: : awkward pirouettes : :

2008-05-01T23:22:00.002+10:00

among all the frustrating missed calls from call centres and my hairdresser, i got a rather nice text from my senior educator, informing me that the class that i was meant to have on a tuesday night (and that we turned up to and left 30 minutes later as no teacher ever showed) was now on a friday afternoon, thereby giving me tuesdays totally free from school. given that my previous timetable gave me wednesdays off, to work, i now have a full day to myself. i'm thrilled.

i watched some videos (!) and a few demonstrations on sugar art tonight. i cannot wait to start playing around next week.

2008-04-21T22:25:00.002+10:00

i am still somewhat in shock about the following things:

1. i have been taken off BBC since my accuracy level is not as high as what the powers that be would like it to be. i am both horrified and thrilled at this turn of events; i hate doing everything but the nice and slow 'our world' and the tech-happy 'click' but hate everything else because english people on tv speak quickly and have no grasp of how to use punctuation when reading (i.e. pauses for full stops are not observed and so sentences seem to run on until the reader runs out of breath), so it's kinda good. the crappy side is that the voice training woman from sydney is going to come down and help me increase my accuracy and i really, really hate any kind of training-ish situation since i feel like a dick at least 95% of the time in any kind of training situation. also, i am the special kind of perfectionist that if i'm not good at something, i'd prefer to just not do it rather than train and train at it because i like to be good at something first go and just improve from there. being crap at stuff is not something i handle well, which is why i was thrilled that:

2. my only class for the today mutated into a class excursion to a bar. seriously. one minute, we're in class. the next minute, the oft-discussed but-never-seeming-like-they'll-come-to-fruition plans are go. fucking brilliant. our tram broke down in the middle of an intersection and the doors were stuck closed and certain freaky international students starting looking wild-eyed and crazed and in dire need of a paper bag to just, like, breathe into and a drunk man down the other end started lecturing everyone on the best way to repay a loan. we ended up at cookie and after the nerds left, a nice little bunch of kids that i have a soft spot for plus my rad-as-fuck teacher hung out and talked shit. best. class. ever. later, i met up with jen and ate too much teppanyaki. now that's a fucking good night. the unfortunate thing is that i was thinking i'd only be out until 5:30 so was running around tonight with a t-shirt, shorts and short sleeved cardigan and it was somewhat chilly by the time i got home. i'm cold now, sitting on the couch wearing multiple layers and with a blankie and my nice warm laptop. eep. will hope this doesn't turn into a cold.

2008-04-18T00:02:00.003+10:00

someone drank a little bit too much tonight and i think it was me. oops!

it was all in the name of fun, though, and i don't actually think i was messy at all. although people at the bar could probably correct me on that one. it wasn't until i was wandering the aisles of coles on my walk home that i realised that i was smiling and humming frank sinatra and that's not normal public behaviour for me and once i got home and started making my favourite snack* that i realised that yes, i was a wee bit tispy. but whatever. recorded music salon have some awesome drinks and the bartenders there (well, one in particular) was very passionate about his work and i love to see that and so i tried everything that he recommended and i found myself drinking stuff that i normally wouldn't pick (like a fig and vanilla contoction and an agave margarita) and *loving* them. so thankyou, crazy bar guy. i'm sure he should be thanking me, though, for all the money i dropped at his feet, but it was so worth it.

tonight was good for letting off a bit of steam and for seeing my pals, realising again (for the millionth time) that they are fucking awesome people and that my life is actually in a pretty good place right now.

xoxoxo

* pott's sourdough with olive oil, roma tomatoes, freshly ground salt and pepper.

2008-04-15T12:22:00.002+10:00

one of the sucky things i've found about growing up is that when i decide to be an adult and deal with issues, problems or just random shit that pops up and i'm lazy about dealing with, once that issue is solved it normally creates another problem. or worse - numerous more issues that need to be addressed.

seriously, i envy mental patients sometimes. the idea of hanging out in my pjs all day, getting doped out on various meds and talking about my feelings a lot seems a whole lot easier than being an adult and dealing with two fucking real estate agents who can't talk to one another about erecting a goddamn pointer sign outside my rental and have to do it through me.

