Monday, June 29, 2009

Australia's Next Top Model (again)

Regular readers of this blog (ie my sister and possibly you Karen W) will know how disgusted I was with Australia's Next Top Model - the series on Fox8 which obscenely perpetuates the beauty obsession and thinness imperative our culture places on young girls and women. Well now I feel that I should come clean and admit that I have continued watching the series and that it's just about, like, only my FAVOURITE SHOW EVAH!!!!!!!!! And, like, I really totally want Cassie 2 win.
Poor Cassie. The other girls have picked up on her vulnerability and turned her into the scapegoat for just about everything. It is fascinating really just how mean girls can be. And the worse any one of their particular fortunes on the show are going the more Cassie cops it.
As we dont get Foxtel in our house I am relying on my mum and dad to tape it for me Tuesday nights and then Ruby and I watch it after her netball training on wednesday night. I am using the show as an invaluable opportunity to educate my daughter on the dangers a girl can face when her identity is based on looks and in this way I hope to get accross some very important entertainment .. oops, I mean messages.

Red Shoes

I love this image. I found it on etsy and I think I am going to have to buy a copy. Its by artist Kelly Angard and you can find more of her lovely work here: http://www.kellya.etsy.com/

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Employment issues

Uh Oh. Last night, while I was sitting in front of the computer, Col called my bluff on getting a job. He had come accross an advertisement on the Pedal Power website looking for a part time book keeper/office manager and thought it sounded like an opportunity for me: Twenty hours a week. Record Keeping. Dealing with people/cyclists. Must say I was lost for words.
Not that there is pressure I should go and contribute to household income (though that would be nice) but there is the sense from all that a small job would be good for me.
It is true that I have complained to anyone who will listen these last couple of years of my extended Betty Friedan moment, the frustration I feel and the fear that I am the sum only of a mind numbing rota of house duties. But just lately I seem to have relaxed a bit and maybe even sensed my life is opening up a little. So I have to say getting a job was the last thing on my mind. It didn't help of course that I was ebaying at the time and only minutes away from placing the winning bid on my birthday present - Two Vintage Dining Chairs with Sleek Retro Line.
But now I've had a few days to think it over a bit and I'm kind of liking the idea. Especially as they look to be having trouble filling the position and will be getting desperate. Of course I would be honest about my shortcomings: I have no experience with MYOB. I haven't been in paid work for seventeen years. I struggle daily with chronic illness. Twenty hours is five two many. I shun bikes.
But there are worries too. What if I had another three month run of back to back infections like these past three? Can the internet ever really be your world (I am sure it showed on my face - the horror, my friend, of a job tearing me away from you, the computer. And why now? Why, when we've only just secured for ourselves unlimited downloads in non-peak hours????) or be a good subsitute for spending the day with actual people (or even crazy mad keen cyclists as in this case)? These are the questions I must ask myself.

The things you do.

Thanks must go to Archie for his help last night in explaining to the plumber what the problem was before I had the chance. "WE PUT THINGS IN OUR TOILET" he explained before the plumber could even set foot inside the house. "Things you PUT in a toilet" he elaborated delicately, hinting at the whole raison d'etre someone might invite a plumber over. He then followed the plumber around the backyard to see if he might be of any help. I hope he is not thinking of becoming a plumber because as Ruby said plumbing is the "fifth worst job" she can think of. I do think though Archie has some kind of bent for how things work (and I use the word 'things' here in a more general way). For example yesterday while I was hiding from my life in the bathroom he unpicked the lock from the outside with a paddle pop stick.
In other household matters, crunch time has arrived. I have asked Ruby to decide whether the thick navy tracksuit pants are pajamas or school uniform. They cannot be both.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hip embroidery




You know how it is when you're fixated on something and then you see it everywhere - whereas before it would slip below the radar? Like when I was learning to drive I saw cars with L plates everywhere. Or when I was pregnant other pregnant women would turn up every place I went. Well, now that I am into embroidery (another rite of passages) I see it all over the place and suddenly it seems hipper than ever. This for example in the New Frankie just off the press. They're by sublime stitcher Jenny Hart.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Hacking

Only two more sleeps until Col gets his new bike - such a flashy upgrade for someone who has been riding the same old racer for twenty years. It will set us back $850 but I like to pretend it's more like $1300 as a way of coping with the recent discovery our server has been charging us around $200 a month for all our internet downloads. Otherwise I just feel ill at the waste. Am sure someone has been hacking into our computer and using up our bytes. No more buddy, party is OVER.