Well, hello my pretties!

I braved a trip into town today, despite the presence of the Summernats bogans. There were some completely ridiculous vehicles in display, including but not limited to a V8 Commodore. Nothing abnormal about the presence of a V8 Commodore at Summernats. This one, though, was a spectacularly vile shade of opalescent hot pink. Ack... And the best part was, it was being driven by a guy.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, despite the overwhelming number of bogans at the shopping centre, I had a very successful trip. Well, except for the part where I went to try and spend my Christmas Borders voucher. That one was a total and epic fail. I couldn't find a single thing I wanted, which probably just means that I've read every book ever *sigh* So I'll wait a couple of weeks until they restock after Christmas, and try again. The trip to DJs, on the other hand, was FAR more successful.

My parents got me a DJs voucher for Christmas, and I figured it would be best to spend it while I could take advantage of the sales. I had grand plans for buying a new, relatively large, saucepan. But I went one better, and came out with this:

Oh HELLS yes. I bought a Le Creuset. For some reason that quite escapes me, I've always wanted one. Mum has one (although from memory, it's not a Le Creuset, but a similar brand), in that stunning seventies shade, mustard yellow. Mine, on the other hand, is NOT (thank God) mustard yellow:

It's cobalt blue! Which means it matches the cobalt blue Le Creuset mixing bowl Ness got me for Christmas last year. And matching things make me happy. I went with the oval shape, because they only had the round ones in 'Dune' (aka beige). Ack. Plus, I think the oval shape is nicer if I end up serving things in it.

And it's got that gorgeous enamelled interior.

It can go from the stove top to the oven, it's freezer safe (although I rather think my freezer might collapse under the weight of it), and - my absolutely favourite part - it's dishwasher safe. I LOVE things that are dishwasher safe, because doing the dishes is pretty much my least favourite thing of all time...

Actually, I think the best part was that it was 40% off. Because the gift card from my parents didn't cover the full amount. But the 40% off meant that I only had to fork out $80. Not bad, considering the original price was nearly $500! Even with 40% off, it was a crapload of money. But hey, if I'm going to have it for the next 40 years, the cost per use probably boils down to a couple of cents. And I can cope with that!

I'm disturbingly excited about using it, and am planning my weekly menu accordingly :D

On a slightly different topic, I also forked out $12.50 for this:

I figured for that amount of money, you can't really say no! (And yes, that's a Christmas stocking on the wall in the background. The rest of Christmas has been packed up though, so no judging allowed!)

Sure, it's something else to cart around with me, but it'll make shooting at 300mm a lot easier. And shooting at 300mm is fun.

See? I took this in my front garden this afternoon. I spy fun times ahead! Now, where does one hire a sherpa to cart all this camera gear around???? ;)

K xx

PS. Le Creuset has never heard of me and I wibbled on endlessly about my new toy entirely off my own bat...

Annoying bogans and weird phobias

It's that time of year again in Canberra - when the bogans and their hotted up cars come out to play. Yes, I'm talking about the nightmare that is Summernats. Honestly, I think I said pretty much all I have to say on that topic this time last year. Although THIS year, I have the added benefit of not living two blocks from Exhibition Park, where it's held. Hopefully that means that I won't get woken up at 6am on Saturday by idiots drag racing around the streets...

Anyway, I'm planning on leaving the house as little as possible during the dreaded Summernats. Instead, just for a change, I'll be watching TV. I’ve been watching a lot of Fringe recently. A friend described it to me as “The X-Files, only good”. And he has a point. It’s a lot less ridiculous than The X-Files (although give it ten years, and I’m sure it’ll probably look just as bad!), and the acting is better. Not that it’s really hard to beat David Duchovny’s wooden monotone... Plus, it stars Joshua Jackson, which takes me back to my teenage ‘OMG, Pacey’s SOOOOOOOO hot!” days...

Bahahahahahahahaha!!! I SO don't remember him looking like a five year old... (Source)

The Fringe version is MUCH better... (Source)

Ahem. So I’ve made it through about ten or twelve episodes so far. And I’m definitely enjoying it. But there’ve been two episodes to date that have nearly had be write it off altogether, and both times it’s been because of my weird-arse phobias. The first point was where I stopped watching Fringe when it first aired on TV. And that was where they removed a dead girl’s eyeball so they could access her optic nerve and recover the last images she saw before she died.

