Eurovision 2016 wrap up

My poor little blog has been dying a sad and pathetic death over the past six months or so. Early last year, I was averaging a couple of posts each week. Now, I'm lucky to hit two posts a month. For the most part, it's because I haven't had a lot to say. But it's also partly because I've been spending way more time and energy on the Youtube side of things, which leaves very little time for, you know, using my words.

Still, after recapping the past four years, I couldn't let the Eurovision song contest slip by unnoticed. I've been horribly sick all weekend, and so didn't have the energy to do a full recap. So instead I present to you my 2016 Eurovision prizes.

On the whole, I thought this year was pretty disappointing. It was like everyone realised that with the US and China watching for the first time, and Australia for reals competing, they had to tone down the crazy and actually seem serious. There was a truly shocking number of ballads, and while some of the costumes were utterly cracked out, it was more...Beyonce than Lady Gaga. Which, frankly, was a major let down.

Still, there were a few highlights, so let's talk about those.

CATCHIEST SONG: Belgium

She's like a tiny human disco ball of energy, with diverse back up singers, fun dance moves, and a decent tune.

BEST DRESSED: Croatia

Not only was it one hell of an outfit on its own, but it included an on-stage costume change. And you guys know how I feel about an on-stage costume change.

BEST USE OF THE STAGE: Ukraine

This one was a little tough, but I had to give it to this year's Eurovision champion. I wasn't a huge fan of her song - though it's a very important song and I totally understand why it won - but the projections that accompanied her song were stunning.

MOST DRAMATIC USE OF THE STAGE: Russia

When this started out, I was all "Blah blah, you're just copying last year's winner". But then he took it to the next level, and I was gobsmacked.

WEIRDEST HEADWEAR: Serbia

It's a headdress made out of nearly 80 bobby pins. I mean, it looks pretty amazing. But WHY.

WTF WERE YOU THINKING: Germany

Dear God, Germany, we need to talk about cultural appropriation. I'm sure she's lovely but this outfit had nothing to do with her song and was just a bigass distraction.

VOTE FOR ME AND MY BOOBS: Slovenia

Holy hell, girl. I'm STILL astonished you didn't have a nip slip on stage.

HEY, DON'T I KNOW YOU: Lithuania

It took me a while because he now looks like a llama, but Donny competed in 2012. It's always nice to have repeat performers.

BEST USE OF PYROTECHNICS: Switzerland

She was literally on fire. No amount of fireworks or fire-curtain-things can compete with a smoking bodice.

BEST USE OF TONY STARK'S TECHNOLOGY: Australia 

I actually really liked our song, but there's a chunk in the middle there where it looks like Dami's been borrowing tech from The Avengers, and I still don't understand it.

BEST BACK UP PERFORMER: Azerbaijan 

The dude in the crop top armour/football gear had basically escaped from Rocky Horror, and it was HILARIOUS.

JUST POPPED BY ON MY WAY TO SOMEWHERE ELSE: This one was a three way tie.

Armenia looks like she's about to compete in a rhythmic gymnastics competition.


Poland looks like he's on his way to defend the barricade.


And Israel? Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's on his way to a Fall Out Boy concert.

BEST SONG THAT BELONGS IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT COMPETITION: The Netherlands

I actually really liked this one. But it's definitely not Eurovision-y. It's Nashville-y.

BEST MOMENT OF THE COMPETITION: Mans taking the piss out of Belarus and his singing-naked-with-wolves routine by appearing on stage like this:

BEST SONG: Love Love, Peace Peace.

Look, I know it was the taking-the-piss song that they did at interval as a joke. But this was definitely the catchiest song of the entire event, and I liked it a hell of a lot better than anything that was competing this year.

So. There you have it. On the whole, I thought this year was pretty disappointing, and I'm glad I didn't bother getting up at 5am to watch it live.

Did you watch Eurovision this year? What did you think??

K xx

Tag, you're it!

Two of my favourite people, Ashlea and Angie over at Disquietus Reads, have tagged me in the Sisterhood of the World award. Thank you, you fabulous creatures!

Guidelines:
1. Thank the blogger that nominated you and link back to their website.
2. Post the award’s logo on your blog.
3. Answer the ten questions you have been asked.
4. Nominator ten other bloggers and ask them ten other questions.

