Chrubuky - Bits and Pieces of Life

Yep, yep dunno, nothing

2008-05-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

A day at the park

2008-04-24T12:25:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I decided to get out of the house and away from the books and the laptop for a day. Man, it was nice to get outside and hang out with my mate Trish and her kids. It was so nice to get out of my own head for a while and connect with a friend about her life and hear how her life is changing after having her second baby recently. Playing with kids is always an amazing distraction from your own woes (which we tend to spend a bit too much time on, I think) too.

I caught up with Trish, Ashwin and 3 and a half week old Holly. We had a very civilised breakfast at the cafe and then went off to play and watch the Canada Geese with their goslings. If you live in Mountain View and get all gooey at the sight of small fluffy things, I would suggest rushing down there as soon as possible.

More pictures of the day out can be found here.

One Happy Cupcake

2008-04-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

Today I turned 33 and celebrated by spending most of the day talking to friends and family. Seriously - I racked up nearly 8 hours on the phone. It wasn't the super indulgent day of lounging under a fluffy blanket on the couch, watching dozens of shitty movies while shovelling cupcakes into my mouth, that I had planned. But it was very nice all the same.

I always think about resolutions at this time of year. New year just never seems the right time - but the anniversary of arriving on the earth seems a much more natural time to reassess your life and where you're going.

I'd be lying if I said the past year or so had been easy so there was a pretty long list of things to sort out. I wont be boring you with any of it here, but I think if I can make a few fundamental changes this upcoming year could be a lot more positive.

As part of the Grand Revolutionising Plan, I also headed back to the gym after a VERY long hiatus. I'll start by removing the 10 kilos (and their friends) that have moved in during last year. So far - after 1 one workout - I feel terrific. But it is the sticking to it long term that is usually the issue.

The art of avoiding study

2008-04-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

When the heat is on, the assignments coming up on the horizon, and the weeks are flying past like road signs on a highway, what does any truly devoted student do?

Yup. She knits. And if she's lucky she will find a few spare balls of Noro in her stash and a dvd in her laptop that she's been hanging out to see.

I made this pattern up. Not that it's really complex enough to call it a pattern. Just started with the right amount of stitches that would comfortably fit around my neck, then increased when I felt like it. Finished it off with a a knitted edge from a Debbie Bliss book thats name escapes me right now. Next time I would probably make it a little taller and make the flair more significant at the bottom so it would neatly sit under a coat collar.

I have heaps of assignments and exams coming up so I will have plenty of time to knit some more of these :)

It is NEVER too early to get a noob into knitting

2008-04-09T16:57:00.002-07:00

My cohort in knitting shenanigans had a baby daughter a little over a week ago. She is devine. And so is the baby :)

Here she is modelling her first knitted piece of clothing. A soft, rolled brim hat made of some sublimely soft cotton blend.

I am amazed to see how naturally they have both fallen into a routine together. Trish is calm and a little tired, grounded and assured like an earth mother. Holly is a warm, squirmy little bundle of possibilities and the most wonderful feeling I have had, in a long time, is kicking back and having her fall asleep on my shoulder while I held her.

Our local Woodpecker returns

2008-04-03T15:16:00.002-07:00

Usually quite early in the morning :) But he is beautiful and quite amazing to watch. The holes are chiselled so quickly that the noise he makes are more like electrical noises than you'd expect. For you ornithological types, he is a Downy Woodpecker, the smallest of the many types found in the US. They are super common and found nearly everywhere.

We can watch him at eye height from our bedroom window which, with all the mature trees now covered in Spring leaves, feels a little like living in a tree house.

Take some scissors to your knitting

2008-03-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

This was a birthday present for my MIL that has made it's way back to me for editing. Totally my idea of course. The unfortunate thing about gifts is you don't get a chance to liaise with the future owner to make sure it is a good match. So, sometime the presents end up 30% too long and contain more fringing than some would like.

It was expectantly difficult to take to it with scissors, even though I knew I was turning it from something unusably large into something perfect for the chilly Canberra months. This is probably the end to my surprise knitting goods. What the hell do I do with the head sized ball of Noro I have left over now?

The strange stuff you miss

2008-03-27T16:54:00.003-07:00

Kynan went back to Australia recently with a list a mile long of stuff to bring back for me. That, I assured him, is what husbands are for.

Obviously he couldn't bring back all the stuff I really miss - our house, cats, friends, family, big chunks of the NSW coastline - but I did get a stack of chocolates, sweets and crisps. Which will do for now.

Having Kynan away prompted a few interesting conversations with friends that have also come from elsewhere. Usually we'd start off about foods or restaurants we missed, but it wouldn't be long before we were trying to pin down exactly what it means to be Australian. The colours, textures and sounds are all particular to that great crispy land.

So here is a poem that hits it on the head for me. Written by the incredible Dorothea MacKellar who has an incredible body of literary works to her name.

All beautifully evocative poem called "My Country"

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die -
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Say what?

2008-03-18T17:07:00.001-07:00

I spent the last week of my school holidays involved in a secret knitting project. I whipped up a Binary Scarf for the hubby's upcoming birthday. It was hard work - not the pattern - but keeping it secret. Kynan would come home each day and ask what I had been doing. All I could think to say was "Hung out. Watched Law & Order". Say hello to your lazy arsed wife!

So I was really happy when I could give it to him for his birthday and explain that I was actually knitting in that last week and NOT just watching Law and Order.

It contains a message that I don't think even he has had time to sit and decipher so I wont spoil it here. It's nothing saucy but instead related to a funny moment we had last year. It'll be a good reminder of living in America, in years to come.

A clutch of azaleas

2008-03-14T12:04:00.001-07:00

or whatever you'd call them.

I LOVE these plants. They remind me so much of where I grew up. They are a hell of a lot easier to grow here in California than in Canberra. They just don't deal well with the extreme temperature changes and the restrictive water regulations there.

Anyhoo, here are a few of the stars in the garden at the mo. If we weren't in a rental I would plant out my entire garden with these beauties.

How I spent my holidays

2008-03-09T17:58:00.001-07:00

Messing with Flickr and watching old episodes of Law and Order on Netflix. Ahhhhhhhh, the joy of not having to read textbooks.

Our Local Market

2008-03-07T19:52:00.001-08:00

This has got to be one of my most favourite places in Mountain View. It's the Milk Pail market, a nice little fresh fruit and veg market with a room full of European goodies out the back. While it's not completely organic, it is definitely fresh and cheap. We can get an enormous amount of fresh food for $50. Enough to do us the entire week. I love to go there towards closing, when it is it's least busy and I can really take my time smelling and touching the produce, rummaging through the cheeses and debating with myself about how much I really NEED to buy Nutella.

It's a little piece of cosmopolitan markety joy that makes living here a little bit more pleasant.

Three countries worth of plastic cards

2008-03-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

Cause a hell of a lot of headaches when trying to plan a trip. That is about half of the ATM cards, credit cards, drivers licences, medical cards and squids of other identification cards one needs to function these days.

Now the dust has settled

2008-03-05T18:27:00.002-08:00

and I am actually happy to move my Stitches stash away from my bedside (I have been going through a mildly embarrassing period of stroking it like a cat and rubbing it on my face several times a day), here is the bounty of goodness from Stitches.

STUNNINGLY soft Peruvian alpaca.

All of these are from Brooks Farm in Texas, and they are glorious, truly glorious. The people there are really cool too.

Spring has arrived in my garden

2008-03-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

Last year, our first in this apartment, we fed the squirrels with a little too much gusto. This led to them thinking that everything, including forgotten bbq implements, where there for their gastronomic delight. As soon as Spring arrived the buds were nabbed from the trees and buried like prized peanuts. This year we figured there were enough over zealous new foreigners feeding these rodents that they would survive without help. The result, a beautiful garden full of flowers that has me inspired to dig through the poetry books languishing on our bookshelves.

The Enkindled Spring

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.

D.H. Lawrence

Whiling the day away

2008-03-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

This relaxed little creature was just chillin' in branches of the tree in our front yard. For hours. He was REALLY content there. I love the way his front legs are pulled in like the way cats sit. I don't normally get excited about squirrels, but this little dude really impressed me with his relaxed demeanour.

Proof for the family

2008-03-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

that Kynan does, in fact, leave his office occasionally. He even gets time to smell the flowers.

Winner of the treasure hunt

2008-02-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

We went off to see Cirque du Soleil's Kooza in San Jose. Unfortunately there are no pictures allowed so you'll just have to imagine how very amazing it was. Or you can watch this cool youtube vid to get the idea.

During intermission my pashmina went missing. After the show, we found it on the floor a few seats up, trapped in the wheels of a womans wheel chair. The vintage pin that was on the scarf was slightly manlged and was missing a sapphire. A bunch of staff helped us clear away the confetti and popcorn to try & search for it but after about 5 minutes of searching I was ready to give up. Kynan persisted and miracle of miracles, found the bloody tiny little thing! We really should have bought a lottery ticket the next day.

Jonathan Coulton Gig

2008-02-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to get tickets to the JoCo gig in San Francisco last night. We have seen him a couple of times but this was a little different as it was for a recording of his dvd.

It was an awesome night. There were all sorts of extras that made the night all that more special. The venue was the very cool Great American Music Hall, there was additional lighting which made taking photos a much more rewarding experience, the support act was unbelievably good, and there was cake at the end! Seriously, they gave us cake. No concert experience will be as good ever again.

One very unexpected extra was the geeky supergroup that played toward the end. It consisted of Veronica Belmont, JoCo, Merlin Mann and Leo LaPorte and they played guitar hero to "Still Alive" from the very cool game Portal. Getting such well known internet peeps together wouldn't have happened if there weren't a dvd being recorded.

It was an amazing night and an amazingly good concert.

It's Stitches (west) bitches!

2008-02-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

The grins really say it all. Honestly, this is just the coolest knitting event on the calendar each year. I get excited about a month before. It is heaven, absolute heaven. The only thing that could make it cooler would be for someone to have me an unlimited credit card, a hamper full of gourmet foods, and magical shoes that NEVER make your feet sore.

Jumper in a pile

2008-02-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

Another Drops jumper rolls off the press. It's all in pieces still and probably will be until winter comes around again in December. Not much call for bulky cardigans, no matter how cute, for about 10 months of the year here.

Gorgeous French tune of the day

2008-02-17T09:10:00.000-08:00

Sam - your wedding gifts have finally been framed!!!

2008-01-03T14:16:00.001-08:00

even if it has taken me over a year to get around to it. (I am happily blaming it on the ridiculous frame sized available here). They still look gorgeous and I love them, if it is possible, even more than I did when you gave them to us. I just hope it doesn't take me another year to work out where to hang them.

Just to let you know...

2008-01-01T15:06:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you have a terrific 2008 - if it actually happens.

Bread pudding, Mark II

2008-01-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about red berry bread and butter pudding and how it was the perfect start to festive eating. For New Years Eve celebrations I thought of trying out a modification to the recipe and making a chocolate and raspberry bread pudding. There were only a few changes to the original recipe - melting around 200g (7oz) of good quality milk chocolate into the custard while you are whisking it on the stove, and using 2 punnets of raspberries (or as many as you fancy). I grated some additional chocolate onto the top, but it was unnecessary.

The result, was delicious. Not as sickly sweet as I was worried it might be. No need to add anything extra to it when it comes out of the fridge. Just enjoy.

And poof! it was gone

2007-12-29T01:11:00.000-08:00

We are lucky to have the most beautiful Ginko trees lining the median strip outside our house. They are particularly glorious during Autumn and, more than once this season, I have found myself stopping mid-stride to gaze at them out the window. Back in Australia, when we were setting out plans to improve our moonscape garden, they were top of my wish list and I was devastated to discover that they take an eternity to grow and we would probably not live long enough to see them mature.

All of this just means I have really appreciated living with so many of them outside my bedroom window.

Besides the aesthetic benefits, these trees drop a hell of a lot of leaves. They are a triumphant golden colour and shaped like large maidenhair fern leaves. It's terribly un-Californian of us but we love to get out there with a rake and bin bags to collect the leaves for mulch (the preferred method of leaf disposal here is the bin). Summers are long and hot here, and every gardener needs to do as much as they can to keep their garden in top form. There is very little environmentally friendly stuff you can do when you live in an apartment complex, so doing this small bit of our garden also helps to alleviate the guilt of not being able to compost etc.