I *HATE* eyeballs. I can’t watch people doing anything involving contact lenses without feeling nauseated, I hate it when I get something in my eye, because that means I need to touch my own eyeball, and I’m still relieved that I missed the day in year 10 Science that involved eyeball dissection. My younger brother used to take great delight back in our CSI watching days in telling me that the vile eyeball bits were over when they actually weren’t, leading to me witnessing all manner of icky grossness *shudders* But at least with the eyeball stuff, even in real life, I can cover my eyes like a four year old until it’s gone.

But the episode I watched last night? That related to one of my weirder phobias. (My weirdest phobia, incidentally, is of people dressed up as cartoon characters of the Mickey and Minnie variety. I blame a trip to Disneyland when I was seven, and juuuuuuuuuust old enough to work out that there were people in the suits. They had cartoon bodies and human legs (albeit in white tights!). And that’s pretty damned creepy at the age of seven).

Right. Where was I? Oh, right. The episode I watched last night. Well, that one started out with a guy getting killed by butterflies. I know, right? He was in a room, and a butterfly appeared. And the butterfly kept flying past him, and wherever it touched him, it would cut his skin to the bone. And then a second butterfly appeared. And then there were hundreds of butterflies. And finally, he jumped out of a gazillionth storey window to get away from them. He went splat. Obviously...

See? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5RLpowQQU&feature=related (all the clips on Youtube had embedding disabled, so you’ll actually have to click through. I know, I know. SUCH hard work!) See what happens when you admire the pretty little butterfly? It turns out to have RAZORBLADES FOR WINGS, brings its friends, and KILLS YOU...

Anyway, it turned out that there *were* no butterflies – it was a consequence of someone poisoning the guy with some weird-arse hallucinogenic toad venom, and he imagined that there were killer butterflies, and his body replicated what his brain believed. Whatever, that’s not the point here.

The point is that I’ve always known that butterflies are evil little fuckers that are out to get me. Now I have proof. I’m never leaving the house again....................... (Okay, fine. What I have is a TV show about paranormal stuff featuring hallucinogenic toad venom. Shut up.)

K xx

Torture by bogans

Well, Canberra has pulled out all the stops this week. Not only has it been over 30 degrees almost all week - including 36 degrees yesterday, 37 degrees today, and a forecast of 38 and 39 for tomorrow and Tuesday - but since Thursday, the Summernats festival has been in full swing.

For those lucky people who don't live in the ACT, the Summernats festival is a celebration of all things that run on a V8 engine and are painted heinous colours. In other words, it's a car festival that appears to be entirely populated by bogans. For the non-Australians among us, the Homo sapiens bogani is a close cousin of the Homo sapiens rednecki commonly found in North America, and the Homo sapiens chavi commonly found in Great Britain. Identifying features of H. sapiens bogani include mullet hairdos, a bizarre addiction to tracksuit pants and flannelette shirts, a love of Aussie rocks of the AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Hunters and Collectors, INXS, Choirboys, Angels, and Jet persuasion, the wearing of thongs in summer and ugg boots in winter, and a love of the whole Holden vs Ford thing. For further information, go to Youtube and watch the clips of Eric Bana as Poida in the comedy show, Full Frontal.

Aaaaaaaanyway, I suspect every bogan in New South Wales has descended on the ACT this weekend for Summernats. In my opinion, Summernats is a teeeeeeeeerrible idea, because not only is the population of Canberra subjected to a multitude of truly hideous coloured cars (for some reason, bogans are very fond of metallic Cadbury purple and metallic lime green...), blasting doof-doof music, and car engines that go "blublublublublublublublub" at decibels that make your eardrums explode, but it encourages bogans to meet OTHER bogans, and breed little tiny bogans... And yes, there are female bogans present at Summernats - they're looking to win the coveted 'Miss Summernats' title, which appears to require bleached blonde hair, a size 8 figure, and plastic boobs to secure victory.

And of course, in a cruel twist of fate, Summernats takes place five minutes down the road from my apartment. So not only have I been suffering through traffic jams, fireworks, the smell of petrol and burning rubber, and drunk men wearing ridiculous sombreros, but at the delightful hour of 6.45am yesterday morning, the charming individuals staying at the caravan park down the road from my apartment decided they were going to hold drag races down the street. This, of course, required much engine revving and tyre squealing and yelling and cheering. All of which is not conducive to sleep... On the plus side, the proximity of Exhibition Park meant that I got a free concert from the Screaming Jets on Friday night and the Choirboys on Saturday night...

Anyway, the great horror that is Summernats finishes today, and all the delightful participants will be leaving the ACT and heading back up the Federal Highway to New South Wales. Now if only the hot weather would dissipate, I could get a decent night's sleep for a change...........

K xx :)