Blowing your nose

I have spent this public holiday long weekend with a miserable cold. [On a tangent, how is it possible for the body to produce so much snot?!] I have concluded that there is no ladylike way to blow your nose. I trumpet. Can anyone offer any advice?

Mug.

I have earned a reputation for being frugal. I like to think I have even made frugal cool. I used to be a bit embarrassed about eating food other people would throw away or buying something on special that doesn't fit properly and altering it myself. Now I say, if you can't enjoy unlimited wealth, enjoy limited wealth.

But I have boundaries, as G discovered when I recently advised her to go straight to Good Guys and spend some money. I went 3 weeks with no fridge, but 1 week with no TV remote. I spent quite a bit of energy wondering what to do about the fridge, but went right out and spent $60 on the remote. No question. I need to watch TV. That's not a luxury.

Currently I am thinking long and hard about this cup. It's been my office tea mug for several years. I bought it at Coles for the specific purpose of office hydration, before I remembered that I had a cupboard full of mugs at home and I will never need to buy mugs ever in my life. They come from NTE, they come in sets of 4 with 4 plates and 4 bowls, they come out my ears. I have 2 mugs that I actually like and use at home, which were thoughtful gifts. I have 20 other mugs.

So anyway, the office mug is chipped. It doesn't matter because it doesn't affect the performance of the cup in any way. It's opposite the handle so my lips don't have to touch it. Frugal me is trying to keep the mug.

But small-kitchen declutterer me is thinking "I can legitimately get rid of this mug, and reduce the number of mugs I have at home and don't use. I can bring in one of the mugs that came with the plates."

This is difficult a choice between 2 good jelssie things!

Review: Cadbury mini drop egg things.

You might have seen the ad and got wondering, are they nice?

They are egg shaped M&Ms. The chocolate is better and there is more of it, but the shell, while thinner, isn't as sweet and leaves a strange feeling/taste in the mouth.

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.

Budgeting.

If you have the ability to have apps, and want to track your spending, I know some of you do, I recommend Smart Budget. It's like a spreadsheet, but better looking. It has cute pictures, and you record things by the month, and can set up repeating things like salary and direct debit giving. That's about all I want to do. It's not instantly easy to use, it took me a while to discover most of the functions, but I've got it now.

It has a column which totals the general categories, like transport, entertainment, food, and then a tracking column for adding the individual things as you spend, like a travel10, a movie, a hot chocolate. When I put in a hot chocolate, it's under the "Restaurant, Cafe" category so at the end of the month I can see how much all my hot chocolates and Eat Streets add up to.

See the cute pictures? You can also change the font if you like. There are 4 fonts.

It's free to try and $3 to buy. I'm on the second month and haven't paid for it yet, but if I have to I will because it's worth $3.

UPDATE: you can draw your own little pictures! I decided to break chocolate out as a separate category from groceries, and I drew a square of chocolate.

Pumpkin scones.

I feel like jelssie has been neglected again, so here is some love. A recipe I cooked on the weekend. It's a staple of mine, when it's cheap pumpkin season.

• 1 cup of cooked mashed pumpkin minimum. More is better. I usually use butternut.
• 1 egg
• 2.5 cups of self raising flour
• 60 grams of butter or margarine. A lump as big as the egg.
• milk

1. Chop up pumpkin, cook it in the microwave (I put it in a covered bowl with a little water and steam it then drain it) then mash it with a fork.
2. Mash the butter into the pumpkin. Salt and pepper if you wish.
3. Add the egg and beat it with the fork.
4. Add the flour, adding milk as needed to moisten.
5. Put it in a greased square baking tin. You can just put it in in one great lump like a loaf or cake, or you can dollop it in as per the traditional scone.
6. Bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes, until it's just starting to brown.

Spotify Wagner.

I wasn't convinced about Spotify at first, because I hate a bandwagon, but now I find it is useful. It's like web streaming radio where you get to choose the songs, with occasional adds. I am listening to the Ring Cycle at work. I mean, I just want to see what it is, and I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars buying it, and I want to listen to the whole thing, not the tiny samples on iTunes, and not even Classic FM is going to play the complete Ring. So this is perfect. If I listen to an act or two a day I'll get through it in 2 or 3 weeks. I'm also finding all sorts of musical soundtracks I've never heard of.

I got curious about the Ring after listening to a Radiolab podcast about it. It's the most epic opera ever written, and I like epic things, so maybe I'll like this. It's a pity it's in German though. The language barrier really annoys me in opera.

My other favourite technology, the TV, is currently not my favourite, because the remote is broken. I'm a channel flickerer, so I have to sit on the floor within arm reach of the TV. Which inexplicably makes me feel like a kid. I've ordered a new remote online and I'm waiting. Online shopping is such a patience builder. But then it's like getting a present in the mail, so it's kind of worth it.

New word.

Jess K (the inventor of the word "short-scooping") coined another amazing word last week, "procrastibaking". Get it out there, even if you don't normally bake, you should, so that you can use this word.

It looks worse than it is.

This is only a normal amount of sliced colby. I call this proof that melted cheese looks much unhealthier than cold sliced cheese. Delicious cheese lava.

Getting real about flowers.

There were two photos from young women on Facebook this morning, of spontaneous flowers from their young husbands. CUTE! But I think I can do better.

Rejoice, eaters!

The announcement you have been waiting for!

The new jelssie Eat Street Challenge will commence this Friday night, 25 May. We have decided to eat the cheap half of Dixon Street, i.e. the north side, so it's outside of the really Chinatown bit. There is quite a diverse range of cuisine there, and it is mostly in a Person of Slender Means price range. We shall keep the same time and see how it works, 6.30pm. The first challenge will be at 1 Dixon Street, Arisun, which is Korean food. They seem to do fried chicken pretty famously.

Special invitation to anyone who has never been to Kingsford KESC, to join us in the central CBD location, handy to all and local to none of us. Here is a map. Hope to see you on Friday!