This year we collected as much mulch as possible. First putting an extraordinarily thick layer on the gardens, and then storing as much as we could get in bin bags next to our front door. The thought being that by the time the leaves in the garden had time to decompose a little, there would be more room in the garden and we could add more from the bags. It was a terrific plan however sometime over the weekend we were struck by the MULCH THIEF OF MOUNTAIN VIEW. What you see below is the divot created by our bag of mulch. Maybe this means the idea of mulching gardens has taken off, but that people are just too lazy to collect their own?

A mountain of penguins for 2008

2007-12-28T18:44:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was searching for Homer's The Odyssey for a Christmas gift for the man of the house. I was pretty shocked to stumble across The Complete Penguin Classics Collection available for $US7989.50. However, not nearly as shocked as I was to discover that people have bought it and left reviews!

This is the full set of 1082 Penguin Classics in current publication. According to Wikipedia, the collection weights 750 pounds (340 kg) and takes about 77 linear feet (23.5 m) of shelf space, and laid end-to-end the books would reach about 630 feet (192 m). The full listing is available here, if you are interested.

We love books and can't cram enough bookshelves into our house to fit them all. In our home in Australia, we had to instigate a firm "One comes in, then one must go out' policy and constantly worry about what would happen if there were to be a house fire.

Despite enjoying a good read, I realise there is very little chance that we'd ever be happy to drop nearly $US8000U on books at a time. So I decided I would try and collect as many of the books off the list, but to buy them second-hand (Thus fitting into our budget and my wish to 'reduce, reuse and recycle' more this year).

The picture you see is the result of a few hours or searching and list crossing in 2 of my favourite second-hand book haunts - Bookbuyers and Rasputins, both in Mountain View, CA. Most bought for a $1 or 2. All books without a price were met with a shoulder shrug and 'Is $2 too much?' from the seller. Over the Christmas long weekend I think I collected 62 off the list. I'll me putting together a list of the titles I have in the next few weeks. I doubt whether I will get through them all this year, with all the university reading I have to do too, but I'll give it a crack.

Hopefully it will also improve my vocabulary. I'm sick of playing 3 and 4 letter words in Scrabble.

Christmas Day 2007

2007-12-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas Day. Or at least avoided screaming, crying and accusations that often come along with liquored up family gatherings. We did. Avoid the arguing, that is. Oh, and the family. Not necessarily the alcohol.

Australian friends living in the Bay Area adopted us for the day, which was lovely of them. They have a young son and I was looking forward to seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child. Although we have many friends with young families, there's aren't any close children relatives that we would usually spend Christmas Day with. In the end, he was a little young for the malarkey I expected. He liked the ribbons, but didn't know what to do with the wrapped presents. He was happy with his Thomas the Tank Engine track and spent the rest of the day rearranging the engines as they steamed around the figure of eight.

If I am honest, I was glad I my expectations of a child crazed Christmas weren't realised. It left us with a calm, relaxing day full of good wine, great food and terrific company.

There was carving (and a little smoke)...

Testing of Kaths rumballs...

Stupendous amounts of Christmas faire (notice the large empty section that was furiously cleared before I remembered to take a picture?)

Pre-hangover Berrocca ingested with Champagne, demonstrating that men can, indeed, multi task.

Homemade Christmas Pudding to finish it all off.

I hope your festivities were just as enjoyable.

Christmas Eve 2007

2007-12-24T23:27:00.000-08:00

Most of the people we know here in California decided to go home this year for Christmas. We decided not to for many reasons - we went pretty recently (last Christmas), we've had loads of visitors this year (including family), Kynan doesn't have much leave accrued and I decided to study during third semester this year.

I was expecting it to be a droll and dismal Christmas but it ended up being one of the best Christmas' we have had for years. There was something very unusually relaxing about the town we live in. The roads were practically deserted, the restaurants easy to book and Kynan had a few days off. But even more exciting than all of that was that the lovely Sarah & Andrew lent us their Toyota Prius while they were on holidays. What a bloody cool car that is.

We used it to tool down to San Jose to see Christmas in the Park, a large selection of decorated trees, an ice rink and some freakish anamatronic scenes featuring grinning chikdren and festive mice.It was kitch and camp, but mostly fabulous. There were even snow blowers attached to all the lamp posts so as you walked past them they shot some poofs of snow into the air.

And a ferris wheel... which Kynan enjoyed. A lot.

The night came to a fab end when we managed to get into Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant we have been meaning to go to for about a year. We'd called earlier in the evening to book a spot & were told they were fully booked out - with a 'Haven't you heard, it's Christmas Eve!' kind of scoff. Luckily, my natural instinct is to not believe people, and we headed over to try and wangle our way in. It worked, and after a few minutes waiting we had a seat at the bar.

We ate the traditional Swiss fondue for mains, and the ying yang dessert. All for about $45. There were appetizers on offer, but they seemed expensive for what was offered. The salads we saw on other peoples tables were minuscule for the price. All in all, it was definitely worth the effort of going.

Pacmans albino cousin ate my husband

2007-12-16T10:14:00.001-08:00

The cool devices are Metronaps sleeping pods and have been installed in various locations around Google. They are basically a massage chair covered with a cone of silence. You just lie down, jam on headphones playing ambient music, set the timer for anywhere up to an hour and a half, and drift off. They gently jostle you awake when the timer goes off.

Keeping aside thoughts about them being a cunning way to get their staff to stay there longer than they already do, they are a pretty good idea. The 3pm slump in circadian rhythms is pretty well documented and I can remember many times I have struggled to keep my eyes open at my desk. Infact, I have been studying at Google on the weekends and have used these to grab a quick, and incredibly restful 20 minutes rest. They are a terrific idea. I just wish you could rent them for your own home.

The most Christmassy dessert in the world

2007-12-12T10:58:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago one of my most treasured friends came for a blinding 24 hour visit. She was on the first few days of a mammoth 9 week solo adventure through Central and South America. It took a hell of a lot of stuffing around and extra cost just for her to come to stay, and I appreciated every second she was here. I have written about it before, but as I get older I realise how much of a gift it is to spend quality time with your friends. Moving through the stages of ageing - finishing school, moving away with work, relationships, marriage (or finding a permanent partner), having children - all these exciting changes in life require attention, that in my 20's I spent enjoying the company of friends.

I could write a months worth of blog entries about what Jo's friendship means to me. We don't see each other regularly but I think of her often. She is thoughtful, kind and blindingly smart, but most importantly she is always there with a beaming smile and a warm pair of arms to greet me with. It's comforting for me to know that there is someone who understands me so fully, even if she's not always within arms reach.

Coincidentally, the 24 hours of Jo's visit bought with it the first nasty rains of the season. We attempted a few touristy activities, but after staring at a Golden Gate Bridge shaped cloud in the rain, we decided to retreat to a cafe. I recalled searching a local San Francisco review site for cafe recommendations a while ago. These options were checked with a foodie couple we know here & Tartine Bakery was given two thumbs up.

Tartine is a tiny place in the Mission District. It sits on a street corner with large walls of windows (great for street voyeurism) and is full of rustic wooden furniture. From most of the seats you have a view into one of the large baking rooms. The staff are quirky and cool with more than one handlebar moustache in view at all times.

And the food....the food was phenomenal. It took about 20 minutes (most of that time spent drooling from the corners of our mouths) of standing in front of the large display cases packed with perfect little European delights to decide what to eat. Luckily we were hungry when we arrived, but I'm sure we would have crammed just as much in if we weren't.

We decided on cranberry bread and butter pudding (made with delectable eggy brioche), gingerbread cookies, hibiscus tea and a cafe au lait. The photo doesn't do the food any justice. The bread pudding was a glorious buttery yellow with accents of deep red - it was the ultimate Christmas dessert. And it was dense. I think it had been weighted before cooking to make it so. One small bowl was more than enough between us.

That experience threw me into a festive mood and a few days later attempted my own version of the pudding. The traditional sultana and cinnamon one has been a staple dessert for our family for as long as I can remember. I think it came out of the original Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook.

Below is a picture, and the recipe, of my attempt to make a Christmassy version of bread and butter pudding.

Red Berry Bread Pudding

Ingredients
400g (1 pound) challah, cut into 1cm (1/3r inch) slices (you could substitute brioche or panettone)
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) unsalted butter + a little more to grease the baking dish
3 cups (24 fl oz) milk, (you can sub 1 of the cups for a cup of cream, if you like)
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 tsp of vanilla essence)
3/4 cup (6 oz) granulated sugar
3 whole large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Grated zest of 1 orange or lemon
1 1/2 cups (12 oz) red berries. I used cranberries and raspberries, Tartine used red currants and cranberries.

Method
- Dry out the bread - this can be done by leaving the slices out on a tray for a day, or putting them on a baking sheet in an oven (160C or 320F for 45 mins)
- Grease a ceramic baking dish. Mine is an 30 x 20 x 8cm (11 1/2 x 8 x 3inch) oval, heavy ceramic jobbie.
- Layer the bread and the red berries until the bread is even with the top of the baking dish. I like to squash up some of the berries and fill the gaps between the bread. Leave this to the side.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C (350F)
- In a medium sized saucepan put the milk (and cream, if that's your chosen recipe), the eggs and extra yolks, the sugar and the vanilla pod.
- Whisk over a low heat until combined.
- Add the butter and let it melt.
- Once it has melted, add the zest of your chosen citrus.
- Take off the heat and ladle as such of the custard over the bread as possible. Take a breather when the container looks full. In a few minutes the bread will have soaked up more custard and you can ladle more in.
- Cover the dish with foil, place on a baking sheet and put in the oven for 50 mins
- Take off foil and leave in the oven for a further 15 mins
- Try and take the grin off your face long enough to have a few delicious mouthfuls

Holiday (please Insert 'Christmas') Party

2007-12-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

It was Mr Chrubukys workplace Chrissy Party (or Holiday Party as they are so annoyingly called here) last night. It was a typically huge affair, held in 3 mammoth conjoined marquees, with a space theme. One room had a dj, another a band and the final was a sort of astro lounge/ambient kind of vibe with bean bags and projectors playing space kitsch from the 50's.

It was all rather cool.

The photo you see above was taken at one of the 3 photo areas that were set up around the place. Each had a different space back drop and you were encouraged to get into it by acting out some space-like theme. You'd never guess from looking at it, but we stood in line for 20 minutes without once giving our pose a thought. Some people pretended to fly, some did wacky stances with invisible space guns (think Charlies Angels crossed with Star Trek), we looked at each other, employing none of that 'secret understanding' that spouses are supposed to have, sucked our cheeks in and ended up looking like zombie squirrels trying to look thin.

Along with the free photographers there were banks of retro computer games, virtual reality machines and infinite trays of par-tay food. Just add 4 - 6 thousand of your closest Silicon Valley mates and you have a recipe for a terrific start to the Christmas holiday season.

The Griswold Family Christmas

2007-12-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

One of the things I have been busting, like seriously BUSTING, to do since arriving in the US, is to engage in the chop your own Christmas tree experience. I don't think we have them at home and there definitely weren't any large plantations in central London.

Each time I have driven past Santa's Christmas Tree Farm near Half Moon Bay, I crane my neck and long for November. In a quirky twist of fate, our car bit the dust a few weeks ago and one of our lovely friends was kind enough to lend us her ute. So, it wasn't a wood grain station wagon, but it was enough to help us fulfil this quirky little dream.

We turned up, grabbed our saw and after a few lovely hours walking amongst the fir tress, we found the one we wanted to kill. It was a beautiful thing.

A few hours later, the spiced cider was downed, the glass baubles were up and Christmas had begun.

Finally, someone gets the Christmas decorations right

2007-11-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

Kynan, Tyson (a mate of ours from Google) and I went up to the city to see the freshly remastered Blade Runner. They gave the owl and the love interest some freakish, give away eyes. And I have been mentally scared by seeing Rutger Hauer in ~~totally unnecessary~~ bike pants.

Afterwards we headed out in search of ribs and stumbled upon these beauties. They are a fraction large for my liking, although probably needed to be this large to differentiate them from ordinary baubles.

Balls of yarn as Christmas decorations - GOLD. Knitted scarves as garlands - GOLD. Plastic advertising children with no heads - CHRISTMAS CREEPY.

