What's up buttercup?

My mind did a double take this morning when I realised tomorrow is the first day of May.

May?? Did I just think May?

That's right, May. One month away from June, one month past April- where the public holidays have officially dried up.

So, what's been happening?

1. Masterchef's back and tear jerky as ever. Matt Preston is such an eloquent, kind soul. Meanwhile, today Gary teared up when his mum came to make her roast which made me tear up and salivate at the same time. Those Yorkshire puddings sure did look good. Double meanwhile, George is such a round toughie-softie who makes everything speed along at such an exciting pace. I'm so glad Masterchef's back


2. Man from Mars has been travelling his hiney off these past few weeks. He's been to Bathurst, then Forbes, then Parkes, then to yours truly in Sydney and back to Melbourne. I think it's nuts and that some slow deep breathing sessions wouldn't go astray. The glamour of "travelling for work" isn't all that glamorous, and I feel bad for all the lack of fun involved


3. Work is going swimmingly. I love my work mates and have the best fun with them. Yesterday Mr Funky Glasses came up with the most cliche movie scene of all time: the one where Girl and Guy (who are steadily falling in love) make the compulsory trip to the local fair, ride the ferris wheel, and a montage of uproarious laughter, icecream sharing and the requisite giant stuffed toy tucked under Girl's arm, follows-- all against the backdrop of golden feel good fairylights.


4. My dreams have been a little strange lately- last night I dreamt that two of my teeth fell out and I spent a great deal of time staring into my hollowed out gums, almost as if I were the dentist examining my own mouth. Strange and disconcerting.


5. I'm addicted to Friends. Thanks to Miss DB, I've steamrolled through Seasons 1 and 2 and now I'm up to Season 3. Easy, warm, cheerful fun; not an ounce of bitchy/mean vibe to be found.


6. I got a cool skirt for $9.95 and truly felt like I'd outdone myself.


7. It's getting dark earlier and light later.


8. I wonder why I still break out at the age of 25. Have my hormones not sorted themselves out yet?? My chin is officially like Rocky Road. Mild despair.


9. Miss EBae has at long last, returned from Korea. Just like old times, we wandered around as indecisive as ever and watched Date Night on a full belly of Burgerlicious.


10. Thai Passion in World Square has wonderful Chilli Basil. Super hot which can possibly lead to cramping bowels- but so very worth it.

That's my champion

Last night as I was sitting on the train going home, I got a text from Man from Mars which said:

I'll be there by 8 pm. What do you wanna do for dinner?

Clearly, Man from Mars had gotten his recipient wrong and I texted back a:

What??

But then he called me and said obviously he hadn't got his recipient wrong and that he was on his way up from Katoomba to catch up for a couple of hours.

I rattled off a bunch of useless questions:

But how are you gonna go back? When will you go back? What do you mean???????

Then I managed to get my brain back:

Are you for real??????!!!!!! That is so excitinggggggggg! OKAY SEE YOU SOON!

I was trying not to shout because I was on the train and everyone was struck down with the Tuesday Tumbles (the feeling you have on Tuesday where you know you're not halfway yet, but at least it's not Monday although you still wish it was at least Thursday). In other words, I couldn't be too vocal in my excitement because everyone else seemed a little gloomy and I'd be irritating them if I was too loud about it.

Anyway, Man from Mars got to my house at 8 pm where we ate thai green curry and seafood pad thai... we hung, laughed and had a grand time. It was only an hour and a half before he had to go, but it was the best hour and a half ever.

Man from Mars is the best.

He may as well be in Perth...

Man from Mars is working in Katoomba until Wednesday. Then he's flying back to Melbourne until Sunday night. Then he's flying back to Sydney/Katoomba until the following Wednesday. Then he's flying back to Melbourne until who knows when. Talk about silly.

He flew into Sydney about 10 seconds ago and it's so misleading because even though he's in the same state as me, he's actually in the backstreet hinterlands of anywhere, which means he may as well be in Perth.

Meanwhile, yesterday I walked through the hinterlands of the Botanical Gardens, and did you know that the trees are full of bats?? There's this one path which takes you through a "rainforest experience" and so I took it, smiling indulgently, trudging carefully through the "rainforest" and feeling holier than thou for getting up close and personal with the unique flora of Australia. I thought to myself: "My those bird calls are very pretty" but as I walked further and further into the "rainforest" the cacophany of "bird calls" became uncomfortably screechy and as I looked up, I found myself face to face with a canopy full of upside down bats.

