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Cupcakes vs patty cakes. They’ll always be “patty cakes” in my mind or perhaps “fairy cakes” like they were when I was a little kid. However the term “cupcakes” seems to have invaded from the bad old US of A, just as “cookies” has almost replaced “biscuits” in good old Oz.
In our household we’ve always made muffins- by our definition these have been un-iced small cakes made in multiples of 6 or 12, depending on the compartments in the tray. Here's a tasty banana choc-chip muffin from the last batch I made- it's actually a giant one that had to go in a souffle ramekin!
Muffins (as opposed to patty cakes), also seem to have something included in the mix besides the usual flour, eggs and sugar- fruit, herbs, leaves, frozen stuff, flowers, seeds etc. I’ve made muffins with some lavender in them, pumpkin seeds (plus a bit of pumpkin pulp and raisins), various combos of nuts and fruit (like apple and walnuts; macadamia and pineapple); savoury ones with bacon and garden herbs, frozen raspberries, blueberries or blackberries; fresh raspberries, stewed dried apricots; I’ve put chunks of fresh coconut in them or lots of desiccated coconut; almonds and chunks of marzipan. Why would I want to hold back from eating any of these by waiting to put icing on top? They don’t need it.
OK- so I’m going to make little patty cakes/cupcakes just for a giggle. Should I make a madeira cake mix (the usual basis for muffins as its quite robust), or should they be based on sponge? I think sponge ones might get too tough as the outsides are big compared to the insides… So maybe I’ll stick with the madeira cake/butter cake style. Then I have to decide on a flavour- plain vanilla (yummy) or an “artifical” flavour from some of those essences in the pantry- we have lemon, coconut, aniseed, almond, raspberry as well as fake vanilla. If its plain vanilla, I usually have some vanilla pods stored under the caster sugar in its 2-litre container- legacy of several trips to Tahiti where we bought great wodges of them at a vanilla orchid farm or roadside stalls. I also try to buy the lovely Bourbon Vanilla Essence (either from Madagascar or Jamaica, I think) although that’s a bit bl**dy expensive these days, so I settle for the Queens Real Vanilla Essence. Do people make their cupcakes with self-raising flour or plain? I'm a fan of plain myself, with some bicarb and plain yoghurt to get the rise. I always forget with muffins that have wet ingredients in them (like frozen raspberries etc) that you need more solidity in the mix, plus more rising power! at least cupcakes shouldn't give this problem.
Now I'm madly searching for different recipes to see if I can inspire myself to make something yummy! Perhaps someone might like to pass their most successful recipe on to me? All offers gratefully received!
Hmm: http://chockylit.blogspot.com/2005/12/br
_______________________
For the T-shirt types, I even discovered a cupcake one. A certain blogger/Plurker who knows who they are (well, I hope she does), may appreciate this link! T-shirt at: www.mrcloud.com
I'll keep adding to this, but I needed to get something up here to motivate myself! Duuuhhhhhhhh!!- Location:This suburb has location, location, location!
- Mood:
embarrassed - Music:Some crap ad
There's this assignment I'm writing as well- I've got the outline, written about a third and am ploughing through more reading so I can formulate the rest of it. I'm writing about the ethics of prescribing certain medications without doing tests which would tell a doctor whether the patient was likely to benefit from the drug at all. There's a whole lot of stuff about the cost of the drugs, the cost and availability of the tests and the problems when something is prescribed to someone who won't benefit or might be harmed- even die!
Ah- the other blog is about the current "cupcake" epidemic! I'm all for "patty cakes" and "fairy cakes" but this Yank talk of "cupcakes" takes it a bit too far for me. However, media perusal tells me I'm fighting a losing linguistic battle- current mass usage will win, I lose.
There is a red kitty shouting at the door because she has eaten dinner in two seconds flat and wants to chase moths. No go, bubba!
Thommo has "Totally Addicted to Bass" playing on YouTube while he gets us cups of tea and "Criminals In Tents" is on OurTube. In fact it's a tad over stimulating around here.