2008-04-13T12:16:00.003+10:00

ok, so my boss sent out this angrypants email - seriously, like, ALL IN CAPS, about the fact that there'a a gazillion plastic containers (tupperware and cheap knock-offs of same) in the kitchen and if people don't collect their shit by monday afternoon, she's throwing it all out. there's none of my stuff there, so that's ok. despite that fact, i took something anyway. i don't think of it as stealing so much as saving something (that's been sitting in the kitchen for about a month now) from the bin: a hello kitty lunchbox. i find it amusing that everyone just assumed it was mine and i assumed it belonged to the new girl of asian descent. no clue who it belonged to (past tense, people, PAST tense) but it's mine now. suckers.

i made cherry ripe icecream last night. it was seriously better than my last attempt because instead of being a vanilla-based icecream with chocolate and cherry bits in it, it was a coconut milk base with dark couverture flakes and griotte (read: boozy brandy style!) cherry pieces flavoured with wonderfully dark, rich dutch-processed cocoa. and some of the griotte juice stuff for good measure. dig it:

also, amazingly, it started to set up as i cooled the mix in the fridge, so we could actually eat it straight from the icecream machine! generally the mix is still sloppy and it has to go sit in the freeezer for a while to firm up and that sucks because i have no patience for that kind of shit.

oh, and the tax department sucks. after all the shit i went through about them wanting more info about my redundancy payment and whatnot (which i gave them the first time around but then had to provide a second lot of shit to them in a slightly different form - with the same fucking numbers, natch), i get a fucking BILL. fuck that. i am *so* claiming my new tv on my tax this year. jerks.

2008-04-03T23:16:00.002+11:00

oh, what fun! my first foray into molecular gastronomy.

we started with water and chocolate...

..and, five minutes later, ended up with this...

..chocolate mousse, motherfuckers!

how awesome is that? to quote the great frenchman upon viewing my ridiculously perfect danishes of my pastry goods assessment, i am fucking impressed.

2008-03-31T13:44:00.002+11:00

epiphany! plus also maybe NOTE TO SELF:

just because you don't know jackshit abot molecular gastronomy doesn't mean you have no skills in the kitchen. you're still a student, for fuck's sake, and one with no commercial experience. wait a while, until you have the time to think/experiment/play with food, then beat yourself up for being a dipshit if you can't get it right.

just because you are finding certain things difficult to make vegan doesn't mean you're an idiot. it means, again, you need time to play. you need money to buy weird ingredients from la sanctuaire and play around with corn-based emulsifiers and stuff. learning food tech would probably help, too, but that's not going to happen. train yourself, learn what you have to, but give yourself time. geez. recreating dairy is hard. give yourself a fucking break.

just because you look at all the fancypants avant garde stuff coming out of NYC doesn't mean that you have to do it, too. you wanted to be a patissier, remember, not a pastry chef. we've already figured out that you like creating baked goods more than plated desserts. stop looking at the fancy stuff and go play in the web of the old-school pastry world.

finally, have you seen your hair lately? damn, baby, it looks good. and EVERYONE knows that looking good is the first step to world domination, right? right.

2008-03-28T16:41:00.002+11:00

here is a list of happy things in an effort to ward away this awful black cloud that's been floating over my head for the last couple of days that has been whispering stuff in my head about hurting oneself and becoming a hermit and how the patisserie career will never amount to anything and whatnot. i want to kill the voice. i haven't heard it for some time and it's back and i am working on getting it the fuck away from me. i have very clear opinions on my life and where it's going and let's just say it's not all that bad, but refuting the voice's comments is getting tiresome. i'm not even sure if that made sense; whatever. on with the list!

1. i *still* really like sam mason. i care not for these people dissing the guy and calling him a pretty boy. i say: he's hot, he's a pastry chef and i need a crush, so fuck you, naysayers. plus, his place in new york sells a bubblegum-flavoured cocktail and you really, honestly, can't beat that shit.

