SO impressed. Today my youngest sibling completed the Melbourne Marathon. Frankston to the city in just on four hours. Running all the way. Averaging around 10km an hour. Apparently his legs are “a bit sore”. Not bad.
As for me, I: walked the dog (x2), drove to Carnegie on the promise of a cup of tea and a TV guide, supervised lawnmowing, supervised laundry, made muffins (x12)*, revised for exam/open book test and hosted a parental visitation. Hmmm.
*muffins left: x3

It wasn’t a duck and I didn’t duck and consequently I’m left with a tender spot on my head as the aftermath of being hit by a swooping magpie yesterday (quickly drawing an end to the morning’s dog walking).
Grrr. Rotten dog will protect me from innocent joggers and cyclists. But aerial attacks from frenzied birdlife? Oh no. Just ignore that.
Rotten vicious bird. It came out of nowhere and gave me a huge fright, a lump on my head, a bleeding scalp, a headache and a traumatic, twenty-minute walk home (Ha! But also the morning off work.)
Combined with the previous day’s incident which is too vile to rehash (involving my low-life dog and unidentified poo) I will be extremely glad to see the return of my housemate and her resumption of responsibility for the morning walk.

I’ve done hibernating from my blog.
It’s the change of season.
People have nagged.
Now I’ve been tagged, so it seems a good ’nuff reason to start again:

List five songs that you are currently digging – it doesn’t matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and the five songs (with artist) in your blog. Then tag five people to see what they’re listening to

1. A late adopter, I’ve come round to Ben Lee’s ‘latest’ album, ‘Awake is the New Sleep’. And I’m liking ‘Gamble Everything for Love’. Such a prat but young Mr Lee can so write a catchy tune.
2. Thanks to birthday goodness I have a copy of Billy Bragg’s downloadable ‘Live at the Barbican’. While I really quite like listening to Billy’s rants (does that count as spoken word??) I still think ‘The Fourteenth of February’ is a lovely, heartfelt little song.
3. A while ago my housemate bought home a copy of the Art of Fighting’s ‘Second Storey’. The whole thing is great and, while it’s a bit of a sad one, ‘Busted, Broken, Forgotten’ is one of my favourites.
4. Listening to something else which sounded a lot like The Tragically Hip last weekend made me dig out ‘Phantom Power’. I love ‘Emporer Penguin’. Who writes a pop song about penguins?
5. That newish one by Oasis. I can never tell the songs apart (or remember their names, it seems) ’cause they all have similar qualities. But my ears always prick up when I hear it in passing on the radio or in a shop somewhere.

And now for the next five …..

Discussions today dealt with the topic of school excursions during our youths – prompted by the daughter of two of the participants returning from a school camp this afternoon.
Some people went to pie factories.
Some people went to box factories.
Some people examined erosion on some poor person’s farm.
Others attended the taping of ‘Sale of the Century’.
There were plenty of examples of ‘educational’ (but mostly ‘cheap’) outings for groups of students.
My favourite excursion was during primary school when the whole school (all fifteen of us) went to see ‘The Muppet Movie’.
The most strange was a trip to the Dhurringile minimum security prison farm while studying Legal Studies in Year 11 at secondary school.
A pretty forceful way of encouraging us to do our homework!!!!

After 14 years I’ve cracked it!
Every year since turning 21 my parents have sent me a Tatts ticket for my birthday.
Every year it’s a dud.
This year it was again a dud.
BUT.
Daniel doubled my chances by presenting me with another one.
And it won!!
Fourth division anyway.
I’m up $37.55!!!!!!!!!!

People aren’t interested in my youthful thoughts, insights and choices anymore.
In turning 35 today, I move from the 25-34 age bracket on lifestyle surveys to the 35-45 bracket or, worse, simply 35+.
I’m in a new demographic.
Do I have to re-examine my purchasing habits, TV viewing, reading material or whatever else is subject to lifestyle surveys?

So – another one blog month successfully completed by yours truly (the reluctant blogger).
How does one achieve a one blog month? (You might well ask!)
I think it might have something to do with too much time spent wondering about stuff, to whit:
i. why does the dog happily jump in the slimey pond when it is a freezing cold evening but sigh and shudder terribly when undergoing an enforced (nicely heated) bath?
ii. why do my footy tips come out better when I do not pick ‘winners’ but accept the ‘away’ teams after forgetting to submit my own list of ‘winners’?
iii. why, when consuming a part cup of [brand name removed] Cream of Chicken and Corn soup with crutons, it is sometimes the crutons which are crunchy, sometimes the corn which is crunchy and sometimes the chicken(!) which is crunchy?
iv. (in relation to another variant in the abovementioned range – I’ve wondered about this a lot) why is it referred to as Asian Oriental Chicken and Corn soup (did the point not get made initially)?
v. why does the light at the end of the semester never get closer and then suddenly (viciously) mow you down?
vi. why, oh why, did I align myself with ‘Desperate Housewives’ and not ‘Lost’?
vii. why is the theme to the new Dr Who still scary (and why am I not interested?)
viii. why can’t I find anything to spend my Reader’s Feast privileged reader (buyer!!) reward voucher on?
ix. why is there a hole in my sock?
x. (this one’s a how) – how is it possible that I will turn 35 in a week and a half??????

Gotta go – it’s time to put dinner on so everything will be ready to watch DH tonight.
Sigh.

Oh yes. The last piece for this semester. And so I’m blogging.
Anything is a distraction.
Someone was telling me recently that (Uncle Joe) Stalin once invited Don Bradman to the USSR in order to play cricket and that the project was vetoed by Bob Menzies. Sounds unlikely?
Oh I think so – smacks of urban myth to me. But he swears it’s true.
I can’t find any information one way or the other (and believe me, I’ve looked. After all, I have an assignment due.)

There’s a small eating establishment not far from where I live called ‘the Chicken Palace’ . It’s long been the source of wonder for my housemate and I. Which came first? The chicken or the palace? The building itself has some roof decorations which are akin to turrety-type things – did that inspire the name? Or was there just something about the corner of Rosamund St and Ballarat Rd which made someone think “Here be the place for my palace of chicken”. It’s just across the road from a hall of bingo and certainly within the vicinity of the local mart of K. It never fails to make me wonder.

I had a sick day off work last week. Just felt rotten so stayed home with the dog for company. Didn’t do much – just snoozed and took things quietly. I had a little watcher looking out for me most of the day (at least when I was in the non-scary parts of the house). She was happy to curl up beside me and wait things out. I’m always amazed at how sensitive she is to moods or illness. Occasionally, she’d come over and try to lick my nose – in the canine world that’s the way to make things better. So cute. (But a bit annoying after the 50th time!)