Things I did today:

Correctly answered the Who Am I question in today's Trivia Quiz at work (Pete Sampras)

Spent a lot of time browsing news sites on the web

Agreed to go to a boxercise class with my housemate later on

Left work early, having bugger all to do

Got some more ground coffee (100% Arabica of course) from the Oxfam shop

Stuffed a capsicum with breadcrumbs, roast chicken, onion, pumpkin, carrot, spinach and feta

Forgot to season the stuffing!

Things I will soon find out:

Whether my stuffed capsicum tastes any good

How difficult this class is going to be

Things I will do tomorrow:

Try not to sleep in

Probably browse the net some more

Attend the first meeting of a movie club my friend M started - the film is the Australian new release Unfinished Sky

Eat the rest of the chocolate I bought from my niece last week

Better check my capsicum!

Got his through Marc is Roy's latest entry. I didn't expect quite so many Turkish words....

How lovely it is to be posting from a warm cafe on a chilly Saturday afternoon rather than my chilly room in my big chilly house. I saw the sign advertising free wireless this morning on my way to SAIL and decided this would be my plan for this afternoon.

The name Nova seems to haunt me. I am a VIP member at Cinema Nova in Melbourne, started listening to the new Nova FM radio station just before I headed over to Tokyo to work at the now-defunct Nova English school, and the first cafe a friend took me to for a catch up when I came back to Melbourne? Yup.

 Last Monday's spa day was lovely. A "sensory experience" choosing our salts and muds before donning the disposable undies (after a couple of goes at getting them the right way around), getting under the towel and surrendering myself to the manly hands of Laura my masseuse. A couple of blissful hours later and we were in the natural springs, keeping our bodies immersed up to the neck to avoid the chill winds from both sides of the peninsula. A light lunch later and we were off back home.

It made the rest of the week go by a little faster!

Oh damn - battery low. The downside of laptop postings I guess....

Pleasing things:

Getting slowly to a point where I can sing along to Deli more fluently

Finding another website with Mor Ve Otesi lyrics in Turkish and English and discovering not all of them are lame

Pleasing and Luscious things:

Never before had I thought eyebrows could be sexy(Jack Nicholson has always been too old to count)

Sad things:

The fact that a band has reverted me to a teenager, hunched before my computer all evening playing rock music and memorising all the lyrics.

Oops! I have misspelt their name at least twice in this blog so far.

The unlikelihood of Mor Ve Otesi touring Australia, despite our excellent bilateral relations with Turkey since the whole WWI business was forgiven and forgotten.(Oops, lest we forget.)

Hopeful things:

That when I finally get my ass over to Europe they will be touring and I will get to see them live and judge whether they are worthy of this teenage-like affection.

Scary things:

The fact that it is past my bedtime. Good night \(^o^)/ zzZ

Things achieved:

A ten-kilometre run Sunday before last, in the rain, that I actually physically ran at least 8 kilometres of.

A small suitcase full of clean, dry, folded clothes from the laundromat last Sunday.

A large batch of ginger & pumpkin soup cooked and stored in the fridge.

A large batch of tomato & mushroom pasta sauce cooked and stored in containers in the fridge and freezer.

A number of small tasks ticked off and outta the way at work.

Things appreciated:

My little heater. God, how I luvs it.

Having a steady income and a house and savings and family and good friends. Always good things to remember.

Things recently enjoyed:

A visit from my friend A for a couple of days - some proper catching up time, lunch on Lygon Street and dinner at Longrain, with the added bonus of a scammed lift in a BMW and the discovery of a hidden bar.

Things to do:

Put away the dry clean folded clothes in the small suitcase taking up about %15 of the floor space in my room.

Remember to take brewed coffee to work tomorrow rather than leave it on the dresser on my way out the door (#^o^)\

Things to look forward to:

Seeing Wicked on Sunday evening - at half price - yay!

Catching up with K when she comes down in a couple of weeks.

Deli

Aranıyor sahibi ruhumun
Tam yerine mi düştüm
Direniyor faili tutkunun
Kızmış ve küçülmüş

Aranıyor sahibi ruhumun
Tam yerine mi düştüm
Direniyor, direniyor, direniyor...