2. chip kidd's latest book. not as good as the first, but still very good, giggle-worthy in parts and with lovely 60s-era vocab.

3. photos from school. looking at them helps me realise that i am learning things. making a whole bunch of chocolates over easter also helped me to realise that i have somehow accrued skills. also, i made a vegan gianduja/soy milk chocolate mix that tasted *exactly* like the dairy-based version produced at school. i'm still pleased about that.

4. finally, i may have gotten myself into a situation with the co-owners of my hair salon. the crazy man wants me to make cakes that they can sell by the slice to their customers which, while it's actually not such a bad idea, i'm not sure is feasible. i think i'd need to pre-package and label the cakes, probably like individual serves, and that's not going to happen with my current workload. plus, i would probably not be able to sell a business anything a) without a registered business or at least an ABN and b) without a properly council-registered food safe kitchen, which my current household version most definitely is not.

the lady, though, had a better idea. she wants a cake for her daughter's 18th. her idea was a pavlova. ok. not vegan, but i'd maybe do it for her. for how many? 100 people? uh, no. not going to happen. we've worked out a possible solution: 200 mini cupcakes. hey - it's easier to serve, eat and no-one has to cut any stupid fucking cakes (my least favourite part of feeding people, especially when they're all standing around, wild-eyed and jonesing for sugar and you're fumbling around with a knife trying to get the pieces vaguely even = not good). the celebration's in june/july and is being held at the salon, which is only down the road from me, anyways, so we'll see. might be a nice way to drum up some cash and spread the vegan lovin'.

5. fries. is there a more perfect food? i mean, really?

6. hoodies and scarf weather. i even got to wear my striped arm warmers last night. they even stopped me from being completely fucking drowned in the rain. yay!

7. yasai sukiyaki. especially when the pan is sizzling so hard that the chef delivers it, holding the entire thing as far away from his face as possible because it's that fucking hot.

8. t2's cherry tisane. oh. my. god. must make sorbet from this stuff. apple and cinnamon rates closely in the yum ratings, too.

9. new sheets for the bed. crisp!

10. thinking about the future. more training. seeing ideas become reality. travel. you know: FUN stuff.

2008-03-27T22:16:00.002+11:00

tonight i had drinks with friends, saw a cooked pig's head in a large flat box being served to the people behind us and got drenched with rain to the point that i was dripping. it was fun. i like drinks with friends and pig heads. ok, maybe not the pig. i did, however, like watching people walking around with what looked like trays filled with little bottles of shampoo.

2008-03-15T21:54:00.002+11:00

i'm not sure which is more awesome - chris ware's animation or this american life on tv, but i am mighty pleased with this little video.

i'm still at work. i should have gone home 1.5 hours ago, but there's a whole bunch of council elections happening in queensland that we didn't think twice about and that the network we do work for didn't think important enough to imform us about. it's a fucking landslide and rather embarassing for the losing lord mayoral candidate and i wish they'd just decide to just leave it alone already because, right now, i'd love to be at home eating a satay pizza, reading my liquor studies textbook, drinking a limoncello granita that i devised yesterday and learning about beer. and yes, i lead a very exciting life. fuck you.

2008-03-14T21:30:00.002+11:00

i'm trying to do this flickr 365 project thing where you're supposed to take a photo for every day of the year. so far, two days down, i'm quite enjoying it but that may change as time gets tighter and the homework mounts. anyway, here's my two so far.

yesterday:

lunch at tokyo deli, elsternwick. the boy in the photo is rather cute and the bbq tofu don was excellent.

today, in my dietary requirements prac:

yum. gluten replacer.

the class tonight ruled. there was myself and another girl, and that was it. our teacher was away, so we had this awesome german baker dude we see around the place and we all agreed that we had a ball. every so often my favourite frenchman would make an appearance to bring me a piece of tart or tell me something stupid that one of his students' had done. nice to see he's looking after me, that one.

has anyone noticed that it's, like, way too hot right now?

