Follow through

There are so many things that I start each day wanting to do and then not following through on. For example:

- calling the physio to make an appointment to get my pelvic floor sorted out

- more recently, calling the physio to make an appointment to get my tight glutes sorted out

- reflecting on the possible relationship between an undisciplined pelvic floor and tight glutes

- organising fun things to do with my friends

- brainstorming some great content for MSC

- going to the bank to do boring non-urgent bank stuff

- booking tickets to see The Book of Mormon (mate, I'm seriously going to do this tomorrow) 

Etc. etc. etc. 

It's just that there's no time at all before the day takes over.

Appleheart is the opposite. If he woke up at 7am one Monday determined to get his pelvic floor sorted out, he'd have had his first appointment by the end of the day and be crushing walnuts with his pelvic food muscles by the same time next week. His follow through is outstanding.

I guess some part of me doesn't feel that this stuff is important, otherwise I'd do it, right? I follow through on the important stuff. And I'll follow through on the list above. Eventually. 

Say, should I set myself a little challenge? How about I come back on Wednesday with a concrete date for seeing The Book of Mormon! 

Yeah! 

Well shit

K's done an out of session Friday post. Does this mean I don't need to post today? Up is down! Down is up! Tom Hardy is hot in Dunkirk! But don't bother seeing it for his hotness! I don't know what is going on today! But I'll just say this: I know that people, including Miss Dizzy and Pickle are pretty hot for this Tom Hardy. Frankly I don't see it.  According to IMDb he's in films that I've seen but I've never noticed him in those. I've just seen him in photos on the internet which do nothing for me. BUT I am the first to admit that seeing a person front and centre in a film can do a lot, A LOT for their hotness. So don't worry Tom Hardy, I'm not writing you off yet.

Uh-oh nuts

Last night I went to see the film Dunkirk. Tom Hardy plays a spitfire pilot in it. When he came on screen in his cream wool turtleneck and leather jacket with sheepskin collar, looking all warm and broody I thought you know what? Long-time Miss Soft Crab fan Miss Dizzy is right. Tom Hardy sure has got something. Then I thought Shit! Miss Soft Crab! I forgot to post! Sorry about that folks. 

Also, a little PSA, if you're going to Dunkirk expecting to see Tom Hardy be really handsome, you can save your money. He soon after puts a pilot mask on and spends basically the entire rest of the film with his face covered up. It's like buying a fancy car that goes really fast (a Ferrari I guess? A Maserati maybe?) only to drive in 40km per hour school zones between 3pm and 4:30pm. A total waste!  

Snownuts

K isn't the only one feeling pretty good about herself after discovering ghost tram. I'm feeling pretty special too. I don't want to brag, but guys, I've done it again. Two weeks ago it was apple pie toastie, now meet snownuts. And I'm not talking about Russeth's Friday night. 

A little while ago while talking about the prospect of buying donuts Baby started saying words that rhymed with donuts. "Are you buying brobutts? Snownuts?"

'Mmmmm, snownuts' I thought. I didn't know what a snownut would be, I just knew it would be delicious. White and pillowy like snow but fried and delicious like a donut. I tried to imagine how you could get something so lovely sounding. A donut covered in heaps of icing sugar. No that's just a sugary donut. I kept thinking about it going through different possibilities until it suddenly struck me. I'd make a meringue, fill it with something and deep fry it. SNOWNUT! First I thought I'd fill it with lemon curd but I felt like it needed something even more special than that and decided on raspberry curd. 

I knew I'd seen poached meringues before but I'd never seen deep fried meringues so naturally I googled it and found that Poh has a recipe for a fancier version of this using pandan creme patissiere and spun sugar. So I knew it would work and so I set to... work. 

First I made a raspberry curd which is just like making a lemon curd but I added some heated strained raspberries to it. 

Then I made my meringue. I noticed Poh included flour and corn flour in her recipe which I was a little wary of. But as a frequent pavlova maker I decided I'd add some corn flour for a little integrity. I used theee egg white about half a cup of castor sugar, about a tablespoon of corn flour and a little vanilla extract. Whipped it into some stiff snowy peaks and used Poh's technique to create the snownuts. This involved putting the meringue mixture into a ladle, making a well, adding the curd the covering that over with some meringue.

Then I fried the little bastards. Oh my god. Fucking snownuts! They are delicious. 

Snownut ripped open

They really are these lovely sweet pillows. I'd never really chose to eat a meringue, I don't like the crunchy chalky texture that they are often entirely made up of. I like that on the outside of a pav, but meringues tend to be all crunch, no softness. Snownuts are like the pillowy inside of a pavlova with a delightful deep-fried skin and a delicious tangy burst in the middle. In fact I think lemon curd would have worked pretty damn well here, like an inside out lemon meringue pie. But I guess I can try that next time!*

*As if. I have to stop inventing delicious sweet treats, especially of the deep-fried variety. I know where this is heading and it involves me not fitting into my jeans. And I love jeans even more than deep-fried things!

