365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 325 (Sunday 21 Nov 2010): Pub With No Sushi

How do you top off a relaxed day that included a 1.7km swim, a haircut, a nap, and writing 3000 words towards my novel?

Why you get together with a bunch of good friends at The Union hotel in Erskineville, eat a yummy steak, and finish it all off with a white chocolate Magnum ice cream at a nearby convenience store. Diet be damned!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 324 (Saturday 20 Nov 2010) : Party!!

My beautiful guy's sister was up from Melbourne and so we did that rare thing and drive across the harbour to Neutral Bay for a gloriously relaxed arvo/early evening of laughing lots, eating far too much delicious food, and kicking back with Carolyn and her boyfriend's Ric's friends, who are all thoroughly lovely people.

Followed that up with a quick visit to my friend Luke's 40th birthday do at the Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hotels and two too many orange Bacardi Breezers which kept me awake for an hour or two with sugar rushes. Lesson learned!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 323 (Fri 19 Nov 2010) : More Falling...Into Pizza This Time

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 322 : I've Fallen But I Will Get Up

Weeks and weeks I have been  committed to not eating anything bad at work - it's been yummy salads (I make them myself and really enjoy them), fruit, almonds, low fat everything (with the exception of a lone lolly run recently) and then today?


I cracked wide open. Well semi-wide open. OK that sounds vaguely kinky but bear with me.... I ended up forsaking the salad for Chinese food (one part was healthy - chicken and veges; the other, pepper squid, not so much) and a Whip chocolate bar (like  a Mars Bar but creamier and yummier).

Bit I didn't fall for long with an apple for afternoon tea and a healthy dinner awaiting after my walk in Sydney park tonight with my friend Warren.


All is not lost! (I loved the fall really - I needed to break free and remind myself that it's Ok to be bad a little bit because it makes all the good bits so worthwhile!)

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 321 (Wednesday 17 Nov) : Dinner with Fahmi and an iPhone

Yummy dinner at Botany View with Fahmi - lovely to catch up with him after his 3 week trip to Asia (when I fed his cat faithfully) and the food was divine.... my dish (directly above) was delicious beyond words - Salmon fillet on cauliflower & lemon mash with seared scallops, asparagus, spinach, sweet potato and a gorgeous lemon sauce. Sublime!

Oh and the iPhone...Fahmi can't go any length of time without interacting with it and getting me to download more apps!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 320 : More Writing.... Yes More Writing!

Drunk Moos!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 319 : Well Hey There Suburban Santy Claus!

I saw this last night as I was leaving my boyfriend's house.

No, it's not a vaguely green UFO hovering in the night sky but rather my Christmas lights sighting of the season!

Pretty...Pretty Lights....Mmmmmm

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 318 : Bodhi!

Here are the latest shots of my gorgeous nephew Bodhi who, according to his mum (my sister Rachel) has a infectious smile that spreads out across his whole face, and he's vocalising heaps too.


What a cutie!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 317 (Saturday 13 November) : Writing, Swimming and More Turkish Than You Can Fit in a Bath

A great day!


Woke up with my gorgeous guy next to me.


A yummy breakfast with him before I left to work (poor guy - ridiculous work deadlines beckon).


Had a nap, wrote in excess of 3000 words for the novel, very close to my Personal Best.

Then, rejoined by my guy, drinks and nibbles at Warren's place before delicious Turkish food at our new favourite restaurant, Matee.

Only way it would have been better is if my guy has been with me all day....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 316 (Friday 12 November) : Breathe!

I was off work today to get tested for possible asthma after finding that it very difficult to breathe at times as my chest seemed to tighten.As part of the testing, conducted by a very friendly lady at the respiratory testing unit at RPA Hospital, I got to spend lots of time breathing into that delightful orange instrument above. It wasn't pleasant since I had to first breath in deep (many times breathing in sugar crystals which apparently trigger asthmatic episodes - they were so fine I spent a lot of time coughing like a mad man.... on the assumption, of course, that they cough a lot) and I couldn't nail the technique of breathing in deep and then pushing out the breath over and over (that's common it seems since it's not even remotely a natural breathing pattern) but the good news is - I DON'T HAVE ASTHMA (it appears that my tight chest episodes are a mild form of hyper ventilation which can be cured by holding my breath....not till I turn blue I might add though!

Gotta love that.

A sweet dilemma

I would like to think I could be helpful and altruistic and do 1 or 2 but likely I would go for option 3....

Yes, cruel but quick! It's the best way methinks...

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 315 : It'll Be All Write on the Day!

So I have reached Day 11 of my writing fiesta and the first thing I must mention is that writing when you have had a good night's sleep is infinitely better han trying to write, like I did yesterday after three nights of 5-6 hours sleep. While I like to think I can pack a million things into one day and skimp on the sleep, and get away with it, my body, which is wilful and refuses to follow the script I set for it, won't accept that for a minute, and actually insists on recharging in order to function properly! I know! How weird is that?

Well, not so weird as it turns out. Contrast yesterday when my brain felt like molasses-soaked cotton wool, and moved with about as much speed, and writing was torture as my brain refused to spit the words with anything like the efficiency and creativity I wanted (I have a daily word quota on this Write a Novel in a Months schtick and I was in danger of dropping below it) with today when the words tumbled out like lemmings on amphetamines running over a cliff (a big ass cliff baby!) and I reached and surpassed the 2000 word limit with ease and time to spare.

Of course, I have learnt this many times before, and yet, hostage to my extrovert tendencies as I am, I keep forgetting to heed it. Hopefully this time it sticks.

Yeah I don't hold much hope of that either, but a boy can dream right?