2008-03-02T23:07:00.004+11:00

ah, the things that keep me awake at night. last night's topic: in a back alley showdown between anthony bourdain and gordon ramsay, who would win?

i worked 8.5 hours today and it was like, with every passing bulletin that i tackled, the intelligence level sank lower and lower and lower.

at various times from 12.30 until 3, i did some BBC stuff (interview with a UK politician, some entertainment show thingy and a documentary about russia).

at 6pm, i did sydney's news. it was relatively ok, in general - nothing too tacky and the whole "j.lo's named her kids!!!! thing" was dropped, which is *awesome* because, seriously, if someone's that interested in shit like that, they're going to be reading 'who weekly' or something.

at 7pm, i did brisbane's news. basically, more fucking idiots decided that, although it was pelting down with rain and about a gazillion people had previously been rescued from swollen rivers already, they'd go swimming and have to cling to a tree for 8 hours until help arrived. oh, and it rained a lot. we had coverage of that. and did you know that j.lo named her kids? awesome! please note that this story was slotted in directly after a small mention of the shit that's currently going down in gaza; possibly their most intelligent news of the show.

at 8pm, i did perth's news. the sports dude looks like an undertaker and looks as though they're just keeping the poor fucker alive to read his part of the bulletin, then they bury him again until it's time to reanimate the corpse for the weekend news again. the newsreader looks like mr potato head and has about the same skill level at reading, injecting emotion into his voice and, more importantly HIS FACE. note to producers everywhere: just because they can produce a news package and do a quick 2-sentence piece to camera DOES NOT, i repeat, DOES NOT mean that they should present a show. although watching the guy struggling with his manlihood while trying to intro the story about the mardi gras was insanely funny.

now, if you'll excuse me, my cats are trying to kill one another. bastards.

2008-02-29T22:53:00.002+11:00

why i'm glad i went to school tonight:

seriously the greatest teacher of all time, that guy. he knows his shit and is fucking hilarious.

i saw this on another blog and since i'm having a break from homework but still want to write about something food-related, this is it.

my five favourite foods
gyoza, fries, bbq tofu don, cupcakes (what? they're a food!), tofu goulash. of course, this changes just about all the damn time.

my five least favourite foods
most mushrooms (except enoki, 'cause they're small and light and lovely), cauliflower (unless it's chopped up hella small or served in this indian-ish thing we used to make all the time and the name of which is escaping me), apricots, chilli, mango (although jo-ann was trying to challlenge my tastebuds on that last one and i think she may have won a few points off me).

something i've never cooked but really should have
seitan. oh my god, how have i never made seitan? i've always meant to, but just haven't. bad, bad mishy.

what i ate today
breakfast: two slices of rye toast and a big freaking coffee

lunch: lentil soup, mixed berry juice

at school: wholewheat crepes, strawberries, raspberry sauce, a mouthful of frangelico and hazelnut ice cream (so fucking good!) and some gianduja, just for the hell of it.

dinner: this microwave noodles with thai peanut sauce thingy, since i was starving and had been cooking already for a few hours and the idea of cooking more was just not an option. as cheap and probably not nutricious as it is, it's not bad.

my last meal on earth
entree: gyoza. of course.
main: fries with a club sandwich from real food daily in LA
dessert: probably a triple-chocolate brownie, warmed slightly, and served with ice cream - probably banana, i think.
drink: an aviation or two, me thinks.

there's colds and weird virus-ish things gong around at the moment and i think i may be on the verge of getting *something*. i almost didn't go to school tonight because i felt like ass. i went for a walk today and once i came hom, had to sit down for a while because it felt like i was going to fall over, and that's never good. i've been pretty zombie-like all day, too. ick...

2008-02-28T10:36:00.001+11:00

i'm not sure if anyone who reads this (or if they read this thing anymore) is interested, but a free download of the latest "it" lit book is here. it's available until friday. i've heard good and bad things and wanted to check it out, but didn't want to throw more cash at amazon so this is the perfect solution. not that i have any time to read, but that's beside the point.

