What if I say I'm not like the others?

Interview today. Was happy with my confidence levels, there was much smiling and even some laughing, nice smiley handshakes. As for the actual questions - I was a bit iffy. To be fair, I couldn't have done ANY more preparation that would have done any good. If anything I'm just lacking experience. Hopefully, they'll be nice and give me a chance. One of those catch 22 things, need experience to get the job, but need the job to get experience.

See how it goes. As a famous certain someone says 'as long as you did your best then there's nothing more anyone can ask'.
You know, I'm not sure that applies to the work I do. I get the feeling they want more than 100%, which would irritate the man to no end because YOU CAN'T GIVE MORE THAN 100%! Hmmm.
- Jen

It's not paradise but I'm home again.

I have to start by saying thanks to the man because someone has to. He's worked day and night for the past few months sorting out the shambles that was our body corporate. When we moved in we were told we'd be paying between $1600 - $1800. This turned into about $2600 and our CHARMING body corporate couldn't tell us why. So we sacked them. Then we had so many problems getting another body corporate that in the last month or so I've been hinting maybe we should just sell and get out of this mess.

But the man has persevered and managed to organise a new body corporate and they've taken us on board. Big relief!! the man won't know what to do with himself after work from now on!

It's spring so its warming up and we haven't had the heater on all week. The curtains are open, letting light into the place and its beautiful in here now. It was so gloomy in winter! We're on the second level so with the glass windows and sliding doors I can look outside at the nice leafy peppercorn tree and the blue sky. Actually now its sunset and thats nice too. The man's cooking a roast for dinner. All is well in the world.

Now if only stampy and the herd of elephants upstairs would rack off it WOULD be paradise.

- Jen

It's easy when you don't try going on first impressions

I've been slightly nauseous and have had the runs for about six days now. Thats when I found out I have an interview for a job I really want. The only thing is, its..'only natural' to be nervous for an interview, but for this job - I have to exude confidence. So hopefully I'm getting all the nervousness out now. In my head I'm looking smart and brimming with 'youthful enthusiasm'...but I'm shaking slightly as I write that. The interview isn't until Wednesday but I'm pretty sure I've lost any weight I managed to put on in the past year.

It's either nervousness or food poisoning. The thing that is also bugging me is that I've done a lot of research..probably more than I need to and I still have two nights to prepare...so what to do? Blog, I'm friends'd out on facebook...we're out of tv shows and I already ate too much chocolate. Debating about trying to go for a run...its pretty nice outside. Might do that after I finish blogging.

It's just unfortunate that I KNOW I can do the job I'm just not that great at interviews. I'll probably be okay unless they throw some kind of 'scenario' style thing at me. Phew...big breaths.

But anyway...wish me luck.

- Jen

Yes it does

I wonder if a google search for Commissioner of Taxation will turn up jentopia.

Of course I had to google Commissioner of Taxation and jentopia. But y'know. Its there. What's the deal with google being so bang on the mark these days. It used to take ages for anything to update. This was instantaneous!

Now if you google '(my surname) for Commissioner of Taxation'... Very interesting.

- Jen

Funniest thing I saw on the train this week

A girl crying while reading a Danielle Steele book.

Come on. Harry Potter ok (Tony are you done with it yet or WHAT!) but Danielle Steele??

- Jen

Didn't have a camera by my side this time, hoping I would see the world through both my eyes

So now every man and his dog has gone overseas and I'm left updating my facebook on a saturday night. The updating of the facebook has resulted in great sadness. Because we haven't taken enough photos.

We kicked ourselves that we took our camera to our engagement party where it rested in my handbag. We swore when we left it in the car all day at the snow where it got lonely (and cold) in the glovebox. We lazily resisted actually taking a bloody photo of anyone at Ben and Rell's farewell and then, just to make matters worse decided to leave it behind on everyone's last night in Berrigan.

And now, now that everyone's gone and I'm left madly scavenging for photos off other people's blogs and flickrs I'm really sad I missed so many opportunities. I KNOW there are some great photos out there. But we could have got some beauties. The fireworks that went off-course in the school yard at Berrigan that made me go 'oh, so THAT'S how people lose eyes and fingers playing with fireworks'. The impromptu game of 'celebrity heads' using the back of coasters at the 'Feddie' in Berrigan. The man's classic one guess correct answer using the question "Am I'm gay". The 'celebrity' being Trent. Who isn't actually gay. The failed attempt at sleeping in the back of our car interrupted by a surprisingly persistent and determined Rell who literally dragged us back into their house, so we could sleep in their bed...not with them. The shots of Tequila with a mate of Rell's, the shots of kahula and vodka with Baz, and then with Cam. 'Hey! It tastes like coffee!'...with that sickening after-taste only a shot of vodka can deliver. Kicking the footy on the oval at Bridgett and George's engagement party.

The sad goodbye to Ben and Rell. The goodbye that almost wasn't sad until George started tearing up, which started me up, which started the man up, which got Bridgett going.

Of course now I can sit on facebook and watch them travel the world. I do this while the man is out trying to win tattslotto. Or seeing how much you can get a kilo for cats. We've got about 5 kilo of good quality cat if anyone's interested. Just email me.

We're a bit more determined to get over there now. The way our saving is going we should get over there next year sometime. Fingers crossed. I just need to be Commissioner of Taxation by then. Oodles of time.

I wonder if a google search for Commissioner of Taxation will turn up jentopia.

Someone recently pointed out to me what happens when you miss out the 's' in blogspot and try to go to jentopia. It's not pretty.

Anyway. Enough blathering and blithering. Bedtime.

- Jen

My google meme

From Zucchinis in Bikinis:

The idea is pretty self-explanatory

1. Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search:
a) Jen needs to have a session or two with a therapist
b) Jen needs a break
c) Jen needs to find a self righteous, conspicuous "I'm better than you" charitable
position so she can keep charming the sheep into thinking she matters

2. Type in "[your name] is" in the Google search:
a) Jen is famous
b) Jen is the new blog
c) Jen is a compassionate, loving, fun and caring person. She believes in hard work,
fate, karma and ultimately the kindness in human kind.

3. Type in "[your name] likes" in the Google search:
a) Jen likes to multi task during sex
b) Jen likes pictures
c) Jen likes to dance

4. Type in "[your name] wants" in the Google search:
a) Jen wants thanksgiving with friends
b) Jen wants to make friends with Brad
c) Jen wants an Alan Rickman blowup doll but is not a cannibal

5. Type in "[your name] gets" in the Google search:
a) Jen gets married
b) Jen gets creative with her outfit Big Brother 8 Pics
c) Jen gets glam for the fight

6. Type in "[your name] says" in the Google search:
a) Jen says she is going to vote to evict Dick.
b) Jen Says Ben Affleck Is a Teddy Bear
c) Jen says hi


Funny stuff!! 3(a) ....

