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!

Winter doona

On Saturday Chickpea had a birthday party doona and I told anyone who would listen that I was super excited that I was going to take off my summer doona and put the winter doona on the bed that night. On the way home I told LB that I’d told everyone about our winter doona and he suggested I was boring. But I don't even care because when I got under the winter doona that night I was so gdamn happy I wanted to tell the world about it. I'm in love with my winter doona and I don't care who knows!

My one track mind (AM)

This morning I was going ask you to join me on a spiritual journey of cleansing my wardrobe and my mind. But that seems pretty goddamn heavy for a Thursday morning. So instead I'm going to make a list of some great things I can recommend and that way I get to relive some magic moments and you get to think "Great idea J, I'm going to do that too!" (Then you can do the things as appropriate and enjoy them as much as I do!)

- Take a hot water bottle to bed. And then put it on your cold feet. I don't even care that it's not that cold yet, I just friggen love the extra coziness of a hotty. 

- Get the whole bed to yourself. If you have a significant other or clingy children this may be hard. But after no access to this luxury for years and the joy of it last night I can not recommend it highly enough. 

- Eat the cheese and salad hot roll at Mixed Business. I love that roll, it's got a great blend of pickle and slaw and mayo and cheese on a hot roll. I could eat it every week. I mean, I eat it every week. 

- Go to bed at 9 o'clock and read a book. I fantasise about this every day. Every day. 

I'm starting to see a pattern. God I really have a one track mind. If only I could keep my mind out of the bedroom I could probably be more productive but I just really love bed. 

Annual autumn appreciation (AM)

Let's just get this out of the way, it's the second day of autumn and even though March is usually pretty much a continuation of summer, I think I should just celebrate autumn's arrival now so we can all move on. The moderate summer means I've been able to wear jeans and sweaters often enough over the last few months, so naturally I'm not gagging for the cool weather to set in, but last night I did feel like autumn's arrival was pretty timely; let me tell you why.

Last night I felt like shit, basically because I could feel mastitis coming on. If you haven't had that bitch of an illness you are lucky because it basically makes you feel like you have the flu plus a really sore boob. Really effing sore. And I have never even had it badly. A friend of mine was hospitalised with it! Me I just feel shit for a day or two. So there I was last night, one boob killing me, aching body, sore throat, shivers and the decision to go to bed early. But something about the cool night air and the fact that I recently bought a new nightie (what? No, it's great, man-style. I know that sounds dumb, but I love it!) that I was looking forward to wearing made going to bed early seem like an excellent lifestyle choice.

And it was, naturally, because I effing love bed as much as I love autumn! Bed takes on a whole new dimension in the cooler months. Doonas make sense again. The restorative powers of sleep are more restorative because you don't have sunshine working its magic on you during the day. It's a really special place. And I thank the arrival of autumn for helping me remember some of the finest things life has to offer. 

This post not make any sense? Sorry my boob is effing killing me.

Haiku Thursday (AM)

Wednesday night reflections

Oooh. Ah. Eeee. Netball. 

Demanding use of latent

Muscles that now ache

Oh geez Lance Armstrong

You seem like a fucking jerk

That is all on that 

At the days end: bed

Every night, delight: bed

How I love thee: bed  

Good stuff (AM)

Last night I went climbing with Russeth and afterwards I felt really tired. When I got home though I felt so happy about everything. All the endorphins and shit I guess. Or maybe just 'cause I was really tired. Wait, did I say that already?

First, when I got home I had a piece of cheese. It's no secret I love cheese, but I just put this cheese in my mouth and it made me so happy. And it was just some Bega tasty. 

Then I had a shower. Oh yeah, a shower after a good work out, is there anything better? Oh sure there is, but how effing sweet is an evening shower on a sore, tired bod?!

Then as I was getting ready for bed I thought it was Thursday night and I would have to work tomorrow, i.e. today, and then I realised it was only Wednesday and I wouldn't have to work tomorrow, i.e. today, at all. Fuck yeah!

I topped off the night of joy with a bowl of morello cherries and ice cream. It is basically one of the all-time best desserts and the only thing wrong with it was that it was gone to soon.

Finally I went to bed. How effing good is bed. I fucking love that shit!

I don't know guys, seems like everything was the best last night. Or maybe I was just really tired. Wait, did I say that already?