2008-02-25T22:16:00.002+11:00

i feel like my entire body is as tense as possible and has been that way for the last week or so. there's a lot of homework to do so far this term and i've been having trouble getting it all done. plus, i've been feeling really run down and ick, so getting up early to do homework and then toddling off to work or school until late at night hasn't been much fun. at all. but, besides that, everything's well. the homework i'm doing is actually really interesting (plan a coffee shop? awesome! plan a menu? awesome! create the full procedure, including OH& S and HACCP stuff for a plated dessert? awesome!) and the classes are mostly rad (marzipan is still fucking awful*) and so are the teachers. plus, every friday i get to see my two favourite pastry chefs and that always makes for a fun night.

i spent a total of five hours at the hairdressers at the hairdressers this week. first, 1.5 hours on tuesdays getting my hair cut and the rest on friday as a training model for their colour training. they're switching over to be an aveda salon and wanted someone that they could use the "vibrant, crazy colours" on. i'm not too sure how dark red counts as "crazy", but i sure as hell liked paying next-to-nothing to have the training boss of aveda doing my hair. it's pretty rad. they bleached bits and coloured them the same red as my fringe. i would never have thought to do it this way, but the compliments i've gotten have shown me that it was a pretty good decision. they want more people in there as models, so if you're interested, get in touch and i'll give you the details.

* the dude, who has no concept of "we have never, ever, ever moulded marzipan before so please perhaps show us some of the techniques used to do so" had a talking-to from our co-ordinator after a bunch of us went to see him during a break in class. it was ridiculous. he made a few examples of fruit (being a pear, an apple and then something that he told us was a pineapple but looked like some kind of mutant dragonfruit) and then told us to go off and make stuff. how? what are we doing with our hands? why is it so sticky? we received no answers to any of these questions; they were met with "just try to do it". one girl was trying to explain to him that his "teaching" style was akin to her saying "spread your legs, sit down and spin. that's how you do calisthenics". anyway, later, after the co-ord came in and spoke to us, with the teacher dude next to him (can you say "fucking mortifyingly embarassing?") he did a few demonstrations, but was still an ass about the whole deal.

2008-02-15T21:17:00.003+11:00

i am happy.

turns out i didn't need my uniform or tool kit for tonight's introduction to dietary requirements, which was a pain in the ass since i busted my ass to get the damn thing ironed and catch the tram with plenty of time to spare to get changed at school, but never mind. it was strange sitting in the kitchen wearing street clothes, though, i've gotta say.

and my beloved frenchman was teaching the same thing in the class next door, so we merged classes a while to watch a godawful dvd about anaphylaxis and allergies. it was nice to hear his accent again. later, i stayed back to chat about my pal jo-ann with my teacher (he had us both last term) and then hung out in the other kitchen with the frenchman and talked shit a while. he's great because he's not like a regular teacher who has to act all teacherly and say "well, maybe you should take your concerns to the co-ordinator blah blah blah" because he seriously swears as much as i do and his response to the marzipan class thing the other night was "what the fuck? that is fucked! they are both fucked!" which, if you can imagine in a french accent, is like music to my ears.

it'll be a good class, i think. it's a semester long and it's one week theory, one week practical class and written in the class schedule, near the bottom is the word "vegan". i was thrilled. really. we get to make a lime tofu cheesecake. fuckin'-a, baby!

2008-02-14T13:28:00.002+11:00

the oven is here. it needs to be hardwired by an electrician. i thought it was just a regular plug-in thing, but that's ok. the main thing is that it's here. finally. watch me now shoot off an abusive email to the place i bought it from, since it's a week since i requested delivery and hadn't heard one fucking thing from them about a delay.

oh, and the delivery guy likes my shoes. what's with that. yes, they're red shiny stuff and look cute, but that's just plain weird.

