August 21 - Early Starts & Vampires

  Well I did it, I got up at 6am and got on the cross-trainer!  I wasn't very happy about it but the early morning Buffy was at least partial compensation.  I ate my yoghurt, berries and fibre toppers while I cooled down and then went through the rest of my normal routine.
  I got to work in plenty of time and I was bloody exhausted.  I was looking forward to doing my morning ritual, fill the water bottle, check emails etc. but no internet or email!  Argh!  It was kind of a weird day at work for all of us as external web access wasn't restored until like 3pm.  Luckily I could still work as all the internal web access was fine.
  The morning passed mercifully swiftly, though there were a lot more calls in that first half hour than I've ever had before!  I spent a lot of the morning trying to understand how a particular value had been calculated.  I got there with help from my fabulous accountant friend who emailed me (and explained) some crucial information I'd been missing.
   With no internets to amuse me at lunch time I ate in the lunch room with the paper and our maintenance man.  It was nice to have a chin wag for a change.  Today's lunch was a sandwich of Bürgen Wholemeal & Seeds bread spread with a sixth of a Reed avocado, topped with one slice of Bega Extra Light Tasty cheese, one slice of Bertocchi Triple Smoked Ham with the fat trimmed off (about 73g) and six thick slices of cucumber.  And a Honey-Murcott mandarin and a passionfruit.
  The afternoon was similarly swift in its passing and 5pm rolled around before you knew it!  Captain Cupcake arrived promptly as I finished as we had places to be tonight!  About a month ago, Mr Smart had alerted me to the Darebin Libraries Event 'Investigating The Vampire Metaphor' so we headed off to Mr Smart's place and then the three of us went to have a quick dinner beforehand at Noodle Kingdom.

  We had Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Salt & Pepper (and some of the chilli bits were indeed very spicy though Mr Smart still insists my chilli tastebuds are wussy), Beef with Chinese Broccoli (I ate lots of the broccoli) and I also had one of the Steamed Vegetable & Mushroom Buns (kind of nice but not a patch on Steamed Barbecue Pork Buns).  Thank you Mr Smart for a wonderful meal from both Cupcake and me.
  With just enough time left in hand, we proceeded to Preston Library where Narrelle M Harris, was to enlighten us with her ideas on the vampire metaphor in literature, modern fiction, TV and movies.  The talk was about how the vampire metaphor has changed with time and social circumstances from being a metaphor for fear of corruption in Bram Stoker's Dracula right up to being a metaphor for big oil's stranglehold on fuel supply in the 2009 film Daybreakers (which I am going to see sometime soon since it sounded very cool).  She was a really interesting speaker.  Passionate about the subject, well-researched, good sense of humour, and very open and friendly.  She obviously knew her stuff and was quite passionate about the subject matter.  I wrote down several of the titles she mentioned in order to grab a read later.
  The only moment my face fell, which amused Cupcake and Mr Smart no end, was when she revealed that Buffy's mother dies.  I'm only up to Season 2!!  Though as Mr Smart remarked, that's a risk you take watching a 15 year old show.  There is a statute of limitations on spoiler alerts it seems.

  After the talk there was an opportunity to buy Narrelle's books, and given her funny slightly sarcastic style, I took a punt and figured I would most likely enjoy her work.  For a small sum I came away with Showtime, a book of four short stories.  For a slightly larger sum Mr Smart bought The Opposite of Life.  My book was inscribed "To Jess. Remember: listen to your mother."
  On our way back to Mr Smart's we discussed the content of the talk and the various characters that we'd seen in the audience which then continued over cups of tea until it was definitely starting to be home time.  I drove Cupcake back to her car at Forest Hill (though I nearly drove straight home on auto-pilot) and then continued on home.

  I was supposed to take a photo of 'A Stranger' today for my photo a day challenge and I kept forgetting to approach some random person and ask if they'd mind being my subject.  I got home around 10pm, backed the car in and got out and when my automatic light flicked on, two strangers fortuitously awaited.  I grabbed my camera, fired off two shots, my automated light timed out and flicked off and when it came on again a second later they were gone, leaving me momentarily wondering if I'd imagined it.  I've seen the ginger one once before, but the grey one was a complete stranger!
  I'm off to bed now and tomorrow I will not see 6am.
  Jess

PS (Added the following day) I forgot to add that I had a nut snack pack at morning tea time.  I had written it down on my notepad as the internet was down so I couldn't sketch out my blog during the day.  But of course I forgot to take my sticky note home with me!  The nut snack pack is 1 dried apricot half, 2 pecan nut halves, 2 hazelnuts, 2 brazil nuts and 4 almonds.