#56 Romulus, My Father

This was on TV the other night which made it really easy. In fact at the end I found out that there'd been a whole series of Australian movies on and I'd missed them, propbably would have been a few from my list, oh well. Actually, I remember The Proposition was on a little while ago, and I was home, but I couldn't watch it for some reason - I think the weather was too nice so we were BBQing and eating outside. Anyway, coming back to the point, I watched Romulus but I cant say I was very impressed. It was OK but there just didnt seem to be much point to it. It was sad, which I dont mind in a film, but it wasnt told well enough so it wasnt moving just depressing. I'm assuming the book must have been much better. Chief conclusion: Eric Bana should keep away from foreign accents, at least with Poitr it was meant to be funny.

#90 Chocolate

The idea behind setting this task has nothing to do with any religious significance (hence ‘or equivalent time period)’ or attempt at being healthier or more grateful for what I have or something like that. Instead I think I was feeling I am generally quite lazy and never bother to set myself any limits and that I wanted to see if I could develop some kind of will power and self discipline, albeit probably in a kinda lame way.

Anyway, after all the over indulgence of Christmas and New Years and what with U adamantly declaring ‘no more chocolate! (for a while)’, I figured now was a good time to do the give up something for Lent task, and chocolate should be the something. I am a bit of a chocoholic and had been tending to eat some kind of chocolaty snack every day at work and usually some more in the evening if there’s chocolate in the house. I often feel like chocolate for breakfast and reckon chocolate goes with everything, including beer. So, I figured even if it sounds lame, giving up chocolate for a while would be a challenge. I started a little while ago and felt like all was going well until I remembered Lent is 40 days, not the 1 month I had in the back of my mind. Its only been two weeks so I still have 26 days to go. I keep having to go to meetings with morning or afternoon tea provided which invariably involves chocolate brownies or chocolate cake. Although U is theoretically also trying not to eat chocolate at the moment, he doesn’t count chocolate chip cookies as chocolate so has been munching away on those at home in front of me. The other day at work our boss came around and gave us all chocolate and now I know its just sitting there in my draw waiting for me to eat it.
Nevertheless, so far so good.

#63 Christmas

This year we had Christmas at our house and luckily the weather held out which meant not one but two barbeques at our place. The joy of having separated parents is that you get to enjoy all the fun of Christmas celebrations twice in a row (well actually three times because we had a Christmas Eve dinner too). Anyway a pleasant time was had by all, I believe, with only minor stress-outs on my part. A huge amount of alcohol was drunk, and we enjoyed raclette, BBQ'ed prawns, BBQ'ed squid and salmon, kangaroo fillet, roast potatoes (twice), green salad, Christmas pudding, haloumi skewers, BBQ'd mushrooms and beef fillet, traditional pork sauasges, kanagroo sausages, cous cous salad, rice salad, chocolate cheesecake and berry tiramisu.

#9 books

I'm considering this one done. I read at least a book a month but adding a post for each one is pretty boring.

#53 North Melbourne Farmers market

Since we no longer live in Brisbane, I had to change this one to the North Melbourne farmers market. We went. It was shit. We wont go again.
I know this market is only new and so perhaps hasn't had time to establish itself and get many traders, but still it was very disappointing. Firstly, despite it being advetrtised everywhere as free entry - which really you would expect at a market, at the entry gate was a woman (and child) with a big bucket insisting on gold coin domations. They were pretty much unavoidable and they did not provide any indication of what the money was for. If it is for some worthy cause I maybe wouldnt be so bothered but then that should be clearly indicated and for all we know she was just pocketing the money. I know I probably should have asked, but why should I have to deal with confrontation just to go to a farmers market. Secondly they hardly had any fresh veggie and fruit stalls which I think is the main reason to go to a farmers market. Instead there was mostly wine, packaged biscuits, olives, boring crafty stuff. and finally it was totally full of try hard North Melbourne wankers, although I did kinda expect that.

#9 never let me go

Kazuo Ishiguro
This is one of those books that appears on lists of the top 100 books you should read, was short listed for a Booker prize, people rave about etc. But I have to say I didnt find it that great. its not that it was bad, but kind of ho hum. I guess it kind of makes you think about what it really means to be human but it was neither eloquently nor elegantly expressed so I didnt find it overly thought provoking. I'm sure the matter of fact tone is intentional to try and make it more sinister, but I guess it kind of seemed like young adult fiction to me. Also, I hate that style some authors have of always pre-empting whats coming or suggesting and implying a shocking revelation later- its always an anti-climax.

on a related note. I'm thinking of not bothering with these book posts anymore. I imagine they're pretty boring and I think dont make any sense to someone who hasnt read the book 'cos I cant be bothered recounting the plot. Also there are several books I've read recently that never end up here 'cos I forget to blog them

#95 extra curricular

The joys of now working for the public service mean that I no longer feel guilty about leaving the office by 6pm like I did in academia (as long as I've done my 7 hours 36 mins). This is also to do with the fact that since the job is still relatively new I dont have loads of deadlines and way too much work do to before them like I did in the last year or so of my last job. (what I should (and do) feel guilty about is blogging during work time, but thats another post, and it wont be regular, really). So now I'm leaving by 6 and I've filled the direct time after work with useful stuff. Mondays: German class, Tuesdays and Wednesdays: Yoga, Fridays: random socialising ranging from work Friday night drinks to catching up with my sister, and soon to come to Thursdays: training to become an English tutor for refugees (once training is over this will be replaced with being a English tutor to refugees. Yay!).
This last one has been a bit of a slog. I've been trying to get into some regular volunteer work since I moved back to Melbourne in May, and its taken til now to get sorted, who would have thought it was so hard to become a volunteer?! but I guess its fair to say I'm a bit picky, since I work full time and dont really want to commit to volunteer every weekend, I needed something that can be done in the evening (but not Friday evenings) and I'm not really keen on working with the elderly or disabled, asking people for money, or doing work that I think amounts to free labour for some organisation that isnt really a community group or charitable organisation.
The other problem being that strangley enough a lot of the refugees that need help with English live way out in unsavoury suburbs in the sticks, but a solution has been found and though it may mean hanging around in Footscray at night, at least its close!

#56 little miss sunshine

This movie was lovely. Very much a feel good flick, in contrast to my last post. Although it was probably a bit of a 'fun-filled caper' movie at the time it didnt seem too cheesy or over the top, so i really liked it.

#56 samson and delilah

I forgot to mention I went to see this movie a while back. It was very good, but rather confrontational and a little difficult to watch - I did find myself squirming for probably the first 45 mins, largely I was thinking because it felt like nothing was happening in the film. The idea that the nothing much was happening for the young people in the film, every day the same, also made me feel uncomfortable and restless. I guess it was also that inherent guilt someone like me- middle class, white, urban, left-ish type, feels when confronted with a representation of the reality of Australian indigeonous communities. I always feel helpless because I dont know what I could do to improve the situation, and also because if I did do something, would it help?

#59 Yoga

Since I'm now going to yoga classes twice a week, this is my new hobby. I never would have imagined Yoga would become a hobby of mine - the first time I tried it I thought it was a total crock and couldnt stop laughing. Although thats probably because it was just an informal thing with a friend trying to teach a group of us and she kept going on about chakras and chi, and I basically thought she was full of it. But the teachers I have now are sensible and concentrate on the physical part and make it fun, but also useful, challenging and relaxing, yay! and its helping me achieve #49 - almost there.