Miss Soft Crab is bi-doona-curious (PM)

Did you know that Russeth told me the other day that Doona is actually a brand name! Who knew?!
Also, look what I just learned on Wikipedia: "The term "duvet day" is used in some countries to describe an allowance of one or more days a year when employees can simply phone in and say that they are not coming in to work, even though they have no leave booked and are not ill. The provision of this benefit became fashionable in the late 1990s with many larger companies in the UK."

Mind=blown! But my mind's approach to the bi-doona lifestyle is more complicated,
 
When K first mentioned this double doona situation in passing last week I pretty much dismissed it straight away. Ok, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't wonder about it a little, but I thought it would not be for me. You know, the faultline. How do you manage that? Weirdly, my mum who was in a different part of Europe to K but at the same, mentioned to me that they started personalising doonas in Poland where she'd never seen it before. Other parts of Europe, too.  She told me it was great, but this is a lady that's been married for about a million years, maybe she likes sticking to her side of the bed. Maybe  an arm getting cold if she slings it over her partner isn't an issue. But me, that's what I thought about. What if I want to cuddle my boyfriend. Surely I'd risk cold body parts or doubling doona coverage, making excess heat. So many potential problems. But I guess it would be a lie to say I wasn't a little bi-doona curious. I like how when it is cold sharing a doona means there is twice the body heat in there. But I guess I don't like how if your body is running at a differ temperature to your bedfellow it can cause all sorts of coverage issue. I also don't like how if you have a small child in your bed who sleeps between his parents and he seems to get hot he wants to kick all the doona off leaving the tops of his parents cold and frustrated. #justsaying

So I guess right there are a couple of issues the old bi-doona situation could solve. I don't know if I could ever really get leave a single big doona lifestyle, but I wouldn't be afraid to experiment a little. I wouldn't be ashamed of it either.

Miss Soft Crab is bi-doona-curious (AM)

When I was in Iceland, I stayed in a very cute apartment I found on airbnb. It was someone's actual home, and so operated like a proper Scandinavian home,  by which I mean you have to take your shoes off inside and there are individual doonas on the double beds. This is what a Scandinavian bed looks like.

Personalised doonas. His and hers. Or hers and hers. Or his and his. Miss Soft Crab supports everyone's life choices.

From the first, I was pretty sceptical. Sure, it looks pretty. And I like the idea of never having to wake up shivering because a squeeze has thrown the bed covers off because he is too hot, causing me to be exposed to the elements like so much sleepy collateral damage. I like the idea of that.

But how the heck are you supposed to cuddle under there? That line down the middle looked to me like a giant faultline that would surely break apart every time someone rolled over or went for a bit of a nuzzle or whatever people do in their bedrooms (it's up to you guys and I don't ask questions and I support all lifestyles, providing no one is getting hurt). It looked to me like the this situation would lead to a more draughty bedtime, and that's not cool. That's not cool at all.

I climbed in on the first night expecting to hate it.
But  much like taking your shoes off indoors, it all just seems to work. I don't know how or why exactly. I mean, I'm not a scientist. I don't know how two doonas side by side manage to pretty much stay together when you move around, despite the giant faultline that runs down the middle. But I don't know how most things work and it's a state I'm pretty used to. All I know is that I don't think I experienced a single draught while I was there, and for that, I say tusen takk Scandinavia. Tusen takk.

I was trying to explain it to J last night and I'm not sure I convinced her. Let's see what she has to say in the PM, shall we? 

Some things never change (AM)

In my early twenties I lived in a great flat with Miguel and David. In those heady days of Playstation 2, Nintendo 64, instant mee goreng,  driving around aimlessly, drinking, and working part time I could do what I want. Go to bed when I wanted. Wake up when I wanted, I guess. What a sweet life. I'd go to bed late for all sorts of great reasons, like Tony Delroy's quiz was a really good one or someone came home with a bottle of vodka or we had a really competitive game of Tekken going on. But without doubt the thing that kept me up most was my aversion to that time in between leaving my usual post in front if the heater and getting into bed. Teeth brushing time. Don't get me wrong. I love brushing my teeth. In fact back in those days I even wrote a song about it.  I guess this is really just a winter thing, but the memory is strong. I'd be lying in front of the heater and be so tired I'd just want to be in bed. But if there was one thing I can not do, it is go to bed without brushing my teeth. Ughhhh. But I would be so warm and comfy I would not, for love nor money*, be able to rouse myself to go to bed, because the cold bathroom and time between floor and bed were so repellent. Eventually I'd get to bed, teeth clean, but it was so hard. Until I was doing it, really it was fine then. And after the teeth, I would be in a warm bed and I'd be the happiest I'd been all night. 

