Project 289 - Day 105 : The Happiest Six Months of My Life

Today I celebrated 6 months of going out with the most wonderful, sweet, caring, lovely guy in the world.

Yes I know that's sounds mawkishly sentimental, and those of you who are "corny" sentiments-intolerant will no doubt be chuck-chundering into whatever receptacle is close at hand, but frankly I don't care. I am in love, seriously irrevocably in love, and while I once scorned syrupy announcements of love eternal, I am now the announcer and blissfully uncaring about the emotional diabetes I may be causing! My apologies to all but....

It was a lovely all around. I texted him that morning and he called me back while I was on the bus, wishing me the loveliest "half-year anniversary". It was so sweet of him to call me and I floated into work. The day itself was a standard manic Tuesday and I emerged from a long senior management meeting for a quick dash into the City to see "The Proposal" (starring my favourite actor, Sandra Bullock, and one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a while) followed by a delicious dinner of tapas at Casa Asturiana. We picked a restaurant over a sushi train so we could engage in some gazing into each other's eyes, and sitting there, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have found my soulmate for life.

Even waiting for the train to go home, which took forever, was wonderful with him beside me. Yeah, yeah, I know, time to throw up again! Enjoy that, and I will go back to dreamily talking about my lovely guy and the joy he has brought to my life.

I am a happy, happy man.

Project 289 - Day 104 : Flat Out Like a Colloquial Lizard and the World is BBQ!

I do not like Mondays.

"Wow! Hold the press!" you scream out loud in the office, making you look like a mental patient with an insufficient prescribed dose of calming medication surging through your veins, and a Luddite, who is still reading their newspapers in the real world, rather than online, and forgets that these days, it's more like "Hold the emailed digitized word count!" or something like that!..... OK now what was I saying?

Anyway, Impressions-of-Luddite-Madness creating screaming rants aside, I appreciate that disliking Mondays is hardly a revelation. I mean, I am fairly certain that saying "All those who like Mondays please step forward onto the freeway into oncoming traffic and..... OK wait, that's a bad example! But you get the idea. No one likes Mondays.

But what made today worse was the happy crowd who stood in the BBQ area just outside my window for 2 hours eating sausages, conducting sparkling conversations and laughing in a "I am not in my cubicle!" kind of way. They did eventually leave - perhaps it was me pelting them with paper clips that did it? - but not before the damage was done.

I foresee a lengthy therapy session just as soon as I schedule a meeting with an actual therapist. Till then blogging will have to do, along with chocolate.... lots of chocolate....

Project 289 - Day 103 : Who's a Flaming Queen?

Today was a very quiet day indeed.

Well at least in my corner of the world. Yes I did have a delightful brunch with my friend Justin @ South End, a favourite cafe of mine on King Street, and I did get my hair buzzcutted after which I indulged in the supreme existential thrill of grocery shopping (I remembered my green bags this time!! Score for the environment...and my memory which hasn't completely failed yet!), but beyond that, it was all napping, reading and some tidying up...

I did however make some time in my self-indulgent day to see my wonderful friend, Fahmi (pcitured above looking ever so, um not straight! LOL) , newly arrived back from his holiday in Singapore (thus ending my cat feeding duties with the very pattable, Simone the cat), who had some goodies for me, held in a bag from a fabulously names store - "Flaming Queen".

How appropo darling! I loved the gifts and I love the store name! Think I shall travel to Singapore just to shop there! Don't laugh - that is just the sort of thing I would do! If I had endless money..... and holidays..... hmm just as well got me the gifts and funky bag then!

Project 289 - Day 102 : The Day of Simple Things

This is my recycling, resplendent in the green tub (how appropo a colour huh?) I have used for years....

What an exciting photo you say! I can't believe that we get to see such exciting parts of Andrew's legendarily thrilling life, with it's myriad fascinating and mysterious facets! To which I say - what on earth are you smoking? Put it down now and just say "No!"

