leaf chai at T2 (I had a theory of using nice tea as chocolate replacement therapy) I was advised to buy a T2 canister for it. I said no, I had tupperware, and was informed that tea should be stored air-tight in glass or metal, not plastic or the cardboard box it comes in (T2 and everyone sell it in cardboard, so it's ok for them, but not us). The ideal thing I've found is the small moccona coffee jar. It even fits back into the T2 box. But who drinks moccona instant coffee? Nobody. Not even my parents anymore. And who keeps jars in case they are useful? Also nobody. I'm waiting to scab them from friend's workplaces. I'm seriously considering buying some coffee if there is ever a quantity discount at Coles. I think they sell coffee near the tea. Will I drink the coffee, so I don't waste it? Then I might be a coffee drinker as well. That's going a bit far.

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.

Layer laws.

Very very sometimes I come across a person who is not wearing a shirt under their jumper or cardigan. Recently at the ABCafe one Eat Streeter pointed out to the rest of us that another Eat Streeter frequently flaunts nature in this way.

I had only ever half noticed it, until it was pointed out, but then I remembered past instances. It puzzles me. It puzzled many of us that night. A cardigan is a layer, not a main thing. No, that needs emphasis. It's a layer, not a main thing!!! It needs at least a singlet under it otherwise it's a knitted long-sleeved shirt, and who wants to go there? And even if you have a fashion-based comeback for that, or an excuse about saving time or washing (not to attack you personally, Eat Streeter who shall remain nameless), what about when it's hot and you need to take off your jumper? You can't! I can remember when I was little, my best friend was caught in that dilemma on a hot day—even if it had occurred to me to wear a jumper with nothing underneath, which it never would have because a jumper is a layer not a main thing, the problems inherent in such a practice were self-evident.

A Tasting of Age.

2010 was the year of 3 big changes, 3 significant steps into eating like a grown-up.

1. In an effort to slow down my chocolate intake, I switched to dark chocolate. My tastebuds adapted and were refined, so that I actually got really specific and ended up disliking some chocolate altogether (not a fan of Lindt, for eg), whereas in the past I liked all chocolate indiscriminately (apart from Picnic and Snickers and fruit and nut). This is quite a breakthrough.

2. This was incidental and surprising: I started to like olives! I can actually name the date that I went from disliking or just tolerating olives to looking out for them: I think it was when I had some tapas on Halloween in Newtown (the weirdest night to visit Newtown). I went out and bought some soon after.

3. Tea. I've been into green tea in the past because of various short-lived health obsessions, and Chai Lattes are a good alternative to hot chocolate, and when I was just at Summer School I drank about 25 cups of peppermint tea with honey because I was sick and it was cold. I've collected 4 types of tea and I now drink them for fun. My favourite sorts of teabag teas are Nerada. I favour herbal types over actual black tea.

More on tea later.

Regressive adaptation.

At the moment my mad cool talent is Missing The Bin. Missing the bin with my hand right over it, missing the bin when I sit right next to it. I've stopped even being annoyed anymore, I just drop my nectarine stone or whatever and before it hits the floor my hand is halfway down to picking it up again.

Junk love.

There is one nice thing about the temporariness of the renting situations we (don't) enjoy. One bright side to the rent increases, evictions, flat hunting, moving, flatmate changing, and generally living in run-down-looking neighbourhoods full of transitory young people in overpriced investment properties.

I love: The hard rubbish market. The easy availability of anything you need, passed from friend to friend around the Christian grapevine, and the practical way to help others by getting rid of something you don't need by passing it on to a new renter or leaving it on the verge for a stranger.

I just think it is wonderful. You can pick something up off a nature strip, an opshop or a friend moving away, use it for a couple of years, and donate it away again when you don't need it anymore. You never know if you'll be forced to move house or downsize next year, so there is little point being proud about your stuff. Easy come, easy go. As a designy materialist I would love to buy things new and matchy matchy. But junk love is cool.

It's as close as I think we could get to that verse in Acts where "everyone had everything in common". People who own houses full of things they got from Ikea or put on 24 months interest free at Harvey Norman are missing out.

