green glass bottles

I woke up absurdly early this morning with what is known in our family as a bit of a "woozy" head. I hadn't been drinking. I'm blaming a combination of the tiredness from the week, female hormones and staying up way too late. Anyhow, it was a less than auspicious start to the day especially since I had an eyebrow wax appointment at 8:30. I rang and cancelled and then went back to sleep. When I woke up again I was fine although still tired. I made myself get up, eat breakfast, shower and go to meditation. I was supposed to go over to Saskia's (a lovely gift/homeware/coffee shop) with a friend and I really didn't feel like it. But I made myself do this too. Just as well, because we had a lovely chat, the best chai latte I have found in the Bundaberg region, and some yummy homemade pork and veal sausage rolls. Then I did some retail therapy. My favourite things are the green glass bottles. Really though, it was the chatting that did the trick!

Thursday in Adelaide

Got up late, showered, soup, tea, rain, went to Glenelg, ambled up and down the main street, stopped for a chai latte and a rather gigantic piece of carrot cake, bought an excellent pair of green leather ankle boots, back through town, marveled at the many umbrellas, hoped it might stop raining tomorrow, home for tea, pasta and plans for Friday.

a new grey zip up cardigan thing

I have just arisen from the lounge after a three hour (give or take) nap. I was very tired and it was a lovely nap as well - the kind where you go to sleep properly and sometimes get confused when you open your eyes as to the day and time. This is the kind of Saturday I haven't had for ages. My Mum and I went for coffee this morning first up. I hadn't eaten breakfast so I had a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. It was simple but yummy. I even had it made on White Bread. Yes! I know...very bad indeed. Then I came home and had a short rehearsal with a cello student who is playing a lovely Piazolla tango in the Eisteddfod in a few weeks. We both need some more practice so she is coming back on Tuesday evening. Then my Mum and I went shopping. I have been curbing my shopping habits this year much to the delight of my bank balance. But I let fly this morning and came home with three pairs of jeans, four tops and the kind of comfy grey zip up cardigan thing that is perfect for weekends and after work during what passes for winter here in Bundaberg. It will replace my previous grey zip up cardigan thing which is now years old and sometimes fails to zip. It might be time for a wardrobe clean out very soon I think. Then I had the nap. And now I am drinking a beautiful cup of lady grey tea. Somehow I have managed to run out of coffee. Aaack! I mean, I know I only drink decaf so it doesn't really count but I just don't understand how I could have let that happen. Once again, it's a domestic goddess fail from me.

Takeaway Coffee 2.0: The deception of froth

Longtime readers of The Spiralling Shape may remember my battles to get a decent takeaway coffee. This task is made more difficult by the fact that I have switched to decaf in order to stop jittering. Some places Don't Even Have Decaf. Can you believe it? What kind of world are we living in. Anyway, a while ago I wrote some rants about The Coffee Club and their disproportionate froth to coffee ratio (n.b. I have most likely used those mathy type terms incorrectly). I resolved never to go there again. And I have stuck to my oath. The trouble is, if I want the best takeaway decaf in town I need to drive 15 mins into town and then all the way back to the edge of town where the uni is situated. Is it worth it? Some days - yes. Most days - no. So this year I started making my own coffee at home and taking it with me to work. Impressed by my frugality? I sure was. However, times change. I am still struggling postop to get organised in the morning. There is no leaping out of bed, charging through the shower to start the day with vim and vigour and a coffee in my hand as I head out the door, eyes shining in anticipation with what the day may bring. Instead I sort of quietly get up, slowly eat my breakfast, shower, dress, throw together a crappy kind of lunch and make it to work around 9. What about the coffee I hear you crying? (That is if you have persevered this far in reading my post). Well, there is now a Muffin Break at Sugarland which is On the Way to work and they do a fairly respectable decaf takeaway. The muffins are okay as well. I have switched to flat whites so as not to get caught out with the froth deception. But so far have had three quite acceptable coffees from there. You do have to stand there and wait for them to call your name, which I am not fond of, but still, if everything was perfect what would I write about here?

hip beverages

A slightly restrained edition of Saturday shopping

Seeing as I spent an absolutely RIDICULOUS amount of money at the hairdressers yesterday, this morning's edition of Saturday shopping was somewhat restrained. By my standards anyway.

