Dinner Party on Saturday

Thank you very much for inviting me ladies, I had lots of fun and hope to do it again soon. (Yes I apologise for sounding aggressive in asking "Who else is coming...???" coz I was worried it'd be a "Oh yes Pun, please meet our friend blah blah, he likes gourmet food and long moonlit walks along the beach." So please forgive me for being aggressive. A girl can't be too careful.)

Here's the pics from Saturday night, a special "Hi!" to Bec who creepily reads this blog without me knowing. Please feel free to comment people, makes my life a bit more interesting.

Angi pouring Cat's bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Bru Champagne (yum!)

Angi garlic-king up bruschetta bread and plating.

Entree of Bruschetta, very very nice ladies, and raw sliced mushrooms dipped in warm garlic butter.

Main courses: tomato fusilli??, pumpkin risotto, pasta carbonara (oooh baby), (not pictured) Greek salad. It was all very nice ladies, and very filling.

For dessert, a specially made for Sam, diabetic brownies with (not pictured) Bulla Lite vanilla ice cream. Drinks were a 1996 Marienberg? Cab Sav. Quite drinkable yes. Yes it was.

And the now infamous Chocolate Fountain (now without extra oil) dippings include apple, banana and strawberries. And an ample glass of Tawny Port. Sooooo full, and a cuppa tea afterwards as well.

Have the Flower Duet from Lakme (by Delibes) stuck in my head, shame I'm not a soprano, (mezzo soprano) but I think I can hit Mallika's notes. I wanna find the music for the duet, 2 sopranos vocal and piano. I think I can order it at Zephyr Music. Hmmm... Coincidentally Opera Australia is putting on Lakme at the Opera House in July (before and after I leave), *sighs* tix cost $194 concession, and the matinees are on while I'm not in the country *sighs again*. It's very strange, I'm going through an opera phase right now. Oh my goodness... I just had a thought... instead of doing something for my 21st, should I go see Lakme?? No no I can't do that, I can't go alone. Doh.

Speaking about that, anyone wanting to see Carmen at Parra on Thursday 24th Aug, please contact me and I'll get extra tix. RSVP next Friday morning.

Black Tie Dinner this Saturday... can I pretend I'm engaged?? I've got a sorta ring... no that's lying. Can I say my man's overseas??? *drifts into dreamland...*

"Yea, my man's on exchange in France right now... uh huh... yea he's a music student, he's a great musician, genius really... mmhmm... yea he likes to think that's how he seduced me, yea with his music *laughs* but no he's very good at it, he's into opera, yea... his name you ask? Oh it's Eric, with a C, uh huh... surname... Leafson. Did I know there's a historical figure called Lief Ericsson?? Noooo... really?"

Recent purchases:
- Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott
- Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
- Medieval Latin Lyrics - some are quite lovely, one's particularly funny.
- The Betrayal of Arthur by Sara Douglass - funnily enough Cat and I were talking about it today and hello, there it is at the 2nd hand book store, yoink!

It's official, I leave on the 11th

Yays!! *jumps up and down* Phantom! Phantom! Phantom!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I come back on Tuesday 25th morning at 1055. Yikes. I forget it's 2 hours forward when you come back. Sooo... night flight in economy, ooooh, I better get an aisle seat, since I don't actually sleep on airplanes, and it's an airbus... I like 747s better. But who cares, Yays!!

Sooo... is anyone (with a car) free around 1130 or 1200 on Tuesday 25th of July, otherwise it's taxi home baby. Meeep.

Dad left to fly back to HK today, should be somewhere over Queensland right now. He's taken my trackydacks with him, 2 of them (I need them altered). Alas I am trackydack-less for another week at least.

Had my second driving lesson today, will be weekly now, next on Friday. In Parra, the course doesn't seem too bad, didn't attempt to run anyone over this time. And with the car I'm training on, you need to give the accelerator more of a push to get it going, so really, it's somewhat better than the Pulsar at home.