Or at least - not yet! That way, you will be clear headed enough to know that today was a very quiet, "kiss-my-boyfriend-as-he-leaves-at-lunchtime-to-go-home-and-sleep-off-his-flu-then-I-read-the-paper-and-napped-day-before-going-to-his-place-that-night-to-cook-soy-chicken-kebabs-and-watch-"The Italian Job"-on-TV-while-snuggled-on-the-couch" kind of days......

I wonder if I get any points for liberal use of dashes..... I think it's only fair.... I have just done for dashes what I had already done for exclamation marks....just a thought.....

Saturday Wisdom

Project 289 - Day 101 : The Death of Icons - Goodbye Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson

I wasn't intending to blog this early in the day but the news this morning has compelled me to do so.

I had barely got to work at 7.30 when I heard that two icons of my childhood - Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson - had both died on the same day. I can still vividly remember sitting in a friend's living room listening to "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" for the first time, and of course, how can I forget Farrah from her days in "Charlie's Angels", which, despite it's cheesiness, is still a show I'll watch to this day on DVD. I am not usually one to wallow in nostalgia, given that I am very much a man who, while he values his past, relishes the present, and eagerly anticipates the future, but in this instance I am going to wallow and reflect just for a moment.

RIP Both of you - your lives on earth may have been tumultuous, and in Michael's case just plain weird and off putting, but you entered the popular zeitgeist like few others of your time, and that is the yardstick by which I mark your passing. Let us all hope that you both find the peace in the hereafter that eluded you while you were alive.

Farrah Fawcett's Obituary

Actress Farrah Fawcett, the Charlie's Angels television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, has died of cancer. She was 62.
Fawcett, first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006.
It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California.
"After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Fawcett's long time companion, actor Ryan O'Neal, said in a statement.
"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."
Fawcett's death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.
Called Farrah's Story, the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown.
O'Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms.
Fawcett's close friend Alana Stewart, ex-wife of rocker Rod Stewart, told Entertainment Tonight after leaving the hospital on Thursday; "I just lost my best friend. Her death was very peaceful."
Fawcett, born February 2, 1947, in Corpus Christi, Texas, was an art student in college before she began modeling, appearing in shampoo ads.
She started guest-starring on TV in the late 1960s and appeared on the television hit The Six Million Dollar Man after marrying the show's star, Lee Majors, in 1974. The couple divorced in the early 1980s.
Angel culture
Fawcett's career took off thanks to a poster of her posing flirtatiously with a brilliant smile in a red one-piece bathing suit.
It sold millions of copies and led to her being cast in 1976 in Charlie's Angels, an action show about three beautiful, strong women private detectives.
As the tanned and glamorous Jill Munroe - part of a trio that included Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson - Fawcett was the hit show's most talked-about star.
She left Charlie's Angels after only one season but lawsuit settlements brought her back to guest-star in subsequent years.
Fawcett's face appeared on T-shirts, posters and dolls. She came to epitomise the glamorous California lifestyle and inspired a worldwide craze for blown-out, feathered-back hair.
The New York Times once described that hair as "a work of art ... emblematic of women in the first stage of liberation -- strong, confident and joyous".
"Her hair needed its own phone line," Charlie's Angels co-star Smith recalled later.
In late 2008, Fawcett shaved her own hair when it began falling out because of her cancer treatments.
Serious roles
While Fawcett's early career was marked by lightweight roles, the actress sought to play down her sex symbol image in more challenging dramas in the '80s.
She earned critical acclaim for her performance as a battered wife in 1984's The Burning Bed, for which she received the first of three Emmy nominations.
The off-Broadway play and subsequent film Extremities, in which Fawcett played a woman who takes revenge on a would-be attacker, earned one of her six Golden Globe nominations.
Fawcett posed for Playboy magazine in 1995, the same year she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She had one son, Redmond, with O'Neal. Redmond O'Neal, now 24, was arrested on several occasions in 2008 and 2009 for heroin and methamphetamine offenses leading to time in jail.
In the last few years, Fawcett appeared frequently on entertainment TV, where she shared details of her battle with cancer.
But she was outraged when news of her deteriorating condition was leaked to tabloid newspapers.
A Los Angeles hospital employee was charged in 2008 with stealing and selling Fawcett's medical records, leading to a new California law imposing tighter controls on medical files and stiffer penalties for privacy breaches.
- Reuters