One Indulge breakfast and coffee
New pair of long black pants.
A dress... it needs altering as has every dress I have ever owned. Still it was on special and I think my dear mother can manage to sew in some darts or somesuch somewhere.
Some blingy, colourful, junk jewellery. I fear I may have some kind of undiagnosed addiction going here. Perhaps we might call it bowerbird syndrome? Anyway, I found some big multicoloured beads and matching bracelets. They're to wear with my all black gear on Monday. Of course I'll change my mind at least ten times between now and then about what to wear so...you know...whatever.

Oh... and food...but that's boring. Although I did experience perhaps the slowest checkout boy in the history of the universe. Well, the slowest checkout boy at Woolworths at Hinkler Place anyway. There was no way he was hurrying himself whatsoever.

Thursday: It's tiring being happy all day

So today was pretty blooming exciting for a few reasons.

1. I had coffee and cake before work with the wonderful Anne M. This will perhaps be our last coffee before she leaves to live in Brisbane ON MONDAY. I will miss her. Still we are going out for a farewell dinner on Saturday night as well with dear Jinx and Karen.

2. I got the letter offering me the Early Career Research Fellowship. This is an internal grant that will buy me out of approximately half my workload for two years starting June 2010. The plan in a nutshell is to continue researching and writing about the television mockumentary (journal articles, full book proposal), co-supervise a Masters by research student (given I have no supervision experience AT ALL), convene a Special Interest Research Group "Cultural Studies and Education" which belongs to the newly formed CQUniversity Research Centre - "Learning and Teaching Education Research Centre" (LTERC), prepare a grant application for once the Fellowship finishes in 2012.

At coffee Anne had said, "Make sure you let me know how you go with the application". So the phone conversation within five minutes of me opening the letter went like this:

Anne: "Hello Anne speaking"
Wendy: (Shouting excitedly) "I got the thing!!!!"
Anne: (short pause of mystified silence while she wondered no doubt if this was a new form of telemarketing....)
Wendy: "It's Wendy.....!!!"
Anne: "Oh Congratulations...."etc etc.

I probably should have said who I was first.

3. And then to absolutely top off the day, my Silverchair Diorama sheet music album arrived in the post and I was finally able to play "After All These Years". The key changes are amazing, unexpected, and very beautiful. It's too high for me to sing along sadly, but I can pretend along in my head.

All this meant that the minor plague of ants in the kitchen sink didn't really bother me on my arrival home.

I'm exhausted now though. It's tiring being happy all day.

More coffee less dead mice please Tuesday

Berocca: check

Earrings: check

Cleaning up the dead mouse you stumble upon in the entryway that the cat obviously killed during the night: priceless

For everything else...there's coffee before work.

Is there anything that cake can't make better?

All I want to do is drink coffee, eat cake and sit quietly staring into space. The eisteddfod has sapped my energy reserves. Last night I was in bed asleep by 9pm and didn't get up til just before 7. I find myself having to go to work, catch up on many emails and phone calls, be interested in assessing and marking students (particularly since there are only three more weeks of term) and being my usual jolly and sociable self. (note to self: quit the self-directed sarcasm. Everyone knows I am not jolly). Monday saw me having to listen to students having meltdowns, offering tissues to them and making a number of appointments with the counsellor. I got nothing done that was hanging over from the week before. Yesterday, I managed to clear all urgent emails and phone calls, but this morning I was confronted with incidental unexpected things that meant the marking is still not started. Finally, at 11 I began and was immediately bored. So I put it aside, made a cup of tea and pottered about in an aimless fashion until class at 12. Then I left early (3:15) and went downtown for aforementioned coffee and cake (caramel and pear shortbread cake if you're interested).

