harry the bunny

I made a new friend Harry on one of my daily morning coffee runs before work last week. Isn't he cute? He is about the size of my palm, loves attention and is playful like a kitten. He is simply irresistible. I'm gonna kidnap him someday. ;p

anyone wants to apply to be my chauffeur?

I am blogging from my comfy bed on a slightly sunny and very windy Sunday afternoon right after a quick lunch of roast pork cutlet on a bed of pumpkin and leaves salad and coffee with book one of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy at the local pub 3.5min walk away instead of enjoying the ocean breeze at a beach or indulging in some sinful chocolate at Max Brenner's - which are the top two things I would like to do right now - because of one stupidly ridiculous reason: I am too lazy to drive.

Exhaustion really kills all motivation for anything and everything. But it's alright. Such quality me-time is therapeutic for a tired soul.

guitar lesson #5

Lesson five was a disappointing one for me. I did not sleep well the night before and woke up feeling lethargic and dreading the guitar class.

I dragged my aching body to my tutor's place and managed to survive through 45min of picking and strumming. However, I could not complete a single revision exercise at a lower speed of 60bps without mistakes when I could easily execute them at 80bps at my daily practise sessions. I was extremely upset.

I must do better next week.

saturday at glebe

Saturday was spent at Glebe because the Housemate wanted to go check out the markets. I took the chance do some photo-taking as the camera has been feeling rather neglected of late. As you can probably see from the series below, I happened to be in a black and white and retro mood.

Lunch was at a favourite old haunt of Lover Yen-Yen's and mine - Cafe Otto. The Chef's Special that day was Beef Bourguignonne. I really wanted to take this corner seat but it was a bit too isolated from the rest of the cafe and would have rendered people-watching quite impossible.



A glass of ice cold Passionfruit Sunset juice was exceptionally refreshing for the hot summer day. I entertained myself with the fascinating pepper container while waiting for the food to be served.



People-and-watch-watching through my glass of tap water.



I also took a leisurely walk around the neighbourhood peering into backyards and patios.





And of course I paid a visit to the market. I've already blogged about how I got myself a little harmonica necklace.



I almost bought a pair of these bling bling shades. The green ones were really funky and made me look like a superstar but I had no idea where I would wear them to, hence I decided against spending that $15.



I am getting quite rusty with the camera. I should really make it a point to go for more photowalks.

my little harmonica necklace

Likkle Girl blogged about her Hohner Little Lady in December and I commented: "I LOVE THIS! I would have picked one up for myself if I saw it. And I play the harmonica too!!".

And so... I saw this mini Swan harmonica necklace at Glebe market and got it as a present for myself. It came with a guitar and a music note charms too. The exposure setting when taking the picture below was a mistake but I really like the way it turned out so I changed my mind about deleting it.



I wore it out today, nice? The harmonica works and allows you to play a full octave on it. As I did my walkabout today, I played Mary Had a Little Lamb, Do Re Mi (from The Sound of Music), London Bridge is Falling Down and Jingle Bells. Fun fun fun!

小毛 and 小黑

I received a belated X'mas parcel in the mail thanks to the festive snail mail traffic jam.

Flyaway sent a friend for 小毛 which I've named 小黑. Yay! We the monkeys can now go on road trips together.

we are all doomed

I moped through the New Year long weekend as the weather yoyo-ed unpredictably between sunshine and blankets of rain. On this particular day, I was basking in the glorious sun one minute and running for my life the next when this great big mass of grey doom swept in at the speed of light without any apparent warning. And the sun had to re-appear the moment I got home. How nice.

max brenner newtown

Max Brenner recently opened a new outlet in Newtown at 142-146 King Street!

Now I only need to travel a mere 5km to get my chocolate fix.

boys and girls

I was shopping around in David Jones over the X'mas period when I saw a funny scene.

All the patrons at this bar were men. I giggled because I thought they were banished by the wives and girlfriends to this lonely corner so that they may do their shopping in peace.



Then I rounded a corner and saw this counter where all its customers were women. So I checked out both stalls and found that the above bar served alcohol and the one below served desserts and pastries.



Boys and girls, we can never co-exist. LOL

another book spree

I spent the first day of 2010 hunting for the Dune Chronicles in every single bookstore I could find in the City and the suburbs of Newtown and Glebe. I was about to give up (those few shops that carried the books either had them in bad condition or didn't have the first few books) and order online when I found the entire series in Kelly's Books along Broadway. And they were having a mega sale - 50% off all paperbacks! A short chat with the staff on duty revealed that the sale was to have ended on 31 December and they were supposedly closed on New Year Day. The owner decided on a whim to open for business on the public holiday and to extend the sale period for another week.

Just to give you an idea of how cheap the books were, Stieg Larsson's final instalment to the Millennium Trilogy: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest was selling for $16 (everywhere else was selling for $30+ a week ago when I was deciding to get that for a colleague as a X'mas present or not). And I got the first three books of the Dune series at only $16 which works out to be $5.33 each. Another bookstore in the city was selling them at like $16 each and they didn't have the complete series in stock. I also saw lots of classics (the likes of Austen and Bronte and more) going for below $5. Mind you, they were all brand new and not used books.



Check out my loot for the day... I think these are enough to last me for a couple of months...

- Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy: all three books
- Frank Herbert's Dune Chronicles: all six books
- Paul of Dune, the sequel to Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J Anderson
- Shakespeare Matters by Geoff Spiteri
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Family Way by Tony Parsons
- Say It Like Obama by Shel Leanne
- Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry (I finally finally finally got this book! And this is the first book I'm reading in this new year. I had wanted to get it right from the very first time I saw it in late 2008 / early 2009 but I wasn't willing to pay $50 for it. Now I got it for like less than $20.)



Oh and not to forget to mention, Kelly's Books had every single book Terry Pratchett has ever written and published, right there on the shelves. I was so so so so so so tempted to buy ALL OF THEM. There was even one last Good Omens paperback left in store but I didn't get it because it wasn't the dual Angel and Devil covers front and back version I wanted. I kept piling on Pratchett's books at the cashier, then placed them back onto the shelves, stared forlornly at them, brought them to the cashier again, placed them back onto the shelves.... (repeated that for at least 3x)... when I decided that I'd spent enough money on books in one day and walked out of the shop reluctantly with just the above listed titles.

I may well decide to pay them another visit within the week to see if the mega sale is still on...