Oh yes- I'm simultaneously uploading a few nonsense photos onto Flickr. I took them last night in the dark after we came out of Wah Hing restaurant in Gouger St where we had the best Chinese feed you could hope for. Nom noms- shallot pancakes!
OK, back to the assignment.
- Location:Yep I haz location
- Mood:
busy - Music:Totally addicted to bass
Yesterday we went to a barbecue with our mates from various internet social sites- Plurk, Facebook and blogging. It should have been really fun for me- but I couldn't get involved in the jollity. I tried, but didn't feel anything. Today I'm as meh as I've ever been- would rather just curl up in bed for about 2 weeks with a good pile of books. Instead I have an intensive uni course to go to 8 hours.day for a whole week! My brain could engage with it OK, I'm sure, but I have no enthusiasm for engaging in discussions with the other students. I'll go along and do my stuff, but I'm not relishing it.
This afternoon Thommo took us both to a wine tasting put on by a colleague of his from work- they had bought about five tonnes of sauvignon blanc grapes from the Adelaide Hills, had a winemaker in the Clare/Barossa make it for them, and bottled it under their own label "Bullock Track". It was a fine little white wine- fresh, grassy, nice acidity, a little pale- but it's a 2008, so it's excused! I wouldn't mind drinking it with summer lunches and dinners- very pleasant!
However, I had no inclination to be sociable with the other people there- I just wanted to taste the wine and go home.
Several people at the barbecue yesterday spoke of reading various things to help them overcome feelings of hopelessness and depression, rather than taking their tablets or doing talking therapy. This is just NOT for me- I cannot read any of this "spiritual" and pop psychology stuff about souls and other selves and "becoming" without thinking of all the basic psychology I know; and of my basic beliefs. To me there are people, their minds, the world and time. That's it- no souls, spirits, lives before or after death, no mysterious powers, mystical whosy whatsits or whatever. I need to go my way and they can go their's. I wish my way was quicker- but there doesn't seem to be a magic solution.
- Location:In front of Dr Who
- Mood:
blah - Music:Who theme
Now 4 days later I feel more calm- I was never anxious about anything- just pushing myself hard to appear normal-ish. I had the BP checked and sure enough, it was down masses already- from 173/103 to 117/73 and my pulse down from 88bpm to 54! He sure had figured what my problem was! I've also given up coffee, alcohol and added salt temporarily and started some mild exercise. I hope I can keep it up and eventually halve the medication! Wish me luck!
I got more motivated about life yesterday- scanned all my reading for next week, threw out old magazines and paperwork, rearranged some craft materials and organised clothes and crafty stuff into storage. Today I wasn't so useful, but managed to meet a friend for a cuppa and have a 1.5 hour photo walk around my neighbourhood.
I've been Plurking a bit as usual- great way to be sociable in your own home without the mess! Had a chat with Maljam about our mutual difficulties with life- depression surely sucks in middle aged work-hungry, educated adults! If only all my life motivation would come back. Almost my only joy comes from photographing stuff and patting my cats. Company is good, but I'm not lonely- just needing others to stop me brooding or lying around like a slug.
Stuff like housework is just soul-destroying and mere physical exertion to make myself tired is a ridiculous ask.
I'll just keep plodding on the new pills and see how everything pans out.
- Location:Usual- South Australia- halfway to the bleedin Pole.
- Mood:
drained - Music:Thommo on YouTube
I've been inspired again by Shai Coggins' Blog [http://shaicoggins.com/] to blog today. She has the theme "Flowers" for her blog and I realised that flowers REALLY DO play a large part in my life, especially with Spring starting. I took the photo on the left last night after I'd come home from having a coffee with a Flickr friend [princessbren2006]. In the backyard, the last rays of the sun were disappearing behind sunset clouds while the last tree-dahlia flowers were hanging down from their 4 metre tower! The colours of sky, clouds and flowers all melted into each other and looked quite romantic.
I tried to organise a visit to the Botanical Gardens today for a walk, but after I'd completed a list of chores around town, I found I had lost my motivation, even though my friend Sal had offered to accompany me. It just felt too late at 3.30 to drive back into town and see the gardens during sunshine before the shadows crawled across and made me sad again. Perhaps I can try to go around lunchtime tomorrow IF the sun stays with us.