A gentle nudge

In case you didn't know, I'm currently a student. As a student, I've noticed the general reticence of fellow classmates to speak up in class. Not all students mind you, but there is a general reticence.

Over the summer, I've been doing a course and I've gotten to know J better (which is one of the rare highlights of spending your summer in lectures). He's young (early 20s), from China, bright, studious, hard-working and his English is good. He taught me a lot when we did a study session together so I knew understood the material and had a good grasp of it. However, I could never work out why he wouldn't answer questions in class.

So during one class, while the lecturer was waiting for someone to answer a question, I gave him a nudge and whispered, "Go J!". The lecturer saw me nudging him and picked on him :) And J did brilliantly! He answered the question articulately and correctly (even if he didn't, good on him for having a go).

We haven't had classes together for the last few lectures, but he sent me an email saying, "btw, i answered question on recent classes, thanks for the encouragement before~".

Aww! Isn't it powerful when you believe in someone's ability and you encourage them to act on it? It was very clear to me that he was capable. He just needed a gentle nudge :)

Life lessons at the Ritz.

This is a bit out of date cos it was before I went away, but it's still interesting.

I saw The Kings Speech. I went alone: it's nice to see some movies on my own, and movies are a good thing to do on my own. The first time I went to the movies alone I missed having someone to make comments to, but now I enjoy it.

Anyway, I was by far the youngest person in the cinema. It was Sunday afternoon and there was a full-on queue of oldies waiting to get in. I went to see Dawn Treader a week ago, different crowd, I think TKS crowd came ready to laugh, and they cackled their heads off at that CBA ad about the woman who faints in her garden and gets fanned with palm leaves by CBA customer service, whereas DT people didn't think it was funny, maybe weren't the target market. The funniest part of the DT audience experience was a man next to me who randomly stated the obvious: "Rachel McAdams, she's gorgeous" and "I am Eustace!". I wasn't annoyed, it was funny cos it's the sort of thing I used to do, when I used to go to the movies with friends.

Back to The Kings Speech. Three ladies behind me shared tips on what to do if someone is stalking your daughter: redirect his calls to Maroubra Police Station. Useful tip. They were also talking about being menopausal in air-conditioned environments. I came prepared for the cold cinema, I had a light scarf stuffed in my handbag, and when I got goosebumps I whipped it out and wrapped myself up in it, and I heard a soft whisper behind me "that's a good idea!". I was pleased to that they could learn from me as I had from them.

It's a pretty good movie, anyway. Plummy accents. And I like it when an Australian is something other than a novelty Australian. Spot Mr Collins.

KESC review: In Chan Thai

Thanks to Georgina for her guest review below:

The first KESC for 2011 found 4 intrepid explorers ready to investigate the delights of Nasi Goreng. But not. Yes, you heard it, the challenge was issued to rise to the challenge and try every
restaurant in the Kingsford eating strip, and the 4 intrepid explorers (let the reader understand that only 3 made this fateful decision) decided to move on, to In Chan Thai restaurant.

As one explorer said, “We know we’re not going to get poisoned at In Chan”, not, it can be said, that any other restaurant might possibly poison us! (Insert legal disclaimer here). Apparently, it was “stuffy” and In Chan has air conditioning.

So, the 4 explorers headed to In Chan, where futuristic chairs were sat on, and food ordered.
We ordered curry puffs for entrée, and Beef Pad Siew Ew, BBQ Kai Yang chicken, and Sizzling Soft Crab. It was tasty. The Pad Siew Ew tasted differently, but good, the chicken was yum, and the soft crab amazing.

We gave it 4/5 (I think, actually I make that bit up).

----

I (Elsie) would like to add that we had an in-chan-ting Thai-me (enchanting time) ;).

Cool down yer porridge

My microwaved porridge was too hot and a tad dry. So I stirred in an ice-cube. It cooled it down and gave it a nicer consistency. Perfick.

Pintastic

I have this ripcurlgirl aqua skirt that I bought years ago (in my very early 20s). I never wore it very much over the years. It's a very stretch-y loose fitting skirt, so I can't wear it just as it is. I'm not handy with sewing, so I was thinking of different ways I could make it wearable for me.


I considered wearing it as a strapless top/dress, but it made for a very short dress and I wasn't convinced about wearing it strapless. So I ruled that out.

