May 2 - Blah Day

  A bit of a blah day today.  It did start with a nice view from the bus stop.

  I decided to catch public transport this morning, because I still think it's easier and certainly cheaper than driving but I can't say I wasn't worried about having another dizzy spell.  Mum had wondered last time if maybe I could be hyperventilating or something.  I recognise that I've been pretty stressed out lately so I wasn't going to dismiss it out of hand so this morning I concentrated on feeling calm.  I focused on breathing well, trying not thinking about work, staying out of the sun and I skipped the first two trains until I could get on one that allowed me to sit down.  I made it in without incident, though I did find I was feeling anxious.
  Whether that's anxiety from the train trip itself or the thought that maybe the dizzy spells were all in my head who knows, but at least it didn't happen again today.  I'm still pretty sure that lack of sleep ties into it, and the commute itself will always be painful, even if it is the cheaper, better more socially conscientious choice.  Either way living closer to the city would fix all of those related problems by reducing the time spent in a commute.  I think I'd best start working on that as a solution.
  I did manage to literally add a little sparkle to my day by having my nails done at lunch time.  One of the girls in the office recommended Goddess of Nails & Beauty at QV, so off I went.  It was a bit more pricey that places in the suburbs, but it did include a little bit more pampering, sort of a combined mini-manicure and shellac, and they did do a better job and have way more colours to choose from.  I went with sparkly deep purple, which is apparently easier to capture photographically than the midnight swim blue was!

  Also at lunch I went to Big W in search of Dark Vader tracksuit pants for one of the mini Masterchefs as his had shrunk in the wash.  The Big W at QV had the pants but not in the right size, so after I got home I headed to Big W Waverley Gardens and they did have them so, mission accomplished!  It was a bit of a long day, so I gave in to temptation tonight and stopped to grab fish and chips for dinner on the way home.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's original fruit-free muesli bar and a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a slice of Brumby's banana and walnut bread.  Definitely bread rather than cake, it wasn't very moist unfortunately.  Also, a red plum.
• Lunch was a classic pork bánh mì from roll'd.  A Vietnamese-French baguette with pâté, mayonnaise, sliced pork, pickled carrot, coriander, cucumber and spring onions.
• Dinner was fish and chips, or more specifically two potato cakes, a crab stick, a corn jack and a battered frankfurt.  Salty yumness.
• Exercise, for the fourth night in a row, was 20 minutes on the cross trainer at load 2.  I feel good about that.

  My evening was pretty much taken up in housework, though I still feel I've got nothing really done and I still need to empty the bins and roll the big bins to the nature strip... but it's cold out there.  Goodnight everyone!
  Jess.

May 1 - Happy Beltaine

  I wanted to get to work early today so I left the house at 6:50am and was rewarded with the beautiful colours and serenity of a still rising sun.

  Work was ok today.  Things have started to move off my desk at a more effective rate and, knock on wood, I felt almost in control.  The only bad thing that happened was I had a nasty phone call from a disgruntled lady.  She had sent a request in to the office but unfortunately we had assigned those sorts of requested to a third party last month.  I did her the courtesy of telling her so by email and received a verbal ear bashing in return.  Apparently I am 'appalling'.
  I eventually wore her down by politely stating and restating that I was sorry I couldn't help and what she needed to do to get what she was after from the third party.  She was just angry at the system but she chose to take it out on me.  That shits me.  I sometimes have to ring customer service when I'm angry at a mistake a company has made but I am always very clear to the operator that I understand that the problem is not personally their fault.  This lady today did me no such courtesy.  I was the devil incarnate, put on this earth to spite her.  I got through it without telling her to fuck off, but it was very draining.
  Fortunately, a bright spot loomed on my horizon and in just a few short hours I heard Mr Smart's voice asking for me in reception.  We couldn't have our Game of Thrones night tonight due to other commitments, but we decided to have dinner together all the same.
  We went to check out duNord first, but they ended up only have bar snack type things, no meals per se, so instead we opted to find the second Huxtaburger, hidden down a dark alleyway off Flinders Lane.  Their food was as delicious as the original Huxtaburger in Collingwood and the decor and in restaurant seating is a little nicer.  We sat in a little bar stool booth and ate our burgers while we chatted away.  My burger was very juicy, and my hands got messy from it.  When I exclaimed to Mr Smart that I had juice on my hands he laughed and said "Juice? Not greasy burger oil?".. well I stand by juice.  Meat juice, but juice nonetheless, though pineapple and beetroot juices were definitely in the mix!
  After dinner, and thoroughly wiping our hands clean, we headed back up to San Churro at QV for coffee and dessert.  As we arrived at QV the police were corralling a small group of May Day marchers (for International Worker's Day).  They were peacefully plodding along issuing their message on a megaphone somewhat quietly.  We enjoyed dessert and coffee, well I enjoyed dessert and Mr Smart enjoyed coffee, until it was time for Mr Smart to head off to writer's group.  He did that, and I headed home.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was a dried peach half, a dried pear half, four Brazil nuts and a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a red plum, a Haigh's dark chocolate frog (the last one) and a dried peach half.
• Lunch was a 300g lamb and barley soup with a toasted English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Dinner was a Huxtaburger called "Bill" with a small chipotle fries.  The "Bill" contains: beef pattie, mustard, mayo, tomato sauce, tomato, cheese, lettuce, pickles, bacon, egg, pineapple and beetroot.

