Sunday, beady Sunday.

Beady Sunday sounds a bit like it was watching me with little beady eyes. I have to say I'm not entirely convinced Sunday wasn't hiding under the couch and watching me. It certainly didn't seem to actually appear.

I meant to work today, honestly, but somehow I didn't. I slept in and rolled from tea and toast to tea and turkish delight to catching up on blogs to reading The Guardian online to making necklaces and watching Mad Men to feeling a bit sad and down for a while and gazing out at the grey sky to making another necklace and watching Poirot and suddenly it is the evening. Maybe I needed a day off. I was very tired (though that was probably because I stayed up late last night drinking white port and reading about tsunamis).

Anyway here are the fruits of my labours, two new necklaces. I haven't trimmed the ends yet as I have lost all my flexible beading needles and need some more before I can finish off, but you get the idea.

 My sister have me the patterned glass beads for Christmas and I have been playing with them for ages but I think they work well with the black and all grouped together.

These are some beads that I have had for ages, the stripy ones were off an old necklace of Mum's. They look like lollies.

Dinner, cupcakes and winter olympics

I went to see 'A single man' in the morning with E. I had actually planned on Bright Star as I had a free pass but of course you can't use it on the weekend. Pah. But 'A Single Man' was great, sad though not depressing. I did spend about the first 10 minutes crying. It is also very visually beautiful.

In the evening I had dinner with the lovely C. We drank red wine and ate her delicious beetroot risotto and gossiped and decorated cupcakes that she had made (which were scrummy). Check out our efforts, be afraid professional cake decorators, be very afraid.

 

 

My HILARIOUS food wit at work.

 

Actually trying to do something pretty.

C says the I love you was for her man but clearly it was about me.

After that heady excitement we watched the Winter Olympics, or as I like to call it the DANGER OLYMPICS. As it seems that only 1 in 3 people actually complete their attempts without being on their heads or asses or both. Exhibit 1. The bobsled.

This was the only time I saw them the right way up. Actually I think the aim was to finish upside down and these guys had failed dismally.

And talking about failing dismally here are some photos of Eddie Maguire and the figure skater Johnny Weir. Eddie was hoepless, clearly worried he might catch a 'camp' attitude or else he perhaps had electrodes on his balls that were buzzed every time he veered towards homophobic. Anyway Johnny Weir was hilarious. I think he should have his own show.

 

 

Friday

I was about to write it was a long day, but it wasn't really. I was home by 3:30pm! Maybe Friday always seems long regardless of what I do. I did my usual 'work at uni until after lunch and then head to the market with Mum'. It is our routine and we catch up over tomatoes and lettuce and I get a lift home with my shopping, which is always helpful. I took some quick photos at the market.

Beetroot leaves, I love beetroot. I always try and eat the leaves as well.

The biscuit shop, I often buy Turkish Delight to have with my tea over the weekend. OM NOM NOM.

Thursday

It has suddenly occurred to me that simply using the days of the week as titles might not work so well after my first week. I will have to think it through.

Thursday I studied hard, I am experimenting with a new approach to study called 'Getting up at a normal hour'. Seems to be working, somewhere along the way I had forgotten that I am very productive in the mornings.

I decided to get coffee, I don't drink it much these days as it makes me hyperactive/anxious.

In the evening I went to an opening at uplands gallery, the art was good. The artist is Michelle Ussher. The paintings (and one sculpture) are quite dark. There were some on canvas and some on paper. I liked the ones of horses walking away partly because as a child I used to draw horses walking away all the time. I liked the shaped of their behinds, I even used to draw it on everyone's birthday cards.

I also caught up with J and T and e (e is the baby so lower case geddit?)

Here are my pictures, I don't like to take photos of the art as it isn't mine and you should go and look at it but you get a glimpse via the invite card. You can also see it here.

 

First I had a campari, I always eat my orange slice afterward.

  

Then I decided to have a Peroni as it is one of my favourite beers simply because it has good memories associated with Rome. It made me burp a bit.

Then I decided to take a photo of people's legs in case you were wondering what kind of shoes people wear to gallery openings in Melbourne.