I grew up in Australia in the 90's part 2

-You ate Smarties instead of M&M’s.
-You tried Dr. Pepper and hated it.
-Service stations didn’t need space for 4 digits on their petrol prices signs.
-Girl germs! Boy germs!
-Goosebumps.
-You had to actually call your friends rather than send them an SMS.
-Wearing a Chicago Bulls T-shirt or cap. Wearing the cap backwards.
-Paul Jennings’ Gizmo books.
-Matchbox cars.
-The feeling of wonder you got, the first time you were able to see the image in one
of those Magic Eye 3D pictures. – yeah...has never happened to me!
-The Secret World of Alex Mack.
-Talk to the hand!
-Johnson and Friends, Noddy and Humphrey B. Bear.
-You wished you had enough Lego to build those amazing cities they displayed in the
brochures.
-Slap bracelets.
-Roger Ramjet, he’s our man, hero of our nation.
-Good on ya Mum! Tip Top’s the one!
-You could buy more than enough food from the school canteen for only $2.
-Begging your parents to go to McDonald’s for dinner.
-Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats and Hey Arnold!
-Noni, Monica and that bald guy named George on Play School.
-Watching The Lion King and feeling Simba’s pain when Mufasa died. Disney just
doesn’t make them like that anymore.
-Soft serve cones were only 30c and they never tried to up-sell a Flake because they
didn’t have it.
-Troll Dolls.
-Thomas the Tank Engine
-You had to get your photos developed.
-Competing with your friends to see who could eat the most sour Warheads in one go.
-The Channel 9 logo had dots next to it and the Channel 7 logo wasn’t a folded piece
of paper.
-No Hat, no play.
-High five! Up high, down low, too slow!
-Watching Round the Twist and getting pissed off that the actors kept on changing.
You still loved it though.
-Cheating in Heads Down, Thumbs Up.
-Watching that game show called Vidiot. Game shows didn't have to be educational
back then, like That's Academic... that show sucks.
-Collecting basketball cards, whether you followed basketball or not.
-Collecting hundreds of tickets from Timezone just so you could trade them for some
crappy prize that you could have bought from Woolies for ten bucks.
-Healthy Harold day was the best because you got to miss class to sit in a tiny
caravan and listen to a talking giraffe.
-Playing handball with Ace, King, Queen and Dunce and making up stupid rules as you
went along.
-Chewing the crappy gum in Bubble-O-Bill's nose and wishing they could just use
Hubba Bubba instead.
-A*mazing.
-The Ferals. Rattus, Modigliana, Derryn and Mixy were cool until they started that
five minute piece of crap, Feral TV.
-Hypercolour T-shirts.
-Who Dares! Who Dares! Who Dares Wins!
-Having your very own Dollarmites account and getting really excited when you earned a tiny bit of interest.

Growing up in Australia in the 90’s was rad.

I grew up in Australia in the 90's pt 1

So I pinched this list from the group of the same name on Facebook. I only included the ones I remember..but aww!!

-You watched the ABC more than any other station. Those days are long gone.
-You made worms by squeezing your Vegemite or peanut butter crackers together.
-The best parties always had fairy bread.
-Blinky Bill, Mr Squiggle and Gumby.
-You always used to see that dried out, white dog poo on the footpath. You never see
that anymore.
-SuperTed, Danger Mouse*
-Going to the Albury* Show with a big group of friends from school once you were old
enough to go without Mum and Dad.
-Doing research for school projects by going to the library or looking up an
encyclopaedia rather than using the internet...actually I remember using Encarta ‘96
-Paul Keating was some guy that ran the country and John Howard became the only PM
you really ever knew because you were too young to care before that.
-Banana Man, Bangers and Mash and The Raggy Dolls.
-Game Boy.
-Agro’s Cartoon Connection or Cheez TV.
-Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
-Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Lift Off (that show with the dirty, eyeless doll named
EC).
-Birthday parties at McDonald's.
-A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. No returns!
-Playing GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64
-The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
-Arguing over which was better – Nintendo 64 or PlayStation.
-Don’t push me, push a push pop!
-Nobody made "not" jokes... NOT!!
-Who shot Mr Burns?
-Watching Captain Planet and then driving your parents mad by always singing the
song.
-That's so funny, I forgot to laugh.
-You decorated your room with glow-in-the-dark stickers.
-You played marbles and could name all the different types like blue moon, oily,
candy, red wine, galaxy and red devil. You never played anyone for your god marble.
-Seeing a small rack of DVDs in the video store and wondering if anyone ever rented
them.
-Dolly the sheep.
-Getting up early to watch the Rage Top 50.
-Watching The Simpsons back when it was funny, every night on Channel 10.
-Power Rangers becoming cooler than the Ninja Turtles, even though the Turtles will always be cooler.
-Watching South Park for the first time and being really excited by all the swearing.
-Blowing on the Nintendo cartridge before putting it in the console to make sure it
worked properly.
-Vulcan, Tower, Flame... Australian Gladiators.
-Pokemon! Gotta catch ‘em all!
-Watching Hey Dad! and then seeing little Arthur McArthur go on to star in that
famous Sorbent ad.
-Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem.
-Downloading music from Napster.
-Chatting with your buddies on ICQ.
-Going to see Titanic.
-The winner is… Sydney.
-Mighty Max and Polly Pocket. Max and Polly always got lost because they were so
bloody small.
-Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
-Waiting for Tony “Plugger” Lockett to break that record.
-Ray Martin hosted A Current Affair.
-Zoopa Doopa ice blocks were only 20c and if you couldn’t afford it, you asked the
canteen lady to cut it in half so you could split it with a friend.
-Listening to boy bands like Human Nature and girl bands like Girlfriend.
-Barbie, not Bratz.
-The Spice Girls.
-Happy Meals were only $2.95 and the toys were simple but actually good.
-Thorpe won lots of gold medals and wasn’t so gay.
-Opposite day.
-Pogs and Looney Tunes Tazos.
-You laughed at the fat kid on the Cottees cordial ad and changed the song to "My
Dad picks his nose..."

Found out I was losing so much more than I knew all along

This weekend just gone was so much fun, but it was also really sad. Most of our friends are going overseas for at least a year and so we had a weekend of farewells and, well lots of drinking.

So with everyone leaving people have been mentioning ways to keep in touch. Facebook kept popping up. And now I'm horribly addicted.

I AM NOT GETTING A MYSPACE!!

- Jen

p.s. more on the weekend if I can scrounge some photos off someone who remembered to a) take their camera and b) didn't leave it in the car

Barbarian Barber

Well hairdresser. Can't deny she did a good job but..well I've never actually had a haircut cause me pain before. It started in the washing of the hair where the scalp massage just stopped at 'scalp'. I was actually trying to lift my head closer to her so it wouldn't hurt so much.

Then the actual cut hurt too, there was twisting and pulling and well... there could have been yanking.

THEN, just when I think my jaw is stuck from gritting my teeth so much, she brings out an actual tool of torture. I have one at home and its never caused me pain except for the couple of times I've attempted to straighten my ears.

Yes, hair straighteners are weapons of mass destruction.

Thankfully my hair looks great, John Mayer was playing in the salon, AND she paid me a compliment. Otherwise...well. I suppose the previous sentence wouldn't be in this post.

- Jen

My, what lovely teeth you have

Today has been a day for compliments. For me.

This morning in our circuit class my boxing partner stopped and exclaimed (yes, exclaimed!) 'wow you have the most beautiful teeth'. My red in the face and out of breath response was 'braces'.

I guess it must be all those regular visits to the orthodontist* That or the braces I still have on the back of my teeth. Or the two times I had braces on the front of my teeth.

THEN when I was getting my hair cut the hairdresser asked me if my hair colour was all natural (it is), because it was such a nice colour.

I believe the term is chuffed.

- Jen

*the orthodontist in ALBURY

Drooling on your keyboard may cause injury or mess

healthySnacks
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Please don't think I'm one of THOSE people. THOSE people are the kind of people who are obsessed with Krispy Kreme, who travel long distances to get it, and who buy it in ridiculous quantities (see picture).

The second box only has half a dozen in there. We're going back to Berrigan this weekend and one of the man's sisters was dying to try KK so I said next time we come back we'd bring some. We're also going to a house party in Albury tonight so the assorted dozen can be quartered and will no doubt be devoured there.

I felt like the biggest dork on the train home from Melb Central with 24 donuts. People were looking at me, some jealously (THOSE people no doubt) and some people with the look of distaste I usually reserve for people carrying ridiculous quantities of the stuff.

But here they are and I have to say, they smell really good. Been good so far. But it IS a 3.5hr trip back. A guy I work with ate a dozen on a flight home from Sydney to Melbourne. Another one of THOSE people.

I still maintain you should never have to queue for donuts.

- Jen

Cheating on your partner good, sleeping in on weekends bad

Yes, this is what I read on the Sunrise news ticker while at the gym on Friday. Why cheating on your partner may be good for your relationship and why you can do more harm than good by sleeping in on the weekends.

I can understand- kind of, the sleeping in on weekends upsetting your body clock but the cheating on your partner? The only thing I could come up with is that maybe it makes you see how good you have it? Or had it, because you'd probably be lucky to still have a partner if you cheated on them.