Don't "Ni Hao" me

It's a pet peeve of mine when strangers greet me with "Ni Hao", the Mandarin greeting for hello. Yes, I am Chinese, but no, I am not Mandarin Chinese, so your greeting doesn't win me over. I detest it when strangers do it to get attention. Yeah, I'm really impressed that you can say hello in Mandarin (<- detect the sarcasm), but actually, Cantonese is my Chinese tongue, so try again.

Ok, to be fair, I can speak some Mandarin, but seriously, just because you're Chinese doesn't mean you speak Mandarin. There's bazillion different types of Chinese out there.

That is all.

Winter mornings: difficult.

My morning functionality has dropped to about 15% since I got back from holidays. I'm TRYING to make it as easy as possible for myself: I am choosing my clothes the night before, putting them on the end of my bed before I get in at night, so that when I wake up in the morning I can pull them under the doona and warm them up before I get dressed. Sometimes I get dressed under the doona too, camp dorm style, to minimise exposure to the shock of the cold.

I also have a fridge stocked with salad ingredients in it, to make a sandwich or a salad for lunch. Today I looked in the fridge at my chickpeas and baby spinach and thought "I might buy lunch, just this once" but then overcame temptation, because how pathetic, I'm going to waste money on a salad sandwich in the city when I have the ingredients and the time but I just can't cope with putting stuff in a container.

And last night I resolved to scoot to work this morning, got my shoes and backpack and everything ready, but in the morning I was paralysed with indecision and stayed in bed wondering if I was fit enough, until it was too late to scoot, and I had to catch a nice, warm bus instead.

I used to think I was a winter person, a cold weather person, but I think that was just because I like the clothes, how everyone looks better dressed with long pants and a scarf, or stockings or whatever. I like the appearance of winter, but not, I have now realised, the cold. I do not like the cold.

Being new

Being new at church is hard, even for an extrovert like me, who loves meeting people. It's hard rocking up to a new church on your own and potentially not knowing anyone, especially if you thought church started at 9:30am, not 9:45am, and you sit there like a nigel while people are running after kids or running like headless chooks in order to get ready for church, and it's 20 minutes before someone talks to you. You start to feel strong pangs in your heart as you miss the people and the familiarity of your old church. I can see how people might lapse from being part of a church family if they had to change churches.

Forming new relationships is a two way street. The people there have to be willing to welcome you and talk to you, but you have to be willing to get involved, introduce yourself and make an effort. If you can put up with the initial discomfort of being new, get involved and just hang in there, your new church family will soon be familiar and start to feel like family. That's my strategy anyway.

Multiple punctuation marks

I used to be a person who would use punctuation marks sparingly. One's enough, thank you very much. Then I met someone who would punctuate his emails with multiple exclamation marks!!! And question marks, too??? And then I was converted to using multiple punctuation marks if they were exclamation or question marks!!! I think it just conveys the excitement I would have if I were normally talking to you!!! Don't you think so, too??? Sometimes, I stick to two!!

Of course, I could never do that professionally, but personally, multiple punctuation marks are zany?!?!!

And what's with the dot dot dots...why can't I just stick to one sometimes...

Armed force.

A First Lady

While on holidays a thing that irked me was that my brother walked 3 to 5 steps in front of me. He just couldn't see a reason to slow down and match my pace when I was tired, although neither did he hare off into the distance. He kept pace, just a few meters in front of me. Unless I physically grabbed his arm Austen-style, which actually worked very well. Slowed him down and took some weight off my feet. Those old-fashioned ladies had a clue.

Living in the single moment.

A rare singleness post. Not that there is anything wrong with talking or blogging about singleness, it's just another thing, like sickness or having babies or going grey or being a cyclist. But personally I find that the less I worry about it, the less I worry about it, so I enjoy worrying about other things instead, like culling my facebook friends. (I was overwhelmed by the relief in fb comments of the unculled!) Anyway...

I was looking through the layout for the upcoming Briefing, and skimmed Valerie Ting's article on The 'S' Word. I think this statement near the end sums up how I try to approach life:

"God gives us grace and faith enough for each step—he gives us each day our daily bread, not bread for the rest of our lives. I am not called to envision a lifetime of singleness and force myself to look forward to that, but rather to rejoice in this season of singleness, however long it lasts, and trust God to provide for all my needs."

I know I have a very rich life and I have a lot I can thank God for today, and that's all I need to know. It's a relief to know that I don't have to have ALL my contentment sorted out now, whenever I ponder the rest of my life. Yay, back to not worrying about it!

Simplifying.

I've come back from holidays with the realisation that there is a lot going on in my life in Sydney that I don't need. Too many clothes, too many TV shows, that sort of thing. I did not hear any news from Australia while away, and I seem to have missed nothing, for example. Therefore, I am going to black out the news from now on.

Today I culled my Facebook friends. I got rid of a hundred people who were either inactive, had nothing to do with me, or I don't really like them, etc. I know I could just hide them and keep them all without being annoyed or reminded, but why do I need a fake high number of friends I completely ignore? Just get rid of them and have a true number of people I want to be friends with or remember in any kind of active online way.

I also had a big inbox when I got back, but basically none of it was actually work. That was an hour of deleting. So I unsubscribed from all the stuff I like but don't really need to get news about several times a week.

This is like decluttering but of time and mental space, not mess and physical space!

Tender and tough

I've moved away from the east and I'm keen to make connections locally, so I've started going along to my local church. They run a course for newbies to get to the know the pastor and understand what the church is on about, in order for you to work out whether this church is for you.

One thing the pastor talked about, regarding what they wanted to achieve at church, was tender love in encouragement and tough love in confrontation*.

In my experience, when you receive tender love in encouragement at the right time, it is such a balm to the soul. When you receive tough love in confrontation, but at the wrong time, it is crushing to the spirit and you feel so misunderstood and unsupported. When you receive it at the right time, yes, it's a little painful, but you know that person has your best interests at heart, you would do well to heed their words and it is spoken out of love.

It takes wisdom and discernment to know which to use: spending time in the other person's shoes, understanding their lives and the situation they're in, and then making the call. Knowing which love to give at what time is one of the most helpful things you can ever give to a person.