The Questions:

1. What is one book or series that you would make everyone read if you could?
WILFAIR. Always and forever the Wilfair series. I just love it so much. So, so much. Also the Throne of Glass series. But mostly Wilfair. Have I mentioned how much I love it??

2. Who is your favourite book boyfriend/girlfriend?
I don't really do book boyfriends/girlfriends. I can never manage to turn off my critical side, so I always end up seeing the flaws in the characters that everyone else flails about. That said, Gomery Overbove from the Wilfair series has a special place in my heart.

3. What are your favourite book covers?
I tend to like really simple, minimalist book covers, like The Fault in Our Stars or Eleanor & Park. I prefer covers that don't feature people, solely because then I can imagine the characters for myself. That said, I LOVE the covers for Throne of Glass, These Broken Stars, and The Lollipop Shoes. I mean, LOOK:

4. Name 3 fictional places you would move to in a heartbeat.
Can I say Hogwarts three times? No? Okay, fine. Hogwarts, the Wilfair Hotel, and the Discworld.

5. What books are you looking forward to most in 2015?
Ellie Marnie's Every Move, Gail Carriger's Prudence, and anything that Sarah J. Maas deigns to grant us with, even if it's just a post-it note. Also Libba Bray's Lair of Dreams, solely because it was meant to come out early this year and IT STILL HASN'T.

6. Name your favourite and least favourite books of 2014.
Favourite? Probably Heir of Fire. Holy crap, I loved that book so hard. Closely followed by Fairwil. My least favourite? Possibly The Selection, which made me indescribably angry. Or Erin McCarthy's entire True Believers series, which was utter tripe from start to finish.

7. Who is your most owned author?
Somewhat embarrassingly, it's Janet Evanovich. I have 42 of her books, even though I very rarely read her stuff any more. After that, it's Terry Pratchett, which is somewhere in the mid 20s.

8. When and why did you start blogging?
I started blogging in October 2009. I was living in Canberra, all my friends and family were in Melbourne, and I found myself telling the same stories over and over and over again every week in emails and phone calls. So I decided that I should set up a blog, direct everyone to it, and save myself hours of talking on the phone, which is one of my least favourite things to do. Except I ended up spending all that time blogging instead. OH WELL.

9. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
Getting to know amazing people and having friends all over the world. Coincidentally, my least favourite thing about blogging is getting to know amazing people and having friends all over the world BUT NEVER GETTING TO SEE THEM BECAUSE THEY LIVE REALLY FAR AWAY.

10. What hobbies do you have besides reading?
Recapping ten year old TV shows for Snark Squad. Baking. The occasional bit of photography. Sporadic obsessions with the Lego games for XBox...

I tag the following people:

- Cait @ Paper Fury
- Willie @ Lazy Happy Bored Happy Sad
- Alysia @ Wilfair
- Kelley @ Diva Booknerd
- Emily @ Love Woke Me Up This Morning
- Gina @ This Is Not Your Blog

Aaaaand anyone else who wants to do this tag.

Your questions are as follows:
1. What's your favourite Harry Potter book? (Come on, everyone has one)
2. What's the book/series that everyone raves about but you just didn't get?
3. Which real world places do you want to visit because of a book?
4. What bookish merchandise are you dying to get your hands on?
5. What's your most anticipated book of 2015?
6. Which book character do you wish you could be best friends with?
7. What's the last book you gave five stars to?
8. Which secondary character do you wish would get their own book?
9. Which author, alive or dead, do you wish you could meet in person?
10. How many books do you own?

K xx

Grovelling for affection

Yes, my darlings, it's that time of year again. The time when I ask you all to please go and vote for me for the People's Choice award in the Best Australian Blogs Competition 2013!

There are over 1000 entries and I know I don't stand a chance against some of the big name blogs out there in the Australian blogosphere. But it would be nice to have at least a few votes........

If not for me, at least do it for Pathetic Looking Hiddles:

You give good puppy dog face, Future Husband. Also, source.

Voting is open until 5pm on the 30th of April. You don't have to be Australian to vote, and it literally only takes about 30 seconds - I'm on the first page and everything (I must confess, this is part of the reason why my blog title and my URL will never match. A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings will always be near the top of any list!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA)

Click HERE to vote

There's a ton of great blogs in the running, and you should definitely check out as many as you get time to! 