Maybe I could wear it higher and hold it up with a pin?


I used a Little Twin Stars pin that Karen gave me a few years ago, while helping her clean out/pack for a move. I really liked the pleat/ruche-ing it created.


Then I thought, why stop at one, when Karen gave me two pins??


Granted, that's a very untidy pinning of my skirt. You can definitely make it look neater and more even.

So here you go: a pencil skirt thanks to two pins. I like the pleats it creates.

I'm so chuffed to have found two wearable, easy solutions to this skirt AND to have put those Little Twin Stars pins to good use.

2011 is the start of something annoying.

Here is something you might not know about my job. I kern the year. 2011 unkerned above, 2011 kerned below. Kerning makes words more aesthetically pleasing by adjusting the spaces between the characters. 1 is a very bad number because it always has enough room to swing a cat, so 2011 looks all big and fat on the left, and all skinny and awkward on the right. Imagine 4 people of different sizes sitting on a bench and two of them are bumping elbows while two of them are unsociably alone. It's much nicer if everyone has the same amount of personal space. That's why I kern 2011. I will have to kern every year until 2020.

The 2011 above is unkerned, the 2011 is kerned.

Open house.

I'm really enjoying how my flat is at the moment. My new flatmate is very easy-going (and I've quickly relaxed to accommodate her!), so while it's not the tidiest flat in the East, it's the best place I've ever had for hospitality—I can just invite someone in for tea or dinner or sewing without especially checking or lining it up on a certain night. It's important to have time and space to withdraw, but personally my home is truly my home when I can share it. Not that I'm a kitchen queen, I just like to see the couches all sat in and all the cups out of the cupboard at one time.

I was surprised how many people I talked to before New Year were ambivalent about NYE. Some years I feel a little bit dreadful about NYE, cos I suspect that my nanna tendencies preclude me from doing really fun memorable things like kissing strangers and getting drunk on public transport (I think this is the sort of fun our culture wants us to get up to), but then I remembered that one of my favourite new years was when I watched fireworks on the hunter river with my mum. Low key can be sweet, so just do what you enjoy. And this year was weird cos it seems like people did whatever they wanted with 1 or 2 friends, no big group thing. So it was nice to set my own plan, not go along with others just so that I'm not left out. I was also surprised how many people don't like fireworks! I was happy this year because JK and I went to Coogee beach for the 9.30pm fireworks. I love fireworks. And it was just nice, watching kids throw glow sticks and run around with sparklers. Lets do it again this year, God-willing.

KESC 22. Nasi Goreng.

It's a weird time of year, but we seem to have a core of people around so we're going to slip a challenge in this Friday. Nasi Goreng needs to be got out of the way. We may get entree there, then jump across to one of the nicer places that opened behind us for proper dinner. 6.30

Australian writing.

Australia doesn't have very imaginative TV. I reckon the reason Australia pumps out such good actors is that they have to earn a living acting lame scripts. There are few well-scripted local shows, with complex characters in layered environments.

But by lack of imagination I also mean in the premise. Cop/Doctor shows and small town/family dramas is all. I would LOVE to see a mystery series (adaptation of Arthur Upfield stories, perhaps) or a science fiction genre series, or a modern Australian adaptation of Oliver Twist. Something with an interesting premise, using history and place and personality. And it shouldn't be too high-brow.

If I was a writer, I'd be trying to get into television script writing. It seems to me a more potentially dynamic field, it's got audiences, and it's such a collaborative creative process. Also, if I was a composer, I'd want to score films and stuff, because that's where the most people are the most exposed to classical and cutting-edge music. Is anyone listening? You should make an Oliver Twist set in Bowral and Newtown with a soundtrack by the Whitlams and Nigel Westlake.

Packaging rant.

Vita-Weat Sandwich size 300gram box. Box is 30% bigger than product. Waste of packaging, space in transportation, and misrepresents size of product to customers.

I have complained to Arnotts, who replied unapolagetically but promised to mention it to the packaging and marketing department. I considered complaining to the ACCC, but it's probably not that serious. I looked into Choice, but I couldn't see an easy email form. Maybe Today Tonight? But I might have to be interviewed and I don't want Arnotts to know it was me.