Ghost tram

It's no secret that I love public transport. Trains. Trams. Even the occasional bus. They're part of my daily life and I wouldn't have it any other way. For me, one of the joys of going to another big city is getting to know the public transport system, and delighting in the fact that it's inevitably more efficient than our own (excluding the #96 tram line, the most speedy and wonderful tram line in Melbourne, which in my mind could not get more efficient if it tried). 

But if there is something more exciting than discovering another city's public transport system, its discovering something new about your own. I'm not talking about where to stand at your favourite train station so the doors stop right in front of you, or which tram door to get on to maximise your chances of getting a seat, or even once on the tram, where to position yourself on a full tram so as to pounce on a newly vacated seat (if north of separation street, beside a girl in a Santa Maria College uniform). That's low hanging fruit.

I'm talking about discovering how to catch a tram that isn't even there. 

The PT scene really cranked up a notch with the arrival of Tram Tracker. That little pal in your pocket that can tell you the three next trams at a given stop, what time the tram you're on is due to arrive at a given location, when there is a delay due to some shit going down. It's fantastic. 

The next three trams feature is my favourite, and essential when I'm trying to make a tram connection after going to the gym in the mornings. It's all a bit of a rush and I need to know how much I should hustle. 

It looks like this, in case you're not a user. 

As you can see, it even shows you what kind of tram is coming. Only sometimes, early in the mornings, there ain't no picture of a tram. Just a blank space and then the number of minutes. I found this weird, and several times hustled to catch those trams, but they never came. I gave up on them. They were ghost trams. 

But one day, standing my designated stop, waiting for the tram after the ghost tram because I knew better, I heard the faint sound of trams gliding on tracks. I looked up, saw nothing, and then decided to walk down the street a bit, to the corner of Plenty road and high street and around the corner to miller street, where the tram depot is.

And that's when I saw The ghost tram. You see, instead of starting its journey in Bundoora or wherever the heck the 86 goes, it starts at the Preston depot. I guess there are so many people on the 86 route that they have to keep the supply up. The first stop it goes past is the stop after my stop. It's a ghost tram until then.

It was a real eureka moment. Now when Tram tracker tells me ghost tram is on it's way, I trot down to the next stop and intercept it. I'm the first passenger on ghost tram! I tell you, it's really something.

We all like to feel special, right? Ghost tram makes me feel special. Because I cracked the code and just because I love being on a tram all by myself. 

Black and white

I think it's important to acknowledge the point K alluded to on Friday. When it comes to hunks it's not all just black and white. What about Hispanic?

And Asian?!

Ha! Just jokes. But seriously folks, when it comes to hunks Miss Soft Crab may have you believe it's a matter of just two choices, hunks

and not hunks

But life is not all black and white and neither are hunks. Hunks are much more complex than that. There's of course those that are a little bit hot:

and those that are really quite hot:

Not every hunk is going to start with a question (e.g. is this guy a hunk?) and end with a definitive answer (e.g. YES)

Most times you want to figure out if someone is a hunk it will probably just end up with a murky kinda maybe. But that's ok too, that's life guys. And not surprisingly, that's Collin Farrel too. I initially found him pretty repulsive and then I saw him in In Bruges which I really enjoyed and liked him in and then I saw him on Graham Norton and quite enjoyed him and I guess I think K's probably right, he's a little bit hot. And that's great, good for him and good for us. They can't all be hunks, but a little bit hot is ok by me.

A little bit hot

Today's post answers the question posed on Wednesday: is Colin Farrell hot? I'm going to give you the answer straight up: he's quite hot, readers, quite hot. 

For many years, I paid him no mind, because he seemed kind of gross like one of those dime store hunks they try to palm off on us as the real deal. You know the type. 

When I saw The New World I realised I was prepared to tolerate him. Years later I saw The Lobster and I realised he was quite good in things. I guess a seed got planted, because from then on, I've been slightly interested in him. 

Plus, he's Irish, and that can be quite hot. 

So when I started to see ads for The Beguiled I thought  it was time to answer the question once and for all. But let me be clear, the research proposition was not to establish if he's a hunk. I know he's not. But as I was watching it, I could see that he's more interesting than most handsome people on the screen. You know, he's quite hot. 

Why is flannel so magic?!

Last week I bought flannel donna covers for my bed and Baby's bed and Newbie's bed because the nights are cold and the mornings are colder and it's mid-year sale time. And since I put them on the bed 4 days ago all I've wondered is why the eff I didn't buy them earlier and how the hell is flannel so much warmer than regular cotton. After reading up on flannel on Wikipedia I'm none the wiser. Except I think what I'm calling flannel is actually flannelette and what can technically called flannel is ... I don't really know. Semantics really. All I care about is how the hell just brushing cotton, napping it, can make it so snuggly buggly. I've made no secret about how much I love bed. Lying in bed! Sleeping! Being warm! These are all in my top ten favourite things and when you add flannel(ette) to this mix these things are improved outta sight!

