Melbourne

Only a few days until Adam comes home. First vet visit all booked in, and have bought all sorts of supplies. Mostly marketplace so I've saved a fortune.

Enjoy the dog tax

Hey all,

Hope you all had a good weekend. I forgot to show you guys the cover for the next book in my Van Diemen's Valley series.

I absolutely love how creepy it is.

It bodes poorly for the rest of the week that the CBF rating is at "catastrophic" and its not even 10am on a monday morning.

!!!!!! I have achieved LAP CAT AT THE DESK STATUS

it turns out she just wanted a cushion to lie on instead of directly on my lap.

I am most beautifully trapped, but she has a clear message for me....

LATE NIGHT CHEESE TOASTIE TIME!!!! 🧀 🍞 🍳

e: I am reliving my late teen 70s prog rock obsession and rediscovering how unbelievable Yes was (RIP Chris Squire the most insane bassist ever).

e2, 3:42am: we have now moved to Jean-Michel Jarré. Garlic powder is a game changer in cheese toasties BTW. Also this decaf tea is pretty awesome. I feel awake but not hyper. Calm, even. I could go to sleep on it if I wanted to but it's also keeping me awake

e3, 5:54am: looks like it'll be a rare true all nighter. And also, I have vastly underquoted for this project.

e4, 6:24am: fuckit, that's the best I can get through right now, a damn good set of data and maps that was crafted through an absolute mess. Time to get a few hours sleep before the psych appt.

The Cat allocation system struck us today. Welcome Pepper

Falling asleep at the computer but I have a very hard deadline of 9am tomorrow to get this thing out. Drawing on those last reserves of self belief and confidence to trick myself out of how pointless this is and that in fact I am awesome at being succinct and presenting data in an elegant and concise manner. I've broken out the emergency matcha Quadratinis from overseas.

e: in happier news my shakti mat should now be arriving by Thursday or Friday. Come sooooon 🥺 🙏

I'm so sick of owners/directors/managers who make a workplace toxic. I work with really good people but I don't think I can work for the owner of the business I work for anymore. Pre-covid I had the fortune of working for two employers who took workplace culture very seriously and made sure that work was a positive, welcoming and supportive environment. Including my current role I'm now two for two on toxic workplaces. I'm really sad because I thought I had finally found my people, but my boss is awful and conniving and doesn't care if I'm thrown under the bus. I know the future will be fine, but it just sucks right now. The job hunt begins...

My version of All In Brawl. I was too busy eating my bit to take a picture, so this is what's left.

I refuse to let this Monday get me down as it’s persistently trying to. The Sun is shining warm and bright. Friends if you can go outside for at least 15 mins, get your dose of Vitamin D. Shine on and hope the rest of your Monday turns out better! ☀️

I'm not lying when I say I really love herbs and spices. And my label maker.

And that's not all of them :)

Wondered why I am so gassy and my farts are heinous.

Sour cream; I bought sour cream. I forget it does that to me.

Edit: i also have the worst headache rn from teeth-grinding. Reminder to self to buy a mouthguard 💀💀💀

Do you ever make something and think oh this is pretty healthy? Oh no wait except for the shitload of bacon and the extra extra extra cheese I put in. Anyway I made a vegetable frittata bake quiche pie thing. I'll come up with a better name.

My dinner for later

Image of a dish of vegetables baked under cheese. I have renamed it "The all in brawl" due to the amount of vegies in there fighting each other.

My dinner tonight was really good. Cheers all round

Image of a plate with a vegetable slice named All in brawl, corn relish, a lettuce leaf, a couple of baby cucumbers and some cherry tomatoes.

Could I have made it more pretty? Yeah
Could I be bothered? Nah

Looks like some of us collectively caught Mondayitis today. Today can shove it. Everything has gone wrong since I’ve woken up. I’m ready for Tuesday

I went outside to have a quick look at whether the beetroot seeds I planted had sprouted, and ended up doing 45 minutes of weeding. It's beautiful out there.