By the way. Isn't it interesting that they left the H out of the word wheat and it doesn't look weird? I think it is because it saves space, shorter words can be bigger than long words. Nothing I hate more on a book design brief than a word like Everlasting or Reformation in the title. (Because I'll have to set it pretty small to make it fit, and then the author's name has to be even smaller, and it will all be unreadable on a bookshop shelf.

Irrational

I engage in irrational behaviour and I'm not sure why.

The situation is this: I usually don't have any chocolate, biscuits or chips in the house because I am not to be trusted with them when I'm stressed.

So when I feel like doing some comfort eating, I will spend ten minutes in the kitchen opening pantry door after pantry door, opening the fridge door and freezer, several times. I basically go round and round in circles in the kitchen, opening door after door, looking for non-existent comfort food. I know it's not there because I haven't bought any and I know the contents of the pantry and fridge. Yet I still go foraging, in the vain hope I may have overlooked some biscuits. WHY?

When I finally give up, I ask, "WHY IS THERE NO CHOCOLATE/CHIPS/BISCUITS IN THE HOUSE???"

Counting the year.

End of Year is like Week of Birthday. All of a sudden I realise my life is slipping by, and it's a tiny bit depressing. A year goes so fast, you only get used to writing '2010' and you have to get ready to start writing '2011'. And what have I done? Nothing. Still me, just older. The end of the year is a whirl, which adds to the feeling of time slipping by.

But I know it's an illusion. A year is still a significant period of time. Most of the months moved at a normal speed. And a lot of things happened. Moving house, new flatmates, Eat Street, holidays in different places, new directions at work, different health things, spiritual growth, spiritual challenges, deeper friendships. And the start of 2011 will be a long, long summer starting with CMS Summer School, then just lots of swimming, eating fruit, work, church and friends.  It's a lot, really, when I take account.

KESC review: Taniphon Thai.

9 challengers. Too many for any of the shop tables so we were tabled in the back room. It has new tables and lighting, but needs new paint for it to be nice.

A ordered a green curry soup thing, JK ordered stuffed chicken wings, and the rest of us ordered either a noodle dish or a main each. I had roast pork in chilli and basil, very yummy, and enough for 2 meals, at a price of $12 I think, plus $1.50 for rice. Some of the meals were  $14, for duck or seafood.

The best thing about this place was that it was very meaty and verry tasty. They didn't pad out with bean sprouts and it wasn't bland. Which was a surprise, because I'm sure I had a lunchtime special here a long time ago and it was bland and stingy, JK had same experience. This time it was almost TOO strong and meaty. I added more veg to my leftovers the next day. Personally I'd give it a 4 out of 5. The value was pretty good and the service was good, quick with lots of water refills.
 

 
Now tragically ABC was shut, and won't open til mid-Jan. So at Elsie's persistent begging we went up to Papa Roti to try some gelato. They don't have very big scoops, and some flavours are a bit of a disappointment, like my choc mint that had no choc bits in it and tasted like toothpaste, and the shop isn't very nice to sit in, and they serve ice-cream in plastic cups not martini glasses (but you can ask for a cone as well). But they had classic music videos playing so we all sang along to Summer Rain. If you are going there, Ferrero flavour was by all accounts the best.

From little things.

I think my impatience is getting worse. The last few weeks I've noticed that I find waiting intolerable. Yesterday I found myself literally stamping my feet like a spoilt brat when I was being ignored at the chemist, and when I was finally served I was seriously fighting the urge to be the cranky customer. And it was a Sunday afternoon. I'd just been to church, and I had nowhere to hurry to! I should have been glowing with godliness and good manners. So I'm blogging the following paragraph because I just worked it out for myself, not because it's original.

Small trials—things that are just annoying, not even tragic—are excellent opportunities to grow in godliness. If I'm waiting, I should pray for patience, and then aim to be gracious to the person making me wait when my turn does come. If I'm doing a job I think is beneath me, I should rebuke myself for my lack of humility, and serve my co-workers or housemates with love. Small trials really are opportunities, because how am I going to remember to be humble if I get my own way all the time? And then I won't look as much like Jesus.

Reading on the go.