Didn't get to see what they said in the segments but the cheating one would have been...interesting. Anyone see it?

- Jen

Jono Coleman you're a knob.

I don't get time to watch much morning TV these days as its usually gym, shower, inhale porridge, dive onto train by 7:52 but last week I happened to catch Jono Coleman on Sunrise where he basically gave away the ending to Harry Potter. I didn't think he'd read it but managed to give it away all the same, and then threw in a fake bit at the end to make it sound like he hadn't. I just about choked on my porridge, as I gasped so loudly when he said it.

As they should have Sunrise have suspended him. Forget about the adults, you could hardly expect every kid who is a HP fan to be close to finishing and they'd be the ones sitting there at that time of day. Why even joke about it? Sure its only a book but you don't have to ruin it.

Seriously, pretty low.

- Jen

Review: Lemon Soul

Lemon Soul - Puckle St Moonee Ponds.

Been here for breakfast quite a few times now and this was probably the only time its been as good as the first time we went. The other times we went out of convienience (its almost across the road from us) and we couldn't get a booking anywhere else. My folks were down this weekend and although Dad seemed keen on the boathouse I wanted to try Lil Kitch (also on Puckle St) but they were booked out.

So back to Lemon Soul we went. Nice coffee, nice brekkie - I had the Vegie Breakfast with a side of bacon. That's baked beans, multigrain toast, 2 poached eggs, avocado, mushies, spinach, roasted tomatoes and two cute (although not home made) hash browns. The man ordered the pancakes which were DELICIOUS, three thick, but fluffy pancakes with a mountain of ice cream and berries. Mum had the french toast with bacon, maple syrup and what I think was a creme fraiche type of thing, looked like a very generous serving size too. I tried a bit of that and it was fantastic. Dad and Shell had the garden variety 'big brekkie' which looked good.

Service was okay, but the one thing I can't understand about ordering coffee at places like that and The Boathouse is I need to put two sugars in to make it drinkable. Are my daily coffees (Cafe 201 on Spring/Lonsdale St) that little bit weaker? I usually order a takeaway skinny flat white with one sugar. Where as dine in coffees where you add the sugar to yourself, and I end up putting two in because they taste (and look) a lot stronger. So...coffee aficionados, whats the deal with that?

- Jen

This is the sound of settling

Had a really good day today (well its 6:38pm, I think I can count on the rest of the night being okay). I went to pump this morning, and survived. My 'guns' are looking gooooood. My trainer yesterday even said 'wow! you're getting strong!'. Damn straight I am. Of course my eye now is on looking 'gooooood' but not so muscly that my arms look weird in a dress. Especially a wedding dress. You don't want to look like you're going to dash from the church to the boxing ring. Ding ding ding.

ANYWAY I was getting to the rest of the day, I had to go to highpoint (groan) and find something to wear to our friend's (Ben & Rel) going away party next friday night. Its cocktail dress and its winter so I had to find something HOT....but not so HOT that I'll be freezing. You can see my dilemma.

So I didn't get to Highpoint until about 1:40pm and seriously when I found a park it was 2pm (that wasn't frustrating at all. I browsed through about four shops until I wandered into FCUK and surprisingly found a dress I loved! Took less than an hour. It wasn't until I walked into bras and things later that I thought 'wow, its getting easier to be 'JEN'). Ordinarily I would have screwed my face up at the thought of having to do all this shopping but it was while I was browsing through a bra shop that I realised - wow I've changed.

Then I bought a really nice top to wear to the engagement party we're going to next week in Berrigan (George & Bridge). It was all just TOO EASY! I've decided there is defintely something to be said for living in Melbourne (as far as shopping goes anyway).

Last night on my way home from work (in a work car) I realised I was in the wrong lane coming out of that pesky roundabout at the end of Elizabeth St and Flemington Rd and so ended up going down Royal Pde back to Moonee Ponds. Knew where I was going and everything! No getting lost for me!

Anyway have to scoot we're making lasagne tonight and its already seven and we haven't even gone shopping for the stuff yet...

- Jen
p.s. No crutches for the man, he's too much of a man for them!

Pop goes the..man's foot

Ugly foot...ugly foot..what ARE they feeding you!
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Not-my-foot. The man's foot. Apparently he was just walking along minding his own business (wasn't DANCING or anything) and bam, his ankle exploded.

Three days later when he got it x-rayed its not broken..just badly sprained. Yes - that old chestnut. Now he's sporting a LOVELY bruise right around the bottom of this foot.

Luckily he waved the foot in front of my face before I could demand to know why dinner wasn't 'in progress'.

The Simp...sons!

Saw The Simpsons Movie yesterday. It was..okay but a little shocking. There was at least three times when the man and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. 13 yr old boys would find it hilarious though.

Spider Pig - definitely worth it.

- Jen

Not as bad as the 'pirate' joke but still..

What do you get when you cross a dsylexic, an insomniac, and an agnostic?

Someone who lies awake at night wondering if there really is a dog.

He he

- Jen

It's Harryble!

NO spoilers here folks.

But I DID finish Harry last night. Very sad. Won't say anymore about it though because I know a lot of bloggers reading it.

And now its finished! No more Harry. No more anticipation of opening the book. The wondering - should I read it slowly and savour it..OR - read it as QUICKLY as possible so that no-one spoils the ending for me.

I took the latter obviously. But I'll have to read it again because there were parts where I felt like Bernard Black doing his tax ...'if you live by a river and you...WHAT!'...'what's your mothers maiden name'...'what's her FIRST name..' 'I just knew her as Ma!'

Didn't have to quite go and fold all my socks but yeah.

- Jen

Not really something you would call a skill...but a feat nonetheless.

Getting into a fight in a supermarket. A verbal one. Probably (hopefully) not an everyday occurence for you. Maybe you've gotten angry at a rude checkout woman..actually I've done that...anyway. Today I got into a fight with another customer.

First off all the guy ticked me off because he nearly ran me over with his trolley in the freezer aisle, but y'know - it happens. But then, when I'm looking at nachos sauce he did run over an old lady next to me. Right up the back of the leg, pretty hard too. So hard, in fact that it brought tears to her eyes.

Before I could take a second to think, I said "hey I think you should watch where you're going!", he turned around and said defensively "I said sorry!" "ah yeah well you just about ran me over there and now you've really hurt someone" - pause to look at old lady in tears.

"I SAID I was sorry". The guy was getting pretty angry and was now joined by his skanky partner (there really is no other word to describe her). 'Yeah HE SAID he was sorry'. So I replied with the never-failing-to-annoy* "okay, whatever". Then he just started shouting at me "its not my fault its the pram" (trolley?).

I was pretty shocked now, "um well all I'm saying is that its a bit of a coincidence you hit two people in five minutes". Then he came out with this gem "you'd better watch out or I'll really run you over", so I threw in another "uh uh okay whatever...psycho" ..and added a 'thats pathetic' headshake for good measure.

He turned around and left with his wonky trolley and partner in tow but kept shouting, as in loud, screaming about "that woman down there yelled at me! that ..'ing woman yelled, 'snot my fault its the TROLLEY".

I just picked up a can of refried beans and studied the nutritional content on that until everyone in Coles stopped staring at me. I saw the old lady in the deli section and she thanked me for standing up for her. When I got to the checkout (luckily I had less than 12 items and could go through express) the cashier asked me if I was the one that guy was yelling about??" I explained what happened and then noticed him approaching the back of the express line...so I got out of there pretty quick.

Seriously though. A 'bung' trolley is fair enough but the supermarket is not that crowded that you hit people. I mean, I'm sure parents can understand kids ramming them in the back of the legs..occasionally but not strangers!! Not twice in five minutes.

Well. An interesting trip to the shops anyway.

- Jen
p.s. He said I was a woman. I'm not a woman! I'm a girl!!
* Thanks to Shell for the never-failing-to-annoy whatever

The world isn't split into good people and death eaters

This afternoon the man and I went and saw the new Harry Potter flick - Harry and the Order of the Phoenix. It wasn't bad, just missed bits I liked out of the book. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it but I just felt bad for people like the man who haven't read the book. As the man pointed out, it'd be a very long movie if it had everything in it. We actually saw it in directors suite which was pretty cool. We shared a wedges and some kind of chicken bits and then had 'dessert' halfway through with chocolate mousse and apple strudel. Pretty nice way to spend an afternoon!