Aiming High

2007-11-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

Why put all that time and effort, pouring over all those patronising child rearing books trying to find the secret of instilling strength and confidence in your newly produced female offspring? Save your time and aim for raising a BENIGN GIRL!

Unfortunately it's only available for those over 3, so until then you will have to amuse the young one with whatever other mediocre toys you can find.

What's New Pussy Cat?

2007-11-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

Our gorgeous cats turned 7 this week. We know Boogie's birthday date (the ginger cat), but Rug was found wandering about a dusty Canberran suburb only a few weeks old. They were born last century - oh my. Rug like to eat moths & Boog likes being carried about on his dads shoulders (but will settle for the letterbox while he's away). They are fabulous cats.

And now it's time for.......

2007-11-14T18:08:00.001-08:00

Something other than my grinning bloody face!

I have a whole week between second semester & third semester this year. And we know what that means - H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. Y.A.H! (It's been so long since I blogged that most of you probably didn't know I went back to university. Oh, the shame). So I popped in to to see how much catching up I needed to do & found I had left you hanging on a fabulously quizzical picture of moi. For that, I can only apologise. Here, have some knitting. It's probably been a while between fixes for ya.

Now. Isn't that better?

It's a fabulous tea cosy, bastardised from this pattern, shaped for my odd sized teapot & adorned with traditional pom pom. Made form scraps left over from the M.I.L's birthday gift, so it is environmentally & financially friendly.

I'll be updating the blog as much as possible over the next few days. I'll be posting things on the days they happened so this will be an acurate(ish) diary of what's been going on.

Burning Down the House

2007-11-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

Things I have learned this week:-

- House fires are stunningly easy to set
- You don't need to try particularly hard, infact, a lack of attention often helps
- They take very little time to catch nearby items alight
- They scare the shit out of you. Especially if, mid-fire, you realise you have no contents insurance
- You'd be surprised at how many of your belongings are flammable
- Burning plastic not only smells horrendous but also vaporises, invades your respiratory system & makes you feel like puking for the following few days
- Trying to put out a plastic fire with water is a VERY BAD idea
- A better idea would be to own an ABC rated fire extinguisher
- Smoke combined with vaporised plastic doesn't actually wipe off the walls. It becomes a sticky mess that even the more muscley degreasers have trouble shifting
- Having a house fire is a great way to use up those 4 free days between semesters. Holidays are highly overrated

Arteries - meet your Nemesis

2007-10-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

This turned up in the great wad of junk mail that turns up in our mailbox every other day. I don't usually look at it and put it straight into the recycling bin (I know, it would be easier to ask the postmen not to put it in there in the first place - I have tried, and have been earnestly informed that it's too much hassle for them and that recycling is the only 'solution' to my problem) but the shiny blue combined with the molten zebra caught my eye. I assume the recipe goes something a little like this - pizza base (possibly sweetened), crushed Oreo biscuits, creamy white sauce, diabetes, heart disease. There could be a little something extra hidden in there. I'd be surprised if it were carrots.

Thank you Dominos. I'd not previously experience heart palpitations bought on by advertising materials.

I Worship at the Temple of Debbie

2007-08-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

I have tried to give up the fun stuff - really, if I get a whiff of entertainment, I drop the textbooks & run like hell. No one is ever going to accuse me of being deeply committed to study.

However, in the past 6 months, attempting to foil any plans for a studious life, no fewer than 7 friends have had babies. Come on! Give a woman a break! It's more knitting than anyone could fit in on a casual basis & I have had to down my reading glasses and pick up the needles.

The blanket above is for the lovely Erika and Sean, and thanks to the advances of medical technology we know they are soon to have a daughter they will be calling Amber.

Debbie Bliss has kindly supplied both the pattern and the yarn (they were purchased, I don't mean to make it sound like Debbie has done me a favour here) both of which have proved very popular for the gazillion other new parents I have knitted them for. Cashmerino is the most delightfully soft yarn that you just want to rub all over your face as soon as you pick it up. Which I do whenever I am in a yarn shop and which is perfectly acceptable behaviour to other knitterly types. Thank God. It also has the added characteristic of being machine washable, which is important to new parents who don't want to spend their 2 coherent free hours per day working out how to hand wash a BLOODY KNITTED PRESENT THAT WAS GIVEN TO THEM BY SOME MORON WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW HARD LIFE IS FOR A NEW PARENT!!!

Or so I am told.

Obesity Problem, who US?

2007-07-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ha! Get it? See how clever I was with the title? Us...US...aw, forget it.

On display is the bounty that is the average American grocery store (leaving aside the fabulous Whole Foods and Trader Joe's). From left to right we have peanut butter and chocolate balls, miniature chocolate chip cookies, and Special K laden with genuine chocolate shavings. Who would want to eat porridge when all this shiny faire is on offer?

Since moving to California, trawling around grocery stores has become a fave way to kill half an hour or so. Not being the greedy kind, I ~~forcefully~~ try share the joy with everyone silly enough to come and stay with us. Stop 1 - Costco for the Lilliputian feeling that only Costco can give, Stop 2 - Walgreens, Walmart, Safeway (whichever is closest, because, let's face it, I am usually in a frenzy, rushing around, tugging at elbows, pointing & yelling "See, See, isn't it AMAZING?"), Stop 3 - Whole Foods to drag Americas reputation back from the brink.

I think I might gradually release more of my American Supermarket Snapshots (ASS) onto the blog. But for now I feel my blood sugar levels dropping & need to nip off and find a snack to perk me up.

Pignoli - You Are P0wned

2007-04-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

YAH - YIPPEEE YAH! W00t! Huzzah! And all other manner of celebratory noises (that could, if done in relation to the amount of joy I am feeling now, could stretch tirelessly into the next blog entry)

Can you hear those birds singing? Have the clouds just parted? Are these crepuscular rays I see before me?

Or just a jolly large sack made from millions of little stockinette stitches?

The latter I'm afraid. And check out my face - I'm still not looking happy about this bag. I'll throw it in the washing machine in the next few days & it should shrink to a size where it can fit a few university text books (& not the 100 or so refugees that could take up residence there now)

Project details to follow with final photos. Possibly also a great deal of celebratory bells & whistles.

A Minute On The Lips or Pasta, A Visual Odessey

2007-04-20T22:30:00.000-07:00

One of my undeclared birthday gifts (undeclared because I was so embarrassed by the wealth of gifts I received, I couldn't bear to bring it out of the cupboard until after my birthday was over) was a pasta machine. I have yearned for one of these as long as I can remember . We are talking pre-school yearnings. Infact wAAAAAAAy back yearnings of when I was a small girl living next door to a gregarious Melbournian Italian family who made pasta in their garage & squeezed my cheeks each time I peeked around the door. Back that far - yes - the time before Palm Pilots, I yearned for a pasta machine.

Now I have the machine, I will begin yearning for the ability to make great pasta. This might take years & many, many trips to Italy until I perfect it.

For now I have the basics. You take flour & eggs.....

You wallop them until they look roughly like this....

You mangle them through one of these beasts...

And in half an hour or so you have enough to comfortably serve mains sized portions to 4!

You stick them in boiling water ( I will save you from looking at a picture of that!) Then cover them with homemade Creamy Roast Pumpkin pasta sauce. And eat. With a happy smile on your face & a full belly.....

And a LOT of cleaning up to do!

Happy Birthday to Moi

2007-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

It seems fitting that my birthday should occur only days after taking this worryingly old & wrinkly looking photo of me. I'm putting it here anyway - I figure if time is marching all over my face then by next year I will be able to look back fondly upon this picture & say "Geez, check out how young & smooth looking I was then!"

Until then, I will be thinking "Christ - I looked as though I was seriously worried about something then"

This morning's already been ace. Lovely Mr Chrubuky showered me in presents before I'd managed to step one foot out of bed this morning - literally. I got a lurvley card from my mates in London, a couple of knitting books from Kylie, a set of Knit Picks interchangable needles , a gorgeous wooden swift ( to go with my lonely ball winder), a HUGE voucher at a yarn store, a beautiful handmade card from Mr C. that was covered in sheepy alpaca goodliness. Huzzah! and all before I got out of bed.

Now, where is a slice of birthday cake?

Party on Down

2007-04-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last night we had the party for Trish' birthday. It was loosely a margarita themed event (well really just a party, with a bucket load of margaritas on hand!)

It was a grand event with a donkey pinata (oooh, I nearly wrote "placenta" then!), great people & terrific food - & I cant for the life of me work out why I didn't take more pictures :/ The only ones I have are of the food I took -

Gingerbread Cake with Orange Blossom Honey & Creamed Cheese Icing

Pignoli Biscuits

And Trishs' mystery gift. I actually had this bag done before her birthday but thought it would be nice to take something along to the par-tay.

Noni carpet bag (medium size) in Cascade 220, with Noni Spider Chrysanthemum as an embellishment.

All of these turned out much better than I had expected (does that say more about my cooking/making or more about my expectations?) I had great comments about the cake - although they were primarily from my husband, so I'm not sure if they count. People asked for the biscuit recipe & I was happy with the way the bag worked out.

It was the first time I have worked with Cascade 220 yarn & was easy to work with. It was only passed through the wash twice & was not completely felted. I preferred the fabric this way as it was supposed to be a carpet bag I thought it should have some movement in the fabric rather than be solid as it would have been if completely felted.

Here are the recipes for the goodies.

Gingerbread Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup honey
1 cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1 packed tablespoon grated fresh ginger root

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and line the bottom with a piece of baking paper that has been cut to hang over two opposite edges by a couple of inches. This overhang will make removing the cake from the pan clean and simple.

2. Combine the butter, water, molasses, honey and brown sugar in a medium non-reactive saucepan and place over low heat. Stir the mixture frequently until the butter is melted, and all of the ingredients are well blended. Remove from the heat, pour into a large bowl and set aside to cool.

3. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, all-spice and cloves, and set aside. When the molasses mixture feels just warm to the touch, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the milk and stir to combine. Fold the dry ingredients into the batter in four additions. Get as many of the lumps out as you can. Stir in the grated ginger.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the centre of the oven for I 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched and a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then, using the overhang of parchment, lift the cake out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

Serves 10 to 12.

Pignoli Biscuits:

160g/6 ounces almond paste, grated (found at Whole Foods)
100 g/half a cup white sugar
120 g/1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 egg whites
200g/1 1/2 cups of pine nuts
3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of shredded coconut

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with foil; lightly grease foil.
Mix almond paste and granulated sugar in food processor until as mixed as they can be (the almond paste is reluctant to take the sugar). Add confectioners' sugar and 2 egg whites; process until smooth.
Once the mixture is smooth add all of the coconut, then gradually add the flour. Add until the mixture comes together & is the right consistency to mold into balls in the palm of your hands.
Whisk remaining 2 egg whites in small bowl. Place pine nuts on shallow plate. With lightly floured hands roll dough into 1 inch balls. Coat balls in egg whites, shaking off excess, then roll in pine nuts, pressing lightly to stick. Arrange balls on cookie sheets, and flatten slightly to form a 1 1/2 inch round. They will NOT spread during cooking so make them the size that you want the final biscuit to be.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Let stand on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
Eat & enjoy

Yuris Night - World Space Party 2007

2007-04-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we went of to the Yuri's Night celebrations held at nearby NASA. Yuri's night is the annual event, celebrated around the world, to mark the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's momentous space flight on 12th of April 1961. The date also coincides with the anniversary of the first US Shuttle launch in 1981.

I've got to be honest & tell you that I was just stoked to be on the NASA grounds - stuff the party, just get me close to those enormous hangars!!! From the second we went through the security checkpoint I started squealing like a .... well, like a girl. Kynan did a great job of not looking too nervous as I drove the rest of the way while gesticulating madly & screeching repeatedly "Oh My God - Look how large that hangar is! I wonder what was in there?" "Oh, My God, there's an enormous NASA sign!" "Oh My God, they have their own petrol station - do you think we can get petrol here?" Cant take me anywhere really.

I guess the best way to describe the night would be "interesting, space related talks & demos that gradually turned into a dance party as the night went on". There was an interesting talk by Anousheh Ansari - the worlds first female space tourist. She trained with the Russians & spent 8 days on the International Space Station. The video that accompanied her presentation was fascinating.