I'm a booky person, but I don't read often now. I think because it's effort to go and find a good book. I'm trying to be better at keeping some handy. My lunchtime read is now a book on Martin Luther I pinched from my parent's bookshelf (so it's pretty old and daggy but I like books with an old-fashioned tone).

I always forget how addictive novels are! How hard it is to stop and go to sleep at night. It ruins my perfect body-clock. If only I could read while at work too (which is what audio books are for).

I have also remembered the art of reading while walking. I saw Michael Morrow doing it one day and I was impressed: what clever multi-tasking, and also what a good way to create the illusion of romance or intelligence. A little dangerous, but with practice it is very comfortable. It took me a few weeks to get used to it: the trick is, keeping your peripheral vision alert beyond the boundary of the page. Warning: a heavy book makes your wrists tired after 30 minutes.

Underrated: Making things.

This guy explains really well why making things is so satisfying, if you are a romantic and slightly alternative person like me. I made a lot of stuff when I was homeschooled and I'm getting back into it now, and appreciating it. I like stuff which is unique, hand-crafted, and really belongs to me: hand-making does that. And what he calls "the story", that it's not just a shirt, it's a shirt I made, I chose all the bits and sewed them together and it's unique and it's mine. It's not just biscuits, it's Julia's recipe and I made them and they taste better than shop ones.

I think hand-me-downs are almost the same thing—like a shirt mum used to wear. There is a story, and it may be a unique item by the time you get it.

That's what friends are for

If I don't feel like going home after a day of uni, I sometimes call upon Jess. While veg-ing out on her couch, I have noticed she uses either a step ladder or milk crates to prop up her television.

Yesterday I noticed the perfect tv stand for her while I was at Salvos, so I barged into her office and told her to buy it. Pronto.

This photo is a photo of friendship: Jess bought the tv stand, I'm shielding her from the sun's rays because she forgot her hat, Jess K took the photo and helped Jess transport her new old tv stand home.

Tanaphorn Thai

Yo peeps. Just a quick reminder about KESC on Friday night.

Tanaphorn Thai
6:30PM, Friday 17 December
510 Anzac Pde Kingsford NSW 2032

Maybe we'll go to PappaRoti for dessert. They have quite a selection of gelato/ice-cream.

Lolly teeth.

Braces are really handy for sticking your lolly teeth in place. When did lolly teeth start tasting minty? Is it supposed to reinforce the irony of eating something teeth-shaped which is actually bad for your teeth, by tasting like toothpaste? I think I prefer whatever they used to taste like.

Of Transactional Analysis and Speaker Boxes.

Guest post by my mum. I asked for a brief guide to 'the voices' and she kindly obliged. 

Transactional Analysis (TA for short) is a helpful model that describes something of what internal conversations go on within each of us. Without wishing to imply that any of you dear readers ‘hear voices’, we do all have a whole range of messages that we ‘hear’, and that inform our decisions and actions. It’s a bit like those cartoons, where someone has an ethical dilemma, and we see the ‘angel’ sitting on one shoulder, and the ‘devil’ sitting on the other shoulder, and they’re arguing. So what are these messages, and where do they come from?

According to TA, there are basically three different sources of messages: Parent (Taught); Adult (Thought), and Child (Felt). Of these, two of the three can be further broken down: the Parent divides into Critical (CP) and Nurturing (NP); and the Child can be either Adaptive (AC) or Free (FC).

Our Critical Parent’s job is to teach us right from wrong – clean your teeth, put your seatbelt on, don’t steal, murder, lie, etc; the down-side is that it can be a very hard task-master. Our Nurturing Parent soothes us when we’re hurt, and encourages when we’re afraid; maybe it can be a bit soft on us, or a bit suffocating. Our Adaptive Child feels the hurt, anger fear, etc, and alerts us to what might be wrong or harmful for us. Our Free Child is full of fun, excitement, laughter, joy. Neither of our Children have much self-control, though, so AC can fly off into rages, become Victim, blame, etc, while FC can be terribly irresponsible. Our Adult is our CEO; it’s all in the head. This is the one that delegates, gives considered responses. Of course Adult can be rather like a whole box of dried fruit, sucking all the yummy juice out of life!