Had my first driving lesson today... for quite awhile... (edit)

Didn't look right at a roundabout, could've run someone over... anyways, my new instructor is my... let's see how to say this... my paternal grandma's younger male cousin. So he's 2 up on the generational hierarchy and traditionally I should call him equivalent of 'cousin-related uncle pop', unfortunately there's no equivalent word in English. So I just call him Eugene. He's my gran's cousin and he's younger than my mum! I'm telling you, stick with monogamy, it's easier to work out who I'm actually related to. So I've got weekly driving lessons in Parra to brush up on driving before I try for P's.

FOR SALE for $5 a pair RRP $14 /pair
- 3 pairs Voodoo Stay-Ups Tall sheer stockings - 2 Celestial and 1 Black Magic
- 2 pairs Voodoo Shine Comfort Brief Tall pantihose - both Celestial coloured
Anyone taller than me should fit it, unless you're under 55kg. Email me if interested.

So I had a friend's birthday lunch at Venue (used to be Il Duomo) in the Italian Forum yesterday. Had bruschetta, seafood platter and Asti Spumante, oh yes and triple chocolate mousse cake from DJ. Very nice. Hadn't seen her for ages and she's trying to persuade me to join Justice Health *shudders* even though there's a LOT of benefits and incentives, I don't think I can work with criminals... my sense of justice will overpower and I won't treat them very nicely at all, especially paedophiles and rapists. But still, it sounds somewhat appealing... money and benefit-wise.

Recent purchases:
- Dixie Chicks new album - Taking the Long Way - listening to it right now, not too bad. The first song 'The Long Way Around's' got references to their last album Home.
- photo frame to put in dodgy looking grad photo
- 4 panties - coz I had a week of chucking out old ones with holes in them, you know the ones smaller than the leg and torso hole.
- 2 pairs stay up OPAQUE black stockings. They're surprisingly hard to find.
- and an even harder to find, 1 bottle of PISCO!!! Finally! I found in in Harris Farm Liquor store in Parra!! Yays!!! *jumps around* now I can make pisco sours!!

Edit:
Had a lengthy chat with my dad about our waay too randy great great granddad. His 4th wife was Eugene's grandma, Eugene's mum is the same generational hierachical level as my great granddad, Eugene is the same level as my grandma, and my dad is the same level as Eugene's 9 y.o. son!! Which means I call his son (the 9 y.o.), Uncle. I call Eugene Great Uncle, I call Eugene's mum, Great grand aunt (she's 70 something). That's screwed up I'm telling you, Eugene calls my grandma 'cousin', my dad calls Eugene 'Uncle' and Eugene's at least 10 years younger than him.
Bigamy makes relations very confusing. Here's a basic diagram.

Things to do this week:

1. ****Finish assessment****
2. Send learning contract to supervisor and beg forgiveness
3. Pull head out of own ar... arm.
4. Collect dry cleaning and altered dress without dad finding out how much it costed - Dad thinks any alterations costing over A$10 is a huge ripoff (alterations in HK cost HK$10). Hence insists on taking clothes back to HK and altering it there. I however cannot go to HK just to change the length of my dress (very complicated hem) coz you gotta try it on and also I need it by June 3rd.
5. Buy dad birthday card and think of something good for dinner after a Ba enema. Hmmm.
6. Buy curious, different birthday present for birthday lunch this Saturday.
7. Wean myself off ff (ha! That's a long term goal)

Long term goals (realistic ones):

1. Wean myself off ff - slowly does it. First off LJ, then HG. Then RL/NT
2. Learn how to say: "Excuse me", "Please", "Thank you", "Hello", "Yes", "No", "I'm married" and "Where is the toilet?" in every spoken language in the world. Who cares about latin.
3. Learn flamenco dancing (ha! this is more likely than weaning off ff).