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 314 : Wallet Thy Name is Annoying

Yes folks its time to play let's blame the inanimate un-sentient object!

I was out the door, I had closed the gate to my complex and I was walking to the railway station when I realised I had left my wallet at home. So I had to turn back , ruining any chance I had of catching the 6.40 train. Yes you read that right - the 6.40 train. I am mad!

But I was on a mission to get to the City, buy cupcakes for my boss Vicki's birthday and then get to work in time to print documents off for a meeting she was attending by 8.15. As it was I just made it.

But am I blaming my faulty memory for not putting the wallet straight into my man bag? No I am not! It's all the wallet's fault. No really....it is.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 313 (Tuesday 9 November) : Takoyaki Till I Can Takoyaki No More

Last night, out to dinner with my bestie gal pal from work, Sammi @ Asagao in the City, and celebrating writing 3029 words that day for the novel, I had me a big helpin' o Takoyaki balls.....mmmm YUM!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 312 : Je Suis Un Artist Serieux

Yes I got up at 4 a.m. to write more of my novel.

Not by choice, well initially anyway. I woke up at 3.30 a.m., couldn't get back to sleep, fought it for 1/2 hour and finally got up and spent a very fruitful 50 minutes writing 1200 words, well on my way to my daily total. I don't care to repeat the exercise in ahurry (although I am a morning person so writing then does work for me) but as a colleague today remarked, it does establish as a Very Serious Artist.

C'est moi!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 311 : Wrote Yet More

After yesterday's aggravating writing experience when each word felt like it was being pulled from me via a medieval tortured technique (some days are like that alas), the writing today flowed brilliantly qucikly and in just one hour I'd written 2055 words and finished off the section I wanted to complete. Life can be good!

To clear my mind after all that writing, I headed to the pool for a 1.5km swim, followed by a micro nap and my gorgeous guy's friend Alan's flute recital in the City at The Con (Conservatorium of Music), which was delightful and followed a lovely reception where I met some very cool people.

After a lovely walk down through the City (see the photos) , the dinner that followed at Caminetto's in The Rocks was average alas although sitting outside in the plaza near the Argyle building with my beloved across from me more than made up for the cookie cutter tourist trap factory production food (service was very good though which helped).

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 310 : More Rain and More Words

It rained a lot this morning.


I fed the cat.

I got the groceries.


..... and most importantly I wrote 2645, well ahead of the word count needed.


Rock on!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 308 (Thursday 4 November) : Jolly Jacarandas!

I love the way the Jacaranda trees flower at this time of the year.


Students call it the Exam Tree because if flowers around HSC/Uni exam times, but my association is not as negative; in fact not really negative at all.

When I saw the lovely purple flowers dancing across the delicate bright light green leaves down all the trees in the street where I live, I remember being 5 - 8 years in ages, being made up in 4 litre ice cream tub hats and bright crepe paper costumes and dancing around Grafton Show ground during the annual school spectacular, that formed part of the annual Jacaranda Festival in November. 


While it was fun on one level, it was also hot on an epic scale (the Far North Coast gets like that very early on the Spring/Summer season), and I remember being stained with crepe paper colouring by the end of the day, as well as being exhausted and wet through by day's end from all the sweat.

Oh yeah, and I wanted to call myself Max at the time, not Andrew.


I have NO idea why..... could have been the dyes talking...

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 309 : Candy Coated Sushi?

I kind of fell of the health and virtue wagon today.

First fall - a lolly run to the on campus convenience store. I haven't done that with my bestie gal pal from work, Sammi, in ages, and it was fun!

Second fall - after work drinks with my friends Warren & Peter and two of Warren's work mates at Bar 333 in the City followed by some questionable but delicious Japanese food for dinner (joined by my gorgeous guy who had just driven back home that night).

And the thing is all that falling and no injuries thanks to exercising like a mad men and eating well all the rest of the time.You gotta love that!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 307 : A Novel Idea, Well Done

Today is Day 3 of Write a Novel in a Month and I am well ahead of schedule.


While the idea excited me, and I signed almost as soon as my friend Justin suggested I get involved, I was daunted by the idea of writing an entire novel in just one month. But the contest is designed primarily as a jump start to the creative process of writing a novel, so that you can overcome the inertia of day to day routine edging out any and all creative impulses, which it so often does.

I am loving the idea of being forced to get just the general idea/s down on 'paper', and while I have to resist mightily the urge to rewrite constantly (that comes later), I think it's going to be a very productive fun process.


Onward and upward to 50,000 words!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 306: NEIGH!

Melbourne Cup Day again already! My how the year gallops past!


As per usual, pretty much all useful work stopped around 12 noon although the demands of my job kept requiring me to jump into the inbox on and off.

But at 3pm, after a yummy BBQ lunch, the infamous Tricycle Races, judging of the Best Hat (won by me with faaaabulous masking tape creation by 3M (left over tape from the Tricycle Race track), I watched for 3 minutes with everyone while The Race That Stops a Nation, well, stopped us.

One of my two sweeps horses actually came in second and garnered me the princely sum of $16, which means I made $9 off my initial $7 investment.


It was a lot of fun and made for a relaxed day in the office for once, even if it was still busy.

Normal is as Pancakes Are....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 305 : I Have the Family Pack...Now Where's the Family?

I started my new box of Cheerios today.

The family-size pack what's more.

Now where the f*#k did I leave my family?

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 304 : Happy Halloween!

A quiet fun day today with a lazy breakfast, some swimming, napping and reading. Not scary at all really but hey it is Halloween so here's some Halloween fun to get in the spirit of the day!