- Jen

Don't wanna be the one

I've been wondering about getting caught downloading music for awhile now. I've never really had much success downloading movies and I suppose I've been lucky because if I really wanted something...I have 'people' who can get what I want for me. But music, I've downloaded. In comparison with everyone else downloading music, I'm sure I'd be a very small fish but..still.

Its gotten to the point where I can't do it anymore! I feel too guilty. So today, I spent $1.69 and bought my first song off iTunes (Fluorescent Adolescent by the Artic Monkeys).

I've heard of lots of students in the US being given the option of paying about $500 USD for each song they've downloaded or settle out of court and pay about $2000-$3000. Ouch.

It was pure coincidence after buying my first song that I stumbled upon this article in The Age .

Despite the fact that MIPI figures show a whopping 18 per cent of Australians are downloading illegally, there seems to be safety in numbers - for now at least. "It's not within anybody's capabilities to be suing 2.8 million people," Ms Heindl says".

Yeah but I don't want to be the first! Someone's going to get done eventually.

- Jen

Review: The Boathouse Maribyrnong

I've been hanging out to go to the boathouse for breakfast since I started running past it, and since Jamie Wodetzki reviewed it on thebreakfastblog earlier this year.

You cannot get a nicer location, unless its a sunny Sunday afternoon and you're across the other side of the river at Angler's enjoying a beer. Inside in winter is cosy and the four of us sat almost directly in front of an open fire. We received our menus immediately and a nice waitress took our drink orders promptly.

Having already scoped out the menu online, I was hoping that there might have been some kind of specials menu that..expanded on the menu contents. There is in fact 10 items to choose from, but three of these I wrote off as 'I'm out for breakfast and I'm not ordering toast, fruit or cereal (even if it is with a hazelnut crunch)'.

I'm not sure why I had such a hard time deciding, I just wasn't sure about the pancakes and although my stomach said 'breakfast pizza - YES', my brain said, breakfast - not pizza time. So in a hurry I ordered the boatbouse breakfast (with crispy bacon, your choice of eggs and wood roasted tomato). I neglected to see there was no mushroom included in that (my fault!). The man ordered the same with fried instead of poached eggs, Mum had the green eggs with ham on crumpets and Dad had an omelette with tomato, potato, onion and ricotta.

The omelette was the biggest meal, the green eggs and ham were of a size you'd expect them to be but in my opinion for $14.50, the boathouse breakfasts were...meagre.

One piece of toast (albeit very nice wholemeal bread), two slices of tomato, two eggs and some extremely fatty and definitely NOT crispy bacon. Being health concious I tend to cut the rind and fat off my bacon but this was impossible with this stuff (streaky bacon I guess). Not impressed. The eggs were very nicely poached though.

I really wished I'd ordered the breakfast pizza. The atmosphere was so cosy though. The coffee was good but again..small. Could be the cups. They could be deceptively small cups.

- Jen

Ebay's holy grail?

Friar
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Ever seen one of these? Perhaps you have one sitting on your kitchen bench? Maybe you've seen a neighbour with hundreds of them? There seems to be a lot of these around but they're pulling big bucks on ebay (at least according to my mother).

If you're reading this Jackie5560, stop buying all the nuns. What would anyone be doing with so many nuns?

If you don't stop buying them there will be Nun left for the rest of us.

Sorry Mum, couldn't resist.

- Jen

A thumping good fight

So last night upstairs were at it again. Well I thought they were having a party or something because there was a lot of voices coming from the balcony although there was one girl I could hear repeatedly saying a word I'm not going to say on here.

After crashes and thumps from above (this is 1am) I got dressed and went up there. I wasn't impressed. Is is SO hard not to run around? Who runs around their house anyway? I mean maybe if you're running late for a train you 'nip' around but it half the time it sounds like the state of origin is going on above our heads.

So I knocked on the door, a sharp knock too. Like my knock meant business. No-one answered. I knocked again, little firmer this time. No answer. I can hear voices but they're angry voices not 'party voices'. I knock but a little hesitantly this time. Finally the door is opened by the guy I voice my usual 'stop running around' complaints too but this time he looks upset (not guilty as normal) and his eyes are all red. I noticed that its only him, and the girl. How can two people make so much freaking noise!

The first thing he says is 'the noise will stop now' and I said 'look again, its just the running.....' and then for some reason I said 'alright well..have a good night'. Have a good night?? Have a good night? No..DON'T have a good night. I am not having a good night! I had to get out of my nice warm bed, get dressed - in the dark and my bra is probably on backwards. Have a good night?

The guy looked a bit confused and then said 'uh..ok..well see you tomorrow'. Which was his version of 'have a good night'. I mean, see you later, sure. See you tomorrow implies that I'm going to see him today. The only reason I'd see him today is if him and his girlfriend start playing british bulldog at some ungodly hour. If they play it at a not ungodly hour I stand on the kitchen bench and punch the roof with my boxing gloves.

I'm not even sure if they hear it, but it makes me feel slightly better! And this is not a nothing post!

- Jen

The unlucky tale of Scratchy and Snaggletooth

ZorroCat
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

The reason I didn't go to work today is because I was attacked last night. An unprovoked attack mind you. So unprovoked I didn't see it coming. So it was also an unprovoked cowardly attack.

The man didn't escape unscathed either but his injuries are not as..obvious.

Basically I look like I've either had a run in with an out of control fork or stepped into the path of a very angry tiger. The second is closest.

So there we were, watching a movie. When out of nowhere I hear the man shriek (without the use of expletives) "ahh my back!!", and before I had time to register why the man was in pain, I was shrieking about my face..and my neck. I think what happened is that a noise startled one of the cats who was sleeping on the man who 'cat zorro'd' his back before moving literally onto my face..and neck.

That is why I didn't go to work today. I mean, really I should of gone because the deep red cuts are not just going to be gone by tomorrow. But I was hoping that a day might have been enough time to come up with a better story than 'my cat is a bully'. We're not even sure which cat it was, neither one will rat out the other.

So thats the tale of Scratchy. Now onto Snaggletooth.

The man has had a wobbly tooth (one of his second/third from the front ones) for awhile now. I've been sporadically nagging him but not enough to actually get him to go to a dentist. The tooth is actually false and last night it got so loose he was able to unscrew and screw it back in. Then this morning it actually fell out. You would think (you would, wouldn't you) that if this happened to you, your PRIMARY concern would be getting that tooth back into your mouth as soon as possible. But no, the man's concern was purely fiscal.

But he is - wisely going to get it looked at tomorrow and cost be damned..well mostly damned.

It actually doesn't look too bad. Kind of Ginger Meggs looking. Except as I've just noticed Ginger Meggs isn't missing any teeth, nor (as the man pointed out) does he have a five o'clock shadow.

- Jen

- Jen

That's the way Wii like it.

Nice to see more Wii's being sold than ps3s and xbox's. I've been having a mild craving to play some kind of computer game lately, which is unusual as I've grown to detest them what with working at EB, working at an internet cafe and sometimes losing the attention of a certain young man to the latest release of anything with the word 'wars' or 'battle' in it.

Last night though I couldn't sleep and knowing that I wouldn't be going to work the next day (post on why that is to come) I was lying in bed thinking..I could play the Wii. I could! I could play that tiger woods game! yeah I feel like playing golf! The wii isn't set up but I could plug it in, how hard could it be! Yeah! Golf!

So anyway when I woke up this morning...I was kind of bleh about the whole thing. But, for a few seconds there, I really wanted to play a game. I think it'd be good to find a computer game I like, but I don't think I've seen anything out there. Any suggestions anyone? And no, I'm not playing world of warcraft. I don't have the time or the patience. Help me get back into computer games!

- Jen

Congratulations!

To Tony and Rae on the birth of their twins! Yay!