MICHAEL JACKSON

Pop legend Michael Jackson is reported to have died of a heart attack after he was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles.
Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest earlier today, according to CNN and entertainment news website TMZ.com.
TMZ is now reporting he has died.
"We've just learned Michael Jackson has died," TMZ said.
"Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him.
"We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back," the entertainment website said.
There has been no official confirmation of the reported death and spokespersons for Jackson could not be reached for comment.
Earlier, The LA Times reported paramedics went to the singer's home and found him not breathing.
The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before taking him to the UCLA Medical Centre hospital.
Jackson had been due to start a series of comeback concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010.
He had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.
The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within hours of going on sale earlier this year.
Jackson started out as a child star in the band The Jackson 5 more than 40 years ago.
He has lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation.
There have been concerns about Jackson's health in recent years but the promoters of the London concerts, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a four-and-a-half hour physical examination with independent doctors.
- ABC/AFP/Reuters

Project 289 - Day 100 : Bigger Than a Blog on a High Carb Diet

Wow its my 100th blog in Project 289!

So to celebrate, in typical me fashion, where too much is never enough, I am going to commemorate this amazing milestone with an epic entry where I reflect on the enormity of the achievement (like getting Unwired's wireless modem to cough up enough internet time at night for instance when it clearly didn't want to), or pause to think back to those heady, crazy days of March this year when I was younger, more confident and dare I say just a little naive, thinking that a big city Executive Assistant from the inner city suburbs, could actually make it big in the blogosphere..... 

Or I could wonder about what makes me, a 43 year old man surrounded by contemporaries who only listen to Human League and think a tweet is the sound that a discordant bird makes, up to my cyber neck in fast-breaking, society-altering new technologies like blogging, Twitter-ing or Facebook-ing (I love my made up verbs and that's a fact!), so inclined to plunge on in to new experiences, new ways of doing things, and incorporating them in a meaningful way into my life.....

I love this blog. I love the creative outlet it gives me when my job, which I love, is not imbued with a massive amount of creative fulfillment. I love that I get to write, express who I am, what I am thinking and feeling, and what matters to me, in a way that reflects very much the serious/silly dichotomy that powers me through life. I was once told by my writing teacher that I could make taking out the garbage sound like fun if I wrote about it, and whether that's true or not, I do love having an outlet where I can express what matters to me in life; a place that gives me the chance to work out what's happening to me, even if it's a relatively trivial thing, which let's face it a lot of life is.

..... and yet, trivial or not, even small things can have an impact on us, and this is my place to work out what that moment/event/feeling means to me and place it in some form of context. Blogging has been painted many times as a tool to give the self-absorbed the chance to practise their vanity, which frankly is a bit of an overreaction, because who of us has the right to look at someone else's life and say "That isn't worth noting", and "That is a pointless thing to reflect on" when what matters is how that thing touches upon that person's life.

So this is my blog. My chance to be uncompromisingly me. My place to say "I am an extrovertive over-the-top, colour-loving, humour-addicted gay man" and this is who I am, and this is what matters to me. 

I like this place.

 

Project 289 - Day 99 : Snippets of MX all In a Row (or the day my brain rotted on the way home from work and I didn't care!)

I like my brain. A lot.

It keeps me breathing. Remembers to beat the heart. Throws blood around my body with the giddy abandon of a celebrity on an ecstasy and Vodka bender.... and stops my skull from caving in, which, let's face it, is a real bonus, should I ever become a famous model... or in the unlikely event that doesn't happen, I just want to look human.....

Yes my brain is a very good thing indeed....