Tuesday - Wine tasting

Worked on footnotes and captions all day so was sorely in need of a drink so I wandered over to Europa cellars for their wine tasting of Portuguese wines. I live not too far away and have been subscribed to their newsletter for ages but this is the first time I have gone. They have them every week, i assume because they get in so many unusual wines from Europe that people don't know it is a good way of getting people to try different wines. There seemed to be a few people who turn up every week. They also had amazing cheese, a smoked cheddar. I think i was actually more excited by the cheese! I took some photos of the wines to help me remember, the reds were really nice but even a few tasting sips means I woke up with a slight headache. Annoying.

Whites

Reds

Wednesday

A busy day, I think it was productive. I went to see a man about a job, which looks hopeful and exciting and a bit left of centre and that appeals to my sense of adventure, which suits me. I don't want to say too much yet as it isn't clear exactly what will happen. Anyway the photo is just of the chapel at Xavier college which I walked past on my way through Kew. Pretty don't you think?

Old photo again

I can see that even for someone as snap happy as me having a photo for every day of the year is a challenge. So for Monday you get another one from 'this day in...'

This one is from 2005 again, I did think of trying a different year but it would seem I habitually lead an unexciting life on the 21st February. But this one is fun. Look how cold and snowy it is. It is is Eisenstadt a small town outside Vienna that we schlepped to because someone love Haydn and this is where he worked for much of his life. However, we weren't allowed into the palace (the only tourist attraction in town) as people were sick and someone had to man the desk even though I'm pretty sure we were the only tourists that week. Grrr. But anyway the small supermarket was exciting and had excellent brown bread that I remember devouring after months of being in Italy with only white bread )you can get interesting breads but it take hunting). I also remember having one of the worst meals ever as we waited for our bus, some cream of something soup that was just cream.

Ah memories, much more exciting than what I actually did, which was work on thesis and go to pilates.

Sunday

Yesterday started out very well. I got up early and tidied the kitchen (exciting I know) and then had tea and read some blogs. I then went over to lizey's for breakfast and it was decided to put coffee in a thermos and buy croissants from The French Lettuce (one was pistachio and it was delicious, and the plain ones were really dense and buttery) and head to the garden at Abbotsford convent. We sat on the grass and chatted and it was all very lovely. I didn't take any actual photos of breakfast so you get random pictures I took while walking to lizey's.

 

View from George St toward Gore St. It was a beautiful clear morning.

 

I liked this typeface.

This made me giggle.

The remnants of breakfast. 

My afternoon was more frustrating. I have been working on my captions for the images for my thesis and it is DOING MY HEAD IN. I have about 40-100 per chapter. Each one needs the full details of creator, name, date, materials, size, collection. For some this is easy and straightforward but for others it is so difficult. Many I only know through their publication in secondary texts and a lot of these, especially older texts, give hardly any details, not even collection so I can't look them up! It doesn't matter hugely for a thesis to have absolutely perfect captions but they should be pretty damn good and it is hard to know when to put 'Dimensions unknown' or 'Collection unspecified' or when to keep looking in that next book or next database for more information. I also have to make the catalogue as well and that is time consuming as my image software is pretty basic. I think I may have to borrow some money to buy photoshop.

It is all a good learning experience though. I now know that I should treat images like my bibliography. As soon as I use one I should write down all the details have I have about it and make a copy of it when possible. Hey ho back to it and sorry for the possibly boring thesis musings, it just helps to get it off my chest!

I haven't had a very good day today. Nothing serious just one of those days when it feels like everything is closing in around you and even a small task seems enormous. I haven't really got a photo for today so I found one I took five years ago on the 20th February 2005 in Vienna. I remember I felt a bit like I do now. A bit helpless and confused but with more exciting surroundings.

Friday

I had a relatively productive day today. Sort of finished a chapter. I couldn't quite get a conclusion together and I decided that rather than agonising over it I would leave it for the weekend while I work on my image catalogue and then on Monday I will read over the chapter and then hopefully something will come to me. I have made a wordle of the chapter.