Rest day from exercises today but tummy exercises completed. T-shirts look different now, look strangely stretched like I just pulled the pillow out from there!

A list of things I've done so far instead of my assignment:

• Cooked peanut butter noodles - the sauce was nice but I added too much spice
• sliced potatoes too thick and cooked them in the oven with garlic and Parmesan, they really saved the day
• Chopped up and cooked vegetables for a frittata
• Made said frittata - I added lemon myrtle to the mixture, now waiting for it cook and to see if the flavour is okay
• sat down to eat twice
• now just sitting for fun and assignment avoidance
• listened to 3 podcasts

yikes. Person hit by train near North Melbourne station, Sunbury, Werribee and Williamstown trains are being replaces by buses with about a ~60 minute wait. Glad I decided to stay home tonight

I just watched a HBO doc series on obesity . The scientists and doctors talk about all the changes in society that have caused this new epidemic. They describe our food environment as hostile!! The food we buy now is different to what was sold 30 years ago, it's much higher in calories.

Watching the series of course led to self reflection. I'm over weight, about 15-20 kg overweight. So how did I get this way. I grew up eating very little junk food. We never ate out, treats were rare, snacks were generally healthy.

I pretty much do the same. I rarely eat out, cook healthy meals at home. So little junk food. I do get lollies sometimes. ( I used to buy treats at least once a week ) I bake a cake once a month. I do like creamy yoghurt , have it once a week. I think I eat too big portions, and that is something the documentary talked about too.

Just for the record I have never been to kfc, to subway, to hungry jacks, to pizza chains, haven't been to maccas in a decade and then it was just to get an icecream, no taco bell, I've never had a hsp or bahn mi. Local fish and chip shop once a month and I wouldn't over eat.

Yet I'm fat. I've cut down portion size a lot, say no more often, I don't buy trouble. Hope I lose weight.

Surely it's Sunday and bot has made an error. Surely

I just wanna play more Baldur's Gate, and not go to work.

The cat is licking my sock. Sock-licker, window-licker, powercord-chewer. Smol demon.

I am glad I carry a Totoro satchel. It makes so many people smile. 😊 Little kids and even old people.

I was too busy stuffing my face to take a picture, but breakfast this morning was supurb. Waffles, caramelized pears and thick greek yoghurt. As a bonus there are six more waffles to go in the freezer for later.

Every now and then, I take the time to unsubscribe to the shit that lands in my junk mail because IDK, procrastination. However, I find the more I do that, the more things pop up that I was never seeing. Like, I'm suddenly getting spam from a store I visited in another country 8 years ago and I'm reasonably sure it isn't new that they're sending out marketing emails.

Anyway. I'm currently avoiding the fuck out of some tasks that I really need to do, which is making me grumpy because if I would just do them, it would be a weight off my shoulders. But instead, I'm avoiding them and creating a Grumpy Loop. Oy, Monday.

Rick-rolling with pixel art -

Double brick buildings are great until you need to install anything that needs wiring or conduits outside the building. Then it's a total cunt and very expensive.

disappointed to have won neither the $100m or $20m lotteries in the last few days. doesnt seem fair.

After being inspired by Force's sardine sushi, I will try to get over my distaste of canned/tinned fish and make some this week.

The distaste is from living with cats all my life; their wet-food smells like tinned fish lol

Morning dog walk has been completed. The food cupboard yielded some zucchini noodles and potatoes, so I am going to do a zucchini/potato/egg bake, and an experimental zucchini pickle.

It's my Saturday and I know I should get out of the house but I really don't want to. Being back in the office for shift work just makes me want to spend my weekends in bed, which is just not healthy.

It's probably one of my weird little things, but when ever I watch anything set in the 1930s I always get a little sad knowing they have no idea how the whole world is about change.

I made a huge batch of pasta for lunch with the idea to take some to work tomorrow. I ate it all instead. Now I'm too full, and sad.