So why do I persist in torturing it by reading MX (the free newspaper given away at nights on train platforms to weary commuters too tired to care anymore), a newspaper that makes 'Entertainment Tonight' (a vapid US entertainment news program where a 2 minute treatise on anything is labelled 'in depth'; how ADHD of them!) look like a learned tome from a Nobel Laureate? Why you ask? Wait a second I am asking aren't I? Ah, so many voices, so hard to tell them apart in my head.....

Well, partly because I am too tired to care any more and I am happy to read about an 84 year old man in Ohio driving his ride on lawn mower into a lake, or the fact that a guy one woman saw fleetingly on the 5.22 a.m. to Central is 'cute, and you are so worth getting up for'? Yes brain cells die but I don't care.... 

.....and it's partly today because they featured an article on mooses! Yes, mooses...... and who doesn't like a newspaper that features mooses? No one, that's who! Especially Canadians trapped in Aussie bodies like me.... 

Oh, and who doesn't wan to read Twitter updates, helpfully collated by MX, by Ashton Kutcher, and Alyssa Milano? Honestly if I read MX too much, I fear I shall dumb down to the point where Mary Hart starts to sound like a university professor and I do NOT want that....

P.S. Occasionally, and don't tell a soul I said this, there is an article that is somewhat interesting. Like the time I found out that Facebook were giving their users (that would include me) the chance to get their username, something Facebook had done a less than stellar job of telling me. Or the time, which occurred just today when they revealed what the characters in the new Tim Burton version of 'Alice in Wonderland' would look like. They look amazing and I can't wait to see the movie. But keep that quiet. I don't want it to look like I actually like my brain disappearing before me....

When Good Cumulus Go Bad

When you walk out the door in the morning and see this in the sky (see above)...... just go back inside, have another cup of coffee, and stay home. It's NOT going to be a good day.

Project 289 - Day 98 : Chicken Soup.... or Is That Chicken Stir Fry?

My beautiful guy came down with a dose of the flu overnight and was feeling less than sparky (Use the dog name barometer of wellness, that isn't good, trust me! It's even worse than he was feeling not-so-Fido)

So after feeding my friend's cat (who is missing his owner and the many affectionate stomach rubs he gets from him), I headed to my guy's place in Dulwich Hill, and threw together - it's a stir fry so that isn't far off the mark! I even twirled the wok stirring thingy around in the food once or twice, and lo and behold, I did not throw any of the stir fry on the floor! What a miracle!) - a Blackbean sauce lamb stir fry. (I wanted to get chicken since, it seems, that chicken is the meat of choice when you're sick; I hear chickens are going to hire a PR firm to disabuse people of this notion, and suggest cows as a replacement. They won't be happy but when are they are ever home anyway huh?).

We sat back, ate and watched the ABC - '7.30 Report', 'Foreign Correspondent', 'Grand Designs' and 'Tracy Ullman's State of the Union' (which was satire at it's best) - and behold it was very good..... well, apart, from the fact that I couldn't kiss him just in case he had swine flu (he had just come from Melbourne! I could feel tabloid-induced fear welling up.... at least till it was replaced by common sense). The cuddling was lovely, as was the eventual snuggling but it will be nice when he is well again (in and of itself, of course!) and we can snog again...

Till then we have stir fry....oh and Mint Crisp Tim Tams.....mmmm chocolate.....

Project 289 - Day 97 : Call Me!..... You Can Call Me Any-Any Time.....Call Me!

I love catching up with special friends.

Eevn if they are far away and it means spending time on the phone, which, sadly after many years in call centres and Cubicles of Death and Greyness, feels like a tool of Satan. (Not the iPhone I hasten to add which is virtuous in all it's ways and will lead us all to technological salvation. Amen.) So last night I called my dear friend Jason (still in my phone as Jason Vegas, which is how I entered his name in my phone when we first met at Mardi Gras in 2008 - he is so named because he is from Brisbane, or as it's affectionately known, BrizVegas) and we had our usual loooooong chat about everything serious, silly and all points inbetween, laughing and being deadly calm and introspective in almost equal meausre. (OK there was a LOT of silly laughing last night but it was a school night and we were both really tired, something that leads to much maniacal laughing with little or no rational basis!).