K xx

Technical difficulties

Contrary to appearances, I *am* still alive. (Although only just. My arrival in Orlando coincided with the arrival of the world's most arse about cold. It started with a cough and is ending with the sniffles. GO FIGURE) It just turns out that while the hotel we booked in Florida does have free wifi as promised, said wifi is only available in the lobby. And forcing yourself downstairs to write a blog post in a room full of strangers when all you want to do is sit in bed in your PJs is really freaking hard.

Anyway. I'm having a blast, hanging out with my BFF Sara, as well as my bloggy BFFs Lor, Alice and Emily. Today, we went here:

It's okay to be jealous. I would be if I hadn't just been there.

Mostly, I wanted to tell you guys that I'm still alive, and also to say an absolutely enormous thank you to the fantastic community over at 20SB for handing me not one, but TWO Bootleg Awards - Blogger I'd Most Like to Get a Drink With, and Best Female Overall. It's a huge honour, and I'm aiming to have drinks with as many of you as possible. Except I'll probably have lemonade because I have an increasing tendency to have one alcoholic drink and then feel the need to go to sleep on the table.

This need was extra strong last night at dinner. Turns out you probably shouldn't have a margarita shortly after taking cold and flu tablets AND cough syrup. Whoops??

Love you guys like whoa, and will update you properly when I can,

K xx

Awards season

That's right, kids. It's blog awards time again. The lovely Wilhelmina Upton of Lazy Happy Bored Happy Sad has very sweetly declared me to be one of her blogs of the year!! I'm insanely excited (even if I did miss this for about a week and a half, on account of being vague and braindead. YAY) about it - thank you SO much for enjoying my little corner of the interwebs! :)

And now, to pass it on to some of my favourites!

Kat from The Engineer's Other Life

Deidre from Decoybetty

Pretzel Thief from Pretzel Thief

Lor from Late to the Party

Emily from Love Woke Me Up This Morning

Leah from Adventures in Adulthood

I love you guys like whoa, and all your blogs are tagged as must reads in my GReader, for obvious reasons! <3

The obligatory rules:

1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award
2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.
3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)
4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them
5. You can now also join our Facebook page – click the link here ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Award and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience
6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

K xx 

More than you ever wanted to know

So about a month ago, Fire Fairy gave me a Liebster Award over on her blog. Aaaaand because I'm a giant slacker (and also had everything planned out to ensure that my 500th post didn't fall on a Monday), I'm only just getting around to saying thank you. So thank you, Fire Fairy!!

11 facts about me:
1. The most comfortable pair of pants I own is a pair of jazz ballet pants that I bought for a dancing concert in 1997. They have holes in them and I don't care. (To clarify: they're exclusively used for sitting around the house when I don't have to go anywhere)
2. When I get angry, I cry. It's a pain in the arse.
3. The last time I bought an item of clothing was in April.
4. If I can find a way to get out of having to leave the house, I will.
5. I rarely wear skirts/dresses. After 12 years of school uniforms which required me to wear a kilt/pinafore/skirt to school every day? NO THANK YOU.
6. My current pet peeve is groups of people who walk insanely slowly while taking up the entire footpath. Especially in the city.
7. I find it weirdly fascinating to watch how other people sign their names. The conclusion I have reached from this? Everyone else has FAR more grown up signatures than I do.
8. I didn't drink until my 24th birthday (Well. Apart from that time I got drunk when I was six).
9. According to a form we had to fill in for class earlier this semester, I've saved $2,500 this year by using my local library instead of buying books.
10. I hate dusting to the point where I'll use the vacuum cleaner to try and suck up the dust from shelves/window sills/whatever so that I don't have to dust.
11. I leave my shoes EVERYWHERE. I currently have one pair in the study, one pair in the family room, one pair on my bedroom floor, and three pairs in the kitchen. This drives my mother up the wall. I, on the other hand, have realised that I'm FAR more likely to be able to find my shoes when they're NOT in my wardrobe.

Fire Fairy's questions:
1. If you could befriend any Disney villain and help them mend their ways, who would you choose and why?
Oh jeez. It's been a really long time since I saw a Disney movie in the traditional sense... On the basis that Disney owns Marvel Studios, I'm going to go with Loki from Thor/The Avengers.

Source

2. You've been invited to a fairy tale themed fancy dress party. Who or what do you dress as? (I need inspiration for attending such a party myself!)
Maybe Belle from Beauty and the Beast?? Then I'd have a legitimate reason to carry a book everywhere!

3. If you could choose any activity to be made an official Olympics sport, what would you pick?
Roller derby. Because it makes a million times more sense than synchronised swimming.