*John Piper uses the same language in The Meaning of Membership and Church Accountability.

No tv

My tv viewing habits have been highly influenced by the people I've lived with. I've never owned a tv, but there's always been one in whatever household I've lived in. I've watched tv shows with housemates and gotten into Masterchef, Biggest Loser, Dr Who etc etc, but now, in my current household, my housemate doesn't have a tv and I don't think I should buy one because my spare time will soon be filled with study.

I do miss it a little. There are some shows I would like to watch e.g. The Voice (but only because everyone talks about it), Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Community.

TV can be a great tool for unwinding and entertaining as well, but I've found not having one is a good excuse to invite myself over to people's places to watch it :) I haven't actually done that yet, but I am slowly compiling a list of people who've agreed to have me over for tv, which might be a nice way to hang out with introverted friends.

My dad offered to buy me a tv and I asked for a smartphone instead. He said, "No, tv only." So you see, if I had a choice, I'd receive a smartphone over a tv, but if I had to pay for a tv out of my own pocket, I'd get a tv over a smartphone because I would buy a cheap tv!

However, if I start reacting like this after a while, I may get a tv:

Singing in Africa not quite what I expected.

I played the piano at church in Africa this morning, it was quite difficult. Its not a strongly musical church, only one fellow who plays the keyboard and sings, so was very keen to have a tiny break while I played. It was a good experience but jolly hard work:  I couldn't hear myself too well. The only buttons i could press on the keyboard are the keys, so everytime I went to play i had to get the chap to turn it back on for me, or get off the string sound. My regular fills and intros confused people so after the first song I dropped fills in favour of a short pause and played simple tune intros. The sustain pedal actually did the opposite, ie, the keyboard naturally sustained and the pedal cut the sustain when I pressed it. And there was no song leader, other than the service leader who was as soft as me. I've never appreciated a song leader so much as I do now. The congregation literally hijacked the tempo because of a few loud slow singers who slowed everyone down and I had to slow down to play with them. God bless all you song leaders.

No smartphone...yet

Jess and I do not own smartphones. We just use your run of the mill old-school Nokia phones. On prepaid. I've had mine since Feb/Mar 2008.

I'm not against smartphones. They're great devices: I'd enjoy having a camera phone and being able to share images from my day. They're handy and fun. I'm sure one day, I'll get around to owning one. If someone gave me a smartphone, or if I found a suitable plan, I'd probably jump ship immediately. However, I'm not getting one for the time being, and here are the reasons why.

• Cost: it's hard to find a smartphone on a good value plan. Call rates will always be more expensive than my cheap, cheap prepaid rate. That's all I essentially need my phone to do: make and receive calls and texts. Anything else is a bonus. Also, plans package the illusion of giving you lots of calls, but the call rates are inevitably significantly more expensive. This mobile and data phone plan looks good though, I just need a smartphone to go with it.

• Commitment: I really dislike the idea of being locked into a two year contract, because two years is a long time for technology and over that time, prices will drop and even better deals will come out. I dislike the idea of being tied to a carrier at a paticular price rate. I want the freedom to move to a better service provider. I know if you take that argument to the nth degree, it'd mean you'd never buy technology, but I just feel at this point in time, it's not worth making the switch. Even worse if they lock the handset to the network. My other option is buying a handset outright, which is $460+ if you're looking to buy a Samsung or iPhone, and I don't want to pay that much right now.

• Fragility: I have seen so many cracked smartphone screens. Every time I've dropped my Nokia, I've been able to put it back together again, no problems.

• Time: this one is related to the cost one. Doing your research (e.g. finding a good value plan, picking a model etc) is time and energy consuming and I can't be bothered. 

• Charging time: I only charge my phone once or twice a week. People at work charge their phones everyday at work because it otherwise wouldn't last the day. That would be a small annoyance, having to carry a charger with you everywhere you go, charging whenever you get the chance.

• Engagment: knowing what I'm like, I reckon I would spend too much time on my phone surfing the net and checking social media. Instead of engaging with the world I'm presently in, I would just spend time playing with my phone. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing people over-engage with their phone, rather than with people around them.

• Smart phones are big. I know, I know, I know by nature they have to be, due to their functionality, but hey, they're still big. 

• iPod touch: I have an iPod touch and it fills in the smartphone gaps, somewhat. Nowhere near as convenient or as advanced as an iPhone, but it fills in the gaps.

• And the final reason, to show you the extent of my paranoia: no-one's ever gonna mug me for my Nokia :)

Dropping in.

Cathy has shared some interesting thoughts about an interesting thing: the simple act of "dropping in". It's something I find quite hard to do, it crosses a boundary I feel shy about crossing, but maybe a little bit of boundary crossing goes a long way. So it's worth reading.
www.womenbiblelife.com/2012/05/art-of-surprise-visit.html

Libraries are for minimalists

Libraries are so awesome, especially for a wannabe minimalist like me. You get to enjoy stuff without keeping it! Woo! Libraries are such a vital part of the community, I'd happily pay an annual fee to join one. If I were building a community, I'd make sure there was a well-stocked library, alongside an playground/exercise park and meeting halls (for church and stuff).

Libraries are a hub

Local government libraries are a hub for migrant/non-Anglo families. It could be that the last two libraries I visited were culturally diverse areas, but I suspect the appeal of the library stems from:

- free access to a variety of materials: books, magazines, CDs, DVDs etc.

- access to a clean, free, comfortable and sometimes quiet environment, which is good for studying (crucial in Asian culture) and good for reading free newspapers (enjoyable for senior citizens, as well as saving precious pennies)

- books are for nerds and most migrant parents want their kids to be the biggest nerd in town.

Pantry challenge

I have a lot of tinned goods in my pantry that have been sitting there for too long. So I've decided that each week, I will open at least one tin and cook with it. Two good things: forces me to cook and I use up things in my pantry, thereby creating more space. Win, win!