The Lego Car was completely covered by the time we left

There were all types of aircraft around & a telescope set up so we could look at Saturn. Talk by various NASA engineers on various subjects, heaps of organic food available & warm chai that hit the spot (someone didn't take a jumper because she thought the hangar doors would be closed!), then the music started & it turned into a sort of lead up for Burning Man.

Magic 8 ball sort of glowing Buddha - pop in a coin for your fortune

There was a bloke riding around on a terrific bike he had made out of perspex & wired up himself. And a group of people riding around on bikes with what can only be described as a flexible Hills Hoist covered in Christmas tree lights. Have a look for yourself...

A terrific (but cold) night was had. More photos of the night here if you are interested.

A Quick Diversion For Our Regular Schedule

2007-04-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

Since moaning about "the never ending knitting project of doom"
things have not improved. I have decided that the only way I'll get this finished is to alternate my time with a more challenging one. It's the self bribery that will get me through to the end - "If you do 10 rows of numbing stitches, you can knit a leaf on the cool project". It works for small children & it is working well for me.

After a rocky start (largely, I would like to say, due to instructions that don't make sense to me) I am on my way.

You can see the stems in the first photo don't go where stems usually do. I have fixed it in the second picture.

This is a modification from a baby hat pattern that I thought would make a gorgeous edge to my pinwheel baby blanket. With 5 babies due before the end of the year ( I mean, ones that I know personally) I wanted something that isn't the same as all of the millions of other blankets around.

A Stitch In Time

2007-04-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

will drive you nuts if it part of 10000000000000 gazzilion miles of stockinette stitch.

I have tried to think of ways to explain what kind of knitting terrors I have been going through & the best I can think of is "arrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

May I present Pignoli. A soul destroyingly simple knit from Berroco. It has taken me days longer than it should have to just get this far, because its miles & miles of numbing stockinette (200 rows of 200 or something similar) starts to send me loopy the second I pick it up. I have done nearly everything I can think of to avoid knitting this bag (except clean my room). Even the rapidly encroaching birthday of the intended recipient has done nothing to increase its appeal to me.

I'm not sure what has caused this to become target of my direct & focused hatred. Maybe it is too simple for me (now I am making efforts to learn knew techniques with each new project), maybe it is the shallow 2 week lead time I gave myself, or the pressure of all the other promised (& unfulfilled) knits that came before it. Or the nasty, loosley spun, easily breakable yarn....

Or it could be that I have a perfectly lovely, half completed project waiting in the wings for some love and attention & that each moment with the Pignoli is another moment not spent with my wonderous apple green pinwheel blanket.

Happy Birthday to yarr

2007-04-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today was lovely Trish' birthday & to celebrate we headed out to Sushi Tomi in Mountain View.

She insists she is only 19, but I'm not so sure.

We ate loads & loads of wonderful food - edamame, miso with tempura, crispy salmon skin rolls, Philadelphia rolls (Salmon with creamed cheese) I even threw caution to the wind & has a lunchtime Sapporo!

There were inflatable balloons, silly hats, shiny beads & toys. Just the way a birthday should be.

Happy xth Birthday Trish!!!

If The Cap Fits!

2007-04-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Or should that be BEANIE?

So, those of you who know me well, realise I spend most of my spare time making stuff for people. It is this uncontrollable urge to churn out stuff - I am rarely on time for birthdays, but my friends will get several unexpected surprises during the year. I figure it makes up for it.

With my life of leisure ending shortly I thought it might be time to get a move on with some of the smaller things on my list. So here is yesterdays contribution. Looking like the posing mega star she is, Sarah & her newly warm ears.

If dumpster diving were an Olympic sport

2007-04-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

you'd be talking to the double Gold Medal holder!

As if finding a $100+ Jordana Paige knitting satchel in the bin yesterday wasn't a big enough score (& believe me, that was a score. I was MUCH more excited about that than all the other goodies I bought that day), today I was strolling past the recycling bin in our complex & noticed this....

A veritable mountain of recent (some still in their plastic wrappers) National Geographics dating from early 2004 until the most recent one. What a killer find.

And some of my mates were hoping I would eventually get over this "salvaging" faze. Not a chance.

Yarn Dogs Sale! Weeeeee!!!!!!!!

2007-04-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks I have pondered one of the immortal questions..... "is there ever a time when buying more knitting related good is inappropriate?"

Of course, I am thinking the answer is "no".
Do I still have fingers? Yes siree
Do I still have friends? Hope so
Do I have more than 15 minutes spare a day? At the moment

Then what other answer was there? To put it to the test I went off to the Yarn Dogs "Happy Birthday us - we're 2" sale this morning. I am happy to report, that no matter how much knitting stuff you have, you can always find room for more. Now isn't that a relief.

The stash works out at:

1 Interweave Knits Knitted Gifts mag (amazingly I found the last on in the 40% off bin!)
2. 3 sets of large Crystal Palace DPNS in bamboo
3. A stack of Lambs Pride bulky to whip up a few Kitty pi's
4. Bright green Lambs Pride to whip up a hat for Andrew
5. Mini pompom maker
6. 13 hanks of Noro Kureyon in deep greens & blues. This will be a Lady Eleanor for my mother in law
7. Orange Mission Falls to finish off a birthday pressie for a friend
8. Gorgeous little kits to make felted catnip mice (for cats) & felted squeaky balls (for dogs)
9. Jordana Paige Knitters Satchel bag that I "thrifted" out of a bin. A rubbish bin, that is.

Just sit right back & you'll hear a tale...

2007-03-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

I was shooting about in Los Gatos (lurvely, leafy swanky neighbourhood not too far from Mountain View) the other weekend. Looking for buttons... but I feel you might all need some respite from the "Knitting Adventures of Shona".... And I drove past these outdoor chairs sitting on the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on them. Awesome timing as Mr Chrubuky & I had been lamenting over our budget that very morning. Always one for a bit of bargain hunting, I stopped & grabbed them (well, I stopped, spoke to the lady getting rid of them, then took them)

I stopped by Jo-Anns fabric shop this arvo & picked up this discontinued fabric to cover over the hardcore 80-ness of the chairs. Not the best picture of the fabric - it has hand sketched bontanical pictures on it with the odd panel coloured a dark watermelon pink.

And the balls....we shall not speak their names.

Blog updates

2007-03-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

So - last week I ranted about how much my Flickr badge was shitting me. I have since fixed the problem & now the photos link to the left will take you to a page full of photos organised as sets. "Yahhhhhhh" The crowd goes wild. The sets are slowly being updated - pictures turned to their correct orientation & labeled. As each set is fixed, I will blog a post & let you know. Gives you a chance to go & re-look at ones you thought were awful the first time you looked ;)

I also had a chance to put a non offensive little link to my Amazon Wishlist on the bottom left corner. Ironically, just in time for my birthday! I'd been asked a couple of times if there is anything I wanted & although there is nothing I am desperate for (how many of us really NEED anything these days) this is a list of things I have been keeping for myself for some time. So, if you would otherwise struggle to work out what I might like, struggle no more.

You know it is hard for me to post without putting up a photo. So here it is. Beautiful magnolias are abundant in Mountain View at this time of year.

When Come Back Bring Pie!!!

2007-03-25T17:17:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a house warming dinner with the lovely Pollocks. (See one of them above bring mesmerised by the chicken pie) Things hadn't worked out with our timing up until now & it ended up being a Congrats on being pregnant! (Sarah, not me. You can stop having a heart attack mum) & a celebration of 6 months in our flat dinner. Really it was an excuse to do 2 of the things I love the most - spend hours pouring over cook books followed by hours cooking, & sit around with friends eating & drinking.

The meal was the Chicken & Mushroom pie with tarragon pastry from "Slow Cooking" by Joanne Glynn ... much yummier than it looks. My presentation & photography really need a bit of work.

And desert was a plum crumble, using the basic crumble instructions for a crumble from Donna Hays "Modern Classic 2". The plum substitution was made because I had been pleasantly surprised when I found mounds of ripening plums available at the market that morning. Check out the thick sweet juice that came from the fruit during pre-baking. The colour reminded me of the malabrigo yarn I bought the other week. Similar ,vous ne pensez pas?

Jumper For Joy!

2007-03-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Finally, years after buying the wool, after already being knit into a jumper the size of a small raft, after taking weeks to frog, after many interruptions and many, many knitting projects finished before it, the eternal pink Big Wool from Lincraft has now found it's permanent shape....

Amazingly it is still a little large, but wearable. It's in need of blocking so the garter stitch sits the same length as the ribbed front panels. It is warm & a welcome relief as the evenings are still cool here.

Morning in Los Altos

2007-03-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

This morning is went off to Los Altos to check out Uncommon Threads yarn shop. It one of the last ones I haven't looked at in the local area, so thought it was worth the trip. I got there a bit too early (US shops - or maybe Californian shop - don't usually open before 10am) & was presented with an opportunity to sit at a coffee shop & eat a cupcake. Mmmm, I'm not one to ignore signs from the universe & certainly don't need to be asked twice.

The yarn shop was okay. I believe that it has been around for a lot longer than most of the others that have sprung up during the knitting resurgence of the past couple of years. I've got to be honest & say that I would only use this yarn store in cases of extreme knitting emergencies. They have a reasonable supply of yarns, books & patterns, but their service was lacking. They were really keen at showing me patterns I was interested in looking at, but seemed to get really pissy when I didn't buy the patterns I was looking at. It really put a downer on the experience. The last thing you need is attitude for not purchasing (especially when you had already bought $30 worth of needles)

Huge Birthday Adventure, HUGE Post (Part Two)

2007-03-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

Day Two of Kynans birthday adventures started with presents - what else when it's your 30th birthday? This year he got a tentacle messenger bag from "Knit 2 Together" by Tracey Ullman & Mel Clark, & the complete set of the "Adventures of Tintin".

Now is the time I fess up about where I have been for the last week. I have been busy making this bag in a clandestine fashion. Knitting all day when I should have been going to the gym & staying up late when I really should have been sleeping. The felting was only a success after borrowing a friends washing machine that, amongst other things, could find it in its heart to actually do a really hot load of washing.

After a quick look around Las Vegas in the daylight, we took off to Hoover Dam. This was a fantastic stop over. Hoover Dam sits across the Colorado river on the border of Nevada & Arizona. It is phenomenally large (approx 200m tall, 400m wide & 200m thick at the base) & has an interesting history that is enough to keep you there for a few hours. Included in your entrance fee is a trip down to see one of the sets of turbines & unlimited time in the attached museum. The museum section was full of fantastic info my favourites being the section on how hydroelectricity is generated, the 1:1 scale replica of the inside of a turbine & the stop motion video of the dam going up over the 5 years of construction.

The town of Tusayan, AZ was about 5 hours drive from the dam. It is the last town you come to as you drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is only about 5 miles outside the entrance to the park. We got there just after sunset - which wasn't the plan. Nope. The plan was to drive much faster & get some fab sunset photos. It wasn't in the cards for this trip.
So we booked into the hotel & headed off to find some food. This was Kynans birthday night & we found a great restaurant in Tusayan called "Yipee-ei-o". A steakhouse with large portions, waiters in cowboy garb & a live horse in the car park! We ate rattlesnake - yup - how very cool & American. Rattlesnake, for those who are interested, has no flavour & the texture of badly cooked calamari. Yummo.

The cowboy steak, corn, beans, baked potato & a biscuit (a floury scone).

It was a terrificly memorable way to spend his birthday and worth stopping at if you visit the South Rim.

The next morning we were up at 5am. After missing the sunset there was no way we would miss the sunrise. And it was breathtaking. It was surprisingly uncrowded & surprisingly cold (so the desert beanie got a look in!). As the sun rose the rocks went from orange to an intense ruby grapefruit pink. There was a man there playing a native American flute which gave the experience a spiritual profundity that it would otherwise not have had. I couldn't believe how deep it was & will try & get back there for a longer period of time to really enjoy the experience.

Look how ultra-stupidily excited we look!

The last day of the trip was a mega drive home. 800+ miles & 12 hours of driving punctuated by at stop at Lake Havasu, AZ - home of the original London Bridge. Now doesn't that sound cool? The bridge that Kynan used to cycle over to go to work while we were in London - well, the previous bridge having the same name - sold to an American & relocated to Arizona brick by brick & reassembled. Ohhh - rush me there, it MUST be worth the trip!

