Every morning while I was away I had some sort of spicy noodle dish with an egg for breakfast. And one day I noticed they have these tiny little bananas in Thailand. Here we have monster bananas that can last you three days. So I took a photo of it near my egg so you can see how small it was but someone said - they might just think they have huge eggs. But I can assure you my egg was average in size. Not in flavour though.
And this was my lunch one day. Prawns with pineapple. And chilli. Best to assume that anything you order in Thailand has chilli in it. We ate somewhere different every day dinner and lunch but its impossible to get through a fraction of the places. Every second shop is a cafe or restaurant. Then there are the guys with street stalls hooked up to their bikes as well.
And they always had nice or interesting glasses everywhere. This was the mango daquiri Daz ordered.
And this is something we don't get at home. It looks like twisties in a bottle. In yummy classic yellow.
We went into Patong this day. That place is mad. Thats where all the bars and ladyboys are. We didn't go to them because we had little children with us. We went in to go to this huge shopping centre there. Not often you see a bar in the middle of a shopping centre. Not here anyway. There you can buy alcohol anywhere. At the chemist or the 7 eleven. When you get a meal deal at burger king one of your drink options is beer.
Its actually the Jung Ceylon centre. Not the jungle.
I didn't go to McDonalds myself but Lizzie tells me you can get a pork burger and a broccoli pie.
Patong was where the girls found the man selling dvd's. Or he found them. He took them back to his shop which was at the back of a massage shop through a secret door. I think they bought about 80 between them. Kimba thought he was taking them away to be sold into sex slavery or something and made Nat stand with her foot wedged in the door. He kept saying to them - It safe, it safe, this is my business.
Some of them have been dodgy. Like New Moon. No one had heads. Which made it difficult. But at 1 or 2 dollars each you take the chance
And here is the pedestrian crossing. Do not assume cars will stop to let you cross at the pedestrian crossing.
And there was a guy walking around with this lizard you could buy, but I didn't think we'd get it through customs. He tried to put it on my shoulder but I ran away. He put it on Daz though but I wasn't quick enought to get a photo. And he would've charged me for taking it anyway.
And the Soi Easy Bar. Where I think if you spend too long, you may need to visit the Clinik.
Thats really what Patong is about. Bars and girls. And ladyboys. Its a little disturbing when you see the amount of old european men roaming around with the young bar girls. Sad really.
But you can't go to Phuket without checking out Bangla Road. You have to - get your sleaze on - as Lloyd said.
Watched Extras (the Rick Gervais comedy), Season 2, Episodes 1-3 last night. The one with Daniel Radcliffe was hysterical. I mean hard, out loud, laughing while I was home alone, funny. LOVED it. Gonna watch the next episodes tonight.
Had horrible nightmares last night. In the first, I found Skritches half eaten by a python. I slice the python in half, to get Skritches out, but woke up before I determined if she was already dead. Then I became paranoid (in real life) of snakes under my house. Not pythons, just snakes in general.
Once that went away, the next nightmare was of a german shepard mom & pup bathing in a tub. I stepped away and returned to find that the mother had died (not drowned, just died) and I felt sooooo horrible for her little puppy being there, not understanding why/how her mamma had died. I woke up, still freaked out, and Skritches made a sound that was rather like that of a dog making its last whine before dieing. Which freaked me out even more.
I can't remember the nightmare I had just before waking up.
Waking up was caused by the annoying neighbors going for their weekly 10:30am Sunday LOUD NOISES routine. They always do something at exactly 10:30 on Sundays which involves the doors and security gates (loud), and trashcans (flipping lids or dragging them around), and them talking to each other - always waking me up. I thought he was going to mow the lawn but he didn't - so I have no idea why he was dragging the trashcan around. A few minutes later, Moshi wanted back in the house so I decided to actually get up and was shocked to see that it wasn't 10:30am but just after 1pm. And I was still really tired. I went in the kitchen and that clock said it was 11am - which is when I realized I'd missed the first "1" on my digital clock (thinking 11a was 1p). That seems to be a new trait in me, seeing 10/11/12 as 1pm. Dunno what it's about but it's annoying.
On the plus side, I'm up and awake with enough time to goof off, take a quick shower, then check out the new Farmer's Market in the "California Heights" section of town (aka: the nice area - all well-maintained craftsman homes).
I'm still thinking about vacuuming but not actually doing it.
I MUST put my clean clothes back in the drier today (to remove wrinkles from 3 weeks on the floor), hang them all up, and mentally prep for the return to work tomorrow (a 5-day work week.? that's so mean!).
I got my mani/pedi and errands run yesterday. Had my fake eyelashes removed and I hate it... I'm so butt ugly without them!! The difference is dramatic and sad.