First on my list is a tin of evaporated soy creamy cooking milk. Even though I generally avoid soy products (except for fermented soy and tofu), I will make the creamy leek and prawn pasta recipe on the back.

"I only eat food from the bin."

I did actually just say that. I've got a reputation at the office for eating. Because I am enthusiastic about eating anything that is offered to me. Today I ate a banana that nobody wanted. I didn't really want it much either, but it was good healthy food, you can't have too much healthy food, so I ate it. But, for the record,  I have a lot of self-control with food that is just lying around, like the big jar of M&Ms that someone brought in (I've never touched it!), or the biscuits in my drawer, and I don't get cravings and have to go and buy food. I ignore a lot of food most of the time. However, food that is going in the bin if nobody eats it, I feel like I have a DUTY to attempt to eat.

I think this is an extension of my upbringing, "no ice-cream unless you finish all your dinner", and my frugalness. No amount of "your stomach is not a bin" can undo that.

Disoriented.

I have pretty good spatial skills: I design, I can draw in perspective, I make stuff, I can read maps, I can solve puzzles. But I am completely confused by the 3 lifts at work. In my head, the lifts spin 180 degrees between the lobby and level 3. I know the lift doesn't spin around but I feel like whenever I use it I step out the opposite side of it. I can stand on level 3 and know that the street is on one side, but when I get out the lift and step into the lobby, hello, the street is on the other side. I get in the lift on the right, I expect to get out the lift on the right, but it's now the lift on the left—because my brain forgets that I turned around in the lift. I've obviously never had to cope with more than one lift before, and it's totally muddling me up. I've given up trying to figure out how the lobby and level 3 relate to each other, and just put up with the disorientation every time I get off the lift.

Pots and pans

I've managed to reduce my stovetop cookware to four items. My cooking style seems to be either one portion or many portions (with the most heading straight to the freezer). Here are my essential four:

Small fry pan
This fry pan is about the size of your palm, including fingers. Great for frying an egg or two in the morning, or a piece of steak in the evening. Got mine in great condition from Kingsford Salvos.

Small saucepan
Great for making a quick Tom Yum soup for dinner, cooking a few dumplings or porridge.

Large fry pan, with raised sides
For when I want to cook in bulk or add bacon and other things to my eggs. The raised sides are great because it means you can add more things than you would in a regular fry pan, and it would all fit inside.

Large pot
For cooking soups and stews. Sometimes I even cook stir-frys in it, because nothing is going to fall out while stirring!

If I really had to cut down, I probably could go without the large fry pan.

I also feel like a fake Asian because there's no wok in my list.

That brilliant advice I always blog...

I'm in a non-coping place right now. I'm going on holiday on Saturday, and I've become stressed. And the thing is, everything is fine, plans are laid, preparations are made. But my brain can't stop worrying through things (what shoes to take, will I be late, airports and so on) when it should be sitting back and enjoying the anticipation of adventure.  I've started writing comprehensive lists, to get it all out of my head like I always preach, but it's too late, it's gone right through my body so now I'm completely anxiety-soaked. So I think this is when even jelssie advice is useless, I just have to survive another week. In the meantime: lists, progressive muscle relaxation, garlic-eating, and packing bags within bags.

Ironically, I filled out a research survey a week ago about anxiety attacks, and I merrily answered "no" to everything.

100 Ways To Uncomplicate Your Life

I'm a big fan of Hellen Buttigieg, a personal organiser from Canada, who has her own tv show. She recently published a list of 100 ways to uncomplicate your life. It's a great list and I highly recommend it. As Jess said, "That is so much Jelssie in one spot!"

Bag search.

I'm kind of looking for a new bag. One just big enough to hold an ipad and a lunch and a purse, and little pockets all over the outside to keep bus tickets and keys in. It's going to be a long search because bags are quite expensive. And in the meantime I'm getting bag envy of all the cool bags that men are wearing in the city. Women are loaded up with big ugly handbags, and men have all these really cool satchels. That's where it's at.

Hot chocolate is not manly

A male colleague of mine often looks like he's drinking coffee. Except that he hates coffee and loves hot chocolate. However, he couldn't stand the look his barista would give him when he ordered a hot chocolate. "They look at me like I'm a girl," he claimed. So he switched to a mocha. Problem solved: chocolate preference satisfied and manliness preserved.

We$$ing.

 
I think money wedding-presents are the best thing. I know it's a soulless gift, but when people have everything, why give them more? Why not instead give them money towards an experience, like their honeymoon, or as I see it, pay for your meal at the reception, so that they might perhaps break even on the wedding budget? And why not save yourself the hassle of thinking of something and buying it and then wrapping it and then CARRYING IT, which I just hate so much because that involves public transport usually, and then trying to find the gift depository when you get the church or reception. $50 in a card: I'm a fan. And you can tie it in a bow.

Renting and buying interactive chart.

Elsie found this on Art of Manliness. I love it. I found that when I put in MY approximate numbers I get the answer:

BUYING IS NEVER BETTER THAN RENTING AFTER 30 YEARS.

Thanks!

On the bright side, I think this means my rent is good value. If you are single, sharing rent makes huge sense financially. "Better" means that you have to save the difference though.

A little bit of city music.

I've spotted a few buskers in the last week. Not normal buskers with amps and pop songs. I think it must be con students doing some kind of performance challenge. First I saw a couple of guys in Pitt St mall on Thursday night, setting up a double bass and something else. On Monday morning walking through Martin Place I heard a trumpet playing The Sound of Silence, really beautifully, and it was a guy with a bike just standing there playing. On Monday night I walked through Pitt St mall again and heard a girl singing something operatic. None of them had a big crowd, but it was something special to hear a random voice making music above the noise of the city.

Rolling with it.