Except it wasn't. It really wasn't.

It was sad, sad, sad. Not the bridge exactly. The bridge was lovely & looking very much like other bridges over the Thames (infact, looking much lovelier than the current London Bridge). But the area to one side of the bridge houses the fabulous "London Town" - supposedly a quaint replica of an English town. Fark - what a serious let down. This place makes heavily bombed parts of Iraq look like highly polished urban areas (see the pic below). For Canberrans, it had an air of Canberry Fair. You got the impression that - although never grand - the place used to be a lot busier than it is now. I mean, they used to charge admission & now the ticket office is boarded up. So they don't charge you to look at the fountain with no water, a pub that is boarded up (replaced by a porta-loo & a hot dog stand...ohhh so English), the exquisite bus with bad paint job, smashed windows & deflated tyres, the Hawaiian shaved ice stall & the Gondola ride hut. It was just like being back there....

Dismal. But we needed a toilet stop & to buy some ice. So the trip wasn't a complete waste.

So there you have the story of the long weekend trip. Thanks for hanging in there.

Huge Birthday Adventure, HUGE Post (Part One)

2007-03-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went on a huge driving adventure for Mr Chrubukys 30th Birthday. It was a fab weekend of seeing new & exciting stuff & driving....sooooooo much driving. (As usually happens with anything I organise, it grew beyond all reason... I have been known to take us to a completely different continent just because "We're going to go past it, so I don't see why we can stop off & have a look" )

This is the map of where we went in the 3 days we were away.

The weekend started on Thursday night when I picked up young husband at work & headed off toward Highway 178 (supposedly very scenic as it wends its way through Sequoia National Park. We drove this section in the dark. But I can confirm the roads are incredibly windy. Helpful, aren't I?)

We woke up in Ridgecrest, CA a town that has been constructed to service the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. The weapons station is still one of the main weapons support bases for the US Navy. Amongst many others, the Sidewinder missile was developed & tested there.

~~Interesting~~ Ridgecrest Facts:
- It used to be called "Crumville"
- The bass player form Blink 182 was born there.
- It's about as populated as Yass, NSW & has a intriguing sellection of shops along it main drag.

You can probably tell that there is very little reason to go to Ridgecrest unless you work at the Weapons Station or as flying through on the way to somewhere else. Or if it is Wednesday, & you are in need of some cheap vaccinations.

The next stop was the Trona Pinnacles , a group of 500 tufa (porous rock that feels very similar to pumice) jutting out of the desert floor. These are very remote & really require a 4WD to get to (or an obstinate Subaru driver) as they are at the end of a corrugated 7 mile dirt road. We saw only one other car while we were out there. A couple of dirt bikes rode past at a distance & there were a few flyovers by groups of planes from thew Weapons Station.

Big pumice for a big dry skin problem :)

Northern group of Tufa. There are over 500 in the group in total.

The very hot Mr Chrubuky looking towards the black speck in the middle (the mighty Subaru)

Each time we got out of the car I could hear strange popping noises. Initially we thought it was the car cooling from it's boiling desert state. Later we realised these pops were weapons being tested at the Naval Station. Should really have twigged when the B-2's flying overhead.

Interesting Pinnacles Fact:
- Heaps of movies have been filmed here. Planet of the Apes & Star Trek being examples.

A few hours later we were entering Death Valley. A beautiful, desolate place containing the lowest place in the Northern Hemisphere - Badwater, 86m below sea level. Interestingly, also the location of the highest temperature ever recorded in the USA, 56.7 C (134. F)

Mesquite Sand Dunes - about 50 m maximum depth. Used in the Star Wars movies.

If you have an interest in deserts & or photography, this is a phenomenal place to visit. You could spend a week here alone. There are so many variations in the environment - canyons, dunes, salt lakes, dry lakes, mountains.

The stopover on Friday night was Las Vegas, NV. A place that everyone seems to go to, but after visiting, I'm not sure why. At least, I'm not sure why you would go more than once (unless you were loaded, flew in, stayed at the ritzy hotels & didn't venture out onto the streets) The Strip is a 6 mile loop that takes you past the most modern of the casinos, street side shows, tacky souvenir shops and thousands of people drinking frozen Margaritas.

We ventured into a couple of casinos. We ate buffet dinner (that gave me mild food poisioning) & Mr Chrubuky tried out one of the penny slots with the old fashioned arm on the side that he got to crank down with glee. I took hundreds of pictures of neon (one of my shameless additions), we saw what was loosely called a "show" outside Treasure Island & saw the Mirage volcano erupt. Admittedly, we didn't take in any of the shows as this was very much a budget trip & the ones we would have liked to see started at $100 pp. Maybe Las Vegas would have been different for us if we had done that.

1. Las Vegas, NV 02, 2. Las Vegas, NV 01, 3. Las Vegas, NV 03, 4. Las Vegas, NV 04, 5. Las Vegas, NV 05, 6. Las Vegas, NV 08, 7. Las Vegas, NV 09, 8. Las Vegas, NV 11, 9. Las Vegas, NV 12

1. Las Vegas, NV 20, 2. Las Vegas, NV 19, 3. Las Vegas, NV 18, 4. Las Vegas, NV 14, 5. Las Vegas, NV 22, 6. Las Vegas, NV 15, 7. Las Vegas, NV 16, 8. Nevada Signpost, 9. IMG_2698

Glitzy & tacky at night - but there is enough neon & $1.99 Margaritas to take your mind off it. The next morning, looking around was just depressing. Las Vegas, to me, has a real air of unfulfilled promises. It seemed to be the place where dreams go to die. People shuffling their coins into slot machines like they are hypnotised while outside these grotesque (think Jack Nicholson in Batman) overly comical building fascades glisten in the desert sunshine. We couldn't wait to get out of the place.

Okay - well, that has depressed me & I feel like this could be enough of us for you for the day. I'm sure you have more to do today than read this. I'm off to the gym & will add Part 2 later.

Bang, bang...

2007-03-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

You know it is simply not going to be your day when you take you car down to the mechanic for an issue with the engine & during the day he crashes it into a postal van.

Who's got a Woody?

2007-03-15T17:14:00.000-07:00

I told myself there would be no blogging today, and as usual, I lied. We are heading off for a long weekend away & I am much further behind in packing, cleaning, organising (insert any verb here) than I usually am. I've accidentally washed the car windows with dirty water (?) & it looks like it have driven to Dakar already... I've squandered most of my day trying to get Kynans birthday present ready for packing... I'm getting into a bit of a state, but you really have to see this.

My first real Woodpecker! Doing real pecking!! Oh God, I nearly wet my pants I was so excited to see this. I could hear a hammering noise outside & I thought it was my crazy neighbours who have taken to doing noisy things at odd times of day. So I head out & here is this cheery redhead thumping his head on our neighbours tree. Seriously - this is enough to make me sit in my yard for hours on end. I feel I could be in danger of turning into a weirdo who lurks in the forest with binoculars.

Of secondary excitement (& only included because, even to me, this seems so ridiculous) is my new beanie. Whipped up at 2am this morning so I could take it on our weekend adventure TO THE FRICKEN DESERT!!! Most days I don't understand myself.

Yarn & pattern from Yarn Place in Sunnyvale. A crowded little shop, lacking in the current razzle dazzle of modern stores, but run by the lovliest, most helpful ladies on earth & full of the most fab yarns. Most of them being their own brand.

Vivienne Westwood at de Young

2007-03-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today Trish, Ashwin & I headed up to the de Young to see the Vivienne Westwood exhibition. I missed it when it passed through Canberra 2 or 3 years ago & was gutted (the problem with living somewhere that has so many good exhibitions is that it is too easy to put things off until they aren't on anymore)

It really is a fabulous collection of her designs ranging the full length of her career, from her relationship (professional & personal) with Malcolm McLaren through to present day. By far my favorite piece were the two beaded bodices - with cuts across them like they had been in a duel. Each bodice was intricately covered with thousands on various flesh coloured beads.

Well worth a look if you are interested in fashion & design at all.

Ash struggled with what was his third trip to a gallery/museum in 2 weeks. So we spent a few hours in the gardens there. It was especially funny when the sprinkler went off on him. Not your ordinary sprinklers mind you, high powered arty farty sprinklers that released this think cloud of water vapor about 2 meters high.

And it was only funny because he kept running to this bit of the garden & Trish had to keep going & getting him. Seconds before the sprinklers went off I was saying "Geez, wasn't it a lot easier to control children when you could smack them?" Then the sprinkler went off & there were no more hassles with him running into that corner again :)

Where's George?

2007-03-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I was standing in a queue somewhere &, out of sheer mind numbing boredom, I started to go through my wallet. Look what I found!

A genuine Where's George dollar bill. I'd heard of this scheme that tracks the movement of money around the US, but never seen one. At first I thought it was probably some sort of scam. So I trundled off to Where's George & it ends up that this little fella had come from Wisconsin. Only one other entry was made for this bill (other than mine) & that was in San Mateo, 10 miles up the road or so. I signed up for an account in the hope that some of his next owners will enter something into the database. I'm going to help him on his way & dump him in Nevada, or Arizona on Kynans birthday trip. I'll let you know if I receieve any updates about his whereabouts.

If you're reading this from Canada, you can search for Willy instead. There's not reason for Canadians to be left out of the fun & games.

Flickr Apologies

2007-03-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Doodz - sorry to anyone who has been trying to use the new & exciting link to my Flickr Photo Fest newly installed n the side bar. Recent tests by my fine self have shown me that it is next to useless for ease of navigation. My intention was to have the badge, in all it's morphing glory, send you to the page of all of my photo sets, where you'd be able to peruse our adventures grouped by destination. "Oooh, I'd love to see what they got up to in Vegas" I can hear you all thinking..... eagerly clicking on the little banner to the side... & WALLOP!!! you arrive at Destination "Where The Fuck Am I?" My initial investigations have found that Flickr discourage this kind of use of their badge. They would like each little picture to link directly to that picture alone. No links to sets or groups allowed. Needless to say really, but I'll have to sort this out. It will take me some time to work out how I want it to work & then to get the time to sit & sort it out. I'll let you know when this is at a navigable stage again.

I'll leave you with a lurvley picture of spring in mountain View, CA. (Which, incase you're interested, came on with the same sort of urgency that winter arrived. One night it was flannel jammies, the next we were shoving the duvet back into the cupboard for the rest of the year)

Some yarns are worth going to prison for...

2007-03-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

but not rainbow acrylic!

One very cool thing I found out on our recent trip to Alcatraz was that the inmates were allowed to buy knitting & crocheting supplies at the store. One of the inmates had been taught by a female relative & used it as a way of using his time to avoid going berserk. Others soon got into this coolio set of crafts & away they went, buying supplies & knitting/crocheting away. Apparently these men, although not the sharpest tools in the shed, were smart enough to know a good thing when they saw it. From checking my daily blogroll I could probably point to a few peeps who wouldn't mind being removed from their families & locked in a place of infinite yarn for a few months. Although we'd also be needing an infinite supply of Haagan Dazs, Malabrigo & Johnny Depp movies to boot.

Mmmm, $11 for shitty acrylic... at that price they could have had decent yarn.

Facelift!

2007-02-28T11:27:00.001-08:00

There have been a few nights this past week when I haven't made it to bed until 4am or so. Usually this indicates that there has been a shipment of Alias dvds turn up from Netflix. This time, I was not quite so sad.

If you come here regularly, you will have noticed the face lift that has occurred. I've wanted to do this for so long now & am pretty happy with the results. (It could be better, but why carry on about your weaknesses?) The transformation was done in GIMP, the Open Source, freely available image manipulation software. I really cant say enough good stuff about GIMP since it helped me move from this old header -

To the one you see today. I think it was well worth losing a few hours sleep over :)

I have been using the fabulous book "Beginning GIMP" by Akkana Peck, to learn enough to jazzy up this blog. This terrific book seems to be the best out there in terms of comprehensiveness & usability. I have such a small amount of experience with imagine manipulation programs, all in the photography realm, & this book helped me apply my knowledge to this illustration, of sorts.

If you've wanted to do experiment with this sort of stuff but not known where to start, you could do alot worse that grabbing the book, installing the software & grabbing hold of your mouse. You don't need any more than that to start (besides the computer, which I am assuming you have in front of you)

Sony Commercial - only a year late

2007-02-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Oooh my neck is stiff. Could it be that while I have been living under a rock for the past year I damaged myself?