So maybe we’re a bit like speaker boxes: different speakers within the box give different sounds – bass, treble, etc. Sound technicians specialise in balancing all these sounds to get just the right mix. When one is too loud, it makes for terrible music. The same with us: if one or two parts of our psyche are over-functioning, if they are shouting too loud, we, too, make terrible music.

The two who tend to shout loudest together for most of us are Critical Parent and Adaptive Child. Try this exercise: write down 10 statements (more if you like) beginning with “I should….” Now read through your list again. How are you feeling as you writing and read all your ‘shoulds’? You have now heard your very own CP, and felt your very own AC! CP is all about ‘should’, ‘must’, ‘always’, ‘never’, ‘more’, ‘less’. AC is all about feeling guilty, sad, unworthy, angry, afraid.

It seems to me that ‘good’ Christians have most problems with our CP and AC. On one level, we know we are saved by grace, but on a much deeper level we also know we should be doing more, better; measuring up to God’s perfect standards somehow. There is so much ministry to do. How can I possibly waste time enjoying myself?!

I recently heard a sermon based on Deut 20:1ff, and the point was made that the kingdom and the battle is God’s! In this passage, all the fit, strong, brave (and even scared) young men were to be sent home from God’s army, so they could dedicate their houses, farm their land, marry their wives; they weren’t needed, because God would win the battles. And the first application? STOP running around like a headless chook and trust God! So now I’m wondering: if all I feel when I think of ‘ministry’ is tired and weighed down with guilt, maybe I’m listening more to my own personal, portable, Critical Parent rather than to my loving, gracious Nurturing Father. If this is the case, maybe I’m not really trusting in God to win his battles, but myself to do it for him.

Revelation and liberation

I had a revelation yesterday. I have been living as if my life's primary goal is to find a marriage partner, settle down and have kids (this may have been obvious to some of you, but I was blind to it).

What is the effect of this? It means finding a marriage partner takes up a lot of your thoughts, prayers and conversations. It means questioning God, "Where is my husband? Where are my kids? Where is my house in the 'burbs?" and doubting yourself, "Why haven't I settled down yet? Aren't I good enough for anyone? What's wrong with me?"

What (or who) brought about the revelation? Well, God, obviously, but as I've reflected on my life throughout the year, I've been continually thankful for my current life situation. Life is good. Hard at times, but good. I can clearly see that he's given me opportunities that I can take only because of my current season in life: single and unburdened by marriage, kids and mortgage.

Secondly, we studied 1 Corinthians 7 in Bible study last week. Some of you may feel like you know this passage inside out, and you've done it to death. When we went around summarising what we thought the main gist of the passage was, I said, "If you're married, stay married. If you're single, stay single, but you're free to marry. Live as God's called you." It only struck me yesterday that the practical application for me is that my primary goal is no longer "find a marriage partner" but "live as God has called you". Once I realised that, I felt incredibly liberated.

It's liberating because the issue of marriage doesn't have to dominate my thoughts, prayers and conversations anymore. I don't have to worry about whether God has or hasn't got marriage in store for me or whether I'm an unmarriable nutter. It decreases the attractiveness of dating non-Christians considerably. But the greatest liberty is being freed from WRONG thinking. It is a beautiful feeling and state of being.

Sure, I'll continue to pray for me and friends regarding marriage (if it be his will) and at times I may be frustrated by my singleness and I may eventually try internet dating, but earthly marriage is not my life goal. It is neither here nor there. I am free to marry or stay single. Both are good options in God's eyes. Just live as God has called you, whatever circumstance you are in.

5pm giggles.

It's the end of the day. I've been laying out a book called Robot Planet. I go to save a pdf of it, and I realise that I had totally unconsciously named my layout work Robot Chocolate.

My subconscious is trying to tell me something?

My test for sufficent digestion

If I can do 30 jumping jacks and not feel sick afterwards, I take it to mean lunch (or whatever meal or snack consumed prior) is sufficiently digested. It also helps if it's been at least 2-3 hours since a meal.

What's the significance of this? It means you can exercise. No more excuses.

More non-bread.

E: Gingerbread is actually not a bread.

J: No. It's sort of biscuit. Unlike banana bread/cake, it doesn't transition to bread by the application of butter.