Mutterings and thoughts and of course grumblings

Mum and Auntie Eppie's gone back to HK. So I'm not as moody now, I think. I think it was just the stress of last week. And now I've got another set of photos up from grad.
You know what I've complained about before and will again now... my parents complaining about my too-low tops. Note the strategic positioning of the bouquet if you find yourself looking at My photos. I was looking at the photos on my mum's camera last week and I think I looked hot dammit! *licks fingertip, touches to hip, makes sizzle noise*

Dad's gonna be here til near the end of the month. Some consults need to be done, an U/S was done and found 2 small nodules on his thyroid gland. Nuclear medicine tests we're done as well but the nodules were too small to find anything conclusive. So now it's specialist consult time. Also he's going for a Ba enema next Monday so I'm gonna have to cook, watch him eat and drink and clear out of the bathroom for the day. Great, my room is next to the toilet, oh this is gonna be fun, but more fun for my dad. So we're praying it won't be cancerous and if it is, it'll be benign. Anything it is, I'm praying it's benign.

You know, I've been thinking about the future lately, and thinking about how friends are gonna go on double dates, gonna get hitched, not gonna go to Terrigal, make babies etc. I wonder if I'll be single when that happens. Not that I fantasise about having double dates, but when I see myself getting older, I see the Cantonese Wedding Door Game (yes Cat you can be my bridesmaid), I see the pregnancy (shock! horror!), I see the babe (even more shock! horror!) but I don't see the groom, I don't see the husband, the father, the sidekick, the worst half. So it wouldn't exactly be immaculate conception eh?
And I was talking about pregnancy to mum before, she was saying a Cantonese proverb, "The birthing mother signs a pact with Death." I wonder why so many women want to have children and lots of them. Do they really now the dangers of it? The real, life-threatening dangers? Haemorrhage, infection, and various other horrors like cutting! Cutting! Well once you get pregnant and can't get rid of it (I'm speaking historically now) there's no choice but to give birth. It's not like the babe's gonna hang around in the womb for the next few years. Thank God for contraception.
And another thing I was talking about in church to Mish about, doing nursing has changed my perspective and opinions on issues like abortion and euthanasia. If I knew my babe was only gonna live for few hours or a day, could you carry it to full term, have a dangerous childbirth, and watch the babe die in front of your eyes? There are things like 'giving the babe a chance to live' and 'playing god' but honestly, if I knew my babe would be in pain and suffering for the whole of their life, I couldn't do that. I couldn't make them suffer. Call me a hypothetical murderer but I don't think it's fair on the mother nor the father. And especially in sexual assault cases, could you look at the babe when everyday you're reminded of the crime which was done to you? I'm not so idealistic to say that 'It's part of you, you created it.' It wasn't created in love, it wasn't created in care and consent. And why should the mother carry it to full term, why should her life be violently interrupted from its path just because a gross crime was done to her?? Sadly I'm not thinking in the abstract.

Recent purchases:
- The Opera Box - 4CD album with lotsa operatic pieces. I've had 'Che faro senza Euridice?' stuck in my head after watching About the Looking for and Finding of Love. Also now I know where that darn staccato high note aria comes from, Die Zauberfloete.
- Darkwitch Rising by Sara Douglass - yays! Finally. I've been waiting over a year and a half to get the PB. But the last instalment's come out as well, but alas, I must wait for the library copy to come in coz I'm anal retentive and I like all my sets to be of the same height and size.

Finally my grad...

So I've graduated finally with my Bachelor of Nursing (photos up on My photos). They had to split the Nursing faculty in half coz we were huge! So the 0900 session today was all nursing and the 1200 session (mine) was split with Engineering. And all my friends were at the 0900 session! Dammit. Well I still got to take some photos and get down contact numbers so that was good.
I really don't like standing in photos, my cheeks and jaw were getting tired. I'm so glad I'm not getting married, otherwise hours and hours of cheek-pushing, jaw-locking fakeness.


Can you tell I didn't get any professional photos done?