My mood has been fairly meh this week since Monday afternoon, although I had been quite energised over the previous 3 or 4 days. I had done cleaning up both inside and outside the house, weeded paving and parts of the back garden, plus planted a new magnolia tree plus several punnets of seedlings. That effort must have depleted my inspiration neurotransmitters so I'm forced to lie low while my brain manufactures more. Now- what ful can I use to fire those danged brain cells? Coffee is the complete anathema for me- tea works better or tonic water- but how many litres must I drink before it takes effect?
- Location:Back room
- Mood:
disappointed - Music:Whizzing washing machine
I want to have a look at what's happening with that Gustav tropical storm off Cuba
http://hurricanegustavo.ning.com/
- I tracked Katrina on all the various reporting services a few years ago and watched the webcams on the beaches as it came in- terrible. Now I must check the wave heights on the ocean buoy monitors and see what's going on- it's interesting to see the information the "experts" are using to advise the citizens in the storm's path and see what their opinions and advice are regarding evacuations etc. Morbid old me? Anyway, I just saw on Plurk (thx @stevebob) that a lot of people from Louisiana with medical conditions (plus their pets) have been taken to Dallas-Fort Worth already so they are safe meantime. They are even putting identity chips on the animals as they arrive so there won't be the same problems as after Katrina (unmentionable).I'm also intrigued by the amazing money being made in Western Australia from the mines at the moment- and of course the jobs people can get. A fellow Plurker (female) is driving one of the big frontend loaders down a mine right at the blasting face. She has 2 weeks on and one off I think. She is supporting herself as an artist by doing this. I was seriously thinking about learning how to drive one of the monster trucks up at Roxby Downs Mine and having a commute every few weeks back and forth. Then I could have a decent income to do MY art (glass work).
Another aspect of the worldwide mining scene is the mystery of tantalum and its extraction. Australia is actually the world's biggest producer of tantalum concentrates. I thought some African country was- but no, they just have huge "goldrush" type phenomena where the poor people tear off to the jungle and try to mine tantalum from all sorts of dangerous spots, then either die in the attempt or sell it at unfair prices to unscrupulous middle-persons on the international market. There is terrible erosion of the landscape and of people's health in several African countries because of this. You can have a look on Google Earth. I'll stick links in later. www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/19/8
In Australia 92% of tantalum production comes from the Sons of Gwalia group in Western Australia. They are massively well remunerated for this stuff and I'm always hearing their name (which seems quite a nutty moniker!) on the news and Stock Exchange reports. This tantalum stuff was unknown (well, to me and nearly 100% of the rest of the universe) until recently- but is actually the guts of mobile phones. Therefore all those phone-chip making companies need to buy it- so they need to charge a lot for their components; then the assembly companies need to pay for the chips, pay their workers and also make a monster profit in Asia, so we pay through the nose for the phones. However, we don't pay up front- otherwise hardly anybody could aford an iPhone- we pay through the mobile carriers who subsidise the phones to get our custom. The world is so bl**dy complex!
And just to make you feel better- some guys are making artistic statements about ti too! www.worldchanging.com/archives/008422.ht
Oh- and by the way- while I was looking up my leads on tantalum I discovered that Nick Farr-Jones (the famous Sydney lawyer, Rugby player and Order of Australia Award recipient) is a director of this company:
Central Rand Gold which is the holding company for a group of companies engaged in gold mining and exploration, plus tantalum and rare metals. It's incorporated in Guernsey of course so F**K knows what they're really worth...
So he is one rich cookie, with South African connections right up to his eyeballs. And sooo... with continued browsing I discovered that this Central Rand Gold also has an interest in this new batch of mining licenses that are drilling beneath the city of Johannisberg to extract the rest of the quartz pebble gold (plus any tantalum and uranium they come across) left behind by previous inefficient mining. They expect 120 million ounces of gold over the next 50 years. There is a small exclusion zone right under the centre of the Jo'berg CBD, but all areas under the suburbs and villages is fair game. It fairly freaks me out! Where's my share of all this, eh?!