Some is better than none

Sometimes, I set myself some lofty aspirations e.g. I'm going to do an intense hour of exercise or I'm going to study for six hours today. But your day doesn't always go to plan. So what do you do? Throw in the towel?

No, I remind myself that "some is better than none". So thirty minutes of gentle to moderate exercise is better than none. Two hours of study is better than none.

Then I remind myself, some days I can achieve my lofty aspirations and other days I can't. And that's okay.

As Geoff Huegill said in a recent Good Weekend,

To be your best, keep it simple. You can't be excellent every single day, but you can go out there and be the best you can be at that moment.

So on the days I am tired, I remind myself "some is better than none", and that I will have days when I can do more. On the days I have energy, I crank it to the max.

KESC 20 Review: Buck Me

There were 6 of us: unfortunately Elsie was struck down and absent. We were all rather tired, so it was sort of subdued, but still enjoyable.

Chicken Jellicoe

Indonesian style noodles. They don't do table service (other than bring out the food) and they don't have any free drinks at all, it's only bottled water I think. It was not air-con, which made us even thirstier. So they loose points there.

Mince Jellicoe

We ordered the house special, either mince or chicken in soup with an egg, a giblet, some wontons and some greens. It was nice and salty and a little spicy (I added chilli sauce to it). They were $8.50 each. Pretty good value. The chicken wasn't all that nice quality or taste, but the mince was OK. The fried wantons were nice.

A fried wonton

Chicken stir fry noodles

Overall, 2/5.

We proceeded as usual to ABCafe, and ate our favourite ice-cream. The sugar kicked in and we were way too giggly. Sorry Dave. Sorry couple sitting next to us eating a banana split. Sorry the second couple sitting next to us sharing Death By Chocolate. Thanks again, AB!

Next, Taniphon Thai, 17th Dec, our 21st Eat Street and probably the last before Christmas (apart from a possible bonus visit to Nasi Goreng).

Envelope Grocery Budget Challenge update.

I have over a week to go of my $2 a day budget (groceries only), and only $1.55 left in the yellow envelope. Before you laugh, or start donating tinned food, don't worry. I spent the money on food, and I still have food.

I did really well for the first two weeks, spending less than my budget. I was helped by a weekend at my family, a wedding reception, and an Eat Street. I haven't yet touched my frozen meat, but I have supplemented my cheap food with 2 frozen pies, 2 sheets of pastry (which I made lentil pasties with), eggs, and other random scraps.

I'm not eating much tasty tasty meat, but I'm feeling healthier with all the vegetables I'm eating instead. Homemade soup with homemade bread is cheap AND easy (after the initial evening cooking you freeze enough for many meals) AND very delicious. Lunch envy in the office.

Last week I ran out of cheese, and bought a block for $7. And then on the weekend I got a bit cravy and blindly bought some bacon, chocolate and stonefruit. That cleaned out my last $10 a little bit before schedule. So the next 9 days I'll be eating only what I have in the house. Which is OK, cos I have lentils, eggs, bacon, things to bake bread, frozen veggies, cheese, and one tomato. Only going a week without fresh fruit will be a challenge.

I love challenges. You get to act a little crazy. I have now lived without shampoo, eaten at 20 restaurants since October last year, and lived out of an envelope. I want to refine the envelope challenge and do it again next year.

It's good advice.

J: I found a hole in my tooth last night. Boo.

D: How do you find a hole?

J: I flossed.

Watches.

The phone was a near death blow to the watch. When my watch battery died, I started relying on my phone. But a watch is really more convenient, and it's a fashion statement now too. I think it's making a comeback. I'm getting the battery changed.

Gift giving.

I don't get too worked up about it. I buy for my immediate family, which isn't too hard, and I give to others depending if I find something or not, Christmas or birthdays. You might get an amazing hand-made card with Miss Bennet drawn sitting at a bay window looking through the carefully cut out panes, you might get a banana guard (I still have 3), you might get a vintage sewing machine, you might get a crocheted hand towel from a market, you might get nothing. Hopefully it all evens out over time. I'd rather give something interesting or nothing at all, rather than rush around in a panic or buy something token.

It's getting boring, I think.