4. Where in the world would you most like to go that you haven't already been to?
I can never decide between my top three - Ireland, Italy and Egypt.

Source

5. What is your ultimate karaoke song? If you don't ever do karaoke, what would it be if you were forced to sing?
I don't do karaoke (although it's on my 101 in 1001 list. I'm a huge chicken though. I don't sing in front of people...), but I'd probably do something super cheesy that everyone knows the words to, like Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" or Abba's "Super Trouper", which I have an irrational soft spot for.

6. If you could have any famous historical figure over for dinner, who would you invite?
Just one?? Probably Charles Dickens.

7. If you went to Hogwarts, which house do you think the Sorting Hat would place you in?
I'd like to think Ravenclaw, but I'm terrible at riddles, so I'd probably never be able to get into the common room if that were the case!!

8. What was the best science experiment you did, or saw your teacher do, at school?
There are three that stand out: 1. In high school chemistry, we made mayonnaise (We were studying emulsions). 2. At school in England, our teacher separated a tiny quantity of crude oil into its various products. Because, you know, that's EXACTLY the kind of thing ten year olds need to learn about... And 3. Our school in England had 54 acre grounds. So for a biology assignment (again, JUST the kind of thing ten year olds should be studying!), we got to spend a class roaming around the grounds, collecting snails and measuring their shells with calipers. The point was, I believe to produce a bell curve. But mostly, we got to play in the woods for an hour. WIN.

What, you weren't drawing diagrams of fractal distillation
of liquids at the age of ten?? 

9. What's your favourite way to spend a hot summer's day?
At the movies or laying on the sofa under the ceiling fan, watching The Day After Tomorrow. Because you can convince yourself that you're cool while watching a movie about an ice age.

10. What's your favourite way to spend a freezing cold winter's day?
Cold for Melbourne is like 10 degrees C, so it's not really FREEZING as such! But probably sitting under a blanket watching movies and drinking hot chocolate. As you can see, I'm not really big with the whole outside thing...

11. If you could dye your hair any colour you wanted just for fun, which colour would you choose?
Purple, I guess?

I'm going to nominate the following people:
Pretzel Thief
Kat
Leah
Emmy
Gina
Kim

Your questions, some of which I'm going to steal from the questions I was asked in my 500th post because I'm brain dead right now:
1. What's your favourite fictional pairing and why?
2. If you went travelling with the Doctor, what's the first place you would go and why? (Gina/Pretzel Thief - knowing that you guys don't watch Doctor Who, I'll reword it just for you: If you found a time machine that could also take you anywhere in the universe, what's the first place you would go and why?)
3. What's your favourite Halloween related movie?
4. If you could be any kind of animal, what would you be?
5. Cake or cupcakes?
6. What's your favourite song at the moment?
7. What was your favourite subject in high school?
8. What's your favorite 90s TV show?
9. If you could be any superhero, who would you be?
10. What do you like on your pizza?
11. Do you have any weird phobias?

The rules:
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award Presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
3. Copy and Paste the award to your blog.
4. Nominate at least 5 blogs (up to 11) to receive the award.
5. Inform them of their nomination by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Include 11 random facts about yourself in your post.
7. Answer the 11 questions the person that has nominated asked you and create 11 new questions for the people you have nominated.

Feel free to answer the questions in the comments if I didn't tag you! (Hell, even if I *did* tag you, feel free to answer in the comments)

K xx

Does this mean I'm cool now?

So I realised that I never told you guys about my trip to Canberra. But it can basically be summed up as follows:

• A shit ton of time in the car.
• A slightly troublesome dinner with Em and Matt (pregnant ladies should not eat salmon which turns out to still be raw and frozen in the centre...).
• Breakfast with my delightful friend and former coworker, L.
• The baby shower. Apparently baby showers include trivia games, which our team managed to win, and cake, and lots of tiny pink clothes.
• Discovering quite possibly the trendiest bar in the ACT. Obviously, this would happen nine months AFTER I moved back to Melbourne...
• A delightful Mother's Day lunch of McDonald's fries and an apple purchased at a truck stop and washed in a truck stop bathroom. 
• Did I mention a shit ton of time in the car??? Yeah...

