The Ramblings of my Disorganised Mind

Needed a break, so...

here I am. Cleaning, you know.

I think I've recovered from the weekend enough to actually sit down for a bit. *grin*

Listening to: Phantom of the Opera soundtrack, the movie version. No, not the "Highlights" version, which is the only version retail-ly (is that a word?? *shrugs* Oh, well. It is now) available in Australia, but the long, actual this-is-the-full-movie-version version. I'm not sure whether to throttle Damon or kiss him to death. He'd picked it up for himself, waited two weeks for it to arrive from Britain, but decided on Friday last that I needed it more than he did. I love that man. Not because of the CD, but because of the selfless, selfless thought. Between him and Nicky, I was so dosed up on Rescue Remedy, Baskin's, Phantom CDs, hugs and Angel episodes that I was able to face the weekend. Before D arrived bearing lots of Chinese take-away, Nicky and I nutted out a strategy for varying other stuff that's going arse-up in Heatherdom lately and it's all very positive, long-term, I think. By the time D'd arrived I was pretty well good. I don't like to break down in public (if at all) so this was a Good Thing. I love that woman!

It was my wedding anniversary on Friday. I'm not sure why it bothered me, but it did. It wasn't that I was upset about the anniversary, per se (it's not like 've celebrated them for the last few years anyway), but it's a reminder of a rather massive failure on my part, wot? It was also a pretty rotten (dang it, I can't remember if it's "en" or "on". Never mind) week all up, with the cat almost dying and varying other garbagy stuff.

Anyhoo, enough of that. Other highlights of the weekend: I took my grumpy self off to the movies on Friday afternoon and saw Finding Neverland. Interesting film, beautifully shot, but a little... I don't know... I don't know. Everyone did a terrific job, Depp was great, Winslet was great, the little guy who played Peter was amazing!, the cast was good, I cried at the end, as you do. Well no, as I usually don't. But I had an entire cinema to myself. Just me and the film, with me sitting in the 4th row because my glasses broke this week (just add it to the list of pointless little camels that broke the straw's back). It was a good film. A beautiful film, but... something was missing, although I can't put my finger on it exactly. It's almost like the slight (!) sterilisation of the relationship between the adults of the film also ripped out its soul (although not its heart).

Saturday morning I was off to Coaldrake's Bookstore in Milton for Margo Lanagan's reading. It was fun, Margo read two stories, one about a girl who lived in a town where some subterranean nasties attack on an infrequent basis, from her latest antho Black Juice (same antho Margo's Golden Aurealis story is in), and another about a naked mole rat who becomes the hive queen's paramour that season, from her anthology White Time. The summaries sound prosaic, but the writing isn't! The first one was nasty, spooky, yet refreshing, the second was funny as all get-out. Seems the naked mole rat didn't particularly want to be the queen's paramour, but he just couldn't help it. Poor wee thing. Hehe. Then lunch with Margo, the other convenors and a few Visionaries and it was off to the airport with Margo.

Saturday evening Floor One invited me to dinner, and I finally heard Applesauce! Yes, I love eating applesauce! Applesauce! Yes, of course! It's like the Wiggles meets Dr Seuss, just gorgeous. So was dinner, thankyou. :-) A touch of Bailey's Glide and maple syrup on icecream. Try it sometime, peoples. You won't be disappointed.

Circumstances of a varying kind made Sunday longisher than it should've been, but the highlight was definitely finally meeting Ian Irvine, who is a wee man with a great SOH. I think he's just what Week 5 needs: he has scads of industry knowledge and does, apparently, actually make an income from writing.

Then home, and I arrived (after driving sans glasses, of course) with the daddy pooh-bah of all headaches... to find my neighbours had mown the grass around my house. Woohoo! I have 2 mowers, but neither are working (a sad, sad coincidence that is too boring to relate). They, of course, have now been plied with many chocolates. The neighbours not the mowers. Ack! Pronoun confusion! I should know better!

It took me until this morning (I sort of shut down on Monday after taking the kids to school. Blasted headache wouldn't give up and go away and it was a wee bit sore), but am feeling human again, yay. Too much ice cream this weekend, more than I'd normally have in a month (which isn't, admittedly, much). I'm sure the sugar burn was part of the reason why my head was still sore on Monday night. My 10 year-old gave me a shoulder rub (oi vey, that kid has strong fingers) but it was the Nurofen that finally broke it.

Thursday we had a ReelVision meeting, which was actually much fun and goodness, with plenty of malt and Derek being... funny. Haha. Scott introduced me to the Melbournian singer Missy Higgins (her site is here if you want to check out her stuff, including almost full versions of all of the songs on her debut album The Sound of White). She has a jazz-ish voice but I think I like her only because the songs are all singable -- in alto. My personal favourite is All For Believing. I don't know if I'll buy the album but I like it.

I can't believe it's February already. Yikes. But I started another new book last night, so is all good. I get the impression it's not heading far, but I suspect the base story line and the story line of another novel I've partially completed (not the Big One) are mutually compatible, so I'll just see what happens. It's another "relationship" storyline (never romance! :-P), partially inspired by the FFx-2 song I posted yesterday. I wonder why that's happening. Wish it'd stop. *sigh* But the good news is that there are no unicorns. So that'll make some happy. :-P

Ah. Coming to the end of the CD...

Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime...

Ah, well. Better feed the 3 year-old his lunch. There are, I'm told, laws against starving your kids and suchlike. :-D

posted by Heather @ 1:05 pm