I got out of there faster than you could say "De ne ne ne ne ne ne ne De ne ne ne ne ne ne Batman!"

Extended Easter (F)estivities

http://www.vintage-kennel.com/Images/RealFake/EasterEars.jpg

Out of all the months of the calendar, I love April the most. It's a big call, but I reckon April rocks even harder than December because it's filled with long weekends and public holidays, which perhaps aren't as well deserved as the ones that gleam invitingly at the end of a long year come Christmas time in December.

Last weekend was the super duper double whammy of Good Friday and Easter Monday. Not surprisingly, on the Thursday before our extended long weekend, the office was buzzing with significantly reduced brain capacity, crazed excited grins, April Fools' jokes which succeeded, others which were foiled moments before execution, victorious warcrys by the sly tricksters, thinly veiled annoyance by the foiled tricksters and a general sense of holiday.

After all, when do you ever ever get a 4 day weekend??

As usual it went way too fast for everyone's own good. I left for Melbourne on Thursday night and was slightly suspicious because my plane was on time and landed early, Man from Mars strided up to me all snazzed up in his work suit and we motored out of there quicksticks to let the 4 day weekend celebrations begin.

On Friday we watched Blood Diamond - insightful, scary, whizzing bullets and Leo doing an excellent attempt at a South African accent, which only occassionally lapsed into Cockney English when the going got especially tough.

On Saturday, we woke up at the splendid hour of 11:30 am and ate a bonza breakfast of porridge, juice, banana and two toasted hot cross buns topped with generous lashings of butter. That's right, the breakfast of (non-athlete) champions.

Breakfast was then suitably followed by Lunch not more than an hour later, which turned into a reunion of sorts when Man from Mars and I ran into two of my friends from uni. We exchanged zillions of "HII! How are you!"s all round and decided to have lunch together. It was a nice catch up, but after we'd eaten all our food, and paid the bill I did what I always do when it's long weekend time: I freak out that we're simply not doing enough and decide that we're going to have to absolutely cram our days full if we're gonna make this 4 day weekend better than a regular 2 day weekend.

Me: It's already 3 o'clock and it's already Saturday and then tomorrow's Sunday and then I'll be going home on Monday!!! I wail.

Man from Mars: That's okay, we've still got the rest of today and Sunday and Monday! he states matter of factly.

Me: Nooo but we haven't achieved anything yet and it's already been 2 days! I shout.

Man from Mars (patiently): Yes we have, we watched Blood Diamond, caught up with your friends and tomorrow we're gonna see Arj Barker and go out for dinner... we have heaps to do!

Me: I supposeeee.

And then because of the inconsolable child I can be, Man from Mars decided to buy us mountains of gelato to get my mind off the need to achieve big things on the long weekend.

After that, the weekend went even faster. We went home, played Archery on his Wii (where Man from Mars revealed this uber competitive side that I've never seen before in my life- eg. he stomped both feet simultanously on the ground and hissed: "Oh F!ck" when he accidentally released the z button and let his arrow zoom off into the land of nowhere) and then we watched 500 Days of Summer.

On Sunday, we had yum cha, went bike riding, got sore groins, and then went and saw Arj Barker at the comedy festival. Two goons got kicked out because they were being drunk and disorderly. They did that stupid bow which goons do when they think their goon antics will be appreciated by the wider community. Thing is, everyone thought they were first class goons and they got booed out of the hall. Having said that, Arj was super funny. Mr Russia from work was there with his mini miss and we hollered "HI HOW YOU GOING!" to each other in front of Starbucks before going in.

And then all too quickly, so sad, too bad, it was Monday. We ate our usual breakfast for (non-athlete) champions, swiftly followed by burgers for lunch and then it was time for the trek to the airport.

Me: Buhyeeeee, gloomily as I walked towards the gate to get my ticket scanned to get on the plane.

Man from Mars: Buhyeee see you on Anzac Day followed by a floppy wave of his giant hand even though I was still standing pretty much right next to him

Me: Okay buhyeeeee, followed by a floppy wave of my hand because now I'm at the scanner

Man from Mars: Okay buhyeee followed by a ginormous floppy wave so that his hand looked as big as a regular pizza

And then it got even more repetitive as I walked out of the lounge and you get the picture.

Meanwhile, was it just me or did the rest of the 4 day week go so slowly, it felt like watchng the sands through the hourglass on Days of Our Lives?