I read some articles yesterday at lunchtime about how Gen Y Americans aren't interested in buying cars. There is a significant percentage drop in the last 10 years and a dramatic change between generations. The article is uncannily true, it was like reading my own rants coming out of the mouths of marketing experts. There are pressures and there are choices. I want to live in a walkable, public-transport-serviced area and I don't particularly want to worry about parking, petrol prices, repairs, insurance. (“They think of a car as a giant bummer,” said Mr. Martin. “Think about your dashboard. It’s filled with nothing but bad news.”) It's funny because generational generalisations annoy me to death: Gen Y are usually called fickle, casual, tech savvy, etc, whereas I am frugal, go to bed early instead of staying up chatting on Facebook, eat "soup soup" instead of sushi, don't have a smart phone. But here we are, jelssie, fitting exactly into demographic after all.

Gonna miss. Not gonna miss.

It's my last week living within close proximity to Jess! I'm leaving the hallowed Eastern suburbs, as so many have done already.

Gonna miss my church family, my friends, the beach, the convenience and bumping into friends on the commute to and from work.

Not gonna miss the incessant humming and bright lights at night, and the long commute.

Birkenstock bliss

I love my Birkenstocks.



I used to wear them all the time, except in winter. Now that I work full-time in a corporate environment, I mostly wear flats (while commuting) and heels (while working). As a result, I have big, fat blisters on my toes :( My feet are not used to being confined and they do not like it! Oh, that my feet could be blissfully blister-free in Birkenstocks!

How to save money in a food court.

Does the world need this post? Aren't food courts already cheap? Well yes, but compared to home food they are still expensive, and thinking like this is first nature to me, I can't help it. In fact a colleague asked me to find the cheapest lunch near our office. I have not got a definite answer yet, but this post is a good start.

1. Order something small. Most things are too big and calorie-rich in terms of what a woman who sits at a computer actually NEEDS to eat, especially if you are like me, and eat snacks regularly.

2. Don't get a meal deal. The chips and the drinks are a waste of money. Carry a drink bottle. That will bring a lunch under $10 straight away.

3. Don't order something hot. Ready made sandwiches and wraps are a few dollars cheaper than a plate of noodles or fish and chips.

4. Share the order with a friend where there are quantity discounts or large portions. Like 1 wrap for $4.50 or 2 for $8 (you can get quantity deals on sushi rolls a lot). Or a big gourmet sandwich for $9, cut in half.

5. Wait for AFTER the rush. A lot of food gets marked down mid afternoon or when they are closing.

Toilet cubicle dynamics.

There is a bathroom with 2 cubicles for all the ladies on our floor. It's locked, so only 3 companies share it. The left cubicle was my preferred toilet because the right cubicle has a strange door in the wall with plumbing or something in it, and the spotlight is pointed in the wrong direction so it is dimmer, and also, someone put a paper sign on the back of the door, typed up, telling you to BE CONSIDERATE and don't mess up the bathroom for the next person. So obviously I used the friendly, brightly lit cubicle over the insulting weird dark one. Especially, I hated that sign. So I avoided the cubicle on the right. But sometimes I forget, and see the sign, and feel rebuked, even though I don't mess up bathrooms. But then one day I took the sign down. That was a heady day.

Thinking about the 2 cubicles, I then reasoned that probably everyone was like me, and automatically avoided the dim lighting and the scary door in the wall. So if I switched to that one, I would virtually have my own reserved cubicle. So I have.

Oh no... not again...

Is there anything quite as microscopically worrying and annoying as finding a small screw on the floor? "Where did this small screw come from? has a handle fallen off my chest of drawer? I can't see anything… it has traces of white paint on it, what has white paint that might have lost a screw? I'll put it there and keep an eye out for something falling apart so I can screw it back in." And I'm pretty sure that the same screw keeps falling onto the floor and I find it and go through the same process over and over again. But if I find something without a screw, I really don't want to go and buy a whole packet of screws just for the one. So it's a worry. A tiny worry, but a worry.

It really works.

There were some spots of something, dried blood or hair dye or something, on a plastic surface and I tried water, detergent and exit mould and only got 30% of it off. Didn't want to scratch at it with anything so was using a chux. Then after a couple of days I remembered that vinegar and bi-carb are magical, and the carb soda would at least be a tiny bit abrasive but not in a damaging way, and the vinegar would at least be fizzy and fun, but it actually got the spots 99% off with just some steady rubbing. I'm just a tiny bit amazed.

Flabbergasting.

Valentine and Glover were discussing moments that feel like eternity, and one of them is the time when you squeeze the petrol pump handle and no fuel comes out because you're waiting for the man in the servo to push a button and release the fuel. Why can't it just come automatically when I squeeze the handle, they complain.

WHAT?

I had to turn to the people next to me and ask them if they knew about this. Somebody googled it, and said "I'm flabbergasted". Too right.

Another fuel fact from the ABC recently, a caller ranted about the 15 cents that replaces the zero when you start pumping fuel. Like it costs 15 cents for the fuel in the hose*, or something ludicrous. Have you ever noticed the fuel starting at 15 cents instead of zero, quickly flashing past when the dollars start climbing?

I hope your mind is blown.

* Stingy people apparently don't just shake the drips out of the pump handle, they lift up the hose and drain the fuel that sits in the loop.

Useful little pots.

I TRY not to keep random junk JUST IN CASE it's useful one day, but when I see something useful I try to quickly match it up with an immediate need. I've had a bit of recent success with tiny little containers. I love tiny little containers.

I tipped out some yucky moisturiser that came in a bathroom gift pack present, peeled off the labels so it is now plain, and scooped some of my nice moisturiser into it from the big tub. Big tubs are good value, but I used to buy tubes so that I could travel easily with them, keep them at work and so on. Now I have a small one for the desk drawer which I can refill from my long-lasting, better value, tub at home.

Then there was a little blue pot of eye cream I bought once to see if eye cream really did reduce dark circles and puffy eyes. Not really but it was such a convenient pot that I now use it to keep a small squirt of medication cream in at work. Itchy fingers are now never far from cortisol calm, and I don't have to keep the big ugly chemist-looking tube around. Could also use this size pot for a squirt of paw-paw lip balm. In the past I have actually used it to squirt cosmetic samples into, you know the foil packets you rip open. Make free samples of eye-cream last longer!