Oh, and while we were EATING our delightful lunch (in the car park at McDonald's, for some reason that I now can't remember) with the windows open, a sparrow hopped up on a the side mirror and tried to FLY INTO THE CAR. About five times. Because what you want when you're eating your super classy McDonald's lunch in the car is the addition of an angry disease-ridden bird...

ANYWAY.

While I was in Canberra, the lovely Ti from A Cup of Ti presented me with this:

The Liebster Blog Award. Thank you so much, Ti - I'm so thrilled! <3

Liebster means dearest or beloved or favourite (I think. Nikki - feel free to correct me!!), and the award is specifically for blogs with less than 200 followers who deserve a little more attention. 

Here are the (slightly boring) rules:
1. Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to them. 
2. Nominate up to five others for the award.
3. Let them know via comment on their blog.
4. Post the award on your blog.

And here are my five other awesome bloggers. Go and give them some love:

Kat from The Engineer's Other Life. Kat's one of my IRL BFFs. She's an amazing photographer, and has just opened an online store for her photos, which you should definitely go and check out! We've had some amazing times together in Thailand, Melbourne AND the US. I have no doubt that there will be numerous adventures together in the future! Her blog is filled with photos I'm crazy jealous of, and sewing projects I have no chance in Hell of recreating, and you should definitely check it out.

Gina from This Is Not Your Blog. There are no words for how much I love Gina. I have no idea how she crams as much into her life as she does - three kids, three blogs, reading, a Masters degree, AND she and her husband and kids are about to move half way across the country. I'd pretty much be comatose by lunchtime dealing with all of that. I'm kind of pining for her batshit crazy painkiller induced dreams (the good ones, not the nightmares!!) from when she had her gall bladder out, but I still do a happy dance every time there's a new post from her.

Alice from The Rabbit Hole of Alice. I adore this girl. Sometimes I'm convinced that we're the same person, only on other sides of the world and born five years apart... (One day, the TARDIS will come along and we'll finally be able to hang out for real!!) Her writing is honest and vulnerable, and she's always there when I need to rant. <3

Pretzel Thief from Pretzel Thief. Holy crap, this girl cracks me up. Her posts are brilliant, and she leaves the most amazing comments. AND she's a fellow member of Team Pacey. One of these days, we'll have to arrange a Melbourne blogger meet up so that we can meet for real. IT WILL BE AMAZING. (There may have to be some gratuitous Joshua Jackson included somewhere. Obviously.)

Katie from Katiefoolery. I love Katie's blog. Her posts are always filled with incredible photos and fun stories, not to mention knitted Daleks!! You really can't go wrong with knitted Daleks. She's constantly going on fun adventures all over Victoria, and seems to find a never ending stream of unusual places to visit.

So, has a sparrow ever tried to get into your car at McDonald's?? Seriously. This is an important question and I need answers!!

K xx

If you vote for me, I'll love you forever

Happy Friday, my lovelies!

I've just hit "Submit" on a 3,000 word catalogue evaluation and am now looking forward to a weekend spent NOT thinking about libraries. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Ahem. In other news, voting is now open on the People's Choice award for the Best Australian Blogs competition for 2012. There are over 940 blogs in the running, including my little corner of the intertubes. If you've got a spare five minutes, would you mind popping over here and voting for A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings?

There are a TON of great blogs in the running, so if you're stuck at work and have nothing to do you have a spare half hour, there's plenty in the list to keep you entertained!

Voting is open until 5pm AEST on 9th May, and you don't have to be in Australia to vote!! Oh, and if you want to follow the action on Twitter, you can check out the official hashtag: #bestblogs2012

Thank you muchly - it's a huge thrill just to be involved! :)

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BAB2012

Hope you've all got lovely things planned for the weekend!
K xx

Wow!!

Well. Today has been kind of an interesting day filled with unexpected stuff. I got up this morning to find out that the 20SB Bootleg award finalists have been released. This is always a fun time of year, because I love giving some recognition to my favourite fellow 20SBers! But this time? I want to say an ENORMOUS thank you, because I'm nominated for "Blogger I'd most like to get a drink with"!! It's such a huge honour to be nominated, especially when I'm up against such amazing people as Sweeney and Miss Sassy Pants. So thank you to anyone who nominated me. And eternal love and never ending hugs to anyone who votes for me!! (If you're a member of 20SB and you want to vote for me (<3), you can do so here)

Then this afternoon, Ness and I went to the movies. We had lunch beforehand, and while walking through the food court, a 12 year old boy watched me walk past, then turned to his friend and said "Oh my God, I think that was Kim Kardashian!"