Beni büyütün
Ağlatmayın
Sevginiz nerde
Övündüğünüz
Beni büyütün
Ağlatmayın
Sahte düşlerle
Oyalamayın

Aranıyor sahibi ruhumun
Tam yerine mi düştüm
Direniyor faili tutkunun
Kızmış ve küçülmüş

Aranıyor sahibi ruhumun
Tam yerine mi düştüm
Direniyor, direniyor, direniyor...

Beni büyütün
Ağlatmayın
Sevginiz nerde
Övündüğünüz
Beni büyütün
Aldatmayın
Sahte düşlerle..

Bir yarım akıllı bir yarım deli
Dört yanım akıllı bir yanım deli
Herkes akıllı bir ben deli
Bir ben deli..

Beni büyütün
Ağlatmayın
Sevginiz nerde
Övündüğünüz
Beni büyütün
Ağlatmayın
Sahte düşlerle
Oyalamayın

At least repetitive lyrics in another language builds practice...

I first saw the lead singer's impeccably groomed eyebrows in the Eurovision semi-final and it was rock-star crush at first sight.

As all the lyrics are in Turkish, I can ignore the fact that they are repetitive and dull (even after allowing for poor translation) and sing along, hardening my r's most pleasingly and gazing into Harun Tekin's deep dark eyes beneath those brows....

Flickr mosaic

I caught this little bug from my good neighbours homebody and Tamzen - I'd like to see your version if you have an hour or so to spare....

Visit this site and compile photos found on Flickr by searching on the answers to the following questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Not like:

• Spending most of the early evening in a big empty house after work. It didn't feel creepy, nor is it unusual, but it just made me feel a little lonely tonight. We all seem to spend our mornings and evenings walking around out of sight of each other, or not here at all. It feels unnatural at times.
• The band across the lane. I certainly don't begrudge them their dedication to an interest, and they are always finished before 9-9.30, but I'm getting really tired of their sets.
• The fact that washing never f$&king dries outside in winter.
• Having run out of books to read :(

Like:

• My shiny new kettle and bright new quilt cover courtesy of the Myer department store's 30%-off sale on Sunday.
• My bones. I found, scrubbed clean and stored a Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat skull and an Eastern Grey Kangaroo lower jaw during one of my university field trips years ago, and had the sudden urge to take them out and sketch them. I used to find sketching bones incredibly calming in uni lab classes. This would probably be one of those Random Facts About Me facts right there. Whoa. Random.
• My heater!
• The Ukrainian and Greek entries in the Eurovision song contest. Both features gorgeous girls in amazing costumes with good, strong voices. And both were robbed by all the ex-Soviet states combining their bought votes to shove the bloody ordinary Russian entry into the top spot! Robbed! (Oops, did that just become a Not Like?) 
• The hope that Terry Wogan will quit his role as English commentator for the Eurovision final* and take his sad cynicism away with him.

That is all.

 * Completely Unofficial news link

I ran 5 kilometres around the city last night, and I'm not even that sore!

Not that it felt easy. I was actually okay until we stopped at a red light for nearly four minutes and then went off again. Then my brain got tired. I say that because for me running, or exercise in general, seems very much a case of mind over matter. I have quite low blood pressure, so when it gets up with exercise I hear a voice saying that it's too hard, I don't like being sweaty, I feel very tired and may faint or something if I don't stop. But another part of me suspects this is not true. I am not so delicate that I can't get a little sweat up. As it is, even when I really exert myself it only takes a couple of minutes for my heart rate to drop again. So it is a matter of telling myself off for laziness, not letting myself stop just because part of me doesn't feel like exercising ever and doesn't understand why it isn't getting its way this time. I am not generally a fan of self-motivational talk/power animals/grunt in the mirror-type psychobabble, but I am now applying a small piece of that wisdom to exercise. I know the facts. Our bodies are not accustomed to sitting in a chair all day. Sitting in a chair all day can make a body feel tired and crave fatty, sugary foods it does not need. No exercise + too much crap food = jeans feeling and looking uncomfortably tight. My body has finally realised it is not 20 anymore and has started acting more its age, ie. like more like every other woman around me who moans about weight gain and inches and soup diets, and finally I am starting to understand. If I want to keep my figure I have to do what most Western women do: cut down on the junk food and take up exercise. Simple.