365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 243 : Peter, Peter, Dinner Eater

Not the best day at work but the night was lovely.

Dinner with my close, wonderful friend Peter.

Home cooking - salmon and vegetable pasta in a creamy sauce followed by yummy apple and almond bread with ice cream and cinnamon - and three hours non stop conversation about anything and everything.

A sublimely relaxed night with a special friend. I even got driven home!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 242 : An Apple a Day?

Well that's the idea anyway!

As part of my Slim Down and Get Fit campaign -no, it's not officially registered anywhere but the capital letetrs make it look all very proper don't you think ? - which includes more swimming and walking than can reasonably be expected of anyone (but then I am a personality that adores excess!), I am trying to eat lots more fruit and veges.

Thankfully I actually like fruit and veges so it's not too onerous a burden, if one at all. But I also like Pepsi Max, lots of chocolate and fatty food, and it's considerably harder to ignore those delectable temptations. But ignore I am, because I want to regain a trim, taut healthy body and it's the only way to do it.

Of course I except to be a doctor free zone from here on in with all the apples I am consuming....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 241 (Sunday 29 August) : Blue Sky Brunch, Office to Nowhere and Organic Fun

What a glorious day!.

I woke up with my beautiful guy beside me.

We had a lovely lazy brunch at South End cafe with Ian, and Warren.

Walked home in perfect cool, sunny temperature, with pristine blue skies over head (passing a factory with a less than approachable management it would seem!).

Then Warren & I went to Marrickville Markets for organic fruit and veges, socks and in my case, a Christmas ornament.

My lovely day was finished off with dinner at my gorgeous guy's place - delicious stir fry snuggled on the couch.

Bliss by the truckload.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 240 ; And We Ate....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 239 : I was Out Walking and...

You may not think there are many pluses to getting up at 4.45 a.m. and going walking full on ( I walk very fast thanks to years escaping bullies at school) but surprisingly there are, with the main one being the chance to see the world in a very unhurried, quiet way (sounds weird when I am walking near light speed but even at high speed, the morning is largely calm and unfettered from day time stress).

The big bonus this morning was a very unusual but pretty sky where large banks of dark grey cloud were sweeping across the sky, leaving the moon peeking through at various points. The effect was quite startling, and while my camera did not do it justice, it does capture the beauty of the early mornings.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 238 : Everything is Upside Down

Ever since the election last Saturday when the Liberals and Labour finished in a wholly unstable dead heat, and the now unseemly horse trading between the independents (who, it must be said, are behaving with far more dignity and principle than the Liberals particularly who under Tony Abbott continue to behave like political thugs), it seems the Federal political world has turned upside down.

I can't predict where it will end and there is a slim chance that positive, lasting reforms will emerge from the whole process but for now, everything is Alice in Wonderland-ish topsy-turvy, and this election poster (snapped the photo on my 5 a.m. walk through the back streets of Newtown), dangling wrong way up, sums it all perfectly.

Don't even get me started on the inability of the party operatives to take down the signs they quite happily put up....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 237 (Wednesday 25 August) : Yum Cha & Shopping on a School Night

Caught up with tonight with my bestie from work, Sammi, the funnest, sweetest fag hag ever...

Lots of $3 a plate sushi at Sushi Train on Bathurst St...

Shopping at Hot Dollar store (for a uniform-themed fancy dress costume for a party this Saturday night), and Priceline (let's hear for the exciting world of toiletry purchases! Yeehaa!)...

After a very relaxed, if busy, day at work with all the managers away at a course (my fellow EA Sandra & I even had a relaxed breakfast in the plaza between buildings B & C!)...

Life can be very good.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 236 : Ridiculous ZZZZs

I started walking again this morning which means a very early start...

Add to that my usual frantic, brain-meltingly busy Tuesday....

...and by 6.30 pm when I got home I was overwhelmingly tired.

I slept well.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 235 : Simple Is Sometimes Best

I know heresy for an extrovert to admit it but sometimes simple works...

Tonight I...........

Got to walk hand in hand down King Street with my gorgeous guy

Eat some yummy Chinese food at Happy Chef

Stare across the table at my guy's kind, sweet blue eyes while we talked

That's all I need....well for tonight anyway.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 234 : Where Tony Isn't, I Want To Be

Thankfully, while Labour was comprehensively rejected by the Australian public yesterday, the Liberals were not wholeheartedly, or even tepidly welcomed, by the Australian public. As the horse trading begins to form a minority government, I can only hope that Tony Abbott, he of the On-The-Run policies doesn't become the P.M....

..........because where he is the P.M., I don't want to live.

I am hoping Canada takes refugees... in boats....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 233 (Saturday 21 August) : The Illusion of Mattering

My usual quip on voting day is that today I get to exercise my democratic rights, and what a glorious 24 hours it is, till the new government is in, and any pretense to democracy is then ignored.

OK it's a very long quip - you need to be patient while I quip in and around you - but today that quip, while maintaining some relevance, was disapproved largely when my vote, and that of many other voters was shown to be hugely influential as Labor's vote vanished in NSW and QLD as a 5% swing against them kicked in and they ended up in a virtual dead heat with the Liberals. Obviously we poor voters will be ignored again shortly but for now we have spoken loudly enough to completely up end Federal politics as we know it, and produce Australia's first hung parliament (there was a quip that the Australian Sex Party would love a hung parliament - too funny!) in 80 years.