WHAT. THE. FUCK?

In what universe do I look like Kim Kardashian?!

Exhibit A:

Me

Exhibit B:

Kim Kardashian. Also, source

Yeah... I got nothing. Well, besides the fact that we both have spectacular racks... (Also? I actually Google Image'd Kim Kardashian for these purposes. THE THINGS I DO FOR YOU GUYS.)

Has anyone else been compared to someone they don't bear even the slightest resemblance to?!

K xx

Sunshine and lollipops

There's nothing like the start of a four day weekend to make everything seem wonderful, is there?! The other day the lovely Carissa over at Kissed a Frog presented me with this:

The Sunshine Award! Thanks Carissa!! :) The rules are as follows:

- Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

- Tell us something about yourself.

- Nominate 10 other bloggers and

- let them know that you awarded them!

So, some things about me, huh? Let's see.......
- I love data entry. I was completely thrilled today when we got a massive new data entry task at work. I don't really get why people hate it - you just turn your brain off and type and the next thing you know, it's finished!
- I HATE clothes shopping. But I love shoe shopping. Except when I find awesome shoes and they turn out to have ugly-arse wedge heels. Gross...
- This is what I did with my evening tonight:

Oh yes indeed...

- I'm moving back to Melbourne in 36 days. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
- I'm going to see X-Men: First Class tomorrow. In gold class. With cinema membership, it's only $20 before 5pm on a weekday. TOTALLY worth it.
- I love baking
- I'm pretty socially awkward in real life, so being a part of the blogosphere is freaking amazing, because I can make friends without saying something completely weird that stops the conversation dead.

I hereby pass this on to:
My BFF Sara @ Always a Bridesmaid
My other BFF Kat @ The Engineer's Other Life (even though Carissa gave it to her as well)
My other other BFF Nessa @ The Teensy Tiny Insignificant Details
Bi @ Bianca and the B-Sides
Lauren @ The Blog You're About to Read
Carly @ Tune Into Radio Carly
Joyful Sparrow @ A Sparrow's Flight
Emmy @ Love Woke Me Up This Morning
Lozzz123 @ Science, Spouses and Silliness
Kate @ Simply Kate

Go and check them all out, because they're all awesome bloggers! Oh, and if you haven't already, you've still got time to enter my delicious chocolatey giveaway!!

K xx

200 = Giveaway!

Holy crap, y'all. It seems like only yesterday that I was thrown in the deep end of curating exhibits on colonial history, and now the gallery is open to the public!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D I couldn't bring myself to go up there today in case the general public were breaking things or - worse still - not reading the text I spent over a year researching and writing...

Anyway, on the off chance that anyone is interested, here's what I wore last night:

Please excuse the state of my apartment. I took this when I got home after opening last night, and it was after midnight. Also, I had every intention of wearing stockings. I forked out $20 on ladder-proof stockings, and then managed to put a hole in them when I put them on. I have a gift, really I do. And to the right, you can see my clothes rack, just for Bi who presented me with this award last week:

Thanks Bi!! :)

(Course, you can also see my actual rack in that photo, but in a classy way, yaknow? Only not, now that I've pointed it out *sigh*)

Anywhatthehellwasmypoint, something else that feels like it was only yesterday? Coming home from the movies and deciding that what I desperately needed to do was start a blog. And here we are, 200 posts later! So to reward you all for reading my often nonsensical wibble, I have something special planned. Well, two rather special somethings, really, based on geographical location.

1. For my readers in Australia and New Zealand: the chance to win a batch of baked goods made by yours truly! This way, you can enjoy nommy treats without having to make them yourself. Laziness FTW!! As not everything can stand up to being posted, you can choose from the following:

Triple chocolate brownies

White chocolate and nut blondies

Double chocolate chip cookies

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Raspberry and white chocolate brownies

Basically, if you don't like chocolate, you're shit out of luck here!

2. For my readers elsewhere in the world: the chance to win these -

Two packets of double coat Tim Tams. Because I think they're infinitely superior to the original ones.

Just ask Lauren about how awesome Tim Tams are. Or, you could watch this, which is apparently what introduced Lauren to Tim Tams in the first place:

So yeah, Tim Tams are pretty amazing. (And for the record, it's not that I love you less. It's just that the week it takes to post things from Australia to the US or the UK or pretty much anywhere other than New Zealand would result in the above baked goods being kind of grody by the time they arrive!!)