I had dinner in the evening at my parents and here is my day 2 photo of me and mr mcgoo (otherwise known as Hamish). You get two photos as I had trouble getting us both in focus and in the photo.  I am always struck by the fact we seem to do our hair the same, slightly messy curls.

Breakfast at Animal Orchestra

Met lizey for breakky this morning at Animal Orchestra. The buses conspired against her so I had some time to read through a few photocopies about the Bibiena (18th century set designers usually nerdy PhD stuff). Also had coffee, not used to it these days so hopefully the caffeine doesn't send me crazy. I was debating getting an orange juice or tea but it seems most other drink options are so much more expensive than coffee. I also had fruit toast, only $5 but they are like slabs and very doughy not really all that nice. And the butter they give you is rock hard. Anyway Is till like Animal Orchestra and its pretty pictures pasted all over the walls and the tables that rock and the mismatched seats and the fact that one staff member always seems to be half asleep/stoned.

 

Also this is day one of my attempt to do a 365 photo blog, in addition to my usual ramblings. Let's see how I go!

My week..

I felt quite ht and grumpy for most of this week. My apartment usually stays pretty cool but it seemed to warm up and get stuffy very quickly and I just found it so hard to sleep and to concentrate on my work. The result is that the chapter I planned to have finished this week is still not quite there. I also had various things on. Tuesday night we had drinks to celebrate my friend Elaine finishing her PhD, I think she has been doing it for 8-9 years so a big achievement. Then we went to the opera (well the Met opera live in HD at the Nova)with my parents, i wasn't really in the mood and the opera was Carmen and wasn't all that interesting. The staging, singing and acting was all excellent but the opera itself is just a bit dull.

Wednesday I caught up with Greer and Cat and John. John has bought a new apartment in the city and I am well jealous. Amazing views and light and lots of brand spanking newness. Greer is off to NYC today. And Cat ha a sparkly new job. We had drinks at Journal (what is going on with the service there, it used to be great but it is now so average and prices just go up?)  and then had pizza at +39 a pizzeria in Lt Bourke (just up the hill from Elizabeth). It is very good pizza, I had eggplant and tomato and went half and half with Mark who had the four cheese.  NOM NOM.

I had some red wine as well and as a result getting out of bed on Thursday was a bit of a struggle. I really can't have much red wine at all these days, and definitely not on a school night.

Thursday was pretty useless, I went to pilates and the room was insufferably warm and the instructor was complaining about no air conditioning (surely after 4 years he has realised the air conditioning is piss weak) but he didn't switch on any fans or open a window. Go figure. I guess I could have asked but I was so warm it felt too hard. Anyhoo I got some work done in the afternoon and evening but was suffering from a severe case of 'what'sthatworditis'.

Yesterday I decided to schlep into uni and work there and that was more successful, I even had a proper coffee, which woke me up and didn't make me hyper. Went market shopping with Mum and then caught up over tea at my place. I then proceeded to go crazy in the kitchen. I baked a chocolate weetbix slice with oats. I stewed up the plums I had that had gone a bit soft and scooped out the centres of some tomatoes to make stuffed tomatoes for dinner. I then got stuck into my thesis and nearly finished a section while the dinner was cooking. I often find that productivity in one area begets productivity in another, maybe it's the sense of achievement (or else it's just the chocolate rush from eating some weetbix slice raw.)

 Weetbix slice in its just cooked glory and after in its moist crumbly deliciousness.

Anyhoo I have been for a run this morning in the drizzle, which was a very nice change to horrible hot sun. Though there were a few too many superfast fit people on the Tan for my liking. I have caught up on all my blogs/newsletters on google reader and I must now get down to work.

My brain is mellttiiingg!

It's true. Hopefully we will get a thunderstorm later. That would excite me. I am trying to formulate ideas about 17th century venetian opera sets and it isn't happening and I am having (another) PhD crisis of why the hell I am writing this chapter?! It makes no sense, it has no proper thread, blah blah blah. The sets are nice though. It was around this time they invented a technique for changing the sets instantaneously with counterweights, apparently a small boy could do it just by turning a handle. This meant they had more and more sets, at least 10 per opera. A lot more than you get these days. Anyway that's enough of my ramblings that will probably only interest me!