-Jen

How unbelievable is this...

Actually it is kind of cool. 11 of the 6000 7-Elevens in the U.S were turned into 'Kwik-E-Marts to promote the simpsons movie. Read here

I only hope all the funny parts of the movie weren't in the trailer because that (well, spider pig) was hilarious. See spider pig here

- Jen

There's a moment in my mind I scribbled and erased a thousand times

I have a lot to report, I think. The trouble with not blogging for awhile is that you have all these great things to blog about but can't remember them. I KNOW there is something I'm supposed to be writing about because I was somewhere with the man the other day and I remember actually saying 'I am so blogging about this'. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

I do think about blogging regularly. I really wish I had a better camera on my phone because I regularly see weird things in the city, like a wombat the other day. Thats right, corner of Lonsdale and Spring Sts, a wombat. I also see Tony's old signs all the time (I'm telling you Tony my side of the city is a goldmine). Plus coming home from the gym, I see the sunrise and the skyline of the city which is always nice.

But anyway, to be fair after staring a computer screen for ten hours, the last thing I want to do is come home and blog about how I stared at a computer screen for ten hours. Well ten hours is the exception usually. I mean I'm not an assistant commissioner.

In a couple of hours, when the man gets home from work (I hardly think its appropriate to hurry him along when he's researching cancer) we're heading off to Mansfield for the weekend to see his family and maybe squeeze in a bit of snowboarding... I figure it will be a good test for the knee. Can't run, can snowboard out of control down a mountain.

But anyway, I have a couple of mini posts up my sleeve.

- Jen

It's the end of the year..

Well the financial year. So I'm flat out at work. Updates to come....soonish

Can go over it, can go through it

Sugarloaf / Mt Piper
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Yesterday we went mountain climbing. Sounds way cooler as 'mountain climbing' than 'walked up a big hill' The man and I went to Broadford to see some family (including my 75 year old Nan) and to climb what we know as Sugarloaf, but what is apparently "Mt Piper".

I've climbed it before - maybe 10+ years ago and remembered it being hard work but not too bad. So I wasn't sure whether it would be harder or easier being 'grown up'.

Anyway there was about 15 of us (at least) and the man, nan, one of our cousins and I set off together until we got to a break in the path. Some of the group had kept following what looked like the right way to go and some had gone up what looked like a fire trail (wide but straight up). We hesitated and Nan decided to go the 'normal' way with our cousin, while I bullied the man into going straight up. None of this walking AROUND the mountain for me. I found it pretty easy and I was disappointed until I saw the man gasping for air about 20 metres back. Yay!! Now I KNOW I'm fit. Although I still wouldn't take him on in a race or anything. At walking speed though - I'm queen.

After lunch at the top, us younger ones decided to head down the opposite side and try and find the mines (there are two we know of). After walking/sliding down the rocks and loose dirt (I had a particularly painful fall onto my arse) we found one of them but it was blocked up by a metal door a couple of metres in. The second one though we got about, well I estimated 100 metres in but I think it was more like 20-30. There was about 9 of us that went in and I was second from last so the torch light at the front of the line was non-existent for us. Today when I googled it I saw they've done a study on bats living in those things.

We finally meandered our way back to the carpark expecting to see everyone waiting but only half the group was there. Most noticeably missing (for me at least was Nan) - did I MENTION she's 75?

Apparently they decided to come and look at the mines as well. Did I MENTION the slipping and falling? After about 20 minutes and after I'd thought about whether I'd be able to carry Nan down with her probably broken hip, they turned up. I asked Nan how she got down there and she said 'oh we slipped and slid down'. Good one Nan.

Pretty fun day though - then afterwards it was back to Aunty Maureen's (for all you family out there) for some freshly made scones with jam and cream.

- Jen

For poorer or poorer

So we've recently come to the conclusion that while we have enough money to keep ourselves fed, clothed and watered - and moderately entertained - we don't have enough money to do things we want to do. For instance, we were planning on going overseas next year which is starting to look doubtful. We're also supposed to be getting married in 2009, which is yes, ages away but if we're going overseas it leaves considerably less money for a wedding.

I've come to the conclusion that the wedding business is the business to be in. Not only do you know who's who and what's what, you'd be making some serious pocket change as well. I have heard if you tell the flower guy that the flowers are for a funeral you get them cheaper. By 2009 you'll probably have to give a death certificate with your flower order though.

Another five seasons of friends will keep us entertained, and we can afford to pay our power bill and the new car saves us money in that we won't need to start having expensive services and even though we eat the same meal two (or three if we're especially thrifty) times a week - there's not a lot changing in our bank account balance, although its not going down either. My salary is up a bit at the moment while I'm on a 'temporary promotion' but soon I'll go back to my old moolah. The man's talking about getting a part time job but as I pointed out, he couldn't work in retail - he's too Bernard Black for that, and besides no-one would hire a 26 year old check out guy for a saturday shift at safeway.

I know that at our age and time in life things are supposed to be tight - well maybe not at our age but I suppose not many 23 and 26 year olds own (ok have a mortgage on) their own place. We're not eating any red cabbage yet but still deciding if we're really hungry or if we could save that piece of (home made) pizza for lunch tomorrow? Before sneaky cats try to swipe leftovers they're carefully secured in the fridge or freezer for lunches or dinners and there is nothing like hanging onto your expired monthly ticket in case Connex offer compensation.

Of course I guess we're not about to extend our family by 2 + persons and our things we want to do are just that, wants. We don't need to go overseas but we really really want to.

As the man says, clearly we just aren't trying hard enough to win powerball. My suggestion is that he goes on a game show, I think he'd win. That's game show not reality tv show - although he'd be pretty good on survivor.

- Jen

Carparks, Coffee & Cittens.

Couldn't resist, ...kittens with a 'c' - ew.

I'm back in Albury for work and boy is it weird. W-E-I-R-D. I was driving through town at about 3pm and as I was going past the uni I looked at the carpark and still felt the same ..'aargh it's full'. Then I remembered I don't go to uni anymore.

Then I drove past my old high school and there were all the year 12's cars in the carpark with their P plates...and that was weird too. I used to park there too y'know!..well I don't know if I'd call it parking. I stored my car there.

This post isn't going the way I anticipated...it seems to be about educational facilities and their carparks...

Anywho. I went and visited my nan which was good. I proved my theory about instant coffee tasting nice when other people make it for you. It is SO true. When I make that stuff it tastes like rubbish but when anyone like my mum or nan make it, its a different drink!

Now here I am at the lan mine and guess what Jason...I got to see Elspeth first and I got to hold her and EVERYTHING! Nyer to you now! I'm also sitting here on a pc (entered the secret code..) eating two killer pythons and thinking that somethings don't change. Although how I ever managed to eat two killer pythons in one sitting is beyond me. The sugar plus the instant coffee = brrr. Not even attempting a lanmine coffee. I think if I tried to make a jenlax I'd probably kill myself - drinking the coffee not in a horrific milk scalding incident (although I wouldn't rule that out either).

Anyway now I'm off to dinner with Dad and my sister. I'm missing out on my friday session at the gym tomorrow but thats probably a good thing as I need a bit of a break, my dogs are barking (kittens meowing etc).

Speaking of kittens I'm currently 'training'* Schroddy to walk with a harness on. Thats going...well. Number of angry kittens: 1 , number of successful walks in the harness: 0

- Jen
* training consists of squeezing the cat into the harness while it meows pitifully and then trying to convince the cat to walk while it sits awkwardly and refuses to budge.

Tell me its cool, I just don't believe it.

On Saturday the man and I went to a house party for our good friend Nicoli's 23rd birthday. Thats right - out on a Saturday night. Believe you me, not staying in and working our way through another season of Friends was strange stuff.

There was alcohol involved. Myself, I was behaved I only had three beers, a vodka shot (I can do that now!) and...some ghastly cognac.

That is awful, awful stuff. I was waiting for this brilliant warm flavoursome thing that would make me cultured and dignified 'here I sit...drinking cognac' - perhaps (if I smoked) I would have had a cigarette, on a long stick. I could have talked politics and moaned about those vile creatures watching those insipid sitcoms instead of watching television programmes like 'four corners'.