This is a maggie beer quince paste tub. The lid fits well. I use it to keep a small handful of nuts at work, and I refill it from my big stash at home.

Fake cull

Well, I'm moving, so it means culling, culling, culling before I move out. However it's not a real cull because I'm taking a lot of my stuff to my parents' place. It's what I call a fake cull: where I live will be minimalist (my dream!) but the reality is that the stuff is at my parents'. Ugh. Stuff. Here's a guide to creating a minimalist home.

Quick food #3.

This one uses the george foreman grill I love. One meat (suggest a chorizo, or a lamb or chicken skewer) and 2 vegetables (a carrot and a zucchini for example, although eggplant slices and sweet potato and other stuff is good too). Obviously put 3+ cloves of garlic on as well.

The trick is to put things on the grill in the order of how long they need to cook, so it depends on what you have. Carrots take ages, meat goes on next usually, zucchini or eggplant is pretty quick. Whole meal will cook in about 15 minutes.

I like to go MUFA with this one, and eat it with whatever I have in the way of olive oil, olives, avocado, cheese and some maybe sort of fancy bread. The cooked garlic is like a soft garlic paste, yum. It's nice without a meat, if you have enough cheese and olives and stuff to make the vegetables more friendly.

BOM love.

Probably the best thing on the internet, after all the essential social media stuff, is the BOM radar. Having the internet at home or on a phone is worth it just for this. All those morning questions: Will I be able to scoot to work or will it rain in 15 minutes? Will I need an umbrella? Should I wear gumboots today? Answered. I am obsessed with efficiency in weather preparedness.

Guys and Gals

An article I thought jelssie worthy, since we have discussed this issue before (calling guys men and girls women), but this is an option that never occurred to me before. And it's true in theory, "What I feel like most of the time is a guy. A female guy."

I Am Gal, Hear Me Roar - The Atlantic

Quick food #2.

I am surrounded by asian supermarkets and I am not afraid to use them.

Another meal using only one pot and 3 ingredients. The ingredients: carrots, frozen beans and a packet of frozen dumplings. You get about 20 I think, in a packet for less than $5.

Put chopped carrots in a pot with shallow water and bring to the boil. When boiling, put in beans and then dumplings on top, the water level should not cover the dumplings completely so that when you boil for another 5 or 10 minutes the dumplings are actually steamed. For flavour, roughly chop a few cloves of garlic and boil them in it too, and any sort of stir-fry or soy sauce you have handy.

I purchased a dumpling folder from Bec's garage sale, which I intend to use one day so that I can make dumplings with identifiable fillings.

Quick food #1.

Life has been busy while I've been re-routining my working day. But I have a few quick posts on the subject of really fast cheap dinners.

This meal I call "Soup soup". As the name implies, it is soup which you make mainly from soup as the main ingredient. You buy tins of soup on special, and stock up on other tinned veg or fresh or frozen veg. You heat up a in of soup as a quick base soup, and add the frozen veggies or whatever so that the soup tastes less tinned, and is better value. It's soup made mainly from soup, hence the name, Soup soup.

Rave retract

I may have to retract my footlet rave. After a week, they feel as if they are falling apart -_-

Hat shopping: a review.

Elsie and I went to Strand Hatters. It is a very nice little shop, although the music was Whitney Housten and not in keeping with the image of a classy hatter AT ALL. It must have been the personal selection of the shop assistant, because he knew all the words — I do like to hear people singing happily and unselfconsciously in public.

The problem with this shop is, half the hats are too high up to see them. Let alone reach them yourself and try them on. If you are shy about hassling shop assistants when you don't know what you want, it's awkward. If they had a look book to browse, like in bridal shops, that would be handy. Or even better, if they let customers climb rolling ladders like in the old private libraries in movies. However, there were many Panama hats within reach, which I tried on. My size is a large. It's technically a men's hat shop, hats that women can also wear but not special pretty hats for women, so their sizes go up two XXL quite happily.

Anyway, the panama hats are lovely. High grade, apparently the higher the grade number the finer the weave and they sell fine weave hats. Different variations of cream colour, ribbon, and brim. I like one where the brim tilts up at the back, down at the front, and has a black ribbon. It was over $250, so I didn't buy it. Some where cheaper, but not in the ball park of a hat that I could buy without going away and justifying it to myself.

Then we went to DJs to look at their hats. We only found ladies hats, it didn't occur to me that they might have men's hats somewhere, which is a shame, because they might have had panama hats to compare. As it was, not one single ladies hat fit me. Thanks for nothing, department store. Way to make women feel depressed about ANOTHER part of their body being too big. Bar me from the world of cloches.

So I will buy a hat from Strand, if I have to. I have a couple of options to chase up first, but if that much money has to be spent to get a hat that fits, so be it.

On an aside, Elsie started pointing out hats wherever we went after that. There are a few around and I never noticed them.

KESC 37 Fajar Review || FINAL KESC!!!!

I admired the golden tiles out the front while I waited.

This place is run by old people, and they seem to know their regular customers. This makes for a nice atmosphere. The menu doesn't have pictures, but it doesn't matter because everything we ordered was delicious and had a good size portion for the price. The bill for 6 meals among 7 was $70. I loved the deep fried tofu with peanut sauce, but it wasn't everyone's cup of tea. We ordered a combo dish with quails eggs, and a crispy noodle dish (which was awesome) and a crispy chicken dish (which was the most Chinese of all the food.

This is an interesting plastic covered flower arrangement on the ceiling.

This is a badge someone pulled out which I think has a cute font.

We then went to Passionflower for the last time, and I'm not really sorry it is the last time. It is too expensive (huge desserts for the price, but just not enough small cheap things, dessert just should not cost more than dinner) and they are very inflexible, they even have a "minimum spend per person" policy. It brought back memories of the city Passionflower when my group was asked to leave our table because they didn't seat people at that table in the evening, and go and sit outside with the smokers. I never went back. Not as bad this time, but same inflexibility: I asked to change waffles with vanilla ice-cream to chocolate ice-cream, and their policy is to stick exactly to the menu, so I had to order a whole different dessert. It was fair enough of the waitress to follow the rules, but the rules are still ridiculous. AB Cafe was the good old days.