Last night I bought a discount ticket to Cirque du Soliel's "Kooza". I saw this show 2 years ago, in San Fran, with Miss Scotch ("in the library with the candlestick"). I don't remember much beyond the fact that I enjoyed it - and that the part with the calaveras made no plot sense to me. I considered skipping it (I try to see all Cirque shows twice, from different seat positions) but since I'm 99.9% certain I won't make it to CirqueCon (which will be in New York & Montreal this year), and the ticket was more than 1/3 off, I decided to go for it. I previously considered flying up to San Jose to see the newest show, Ovo, but work got in the way and I bailed on the idea. I need a couple days away from home so maybe I'll look into that again. Oh... I remember... I wanted to do a 1-day turn around trip but JetBlue's site doesn't return any dates for San Jose. Their map says they still fly there so I need to call them and find out what's going on. If JetBlue no longer flies from LB to San Jose, that screws up my plans.
Julie sent a message that she got us into the Tuesday night burlesque class. I have no idea what to expect but I'm going with "bad/embarrassing". I'm already planning NOT to attend the final, live performance, class. It would be different if I knew the instructor but since she's unknown in the burlesque community (if she were a regular performer and/or instructor, someone would have known her and she'd be on the 2 major forums), I'm gearing for bad things. Plus I haven't told work that I'll be leaving early on Tuesdays. And it was last night before it dawned on me that my knee might not cooperate. Should be... interesting.
Would someone get dressed for me? I swear, that's the hardest part of my day.
We ended up coming a day early because no place was open to pick up the Uhaul from on New Year's Day. It was nice because we had some time to relax and visit with friends. On Saturday morning, neither my Yukon nor the Uhaul truck would start. Can't say I really blame them since it was -27! (It was +10 in Sidney). So, we got off to a late start. By about 11, everything was running and we had a good crew of 5 guys moving furniture. We knew the Uhaul probably wouldn't be large enough but figured we'd just get a trailer, if needed. Well, no trailers to be found here on Saturday! So, Ray and a friend left around 4:30 pm with the Uhaul back to Sidney. They arrived there around 10 and started unloading. They will finish at 8 am this morning and then return for the 2nd load. My good friend came and helped me finish packing. There's a little left today and then I can start cleaning. The kids have been playing with friends and I hope that we can leave by at least 3 since they have school tomorrow.
Did I mention we also have a 2nd showing tomorrow? The realtor is really positive about the couple. They saw the house filled with furniture and now they'll see it empty. We just need to cover up that hole in the wall from getting a couch out of the basement!
This day we went for an early morning walk to Kata beach which was about an hours walk. Maybe 45 minutes. A lot of longboats there that will take you out snorkelling.
Like Karon beach it is lined with hundreds of deck chairs. You hire them for about $3 a day.
They start filling up at about 10am.
A lot of europeans go to Thailand, and I can tell you that the sun safety message is not getting to them. I can't believe the amount of purple people I saw. Terrible sunburn, being sunburnt again. They line up out in the sun, with their faces pointing upwards like little rows of sunflowers.
I'm pretty sure I'm one of the few people who have been to Thailand and come home the same pale colour as they went. We saw one woman who looked ridiculous because she had this red raw burnt face but with big white sunglasses marks.
This is one way to protect yourself from the sun I guess. Bet he had trouble getting it off though. The sand there is very fine and really sticks.
You could hire a jet ski from this guy and he had a long boat as well. You don't see any thai people sitting out in the sun. The hawkers walking the beach wear full length pants and shirts, hats and scarves around their necks. They must think tourists are crazy the way they bake.
After lunch we went back for a swim in the resort pool to wash off the sand. You can sit on the beach and have pad thai or grilled corn on the cob or whatever you want.
The place where we stayed had three huge pools, all with bars, but this was where we hung.
We liked to try and nab the sun bed. We could fit about four on it and it was more comfy than a deck chair.
After lunch we went for a walk about the streets.
I saw another police car that was a Getz. Lots of Tsunami evacuation signs around but they all say things like - evacuation point 1.2kms or 1.7 kms. You have to run a way to get to them. This guy looks like he might not make it. The wave is pretty close.
And early on, it somehow became the agreement that we'd meet in the lobby bar at 5pm for happy hour to see what everyone was doing for dinner.
This was the day we had our first ride in a tuk tuk. Definitely the best way to get around the place. Even though you never feel really safe in them. This one is very new looking. Most of them are red. You can't walk outside anywhere without someone saying - tuk tuk??? But if you say no they don't hassle you. But you never have to worry about how to get somewhere. Just don't expect to wear a seatbelt the whole time you're there.
I'd say I was going to get back into shape and lose some weight.