Don't ask me how a woman who spends, conservatively, 8 hours a day looking about the Internet, managed to miss this. This fabulous, fabulous thing.

This Sony Bravia commercial came out - too long ago to talk about. I think I found it when I was hunting about on Youtube for some San Francisco vids. It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Honestly. No really, I'm not joking. 250,000 bouncy balls, in slow motion, dancing down the streets of San Francisco & you have childlike visual wonder. Add the Swedish guitarist Jose Gonzalez to the mixture & you have perfection.

I have watched the long, hi def, version of this ad maybe 20 times now & it doesn't get old. You've just got to see it. And ,if you have time, watch the 7 minute "making of" clip. It is amazing to see how this was done in reality. No CGI, just dump trucks, hills & bouncy balls. Superb.

NOTE: For those who loved this ad as much as me, you might want to check out the newish one. Sony Bravia have also done an exploding paint commercial. This one set in Glasgow & just as amazing to see how it was orchestrated. More grand that "Balls", but not as beautiful to me. I guess I'm just a Balls kinds girl.

Huge Weekend of Sightseeing

2007-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

My friend Henrik arrived from the UK late Friday evening. That was cool, our first UK visitor since we arrived. He was only around for 2 days & we tried to pack as much as we could into them. Unfortunately, the weather was shit-house - by far the worst weather we have had this winter - with holes in the clouds opening for only minutes. So there was a lot of driving & darting indoors.

And, did I mention the metric crapload of sushi that was eaten?

Smashwin The Destroyer & His Trail Of Eggy Destruction

2007-02-22T23:05:00.000-08:00

Today was the knitting day of days in the Valley-o. Stitches West came to town & appeared at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Here is the proof.

So, what's an obsessive knitter type to do but gather up her knitting posse, head out there & line up!

Notice a stunning lack of handknitted goods being worn!

And, man, am I glad that A) I went at all, because this was the knitting version of a XXX shop for a pervert, & B) That I had a friend visiting from out of town for the rest of the weekend, or I would have been out there spending more money than credit cards should allow.

Unfortunately there are no pics from inside the event as photography was not allowed. I'm not really sure why & I'm not sure if this was a recent decision as I'm sure I've seen photos from previous years. Either way - it would have just been hundreds (nay, thousands!) of pics of yarn... so consider yourself lucky.

The fiscal damage was minimal for all of our group. I spent less than $100 on entry, lunch, a handful of patterns, bag of shibori balls (makes you think of the XXX reference, hey?) & a skein of Alchemy Haiku. And a nice little surprise of a free hold-all in a brown fabric covered with bright little birds! It all sounds so wonderful. I wonder why I didn't take any pictures of my haul?

Luckily there was a reasonable selection of lunch items to purchase - because with all the excitement & not sleeping properly the night before, I forgot to take the essentials with me.

Smashwin was overjoyed with his ever so yummy boiled egg lunch. He loved it so much he thought he'd share it with all the other knitters sitting beside us, some (previously) maroon upholstered chairs & a fair portion of the floor. Even a Destroyer needs refueling before looking at (or eating, rumaging, sucking on, displacing) yarn. I'm wondering if there is any way this boy could possibly avoid ending up a knitter?

Look carefully at the amount of booty we have managed to cram onto the back of that stroller.
Any more & it may have developed a gravitational pull of its own.

Really 6 hours was enough. I'm sure if you've been to one of these things you have worked out a plan to navigate the hundreds of stalls & thousands of balls of yarn (not to mention the thousands of dollars you would have saved up before the event & the team of Scandinavian yarn lifters you would have trained to constantly move your stream of goods to your vehicle for you). But I really wasn't that organised & I had no plans & no support team. I was like a Fiat 500 attempting to race in a Grand Prix. A sad amateur in the face of hardened knitting veterans. And with my attention darting to a new thing every 15 seconds, I was exhausted. Soooooo exhausted.

I am going into training for next year. Saving money already, developing arm strength for carrying & barging, & possibly, quite possibly will end up owning more than one of those grandmotherly wire trolley baskets. Bring on Stitches 2008!

24 Hours on Craigslist Screening

2007-02-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

I think the coolest thing about having a partner working at Google is that occasionally there are things that members of the public can attend. Sometimes these are nerdly related things - like the Open Source talk given by Bram Molenaar (creator of VIM) last week - & sometimes they are more interesting to the general public.

Last night there was a public screening of the independent movie "24 Hours on Craigslist". I had never heard of Craigslist before coming to the US, but within days of arriving we had it suggested as the easiest way to get ourselves sorted for accommodation, transport, bookshelves, you name it. It's is effectively an on line classifieds site, created in 1995 - sorted by region & available to hundreds of cities worldwide.We bought our car off the site.... & I have to admit to an "ebayesque" kind of obsession with the site for a while there. Dangerous, oh, so dangerous.

The movie (or documentary) was a snapshot of activity that goes on on Craigslist.org during a 24 hours period of time (hence the snappy & informative title). The film makers contacted a group of people that advertised within a 24 hour period of time & then followed their stories to see where they would go. What resulted was an addictive look into the lives of some strangers - a redheaded family after a redheaded dog, a mum selling 6 of her 7 strollers, a frightening little man advertising for participants in a sex party. It all boils down to a very watchable, & often hilarious, look into the lives of others.

For those in the US, "24 Hours on Craigslist" is available for hire on Netflix

Happy Mardi Gras Day

2007-02-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

I went out to dinner this evening & was surprised to find the table littered with gold, purple & green crowns & babies. If you wouldn't have been, then you are a seasoned Mardi Gras Day celebrator. If, like me, you were busy arranging the babies into rude positions while scratching your head & wondering just why naked little babies are part of Mardi Gras celebrations, this is the site for you.

So stick on your beads, go find a king or queen & enjoy yourself on Mardi Gras Day!

Sunday, Bloody (great) Sunday!

2007-02-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

The second day of this weeks long weekend & we went off to Hakone Gardens in lovely Saratoga. Neither of us had been to Saratoga before & it's such an attractive little town. There is easily enough there to amuse for for half a day or so - antique shops & cafes etc .

I've got to give dues to Trish for this one. The other day she mentioned that Da Peaches were off to the gardens because they thought it might be nice this time of year. When I couldn't come up with anything to do nearby, I stole her idea & we drove off to Saratoga. I've got to be honest, there must be much nicer times to visit this garden. Winter was probably not the best choice as it appears that most of the trees we have seen blossoming out in the streets are not cherry blossoms! (hmmm, that didn't twig until we got there & all the trees in the garden were bare with the exception of the flowering cherry below).

Still, this breathtaking cherry is worth the $4 entrance fee alone. The branches stretched out about 1.5mtrs from the trunk & then dropped vertically. The flowers grew directly from the branches & it created this beautiful pink floral umbrella.

And the bamboo forest was lovely as well. As long as the signs (posted every meter or so) warning of the tick infestation, didn't put you off.

After that we decided to go & try our chances at getting Jonathan Coulton tickets. He was playing at a small venue, Cafe Du Nord, & we had found out about the show after all the allocated seats were already sold. That crushing blow was lessened by the temptation of 15 tickets being available at the door - so we got there 2 hours early & waited. Right at the front of the line. And it was SO worth the wait. Oh yes.

Mark Silverman (crap website, probably not worth visiting) was the support act & he was actually pretty funny. More crass & less able to arouse pathos in a listener (probably because he doesn't try to) he was still a great lead up to the show.

Jonathan Coulton's set list for the evening was:

Mr. Fancy Pants
Skullcrusher Mountain
Betty and Me
A Talk with George
The Future Soon
Millionaire Girlfriend
Creepy Doll
I’m Your Moon
Chiron Beta Prime
First of May
Code Monkey
You Ruined Everything
Re Your Brains
Mandelbrot Set

Encore:
Tom Cruise Crazy
I Feel Fantastic
I Hate California

Second Encore:
Ikea
Womb with a View

Here is Kynan looking super happy to meet the man (& also, like he has his laser beam eye balls activated) & JC looking totally knackered ( as it was about 4am NY time by the time the show was over).

A few words of advice for those considering attending a show at this venue: unless you book for dinner (& not just for a seat) you aren't going to be able to see anything at all. It would just be a huge disappointment & a waste of your time. (Infact there are people who walked out during the support act because they knew the show would suck from the back) The front of the venue is packed with dinner tables, then there are some half drawn velvet curtains & then stools on which the plebs sit. Behind the plebs are the people who get to stand all evening. If you are lucky enough to get in the dinner section (which, by some small miracle, we were), then you have an intimate concert experience. Otherwise I'd seriously suggest giving it a miss.

And - go & listen to Mr Coulton if you have never had the joy. He's an ex-software developer from NY, who sings about robots, zombies & evil geniuses. He gave up his job to entertain us. (Sound familiar?) So go & buy a cd or 2.

Give it up for Washington

2007-02-17T23:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend is a long one here in the US. It is non officially called Presidents Day long weekend, or officially Washingtons Birthday. No one can make their mind up & various states call this holiday by a different name. The only thing common is that we all get Monday as a holiday (if we usually work, that is)

It is worth noting that this would be an excellent way to illustrate just how stupid it is to have state based designations for things (including public holiday) I mean, can you imagine how ridiculous it would be for NSW & VIC to celebrate Australia Day on different dates & call it different names? Or Kent & the Midlands doing the same with Boxing Day?

Okay, deep breaths. The most important thing is that there is a long weekend & we have chosen to use it wisely. We went off to Monterey to visit the Aquarium. Monterey is surprisingly close to where we live being only an hour & a halfs drive away. That's nothing compared to the line to get into the Aquarium itself!

It was alot more interesting than I had expected it to be. Most of the people I had spoken to about it had been in the middle of school holidays or just not seemed terribly excited by the place. So I was stoked to find it full of jellyfish & anemones - my most favourite sea things.
Unfortunately, my most favourite sea things are a little hard to photograph. These are the best photos from the day.

French Jewellery Exhibition

2007-02-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today Trish, Ashwin & I trundled of to the Legion of Honor (or the "CA Legion of the Palace O" as our misguided Garmin GPS unit Karen kept referring to it as) to see the newly opened "Masterpieces of French Jewelry" exhibition. The exhibition was reasonably interesting with, as usual, the majority of the most beautiful pieces being used in the advertising. It was also sightly misleadingly labeled, as the complete title of the exhibition was "Masterpieces of French Jewelry from American Collections". The only place this is mentioned is on the enormous billboard as you walk into the exhibition room itself. This is AFTER you have paid to see it. Not that this would have stopped me wanting to go, but I guess my expectations would have been slightly lowered.

Regardless, we had a great time. Trish got to drink Fufu Berry Juice (cunningly labeled creaming soda), Ashwin ate chips off the ground & I snaffled my way through a chicken caesar salad.

After lunch we decided to hunt down Imagiknit, a San Franciscan knitting institution that none of us had been to before. After a hell of a lot of demented driving (sorry guys!) we found a car spot that wasn't on a road at a 45 degree angle. Yah for San Francisco & it's hills....

And inside, a cleverly organised mecca of yarn in all it's glory. Just looks at how excited Trish was - & that was only the first half of the first room!

And I was so excited I could barely hold the camera still. Oh, how embarrassing is the public love of yarn.....

Photos NOT taken that day: gorgeous green yarn (picked by the youngest member of our yarn hunting team) that Trish will turn into a hoodie for Ashwin, beautiful whippet that lives in the store, fab-o apricot oatcake bought at coffee shop next door.

It's Valentines Day, Y'all!

2007-02-14T17:08:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day has been pretty hard to ignore this year. It seems a really big deal compared to Australia & a MUCH bigger deal than the UK where there was barely a mention of it.
Temporary "last minute" Valentines shops have sprung up in car parks all around Mountain View (photos to come tomorrow, if I can bring myself to go into one to take a pic) - just incase you forgot to get yourself a love ninja in time for the big day. Thank God, because Valentines Day without a big 'ol smack down from a love ninja is just not Valentines Day!

Happy returns to you all.