That was, until my phone decided to go all HAL in '2001 A Space Odyssey' on me, and disconnected the call, and refused to re-connect when Jason rang back. I finally managed to bludgeon it into submission, and we finished off our conversation, but I am fairly certain that when the machines arise to destroy all mankind, my phone will make sure I have a Terminator with my name on it coming to get me!

Time to make friends with Christian Bale I think!!!

Barbie at 50 - OH MY!

Yes folks Barbie has used her stove and fridge one too many times it seems!

Project 289 - Day 96 : The Delightful Solitude of Nothing

I did nothing much of anything today.

With my beautiful man in Melbourne seeing his family, I spent the day lazing around, reading, napping and making two forays to feed the cat since that is the one thing I can't neglect. What a blissfully chilled day.

So no photo today....

Not a one. Kinda captures the day just perfectly you know?

Project 289 - Day 95 (Saturday 20 June 2009) :6 Friends, 3 Meals (and 3 Skinny Chai Lattes), 2 Long Walks and 1 Rainy Day

What a busy, but fun, day!!

It started off at 11 a.m. with lunch at the Funky Bar/Deli on King Street, with my great friend, Justin. We discussed family, careers, life and watched the world go by on what was a very, very wet day. He's always wonderful to spend time with, and today was no exception.

Then I attempted to sprint to The Shire to see my very good friends, John and Susie in Gymea for lunch. But what was supposed to be a quick trip became an epic drive around lane sized puddles, broken-down cars, and traffic so slow that I saw snails racing past me. When I finally made it there, I had a lovely time, finally exchanged Christmas presents (yes it has taken that long to arrange a get together!!) and we caught up on all the news, including the fact that their daughter starts high school next year! When on earth does the time fly? (And if we can find the place, I plan to grab as much of it as I can!)

I finished my meal marathon off that evening, after a short nap, with my bestest buddies, Warren, Ian and Peter, firstly at The Bank hotel and then at Thai-riffic, who's food was sadly anything but. We won't be going back there in a hurry, but the main thing was we got to spend time with each other, and finished off the night well by eating dessert at Buzzzbar where this photo was snapped by a helpful fellow male patron (with a very sexy French accent I might add!)

Oh and all day long it rained....and rained.... and rained, only stopping at night because Peter & I chose to carry our umbrellas all the way up into Newtown and all the way back. Now that's one way to stop insanely inclement weather. Carry an umbrella!!

Project 289 - Day 94 (Friday 19 June 2009) : My Man Done Gone to Mexico

Friday nights are usually a chance for me to spend some wonderful quality time with my gorgeous guy, unencumbered by the demands of 'school nights' when shirts demand to be ironed (yes I own talking shirts - lucky me!), lunches made, and beds got to early so I can exercise in the morning at the delightfully crisp hour of 5 a.m.

But tonight my lovely guy headed to Melbourne for the weekend to see his family and especially to see his Dad who had just successfully undergone an op., and was recovering very nicely in hospital. So we could spend some time together, I raced home from work in record time (setting a land speed record between St Peters station and my apartment), threw myself in the car (shouldn't do that since the odds of me putting my body through an open door with that haphazard a technique, and my lack of sports hand-eye coordination isn't good!) and picked him up from Sydenham station for the trip to the airport....

....where we looked like complete yokels as I snapped him at the departure gate! Ah the demands of blogging!!

Project 289 - Day 93 (Thursday 18 June 2009) : Somewhere Under the Rainbow

Today, while tapping away on the keyboards of my PC in the Cubicle of Death and Greyness, I glanced out the window and saw the most wondrous rainbow.

The photo doesn't do it justice, and no those weird lights are not UFOs but the charmingly intimate fluoro lighting strips that cover the roof my building, but it was beautiful and really lifted a very busy non-beautiful day.

What Pets Do When Their Owners Are At Work

Project 289 - Day 92 : It's Raining....... Cats

The day started with torrential rain and a nearly soaked walk to the train station.