2008-02-13T20:40:00.002+11:00

miss jennifer tells me that there's a message on the phone at home from some dude advising that my oven will be delivered at noon tomorrow.

my fingers are tentatively crossed, though i'm not holding my breath...

oh, also: chocolate class today was pure awesomeness. the teacher is brilliant, the work was interesting, fun and hey, it involved chocolate! i wanted to wave my chocolate-covered palette knife at people staring in the rather large window spanning the length of the room (the chocolate room and its $70,000 chocolate enrobing machine is pretty much the pride and joy of the culinary academy for not only the patisserie department, but also food tech and confectionary peeps, too) and yell "look! i'm pretending to be a chocolatier!". that's how much fun i was having. i mean, there was an 80 litre kettle filled with dark callebaut chocolate. there was a tap on it to dispense melted chocolate, ready for tempering. i swear, i want to MARRY that machine. it will play third wheel to my love affair with the pastry sheeter, for sure, but that's ok. i have love enough for two. we made chocolate bars and will move on to filled chocolates next week! yay!!

2008-02-12T22:07:00.001+11:00

holy fucking fuck.

tonight's class was run by some dude who couldn't teach to save his life, let alone act like a fucking teacher. granted, he was antagonised by one of the class newbies (one that i thought was quiet and wouldn't pose a problem, natch) and instead of taking it in his stride and continuing on with the class, it all basically erupted into the two of them having a screaming match. then we had a class break when the former brats of the class communicated their horror and embarassment at the situation, proving just how bad these new fucks are. then, back to work where the two continued to antagonise each other.

about 30 minutes later, another teacher came into the room and took the dude outside for chat. then she let him carry on with his explanation of how to make boiled marzipan (riveting shit, really) and sidled up to me to ask what went down. i loved that she indicated to the newbies behind me and asked "so, are these kids trouble?". i think my answer was "well, we've only been in class with them for two days...but yes. hell, yes." we'll see what happens tomorrow, with another teacher (who they apparently like, thankfully) and further down the track. i have no problem going to the co-ordinators to complain about either the newbie teacher or the newbie kids, because i will not spend every tuesday night feeling like i'm having to walk on eggshells and listen to the most boring teacher on earth talk about crap and the entire semester dealing with these fucking brats.

my mummy bought me four bars of tropical source chocolate today. i would dearly love a beer right now, but since there's none in the house the chocolate will more than do. sweet cocoa eases the pain...

2008-02-12T15:18:00.000+11:00

now that the first day of school is done, i'm feeling both better and worse about the upcoming semester. better because it's worked out that i'm not going to have to do my prac classes alone (preferable, given the option of an international student who i cannot communicate well with and has the patisserie skills of a ham-fisted drunkard), but worse because said partner is one of those kids who cannot wait to get out of class and rushes everything. last term, during bakery class, she mixed up bread improver and the gluten. how do you do that? her bread came out like a fucking pancake. it is this kind of shit that worries me.

we've got some new kids in our class, too, two of which i'd like some alone-time with so i can tell them what's what. the guy (playfully named after napoleon dynamite by former classmates due to his looks) speaks so slowly and treats every subject with what i'm sure he thinks is grave importance but comes across as being semi-retarded to everyone else. he works at mcdonalds. he hates it. he manages to turn every conversation about management into a slow, boring whining session (probably what he thinks is a tirade) about how his job sucks. by about 8pm last night, i told him he should just deal with it or get another job because that much crap is just now worth dealing with or having to listen to all the fucking time. the other monster is a girl who couldn't be more than 20 and thinks she's lil' miss attitude. except i tend to think that she's just a pouty, whiny, spoilt bitch who should just leave the course if she's not interested. she has conversations at a volume level above that of the presiding teachers or speaking class-member and basically just needs a foot up the ass. we nearly had a little brawl in coffee shop planning because she took offence to my throwing the class list at her back. i pointed out that had she been facing the front of the class, she would have seen me passing it and wouldn't have had to have me do that. if she'd not been talking, too, she might have heard me say her name four times or so to get her attention. i also told her that i had a big stapler within easy arms' reach and would have thrown that at her back instead, so which did she prefer. that's going to be an interesting one to deal with all semester. i think i'm just going to need to take a lot of deep breaths and realise that pretty much all gen-y kids that i will deal with will make me want to stab myself in the eye with a dipping fork.

the teachers are great. quality control is run by a swiss chef with 20 years of experience and a gorgeous accent. liquor studies is run by a crazy-as-fuck bartender who tells awesome stories. coffee shop planning is run by a really nice dude with friends in the captioning world who absolutely knows his shit and oversees the entire coffee thing at school and who told me, upon my leaving the room, to "hang in there". was it that obvious??

the timetable says i have the crazy frenchman for marzipan tonight while someone else has heard that we've got a newbie teacher. i guess i'll find out in a few hours. should be fun!

