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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

I always find this a difficult one - what do you get your partner / love of your life / penguin
for Valentine's day?

It is a day of ridiculously high expectations fraught with danger and innuendo.

I mean for example, if you get the person a nice bunch of flowers, there are all these
bizarre rules.

Don't get them yellow roses because that means "I like you, but not in THAT way"

And forget pink camellias because that is deemed to mean "I am longing for a man"
and you don't want to appear desperate.

Striped carnations mean "rejection" and "sorry I can't be with you"
(where do you even get striped carnations anyway?)

Thankfully, red roses mean "I Love You"

But what happens when the roses start to wither? People get awfully superstitious
about such things and a nice gift can turn into a weird bouquet like those flowers
in "Supernatural" in the bit where the zombie is making the ground unholy.

There I go on the unholy ground rave again. I am trying to write about Valentine's Day.
That's what you get for being born a Scorpio.

So forget flowers. Then you have the gift section. Teddy bears. I don't know.
What does a grown woman / man do with a teddy bear? And if you get one every
year it turns into "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" and people get freaked out.
That was the problem with that play, the guy should never have bought her dolls
in the first place. Dolls are in Stephen King novels, in Chucky movies, but I'm steering
clear of them for Valentine's Day. Did I mention dolls really creep me out?

I can't imagine why.



No dolls.

Seriously.

Okay, what have we got left? Oh yeah, all those weird tacky presents like the
elephant underpants and shiny silk boxers with little hearts on them.
You know what?
You might want to give these a miss. They could backfire on you and make you look
like a weird pervert. I mean those edible undergarments are just hideous. If you want
your partner to think you are weird, cheap, pervy and tacky, then go right ahead.

Hmmm. I'm running out of options. There are those "Romantic Adventures for Two"
things on those corporate entertainment (isn't that an oxymoron?) websites. So if you
really wanted to, you could risk both your life and the life of your loved one in a tandem
jump coordinated by a man who takes far too many steroids. It's totally up to you.

So then there are the romantic getaways in Balinese-style huts that look incredible until
you realise you can't smoke in the huts OR on the grounds, you can't light tealight candles
or any other sort of candle so the atmosphere is severely lacking, you are surrounded by
other stressed-out couples trying desperately to relax while dealing with nicotine
withdrawal and rampant boredom. There are only so many times you can sigh and say
"isn't this nice" before you want to kill somebody.

So what can you do? Lock yourself away in a room with all the windows boarded up until
the daylight rises over February 15th? Perhaps. Or you could get a nice card, write a
message that actually means something, buy some choccies, get a nice bottle of wine and
go out to dinner.

xxxoxox

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I don't know what it is. Perhaps the stars were out of alignment. Perhaps Mercury was in retrograde. Perhaps something was in the water.

The fact is, the Ebay Jinx has not been put to rest. See "The Dreaded Ebay Jinx!" post.

It makes me think of Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors where Amanda Krueger
(Sister Mary Helena) says:

"The unquiet spirit must be laid to rest. It is an abomination to God and to man."

I must defeat the Ebay demon before it is too late.

There is only one way to start.

I'll be going to Ebay now and you know what I'll be shopping for...

So as I venture off to parts unknown I will leave you with these words:

"You are about to attend a funeral...one that's long overdue"
(Nightmare on Elm St 3 - Dream Warriors.)
(Again.)

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Your Vocabulary Score: A+

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary!
You must be quite an erudite person.


I found this quiz through Skeet's Stuff - I have also discovered after completing another one of these quizzes that I am 90% Average American. Being an Australian, I think that's quite an achievement!

Coming from Melbourne, I've often thought I would fit in quite well in a place like Seattle. I went there in 1992
(GRUNGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
and it reminded me of Melbourne. A lot.

Although I got asked the weirdest questions when I went to school in Olympia (pun intended, thank you Courtney Love!) I was on a kind of school exchange program where I found the knowledge of Australia was minimal, if not bizarre. It was no culture shock for me to go to Olympia, I went from a fairly large city (by Australian standards!) to a smaller town with lots of barns, churches and basketball games. I was met at the airport by my host family - the Dad was wearing a Driza Bone (circa "Man From Snowy River") and an Akubra (I'm pretty sure Paul Hogan wore one in Crocodile Dundee) I knew from this point on that things were going to be weird. I went to give a talk the school (argh!!) This is something I did not enjoy. I was more interested in listening to Nevermind on my walkman. I managed to sync up the chorus of "Something in the Way" to the taking off and landing of my plane journeys to great effect. Anyway, I was dragged unenthusiastically into this group. There was a Q&A session with me (feeling like a zoo exhibit) so everyone could find out more about where I was from. Here are the highlights for your enjoyment (and my horror)...

Question 1: Are your maps upside down?
Err........no. That would make us....INSANE!!!

Question 2: Do you have electricity?
Uh....here is a picture of my town - Melbourne, Australia to dispel these strange myths:



Question 3: Do you have kangaroos in your yard?
?!?!?!??!?!? See picture above.

Question 4: (this killed me!!)
What is your favourite band?

I answered "Nirvana" (I was of course in Olympia, then Seattle - a grunge pilgrimage, if you like...)



The Reply: Are they an Australian band?

Oh My God.

I feel weak.

I need to lie down.