.... and it ended with me feeding Fahmi's cat, Simone, who expressed his need for food in the only way he knows how - lots of urgent meowing, preferably right next to me.

Thankfully it didn't rain in Fahmi's lounge room so at least the day ended on a dry note.

Project 289 - Day 91 : All A-Twitter About Everything

I am really enjoying Twitter.

Granted I feel like I jumping onboard yet another fad (I am the King of New Things its true!), and I have yet to fully understand replying etc, but it's fun, neat and a great way to get snapshots of someone's world in just 140 characters.

Follow me if you want! I will do my best to be witty, clever and charming, and if that fails (lord knows I will give it my best shot!), then I will just be the best me I can be on the day, and hopefully that will touch your life in some way anyway.

Project 289 - Day 90 : Sometimes My Brain Goes Into Neutral Without Any Bidding From Me

Behold my eaten lunch, and at that point, yet to be eaten dinner.

The fact that these two food items became my lunch and dinner was the result of one of my managers forgetting to tell me she is on a strictly-no-carbs-don't-even-make-me-look-at-them-or-I-may-turn-violent diet, meaning that the absolutely delicious carb-centric chicken souvlaki and haloumi cheese wrap in the alfoil was now cuisina non grata to anyone but me. 

It's not a bad turn of events I thought to myself since, while I didn't plan on buying lunch (having lugged a can of soup the size of Texas into work), I liked the wrap, and was likely to eat without harm befalling my coworkers. So back to Rocket, the salad place I went, and ordered a sizzling Mediterranean beef salad, by which point the girl at the order point must have assumed I was some form of obsessive compulsive binge-eating disorder in full swing. Even so she took my order, and I relaxed thinking that my hungry manager would get her lunch at last.

But wait! I forgot to order "no dressing" on the salad - yes salad dressing too is the nectar of Satan - so I had to stump up for a 2nd salad, with no dressing this time. So there I was, without any fore planning whatsoever, the proud owner of a salad and a wrap, and instant lunch and dinner! Congratulations me!

Tomorrow I shall endeavour to engage my brain before leaving the house, and see if I can avoid spending $20 I don't really need to. Rocket may be disappointed but my wallet won't be!

Project 289 - Day 89 : Happy Days With The Man I Love and Adore

Today was a gloriously unbusy day that I largely spent with my beautiful man just being together.

No freakishly busy agenda. No rush to get errands done. No back to back social engagements to keep. Just him, and me, and until 12 noon, a snug warm bed on a cold, rainy day. When we finally managed to escape the delightful embrace of the doona, he cooked me bacon, scrambled eggs and toast while I got the papers, and we had a lazy 'breakfast' (technically it was the first meal of the day!).

After doing a few things around his apartment, we headed out finally into a very cold day and caught up with our friend, Fahmi, who was leaving for Singapore the next day. Wine and fish & chips at The Union and then back home, sadly without my guy who left for his place, but feeling loved and cared for, and in love, and glorying in the joy of just being with him.

Bliss.

Project 289 - Day 88 : Saturday In The Park With John and Essie, Ben & Sophie, Fahmi, and Steve

OK so it wasn't exactly "Sunday in the Park With George" (thank you Mr Sondheim) but the day was a beautiful one - bright, sunny and crisply cold - and my beautiful guy and I joined Fahmi, and our friends John and Essie with their gorgeous kids, Ben & Sophie at Sydney Park just across the road from my place.

Highlight of the day, apart from a delicious lunch at my favourite cafe, South End, afterwards, was riding down the slippery slide with Ben. I haven't been on this particular piece of playground equipment in years - many, many years! - and it was a hoot. Even more of a kick was hearing Ben's giggles as we whooshed down the slide - this boy has a love of speed that's for sure!

My gorgeous guy also took to the slides (above) and did a fabulous job of braking at the end, especially when the risk of whooshing right off the end of the slide was quite real!

It was a perfect day with very good friends and a wonderful start to a chilled weekend with no schedule but doing what we wanted when we wanted. Given the impromptu nature of the visit to the park, it was perfectly in keeping with a blissfully ambling weekend.