2008-02-09T23:33:00.000+11:00

oh, hell yeah. possibly the hottest pastry chef to roam the earth makes quinoa. this is like porn to me. really.

the only drawback is that the mr chatterbox grey hoodie guy reminds me of a stalked i had once. i'm not kidding. and that's kinda not something i want to remember. he had the same insatiable appetite for cheese, too. weird.

2008-02-07T16:19:00.000+11:00

my teachers and pastry associates and i are constantly frustrated and dismayed at the way desserts are treated in this country. it's rare that restaurants nowadays actually have a pastry chef, let alone a team. it's ridiculously hard to find equipment and certain ingredients and shipping the stuff in from overseas is generally the only option. and people tend to think that a fucking pavlova is the be all and end all of scrumptiousness.

here is further proof that no-one cares. i'm searching for a job for a friend of mine under the word 'patisserie' and the search engine asks me 'did you mean "rotisserie"?'

fuck this non-patisserie appreciating, meat-focused country in the ass.

also. it's almost 4.30. where the fuck is the delivery man with my goddamned oven already?

2008-02-05T22:48:00.000+11:00

i had one of those days where i didn't get out of bed until 11, when a friend called. i then sat on the couch and chatted to her for about two hours. by the time i've hung up the phone, i'd lost all motivation to shower or leave the house.

the good news was that i managed to replace the shower curtain with a nice, non-mouldy, trimmed to size one, made a hanging screen thingy for the kitchen window and scanned a shitload of photos that i found when i moved. i also met 3/4 of my siblings for dinner where i was mortified by my sisters' dress code (fisherman pants and thongs to a restaurant? a *nice* restaurant?) and the fact that she presented my brother with a charming dinner-table book 'the gay man's karma sutra'. anth isn't even embarassed that easily and he was hissing at her to put the fucking thing back in her bag. the old people at the table next to us left soon thereafter. who could blame them, really? still, though, dinner was fun. we laughed loudly told stupid stories and even got the grumpy ass waitress to lighten up. and the food was ace. i then came home and ordered an oven over the internet. whatever, i say. i'm sick of trolling ebay or the trading post and worrying about pickup times or annoying salespeople in stores. i've requested it be delivered on thursday. hopefully that happens and i can make katrina's cake at home! otherwise, a relative's oven is good, too. they're fighting over me! both siblings tonight wanted me to mess up their kitchens. that's sweet, though i'm not sure they realise that i'm not handing over any of the spoils of my labour.

also, yesterday i made lemon ice cream. it tasted like my lemon tart which is awesome, but will be awesomer with tweaking. needs more lemon, dammit! MORE!

2008-02-03T21:22:00.000+11:00

i cannot believe i voiced the following live to the BBC today:

"Dan Simmons on why more of us may be using the mobile wed in the coming year and, in fact, if you have found any great on one apse feel fine, in our ass."

no, not "mobile webs", "great online apps" or "feel free to email us".

feel fine in our ass? holy fucking shit. we're talking tech news, not male porn.

i am the worst voice captioner alive.

2008-01-31T15:37:00.000+11:00

i had lunch with a friend today and, upon greeting each other, said "i should probably address you as 'chef' now, huh?" which made me grin from ear to ear.

i keep forgettting that. i am a chef. holy shit. i certainly do not even remotely feel like one. i have so much to learn and i freak out when other people post amazing vegan discoveries on their blog and wonder why i can't work out half the shit they do, then i realise that they're food science people and i, clearly, am not. but what i *can* do is work with the things they're discovering to make unhealthy sugar-filled treats for everyone.

my day off had been great, what with the morning house clean-up, lunch date and drinks tonight at 1806. i feel relaxed. this is good.