May 7 - Trekkie Time

  As I write this blog of Tuesday on Sunday 12th, I am left wondering.. just what the fuck did I do today?  I have only vague memories of work, I know I did stuff and I know it was relatively productive, but beyond that I cannot recall.  I do remember what I did in the evening.  Star Trek.
  TwoWrongs had a need for company, so I finished up at work and went around to provide said company and indulge in some Star Trek TNG on Bluray.  We watched two episodes, slowly sipping on our cups of tea, Lonely Among Us and Justice.  Those episodes were from series 1, written and filmed while all the actors and writers were still finding their feet.
  Personally, despite all the digital remastering and improved special effects, I don't think I would notice the difference between the Bluray and original editions unless I watched them side by side, an outrageous statement that will doubtless inflame the techie senses of Mr Smart and TwoWrongs alike and may well result in my being forced to do just that.  The thing is, Star Trek TNG was always about the stories, and those remain excellent and unchanged by any tweaking of the technology.
  It was good to be there for a friend and to get to watch Star Trek and laugh and unwind, but it did put me yet another day behind on the blog.  I wouldn't have traded it though, life's too short to take things like this overly seriously.  Live life first, then write about it when you have time.

Tuesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit and nut muesli bar followed by a 35g Carman's Dark Choc cranberry and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was two dried peach halves and 10g Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.
• Lunch was a 300g red Thai chicken soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was a 500g mushoom and bacon risotto (still more like a savoury rice pudding, but satisfying enough for a quick fix dinner).
• Dessert was a nice strong cup of black tea with a splash of milk.

Jess

May 6 - Too Much Food!

  It's a nice change, heading in to work from Mr Smart's place, and it was a beautiful morning.  I went down St George's Road to Alexandra Parade, then down Lygon Street which takes me all the way to the car park entrance on Russell Street.  It's a very easy, quite scenic drive (though it does expose me to far too much extra knowledge of restaurants in the area).  Just at the very bottom of St Georges Road, where it veers to the left and turns into Brunswick Street, there is a beautiful mural on the frontage of number 639.  I have always liked it and today the traffic was stopped enough for me to grab a quick photo as I crawled past it.

  Work passed quickly today.  The reconciliation that was brought to me on late Friday did take me the better part of today.  It was all relatively easy problems to solve, so several journals and emails later it's now under control and should remain so going forwards.  It did result in 'finding' a bit more money at the centre too, so I'm rather popular at the moment.
  My roomie wasn't in the office today so I had my music on and was chugging along through things and by the afternoon I had a little time leftover so I started the mind-numbing task of watching the boring but necessary online training modules.  They are mandatory and I had to have them finished by Friday.  I got through four today and had three more to go tomorrow.
  I finished up around 6pm and headed to the steps of the State Library to meet my predecessor for dinner.  We walked down Swanston and about three blocks up Little Bourke Street to Mrs Parma's.  There will be no prizes for guessing what I had for dinner!  It was a nice enough place, the parma I had was nice, certainly very big, but at the upper limit of it's value for money.  I think I still prefer The Earl of Aberdeen for schnitzels but admittedly that's a bit more of a drive.  It was nice to have a catch up though and a nice quiet venue for the task (well it was a Monday night and it is tucked away in the dark on the upper end of Little Bourke Street).
  I contemplated dessert, but I just feel like I've eaten too damn much lately, especially hot potato chips!  I seem to be eating them an awful lot lately and only one lot has been notably good (the ones from Miss M's moving day).  I think I may need to start saying no to chips in the way of Mr Smart, even with burgers!  I can always enjoy salad or veggies instead, most places seem to offer at least one of those as alternatives.

  Monday's food was:

• Breakfast was a Nespresso Dulsão do Brasil pod coffee and Uncle Tobys creamy honey flavoured Oats.
• Morning snack was a 14.5g Milky Bar and two dried peach halves.
• Lunch was a 300g creamy pumpkin soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Dinner was a Mexican parma, which was a weiner schnitzel topped with napoli sauce and cheese, tomato salsa, guacamole, sour cream and jalapenos, served with chips and salad.  I also tried my predecessor's schnitzel which was chicken with pumpkin and feta.

  That's it for Monday.  On with the rest of my blog catching up!
  Jess

May 5 - Derby Day

  Bit of a lazy morning, though my intention was to get through housework.  Mr Smart settled on the couch to study and I was left to my own devices.  I was well on the way to wasting the day on the internet when I got hungry in the mid-morning and went off to Waverley Gardens to grab something for our lunch.  My only directive from Mr Smart 'something salady', so I grabbed 'salady things' and a little breakfast Savoury Bite from Baker's Delight and headed back home to prepare lunch.
  I made two very nice homemade Caesar salads with parmesan, bacon, poached eggs, and homemade crunchy croutons.  Mr Smart grinned as he ate and said, "This may very well put paid to the rumour that you don't make friends with salad".  It's always nice when something you've made yourself is well received.
 

 
  In the remainder of the afternoon I got through laundry and dishes and a few other housework bits and pieces, but generally wasted a lot time on the internet and left Mr Smart to his studies.  I get annoyed at myself when I 'waste' time on the internet, but I have to remind myself how tired and stressed I am lately and remember that it's something I do to unwind and give myself a break already.
  In the afternoon I made us cups of tea and had a couple of pieces of almond biscotti with mine.  Almond biscotti dipped in tea is very nice, but it's not an ideal dunking biscuit because it absorbs the tea too fast and has no oil content to keep the hot liquid from disintegrating it.  One dunk, that's all you get with biscotti unless you want it crumbing up the tea.
  It was a nice quiet day, but of course it was all just waiting for the evening!  Tonight was the night of the Liverpool vs. Everton derby match which kicked off at 10:30pm!
  We headed off to collect Miss M from her new abode at about 7:30pm, planning to have dinner beforehand.  Of course, as occasionally happens, I had a glitch with my sense of direction and mental mapping (Mr Smart referred to it as a 'brain-fart') and forgot that I needed to take the Bolte Bride/Airport turn off, so Mr Smart and I took the scenic route, over the Westgate Bridge and back again.  Of course he couldn't resist telling Miss M about it the second we arrived.  Her house is already looking like a home, and the unpacking was already nearing completion!
  Our original plan had been to go to The Celtic Club to watch the game.  It's the Arsenal fans' home club so for Liverpool vs. Everton it would have a pretty even match of fans of both clubs and therefore an exciting atmosphere.  A convivial mix of rivalries, but with fans cheering no matter what outcome.  Unfortunately though, The Celtic Club was playing the match but they were closing before it ended (which seemed a little stupid).  It was lucky I rang and checked.  In the end, we plumped for The Imperial, which unfortunately for the Everton fan, Miss M, is the Liverpool home club.

The Reds assembling before kick off.

  We couldn't decide on the myriad of culinary options available to us in the city so we just went with The Imperial itself.  I had a couple of lemon, lime & bitters while we perused the menu and then ordered.  A pub meal is sometimes a nice affair, and Mr Smart's parma, and Miss M's gnocchi both looked lovely, my lemon pepper calamari however was extremely lacklustre.  It had a nice enough flavour but if you pay $20 for "Lemon Pepper Calamari" quite frankly you expect more than six pissy pieces of calamari on a mountain of chips and salad.

  There was quite a big crowd in the place by kick off.  A big red crowd with banners, uniforms and good cheer.  What a pity it turned out to be the most utterly boring soccer match ever.  It was a nil-all draw, with three yellow cards.  There was a fair bit of on-field thuggery from both sides (I'm looking at you Carragher and Fellaini) but the referee was pretty permissive which meant there wasn't a lot of stoppage time.  Poor Miss M couldn't cheer and jeer because she was the one blue Toffee (dressed in black so as to be incognito) in a sea of Reds.
  The funniest thing all night was a chap from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign who was walking around selling cupcakes from a suitcase.  A gold coin donation got you a cupcake topped with a set of lolly teeth, a 'Luis Suarez' cupcake.  A reference to the Liverpool player's earlier ban for biting another player a couple of weeks ago.
  It was a very tiring night overall and we all headed home unsatisfied with the result, and the match as a whole.  We dropped Miss M home, and huge thanks to her for the lend of a singlet for work in the morning because I had forgotten to pack one.  We got back to Mr Smart's place and promptly curled up in bed and went to sleep.
  Jess

May 4 - Moving Miss M

  Getting up early after a late night watching movies is rather taxing, but I left by 9am and headed out to Coburg because today was moving day.  Miss M was stepping on up in the world to a nicer place but not very far away.  When I arrived, everything had already been packed up into boxes, it was just a case of helping back everything into the removal truck and the boot and back seat of my little car and heading off to the new location.
  One of Miss M's travelling buddies works for a removal company, and a few weeks earlier, he says in an intoxicated state, he was convinced to offer up his services.  He was a lovely chap, and it was super helpful having someone who was indisputably "in-charge" of moving day (apart from Miss M herself obviously).  Tell you what though, I wouldn't want to play two-person Tetris against this guy, he would just scoff at the zig-zag pieces!
  We carried out furniture and boxes of various shapes and sizes as bidden.  The contents of Miss M's wardrobe ended up on their hangars in the back seat of my car along with some more delicate baskets of odds and sods.  It took a few hours, but with the aid of a professional it took a lot less time than I'd expected.  It was fun chatting about moving days in general.  I've not really moved much myself as I've been in the one house for twelve years now.  I was informed that Mr Smart, who arrived not long after me this morning, has helped Miss M and the Masterchefs move a collective total of about eight times.  That's certainly brownie points in the bank for the next time he has to move!
  When the trucks and cars were loaded up, we all headed off first to the new location.  Mr Smart and I arrived first, and we found that although it's very close to the freeway, the driveway seemed peaceful and you couldn't really hear the traffic noise, certainly no worse than at my place.  Everyone else arrived shortly after and the unloading commenced.  It was amazing how much faster it was to unload and we were soon being directed where to take what and opening boxes.  Once everything was off the truck and unpacking was underway, thoughts turned to a late lunch.
  Pizza and ribs had been the suggested lunch earlier in the day, but disaster!  The ribs place was closed leaving poor Mr Smart feeling ever so slightly betrayed.  In the end though, we had some really lovely fish and chips.  Damn good batter on the flake too.  After lunch, Mr Smart and I headed back to my place and studied and read and watched TV until we got peckish again.
  Of course.. having been disappointed earlier, Mr Smart had ribs on the brain, so after a few calls we managed to get a booking at Squires Loft Tooronga.  It was fortunately a late booking so we had time to feel hungry again after lunch.  I'd only been to the Albert Park Squires Loft previously, but I knew vaguely that the Tooronga one must be in the new shopping complex on Toorak Road which proved to be correct, but my method of finding the right spot to park still had me do at least one u-turn.
  We were seated and served very quickly, a by-product of going in knowing exactly what you want.  A 500g serve of pork ribs and a whopping 1kg serve for Mr Smart.. of course there are bones in that weight.  They didn't offer the beef ribs at this location though.  I quite enjoyed the beef ones last time, though the pork ones were very enjoyable tonight.  I did enjoy my green peppercorn sauce, but it was nice to also occasionally steal a little of Mr Smart's creamy garlic sauce too.

Saturday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Late morning snack was about 16 Arnott's Barbecue Shapes.
• Lunch was a piece of flake with a little tartare sauce, two potato cakes, chips and four steamed dim sims with two glasses of Coke Zero (because who needs extra calories on top of fish and chips...)
• Dinner was at Squires Loft Tooronga.  I started with the complimentary slice of bread (it said I looked fabulous) with half of one of those little butter tubs, then moved on to the 500g serve of pork ribs with green peppercorn sauce and chargrilled vegetables.
• Dessert was a relatively nice sticky date pudding (Mum's is much nicer) with a cheap and nasty vanilla ice-cream which kind of spoiled it.  I regretted dessert.

  After all that physical labour moving a household, such a big meal, and a reasonably longish drive home, it was off to bed for the both of us, resting up to face a day of study and housekeeping in the morning.
  Jess

May 3 - Mmm Japanese

  Thank god it's Friday.  A long day, made slightly longer at the end by the arrival of another large 'to do' item - a reconciliation of an expense that it seems has been being allocated slightly incorrectly at our head office.  I dreaded it for a few seconds but a cursory investigation showed it would be pretty easy to fix up going forwards, it's a job left for Monday at this stage.
  Friday quiz night at work was fun but a bit short.  There were lots of laughs and rambling conversation and then all of a sudden I was the last one in the office!  Luckily for me, rescue was at hand so I went down to the square to meet TwoWrongs for dinner.
  We weren't quite hungry yet so we decided to do a spot of window shopping first.  I found a really cool pop-up Liverpool card for Mr Smart and an equally cool pop-up Everton card for Miss M.  It was an awesome coincidence because on Sunday we're going to watch the Liverpool vs Everton derby match!  After that, TwoWrongs remembered a cool off-beat clothing boutique and we went off to have a quite look around.
  Antons, as it turns out, could be quite a temptation for me.  They sell divine and somewhat quirky clothes, skirting the realms of goth but far too colourful to properly qualify, and along with their dapper beelzebub mannequin I can see why TwoWrongs was keen on it as a store.  I only made one mistake.. and that was going far enough in to spot the rack of seriously gorgeous corsetry.
  Since losing all the weight, my previous corset definitely no longer fits, even laced to its tightest fitting.  I like corsets.  They look good, they feel good and they are damn sexy.  I've been talking about getting a new one now for a little while now and it seemed like there was no time like the present to start looking in earnest.
  Ana, the lovely very helpful (and I expect very effective) sales girl, took my measurement as being now 39 inches at rest, so she loosened the lacing on a 34 inch and a 32 inch corset for me to try on.  She also tied me in and took photos for me to show Mr Smart.  Now that is what I call customer service!  She did also try to talk me into a layby but I am not ready to pick between the first two I see and like.
  After discussing the matter with Mr Smart, I've decide to post the pictures so you can see the two I tried on.  They are both European imports, pure silk, sprung steel boning.  The purple one is embroidered with flowers and butterflies and is the 34 inch, and ties up with black ribbon, the red one is plain, 32 inches and ties with dark red cord.  And of course they are both expensive.. the purple one is $650 and the red one is $420.  Ana was very quick to point out that they offer extended layby on a pay 'something' once a fortnight basis.

  Not that I am necessarily going to pick between these two, I do know which one I prefer, and I know which on Mr Smart prefers, but I am very curious to hear your thoughts too.  Which one do you prefer?  Anyway, after all that fashion and debating how much cash I was truly willing to part with in the pursuit of looking fabulous, as my tummy returned to it's normal non-restricted state, I decided I was now hungry so we headed back to QV for dinner.  Big thanks to Ana for being so lovely and helpful and to TwoWrongs for patiently browsing while I tried things on.
  We went to Meshiya Japanese Restaurant on Lonsdale Street and it was bloody good.  We had to sit outside in the slightly breezy Constance Stone Lane, but it was actually warmer after dark than it hard been during the day, and with my coat on it was fine.  Meshiya is TwoWrongs favourite Japanese so I did what I felt would work best.  I closed the menu and said "I will eat whatever you order".

  Not many people feel confident ordering for others, or likewise placing themselves culinarily-speaking, in someone else's hands, but I'm not a picky or fussy eater, a gourmand rather that a gourmet.  I find it can be a very exciting adventure letting someone else do the choosing.  I certainly wasn't disappointed.

  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 pluot.
• Lunch was a 300g mild Indian masala dhal soup with a toasted English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Dinner was at Meshiya Japanese Restaurant at QV and comprised:

• Miso soup and a big bowl of edamame.  Edamame are fresh soy beans steamed and salted.  You pop the beans out to eat and discard the pods.
• Spicy avocado sashimi - cubes of assorted raw fish sitting atop half an avocado dressed with a spicy mayonnaise.  The flavour of this is amazing and vaguely reminiscent of rollmops.
• A 375ml Calpis Water, a Japanese soft drink.

• Nasu dengaku - fried eggplant with a sticky sweet warm miso dressing.
• Unagi avocado maki - broiled eel with a sticky glaze atop avocado filled sushi roll.  Extremely yummy but very filling so I'm glad this was shared!

• Dessert was 15ml of Laphroaig Quarter Cask Islay single malt Scotch whisky (that was all I could take) and about 15 squares of Haigh's dark chocolate with cardamom.

  After dinner we headed back to my place for dessert and movies.  Dessert comprised yummy chocolate and a very good quality whisky.  Drinking whisky was a new experience for me.  While I'm glad that I've now had that experience, I'm sure TwoWrongs wasn't devastated to find that I would not be guzzling away large quantities of his favourite whisky.  It was a bit like drinking a campfire while someone strangles you.  It was hot, firey, smokey, amazing and vile all at the same time.
  Our viewing pleasures this evening were the slightly strange and off-kilter choices of Mystery Science Theatres 3000: The Movie and Meet The Robinsons (another underrated Disney animated feature) followed by two episodes of first series Saturday Night Live hosted by Rob Reiner and Candice Bergen respectively.
  That's all for Friday, now on with the blogs for the rest of the weekend.  Thanks for your patience guys but lately I just seem to be a teensy bit of a social butterfly!
  Jess

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