Instead I made a face and thought 'oh my god there is a whole shot glass of this stuff'. One of our other friends took the 'easy' way out and simple shotted it Which is apparently NOT the right thing to do. Just smelling this stuff hurt, there was no way I was digesting all of it.

The other thing to not do apparently is 8 + shots of vodka, + a shot of cognac and whatever other drinks you've had before that. Don't do that. It is messy and when your friends don't know the location of containers in your house, the only empty vessel they will find is the saucepan containing remnants of dinner. Good luck eating that dish again soon.

But nevertheless, a very fun (and social) night! We should do that (socialise) more often. Talking to cats and one other person all the time and you run out of things to talk about. 'How about those people upstairs'...'yep', 'stop biting my ponytail cat', 'hiss'.

- Jen

I'm in your ..

Funny Cats
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

I love those, I'm in your ...funny cat pictures. There has to be spelling mistakes ...apparently cats aren't good at spelling.

But this one actually makes me burst out laughing.

He he he.

Bleh

Thats how my job interview went today. At least thats the noise I've decided describes it. Stick your tongue out and screw up your nose as you say it for maximum effect.

- Jen

Best cd ever!

coldChisel
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

As part of the man and I's last contribution to JB Hi Fi I mentioned we acquired an absurd number of dvd's...but I forgot about this!!

The best cd ever!! I've always liked cold chisel, I guess after having to listen to Celine Dion everyday on the way to school they were a nice change.

But, this is Cold Chisel covered by all kinds of great artists/bands like Pete Murray, Thirsty Merc, Paul Kelly etc. In fact, the 'Forever Now' cover, which has always been my favourite Chisel song is really really good. Really really good. Listened to it three times on the train this morning...in a row.

That good!

- Jen

Hello kettle? This is Monica, you're black.

So we intensely dislike Big Brother. And JB had the rest of Friends on sale. So..we bought it. Now we have all ten seasons. We're up to season three!

I also picked up season 1 of Grey's anatomy for myself...I'd heard it was a pretty good show. BUT. Being a big fan of scrubs I noticed one patient in Grey's was also the old lady in Scrubs who J.D had to let die in that episode where 'one in three patients who comes into the hospital dies'.

She didn't die in Grey's though. Still...did they just think no-one would notice?

- Jen

And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night

Oh it is ON now. Since Thumper (now moved out) and now High Heels Harry upstairs have moved in everyone's given us advice about banging on the roof with a broom.

Yeah, see that only works if you're renting and don't care about broom handle marks in your roof.

Until......we went and bought boxing gloves and mitts! Um, not for this purpose! - for me at the gym.

But I have to say, this afternoon when they were clanking around upstairs doing the high heel stamping boogie. being able to climb up on the kitchen bench and thump hard on the ceiling with the boxing gloves was quite satisfying.

Didn't actually stop them but it made me feel better. Plus I have weak little girl punches so they probably thought...wow there must be an angry little mouse living in the floor.

- Angry mouse, signing out.

A bad day

Yesterday was so awful I couldn't even blog about it. The night before had not ended well with noisy neighbours daring to walk around upstairs (more on that later), so I'd slept badly. Then when I was rushing around getting ready for work, one of the cats puked all over the floor. Work was extremely hectic, I started at 7am, didn't eat lunch until 2pm because I was so busy. I left thinking 'I bet this is how Ren feels everyday! Left at 6:30pm and the guard said 'hope you've got an umbrella - it's pouring out there'. No, I do NOT HAVE ONE OF THOSE!!

Then all the trains were delayed for some reason and I was left standing on the platform in the cold for TWELVE LONG LONG AWFUL minutes. Twelve doesn't sound long but it was c-o-l-d.

When I get home upstairs is having a raging good time 'walking' around and I finally cracked and went up there to talk to them. Its hard to articulate just how annoying it is continually hearing the sound of high heels on a tiled floor is above your head. But I got there eventually.

After dinner I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed. But high heels upstairs had either not passed on the message to the rest of the apartment or had written me off as some kind of high heel hating lunatic (more probable).
The noise and thudding of people running around upstairs continued until 1:30am when I turned into the incredible hulk (well the incredible lean mass) and changed out of my bunny pj's (thanks easter bunny) and into trackies, cleaned my teeth - I'm a hygenic and caring angry lean mass, and stormed upstairs. Even from the lift I could hear the racket they were making and could hear them shouting about how drunk they were.

Yay-for-you -I-would-like-to-be-drinking-and-having-fun-too-except-I-have-to-get-up-for work-in-FOUR-HOURS.

I knocked on the door...five times and it was finally dragged open by a confused girl who looked as if she was thinking 'wow man deja vu'. I tried again to mention that them running makes it sound like they're going to topple through the ceiling and she did apologise but again looked at me like I was crazy. Of course by now I had bed hair and was pale with blood shot eyes...so I looked ...like anyone else who is sleep deprived.

I finally got back into bed only to discover...they hadn't listened at all. In fact, I think they might have put the high heels back on.

So this morning, after feeling like my eyes were going to fall out of my head from three nights of HELL I rang the real estate I suspected they were leasing from. And they're going to send them a letter. I didn't ask how exactly they were going to word 'walk softly and stop wearing heavily soled shoes on your kitchen floor' in a letter but good luck to them. Actually the agent was really cool and said to call back in a week if we're having the same problem. After I hung up I realised in shock that I've turned into my Nan. It won't be long now before I'm ringing up to complain about that ad where the guys nipples grow long and start spinning frisbee's.

I hate that ad, where are my slippers?

- Jen

Grunter the hero!

Today I was at the gym, working away, sculpting my guns when a guy walked right in front of me and made a big show about taking off his jumper and dropping it at my feet (I was stretching). I immediately thought, what a..loser. Loser wasn't what I actually thought but in the interest of keeping this blog family friendly - loser it is. He then proceeded to pick up some weights...and grunt. 'Ugh Ugh Ugh Ugh' with each rep. I (and a few other people in the gym) turned around to smirk at him (they were also probably thinking - what a 'loser'). After he'd finished his massive set on his massive weights and he was feeling a 'deep burn' he dropped the weights. Just dropped them!! smash! Onto the ground. It was like a small earthquake! Repeat for the rest of his exercises! Oh and then when he wanted to use the bench, instead of lifting it up and pulling it into a lowered position, he just kicked out the lever. Again, with a huge crash!

What a HERO!!!

I've heard about gyms in the U.S that have banned 'grunting' and until today I thought that was funny. But its really annoying!!! And in this guy's case - clearly unnecessary!!

On another note..I got six in the footy tipping this week!! Although I'm sure that means everyone else got eight.

- Jen

I got this feelin' that I've been here before

So the habit of using song titles/lyrics in my posts has finally caught up to me. Jase reckons I've used the previous posts title before. I couldn't find it but I have an inkling he might be right.

Bound to happen sooner or later. I think about blogging a lot and lately more often than not don't end up blogging. So when I do I think...I'm sure I've already written this.

Anyway we got a new car on the weekend its black and shiny...okay well black and dusty but for those first hundred metres when we drove away from the dealership it was black and shiny.

No we're not regretting getting a black car. Black cars run equally as well as white cars when they have their radiator caps on. In the city a brand new black car is shiny and sleek. In the country a black car is a dust magnet. But we live in the city so hopefully our experience with dirt roads is few and far between. I'd only worry about that if Connex took over Vic Roads.

Oh BURN!

Sorry, we've been watching way too much of 'that 70's show' on dvd. Just finished season 5 and now every insult is a BURN!

Anyway the car is an 06 ford focus with some kind of sports pack thing so its got nice alloy wheels and cruise control (which was handy when we drove back from Albury).

Speaking of driving back from Albury, we got overtaken by some mad looking lady in a beat up old red ford falcon and I commented that 'I bet she spends a fortune on speeding tickets' and then sure enough 30 minutes later we flashed past her pulled over by mr highway patrolman getting a nice ticket. He he he BURN!!!