Here is a garden set by Torelli c. 1645.

I also found these lovely Marilyn Monroe photos from 1961.The New York Post says

Photographer Len Steckler shot the black-and-white images of Marilyn Monroe when she unexpectedly arrived at his apartment in December, 1961, to visit his friend, Pulitzer-prize winning poet Carl Sandburg. Steckler is offering them for a sale as a limited-edition series called "Marilyn Monroe: The Visit."

Monday stuff

I feel so exhausted tonight. I decided to schlep into uni despite the heat to do pilates and for some reason thought I would be super fit and run for a bit of the way. I was literally dripping by the time I arrived. So hot. I could barely avoid teh sun in some places and was edging along the side of buildings trying to stay in even the smallest amount of shade. Then the girl at the desk for some unknown reason decided I needed to sign a new contract even though I have had an ongoing membership for years that I renew every month. So I dripped on that and croaked at her as I was so parched and had no water. Class was good, kind of like bikram pilates, haha. I was extra flexible but had trouble holding some poses like plank. Then I decided to run part of the way home but it all got too much about half way and I walked. I feel very light headed and tired now so I was probably a bit foolish but I'll be fine.

Home now and brain is definitely off so I have given up on thesising for the day. I didn't even have enough brain energy to toy with my footnotes. I think I made some decent progress today though. I have about 10-12 pages to edit and write and then I have to integrate the next chapter into it and then I will be done. My supervisor will be back from o/s soon and then hopefully give me back Chapters 4&5 with his comments and I will fix. I still have a lot of work to do on my images. Each chapter has about 40-50 which need captions, most have been scanned but I need to make them all into proper pages that can be printed with captions. So many. Most of my friends have only got about 20-50. But I guess that is just my topic.

Stewed nectarines

I made these last week as I had a few nectarines that were going a bit soft, plus I had some small ones from my great aunt's tree that weren't very sweet. I just cut them up and put a little bit of sugar and water over them and added awhole cinnamon stick. I let them simmer away for ages, they smelled delicious. I kept them in the fridge and had them for breakfast with yoghurt. Nom nom. I have since repeated the process with plums. I can't believe I had never done this myself before, so easy and tasty and such a good way to use up fruit that has gone a bit soft or that doesn't taste nice enough to eat as is.

Some pictures from last weekend

Last Saturday we went on a little road trip with o/s visitors. We drove to Kyneton as I had read about its new and delicious cafes and restaurants in the Epicure a while back. It was very pretty (at least Piper St was) the rest is pretty standard country town. We had a coffee and a muffin (well actually I was the only one that had a muffin but I had been for a 4km run before we set off).



The service was a bit slow (though it was called Slow Cafe so maybe they were taking the whole slow food movement a bit literally!) They also had nice look organic vegies and bread and these bags that I desperately want. I actually found I can buy them online and probably will when I can decide if I want the chicken one or the pig one.




Photos from Maldon, it is very olde worlde and was Victoria's first listed town by the National Trust. It has a good sweet shop with delicious chocolate honeycomb.

Argh Thesis Argh!

It is 10:10pm and I am sitting here feeling exhausted after a day of basically very little writing and lots of worrying about my stupid last chapter. It could be a whole thesis in itself! It is basically about the representation of gardens and landscapes in theatre from 1500-1750. See what I mean!(Well possibly not if you aren't a theatre/art history nerd but trust me it is crazy big). As I said before, ARGH! I have so much material but still feel worried there are sections that are under-researched, but I refuse to do more research at this stage, except for obligatory last minute page number checking and the like.

I keep re-writing the structure and feeling pleased with it but then when I get down to putting all those words around the structure I just feel overwhelmed and cross and stupid and blah blah blah. Anyway I have edited half of it and I think I know what to do with the rest. I am determined to get it more or less done this week, at least up to 1690.

I would really like some chocolate now, or ice cream.

I did this today. Not too serious but embarrassing!