Holding the Reins of the Runaway Extrovert 2013: Day 4 - Benno up, up and away!

While my gorgeous guy did all sorts of domestic duties at his place, I wrote 2 blog posts on Dr Who's 2012 Christmas special "The Snowmen" and on This is Jinsy, my new favourite show EVER, and constructed my new white Benno after a false start where a key part of it stayed stubbornly in the box despite me shaking it hard 4 times.

(image via ikea.com)

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 261 - IKEA gods

A gorgeous sleep in then I chilled on the couch watching Wacky Races (which I hadn't seen in years) and reading Saturday's Herald while Steve called his mum and dad to see how she was after she fell and broke her arm on the previous Thursday (she is OK but uncomfortable and quiet immobile)

Then we attacked the IKEA Besta unit aiming to get it finished once and for all!

The drawers were done the day before and lie ready for insertion into the Besta (think they're called Inreda)

I am now a dab hand at screwing things in (no jokes please of the innuendi variety, though they would be fun), having been schooled by my gorgeous guy in the proper technique

Yeah man! We're building IKEA things!

The finished item with the TV and stereo in place (blue plastic film is to protect the white gloss look of the shelves)

....and finally, the It Gets Better video has been publicised by Same Same, a major gay website and yours truly made the page. Not the best photo granted but then my personal vanity isn't the issue, and saving LGBTI kids lives is, so any publicity is wonderful!

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 254 - Bus Stop to Bunnings Hell

New Sunday, new cafe - the Bus Stop Espresso on Victoria Street, Enmore. It doesn't have the full range of menu options being primarily set up to capture commuter traffic at the, you guessed it, bus stop just outside it's door, but the pesto scrambled eggs and shaved ham on sourdough was delish (even though I had managed to develop a small but painful ulcer on my gum right next to a tooth and was finding eating painful....what is it with my teeth these days?!) the quirky very high seats were fun , if cold, to sit on, and it was lovely to catch up with our very good friend Fahmi...

Then my gorgeous guy and I went to Bunnings on Parramatta Road for a quick in and out to grab extra screws for the IKEA unit we're assembling. While the shopping was indeed Speedy Gonzales quick, getting out of the car park was a 1/2 hour nightmare and I vow and declare we shall never go there again! So we got home a little later than planned but still managed to fit in a nap, after which I wrote an application letter for a job I am going for at the Sydney Writers Centre. It came together well, thanks to my gorgeous guy acting as a sounding board, and then we got down to assembling the bottom part of the Besta entertainment unit before chicken & chips for dinner (yummy gourmet chicken from the shop up the street) and viewing of the latest Dr Who episode, Night Terrors, which wasn't brilliantly good, but wasn't awful and was far better than the confusing twaddle of confused strung together vignettes that characterised season 6 part 1.

Graffiti seen on way down Enmore Road - very funky

I wished I could have stayed to snuggle but work called and so I headed home, ostensibly for an early night but it turned out, not so early night as my iMac suddenly started speaking like a robot after I lent on the keyboard and it took me ages to figure out what I had done! Lesson learnt...

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 253 (Saturday 10 September) - Toasting IKEA Jinnah?

Big sleep in today and we didn't really sit down for brunch till about 11.

Fun part was that it was the first time my gorgeous guy and I had really used the new IKEA dining room table and it looked fabulous with the pink/orange placemats and coasters contrasting gorgeously with the chocolate brown colour of the table.

I then got down to finishing off a passage of my novel I am rewriting, while my gorgeous guy headed back to his place for vacuuming and cleaning (yep all the sexy fun stuff!), we regrouped for a quick trip to IKEA to swap a damaged panel of his new entertainment unit with a brand spanking new one, before we went to Jinnah's for dinner in Dulwich Hill (we were going to have Bangladeshi cooking in Marrickville but the restaurant ended up looking almost empty and not quite what we were after). It was as quirky as ever, down to the owner starting to turn off the music and some lights when it got to 9.30pm to encourage us to leave. (Oh and I got to wear my scarf one last time so cold was it - yaaaaay!)

Some things never change..

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 226 (Sunday 14 August) - Mixed Bag 3

Started the day out with honey & peanut butter art. I call this Brunch: An Exercise in Not Eating Healthy Cereal Like I Do During the Break. What it lacks in brevity and bite, it makes up for in description.

Then my gorgeous guy and I finally managed to get his IKEA Benno DVD stands in place before we chilled and went into the City to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes with dinner beforehand at Albion Place Hotel, a funky new pub on George Street. Naturally I had to have lollies following the fish n chips, which made for a very healthy night out indeed.... and yes the movie was very good!

(see my review in my pop culture blog - http://sparklyprettybriiiight.blogspot.com/2011/08/rise-of-planet-of-apes.html )

Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 225 (Saturday 13 August) - Mixed Bag Part Deux

So first off we did brunch! Not that remarkable but until about 10 a.m. we weren't going to but then Fahmi texted, wanted to see if we'd join him in Sydney Park after his walk for brunch, we couldn't ourselves into a socially acceptable state in time (gay standards of dress and hygiene are rigorous people!), and so we ended up having brunch at South End cafe. It was an old fave of mine, fell out of favour when it changed owners, and while the service isn't as warm and personable as it was, the Pea and Haloumi Pancakes are back to roaring form, y'all! (Yes it's said just like an affirmative Oprah statement...I am that happy!)

Fortified by great conversation and pancakes, my guy and I finally got my IKEA dining table up and in working order after it sat in about 20 pieces in the corner of my bedroom for 6 months. It looks awesome, precipitated a reorganization of the lounge-room chairs which looks similarly awesome, and I am frankly awed it is finally up. Miracles do happen people, keep believing!

In the middle of all this moving forward-ness (yes we had a Julia moment), my sister sent me more photos of my sweet photogenic nephew, Bodhi, and he is walking a LOT!

Oh, and on the way home from getting dinner, we happened across an odd food offering at the base of a power pole. Yes I know Energy Australia can be difficult to deal with at times, but are Buddhist offerings now necessary? It seems so.