Project 289 - Day 87 : Having Heather For Lunch...I Mean Lunch With Heather

It was a perfect Winter's day - cold but sunshiney bright - and so I had lunch with my good friend, Heather who works two floors above me.

She and I have known each other since the Dark Days of the International Air Courier With a Purple and Orange Logo (IACPOL) and I followed her to the much happier environs of Australia's # 2 telecommunications company, after she mentioned over and over how much better life was away from IACPOL. She is a sweet, wonderful person, and our conversations are warm, funny and usually revolve to some extent around Canada - she's half-Canadian, and I am a Canadian born in an Australian's body!

I like Fridays at the best of times but even more so when I get to spend at least part of them with special friends like Heather. TGIF, sushi and Heather - a near perfect combo and a fabulous way to finish off the week.

Joy of Life and The pea of Happiness

Project 289 - Day 86 : Happy Birthday Amanda... and Ann!

What a birthday-filled day!

First up was my wonderful friend Amanda from work who celebrated her 40th - at work!! Is she mad? To make up for the fact that she was marking such a big day in her Cubicle of Death and Greyness, my friend Tricia and I bought her a Sacher Torte and I got everyone to sign a card. She loved it, and had as close to wonderful day at work as you can get. (Which despite all it's delight was still standing on a wind swept hill waving at the distant allure of Wonderful).

We finished off the day with a very yummy dinner of lamb and various metze dishes at a fabulous Greek restaurant in the City called Medusas, with very close friends of my gorgeous guy. It was all in honour of Ann's birthday (see above pictured with my guy), who is an absolute darling, very vivacious and lots of fun, and we celebrated the day along with her partner Geoff, close friends Gary & Janette, David & Scott and a few others. They are a witty, clever, very social bunch, and despite it being the first time I'd really met any of them, bar David & Scott, I fitted right in, and had the best time.

Project 289 - Day 85 (Wednesday 10 June 2009) : Let Them NOT Eat Cake! Or Carbs! Or....

I like to eat many yummy things..... chocolate..... cakes...... muscular men in speedos... ahem, I mean, chips, but as of yesterday I am eschewing all the fatty high-caloric foods in favour of good things like pears, soups etc in the hope of avoiding Winter Tubby Boy Syndrome.

So here are some of the cakes, held aloft by my lovely co-worker, Sammi, that I didn't eat, and yes I am almost drowning in the virtuous feelings flowing from being so good.....

Of course if I could just have a crumb....one measly crumb.....sigh....

Project 289 - Day 84 : "It's An iPhone Jim But Not As We Know It"

Last week I got the iPhone.....

... Today I announce my absolute and utter and complete devotion to it. OK that's a bit OTT even for me! But it is the most fabulous mobile device ever (bar my iPod which can do no wrong...unless of course if freezes in which case it is the satanic setpchild of Microsoft, a terrible insult indeed!) and I am having so much fun with my text 'conversations', adding photos to the person's profile so it pops up when they ring, setting the alarm.... oh the list goes on!

I know you can do all these things to some extent on other devices but this is the first device that actually makes sense to me, and makes technology workable and useful to me. I always love the idea of new tehcnology but struggle to fully utilise it. The joy of this device is that it makes the technology something that I can use in my life, and not a headache that only a fistful of Advil and a good throw of the device from a wharf into a stormy sea will assuage.

I like that, and so the iPhone has pride of my place in today's blog

Project 289 - Day 83 : Move! Move. Moooooooove......

Do I look happy here? I don't think so!

That is largely due to the fact that I am trying to get a very large, very heavy wooden IKEA wardrobe (being loaned to my guy) up the very narrow stairs in my gorgeous guy's 1950s style apartment block, and it won't fit. No matter how we tried to tilt it, it refused to clear the walls or railings, and in the end, after 2 1/2 long drawn out hours, ended up going to a friend's garage instead, from whence it will hopefully find a new home in a one story home on flat ground, if the eventual minder of the wardrobe knows what's good for them and their back!