Perhaps the memory is so vivid because I felt the exact same way last night. Lying in front of the heater, warm and sleepy and a cold bathroom between me and bed, but now it's even harder because there is a smart phone to keep me company. Well last night, as every night, I got up to go brush my teeth and go to bed. And of course, it was fine. It's always the pulling away from the heater that is hardest. But I couldn't help look back over my life, at all the nights I didn't want to walk that bridge from warm room to bed and wondered why the fuck I can't just get a warm house?!


*lie

Have a told you lately that I love you? (PM)

My doona knows I love it because even in the middle of these hot heatwave nights I take it to bed and hug it a little instead of getting under it. I just love that beautiful baby so much that I don't want to spend any night without it.

But it's good to be back under it. So good that last night, one of the greatest things that can happen to a person happened to me. After going to sleep relatively early, I woke up, like I always do, at what I thought was about 5am and feeling like I could use another million hours in bed. I felt disappointed for a second because I knew that in a bit over an hour, my alarm was going to go off and I would have to get up. Then I dared to think....imagine if it is actually only 3am and I have heaps more time to sleep. I allowed myself the tiniest bit of hope and looked at the clock and readers....it was half past midnight.
I had the whole night's sleep ahead of me. I still can't believe it happened to me.

Have I told doon lately that I love you (AM)

Did everyone in Melbourne have a beautiful reunion with their doona last night? Lord knows I did! In case I have not made myself clear in the past, I love bed and I really love my doona. It is really the icing on the cake.

Oh, sure when I got into bed last night I was looking forward to a night where I didn't have to lie in such a way where my limbs weren't touching and I was pretty confident I would sleep through, like the proverbial baby, but not like any real baby, who are notorious for not sleeping through. I wrapped myself in doona, knowing I may kick it off in the night but was unlikely to awaken, as I had the previous two nights, from a dream where I was looking for a blanket or jumper, freezing, obviously because the fan was working too well in real life only to wake and find that the cold in the dream had been nothing but a dream and it was still hot as a mutha! Capiche? Neither!

In truth I have found the famous March heatwave of 2013 entirely manageable. Saturday was kinda unbearable, but the other days have been fine. I could barely believe Monday and Tuesday were over 36, they felt like nothing more than a classic 32, and who can't handle that?! But the nights, oh brother, the nights have hurt a bit. And yet, they were ok, just knowing this too shall pass. But I guess what I liked most about the end of the heatwave was getting back under dooney. My sweet, sweet dooney. Distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.

Haiku Thursday (AM)

Alone in my bed

I sleep diagonally

My prerogative. 

Good for you, winter (PM)

Let's hear it for winter! That punctual little son of a bitch.

Winter, you can be as cold as ice, lord knows you sure were yesterday. It was like being at the snow, but not as pretty. Yeah, winter is pretty, but the snow, fuggetaboutit.

I effing hate the cold. I like it when there is snow or when I am super warm while around me is cold, but on the whole the cold and dark brings me down. But hey, that's not winter's fault. Winter is just doing its job. Somebody's got to. And you know what? K's right. It's not all bad.

Thanks to winter I have totally justified buying myself this Alpha60 blanket/coat:

Slankie, I'm gonna wrap you around me so good!

I don't think it is really that long. Is it that long? I don't know if it is that long. Currently it is on lay-by and it is all I can do to keep myself from just slamming the rest of the money down on my credit card and wearing that gorgeous slanket non-stop. Slanket, I can't wait for your arrival into my loving arms.

And while we are on the topic of wrapping up, let's here it for doona. Winter is the time for doona to shine, and who doesn't love a doona!? Imagine snuggling down under this:

Not my doona

Hells yeah!

And the food, all that stodgy rich delicious food! Baked goods! Yes please!

So come on guys, let's all take it easy on winter. That ol' season has it pretty rough, but it gives us al sorts of fashion and food and hibernating opportunities that just aren't available to us the rest of the year. Winter! HUZZAH!

Haiku Thursday (PM)

That fresh sheet feeling

God damn it, clean sheets,

You do it every time

Make me feel so good

Hand dryer
New Dyson Airblade 

In  my work toilets, you are 

So damn efficient

Ottolenghi

Ingredients lists

Of Ottolenghi, so long

But  so delicious

Hysteria

If hysteria is a 

Travelling womb then my womb

Is rarely at home