- Location:Small house in suburbia
- Mood:
determined - Music:black T-shirts in dryer
I'm pleased with myself being able to do a bit more today- more gardening, some major housework. I cleared most of the remaining weeds from the paving and garden, planted lilac lobelias along the edge, then two huge pots of petunias and primulas. The tiny petunia seedlings can take over after the advanced primulas finish, without a gap (hopefully, fingers crossed). I carefully watered them in with Seasol and put snail baits around. Rain is forecast, so everything should work out well.I attacked our front room- which had become an absolute tip over the last six months. We had kept a small patch near the from door relatively clean but the rest was totally messy, hairy and dusty! I moved heaps of stuff, threw out, packed away, stacked etc. Then I vacuumed first with the smooth cleaner, and again using the big noisy turbo head on the Dyson! I sprayed orange goo on the sticky floorboards where something unmentionable must have been trodden inside and mopped furiously until it cleared! Then I attacked further rugs in the hall, plus all the fluff out of the bathroom; I sprayed anti housedust mite spray over everything and felt very pleased with myself! I guess other people do this stuff every week, but for me it was a momentous occasion and I'm blogging it to reinforce myself!
As soon as I finished, a friend's husband arrived to collect her photo from our exhibition. It was a really interesting pic which she took from a moving car and caught a bird in flight quite serendipitously! (That's it at the top, she is Off Beat Mum on Flickr)
As I handed over the pic, I noticed the stormy sky outside, so I grabbed the camera and took pix of that as well!
Then I rushed out the back to rescue any gardening gear in case it got rained on tonight, shortly after which Spotrick arrived home- and here we all are.
- Location:In current timestream
- Mood:
chipper - Music:Burm purring
I've decided to dispose of most of my potted roses as they look awful most of the year and stop us from having anything else, given the limited courtyard space. There are so many beautiful roses I have photographed in the neighbourhood, I think I can live without most of my own now. I'm going to put yellow petunias and lilac lobelias in pots, with a row of lilac lobelias all around the edge of the courtyard. Currently our giant tree dahlias are finishing their huge sprays of mauve-pink daisy flowers so I can chop them right back for summer. The climbing roses in the corner need tidying, then we will have cream and yellow flowers against the pale ochre garden walls during the hot weather. We only have a row of tall pencil cypresses, 2 giant yucca elephantipes and a maple tree in the back courtyard, so there is scope for adding seasonal colour. My tulip and daffodil pots are just coming into spring flowers, with the white double tulips being first. I'm looking forward to the other bulbs coming out over the next 2 weeks when the courtyard is all neat and clean looking. I can put in a few pix from last year just for a taste of what is to come.
- Location:Southern hemisphere
- Mood: hopeful
- Music:aircon whistling
I have a few ideas for blog posts but can't rustle up the energy to do it properly.
Shai Coggins got me started on a childhood objects train of thought, but its stuck in a siding somewhere waiting for the milk canisters to be loaded. My old walkie-talkie doll is in the linen cupboard waiting to have her photo taken and then be transported to the doll hospital for new appendages and hair!
I wanted to blog about the troubles in Western China- the poor old Uygurs who have the golden mosques, the huge Muslim schools while the kids live in poverty, beg for food and are barely clothed and seldom washed. The detention of people who use contraception or won't use it; marriages on paper only etc
Then the bloody Russian Baltic types started scrapping again- totally over the top- no regard for the ordinary citizen trying to have a life. Does Russia want the industrial output of little places like Georgia and Indyushetia to prop itself up or what? Is there a tribal component like Serbia? Is it religious- like so many other damned places who have religions- a waste of headspace [religion] in my book. Is it just testosterone? Likely.
I still haven't got my head around Nigeria and its failed health system vs the immense wealth and terrible fighting in its oil regions...
And what about the various permutations of the Congo? Those dumb scammers are still sending out the occasional email about being the poor widow of him and him. They have actually had some decent health programs through there and all..