Anyway, here's the rules:
1. All you have to do is leave me a comment! You don't have to follow me or anything, but if you like what you see and you want to, that'd be nice :)
2. No anonymous entries accepted.
3. If you're in Australia/New Zealand, let me know what type of baked goods you want in your comment.
4. You have to be willing to give me your address, otherwise there's kind of no point in this!

Entries will close on Saturday 11th June at 9pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (12pm Greenwich Mean Time, 7am EST). I'll randomly select the winners on Sunday, so check back to see if you've won. I'll post out the goodies after Queen's Birthday!

Thanks for sticking with me through 200 posts, y'all. It means more than you know...

With love and hugs,
K xx

Kirsti-mas Part 1!

As I said briefly yesterday, I spent the Easter/ANZAC Day break in Melbourne, running around like a headless chicken. The Kirsti-mas thing I've (apparently Chrome thinks I'm trying to write 'Kirsch' or 'Kiribati' rather than my name...) stolen from my brother and his mates - he has a friend called Kelly, and her birthday falls on December 25th. So Christmas is generally known in their friendship group as Kelly-mas. It seemed only appropriate that I adopt it for the whole six day long birthday that I've just had!

I flew to Melbourne first thing Thursday morning. Thursday featured thrilling things like a trip to the liquor store to buy some delicious Rekorderlig cider, and to the post office to send the lovely Lauren some Tim Tams. Incidentally, Lauren gave me a Stylish Blogger award the other day. Yay! But since I did it not that long ago, I'm going to skip the whole telling you seven things about me part and the passing it on part. Because I'm lazy like that! (Sorry, Lauren. Doesn't mean I'm any less grateful!!)

Thursday night we were supposed to be going to Mamasita, a shiny new (and apparently amazing) Mexican restaurant in the city. But they don't take bookings. We got there at 6.30 (seriously!), and the line was already out the door and into the street. After queuing for 15 minutes or so, we were told that they could put our name on the callback list, but that it would probably be at least 8.30, more like 9.00 before we were seated. Seeing as I was starving (living in Canberra makes you eat at Nanna O'Clock, because there's nothing else to do!) and seeing as the parentals had no intentions of going home and coming back into the city in two hours time, we abandoned that plan in favour of eating somewhere else.

I can't remember the name of the place we wound up going, but apparently I chose a "very manly dessert". It was hazelnut, orange and dark chocolate cannoli with bitter chocolate ice cream. I suspect they were just trying to make my brother feel better about his choice of dessert, but it was still a bit awkward having to say "Urm, I'll have the manly dessert too, thanks!"

Friday featured going to see Thor (which I keep calling Troy. Most unfortunate, given that the latter was quite shit and the former was AWESOME!!) with Jamie. We saw it in 2D, which I was eternally grateful for because 3D gives me a headache that painkillers can't touch and is totally not worth the extra money. I got home from the movies just in time to be handed the task of making our traditional Good Friday feast of No Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. Mmmmmm, roast goodness. Oh, word of advice? Don't eat M&Ms while making Yorkshire pudding. It's only a matter of time before one of them falls in the batter, and then you'll never find the little bastard (it was FIIIIIIIIIIINE, you totally couldn't taste the sugar! And I found it before the chocolate dissolved. It was just the coating that had gone)...

Friday night was spent seeing Eddie Perfect at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Now, if you remember this post, you'll remember that I love Eddie Perfect. So not only did I laugh hysterically through the entire show (I suspect my dad thought I was insane. But his song "Self-Righteous Cyclist" was one of the funniest things I've heard all year!), but I loitered around the Arts Centre afterwards to meet him. And he was lovely, not to mention insanely talented!! I apologise for the slight note of crazy eyes - I believe I was attempting to convey to my brother the importance of him learning to use the camera on his new phone within the next 10 seconds:

Anyway, we went out for drinks after the show (me, my brother and his girlfriend, not me and Eddie Perfect. Although that would have been AMAZEBALLS... *sigh*). And, it being Melbourne, we went to a bar that was under a pedestrian bridge in the middle of the Yarra River. Of COURSE - what else would you do?! It was pretty cool seeing geese swimming past as you sipped your cider (sadly, not Rekorderlig). And to honour the cooler temperatures at night, they had mulled wine. It smelled incredible! Not that I had any...