Well the ceremony was tedious, although I sat next to a friend so sniggering and giggling was often. The Chancellor (we observed) was subtlely (but not so subtlely that we didn't notice) was wiping his hand on his robes after every handshake (kheeheehee!) and that stupid robe, no, not the robe, thingy with the colours on it, was choking me, (I recommend to bring a safety pin ladies for graduation).

So, then we came back after some Pho in Parra, I had an hour's nap and went to the Rhinedorf for German food for din din. Yum! We all had a tasting plate of German cold cuts, kartoffelsalat and pickled vegies, oh yes and the bread.
Me: Jaegerschnitzel (veal schnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage) mit ein Stein of Hoefbrau Original Muenchen I think it was. They ran out of the Koestritzer dark (you know I prefer dark) so I had to get a light one.
Dad: Berliner Eisbein (boiled pork knuckle with mustard and sauerkraut) and ein Stein of Bitburger Premium Pilsner.
Mum and Auntie Eppie: shared a Schweinehaxen (roast pork knuckle with potatoes and sauerkraut) and also a Bitburger Premium Pilsner. my mum drinks more beer than I thought she did, she finished off my dad's Stein.
Bro: Lammruecken "Haus art" (lamb racks with mash) and ein Stein of DAB.
Then I ordered a Herrenbecher (brandied sour cherries with vanilla ice cream and cream) and cappucinos and a long black for my bro.
Good place to go for very filling German food and not anywhere as expensive as Loewenbraeu.
http://www.rhinedorf.com.au


Dad eating a pork knuckle and mum finishing off dad's beer.

So time to catch up on 2 days of ff now. The Werewolf who stole Christmas has been updated (for random people reading it).

Relos in Sydney... saaaaaaaaave meeeeee... *rant*

You know, I really, really hate re-washing dishes. Just coz someone's not bothered using a sink full of hot water, gloves and more washing liquid, does NOT mean that we have to eat off filthy food encrusted plates. I am gonna post this, take out all the dishes we've used for the past few days and re-wash them. Absolutely disgusting. What is it, they've lived with a housekeeper for so long they don't remember how to wash up properly??? And dammit, you don't use the scouring part of the washer to clean non-stick pans, I told off my mum and she said, "It doesn't matter, look there are scratches on it already." GAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Bloody hell, either my brother or I are gonna do the dishes til they go coz I really, really hate re-washing up. Especially when my parents should be old enough to know how to clean. GAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Yes well, obviously my relos are here. My parents and my Auntie #1 (family ranking-wise). Picky eaters, normally I cook, you eat. Right now it's I ask what people don't like, then cook. I blimmin' cooked the food, eat it!! *venting* I don't care if there's not enough salt for you, you're on bleedin' cholesterol medication, you'll be eating rabbit food if you don't shut up. GAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

*venting, venting*

Also, you know how you've got people who eat very, very little for main meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner) but they gorge on snacks between them. Well my auntie's one of them. I'm eating lunch and breakfast and she wants to eat some of my food?! Get your own food, then she says "I'm full, but I wanna try yours." Is my plate a buffet platter?? I ask you, does it say "Free for all" on my plate???!!! GAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

NB: Don't volunteer yourself to my food unless I volunteer first. Especially if I'm hungry. Not happy Pun. I'm a very jealous person, can you tell ;P

ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Wednesday: brother's graduation in afternoon. Possibly teppanyaki or pizza for dinner.
Thursday: my graduation. German for dinner (No Washing Up!! Yays!!)
Friday: possibly Little Snail for lunch, Cat you wanna come??
Saturday: auntie leaves

Latest news:
- Dental appointment, checked out my fully crowned wisdom tooth. Dentist suggested it'd be best to remove it but it's not urgent. So I can make an appointment for whenever and get it removed. :D

Need Valium, of I have 6mg at home... best to get a therapeutic level... also not good to self medicate psychopharmacology.