When I get into bed now my smile is bigger (yes, I actually smile when I get into bed most nights, especially if it's before 10PM and everyone is in their own beds) my body is warmer and I just feel fucking bon! I guess the softness is a substantial factor in the snuggly buggliness of flannel, but what about the warmth? I guess the nap means the tiny holes in the fabric are covered and gives it a better thermal retention. But also I guess the reason is really moot. Who gives a shit, just let me snuggle in my flannel dooney!

Seriously, Wednesday, WTF?

Much like last Wednesday,  this day has really got away from me. 

But tonight I'm going to the movies to answer a question I've been pondering for a while. 

Is Colin Farrell a bit hot? 

Starting the week off right

First I think it's really important to say, thanks K for starting the week of right. 

You know who else started it off right? This girl I see at the pool every Monday afternoon when I take Baby for his swimming lessons. Every week this girl is there probably having lessons too. She's probably  ten or twelve and I always see her after she's gotten out of the pool wearing white  flannel pjs with a colourful flouro print on them and she wears them with black Nike Frees. She looks totally fucking fly in the best way.  But not only does she looks totally fresh she looks so goddamn comfy. Imagine getting out of the pool late on a winter afternoon,  getting all snugly in your flannel pjs and probably going home TV watch to while someone makes you dinner. (Maybe - who knows what this girl does.) And also you look ace. That just seems like the best That girl is a goddman inspiration!

Bunch of hunks

I just wanted to see this today, so I'm using my platform to make it happen.

Am I right or am I right? 

Let's talk about Harry

You know in the old days Prince Harry just used to be the less attractive, douchey little brother of Prince William that used to get drunk and turn up to parties dressed as a Nazi. I mean, basically he was just a dude behaving like any other dude of his age, but as a prince I guess everyone got to hear about it and have an opinion about it. Sucks to be a prince I guess. Especially if your mum died when you were just a boy.

But after following a couple of royal Instagram accounts, I gotta tell ya, I really kinda dig Harry. I mean, I guess it is in everyone's interest, including his own, that he works with and promotes charities, but if he was a real douche he'd probably just hang out in Monaco snorting coke of chicks' tits, right? I really like how he's always publicly getting HIV tests to promote HIV prevention. Here he is getting tested with Rhianna.

I like how he talks about mental health issues and how hard he had it dealing with his mother's death. You know, like he would. I mean, sure it's all palace approved but he still does it and I gotta say word up to that guy. I know he gets lots of cool stuff like nice cars and good champagne and free trips and tax-payer funded income so he probably should be doing some good for the world, but word on him for doing that.

Mitten, come home

If anyone has seen a single mitten that looks exactly like this one but is alone on the streets or trams somewhere between Preston and Collins Street, please send it home to me. Little mitten may look tough but it has no street smarts and is likely to get eaten alive in the big bad city. 

I miss you little Mitten. You don't have to tell me where you've been. Just come home. 

WTF Wednesday

WTF? Where did this Wednesday go?!

Further thoughts

Boy oh boy am I excited about the Apple Pie toastie.

Do you think it's the kind of thing you could give a two year old as a special treat in their birthday or on a Tuesday? 

I hope so. 

I'm interested in the journey J went on to get to this version. 

And I'm also interested in trying the following variations:

- using fruit toast instead of white bread

- adding a schmear of peanut butter.

Do yourself a favour

I'm not saying I reinvented the wheel or anything but last week I developed a toasted sandwich that was pretty damn good. Maybe other people have already been making it. I don't know. All I know is that an idea popped into my head and I could not rest until it was in my mouth. And once it had been in my mouth I could not rest until I'd found its best iteration. 

I call it the apple pie toastie. It's like eating apple pie but without all the effort and I guess without so much sugar or fat. It's basically a simple, not too unhealthy sweet treat and I just think if you're into these flavours you may as well give it a go. This is the best way to do it: grate a green apple, mix that with a little sugar and cinnamon to taste (me, I go heavy on the cinnamon) put it in some white bread, butter the outside and sprinkle a little sugar on top to get a nice caramel crust. Toast it in a sandwich maker. Eat it.

Cute

I'm back at work now and can't stop thinking about Japan. Check out this cute PSA they put on the playground equipment. 

 

Kawaii!

Who am I kidding?