Saturday featuring catching up with Ness for the first time in a year and a half. And shopping. Complete with burritos and Mexi-crinkle fries from Salsas *drools* And a trip to Koko Black, where I FINALLY used the last $5 of the voucher my parents gave me last Easter! Saturday night was spent out on the town with friends for my birthday. We started out at Cho Gao at Melbourne Central. I ordered a Strawberry Colada. Apparently they'd run out of the glasses they usually used, so they gave it to me in two martini glasses instead.

Yup. Cos I'm classy like that. We started with a ridiculous array of Asian tapas, including something called "Rusty Nails" - deep fried beef strips with honey and chilli and some other things I can't remember. As someone pointed out, it was only appropriate for Easter! #allgoingtohell

About the time I finished my Strawberry Coladas, we discovered that they had Rekorderlig, and the cocktail menu was dead to me. Sad... I'm not entirely certain that cider goes with maple chicken udon noodles, but oh well! After we'd finished dinner, we headed over to San Churros across the road. When we asked for menus, they said they were all out (Urm, what? How do you run out of menus??) but that there was one above the counter. I asked my brother to go and take a picture of the menu so we could all decide what we wanted. But he came back having ordered this:

Yum - the Churros Fiesta! 18 churros with six dipping sauces. Well, more accurately, 9 regular churros, 9 cinnamon churros, four dipping sauces, whipped cream and a bowl of chocolate ice cream. Quite how we were meant to eat the ice cream I still don't know. But whatever! Holy Hell, it was good. The last time I had churros was at the Multicultural Festival, and these ones were a million times nicer than ones from a stall on the side of the road. Although I didn't get to drink the better part of a whole cup of melted chocolate like I did at the Multicultural Festival. You know what? In hindsight, that's probably a good thing...

When the churros had beaten us, we headed to a bar for more drinks. There I encountered the WORST MOJITO EVER. The barman was Irish and cute and called me darlin', so I couldn't bring myself to complain. But it was vile. Apparently mojito to him = use lime cordial in place of actual lime and sugar syrup. Gross... I don't think it helped that we were standing outside on a clear autumn night and I effectively was holding a glass of ice. Eh. I drank it anyway. Given that it cost $17, it's not surprising!

It wasn't a particularly late night - we were home by 1am. I blame my rapidly advancing age. But it was a lot of fun!!

To be continued................

K xx

Blog award!

The lovely Shannon over at Leaf Probably has given me this!:

It's very exciting to get my first blog award!! Thanks Shannon!! :)

As part of accepting the award, I have to do the following:

• Present seven things about yourself.
• Name about a half dozen bloggers you think deserve the award. Contact those people.
• Create a link back to the person who gave you the honor.

Hmm, random bits of information about me, eh? Urm.............

1. I'm quick to judge people. I can tell within two minutes if someone is going to annoy the living shit out of me. And when I voice this to people, they always tell me not to be so hasty. And then a day later, they're all "OMG, YOU WERE RIGHT. MOST ANNOYING PERSON EVER!!!" And then I get all "I told you so". This probably isn't a good thing. But it's happened without fail EVERY time I've said someone annoys the living shit out of me within a couple of minutes of meeting them.

2. I hate hate HATE making phone calls and will do anything I possibly can to avoid doing it. The creation of email and text messaging are pretty much the only things that stopped me from becoming a total and utter social freak.

3. The first celebrity I had a crush on was Michael J. Fox. Yes, it was the Back to the Future days. Why do you ask?

4. I wear sunglasses 90% of the time, even when it's raining. I have a letter from the British Institute of Opthalmologists saying that my eyes are photophobic, which explains things. I got to wear sunglasses in PE in primary school because I kept injuring myself through squinting so much I couldn't see

5. I love Thai food and Malaysian food, but I don't like Chinese food.

6. I've attended six schools and three universities to date. And not because I'm a terrible student. Just because I've moved a lot.

7. When I was 9, I used to sell chocolate cakes, chocolate chip cookies, and banana muffins to my mum's friends. I bet they were all rather relieved when we moved to England and I couldn't pester them any more!

So, now to the tagging of other people, all of whom are infinitely more stylish than me!

Kat @ The Engineer's Other Life 

Carly @ Tune Into Radio Carly

Amy @ Life's Journey with a Smile

Rox & Lor @ Late to the Party

Kate @ Simply Kate

And thanks again to Shannon for the award! :D

K xx