A Free Woman

I can’t stop looking at her (or photographing her! — evidently!). She’s lovely and makes me want to kick up my heel. She makes me believe I am her.

Four Times Meme

Yes, another one! I stole it from Mark.

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
CAD Tracer
Market Research Interviewer
Secretary
Check-out Chick

Four Movies I (could) Watch Over and Over:
Hello Dolly
The Mirror Has Two Faces
Sense & Sensibility
Ever After
(spot the sap, eh?)

Four Places I’ve Lived:
Under a rainwater tank
In a pizza bar kitchen
My grandmother’s house
In an elevator
(well, you spend so much time in one place, it feels like you’ve lived there)

Four TV Shows I Love(d):
The Secret Life Of Us
MDA
Bottom
Absolutely Fabulous
(Funny, I think none of these are on the air anymore, which shows I don’t watch TV)

Four Favorite Dishes:
Ravioli
Schnitzel Parmigiana
Chicken in Black bean Sauce (Chinese-style)
Coffee (it’s a dish, in a way)

Four Sites I Visit Daily (not counting blogs):
Absolute Write Forums
Flickr
News.com.au
Site Meter

Four Places I’d Rather Be Right Now:
Sniffing my newly published book at Borders
Tuscany
Buying furniture for our house
Inside Margaret Atwood’s pen

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I’m now tagging Amy.

Coffee Talk

I was trying for a morning without caffeine because I was, oh I don’t know, insane. I even got a decaffeinated one because I thought it’d be the next best thing. Yeah, okay, Jen. What a waste of time that was. Decaffeinated coffee is downright evil and belongs in the same category as the instant stuff.

Anyway, it seemed I wasn’t surviving. Especially when my colleague says things like, “this morning, I saw a girl as tiny as you before!” — like there’s only five people in the world that are around 5 ft – and I happen to be one of them; we could be discovered anytime, anywhere like a freaking Willy Wonka golden ticket.

So I sent an email to hubby not long ago about my non-caffeine plans and the outcome:

didn’t work. i was grumpy as hell and looking for razors.

now i have had a short black and i love everybody.

Birthweek

No, I’m not pregnant or about to be or want to be (right now anyway). Rather, my birthday week officially started yesterday when I went to a lunch at The Archer hotel. Everything about it was gorgeous. After being greeted with lovely orange liliums (above), we started out on the balcony but then preferred to escape the sun and ended up in the delightful library. I wanted to dive into the backdrop of beautiful, wooden book cases populated with (real) books! I couldn’t have asked for a more appropriate setting for someone like me…

Anyway, I’d never stepped foot in the hotel before and I’m certainly going back! I found love with the pork dish in honey with roasted peaches and it loved me right back. I might as well mention my dessert too: pannacotta with Italian-style lemon icecream (which brought back childhood memories, I haven’t had that icecream kind in years!)

And I was naughty and opened one of my gifts early…

For My Husband

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

e e cummings

CD Mix Meme

Taken from here.

1) A favourite political track.
WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN – The Who

2) One of those tracks that will get you on the dance floor no matter what.
SUPERSTYLIN’ – Groove Armada

3) The song you’d use to tell someone you love them.
SONGBIRD – Eva Cassidy

4) A song that has made you sit down and analyse its lyrics.
LIGHT YEARS – Pearl Jam

5) A song that you like and that a two year old would like as well.
WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN – The Bangles

6) A song that gives you an energy boost.
LIT UP – Buckcherry

7) A song that you and your grandparents (would probably) like.
THAT’S AMORE – Dean Martin

8) A song that you really liked when you were 14-16, and still really like now.
NEVER BEEN TO SPAIN – Elvis Presley

9) A sad song that would be in the soundtrack of the movie about your life.
SING (AND TELL THE BLUES SO LONG) – Johnny O’Keefe

10) A peppy song that would start the opening credits of the movie about your life.
HIT THE SKIDS OR… – Local H

11) A good song from a genre of music that no one would guess that you liked.
HAWKESBURY RIVER LOVIN’ – John Williamson

12) A song that you think should have been playing when you were born.
I’M GONNA LIVE IN MY OWN BIG WORLD – Dave Graney

13) A favourite artist duo collaboration.
MOCKINGBIRD – Johnny O’Keefe & Margaret McLaren

14) A favourite song that you completely disagree with (politically, morally, commonsenically, religiously etc.)
ONE IN A MILLION – Guns n’ Roses

15) The song that you like despite the fact your IQ level drops several points every time you listen to it.
IGNITION – R Kelly

16) Your smooth song, for relaxing.
RED DUST – Zero 7

17) A song you would send to someone you hate or are mad at.
KARMA KILLER – Robbie Williams

18) A favourite track from an outfit considered a “super-group.”
TICKET TO RIDE – The Beatles

19) A song that makes you reminisce about good times with a family member.
BYE BYE BABY – Col Joye

20) Your favourite song at this moment in time.
SAY GOODBYE – Eva Cassidy

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Holy crap, this took me ages to complete. I went through my CD collection and everything. (So many memories…)

Now, I am going to tag Nathan ’cause I know he’s into music and stuff.

AWMondayMemes

The Worst Opening Sentence Attempt

As part of a fun exercise in class last night to write the world’s worst opening sentence for a novel, inspired by this contest, here was my quick attempt:

The murderer would have been wearing deep green jeans, but if he hadn’t soaked them in Napisan the evening before then they wouldn’t be the pale green colour that they are now, which is the real truth about the colour of the jeans (not the deep green as I had previously mentioned), but anyway, he was about to murder someone.

We only had a minute or so to come up with something!

If you want to comment with your attempt, go ahead…

Dreaming Of His Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day from Arky and his heart-shaped nose.

Jenday

Today, I read for a little while (goodness, Margaret Atwood is very good at what she does!), I wrote for a little while, I “flickr’ed” for a little while and I also worked on my assignment for a (long) while.

I don’t know where the time came from but it was there for me throughout the day.

Might I add that it’s the first time I’ve ever enjoyed working on an (academic-related) assignment.

–
Anyway, it’s nice when the time makes you — rather than the other way around.

(Hmmh, funny, my thrice-empty coffee cup just tapped me on the shoulder to ask me where his acknowledgement was.)

Seeing In Red

At a party on the weekend, I deliberately didn’t use a flash. I wasn’t in the mood. Just as well because they all came out deliciously obscure with a red overlay. But that’s ok, my vision was kind of red that night anyway.

It’s the sort of thing that happens when you stick a socially-challenged me amongst a crowd of people.