Suddenly, the day seemed a whole lot brighter. Is there anything that cake can't make better?

hot sugary milk and coffee are not the same thing

Out shopping this afternoon I finally gave in and stopped for a coffee at Gloria Jeans with my mum. Now don't be alarmed, I have been to a Gloria Jeans before (I'm not from the dark ages, before there were mediocre coffee chains all over the place), just not the Bundaberg version which has been place for probably two years at one of our shopping centres. Like my decisions never to watch Forrest Gump or Titantic, or become a fan of Shane Warne, I was hoping to hold out a little longer on this mildly irrational resolution. As it turns out, I should have trusted my instinct. I was distinctly underwhelmed by the paper cups and plastic plates and cutlery. I didn't like the calling out of my name when my order was ready and I really didn't like that my so-called flat white tasted like hot sugary milk. Still, 1.95 for a piece of raisin toast, that was okay, I guess.

Free Coffee Friday

It's Friday.

I got treated to free coffee. That's twice in two Fridays.

The end.

Fairly fantastic Friday afternoon

"I'll shout you this one Wendy"

You know the feeling, it's Friday afternoon. Lunchtime, you go home and eat a revolting sandwich with last night's cold sausages and tomato sauce and think, "there's got to be more to life than this". So you think, perhaps I can avoid returning to work for just a little bit longer by going and filling my car with petrol. I know, I won't go to the petrol station closest to the Uni, I'll drive into town to one of the few service stations in Bundaberg (and perhaps the universe) that still offers driveway service. You chat to the nice lady, you hand over your credit card and pay an exorbitant amount for filling your car. Then you think, I'm really very close now to the centre of town, I have five dollars, maybe I'll do a circuit and pick up a coffee to take back to work to survive the afternoon. So you drive through the crazy Bundaberg traffic where people still find roundabouts a novelty, to your favourite ever coffee shop and ask for a takeaway decaf skinny flat white (as you do...or not depending on your coffee preferences).And because you're such a good customer, or perhaps because you're looking a little pathetic (let's choose the first option shall we?) as you're reaching into your purse for your five dollar note, your favourite barista says "I'll shout you this one Wendy".

Suddenly angels are singing a heavenly chorus and Friday afternoon seems fairly fantastic.

the morals of coffee

Well, I raced home thinking I was late for my first piano student. I was not. But then remembered I had promised to ring another music teacher to get my student some more practice theory papers. So in 10 minutes I made this call while at the same time making a plunger of coffee. Do not try this at home. In my rush to get off the phone and get the coffee made I knocked the plunger off the bench and coffee went from one end of the kitchen to the other, half way up the fridge and pantry door and all the way to the window blinds. So then, I was madly trying to clean the mess up with an old towel (paper towels weren't going to cut it), rub some moisturiser into my very mildly burnt toes, and, of course make another plunger of coffee (in my second best plunger). I also found time to put the kitchen mat in the washing machine. (Note to self, go and turn it on now to wash. Don't leave it there all week). This time it worked and I made it in the nick of time before my student arrived.

Well, actually the first five minutes of the lesson consisted of me yelling out, "Start your scales" while I finished making the coffee. She was very good. And then, my second little student arrived. Her parents own my favourite ever coffee place in town. And guess what, she had brought me a free takeaway latte and a green st patrick's day cake.

What's the moral of this story?
Don't rush when you're making coffee.
Don't try to do too many things at once.
If at first you don't succeed with making coffee, forget it, because coffee will always appear from whence you least expect it.

(I'm sure I haven't used whence correctly there, but don't really care because it's a nice, yet underused, word, and seems peculiarly suitable for morals).
And here is a picture of the cake just to make you drool.



I'm saving it for later.

("CY") Borg express

Imagine my surprise when reversing out of a carpark uptown (after getting a takeaway coffee) when I had to wait for a whopping great bus called "The Borg Express". It's a bus, with a huge friendly picture of Lawrence (Laurence?) Springborg on the side and covered in the LNP logo. I appreciate the effort in expressing it all the way to regional Queensland to meet with some local voters, but I am not really sure if "The Borg" is the best or most catchiest of nicknames for a political campaign. He's just begging for someone to graffiti "CY" in front of it. Perhaps they should try to concentrate on humanising, rather than (further?) robotising Springborg. (Not sure if "robotising" is a word). I also think they must have bought the bus at a discount as well because as I passed it in my little yaris, it was spewing out diesel fumes fit to choke a small town. Not a very good climate change look. And it wasn't exactly very "express" either. I was only going 63 and I left it far behind quite quickly.