I'm impressed with the input of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in African countries. So it promotes Microsoft as the system of choice...we can always tell them about Linux once they get used to using stuff properly.
What about the photo trips I've taken recently? I could talk about all sorts of interesting things and scenes- what about that freezing cold little teen surfer the other day when it was barely 10deg in the sun?
Then there's still feeling bleh and unmotivated about life in general- should shut up about that methinks.
And what about all the great knitting ideas I have come across and sketched out? And of course my glass- I was going to compile a photo-essay on how I make it- all the procedures and machinery in the stages of a dish!
The doing is going to keep me going forever- let alone writing any of this down! Phew!
- Location:Under blanki with cat on feet
- Mood:
contemplative - Music:Olympic hockey shouting
I’ve been trying to integrate this new information I read about some research on depression. They found that people who are depressed make different brain responses to good news and positive events than ordinary people. The depressed people seem to have a smaller response to nice things and they don’t store the good feeling chemicals or traces for long. Ordinary people are able to get a lot of mileage out of positive events and so keep themselves in a good mood longer. It’s difficult to know, as a friend pointed out to me, whether the depression has produced the poor response to positivity or whether the response is learned after long periods of depression. I have found most of my life that I don’t get “kick” out of positive things for very long though. I’ve always wanted “more” of nice things, rather than being able to savour them and wait longer. I find it difficult to delay rewards, and also get over them quickly.
On the other hand I have always felt quite negatively about any aspects of myself that other people praised or encouraged- I had fixed opinions about my worth- i.e. not much worth at all from an early age. Did I never learn how to appreciate myself, or did I have a natural self-appreciation knocked out of me by parent and experiences?
I know my parents believed in not praising me or rewarding me because they thought I would get a “big head” or would become a “tall poppy”. Of course this was never explained to me till I was an adult. However, I did notice that when I did something good when I was a kid, eg. Come first in the class or dux of the school that I would not get the sort of reward that others did. There was a general push in the community to subdue bright children- was sort of “un-Australian”- not being part of the ordinary crowd- being different or outstanding was not good. This was quite disconcerting for me as a kid as I saw others rewarded when their accomplishments were rarer or spaced apart, whereas my constant achievement was often disparaged. I felt that what I did well I was just “doing”. I never tried to compete or “beat” someone at school or whatever; I just did what I did. Probably after a while, I got no more jollies from myself as I hadn’t received many from the world, so I started to not bother achieving my best- just bumbled along so I wouldn’t be noticed- perhaps thinking people would be nicer to me for being ordinary.
So I think the “brain not storing rewards” might be a learnt thing for me and be very hard to unlearn.
The study I read about looked at the action of modern antidepressants in the scenario of storing reward traces in the brain. They pointed out that the modern SSRI drugs do not help the laying down of rewards, just stop the depression from getting too low. Hence many people experience the “anhedonia” that I have- being unable to get pleasure out of anything much and for very brief periods if at all. They suggest different sorts of drugs need to be invented to help the pleasure pathway to work better. I think maybe the transcranial magnetic stimulation they are trialling now might be a partial answer, I would certainly give it a go as I have seen the benefits of electroshock in severe psychotic depressions and catatonia. I would have no fear that it would damage my brain. So perhaps I should ask for it!
- Location:Adelaide with lilac Burmese
- Mood: blah
- Music:air con
- Location:Under striped blankie in Australia
- Mood: amused
- Music:City Homicide sobbing simulation
Talk about watering the desert! My first sight of Dubai was flying in low before landing at the airport. I had expected the vast desert and glaring sand, but the sprinklers spewing huge jets of water gaily into the air was just mind boggling! I couldn't fathom where they got the water from and how they could find it in their hearts to then "waste" it by watering ground in full sunlight, with no people on it and no organic matter spread about. I was open mouthed my whole time there [creating more evaporation, on reflection...]. Of course over the years I realised that Dubai could do what it bloody liked because it was rich- and it's still doing the same crazy exploitation of the earth's resources with building "islands" full of luxury apartments endorsed by such upstanding members of the world community as David Beckham. With the ocean there full of water, Dubai continues to prosper and exploit and nobody can stop them.