• Dessert was three churros with cinnamon sugar and dark chocolate dipping sauce at Chocolateria San Churro at QV.
• Exercise was twenty minutes on the cross trainer at load 2.
• Weight this morning was 98.4kg which means despite everything I've been eating and all the added stress and disruption to my routine, I've still not gained!  Woohoo!

  Also, it occurred to me today that I've passed day 300 so I thought I should probably give you all an updated picture of me, so here I am shortly after exercise.

  That's it cats and kittens, time for me to be sliding into bed and enjoying a book before sleepytime.  Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
  Jess

Apr 30 - Another Month Down

  I left work at about 8:00pm tonight, though that not as late as it might seem to some because I didn't start until 10:00am today and I did take a short dinner break.  I spent almost all of today working on reconciling one particular account code.  This code is supposed to have a balance of $0.00 at the end of each month... it's pretty bloody far from that right now.  I dumped all the transaction history into an Excel spreadsheet and I've been matching transactions off one by one as I spot the sets that do cancel out correctly.  Whatever is left will be what needs investigating and correcting.  It's not a hard process, but it is time consuming and occasionally mind-numbing.  It is unfortunately though, critical that it gets sorted out in the next six weeks.
  I ventured out to Haigh's again at lunchtime to get another block of their dark chocolate with cardamom.  TwoWrongs put forward the theory that it would go well with whiskey.  It sounded like a theory that should be tested so since I couldn't pick a good whiskey to save myself I elected to be responsible for the chocolate procurement.  I also bought a bag of ten dark chocolate frogs to share with the guys at work.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was Uncle Toby's creamy honey oats with Dairy Farmers Thick & Creamy orchard peaches and mango yoghurt.
• Morning snack was a 350ml Preshafruit apple and lemon juice and a pluot.
• Lunch was a 300g red Thai chicken soup with a toasted English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g), followed by a slightly unripe banana.
• Afternoon snacks were a Haigh's dark chocolate frog and a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.

• Dinner was a ready-made 500g chicken and leek risotto with a splash of white wine and parmesan.  It was ok but I don't think it deserved the name risotto.. savoury rice pudding perhaps.  It was good to have it on hand though so that I wasn't tempted to go for takeaway options.
• Dessert was another Haigh's dark chocolate frog eaten simultaneously with a dried peach half.
• Exercise was twenty minutes on the cross trainer at load 2.

  Not much to tell today really.  Work was draining and now I'm going to enjoy the fact that I'm finished the blog before midnight andgo and read my book for a little while before sleep overwhelms me.  Goodnight all.
  Jess

Apr 29 - Jess Needs To Stress Less

  I had a dizzy spell on the train (not a vertigo one, a normal one) which saw me need to leave the train at South Yarra to sit down for a while before continuing on.  I had eaten breakfast and slept relatively well so I'm not sure what prompted this one.  There weren't any symptoms of illness for the remainder of the day either so I'll just have to monitor it and see.  I am going to try eating breakfast before showering and trying to get more sleep.
  Time is such a precious commodity at the moment and I seem to have less and less of it.  At work things are plodding along but I never have enough time to devote myself wholly to any one task requiring that level of concentration.  At home, things are plodding along too.  I haven't run out of clean clothes so far and though the dishes definitely need doing, I will get to them, but nothing is getting decluttered in the way I would like.
  I realised today, as April closes, that there are only six weeks now (or just under) until end of financial year at work.  This is a terrifying thought.  Things are improving, but slowly and the pressure will be on to have everything completed and reconciled by that date.  I'm just not entirely sure that it's possibly, in fact I'm pretty sure it isn't.
  Worries aside, the day was not all bad and it finished nicely.  Mr Smart sent me a link to a special deal on at Salsa's.  Today only their Chica Chia burrito was only $5.00, that's a cheap and filling dinner.  It took me a while to find them because frankly I didn't realise there was a second food court at Melbourne Central, but I got there in the end.  I'm considering keeping a few dinners in the fridge at work for the time being.  I have a feeling there will be a few late nights in the next six weeks.
  Oh well.. I think I just need to resolve to try not to worry about any of it.  I will do what I can and what I have to but I need to focus on doing things that are fun, relaxing and good for me.  To that end, I got on the cross trainer tonight.  I only did twenty minutes of Communitysizing, but it's better than doing nothing.  I need to remember that.