Perhaps if he started wearing a hardhat at all public appearances and rarely travelling further north than Caboolture. Oh, no I forgot, that's the Labor strategy.

Hmmm...got all political there for a moment. Don't worry you haven't stumbled on to Larvatus Prodeo by mistake. :)

I'll just drink my coffee and settle down.

Update: A-HA!!! So this is what the visit was for. Because we just can't get enough political mileage out of the awful and unfortunate "Patel saga"

I've finished my coffee now.

Update 2: Could this be where the great big borg bus came from?

Just asking.

the coffee fussbudget goes shopping

It was the usual Saturday morning shopping expedition today. Except for one vital difference. Indulge, best coffee ever experienced in Bundaberg was closed. They are having a week's holiday. So, seeing it was my parent's wedding anniversary we decided to try somewhere different for breakfast. (gasps of horror...I can hear you all from here!)

We went to Rosiblu which is a lovely deli type place that does very nice lunches and cakes. But the coffee (especially the decaf to which I am now relegated) is what you might describe as "not as good as Indulge". I mean it's definitely drinkable. You don't take a sip and splurt it all over your fellow diners or anything, but it's not a patch on the decaf at Indulge, which actually tastes like real coffee.

(You may be thinking I am a little bit of a fussbudget when it comes to coffee. You may be right. However, let's use the word connosieur shall we as it is less tinged with craziness)

So I gave my parents an anniversary gift. A boxed set of the first series of When the Boat Comes In, a British drama starring a very young James Bolam. They used to watch it when I was very little, (and have talked about a lot) and all I can remember about it is the theme song. Some of you may know it also:

"You shall have a fishy, in a little dishy, you shall have a fishy when the boat comes in. Dance to your daddy, dance to your mummy, dance to your daddy, when the boat comes in".

At least those are the words I remember (not sure about the "dance to your mummy) and have been humming ever since I was about 3 or 4. (Not constantly, you must understand. In the intervening 30 years I have, on the odd occasion, hummed other tunes). Anyway, I imagine it's a British folk song and if I could be bothered I would look it up, but I can't.

Then it was to Medicare WHERE I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN LINE. Sorry for the shouty emphasis but it's the rare event where you don't have to wait in there. And then to the grocery shop. I went through the self serve again because you know, it is fun to scan your own items. However I decided that if you have more than ten items it's not worth it because every time I wanted to move a bag off the "bagging area" to make more room(let's get the terminology correct) the machine clearly thought I was going to run off without paying and called the attendant. I ended up with only about four bags, poorly packed and stuffed with items. And I think I needed help at least four times from the poor young girl on duty. She was starting to talk to me like I was an "problem customer" by the end. So it took some time. Still, I did get to sign the electronic signature thingy. That was fun.

Selfish Christmas Shopping Sunday

It's been a weekend of Christmas shopping with more to come this afternoon. Yes, metropolitan readers of this blog, the shops are actually open here on a Sunday. It's wonderful, because it seems many residents of my fine city can't actually break the habit of no shopping on a Sunday, so you can actually meander round quite peacefully looking at stuff and getting distracted by things you either hadn't thought of, or really don't need.

While I have bought a great many of my Christmas presents and am feeling just a little bit smug that I have very little left to get for others, I have also enjoyed rather too much random present buying for myself. That's the real joy of Christmas shopping....buying yourself presents.
So far I have bought:

• A linen top...which I am wearing today. It is very, very cool (temperature wise that is)
• Some red glittery thongs (so as to take advantage of 50% off second pair offer...so really I was forced to buy them to help out my mother with her present buying of shoes for someone else)
• Three head scarves (two of which are too small for my large head and have now been given to my sister....see, I am in the spirit of giving)
• Twenty four tea light candles (how come you just can't buy one tea light candle in Target?) to go in the the boat tea light candle holder I won for my choir secret santa. However, seeing as that only uses up three, I also then bought a Santa tea light candle holder (which uses up one more). If anyone is running short of tea light candles, I'm your girl.
• Underwear - five pairs. In my defence it's 20% off at Target this week. In the opposite of my defence, I fell for the strange marketing scam of "aloe vera infused underwear". I have no idea what this means, but it was cheaper than the other brands. I have previously fallen for the marketing scam of Target's "organic" underwear. And no, I don't know what the difference was there either.
• Two bras...which are neither aloe vera infused or organic as far as I am aware. Also 20% off. Bargain.
• The Graham Kennedy book by Mike McColl Jones. Further to my defence it was 50 % off. Don't know that there's much reading in there but there are nice photos etc. Perhaps I can claim that one off my tax for research purposes.
• Coffee and cake at Indulge before the buying frenzy. Absolutely essential to build up strength and mental agility for making difficult present decisions.

What excitement awaits me this afternoon when I go to Hinkler Place?

All this and chocolate tart to finish

Jinx and I were treated to a lovely lunch by Sue today. How civilised to leave work and have a home cooked meal that didn't involve crowding into a noisy restaurant. Not that I've got anything against noisy restaurants. I like them and frequent them often. But sometimes it's pleasant to have a relaxing change.

Anyway, the fried polenta cakes with corn and capsicum salsa, followed by chocolate tart were delightful. Sue also showed off her prowess with her impressive new coffee machine (although I stuck to the new no caffeine rule and had jasmine tea). It had a lovely coffee aroma and the milk frothing was expertly handled. Jinx and I were like two small children when having polished off our polenta Sue asked if we wanted chocolate tart.

"Yes Please!

Mmmmmm.

as weak as you can make it really and still call it coffee

Normally I wouldn't post photos of coffee and cake, but in the aftermath of the yucky virus a couple of weeks ago I lost all taste and inclination for coffee - sad times indeed. This morning Anne and I resumed our Wednesday morning "meetings" and I managed to take this photo to mark the occasion.

The break from regular caffeine means I have lost all tolerance to its effects...and now my order has gone from the slightly wimpy half-strength to the very pathetic indeed "quarter-strength.. as weak as you can make it really and still call it coffee". This is said with mild embarrassment in a quiet undertone...so no-one will point and laugh.

Even that made me slightly jittery for the rest of the morning.

The poached apricot and almond tart was to die for though.

Maybe it's because I haven't had any coffee since Saturday

On a recovery day from the weekend virus and rehearsal last night, I just finished watching Senator Kim Carr at the National Press Club. The Minister for Science, Innovation and Research (at least I think that's the title) it was yet another almost incomprehensible display of government speak designed to make it look like the government is doing something in each of these areas. That's the tired and cynical view anyway (which is all I feel capable of at the moment). For I'm just not convinced that phrases like "knowledge transfer" actually mean anything at all in a practical sense. This, and many other gems of public policy discourse peppered both the speech and the q and a that followed. Mentioning the "humanities" a number of times, I wasn't convinced that the Senator actually understood what the breadth of the discipline was, and it would seem they're only interested in projects that will make money...the economic imperative. Finally, using Peter Temple's The Broken Shore and Bell Shakespeare's Hamlet as his examples of artistic endeavour exemplifying the "inspirational, creative imperative" jarred severely with the tenor of the rest of the talk. Tokenistic at best.

(I'm about to have a coffee now)

it's the free cake stupid

After a less than inspiring morning at work manfully (should that be womanfully, personfully?) plugging away at my paper, answering emails and phone calls, and then two hours of class which involved a certain amount of counselling the students through their group task, I thought - hey - why don't I go and get a coffee in town at my favourite ever coffee shop, Indulge. Never mind that it's a half hour round trip (including the waiting time for the beverage), it's worth it.

And what greeted me? (apart from the usual smiling faces, beautiful food in the display cabinet and the enchanting aroma of coffee)....FREE CAKE THAT'S WHAT.

If there's a better way to pick up an ordinary working day and make it wonderful I'm not sure what it could be. Sure it was a baby tea cake - more like a mini muffin really...but it was light, tasty... and free.

I was so excited to find a little unexpected act of generosity and kindness in the day...they may have thought I was a little nutty.

Coffee was yummy as well.