I know, everyone says that, but I really mean it. I purposely am not calling this a new year's resolution for two reasons. One, it's going to last more than a week, or even a month. I am going to do it. I'm not going to try, I'm going to do it. I lost weight before, and I'm going to do it again. I'm going to start with a goal weight that's anywhere between 5 and 9 lbs below where I am now (depending on the day) and go from there.
The second reason it's not a new year's resolution is that this really has less to do with it being a new year than it does with the holidays being over. I decided a month or so that I'm ready to diet again, but didn't want to set myself up to fail by trying to do it during Christmas. So I decided I wasn't going to worry about it until after the first of the year.
Right now I'm not planning to go back on South Beach. I had great success on it before, but I'm not willing right now to go back to no- and low-carb unless I have to. ("Have to" being defined as if I fail in my original plan.) My ultimate goal is to just get us all on to good eating habits that can be maintained long-term. I'm thinking of buying the Mayo Clinic Diet Book (yes, the famous, up-until-now-mythical Mayo Clinic Diet does actually exist). It just came out and I can get it at a discount.
I also have a new workout DVD that I did (and I use that term loosely) for the first time yesterday. It's very cardio-oriented and it totally kicked my butt. I want to get back to a level of great cardiac fitness. I don't think I've had that since college....but I sure felt great when I had it. And it can only be good for my metabolism and this body that unfortunately is beginning to age. :(
So.....wish me luck! I'll try to update my progress so feel free to ignore those posts if you want. :)
So I've had this roaster for probably almost two years and I've never really used it, except to keep stuff warm at a party. Just after Thanksgiving, turkey was on sale (imagine that!) and we decided to get one. Well, today I decided I would thaw it and roast it. My first problem was getting the neck out. I couldn't find the dumb thing, and ended up taking out something that in retrospect was probably part of the spine. I thought to myself, gee, how can it be so hard to remove the neck? Digging a little deeper, I put my hand on something and pulled. Voila, the neck. It came out as easily as I would have originally expected. :)
I even stuffed it. I used Brownberry seasoned stuffing, chicken broth, and margarine. Then I also stirred in some pork sausage and celery that I'd cooked. Then I threw in some Craisins (a suggestion from the back of the bag but fully endorsed by Joey - he loves Craisins and in fact won't eat salad without them). They were a yummy addition.
All in all, the turkey turned out ok, except while it was cooking it was heating up really fast. I had violent flashbacks to the prime rib of the other night and ended up turning it off an hour early. It did get done, and stayed moderately hot since I didn't open the roaster. I'd followed the directions on the back of the wrapper - heck, I've never roasted a turkey before, what do I know - which said I should cook it for 4-4 1/2 hours. During supper I hypothesized that maybe the roaster cooks faster than an oven does since it's a smaller space (or something). I just looked at the owner's manual for the roaster.....and sure enough. 2-3 hours for a 14-16 lb roast, which was about how long it took. Dumb me.
Oh well, this is why I practice & learn around people who are forgiving.
Dinner was rounded out with the stuffing, which went over famously, and mashed sweet potatoes, which I thought were the bomb but no one else was terribly impressed with. All in all, it was a good meal.
Augh - she did identical instead of mirror design! I knew I should leave them plain this week. Oh well.
Went to the country today. We drove to the country town of Gatton about 45 minutes from our home in Brisbane, and had lunch at their new "cultural" centre. Knowing the local "culture" a little bit too well, I was somewhat concerned about what we were going to experience, but I need not have feared at all. It was very well done, and though relatively newly opened, and obvious that there is still work to do on the landscaping etc, it was equal to any other "cultural" center we have experienced within Australia.
Many years ago, back in the early 1970s, a very forwarded thinking gentleman from the local agricualtural college lobbied very, very hard for a lake to be created in a swampy area just outside the town. The local people thought he was a "mad bastard" in the Aussie vernacular, but he kept at it and eventually won the local council over. Now look at it! The birds have such a haven and many of the locals take their daily walks around the lake. The centre was built in 2009 and houses the library, an art gallery that displays local artists and a truck museum. The town of Gatton is the hub of a rich agricultural area "the salad bowl of the Lockey Valley" and so the trucking industry is a major employer for the town.
So, the center not only has a trucking museum, but on a slight rise next to the lake they have created a monument that lists the names of all the local drivers that have died - too many in accidents, but also as part of the cycle of life. Families pay a small amount to have the name of their loved one inscribed.
There is a lovely sandstone carving outside the cultural centre that commemorates the agricultural pioneers of the district.
and next door to the centre is the local historical village :
Not far away, on the other side of the historical village, a terrible murder was committed at the end of the 19th century. Three members of the Murphy family - two sisters and a brother- were murdered on their way home from a local dance. Their murder was never solved and to this day all the locals have theories about who killed them - irish family vendetta: a jilted lover; incestuous relationship; vargrant who diappeared into the night? I guess now, no one will ever know for sure.