The desserts are pretty amazing-looking though. So big. I didn't finish my double waffle 2 scoop dessert and I finish EVERYTHING.

And that is the end of that.

Thowing away is hard to do.

I've got a porcelain doll from Grandma, she gave one each to us girls when we were young. I like it, but it's not hand made by Grandma or anything, it's just from copperart. And I'm not a doll and bear person any more. I don't want to display it, I'm not into knick-knacks. So there is no point keeping it. Nice things in boxes are a waste of everything: the nice thing AND the box space. I've given up the idea that I should keep things for when I have a place of my own, or when I have children. Use it or lose it. So I want to give it to the op shop near MM because I know then some old lady will buy it and be very happy. The doll will be better off there than in my storage. But I still don't want to give it away! I've just taken photos in preparation of letting go and the doll has cute little shoes and stockings and a pretty face. I don't want to donate it, even though it's the right thing to do. That's all.

Footlet rave

Footlets are very low-cut, lower-than-ankle socks made out of pantyhose-type material. Women usually wear them with flats or heels. The point is to be able to wear certain shoes with something sock-like, while having the appearance of wearing none.

I have to rave about Razzamatazz's Smooth Footlet.


Initially, I baulked at the $7/$7.50 price tag, when there were $3 ones hanging right next to them. Laser cut edges, heel grip, low-cut, it claimed. After a week of wearing a $3 pair and being thoroughly disappointed with them, I must say that the Razz is far more superior to the cheaper brand. The cheaper brand is not that discreet when you wear them and they move around a lot. The Razz is a lot less visible when worn and tend to stay put.

So if you're in the market for footlets, you're better off getting a pair of these. I found mine at Coles.

Elsie Elise

When people meet me for the first time and get my name right, they often call me Elise the second time round. It makes me wonder: do people named Elise ever get called Elsie? Know an Elise you could ask for me?

Purposeful name forgetting

Sometimes, I "forget" people's names on purpose.

Say, I met someone at a function and I see them again at some point in the future. Usually, people don't remember my name (or if they do, they call me Elise) and it's just awkward for both of us if I'm the one who remembered their name (and it's so unusual to remember people's name, it makes me feel like a freak), so it's just easier to say, "Oh hey, aren't you Jess' friend from blah? Didn't I meet you at yada yada? My name's Elsie." Usually reminding them of your name prompts them to re-introduce themselves.

I never expect people to remember my name, so when I decide to use their name, I go, "Hey, it's Jess, right? I met you at xyz. I'm Elsie." It's helpful to give your name without people having to ask for it.

A new, extreme sport

Riding a Sydney bus during peak hour should be an Olympic sport. Or an extreme sport. Usually you're standing, crammed in with a thousand other commuters, holding onto a pole for dear life with one hand, because you've got your handbag/lunch/jacket/iPod in the other.

What makes it an extreme sport? It's the unexpected jerkiness of slowing down and then speeding up; it's the sudden slamming on of brakes when cars decide to cut in front of buses (why, oh why, do cars cut in front of buses?) and the subsequent falling into a pile with the rest of the passengers; it's the twists and turns as you navigate Sydney roads.

I kid you not: I got off the bus the other morning with the biggest cramp/pain in my right bicep. Don't think I've ever held onto something so tightly.

They could make it an even more difficult sport by blindfolding competitors, or maybe even not allowing them to hold onto anything for balance.

Westerners at yum cha

Had yum cha recently with a group that were majority Westerners. As we sat down to the table, waiter says to head honcho waitress in Cantonese, "Hey, what kind of tea do these guys want?"

She replies, "Don't be silly! They're Westerners!" Can't remember what she said, it might have been, "Offer them drinks [ie alcohol and soft drinks]."

I've even seen drinks trolleys at yum cha now - something I never saw in my childhood.

So that's the difference between Westerners and Chinese people at yum cha: Westerners drink drinks, the Chinese drink tea.

Telling

Alain de Botton recently tweeted,

The most romantic gesture is to spend an hour listening closely and sympathetically to someone else's anxieties & hopes.

and the only people who liked that comment on my Facebook wall were women. It's telling, isn't it?

(By the way, I can't seem to link to specific tweets anymore? Can anyone help?)

Hats.

I've got pigmentation on my face. I know, TMI. But this is a blog. Maybe you already noticed it, given that it's on my face, or maybe you were distracted by my braces. I think I might even be forced to start wearing make-up, I hate it so much. Enough oversharing, back to the point.

Sun damage. My enemy. I now wear 30+ sunscreen every day. I am even going to try and overcome hat-aversion, or should I say hat-hair aversion, and wear a hat regularly. To this end, I'm going to try and buy a hat that is awesome. Although the cancer council one does an OK job, it's uncool and I don't enjoy wearing it, so I'm going to take the "special fitness brand clothes because I value exercise" approach and buy an awesome hat so that I am more likely to wear it.

So I've found 2 hat shops, one in the city which is probably expensive, and one at Regents Park, which is practically a road trip although they sell online. But I have a big head, so it's risky to buy untested. On THAT note, from what I can tell, 65% of people have a big head. So you know what, hat-sellers? My head is NORMAL, not big.

But I am all excited about the range of hats out there! I was just going to get an akubra or straw hat or something, but what about a Panama hat! That sounds very Agatha Christie. You can even buy bowler hats. I can totally see myself scootering to work in a bowler hat. And there are hats that convert into visors by unzipping the crown! Hat hair optional! At the moment I am a fan of this green wool felt trilby, although it's a little bit too cute. I can't wait to try some awesome hats on.

Flatmate reality/TV.

Elsie came over recently and we watched the episodes of New Girl that I taped. Elsie made a very apt comment: "Why do TV people always socialise with their flatmates? Who actually does that?". Good question. It looks so normal on TV, and I did aspire to it myself, in my naivety, but I can't say I've experienced it. I share a flat with flatmates, I share friendships with friends, and there is very little overlap. I think because all my flatmates have been temporary relationships of convenience. But friendships don't have those clauses.

