Our new table has expanded our world! We eat at it everyday. I fill it up with my unfinished projects. I polish it with an aquamarine colored ‘flannel’. It hosts games of Munchkin and glasses of wine. This weekend we picked out and purchased four lovely rubbery raw edged coasters and yesterday I started making a runner/cloth for it out of beautiful grey cotton voile and satin ribbon. I’m not sure what color the ribbon is. My skills in this area are, well, I have no skills in this area. I also have no sewing machine and that complicates the matter. I’m going easy on myself and aiming for a finished product that simply does not look hideous. Thus we springboard into our ‘color’ theme of MONOCHROME GOODNESS ™. I can’t work on it for very long without getting bored so I took on a few other tasks today.

One of which was Do The Laundry.

The other was much more thrilling: homemade seitan (click here to see some oh-so-appetising photos). Mine came out way too salty, but I was experimenting and only made half a batch. It’s definitely eatable and tasty, just next time I will use less soy sauce in the simmering water. It’s going in stir-fry tonight if I can be bothered to make dinner :)

Oh yeaaahhhh…it’s July…next month I get married. Suck it!

PS I love popcorn with nyf

Such a busy weekend that I must document for the archives.

Friday. Tom surprised me with dinner at the little Italian restaurant down the street. It is a nice little place with reallllly good pizza (the best I’ve had down here so far) and also the best tiramisu that I’ve ever had. Period. Came home stuffed and tired.

Saturday. Happy solstice! Tom and I had a quiet morning at home; played Wonderland and Sacred (and died a lot). Then headed down to Queen Street to do some shopping. We ended up with a new card game, Munchkin. I also wanted post-it notes. Purple ones. I really, really, really wanted them and we looked so many different places, but there were none to be found and I had a tantrum, but then Tom found me some in the most unlikely of places. They were so expensive and I felt guilty about having a fit, but I got them in the end. We had plans to go to Northey Street and partake in the winter solstice festival, but by the time we got back to Clayfield neither of us wanted to go out. We stopped by the IGA and the bakery before we walked home and bought some ginger beer, a mini blueberry pie, and some birthday candles. We stuck them in the pie and I sang “Here Comes The Sun.” I folded origami flowers with my new post-its and we played Munchkin.

Sunday. We did not know what Sunday had in store for us! It was full of new and interesting things. It started and ended with a game of Munchkin. I went formal dress shopping with Mica (didn’t find one, but she did get a dress to wear to my wedding!). She’s a riot to shop with because she makes fun of all the clothes, like I do. Tom’s parents brought us up a table from Ikea! WOO. We have a table to play Munchkin on now. We also had pancakes at the pancake house.

In conclusion, we ate crap and played games. Here. Have a photo.

I’m pretty much enamored with Tumbleweed Houses.

Moving overseas meant I had to find new homes for probably 80% of my stuff (and all of my books–thanks mama!). Starting over in a completely new place with NOTHING, save your clothes, is frustrating at the same time as it’s rejuvenating. Because of this, and also being fairly (electively) tight on the budget right now, has awakened this wonderful creature inside of me and its name is MakeDo.

Thomas probably wont agree, as I’m always saying that I want things. “I want a new bed.” “I want a saucepan.” “I want a minotaur.” But, considering all of the stuff I used to have, compared to the resources at my disposal in my current home, I have to say that MakeDo is alive and well. And the nice thing about MakeDo is that it makes me feel more accomplished and more streamlined and more efficient. Yes there are things that I really want like a table with some chairs! And MakeDo has been doing alright without them. But living with MakeDo also causes you to know when you really do need something versus just really wanting something. For instance, we really NEEDED a vacuum cleaner so we bought one. We however, don’t NEED anymore bath towels. We have exactly as many as we need.

This brings me back to Tumbleweed Houses and my current infatuation with small spaces. A space pretty much defines the way that you live (or work, or play). A small home forces you to live more simply. It asks you to please think carefully about your purchases. A small home requires you to make some adjustments. It gives a lot back too. It gives you a lower cost of living, less area to clean, a smaller environmental footprint.

I’m not saying I want to go SO small, I’m sure I have my limits. It’s the philosophy behind it all. The neatness, the calmness, the harmony.

Parma Violets.  Tea Bar.

Some one please tell me why I’ve lost the ability to write in complete sentences.  Wait.  Don’t.

I returned The Adventure of English to the library today.  I couldn’t Deal with it anymore.  It was being an obstinate brat and even after numerous beatings wouldn’t stay in line, so I book dropped it.  I checked out something a little less pretenious and probably more factual than the former, even though I found it in the Children’s Fiction section.  We’ll see how it goes.

Friday at Sling.  Drinking off-menu mystery cocktails (quite a feat considering the size of the menu) with flowers in them.   Nachos and bowls of coffee:

Sarah: Hi could we get two bowls of coffee and an order of nachos.

Man: What?  What coffee?  What kind of coffee?

Sarah: Two bowls of it.

Man: *really confused*

Sarah: *requests a translator*

Translator/Chris: Two bowls of coffee.

Man: OHHHH you mean this MYSTERY ACRONYM THAT MEANS BIG BOWLS OF COFFEE.

Cheap whiskey, free lip gloss, 1 am playground, 4 am bastard rummy.

Other highlights: free Nerds out of the vending machine this morning, new GHD flat iron, the start of strawberry season

and making new friends.

Now that I’ve been down here awhile I’ve started to adjust to a lot of things…the slowness, the absence of iced  tea, the readily available large amounts of yummy chips and candy, public transportation.  There is one thing I still have no confidence in: crossing the street.  My head is slowly coming around to remembering to “move to the left” instead of “move to the right,” but I haven’t figured out the right way to look before I cross the street.

Sarah Crossing the Street:

*looks right* *looks left* *looks right* *starts to take a step and then is overcome with FEAR* *years of ingrained looking left takes over* *looks left* *thinks: ass I have to look right again* *looks right*  *thinks: okay go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* *puts it all on the line and runs for her life*

Thank goodness for lighted intersections or I’d never get anywhere.

Today I managed to make it to the city all by myself without incident, though I did have some trouble finding Tom’s work.  There are never any street signs anywhere!  We made the bus to take us to Super Trendy Town where the property management place is.  After Tom gave them the contents of his bank account they gave us four very silly looking keys and we were on our way.  Moving in this weekend, though because there is some kind of holiday thing going on I’m not sure when we’re going to have all of our utilities set up.  I’ve been wearing the same shirt for a few days now.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll change it to celebrate the holiday.

Fresh season, fresh locale, fresh blogorific written with the masses in mind.  I’ve made it alive to Australia.  The earth seems to have reamined intact, the poles have not shifted and much of everything continues on the same path.  I don’t find this disappointing.  I find it comforting how many things are the same despite a great change in me.

This weekend we should be moving into our new tiny mctinerson apartment.  I’m SO excited to put my clothes into a closet.