- Jen

When the whole world fits inside of your arms...

Tomorrow the man and I will have been together three years. We've almost been living together properly for a year - and now we're engaged. I can remember meeting him at Crown Casino which is just so tacky and awful...to be fair I wasn't living in Melbourne then. Then the day after he came and met up with us, at highpoint no less (so the tackiness continued). Later that afternoon back in the city for some reason he pulled me out of the car (we were passengers don't worry!) and we danced in the middle of an intersection. I must have thought he was alright because I slipped my phone number into his back pocket when we left to drive back to Albury but he ended up writing his number on it and giving it back to me. I still have it!

A couple of weeks later after some emails and I think a couple of awkward phone calls he came down to visit... Trent (his mate). We went out with a big group of our friends (to the Termo - R.I.P ) I think it was a bit awkward but I can distinctly remember going home (to woodstock crt!) and doing a little jig around my room thinking - I really like this guy! The next day we met up again and then he 'accidentally' missed his train home so he had to stay another night. He was staying at Trent's - who was at the time going out with my friend Liz, they had disappeared leaving us to watch Pirates of the Carribbean - and have our first kiss (awww).

And here we are.

I love you the man +1 for everytime you say it.

I really wanted to use 'Happy Birthday Helen's' - 'These three years now just gone' as the title of this post but its got the point where I can't remember what songs I've used for what and sure enough when I googled I'd already used that. Disappointing! In fact I've probably told the story of us meeting etc before too. But its my blog and I'm allowed-ter!

Lots of updates to jentopia on the way!

- Jen

Tiger in my tank

It's been awhile. I've been posting I guess, but nothing substantial. I guess nothing much has been happening that is very blog-worthy. I often think about posting of a morning while I have my face in some random guy's armpit thanks to connex and what they call 'public transport'. But if you live in Melbourne, that's not unexpected. The other day my city loop train decided not to go to the city loop but helpfully dropped me off at southern cross station. Good thanks, because I only wanted to go to parliament station and thats oh what, the OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY.

But I walked. It's so easy to walk when you're furious.

Hey! There WAS a post in that.

Slowly getting a hang of where things are in the city, but I still get mixed up. I managed to walk in a circle around the block the other night. That was only after two beers as well. I just cannot grasp that Collins St and Flinders St run....parallel...see I'm not even sure..yeah they do. It's just THOSE two streets. Oh and the fact that I think Collins St and Lonsdale St are next to each other. I had to run to the physio the other day..on my knee! because I forgot about little bourke, bourke and little collins.

Also found the coolest job in the world which I will be applying for and dedicating much of my time in the next couple of weeks to. That's right after I finish thank you note number six squillion and two. Not that I'm not thankful but the man's 'your handwriting is better than mine' compliment is starting to sound suspiciously like....wait a minute! Nah he did most of the invites so he is more than excused.

Well forums and more blogs to be read...and those thankyou notes are glaring at me again...

- Jen

Like a harpoon - in my knee.

This will take some explaining but I think you will agree
there is no use pretending that there's no pain in my knee
and I love to, but do you think I can see
a future for me, its the end for me running

it is over and the physio didn't help me
like a harpoon, like a harpoon, like a harpoon in my knee

I can handle the twinges
its the intense pain I can't stand
and I dont mind just jogging
just dont try and sprint on land.

and I love to, but do you think I can see
a future for me, its the end for me running

it is over and the physio didn't help me
like a harpoon, like a harpoon, like a harpoon in my knee

when I run, goddamn it
want to bad
now I can't,
but why can't I run right back
run right back (x5 heh heh)

why does it hurt?
simple running shouldn't this bad
why all the pain?
it is happening again

and I love to, but do you think I can see
a future for me, its the end for me running
it is over and the physio didn't help me
like a harpoon, like a harpoon, like a harpoon in my knee

Some sheepish scammers

I'm sure most of you have heard (herd..) about the Japanese poodle scam.

Shell forwarded me this news story and it is pretty funny. Probably not if you've bought a poo-heap*.

------
The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.
She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.

One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.

----


The worst part is the couple above only became 'suspicious' when they were told it had hooves. As if maybe Poodles do have hooves and they just weren't aware of it.


- Jen

*My idea.

Inspector Engagement

This weekend just gone was our engagement party (and the reason I haven't blogged in a week) and now I think I'm suffering from post-big event depression. Well depression is a bit strong but you spend so long thinking and planning and thinking things like:

oh-my-god-do-we-cater-for-ninety-people-or-one-hundred-aarrgh and will anyone even come, and what if people come but they don't have fun and, what do you mean they don't have music Dad, oh okay what's that? A beatles tribute band inside? well yeah I like the beatles I guess Cake? do we need cake? will people eat cake? what kind of cake?

Surprisingly my head didn't explode. And the party went off without a hitch. I saw no sign of any Beatles and I don't think people noticed there was no music outside. They just had to talk. Food was good, speeches were sweet and we both looked the part. I only had a small bottle of champagne and half a beer. So I didn't contribute much to the bar tab.

Now only two years to the wedding, which is apparently (excuse this) 'friggin ridiculous'*. But anyway there is good reason for it as the man is completing his PhD, and being one of those guys that gets involved and would like to be a part of things, we're putting it off until he finishes doing that. Not to mention weddings cost just a little bit of money so we have quite a bit of saving in front of us.

So although we're engaged (more officially now too!), we're both young and are happy to wait a couple of years.

Photos to come!

- Jen

* Not my words

Money Hungry

MoneyHungry
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

The man and I went shopping last night. A pretty regular thing we do being one of those couples that eats. Anyway we only went to the supermarket to get vegies and some steak, we were tired after our big weekend and figured we'd shop on Tuesday night.

So there were were picking up our regular beans, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and cauliflower when I glanced at the price of cauliflower. I thought $8.00 a kg was a bit steep for cauliflower until I realised it was $8.00 - for ONE cauliflower.

Certain we were both going to die in the near future , broke and vegetable-less we examined our cheap vegetable eating options.

Cabbage is cheap! MMM cabbage! Who doesn't like cabbage!

But $8.00 for one cauliflower? Not happening. I'm sorry to say in this case the cheap easter chocolates won out. We've stopped buying chocolate as part of the budget and this looked like a cheap solution for the man's cravings for a couple of weeks (okay, a few days). How we justified paying $15 for, well I suppose a lot of chocolate over an $8.00 cauli I don't know.

- Jen

I've just eaten!..had a pie.

Those optus ads crack me up. They seriously make me giggle for ages afterwards. That giraffe who tries to go shopping has been trumped though - by the lion who gets into a fight at a pub's trivia night.

See it here

How funny! I love the 'why would I bite him? I've just eaten!..I had a pie'.

Also, I'm not working for optus. The ads just tickle my sense of humour.

- Jen

You didn't think they were going to win did you?

13/4/2007 MCG @ 19:40

Full Time
Collingwood
17.9.(115)

Richmond
13.11.(90)

We had a lovely commentary of the game from three ladies behind us who had the voices of 4 packs a day for 20 years. Little gems like (when lining up for goal) "It can either go straight, or it'll go to the left..or the right". And, oh..the screaming! It'd melt your face.

I can't believe I thought Mum was loud! Nope, this was ear blisteringly bad. There's nothing wrong with getting behind your team but when you give the entire row of people in front of you a headache and people mutter things like 'SHUTUP' every time you open your mouth... then sorry but you're too loud.

- Jen

I'm still alive |-- everything is good for me.

If I was on the biggest loser I would have been sent home this week. Not because I've put on weight but because I'm sure there must be something in the rule book about not eating anything I've eaten this weekend. Like the fish 'n' chips on Friday night (a 40 minute wait Daniel), the tim tam ice-creams last night and oh the pizza and a whole lot of chocolate today. I mean the man ate 9 out of his 12 malteser eggs so I thought it was only fair to eat my whole big cadbury egg. Otherwise once he has finished his tomorrow I might start to find mine disappearing.

