Breville Me This

This is me, fresh from work. I've just been working for the past week and a half, working away. It's Friday though and I have no weekend work on. Yay!

On this job, I have to be at work at 7, 40 minutes south of where I live. I had to rent a car, and every morning at 5am the alarm goes off, I lay in bed until 5:30, then I rush around until 6:15. I don't really rush around, it's just that I get so distracted by absolutely nothing that it takes me time to bathe and dress and eat something before zooming down the motorway.

I have been feeling lately that now that I am getting more used to being in Australia that what I have to tell you isn't so interesting. Being here is similar to being "there". I am finding less and less that conversations are about the differences between where I am from and Australia. And the more I spend time here, the more I discover there are few differences. There are just more people where I'm from, so problems are bigger and more intense. But the problems are the same. And people are afflicted with the same troubles and illnesses and insecurities. And illusions about who they are in the big scheme of things. It isn't different, in truth. There are just less people, so there is more nature. And more beach to go around, so more people here spend their leisure time doing what a lesser amount of people do in the US.

And the kids these days. The kids! They spend so much time with their computers, downloading TV shows and movies and "ripping" DVDs and whatnot. Talking to the guys at work, I feel completely clueless. They are a help though. They look at me as a veteran in the business, so they don't laugh at my ignorance of hacking the technology. I am not a veteran. 10 years is hardly a veteran. But it's more than 4 or 5 years I guess, or in my workmate Shonnan's case, 6 months.

Sometimes at work, there is a downtime of about 10 minutes, when you are waiting for elements to work with, or you are waiting for a render to finish. During this time, one may check email, or chat, or look at stuff on the Internet, or all 3. Shonnan spends his time looking at entertainment equipment (TVs, computers, stereos and their respective components) on eBay. People here use eBay for everything. Maybe they do everywhere, and I am out of the loop. Again. Anyway, I told him as I saw him look at DVD players that i wish I had a multi-region DVD player, because I have to watch my Region 1 DVDs on my laptop, and it's annoying (Australia is Region 4). He said, "do you want to be able to watch your DVDs on your DVD Player without buying a new one?" And I said "wow! yes" And we went on the Internet, and he showed me that almost all DVD players are able to be multi region, you just have to configure them on a menu that can only be accessed in a secret way. I looked up my DVD player, and I could not find the hack method for it, though I found the method for scoops of others. When I got home that night, I tried all these other methods on my player, but none of them worked. In the end, I gave up, but thought I would just put my Region 1 DVDs in to see if there was some chance that they worked. They all worked!!! I couldn't believe it. I was pretty happy. Maybe one of those buttons I pushed did something.

The next day, I told Shonnan about how my player mysteriously plays my DVDs. He said, "well, maybe it is a multi-region player." Little smartmouth 22-year old surfer dude; is trying to make me look dumb? We looked up my DVD player on the Internet, and indeed, it is a multi-region player! Darcy just happened to buy one without trying to. So, just because a DVD player isn't advertised as being multi region doesn't mean it isn't. Maybe you should see if your player is multi-region. It might be a pleasant surprise. I thanked Shonnan for thinking about the Internet in such a way in a moment in which I was too old to realize it's potential. It saved me spending 157 dollars, and having 2 DVD players around that do the exact same thing, and contributing to the excess of crap we possess in our fat lazy lifestyles. Well, we would have just given the DVD player away, or rather I would have and Darcy would have gotten mad because he bought it, but whatevs. Now we don't have to do anything.

So, today I am going to buy a Breville, which is not a thing really but a brand name, but their most popular selling item is a sandwich press, which everyone calls a Breville. You make a sandwich, put it on this thing that resembles a waffle iron minus the waffle pattern, and press down.



