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!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 303 : Wine, Wine...Pizza?

So here's the thing.... last minute decision to get some friends together. Only one, my dear friend, Waz, made it, but we had a ball, drinking wine and champagne, eating gourmet pizza, and to add a small Halloween touch, lollies with decorative touches added by my Halloween smurfs and pouch from Ghiradelli Chocolates  (all bought in San Francisco last year)..... what fun!

Fun Friday Cartoon

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 302 : Thats Just Spooky

Isn't this a cool window display?

I saw when I was out walking on King Street yesterday morning and the wonderfully carved pumpkins (isn't the face of the one on the right the best?!) it reminded me of being in Canada last year for Halloween and the fantastic fun I had carving pumpkins, handing out candy to the kids Trick or Treating, dressing up in my monster and cowboy hat (last minute costume but it totally rcked!) and eating so much great food with my wonderful friends, Sandra & Ken, and their gorgeous kids, Katie and Graham... I had a brilliant time!

Somehow I think Halloween will be a lot quieter this year....

************************

I got to do at least one fun thing today at work. Well it's TGIF so that's de rigeur right? Not necessarily!

But today yes there was fun! I got photographed, along with four other Eexecutive Assistants (EAs), for a new company intranet site designed just for EAs.... and critical though I am of myself in photos, I have to admit this one turned up pretty well (the lovely lady sitting on the E is my colleague, Sandra, who's a dream to work with)..

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 301 : Weird Things at Work 2

This is a sign in the toilet at work.

I kid you not. So hygiene-challenged are some people at the company I work at that the powers that be feel the need to not only remind people to flush but that it's a good thing.

Unbelievable.

*********

Big night tonight! Westfield Sydney City opened tonight but most importantly GAP opened it's first store in Sydney! Naturally Warren & I had to go along, check it all, spend up on GAP T's and boxers and spend more some elsewhere too! Retail nirvana and we made sure we wallowed in it!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 300 : I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do....

Off walking again this morning at 5 a.m. - insane after walking and swimming yesterday; anyone would think I am trying to slim down and tone up! I am.... - and this time the soundtrack was ABBA, all ABBA, all the time. That's unusual. Not because I don't love ABBA; I adore them, and not because I don't think they make great wlaking music; quite the contrary, their music is absolutely perfect.

No, it has much more to do with my very present state of mind which is simply that I tend to be listening to the music that's on my radar now - I am a voracious consumer of new music, which iTunes will well attest to! - and not the music that dominated my past. ABBA are a little different in that because they were an integral part of my life growing up - for years till I discovered disco they were all I listened to - they tend to still be very present in my here and now, especially when I can source bitchin' dance remixes of their songs by producers who are the current flavour of the month.

I did that just recently and ended up with fantastic remixes of Dum Dum Diddle, Just Like That, On & On & On, Summer Night City, Mamma Mia and Elaine, the final song of which remains one of my favourites to this day. I have always been drawn to ABBA's less popular songs for some reason - such as Elaine, Should I Laugh or Cry etc - not out of some desire to be different to most people but simply they were often the songs that spoke to me or had some deep emotional impact on me. It's not surprising I guess since I often choose the path less travelled; again not born of some deliberate tactic to be different for the sake of it but rather some quirky part of me that never chooses the obvious or usual options. I mean, I am gay after all! That's intrinsically me to the core so not surpising I guess that I tend to go for the unusual over the well worn.

Anyway listening to ABBA this morning was a lot of fun, they provided the perfect bouncy pounding sound track to my walk (and I was tired this morning so I really needed it!), and they reminded how timeless a group they are, and how lovely it is to have them as part of my here and now.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 299 : What a Difference a Day Makes

Out for my walk this morning (currently doubling as Feed the Feline time too), on what was a crisp, gorgeous early morning, I was greeted by this awesome sunrise as I came down Fahmi's street in Erskineville, on what has so far been a reasonably lovely day.

Of course it is..... it's not Monday.

Food Can Be Funny Too!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 298 : Rainy Days & Mondays.... Together! Arrgh!

I don't Mondays are universally reviled by all and sundry (sundry being particularly bitter about one Monday in 1963 that is best not discussed) but today was particularly open to revulsion right across the board.

Why you ask, feigning interest once again (keep feigning - that's all we extroverts really need!)?