It was an exhausting day all around, even when the second wardrobe and couch both fitted up the stairs with ease despite both being awkward and heavy to lift up and over delightfully tight narrow stairs. I am fairly certain I haven't been that exhausted in ages, and all I could think about it when the dust finally settled and we'd returned the very butch - there's my gorgeous guy doing his best to look butch! - ute to Europcar was sleeping!

Project 289 - Day 82 (Sunday 7 June 2009) : A Rose (Bay) By Any Other Name Would Be a French Patisserie

What is better than a lazy Sunday spent in lovely surroundings with your gorgeous guy and a very close friend?

Not much, although a holiday on the Amalfi Coast and all the caramel slices (with no caloric consequences naturally!) may just edge past in the race for my affections. But in the absence of cliff top Italian towns and diabetes-at-ten-paces sugary treats, I had a delightful brunch today with my guy and my friend Justin at Sugarloaf, a funky cafe at Rose Bay, just across from the golf course, and just down from the harbour. The food was delicious, the conversation witty and sparkling (would it be any other way darling? Of course not!), and there was some visual distractions such as the guy below in his bike gear who is apparently not quite off his trike yet! It's these sorts of days that make all those hours spent in the Cubicle of Death and Greyness feel worth it. Well almost!

We then headed to Bondi Junction for a little bit of shopping and then a spontaneous catch up with my friend Warren and his lovely friend Sue at Erskineville pub. We were off on our way abck to my place when Warren texted to say he'd found a ton of mooses at the Mansours seconds store in Alexandria. Initially I thought he was bonkers because mooses are not generally a mass sale item in Australia. Canada yes, but Australia, no. But lo, there they were, and at bargain prices so I added to my moose collection, nicely finishing off what had been a near on perfect day.

Save for a lack of sweet yummy treats in exotic European locales....

Project 289 - Day 81 (Saturday 6 June 2009) : Waiter, There's a Moose In My Soup!

I have a reasonably offbeat sense of humour and love of pop culture oddities.

Add that to a love of mooses, and collecting anything moose-like, and you have someone with peculiar one-of-a-kind tastes, especially in Australia where moose are not exactly thick on the ground. So what's a moose-appreciative (I was going to say moose-loving boy but even in an inclusive city like Sydney, that sounds a tad too close to the wildlife!) boy to do?

Well apart from Ebay there's not much I can do, or visit Canada a lot, or befriend Canadians. Now before you think to yourself, "That is kind of sleazy that you are befriending Canadians in the hope of one day gaining moose memorabilia; begone, and do not darken our village again!" (yes I thought that was a bit medieval a response but you can't underestimate the ire of those who hate moose-loving people users), let me clarify. I am not that kind of boy.

What I am is a guy who finds Canadians to be the most delightful, warm, inclusive, funny, down-to-earth people you'd ever want to meet, and I have had the extreme good fortune to stumble onto the fabulously zany, and simultaneously thoughtful and insightful, photo art of a Canadian guy living in Australia for a while called Daniel Cohen who has a web site - www.asyouseeitart.com - and till June 13, a stall at Glebe Markets. Check out the website and you'll see what I mean about the photos being amazingly creative while saying something really meaningful. Very clever stuff.

Anyway a few weeks back when I stopped by to buy yet more of his great photos, and have a chat (with a frequency that either made me seem like a really cool groupie or stalker!), the issue of mooses raised its antler-clad head, and he said he had this very cool moose item to give me. Forgetting all about that very generous offer, I turned up today to see him and lo and behold, there was a wonderfully moose-like beer stubby holder which Daniel handed straight over to my surprise (remember my brain, the size of a thimble owed by a blond person, at times, had forgotten it was coming!) and delight. 

It made my day, as did getting more of his art. Go and check it out. You may not get a moose beer stubbuy holder - that's mine; hands off! - but you will get some real pleasure from having your funny tinkled, your brain engaged and your heart touched. It's well worth your time.