Lots of people have them, and every post production company kitchen I have been in in Australia has one. Basically, if your sandwich has cheese, a Breville makes it better. You can just put your sandwich in a frying pan, but for some reason, like an electric kettle, it's good to get the process off the stove. One day last week I had brought a sandwich to work that had been hastily made the night before, but it was still a good sandwich: multi grain bread, ham, Jarlsberg cheese, lettuce, avocado, mustard, and butter (in OZ you butter your sandwich bread. It's a throat lubricant that really works). The avocado (or avo as they say here) was just two chunks on the bread, but I was tired the night before and did not feel like mushing anything up. I got to work, and somehow Shonnan and I got to chatting about what we had for lunch. he said he had hard boiled egg, mayonnaise, curry powder and sweet chili sauce, with lettuce and cheese in a tortilla. Wow, I thought, what an imagination! I told him that sounded amazing, and he was surprised I had never had it, as it was something mums make for kids. I said I grew up eating peanut butter and jelly. We spoke about how good peanut butter is, though some people hate it, mostly Europeans, and my husband. And people who are allergic, of course. He said peanut butter and banana sandwiches are good, and I said peanut butter and banana and HONEY sandwiches are better. Then Loren, another compositor who sits on my other side, topped it and said, "have you had that on a Breville?" "No," I said, "we don't have one." "Aw mate," he said, "you gotta get a Breville. When you put banana in it, it caramelizes the banana. It's so good." I then asked Shonnan if he would trade half a sandwich with me so I could see how the egg one tasted. He put it in the Breville and it was DELICIOUS! He started to eat mine, and he didn't like the bread, the chunks of avocado bothered him ("I would have mushed them up", he said), and it was too dry. He took it down to the kitchen and when he came back, I discovered he chucked out everything but the ham and cheese and a slice of lettuce and put them on a piece of white bread, Brevilled. Little wise ass ungrateful punk.

I went home and said to Darcy, "Maybe we should get a Breville". "YESSSS" he said, as I could see the excitement brewing in his body. I made a sandwich for the next day, and the next day at work I put it in the Breville. It took a long time, and though the cheese oozed out of the sides, the bread remained untoasted, and greasy because I had to put butter on the outside of the bread. The sandwich sucked, and as I ate it Shonnan sat down next to me with a fragrant steaming plate of enchiladas. "leftovers," he said.

I told Darcy this morning I changed my mind about getting a Breville. It really upset him. "You HAVE to get a Breville," he said. So I guess I'll go get one. But somehow, I don't think I can make enchiladas with it. But maybe I can make that egg sandwich. Then we'll see who has a good lunch. These young kids. Knowing about DVD players and eggs and such. Hmph.

Night Life

I have not put any photos on the blog in awhile, so I thought I would. This is how I look now. Not a pretty picture, is it? I just woke up, and though I am not grumpy in the morning, I thought I would give you a stark look. Just for kicks. ha ha ha. It is cold in our house, and it is a wood house, so I felt like the long suffering farm woman who wakes up before everyone else to start the fire and get the johnny cakes cookin'. In truth, I woke up at 9, Darcy is still asleep, and I turned on the electric heater and started a load of laundry, then checked my email. I am not suffering in the least.

It's Saturday. What to do? I will go to the gym today, but after 12, because the gym is busy right now with the disciplined people, and the class goers. Most people have other things they are doing at noon, like shopping or stuff with their kids. I have no plans no direction no nothing, so I'll wait until the gym is not so busy.

We want to see the Transformers movie, be it good or not, but it is winter holidays for the kids, so school's out, and obnoxious teenagers start lining up for the movies at 10am and don't stop until the theater closes at 10pm, so we're going to wait until they are back in school, which I hope is sooooooon.

At night, I have this problem of what to do? I don't do so well in the nights. I find that I am in a better mood (despite the photo) and have more energy in the day. as the sun goes down, so do I. I may fare better if I go to bed around 9 and get up at 5. But somehow that makes me feel like I may be missing out on something. But what? I wanted to invite Angela over last night for some dinner and hanging out, but she was working. Darcy and I watched rugby and played Sudoku and drank wine. As I type it out, sounds fun, actually. But in the moment, both of us felt like AH! Don't know what we want to do! It's 9pm, and what the hell do we want to do? All the things that came to mind seemed not interesting, and we are trying to not spend money, because we need it for other stuff. And our house is cold, so we want to stay in the same room, with the heaters. What we ended up doing was putting the heater in our bedroom and watching one of my DVDs on my laptop.