It started with my walk at 5 a.m. when I was rounding the corner at Sydney Uni back onto King Street and swallowed a bug. A bug, I might add, that didn't appereciate being drawn into my oesophagus one little bit, and with his dying energy, kept moving ever so slightly in my throat. Apart from icky visuals that engenders, it caused me to cough like a banshee (they have no access to health care and consequently cough quiet badly on an ongoing basis) pretty much all the way home.... well at least until I got to Fahmi's to feed the cat, by which time I suspect my stomach acid has ended the bug's brief and poorly judged life.

The rain that had been falling on and off through my walk then became my bete noir of the moment. During the walk itself I hadn't minded it, and with the iPod safe in its leather cover, I enjoy the refreshing water on my face that wasn't sweat. Unfortunately the rain kept falling as I walked to the station later on, and came in at a delightful horizontal angle that successfully soaked my pants and the arm holding the umbrella.

Then I realised on reaching the station that I'd left ALL my food for the day at home. On the kitchen bench. Far from me and eventually from my digestive tract. (Thankfully I keep my breakfast cereal at work and a colleague gave me a Weight Watchers Ginger Kiss bar so it wasn't all lost.)

And then the train was late.

The Monday apocalypse had begun.....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 297 : Photos on a Rainy Cold Sunday

Today was one of those days that many people hate - well I do too if I caught out in it going to work - but I love... cold, rainy and gloomily atmospheric.Perfect for curling up with a good book or DVD... or special guy.

In my case, I got to sleep in with my beautiful man before we sat out on the balcony for a lazy breakfast of toast and the Herald's Good Weekend Quiz - contrary to the way that sentence reads, I ate only the toast, preferring to eschew my spy tendencies which urged me to eat the paper after reading it  - before he headed home to work and I went grocery shopping with my very good friend, Waz, and swimming alone (in a warm-ish indoor pool).

Feeling I had earned some sloth and indolence, I lazed the afternoon away, stopping my lethargy only to feed the cat and cook Morrocan meatballs for my guy and me for dinner.

I love this kind of weather, and the days it produces..... my perfect kind of days.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 296 : I Fed Him Again, Britney

My friend Fahmi, is off on one of his regular overseas jaunts and I am once again on Stopping-the-Cat-Turning-Into-a-Skeletal-Wreck patrol.

So far, so well fed and alive....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 295 : Guessing Who's Coming For a Drink? Maybe...

No, definitely!

Tonight I caught up for drinks at Bar 333 on George Street, with my best friend, Waz (above) and his new romantic interest, Jonathan. They haven't reached the official boyfriend stage yet, but things are going very well indeed, and no wonder, since Jonathan is a warm, delightful, lovely guy who was a pleasure to chat to, and who will fit into my close group of friends very well.

Along for the ride was my gorgeous guy (in glasses, below) and my close friend, Peter. We eventually left the love birds alone, and headed off for dinner down at I-Thai down at King Street Wharf.

Many wines and lots of conversation later, my guy and I made it home.... and crashed.

A long week but a deligthful way to finish it off.

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 294 : No More Brekkie TV

I must admit I try very hard not to be a media snob.

Of course I make exceptions with programmes so execrably downmarket and lacking in any journalistic credibility such as Today Tonight or a Current Affair (both programmes are so vapid as to beggar belief that people use this as any source of credible information) that media snobbery is not just called for but loudly demanded, but as a general rule, I abhor snobbery of any kind, thinking it's the recourse of insecure people using their over inflated opinions as cover for cowering egos.

However, I have decided that I must invoke some sort of boycott on breakfast TV when Sunrise finally wnet one step too far and turned what looked like an innocent segment on when to change your pillow - I was a tad suspicious from the get-go since Tontine launched a major campaign last night to urge people to change their pillows regularly in the interests of good health; no, not profit, good health of course! - was followed by a competition to win a Tontine bed set! Well knock me down with a feather down pillow and call me Lucy! Not only is Sunrise so light and fluffy it may well float away on a strong breeze (not something that's troubled me previously since I am hardly likely to want to sit through a searing 30 minute current affairs expose at 6 in the morning) but now its essentially one long ad disguised as an information piece.

Here's hoping Media Watch rips them limb from limb.....

My Enemy

Defining Calories:



Calories are the little f*ckers that get into your wardrobe at night and sew your clothes tighter!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 293 : MX Close to Home

Today, rather pick up MX at the train station where I am one anonymous commuter among many, I was able to get it at work. Yes, at work! 

I have mixed feelings about it - some days, its light, bright, fluff-filled articles are perfect for a brain that's being assaulted by masses of information all day and just wants to switch to light 'n' easy mode for a while; other days I feel like I am making a pact with the media devil and surrendering myself to insipid banality so I stick with the Herald.