God, K's right! You can hitch all your dreams to the wardrobe audit wagon but in truth a wardrobe cleanse comes with as many negative emotions as positive ones. Yes you may feel lighter and better but at the same time you feel full of doubt. Will that dress never be right for you? How can you see all the way into the future like that? Will your daughter buy something just like it in 20 years time and kvetch when they find out you used to have this one? I have gotten rid of clothes that never seemed quite right after long term agonising and years later still wonder if it was the right decision. Conversely have a dress in my wardrobe I bought 13 years ago and never wear but it's so flattering I think I should keep it. Who knows how to cleanse a wardrobe successfully? Who knows if it will even help?

But as I write this and reflect I'm interested to discover I've never regretted getting rid of a pair of shoes. I don't question shoe dismissals at all. But shoes really are a different ball game. And hard to get rid of. Because sometimes a pair of shoes is only good for one outfit, but without those shoes that outfit may be nothing. 

But wait, am I thinking about this too much? Should I be more worried about ballistic missiles?

I started

I started the wardrobe audit yesterday. Thanks to J for that great terminology. I took everything out of my cupboards and laid it out on my bed. I made separate piles for dresses, jackets, knits, pants, skirts, etc. etc. etc. 

I didn't photograph it because I was kind of ashamed by the volume of stuff and the fact that I feel ambivalent about most of it. I started a pile of things to go to the op shop and I put lots and lots of things on it. That felt good.

Then I realsied that maybe I was dismissing some things that are still good, but just wrong for the season. Or maybe just need a wash. I started to doubt everything. And I got sentimental. What to do with my first pair of dejour jeans, that are still good but a bit too faded? Those jeans showed me how great jeans can be.  I'll want to wear super faded jeans again, one day, right? Ditto my green coat, the coat that so perfectly met my needs at the time I bought it, but I would never wear now. 

I guess I lost the thread of the exercise. I was tempted to move everything to the spare room and resume again today but in a real triumph of maturity, I decided that would be a mistake that would leave me feeling no sense of achievement as well as general anxious. 

I put away the things I knew I wanted to keep and  created a draw of question mark items. If I don't wear them in the next six months, they're out. 

And I have two bags to go to the op shop. 

I feel kind of ok about it all, but not the relief and excitement I thought I would feel. I guess that's because it's only clothes and who really cares when there are intergalactic ballistic missiles and such. 

But heck, if I don't feel good about it then no one will, so let's just look at the bags of stuff for the oppie and feel soothed. 

Getting real clean

I am so glad K brought this up yesterday! And by 'this' I mean cleansing and clearing and wardrobes and dressing! I have been thinking for a considerable time that if I could just clear my closet and my eyes I could do a great job dressing on a more regular basis. And in fact I have been on something of a clearing mission. I've sold some stuff on eBay recently, I've taken things to the op shop. I've committed to farewelling clothes I've held on to for a long time despite the fact I never felt happy wearing it. Why hold on to these things!? So no more! That's what I'm saying.

And all this cleansing has helped a lot. I've been wearing outfits that I've been pretty happy with lately and guys, that feels great. If you can see what's in your cupboard your eyes really are open to the possibility of outfits. Just the other day under my cupboard I found a tag of some pants I bought a few months ago, wore a few times then completely forgot about because they are stuffed in between all the other shit hanging in my cupboard. Gross, right? To be fair those pants are really summer pants so it's not like I would have been wearing them anyway but I do think that was a pretty fucked up turn of events. What if we're just buying things we already have that are just lost in our cupboards.

A full audit is in order and although I've been working towards this I think that the next step is to remove everything from my cupboard. And by that I mean EVERY THING so that I really know what is in there and can conceptualise my outfits for a brighter future. I'm feeling pretty positive about this move and I'm hoping it may give me... Oh shit I was distracted from writing this by a message K sent me about poodle puppies and then I sat in reverie wondering if I should enquire about these poodle puppies and now I have no idea what I was hoping this wardrobe audit may give me but whatever if it is I was hoping for I hope I get it!

Getting clean

Guess who almost forgot it was their turn to post today? Whoopsie. 

I'm not due back at work until Thursday, so I guess I'm still in a bit of a holiday frame of mind. I spent most of the day wandering round the city trying on clothes and buying thermal underwear. 

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that when I got home on the weekend and tried to find something weather appropriate to wear, all I could think was that I hate my wardrobe and I have nothing to wear. 

Going shopping today was meant to help solve that but it just highlighted that my wardrobe is not the problem.  I mean, it's part of the problem, but not the whole problem. I can't just get a whole bunch of new stuff and be ok. 

I'm the goddamned problem. Me and my attitude. 

And I'm sick of my damned self.

I've got to get clean. Literally! Ha. By which I mean, im going to do a complete, total review of my wardrobe and move on everything that I don't love and wear. 

It's going to happen. 

Maybe I'll even document it and post about it. 

Steady on, maybe I'll just commit to doing it this week and we'll take it from there.

Woot!