We are all of course hoping that The Mad Monk, Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberals (anything but really) don't get asked to form a monitory government (it will come down to who can woo the 4 independents the best) - my gorgeous guy, Waz, Fahmi and I all voted at Erskineville Public School this morning, waiting in line for 45 minutes + for the privilege (making jokes about moving forward as the line moved... well... forward!) ; for the first time, I voted Greens in both houses as well as purchasing a fundraising cupcake garnished with musk sticks and glitter (yep they know their gay demographic, as my guy pointed out) from a cute kid and his mum - something that began all too real last night as Peter, Fahmi, my Stephen and my gorgeous guy and I watched the ABC's election telecast while eating pizza, chips, lollies and drinking wine. Thank goodness for the wine because the prospect of the Liberals being in power was terrifying.

It was a fascinating night of TV - even Peter, who asked that we not watch too much of the telecast, was transfixed.... well sort of! - and my guy and I waited till Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard made their non-victory-we're-in-governing-limbo-hey-I-adore-Independents speeches just near midnight before retiring to bed.

Fascinating though it was, I am more than a little concerned about what a Liberal minority government could bring..... shall I pack for Canada?

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 232 : A New Tallboy in my Life

Do not fear! My beloved and I are still together, very much in love, and monogamous.


What I am referring to is my purchase of a chocolate brown tallboy from a furniture shop on King Street. Its funky yet classical all at once, and has solved a storage shortage I had in my new bedroom.

Of course, starting to move things into it, set off a messy back and forth of items till my room somehow managed to look far worse than it had at the start. By some organizational miracle, everything settled into place - not counting the stuff I just stuffed into two drawers for later organizing.... sometime this century I am hoping but you can never be sure - and my room is almost looking like the room I remember.... and even better!

How To Tell You're Gay..... An Infallible Guide

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 231 (Thursday 19 August) : My Kingdom is Almost Tidy

We moved almost 3 weeks ago, but like every other family in the Western world, we (my house mate and I) still had the requisite box left sitting in the corner, books thrown on to the bookshelves just to get them out of the boxes, my CD/DVD towers still wrapped in the bubble-wrap we used to transport them etc etc.....

So this morning, woken early by the trucks across the road, I attacked the bookcases, got them all organised, prettied up, sorted out some more stuff in my room, went shopping for a new funky wooden cupboard for my bedroom, and then....


.... collapsed in an exhausted heap, watched The View, read some more of my book and napped....


Now that's a day off!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 230 (Wed 18 August) : Mum's Home Cooking One last Time

I love my Mum's cooking.


I know every child probably says that - well except for people who's mother is the Anti Martha Stewart - but apart from the comfort of having the old dishes I grew up with, and being fussed over, it just tastes YUM!!

Today we had Mum's delicious chicken and vegetables with barley soup for lunch just before I hopped on my flight home...


Thank you Mum. Love you.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 229 : The Zen Cuteness of Bodhi

Let's face it - my darling nephew, Bodhi is cute as a button, and here are the pictures taken today (while we watched DVDs like The Blind Side and My Sister's Keeper in the comfort of the family room) to prove it....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 228 : My Dad Done Gone to Rehab.....

Well it is the North Coast darling. Everyone does rehab!

Only in this case, it's rehab to recover from fracturing his hip. Thankfully the break wasn't as bad as it could have been but it does mean Dad is spending 4 weeks in the rehab hospital in Ballina, in addition to the 2 weeks he spent in the hospital in Lismore prior to that. He is bored out of his brain at nights - he doesn't sleep well and at home would often go to his study to watch DVDs or read, something he can't easily do at the hospital - but when I was there we visited him there every day to try to make the time pass a little more quickly and remind him again how loved he is!

Today, my darling new little nephew Bodhi came along with his mum (my sister Rachel) and dad (my brother in law Michael) and kept everyone captivated including my Dad who adores his grand children.

The main thing is he's doing well, and even managing to shop over the phone! That's my dad!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 226 (Saturday 14 August) : Zooming North

I hit the ground running when I finally got to Alstonville (after a very busy morning of errands running which included getting wrapping paper, baclava/date slices for my Mum and a hastily devoured lunch on my balcony before an even faster final pack!) snapping, or rather having my Mum snap, my first shot with my dalring new nephew Bodhi, while getting reacquainted with my very cute niece Zara who has grown so much even since April!

After lots of food - you don't visit my Mum and Dad's to lose weight; the food is too yummy and there's lots of it! - part of which was eatne while I was having my first  hour long nurse of Bodhi, I did get some exercise in, walking with my sister Helen (Zara's mum) up to a nearby park for some slippery dip and seesaw fun!

A wonderful way to start my visit!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 227 : Castles Made of Nuts and Chickens

Family outing day but I didn't need a note from my Mum because she was with me!

The destination was the Macadamia Castle at Knockrow, about 20 minutes from home, which is in some ways a poor man's Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. Even so, it has lots of animals, the kids love it - my adroable niece 1 year old Zara had a ball feeding kangaroos, trying to pat chicks, and running after ducks almost into the duck pond itself! - the food is nice (even if they left the macadamias from our chicken and macadamia salad out of the dish!) and it makes for a fun afternoon out.

We even did some shopping in the gift shop, getting Bodhi, the newly arrived nephew, a fish, a panda bear (my contribution) and other cute plush animal. The panda bear was especially cute because it has its hands above its head, looking much like Bodhi when he's asleep.

Before the excusrion, Zara opened her much delayed birthday present - we were supposed to be there for her 1st birthday in early July but my sister (Zara's mum) got sick and so the festivities were cancelled - while she was half asleep which probably wans't the best idea, but she loved the toy!

We finished a busy day off with a visit to my Dad in the hospital before heading home for an early night (we were all sleep deprived after Bodhi spent much of Saturday night very much awake and letting the rest of us know it!)

A perfect day with my family.