The good folks though handing it out at the employee exit were so all-American eager for me to have it, their pearly whites blindingly bright, and their face carrying the eagerness of puppies, that I could hardly refuse, and yes I read it... well at least for 2-3 minutes before sanity prevailed and I went back to the Herald.


Much as I hate to be snob, let's hope I can resist MX's siren song now it's so easily in reach....

Sad news - Tom Bosley, the dad in Happy Days has died

I loved him in Happy Days and Murder She Wrote, and it is sad to hear that he has died. He was one of the constants of my childhood, appearing in Happy Days week after week, a show my parents liked and approved of, and managing to project the air of everyone's favourite father to great effect.

I even watched him in Murder She Wrote, which while daggy in a way, was a show that I loved watching for its warm predictability. It may have been Angela Landsbury's show but he shone in it too.

He will be missed.

RIP Tom.

His obituary

LOS ANGELES, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Actor Tom Bosley, whose career spanned five decades and included his role as the father of a typical American family on popular 1970s TV comedy "Happy Days," has died at 83, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Celebrity news website TMZ cited family members as saying Bosley died at his home in Palm Springs, California and recently he had been battling a staph infection.


A spokesman for Bosley was not immediately available for confirmation.


Bosley's everyday manner and looks helped him forge a career in Hollywood as a character actor and guest star in a number of popular 1960s television shows such as "Route 66," "Dr. Kildare," "Marcus Welby, M.D." and "Bonanza."


But it was on the long-running "Happy Days" that he enjoyed his biggest success, playing the father of the show's central character Richie Cunningham, who was a teenager growing up in the 1950s.


"Happy Days" ran from 1974 to 1984 and was a smash hit series that made Henry Winkler (Fonzie) a major Hollywood star and sparked the adult success of Ron Howard, who played Richie and would later go on to a career as a film director.

When the show ended, Bosley returned to character work on TV with roles in numerous popular series such as "The Love Boat" and "Murder, She Wrote." He continued working well into the 2000s with parts in series such as "That '70s Show."

Soggy Cat, Soggy Cat, Why Are They Washing You?

As you all know, I love cats. I have been a cat person all my life, and I don't see that changing any time soon. You have been warned.

So, in the spirit of all things feline, here's some adorable shots of very unhappy moggies getting spruced up, and hating every last nanosecond of the experience, poor babies....

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 292 : Another Night, Another Birthday Dinner

Not, I hasten to add, that I am complaining!

I am taking my bestie gal pal from work, Sammi, out for a much delayed birthday dinner at Hurricane at Darling Harbour, and it should be a bundle o' fun with cocktails to be drunk, steaks to be eaten and great, lively conversation to be had.

I can't wait!

Fabulous night! Like there was any doubt it would be...

Dinner was superb - we were seated out on the balcony, which was wonderfully quiet compared to the crazy din inside, with views right across Darling Harbour to the City. We didn't stop talking once - like we ever do! - and the cocktails were delish, the food yummo (steaks and ribs) and dessert when we got it eventually at a place over in Chinatown called Riviera Cafe (two scoops of ice cream in a cone) was scrummo.

What a delightful night!

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 291 : That Street Again

This is the street that leads to the medical practice I use.

I walked it again today after suffering an allergic reaction in the middle of the night which caused itchy lumps all over my body, which were only alleviated by an antihistamine drug that I had to dig out of the recesses of my medicine cabinet.

What a fun thing to do in the middle of the night! Thank goodness I did find it though because the itching stopped enough for me to grab some sleep although a side effect of the drug was a very drowsy drowsiness that meant I spent the day not at work, but curled up in bed, my walk to the doctor's surgery aside. I am off for tests with a specialist who hopefully can tell what triggers my allergic reactions, likely at the cost of the GDP of a small Pacific nation. I'd better start saving!

(I just noticed that this street looks like something out of the 1970s. Time warp!)

365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 290 : I Feel Like Turkish Tonight-ish - Part 2

First stop to celebrate Warren's birthday was the Cloud 9 rooftop of Zanzibar Hotel Newtown. We drank jugs of Pimms and Caipirinha (a Brazilian rum based drink) and enjoyed a dazzling glorious sunny afternoon.

Then we walked a little way down King Street to a new Turkish restaurant called Matee, where the food was divine, the service attentive and personal and the afternoon languorous and soaked in wine, dips, and Greek sweets (yes at a Turkish restaurant - oops!). What a delightful way to celebrate a special day.

Happy Birthday Warren!