The appeal of living with a flatmate...

Someone is there to acknowledge your existence, and provide back-up when needed.

KESC 37 Fajar Indonesian and Asian Food. FINAL KESC!!!!

Yes, here we are at last, the end of our journey is nigh, the climax of months, nay, years of gruelling eating and blogging up and down Anzac Parade Kingsford. This Friday, people! 6.30pm. And stay tuned bloggers for our next exciting challenge.

The appeal of living alone...

...is the ability to control your environment. Of course, you can't completely control your environment (e.g. neighbours), but you can determine where things go and how your household is organised.

eReader

I've taken the plunge an purchased an eReader.

These points won me over:
- being able to carry what would usually be really big books (such as the Bible) or several books in a thin, portable device
- my books having anonymity when I'm reading them in public spaces (the public does not need to know what books I'm reading!)
- something constructive or enjoyable to do during the daily commute
- freeing up space on my bookshelf by getting rid of books

I really don't like owning too much stuff, so the last point weighed in heavily for me.

I've already started selling books I own which are available as eBooks, however, I won't repurchase them as eBooks immediately to replace them. Instead, if I really want to read it, I will purchase it at that point in time. That way, I get rid of a lot of my books that I haven't touched in years and only buy the books I really want or miss.

Plastic container storage.

Ok, this is going to ROCK YOUR WORLD.

Obviously, you fit more in the plastics cupboard if you stack the containers into each other and pile the lids up separately. Many people have been taught by their mothers to stack like that. Or in my case, periodically tidy it up and stack it like that.

HOWEVER. This means it is a lot more annoying to unstack the container you want and find its lid.

Therefore, I suggest it is not the most effective way, other than space saving. Laziness has recently led me to put the lid on each container and throw it in the cupboard. It's a large jumble in there, true, and looks terribly inefficient, but I think it is more useable. Once I see what I want I've got it in one grab, and don't have to hunt around for the separated lid.

And this is a picture of my plastic cupboard.

Old-school tough.

702 ABC had a talk segment today about the lost art of handwriting, and put this prison record sample up. Notice the criminals alias. "Moonlight". I think it's this guy: http://www.australianhistory.org/captain-moonlight

Imagine if criminals today used romantic aliases like that. How cool. I might even watch Underbelly.

How I organised my work handbag

I put a bit of thought into organising my day-to-day handbag for work and I'm pretty chuffed with the results.

Firstly, here is my beautiful blue handbag, which my generous sister bought for me, second-hand from Tokyo. Thank you, Ali!


On the side of the handbag, there is a pocket and a tag with a hole in it. To this hole, I attached a short, black leather strap with a key ring at one end, and a hook-keyring (which you push down to open and close) at the other end. At this end, I have attached a ticket holder. Here, I'll put my travel pass and tuck into the side pocket of the handbag, which means I can easily fish it out when I get on public transport, and I won't lose it because it's attached securely to my handbag.

[In an ideal world, Sydney's public transport ticketing system would be more technologically advanced and we'd be able to just tap our transport passes against the ticket machine, rather than fish out our tickets and insert them into the machines.]


Inside my handbag, there is a D ring, so I've attached a bright yellow, retractable key ring. The bright colour means it will be easy to find in my bag (a lovely contrast to the blue as well), and the retractable cord means I'll be able to open my mailbox and front door more easily, knowing it's still securely attached to my handbag, meaning I have less chance of losing my keys.

Finally, the contents of my bag. I've organised most of the contents into four bags. This is so that "like" is stored with "like" and things will be easier to fish out of my bag. The bags are also transparent (or transparent enough), so that I can see the contents at a glance.

Bag 1: Frequently used items
- hand cream
- lip balm
- lip stick
- pocket mirror
- tissues
- mints
I considered including sunscreen, but for the moment, I have decided against it.

Bag 2: Fun
- iPod touch
- headphones

Bag 3: Less frequently used items
- female stuff (you know what I mean)
- band aids
- face oil blotting paper
- paper soap
- travel hairbrush
- Panadol (which have probably expired)

Bag 4: Writing
- thin, monthly calendar/diary
- thin notebook
- pacer and two pens


Other stuff, such as my wallet, mobile, glasses, sunnies and fan, I'm just chucking in as is. There is enough room for a thin paperback, otherwise I will have to carry a book separately (or get a Kindle!). I've decided not to carry water because I should be able to last my commute without a drink.

Hopefully, you can see that the aim of all this is to make it easier to find stuff in a bag without compartments.

I do have a bag organiser (another bag with lots of compartments which you put inside your handbag to organise its contents), but I'll see how I go with this.

How do you organise your bag?

I emailed the PM again.

Last time I asked if she could do something about Indian Mynah birds. I hate them. Today decided she deserves a break, so I emailed her a short but encouraging thankyou note. But I also mentioned that if she had any spare time she might like to give WA, SA and NT proper actual names. That would be a fun side-job for her.

KESC 36 Taiwanese Express.

8 challengers, and it was not a challenge to fit into this eatery, there were only a couple of other people eating there. Which may be because the students aren't around, because the food was fine.

So it's sort of a Macdonalds format. You read a menu and order at the counter, then sit down and wait for it to be delivered. The cook hands it to the waitress through a small hole like in prison, and the food comes on a plastic tray with compartments, TV dinner style. I wouldn't say bento box, it wasn't really like that. Anyway all the meals are the same, you just get to choose a different main meat, which goes in the top right corner. The other sections have rice, pickled bean shoots, pickled ginger or something, and corn soup. They were all OK, but the meats were quite tasty. I had a spicy sour pork thing, it was delicious. Like a deep-fried pork version of shan dong chicken! So yummy. The other highlight was A ordered a snack before starting, which was some sweet potato chips, delicious. Those chips and small thing like that were about $5, the TV tray meals were about $10. They do free table water, and sell cold tea drinks.