Lights on the Hill - song lyrics by Slim Dusty
It's a long straight road and the engine is deep
I can't help thinkin' of a good night's sleep
And the long long roads of my li-ife were a callin' me
These rough old hands are a-glued to the wheel
My eyes full of sand from the way they feel
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
It's a long tough haul from a-way down south
A man's gotta find a little bread for his mouth
And a home for a girl as swee-eet as my honey can be
So it's down through the gears, she's a-startin' to pull
The gauge on the tank is a-showin' they're full
And the lights comin' over the hi-ill are a-blindin' me
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
Hey!
There's rain on the road and I can feel the load start a-shiftin'
I-i-in a dance
Too late, I see the post and I haven't got a ghost of a chance
Ah-hah-hah-no
The windscreen wipers are a-beatin' in time
The song they sing is a part of my mind
And I can't believe it's a-really happenin' to me
Oh, but I'm over the edge and down the mountain side
I know they'll tell about the night I died
In the rain when the lights on the hi-ill were a-blindin' me
In the rain when the lights on t
If only I could stop thinking about how much nicer it would have been if I had someone with whom to share it.
Made it up to the ArcLight theater (which isn't nearly the "hot shit" venue I expected it to be) with just a few minutes to spare. It's really difficult to select your seat when you buy your ticket, esp when you've never been to the venue before. Fortunately, I made an excellent selection. I was annoyed that the matinee discount ($14 is DISCOUNT price?) doesn't apply on holidays... more annoyed that the cashier called the extra $1.50 a "holiday surcharge". (Bite me!)
The first preview featured my future husband, GAEL GARCIA BERNAL, so we were off to a good start (the movie is "Letters to Juliet" and Gael plays the a-hole boyfriend who's probably in only the first 1/4 of the film). I don't remember the rest of the previews - just that one was for a high intensity drama and people laughed at the end of the preview and I didn't understand why.
Broken Embraces started really really really slow. I probably spent 2/3 of the film wondering if it would be the first Almodovar film that I didn't like. But at the end, I LOVED it and was ready to watch it again. I love Almodovar's habit of foreshadowing things that never happen and including subplots that are never resolved... so non standard-American film! Also, I felt he used Volver to wrap up the subplots of a couple of prior films (don't ask me which, I don't remember). And this seemed to do the same - though I could easily be imagining it. All the same, it made me want to run home and immediately watch Women On the Verge.
- [3am update] Just got done watching Women and was surprised to find I was totally correct on that call - though he changed it up a bit. I'm impressed with myself cause I haven't seen that movie since it came out, which was 1988. Also surprising was realizing that a subplot in Women was part of the main plot in Live Flesh. Now I'm even more impressed at how he winds his movies together, plus bits of himself.
For the record: Penelope Cruz in a platinum wig? FIERCE HOT!! OMG PONIES!!!11!!11!!1!!! I am soooo envious. The hairstyles designed to make her look like Audrey Hepburn were shockingly accurate.
Between thinking about her and thinking about Gael, I decide I want to buy a copy of the movie where Gael played the devil (with a swedish accent). I really liked that film... Don't Tempt Me (had to look it up) [update: purchase complete. Plus I signed up for Amazon Prime (free 2day shipping, $3.99 overnight).]
After the film, I hobbled down the street to Fabiolus Cafe for dinner (owned by a Fabio but not the Fabio). I had no idea what they offered but spied the place on the way up and decided to check it out after the movie. I had an awesome Italian dinner (little pricey but worth it): Gnocchi with peas, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and chicken in a light parmigiano/wine reduction sauce; followed by tiramisu and cappuccino. A strange party of old peeps was seated next to me and the snippets of convo I overheard had me convinced they were both nutty and blowing smoke up each other's asses. Bizarre combo. Then I heard bits which implied they're in "the industry", in which case the combo makes perfect sense. They totally missed when the waiter made a joke about "fresh decaf coffee - we made it yesterday and it's still hot!" but I cracked up, causing one of them to stare at me for an extended time. I didn't think she was offended by my laughing but that she was, first, trying to figure out my "story" (dining alone - in a fairly romantic restaurant) and, second, judging my meal and my fat ass. That's okay cause judging the 3 of them as freaks kept me pretty entertained. And I actually got FULL, without finishing everything... quite the satisfying surprise.
The kitties are in and the heater is on. I'm totally content. Now to figure out how to spend the rest of the night (tv, Women on the Verge, or, The Hangover?).
- [3a Update] I watched both of them. I was disappointed with The Hangover - probably due to a combo of overhype and a woman at Julie's Mom's funeral telling me waaaaaaay too much of the story.
My Groups
-
Girl Talk Updated: Yesterday
-
Tattoos & Other Bodyart Updated: Yesterday
-
We Love the 80's Updated: Dec 22, 2009
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