We didn't realise shops aren't open on easter sunday, because I could remember working at coles on easter sunday...probably at least 5 years ago now. We strolled over to coles to do our big weekly shop only to find it well and truly..closed. Undeterred we ambled over to safeway, which was also closed. There were about 10 people outside equally as confused. One of them was obviously more concerned about the liquor part being shut. I mean, you didn't see anyone else shouting and shaking the doors. That or he has some seriously unhappy easter-eggless kids at home.

Baffled but still optimistic we walked home and drove to Newmarket safeway. Also closed.

Perturbed now the man mentioned he knew of an aldi nearby, so we headed up there (driving past a eerily empty highpoint) only to discover...that it was also closed. Despondent - and now hungry I remembered there was a small independent supermarket in Moonee Ponds. As we pulled up - excited by the 'open' sign and door, a small man (well he was!) ran out, grabbed the sign, ran back in, and shut the door.

With heavy hearts we drove home and peered nervously into the pantry, fridge and freezer. Sunday is our day of shopping and although we had a lot of meat left over from the markets last week we only had some cauliflower and a lettuce that was about to go back to the big vegetable garden in the sky. The man decided that we were going to die and he would have to start eating his easter eggs now in case he did die and I might eat them. He also decided as he had no cordial or softdrink he'd have to drink a Johnny Walker. You can tell he's a country boy because obviously just having a glass of water would be sacrilege. The fact cordial is made with water...I'm not sure about.

We sat despondently on the couch, me amusing myself by eating a quarter of a rockmelon and some yogurt (I didn't say I wanted to eat healthy food). Then I remembered, we had mince. We had pastry. We had gravox. We have a pie maker. It didn't take much convincing before the man was cooking up some mince and I was having fun cutting out the wrong size pastry.

Several wonky looking pies later we were satisfied. Hunger abated the man turned to star wars battlefront two for entertainment and I had Es over. After converting another Black Books cynic and eating a small amount of junk food she left and I contemplated finishing some job applications.

After several hours I think I'd written a sentence about being about to quickly acquire something and we were hungry again. The pizza place around the corner was shut but we found one open in ascot vale so 'journeyed' there for nourishment. I only managed three slices of pizza because there was so much chilli in it, it was almost inedible. Cleared out the nostrils though.

Lucky I still had room after the flames from my mouth were extinguished and I finished off the day by eating my whole chocolate egg. It wasn't a small egg either! We ended up having that pussy cat dolls show on while I was stuffing my face and I wondered if they ever get to eat like this what with having their stomachs on show all the time. I guess not.

Right, well very sleepy now and full of chocolate so I'm off to bed.

Also, so far I've got one this week in the footy tipping. Doomed I tell you, doomed.

- Jen

Lindt Kittens

LindtKitty
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

I know the chocolate bunnies are good but what about cats? The non-chocolate variety?

I've had chocolate cravings for a good couple of weeks now and because we're on the budget (this should be in red fiery letters) we've stopped buying the 2-3 blocks of family cadbury we normally do. The craving hasn't been satisfied with dark chocolate either, nope I've been craving milk chocolate. Today I remembered the lindt bunnies we've had in the back of the fridge since last easter and went halves in one with the man. Craving satisifed! The chocolate wasn't even white either.

I've been good* all week and been going to the gym lots and after my 'ordeal' at the physio I needed SOMETHING.

Bring on the weekend for a chocolate fest though. Oh and how good is this ad. Hank the kitten!

*I'm good ALL the time....I'm very healthy.

Except for the copious amounts of chocolate.

- Jen

It's better than gout.

So I went to the physio today about my knee -referred from my great doctor who is mystified about the lack of anything on my MRI results, but still the obvious pain he is able to inflict on me just by pressing on a certain part of my knee.

The physio's first job was to make my knee hurt again to work out what exactly it was and as Harry thought it's my illiotibial band or Runner's Knee. But wow...the pain!!! Excrutiating!! A good pain I guessbecause it made my knee hurt again and the physio could work out what was going on. Funny how its actually in my thigh but my knee hurts.

So I have lots of stretches to do and the man has orders to inflict similar pain on my leg over the next few days...I saw a little glimmer of something in his eyes when I told him that. I mean giving someone a massage can sometimes be a little tedious but a massage where you get to be rough and cause pain!!

All in all I suppose its better than gout.

- Jen

I got two babe.

Two.

My score in the footy tipping. Well looks like my chances of winning the coveted trophy aren't looking good. Damn.

Mum you'll be pleased to know one of the two I got was the Pies against...who did they beat?* Ummm wait...no...yep I think it was the Roos. How about that!

- Jen

* Mum's a pies supporter and Dad's a Roo boy.

A shameless plug...techAU.tv

It's my blog, I'm allowed to plug things.

If you're a techie or a geek or if you like learning about technology or heck if you're just a friend of Gus then check out techAU.tv

Episode two is an improvement on episode one and I've found their discussions interesting. Also keeping track of the drinks each is having on camera is fun too.

They're a big file to download so I suggest getting ep 2 first as I really enjoyed that one.

Remember, thats techAU.tv

- Jen

Still so young but somehow so much older

Today is birthday number 23. And its been very weird.

Maybe its because its the first birthday I've been away from home for, maybe it is just the fact I'm older and birthdays aren't that exciting anymore. Actually that must be it because I feel the same way about Christmas. I will admit I've been counting down the days to my birthday. I'm not sure why...but like Christmas I think thats more fun than the actual day.

I've done very well present wise; dvd's, an old school style sandwich maker - because its nice having one of the fancy pants sandwich makers that probably irons your clothes for you as well, but I find if you're just toasting sandwiches it makes them too flat. I mean, you could go and eat six of them to make up for two normal sandwiches but bread doesn't grow on trees.

And...a Max Brenner's 'hug mug'. A truly awesome present. I've already had a hot milo in it, and it was delicious.

We aren't going anywhere or doing anything tonight, as we're on a ridiculously tight budget and are living like uni students - so the sandwich toaster will come in handy. I have decided the hardest thing about going on a budget is going on a budget when you have money. Already we've been shocked at the way we've been demonstrating my favourite economic principle, the marginal propensity to consume. Tut, tut.....tut.

Seriously though, we will have to go out for cake or obtain cake. Cake MUST be had. Cheap cake. Cheap delicious cake.

I should go and do something about that.

- Cake Hunter.

Continuum*

It's taken me awhile but I've finally gotten into John Mayer's "latest" album, Continum/um. Unlike all his others which I instantly liked this one kind of crept up on me. I kept playing it in the background when I was on the computer, had it on my ipod (on a good day when it worked). But what sealed it, was the song 'stop this train'. I'm very much as most of my friends know, a lyrics person when it comes to songs. I love 'story songs'. This song really struck a chord with me though. Not literally unfortuantely because still the guitar sits in its corner while I give it long lingering glances. I've had the urge to play it again though so hopefully when I get some spare time..
Anyway! I've put the lyrics below. It's a great song. I actually only really love about 4 songs on the whole album but the rest are nice to listen to.
Been investigating the remaining 'oc' songs I have left to download. Bente if you thought you were sad about missing out on the actual show, I'm devastated because for the past however many years I've been collecting oc music. Basically from the show I go 'oh I like the sound of that', look up the band and in some cases have bought a few of the bands albums. Hello Death Cab for Cutie.
But seriously, if you're an OC fan - get Mates of State - California. If you're missing the show its haunting!! A cover of Phantom Planets opening number for the show. Sniff, now I miss the OC. Not that I watched the last season and a half of it. Still, I will probably buy S4 when it comes out. If only so I have them all.
- Jen
*How do you spell continuum? Two u's? Surely not! Google! You've failed me! I can't trust the cd cover! Its a mystery!

Once in awhile, when it's good, it'll feel like it should

jen_and_schrod
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

No, I'm not colorblind
I know the world is black and white
Try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this tonight

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun

Had a talk with my old man
Said "help me understand"
He said "turn sixty-eight
You renegotiate"

"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
Jen, honestly we'll never stop this train"

Once in awhile, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing

