Trivia night tonight.
What is my special category?
I think it will have to be ‘unexpected songs covered by Johnny Cash on his last couple of CDs’.
That’s what I’ve been listening to over the last couple of hours.
Did Johnny Cash ever cover anything by the ‘Jesus and Mary Chain’? Yes!
What about Nick Cave? Yes! (But not unexpected.)
Nine Inch Nails? Yes, again!
Neil Diamond? Yes, indeed!
U2? Better than the first time round!
And a lot of other stuff too.
What’s more – it’s fantastic.

Can’t decide where to go for lunch?
Then nominate a time to leave work.
Nominate a side of the street to walk down.
Walk until you encounter your companion.
Then eat where you meet.
And as long as the street upon which you walk is filled with lovely little eateries, then you’ll be fine. (Choose your street with care.)
Lunch becomes an adventure!

Because sometimes there’s chocolate, and sometimes there’s champagne. And sometimes, like today, there’s chocolate *and* champagne.
Hmmmm, luvverly worksch, luvverly workschmateseses, luvverly champagnes (ooh, a bit mores? Exschellents!), luvverly everybodys!

This weekend past I decided to take a cake to the social function I was attending. Having had a busyish morning I did not have time to make anything myself, but I knew of a cake shop where I would find exactly what I wanted: the closest thing I can find to a cinnamon babka over this side of town. (The best ones to be found are made all the way over at Aviv in Glenhuntly Rd, Elsternwick and I certainly didn’t have time to get all the way over there.) Anyway, I hopped on the train to Yarraville with cash in hand to purchase the cake. Once purchased, I would then get back on the train with my cake for two stops to Newport. Easy.
Except for the Yarraville Street Festival with its attendent droves of shoppers. Who, by the time I got there, had eaten all the cinnamon cake. Every last morsel. All gone. Plan in ruins. Bastards. My only alternative was to buy a chocolate cake. Which I must say was not at all bad. But it was not cinnamon. Disappointment ensues.
The bright spot to my diversion into Yarraville with its (to me) unexpected street festival, was sighting a small group of Mormons (you know, the young lads they send over from the US to evangelise for 6 months or so?). Usually they look so earnest with their bibles and their names tags and their backpacks and their bicycles. Serious business. Have never, ever seen them go a little wild and crazy. Except for Saturday. The three lads had each splurged on a large, sticky pink stick of fairy floss. A good time, no doubt, had by all.

I handed it in.
x fingers its OK.
No more obsessing.
Hooray!

My workplace was broken into over the weekend. And if forced to experience a break-in, it might as well be like the one here. Nothing was broken. Nothing was stolen. Whoever they were, they gained access via the toilet window, carefully removing each of the louvre glass panes and stacking them neatly in an unbroken pile. They then must have had a bit of a wander about and looked in most of the drawers and filing cabinets. Didn’t touch the computers, didn’t touch the data projector, didn’t touch the petty cash. And then they left.
Why bother really?

What you get to eat for lunch when you are stuck at home *still* writing the essay (which is due tomorrow so it’s critical that any food consumed should be providing maximum creative output):
crumpets x 3 – dripping with butter and golden syrup;
pickled baby cucumbers x 1/2 a jar;
rest of the cheese that could find (parmesan and some very lovely crumbly vintage cheddar) and biscuits;
1 tin dolmades (contains 12)
weight watchers chocolate chip biscuits x 4 (half of which were shared with the dog)
apple x 1.
Also consumed: about eleventy-seven cups of tea.

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.
Can’t write anything.
Nothing to say.
I can’t remember if panicking has a ‘k’ in it or not. Looks a bit funny.
Arrghh! I hate this.
I know I’m in trouble when I start to calculate how many words I need to write per day in order to hand in on time. And then divide that into words per hours and then again into smaller units – ad infinitum.
It reminds me horribly, but amusingly, of Rimmer’s attempts to produce the perfect exam revision schedule in Red Dwarf. Each time he finished one, he’d have to do another to take into account the time lost due to the creation of the one before.
Must break cycle. Think will go for a walk.

What an amusing thing it is to watch one’s dog experience a case of the hiccups.
She is surprised anew every single time!
Cuteness like this outweighs any amount of the other stuff.

So, it rapidly approaches 12 noon on my stay-at-home-from-work-to-begin-writing-essay day.
Achievements thus far:
Purchased new vacuum cleaner x1;
Purchased new choker chain x1 (for the DOG, previous one lost in park);
Rang council to request new dog registration tag x1 (previous one also lost in park);
Spoke to plumber regarding ongoing plumbing difficulties – he may visit later today;
Loads washing x3 (there was a lot);
Briefly read paper (there may well have been some essay related material lurking within);
Answered phone three times (how do people know I’m here?);
Checked to see if any lovely emails;
Checked to see if any lovely snail mail;
Decisions to change essay topic x4;
Wondering what will have for lunch (on and off since 9.00am).
Hmmm, if have lunch now will stop wasting time wondering about it.
Yes. Then can really begin. Free from distraction.
I’ll give it a try.