Feeling....errr, not so groovy

2007-02-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Kynan & I have been crook for days. He was feeling off colour last weekend & then (when he decided to go on the Google Ski Trip without me) God smote him & sent him back with a MUCH worse case of the flu. God clearly wasn't thinking as this effected me as well & had me in bed for 4 days straight.

The bright side of the smiting & retribution, is that I have managed to pack in a massive load of guilt free knitting.

Green Irish Hiking Scarf Sunday AM......

Sunday PM, green scarf finished & blue scarf on it's way...

Now, will someone pass me another box of tissues?

A couple of hours with my Brother

2007-02-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

When we first moved to America I knew I wanted to get a sewing machine. Learning to sew has been something on my annual "not resolutions, just some things I would like to accomplish" list. I jumped onto Amazon.com as soon as we got here & ordered the cheapest the machine that most suited my needs.

I unpacked it last night - yes, 5 months after it arrived - & got down to getting to know my Brother 2600i.

To be honest, I don't think I could deal with a machine with many more features than this one has. I learnt on an ancient hand-me-down from my mum (& it was probably handed down to her too) & this is a comfortable jump up. It even does button holes!!! ...now I just need to learn how to do them ;)

And here are the results of a couple of hours with my Brother (notice how much of a distance I took them from!). Two knitting needle rolls (that are ear-marked as gifts). I managed them okay, but anyone good at sewing would spot the glaring errors in my construction of the pieces. I've decided that I will try & stretch myself each time I make something new. I have already started this with my knitting (and now I can cable, seam correctly & cast-on in multiple ways). So my next project is a quilt. Planning is in progress for this one. It's going to be quite a challenge for someone who struggles to sew straight for more than 5cms!

Love - thy name is Mission Falls

2007-02-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

The other day, as a reward for passing my oh so easy driving test (who needs to go through serious adversity before rewarding themselves, hey?) I dropped into a new yarn store in Los Gatos called Yarn Dogs.

Cool number plate of Yarndogs owner

It's a relatively small shop compared to the San Jose knitting nirvana, Communknity, but still manages to have a similar funky, welcoming vibe to it. Aside form being home to a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles called Otis, it is also one of the only local places stocking every colour - yes, EVERY COLOUR! - of Mission Falls 1824 superwash wool.

It is probably inconceivable to a non-knitter (or Muggle, as the Harlot likes to refer to them as) but it is entirely possible to want to have babies with the right yarn - & this, my friends, is soooooo the right yarn. It is velvety to the touch (something not often though of when referring to pure wool), comes in an extraordinary range of nature inspired, muted colours (so you are less likely to feel like a dick in your "fashion colour" cardy in a couple of years) & it is SUPERWASH. Weeeeeeee! This is good news on 2 fronts. 1) Receivers of "knitted goods of pure delight" will be able to chuck this in the washing machine. Saving them hours of hand washing & drying flat. 2) The creator of "knitted goods of pure delight" will not have occasion to bite lip until bleeding when receiver destroys expensive gift because they couldn't be arsed with the washing instructions. A double win. And we like those.

Oh - the other supernatural point to make about this yarn (I am having trouble believing that one little ball of wool can have so many good points) is that it is $6.45 a ball.

I'll leave you with some pics of the yarn that has stolen my heart. "Loooooving yoooou, is easy 'cause you're beautiful...."

Off to the Symphony

2007-02-08T23:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight Kynan & I went up to San Francisco to go to the Symphony. We did this often in London as we were a brisk 10 minute ride from the home of the L.S.O. This was the first night we have been to hear live music since arriving in the US. It's been a while since we went anywhere but Mountain View & it was fab to get dressed up & head off like civilised peeps.

The concert was at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, the home of the San Francisco Symphony. It's a much more stunning building than this picture shows - a glassy cylinder all golden sparkling. Gorgeous.

The concert hall is also one of the more interestingly designed ones I have seen. The shiny perspex panels you can see in the picture below are raised & lowered according to each piece played & it's sound requirements. Gives you something to watch instead of racing off to purchase ridiculously overpriced drinks.

Snap I snapped just before being informed that photography isn't permitted in the hall.

The program was fab as well. A tribute to light summery Frenchness in all it's glory (or so they say). The Sorcerers Apprentice was a added bonus as it's one of Kynans favourite classical pieces & (due largely to the fact neither of us read the program) we didn't realise it was being performed until the intermission!

Berlioz: Les Nuits d'ete
Debussy: Nocturnes (with Susan Graham the mezzo-soprano)
Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Crafty Sistas

2007-02-07T22:36:00.000-08:00

Since coming to Mountain View ( & with a little assistance from the US Department of Immigration) I have developed a lifestyle that includes a HELL of alot of spare time. I think this is fabulous (although our bank manager might not agree) & have been able to start a heap of crafty projects that have been on my mind for ages. I have done more knitting than I expected (although, amazingly, none of it has been for me yet) & have even become organised enough to be - wait for it - PLANNING birthday & Christmas presents for 2007!!! I know. A system breathtaking in its simplicity, but yet in the previous 30 years of my life, amazingly difficult to action.

Anyway, it seems there are a handful of other such fortunate individuals in town & I am lucky enough to spend a couple of days a week at coffee shops, art gallerys or crafty womens houses chatting & making. We dont always get down to the same activity & this weeks was a fine example. Lousie & Dina scrapbooked while I toiled away on the needles.

Dina has been wanting to learn to knit & this is stupendously exciting as I think everyone should knit - absolutely EVERYONE. I'm betting this would make the world would be a much lovelier place. So I'm goign to try & teach her some of the basics of knitting & as a means of bartering, I got to go & learn how to make some seriously delicious Indian Veg food. yummo!

All Dinas work - Aloo Parathas & Brinjal. My parathas were half as big & hexagonal?!?

I can drive legally now!

2007-02-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

I had my driving test today - there is nothing I love more, I mean NOTHING, than going to the DMV at Los Gatos. It was a sad occasion. I couldn't stop thinking about how, from this day onwards, I would have no reason to go & fight with the staff over my immigration status. Until now, that sort of interaction has been keeping me going, keeping the fire in my belly. I live for confrontation.

Brushing the tears aside, it was all very simple. The most annoying thing was that they were running an hour late (due to one of the testing staff going for a coffee & never coming back. Having been in that office I can understand why). No big deal. It left me, my knitting & the Foo Fighters to catch up on some quality time in the car park. Having knitting with you means never having to be angry about waiting in queues again :)

For those about to take the California practical drivers test, please note: the most difficult thing you will be asked to do (apart from the obvious necessities of being able to drive your car & avoid crashing) is reverse backward for about 20 meters. That's pretty much it. Hmmm, oh, & know the hand signals. But that really is it. Really.

I got marked down twice for the same thing - but I guessed by the laughter coming from the instructor at the end of my test when she said "Of course, you passed", that these were insignificant things. And the were. I didn't look down 2 side streets for long enough. Fair enough. I get the impression they are reluctant to give anyone full marks lest it give them an enormous confidence boost that ends up with pedestrians being hospitalised.

So, the Subie & I are now in an official kind of relationship together, rather than the illicit kind of thing we had going on earlier. I doubt whether MOTH (Man of the house) will mind. He's open minded in this sort of area.

Here is my chariot on our semi recent trip beyond the High Sierras.

And, if it weren't raining, I would have taken pictures of Los Gatos for you. It really is the most lovely town centre (not the bit that the DMV is in, the bit they hide from the tourists). Well, I have to save something for another day, dont I?

NOTE: It has since been pointed out to me that it is an entirely American trait to hate the DMV. That it is instilled in American youth & the feeling only grows stronger over the years.This has made me realise I am assimilating alot more succesfully the I first thought. Yah for me.

Queen Mary is the huge one, not Princess Mary!

2007-02-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Today we trundled of to San Francisco with our friends Sarah & Andrew (One of their Australian mates came along for the day, but as I have only met him once, his name escapes me. It takes three meetings usually, before I have a handle on new names - he might have been Dave, or John. Whatever.) The initial idea was to go & ensconce ourselves in a bar & watch the Superbowl, after a bowl of hearty clam chowder down at Fishermans Wharf. You know, participate in an American ritual & drink a beer or two. We got the food bit right - a lovely, creamy clam chowder (which our lactose intolerant mate chowed down ignoring all possible consequences) at the fab-o Boudin Bakery. Kynan went for the chilli bowl as he is a friend to those who live in the sea. He assured me it was lovely & completely devoid of any marine flavour.

So here were the problems - 1) Sarah & Andrew had seen the Superbowl last year & so had already been through this experience. 2) Kynan, being the ethically sound individual that he is, was not keen on watching something that is elongated with the express intention of pumping more adverts into the cosmos. 3) None of us understand, or particularly like football. 4) Five hours (with 50 ads - YES 50!) is a bloody long time to waste watching something to dont really want to watch. Derrr. Sarah had found out about the Queen Mary 2 arriving at San Francisco Harbour that afternoon. It was a pretty big deal & had the San Francisco press buzzing as it was the largest ship to enter the habour in shipping history. (Go here to see & hear it in all it's 1980's dodgy wedding video glory) Besides, it was much nicer to sit by the Bay, chat & wait for the Queen. Even if she was an hour late.

Queen Mary 2 in front of Alcatraz ( & surrounded by normal sized sailboats)

And I finished a scarf. Yah for me. No photos as the scarf is a gift. I'll post then later. You'll just have to wait. Another Irish Hiking Scarf enters the world. I suspect her new owner has long since stopped checking to see if I have updated my blog - so here she is in her pink gorgeousness. She is made from Debbie Bliss Alpaca silk DK knitted with a merino mohair whose name escapes me. She is deliciously fluffy & not at all scratchy. I'm thinking of cranking one of these out for myself in tangerine (my colour choice de jour)

New Family Member

2007-02-01T01:21:00.000-08:00

Today I took delivery of a new family member - my Canon IXY Digital 800IS. She is just lovely (& a hell of alot more portable than it's older sister the Canon 300D) Granted, the 300D is a vastly superior camera in all respects (bar the fact you need an industrial sized trailer or pec muscles like Arnie to lug her about the place) but I feel like there is a place in my life for both.

So I am expecting that the little 800IS will be the primary contributor to the blog in the future. I will still use the other camera for big trips or arty farty photos. But for blogging, 800IS (who needs a much snazzier name than that) will do perfectly well.

Here we are, getting to know each other in my little courtyard.

My Header is back!

2006-12-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

With an additional fullstop. It took me hours to find & renew my header. I haven't messed around with the html code on Blogger since I set the thing up - amazing how quick knowledge seeps out of my head. When I have a spare half an hour I will try & remove this temporary fullstop, but for now, he is our visiting little friend. I'm also thinking of drawing a completely new header - I have a few ideas, so might even make a couple that I can rotate.

I spent this Saturday up in Richmond doing a couple of courses at the Nova Studio. It's a place run by Lori Nova - a soap/natural body products haven. I went to to learn how to make soy wax candles (you wouldn't believe how much crap you breath in burning "normal" parafin candles) & later that day learnt how to make 3 different types of Body Butters. Both were really great courses & I will try & make some products to share around after Christmas. Especially the lemon & poppy seed salt scrub & orange blossom candles.

Since it is well & truely the Christmas Season (or Holidays Season as they more politically correctly call it here) the picture below is from The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. It is the most beautiful place to stay (or drop in for a hot chocolate as we did) & they have the most exquisite decorations around the place. Well worth a stay for a special occassion - the price tag excludes anything else.

I'm baaaaaack!

2006-12-06T14:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a bloody long time since I sat down to add a new blog post. Thanks for bothering to keep checking; settling in has taken longer than I expected.

Today I have been packing & sending Christmas gifts. I'm only half way through & sick of it already. When I was picking up all of these little knick-knacks I didnt think about the days it would take to wrap them all! You'd better like then when they turn up at your place :)

In the next few days I will be back blogging as much as I can remember. Our sea shipment turned up from London last week so I have a stack of photos to put up too. It should be good fun going through them all. To keep you interested, I will shove a picture in of me at our local supermarket/wholesaler (Costco). There things come in 2 sizes - enormous & bloody ridiculous. Welcome to my adventures in California!