Australia is by comparison, pretty careful, compared with the scale of wastage in Dubai, but naturally, over the years Australia has done a lot of unwise things with water. We probably should not have diverted the Snowy- but its a bit late to remedy that now, with millions of extra population depending on the water running the wrong way! The Murray seems to be having a natural revenge by drying up anyway. South Australia dammed up the lower Murray and Lake Alexandrina with the barrages, salting up the Murray Mouth. They stuck zillions of marginal farms and vineyards on the salty land an waited for it to calm down- now they forget what times were like before and resist removing the barrages for the good of the river. Oh dear they say- the land will get all salty and our farms will be ruined... it's sad, but in IMHO they shouldn't have put farms there in the first place.
On the other hand, a lot of Adelaide suburbs are built below the 50-year flood line. Most people never look at the old flood maps before purchasing a house and when stormwater overflows during storms they scream at councils and government about it. They also complain that they can't get any claims accepted on their insurance for water that flows across the ground. Insurance companies aren't silly- they know the flood lines and exclude flooding in the policies- but no one reads them!!
We're such a bunch of messers, really. And don';t get me started on modern "fashionable" houses in the suburbs that don't have any eaves! At one stage you weren't allowed to build without a certain overhang for sun exclusion- then suddenly all that went out the window and the sun came back in! What an idiot bunch of humans- why can't I be a cat??
- Location:Staring at sunshine outside
- Mood:
bitchy - Music:Madonna- not my choice
Might not even go to the opening myself at this rate. I've got my glass show opening to go to anyway- they haven't required me to do anything except send in my glass!My 2-day/week clerical job at the uni comes to an end this Friday, so no more income [again]. I still have quite a few $Ks in debt, so I'll have to find something quick smart! The editing work has dried up temporarily- I suppose the people who gave me the initial stuff are delivering their papers at conferences right now during the semester break. Hopefully they will do more writing during Semester 2 and I can edit that!
Yesterday we went for a drive to the end of the Murray River where it enters Lake Alexandrina before the sea. The ferry at Wellington was still sailing gaily back and forth in plenty of swiftly flowing water, although the depth posts said the river was 1 metre below normal. As we drove alongside the river where we could, there was certainly a lot of reed growth where there used to be water flowing, but the lakes are by far the biggest blot on the landscape now- so dry and mostly empty, even of decent enough depth for seabirds and waders. Personally, I think they should let the sea back in and only have barrages further up the river. The lakes used to be tidal and flushed by the sea, although there was a lot less arable land because of salt seepage under the earth. However, that's what the landscape was like for the original inhabitants, who used to have a largely seafood diet. Grazing cattle on the salty flats is not the natural way to go, and growing crops is marginal in most of the area, except for hardy grapes and lucerne. I think we have to allow nature to get on with things- we are mere interfering little ants in things like the estuarine landscape. We should adapt ourselves- we have intelligence, the river and weather do not!
- Location:South Australia
- Mood: crushed
- Music:City Homicide theme
Got driven to work today- couldn't get into my [temporary] office- went to Security- they ignored me. Came home. Only have 2 days next week left, so not really significant. Got my Tax statement for the year- even more depressing than I cared to imagine- I earned $4k in a year- my lowest income since I was a child. Poop.
I need some more editing work- people don't want it at the moment. The uni keeps employing my classmates in public health but not me, who has far more experience... it sucks.
I'll go and Plurk now.
- Location:under a blanket
- Mood: melancholy
- Music:Under the Hammer theme tune
I have surprisingly bounced back quite quickly from Black Dog Country, although I wouldn't say I feel wonderful. I sneakily manipulated some of my prescribed chemicals as it takes too long to get an OK from the doc- by then I'd be curled in a ball unable to get there on my own- Catch 22. At the weekend we were a bit slow to get started (and we haven't finished...) but we DID go on a nice little trip to the Murraylands on Sunday.