  Today's food and exercise were:

• Breakfast was a small bowl of Dairy Farmer's Light & Creamy orchard peaches and mango yoghurt and a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was two sesame wheat crackers, a red plum and two dried peach halves.
• Lunch was a 300g sweet potato and pumpkin skinny soup with a toasted English muffin spread with Devondale butter.
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was a Salsa's Chica Chia burrito.  A chia seed tortilla filled with chicken, guacamole, chipotle sauce, lettuce and salsa fresca.  It was very yummy and filling, didn't feel fatty and was pleasantly spicy.

• Exercise was twenty minutes on the cross trainer at load 2.
• Post exercise snack was six plain cashews, a dried pear half and four Brazil nuts.

  The evening passed in relative quiet, I got a load of laundry done (and nearly froze my fingers off in the process), but I did get to do one more fun thing for the day.  On the weekend, my wonderful Mr Smart gifted me four new maps for Ticket To Ride (a choo-choo-train game on Steam of which I'm rather fond).  Tonight he found time to play a few games with me.  I won the first two playing on the new Asia map, but he snatched victory from me in the third game on one of the three new American maps!
  One of the loveliest things about playing games of any sort with Mr Smart, is knowing that he'll never 'let' me win.

  Well it's midnight now chums, so much for getting more sleep!  Though maybe I'll do a late start at work tomorrow, the trains were hell today as it was!  Apparently some track works ran late so they cancelled half the bloody rush hour trains.  No idea how that works but there you have it.  Goodnight, sweet dreams and here's to a happy tomorrow.
  Jess

Apr 28 - Movie Classics

  Today Captain Cupcake and I had a date!  She arrived at my place at noon and we headed off to Chapel Street to grab lunch before our double-feature at The Astor.  We walked up and down Chapel Street, slightly overwhelmed by choice, looking for a suitable spot for lunch.  We eventually settled on a Thai place, Ghin Kopi, and we were rather happy with the whole experience.
  I ordered the Thai Pork Burger with fries.  It was a yummy juicy pork pattie with, lettuce, tomato, and a delicious fresh pineapple chilli relish on a crispy toasted roll, the fries were really rather good too.  Service was quick and friendly and it wasn't pricey either.  We may need to return multiple times to check out different dishes.  They do breakfasts too!  After a quick and tasty lunch we headed up to the The Astor to check in for our movies! 

  The Astor is all about classics.  Sure they show current feature films too, but the most fun you can have is by going to see a classic or cult film.  It's all about the atmosphere.  Old-fashioned ticket stubs, no lining up if you buy prepaid tickets, old-fashioned candy bar with awesome choc tops and tasty popcorn, comfy old seats, personal announcements to turn off mobiles, the crowd of movie lovers clapping and cheering as the curtain opens, and all the little things that make a difference. It's fun, really fun.

   We were seeing a double-feature matinee today of Labyrinth and Ghostbusters.  Yes, I've seen them both before, but not on the big screen!  For the duration of the two movies my snacks were, a medium popcorn, a spearmint-chocolate choc top and 155g bag of Maltesers.  We had an awesome time.  We got there early so no line for the bathrooms and no line for the candy bar!  Also, we got our pick of seats so we had a great view from the front row centre of the upper section of seating.  Best seats in the house in my opinion.

  After the movies both finished, Captain Cupcake and I headed back to my place and watched a few episodes of Community while I furiously blogged away catching up on the weekend's events.  Eventually we got hungry and walked down to the Kebab Joint.  I didn't feel like a kebab myself so I decided to try their pide.  I had a spinach, ricotta and feta pide topped with sesame and nigella seeds.  Lovely end to a lovely day.

  Captain Cupcake and I looked at my Astor calendar and picked out a few upcoming events we might be interested in: the Grease sing-along, Rocky Horror Picture Show (prizes for best costume!) and The Blues Brothers all made the shortlist.
  Can't wait for the next time!!
  Jess

PS:  Captain Cupcake also got me this awesome Lego art supply centre as a belated birthday present.  Thank you!

Apr 27 - More Movies!

  What a beautiful day it was today!  Sun was shining, breeze was strong but not chilly.  I went and enjoyed the sun for a few minutes.  The dark long days have been a bit hard to handle of late so I've recommenced taking a Vitamin D supplement for the remainder of autumn and winter.  I had a late delicious autumnal breakfast (at lunchtime) of Uncle Toby's creamy honey oats with Dairy Farmer's Thick & Creamy orchard peach and mango yoghurt, followed by a small afternoon snack of four dried peach halves.