I have a funny collection of DVDs; I know. But whatevs. I like them. I only have a few movies, and Darcy didn't want to see them because they are semi-serious and emotional (not really I don't think but that's what he thinks.) So, we watched Labyrinth, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly when she was 15 or something. In Sydney, some friends gave me a 2 DVD box set of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth because they had 2 box sets! We had already seen The Dark Crystal (which is still GREAT) so we saw Labyrinth. It wasn't very good, though it had such fantastic ideas! The creatures and the world created, and some of the obstacles that were concocted are just brilliant and beautiful. But the story needed some help, and Jennifer Connelly's character was thoroughly obnoxious and not nice at all. David Bowie sure chose a very funny movie to be in, as the Goblin King, but he sang, so I guess it was good he was there - it helped the movie along. It's too bad Jim Henson didn't do more movies. I know I know - the Muppet Movies - but I mean more different ones. He had a vivid imagination and worked with people who shared his ability to conceive of worlds that were sinister in the cutest way possible. Darcy didn't like the movie, though he liked some of the puppets. I didn't like the movie either, though I liked the puppets. I saw the movie when I was 18, I think, the year after it came out. I think I liked it more then. I was more forgiving of movies at that age, maybe.

Tonight, there is another rugby game. I don't know what I will do with my Saturday night. Maybe I will watch the game with Darcy, but maybe he will go watch it at someone's house, so then maybe I will be alone. Angela is working tonight too. Maybe I will have to go it alone. Why is Saturday night by yourself such a heavy feeling? I wish I could think of it like it was the daytime, say Wednesday, 11am. Then maybe I would be able to accept it, and not judge it. Just get on with living.

Cold, Wet And Creepy

I have been getting teased and deceived by a couple of companies, telling me there's a job then saying there isn't, and offering me work that isn't exactly the kind of work or pay being presented. It's been a frustrating few weeks, thinking something is going to happen, then nothing happening, and paying bills all the while.

After I wrote this, I got a phone call confirming 3 weeks' of work for a company 40 minutes south of here. So, now I have a job! The pay isn't great, but it's been worse from this particular company. I was reluctant to say yes to this job though - i don't know exactly why, except that because of the low pay and lame commute I would hate to miss out on something better. Oh, I guess I do know why I was reluctant to say yes. Well, still - it's fine. With any luck I'll be working with some people I like.

Brisbane was really cold last week and the week before. Cold in a real way, like 40˚ F in the evening, and then up to 50˚ during the day. The 50˚ part is nice, but our house manages to keep the cold in, and very well. So, if we are inside, we have to wear sweaters, and once we are outside, we peel them off. Houses in Brisbane do not have heaters. They only have air conditioners. This cold weather was highly uncharacteristic of the subtropical city, therefore no one is really equipped for it. But it gives people genuine reasons to wear fall clothing, and hats.

One night not too long ago, I was having a dream, and all of a sudden in the dream a roach scuttled through. I woke up, went to the bathroom, and a big roach was laying on it's back at the door. This has happened to me before - dreaming about a roach, and then there they are in the kitchen or the bathroom. This is the second one I have seen in this house in a year, as we have ants and I have been told they don't co-exist very well. I do not like having this "gift", this ability to sense in dreams when roaches are creeping around the house. Speaking of creeping around...

about an hour ago, a woman appeared in the house. She didn't knock, and I didn't hear her come in, which is amazing considering how creaky this place can be. She was walking slowly by my office door when I startled her. "Can I help you?" I asked. She was a little dodgy...but I was not worried. In the moment, it just seemed a little weird, not suspicious. "Can I use your bathroom?," she asked in a weird voice, "I'm pregnant." "Yeah, sure I said, "It's right there." She went in, peed while talking to herself, then quickly walked out and said "Thank you dahling". After she left, it occurred to me that she was sneaking in the house, otherwise she would have knocked on the door and called hello first, right, if she wanted to use a bathroom? I locked the front door after that. I also chained my bicycle. This is a city, after all. Shit happens.

Our city is in a water crisis, and has been for some time. We are on water restrictions, and the city council is encouraging everyone to take only 4 minute showers. It makes me shudder, as it reminds me of my childhood, and the well that was always dry, and being carefully monitored as I ran through my 2 minute shower. I do not want to relive those days, so I just take a quick shower, and try not to think about the time. The city council sent everyone a 4 minute timer, with a suction cup, so you can stick it on the wall in the shower and time yourself. We have it on the fridge, and don't use it for anything, not even mild amusement. A week after they were sent, and article in paper stated that the timers were faulty. They tested a bunch, and some of the timers allowed for 2:30 minute showers, while others allowed up to 7:45 minutes. What a waste...of everything! As a kid, I would sing a song that was around 2 and something minutes, to time myself in the least stressful way possible. I may have to sing a song again., but this time I will get to choose a longer song. Instead of "Change" by Tears for Fears, maybe I will sing "Karma Chameleon", or "Der Kommisar".