I was keen to get some pix of the lovely "layers" the reeds and paddocks make under the rainy sky. There were beaut stands of reeds with plumy heads, dramatic clouds and rows of picturesque bare grape vines. I think these look like big furry caterpillars! 
We went on a walk for a few kms through the bush, reeds and protea plantations. There was a bit of drizzle now and then, but nothing to panic about. Naturally Spotrick and I lagged behind taking pix, while everyone else walked ahead. We had to keep jogging to catch up, which was good for us, definitely.
Scattered on the path occasionally were pink gum blossoms, to accompany the pink proteas that were bracting away in long rows. 
- Location:At the keyboard
- Mood: calm
- Music:City Homicide theme
"my wife Genie had a typical kind of NY accident
the night before last, which often proves fatal. She rides
in the back of the subway train, as our stop's steps are
there, so the conductor in the middle would not be able to
see her... at 1:30 AM, she was coming home from work, as
she usually does - the life of a new york lawyer, and she
missed her footing and fell between the train and the
platform, getting wedged at her upper thigh. Quick thinking
passengers pulled the emergency cord, and two, worked her
out of the gap. I got one of those terrible calls from the
police, and beat them all to the hospital. Her leg is a bit
chewed up, but no broken bones. After being up all night in
the hospital, she refused to take a day off... went home,
changed Mum's bandages from her recent biopsy, and then
went to work, where she is sueing the City ( I expect she
might be again soon, for herself as the gap was too
wide...) But, what can you say, luck and pluck, eh? She was
so in shock at the scene, her blood pressure dropped so much
the EMT was nearly in shock... I'm still in shock.
All the best"
I think the family needs a good holiday in Tahiti!
- Location:Me couch; them New York
- Mood: sympathetic
- Music:next door's air compressor
I am quite non-robotic this morning, and feel I've done my best to get through a demanding week. This week I'll be able to connect with all my new LJ friends in the Fifty something group, catch up with Flickr and do some work on our photo exhibition which has been left in the offing for too long. I also have to make some arrangements for my glass works to be ready and delivered to their venue for the SALA Festival exhibition in early August. I must do a few new works also- haven't been able to for ages because of a shoulder injury and lack of time. Here's a sample of what I do
Not many people seem to understand fused and slumped glass working- I must make a little explanatory brochure to distribute on the Net and in real life. *Errp! Another task for the list*.Since seeing Flamehair at work on her knitting during the Meetup last night, I've decided that, perhaps, I should be a bit less shy about putting my stuff "out there" for people to see. Life is short, and stashes are huge!
i must insert this link to some street art sculpture which Marcia mentioned at the dinner- it's so creative with limited materials and very effective mounted over subway vents in NY:
http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/03/s
Someone in the Fifty Something Group was worried about malicious people looking at their blog and making life difficult for her. I'm pretty sure no one is interested enough to bother unless I get a job with the United Nations! Even then, who looks at Emmy Kwa's comments to me on Facebook Chat where he threatens to kill me because I am a white non-Muslim dwelling in a Christian country and I believe that grave injustices have been done to human beings in the Southern Sudan (he works for the UN in Sudan...)?? There are some mad people in the world and I can't do much to stop them. There are far nicer people who just like to live and blog. SO I'm not afraid to reveal a bit of myself on here- people who don't like it can stay away- simple!! :-) If people think I'm also "mad" because I suffer from depression, then, good riddance to them too- I don't need them and they OBVIOUSLY don't need me!
I'm finding blogging quite therapeutic- more so in LJ than in DepressionNet, where most of the other bloggers are also sufferers- it can get pretty black with some borderline types trying to outdo each other with gruesome accounts of their day.
Spotrick is here on the couch next to me drinking coffee- we "should" be out there doing the Saturday shopping, but a break from routine is as good as a holiday! LOL! We are enjoying our 70% dark choccy and listening to the Stranglers. Can't embed- you'll have to go there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42AoR2HBr
There are 2 mogs on the couch, 1 in the dirty washing another in the yucca.
- Location:Between couch and washing machine
- Mood: chipper
- Music:Stranglers