  It was a slowish day.  I did some laundry today, started Friday's blog, but before long it was time to head to Mr Smart's for dinner and more movies!  Mr Smart wasn't feeling very well this week so I drove to his place via Lamb's in Northcote and picked us up a yummy dinner.  A tub of Gyros lamb for Mr Smart, and Moussaka for me!  I had Moussaka, a roast potato, some Greek salad (more than pictured) a few bits of Mr Smart's lamb and some tzatziki.  After dinner, Mr Smart made cups of green tea with lemon and we settled on the couch for movies!

  I explained my intention to watch more movies I'd never seen before to Mr Smart, my intent to watch more movies I'd never seen before.  I suggested that I should at long last watch one of Mr Smart's favourite films, Memento.  There is not much I can say about it without spoiling it for people but it was definitely an amazing piece of cinema.  A unique idea and unique delivery.  Apparently Inception was done by the same people, but I have to say I infitely preferred Memento.  I would re-watch Memento.
  Our second movie of the evening was a 3D animation special, ParaNorman.  Mr Smart has a 3D monitor which means wearing these lovely fashion accessories pictured here.  Completely dorky I know, but it's totally worth it to get to watch 3D in the comfort of a home space!  The movie was ok. I had wanted to see it for a while, I like animated features, but it was a fairly generic story.  Misunderstood boy saves world kind of thing.  I enjoyed it but it's not one I'd re-watch, not without my nephew or neices anyway!
  My weekend movie madness continues Sunday but with old favourites!
  Stay tuned to read all about it.
  Jess

Apr 26 - Catching Up On Films

  I have a lot of friends who raise their eyebrows every time I utter the phrase "I haven't seen it" in reference to a film that 'everybody' has seen.  The three main incredulots are Mr Smart, Earnest and TwoWrongs, film buffs all.  Time is one factor in why I've not seen everything of course, but another is that I'm more inclined to watch films as a social activity (especially ones I've not seen before) and there just isn't enough company around to get through the five thousand films I 'should' have seen.  It's not that I don't enjoy films for their sake alone, I just I tend to enjoy them more in company.
  To that end, movie nights are a huge boon to me.  I enjoy the movies, I enjoy the company (and yes, ok - the snacky treats), but there is always the tendency just to re-watch much loved films.  So a decision has to be made to watch new films, and so it has been.  TwoWrongs and I resolved that when having a movie night we would always watch at least one film that one of us hadn't seen.  I expect that Mr Smart and Earnest will happily agree to that too, or at least to watching films that I haven't seen before.
  So it was in that spirit that TwoWrongs and I selected films for watching this evening.  What hadn't I seen before?  Donnie Darko, a mysterious number from 2001 starring a young and very cute but also kind of creepy Jake Gyllenhaal.  We watched the director's cut (which everyone tells me is infinitely better and more cohesive a story) and I loved it.  A movie that walks the fine line between time travel, alternate dimensions and mental illness.  It was scary, moving, joyous and heart-breaking.  If you haven't seen it, put it on your lists too.  I'm ashamed to say, I've actually owned this on DVD, a special edition no less, for more than four years.  It was in fact a birthday present from Earnest!
  What was next?  Something TwoWrongs hadn't seen of course!  Chicken Little, a 2005 Disney Animation production that was a little panned by critics at the time but I think is a greatly underrated animated film.  It's got a great sense of humour to it.
  So what's on my current list for future viewings?  Let's see how many you can't believe I haven't seen.  Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (actually anything Alfred Hitchcock other than Psycho!), Amelie, Annie Hall, Ben-Hur, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Die Hard, Dirty Harry, Gladiator, The Godfather, Gone With The Wind, The Graduate, It's A Wonderful Life,  The Karate Kid, Letters From Iwo Jima, My Neighbour Totoro, A Night at The Opera, Notting Hill, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Silver Linings Playbook, Some Like It Hot, Terminator 1 and 2 (I'm reliably informed that the rest are not worth the effort), Top Gun, and I'm sure there are thousands of others.  Until relatively recently that list also included Titanic and Inception (thanks to Mr Smart for taking care of both of those).

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Lunch was a 300g skinny mild Indian masala dahl with a toasted English muffin spread with Devondale butter.  After that I had a quarter of a plain sweet muffin and a quarter of an apple cinnamon muffin.
• Afternoon snack was a red plum.
• Friday night drinkies were a glass of orange juice, a quarter of a plain sweet muffin and a quarter of a chocolate choc-chip muffin.

• Dinner was a bowl of 75g (dry weight) wholemeal pasta spirals with bacon, zucchini and parmesan sauce.  I forgot to take a picture!
• Dessert was thirteen squares of Haigh's Dark Chocolate With Cardamom.  It's my favourite flavour of Haigh's chocolate block.  It is truly delicious.

  So friends, relations and random internet persons, tell me your favourite movies?  What would you not believe I haven't seen?
  Jess