I have been tagged (or More Than You Needed To Know About Me)

2006-07-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

4 jobs I have had: Au Pair (in Greece), Masseuse, Flute teacher, Unix Sys Admin

4 movies I could watch over and over: Lost In Translation, The Castle, Bridget Jone's Diary, Breakfast At Tiffanys

4 places I have lived: Melbourne, Canberra, Greece, London

4 TV shows I love to watch: Gilmore Girls, MASH, Greys Anatomy, My Name Is Earl & House MD( I know it's 5, but I just couldn't cull any of them)

4 places I have been on vacation: Egypt, The Netherlands, South Korea & Thailand

4 websites I visit each day: Google, Ebay (how sad), Knitters Review Forum & Fred Miranda (photography website)

4 favorite foods: Thai, Turkish, pumpkin (in any form) & Ikea meatballs

4 places I would rather be right now: Normally I would say nowhere, but I have the shits with London because someone stole my bike seat AGAIN today. So I would be happy in - Greece, on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, anywhere in the South Pacific or the Bay Area of California

4 favorite bands: Something For Kate, Powderfinger, Shihad, Crowded House (Go Aus/kiwi music!)

4 people I am tagging: ~~No one. The only person who reads this & has a blog was the fabulous Sarah & she tagged me!~~
Correction: Kylie has now dobbed herself in! Yah for Kyles :)

W00t!

2006-07-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

My fabulous boyfriend has just been through one of the toughest ordeals of his working life - an 8 month long interview process with Google. He was informed late last night that they wish to make him an offer. It is just an electronic offer at this stage & I'm sure there will be alot of holding of breath until the signed copy is firmly in the hands of the HR folk in Mountain View, CA. All major celebrations will be off until then, but in the meantime we are quietly incredibly happy.

It goes without saying (especially to those who know him) that we are not at all surprised that a company renowned for employing the brightest, most keen IT professionals on the planet would consider him. He isn't the smartest guy on the planet, but he is usually the most intrigued & eager to learn in the room. I have been lucky enough to work in the same team as him & he has always held the mantel of "guy who will know about just about anything (or be able to find out in lighting time), even though he doesn't work in that area".

Finally there is a employer who sees in Kynan exactly what we have known for years. That you pretty much couldn't find a more approachable, helpful & interested guy if you tried - & I am so very proud of him.

Saying all of that, the unbelievable thing is that nearly everyone who has been involved in the interview process has exhibited the same traits. There have been a phenonimal group of people who have helped Kyn through this. Andrew Pollock has been an incredible support. I think it is fair to say Kynan will spend a reasonable amount of time trying to make this up to him when we finally get to California! His recuiter, Debbie, has also been more than professional & has helped answer all questions asked (multiple emails, on the same day, multiple times!), and all of the inspiring & enthusiastic people he has met along the way. They made the interview process alone an incredibly valuable experience.

(Excuse the crazy emotionality, I had 2 hours of sleep last night!)

Oh I Do Love To Be Beside The Seaside

2006-07-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went off to a little town called Frinton-on-sea. More commonly just called Frinton. We'd had enough of the hustle of London - the constant noise & pushing to get everywhere. We bunked off work early in Friday, chucked our bikes ont he train & in less than an hour we were at the coast.

Frinton is on the east coast - the MUCH less popular part ofthe British coast. If it is crowds you are after, head south, south-west. If you want to go to a small, friendly place that only opened it's first pub in 1991, then head for Frinton!

I've got to say, the Frinton experience was slightly reminicent of Faulty Towers. We arrived, to find out B&B empty. The cleaner let us in & we bumped around the place until we were sure no one was there. We accepted a parcel on the owners behalf, then we locked the place & headed down to the beach. We had to call the B&B to let them know we had arrived (at the time we had told them the day before) & that we had headed for the beach.

It was lovely to swim in the sea. The weather (on Friday) was perfect & Kynan looked so happy after over a year away from water. He is a real piecies & whenever we are near the sea he finds it so hard to drag himself out of it.

We went for al lovely bike ride up to Walton-on Naze (or The Naze) as they call it. It was really windy & I was fooled into thinking it wasn't hot. I ended up as red as a tomato & very tender that afternoon. Thankfully, there are no photos of that :)

Not much else to say about Frinton. It's essentially one street, filled will resturants that serve good old fashioned British food ( & yes, that is actually very tasty indeed) & friendly people who say good morning to you as you pass it the street. It was refreshing after a year of not leaving London. It's had started to seem like everyone in Britain was a rude & self-interested. But not so.

Little beach huts dot the shores of the English coast - often multiple rows at one time! We saw many of them for sale. £10,000 seemed to be the going rate for a second or thrid row hut. £16,000 was the most expensive I saw. Going to the coast in the UK is a very different coastal experience to that in Australia.

Jet Lis Final Film

2006-06-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

We went off tonight to see "Fearless", the supposed last martial arts film that Jet Li will make. And what a corker of a way to go out. The film is the story of Huo Juanjia, a great martial arts student who used Wushu to bring pride back to the Chinese people after it is invaded by westerners. The film has a deep moral vein as well as phenomenal fight scence & beautiful cinematography.

Dont get me wrong, as is usualy with martial arts movies there were certainly some "What The?" moments, but the depth of the story & the beautiful scenery made me glance over those confused moments. For my money, this was the best film I have seen of Jet Lis & it was definately a good choice, if going out on a high note was his intention.

Concert Two For The Week

2006-06-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went off to see Death Cab For Cutie play at Brixton Academy. I was thinking it was going to be a pretty cruisy concert as their music strikes me as being pretty laided back & very lyric focused. Was I wrong... Death Cab kicked arse live. I thought I was going to go deaf! The lead singer, Ben Gibbard, was possessed at the get go. He ran from keyboards, to mic, to drums, guitar, then the bas & back again. Ontop of all of this, having a very quirky & likable voice. Death Cab, from what I can tell, is basically a vehicle for his enourmous talent (although the drummer also seemed pretty amazing). At one stage, while Ben Gibbard was on singing with a guitar, a roadie came on stage & assembled another drum kit in front of the existing drum kit. Over runs * for a bit of simulataneous drum action!

As fabulous as they were, I dont think I'll be rushing to see them live any time soon. For me, the great thing about their songs is the clever lyrics & the stories they tell. This was indistiguishable from all the rocking going on on stage. If you didn't know the lyrics to the songs by the time you got there, you had no chance at the concert.

Get to see them if you want a high energy night out. Buy their albums (particularly Transatlantasism & Plans) if you want to get to kniow their music.

More interview news

2006-06-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Kynan is one step closer in the interview process with no end. Today has was presented to the Hiring Board & their recommendation was to hire him.

Hold off on the hoots & hollers of excitement, because all this seems to mean is that he has to supply references & academic records before he gets presented to the Executive Hiring Board. If all the information gets back to them by Thursday, he will be presented at this weeks Executive Hiring Board meeting. We *MAY* hear something by the end of the week.

Holy hell. I have never heard of such a laborious hiring process before. All I can think of is that patience must be one of the top qualities they are after in an employee. Will keep you posted.

Lior at The Spitz

2006-06-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went down to Spitalfield Markets to see Syndey singer/songwritter Lior. Apart from having the daily markets, there are also bars & resturants around the edges. One of them being The Spitz. The venue was really initimate (bloody tiny) & so the furthest away from him that you could be would have been about 4 meters.

The show was a cracker. He has an incredibly beautiful voice that was even more beautiful live than it was on his cd. He ended the night off by singing a prayer in Hebrew (Lior is of Isreali descent) that was chilling & ethereal. It bought the crowd to silence.

His album "Autumn Flow" is worth a listen, if you haven't alreday bought it. It's cruisey, melodic acoustic guitar accompanied by one of the most sincere, unique voices you will hear.

Summertime

2006-06-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things that is most wonderful about summer is the magnificent sunsets. This was the view from our balcony tonight.

It was tough settling in when we came to London - largely due to my knee injury & that fact I couldn't really get around to meet people & see things. Now I have a fab job (well, okay, an okay job )with fab workmates & a group of fantastic friends. It's a place that has suckered me in & I am head over heels for the place. Filthy street, rude kids, hoodies, chavs & all. And that says quite alot.

With Only One Wheel

2006-06-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Kynan has really improved on his unicycle. He can now toil around without grabbing onto every stationary thing. He has also improved the number of times he has ripped skin off his shins or calves. We went for a walk the other night & he made it allt he way around the park. It's just like normal bike riding, except it is much slower & you cant be stationary for even a split second.

Feeling Groovy

2006-06-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty lazy day after yesterdays mammoth training effort. I slept in late & the only thing attempted was grocery shopping. The afternoon was spent watching the Australia vs Brazil game (after catching a mild strain of World Cup fever) The game was actually pretty good - despite me knowing nothing about football. There were some pretty interesting comments from the English commentators about how Australia & Australians are know for rough play etc. I am frequesntly baffled by how we are perceived over here.

Roses from the garden across the road.

Sickly Saturday

2006-06-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Went to the gym today. Infact, I am going to the gym 6 days a week after being informed by my trainer that no amount of cardio is too much when you are trying to lose large amounts of weight. I was fairly tired before I started & I did an hour of cardio (the cardio circuit my trainer set out for me). When I got off the machines I was pretty shaky & feeling unwell. I put it down to the fact I didnt eat before training (another hot tip for burning more calories). As I got changed, the nausea got worse. By the time I got to my bike I was needing to be sick in a rather spectacular hurry.

It ends up that this is normal when over exerting yourself. It is expected when you have done very little physical work & go hell for leather into training. It can last for days or months. Lord. I am using it as incentive to keep going - push through it until training doens't make me sick anymore. Hopefully it wont last too long.

I jumped back on my bike & rode into the city to meet Kynan for Vietnamese lunch. I was still feeling awful sick & had to eat lunch incredibly slowly to avoid being sick again.
On the way home Kynan suggested going to The Monument. It's one of the first things we put on our "Must see in London" list. It a tower, designed by Wren, to commemorate The Great Fire of London. Kynan cycles past it twice a day & we had never made it there. So off we went. In hind sight, the 311 stairs were probably not what i needed after the day I had already experienced. Crying from about the 200th step, I made it up there in the end. The view was much better than I'd expected - somehow from the ground, it looked like the
modern buildings surrounding it might have thwarted any chance of glimpsing anything interesting.

We took a leisurely ride home along the thames & stopped of at a wonderful Anatolian resturant in Waterloo called Tas. It's another place I have been busting to go to & only just made it to. For those at home - similar food to the Turkish Pide House, but a bit nicer. Linen table clothes & live classical guitarist.

***WARNING - Anyone coming to visit will be dragged there to eat!***

N00b On The Loose

2006-06-16T06:22:00.000-07:00

Okay - my Dad has turned into an Ebay fiend. Recently my parents got a computer - or more specifically long term borrowed my brothers computer while he is overseas. The intention was for my mum to get back into learning - learning about computers, spreadsheets, internet searching etc. My dad has, after years of proclaiming computers as The Devils Work, has discovered the joy of on-line auctions. So, the battle is ragging - Mum Vs Dad, The persuit of knowledge vs on line commercial pursuits.

Who will win? Stay tuned!

Kynans Interview - Part Trois

2006-06-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

Kynan flew to Dublin last night for his on-site interview. He flew over yesterday afternoon - timed so he could get to the hotel, calm his nerves, sit down to some last minute study & get a good night sleep before the interview. Instead he sat at Dublin airport until midnight, waiting for his bag to turn up! Talk about stressful. His books, his suit, his amazing shirt he had made for the event, all off drinking in a pub with his bag somewhere.

Although it wasn't the best start to proceedings, Kynan thinks he went okay. He is neither confident or doubtful. So, now we wait. And wait & probably wait some more.

Good bye, little guy

2006-06-09T05:19:00.000-07:00

My brother takes off today. He's going overseas on a journey that has no end. First stop China, second stop Canada, then who knows.

He's never been much of a traveller. His newish girlfriend had changed all of that by dragging him around Asia. Now he's hooked. (I have found being bored with work is also a very strong incentive to go on an international holiday!)

So good luck matey. Have a safe trip. See you soon.

Change into the Change Manager

2006-06-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH

There is a reason most people pretend to be useless at work - & that is to avoid being lumped with everyone elses work when they go on holidays. I have been ambushed into doing my job & the Change managers job for the next 2 weeks. ("I have booked my holidays & if you dont help me out I will have to cancel them") Yikees. Looks like I will be needing all my herbal calming tablets for the next little while.

If you dont hear from me for a while, you now know why.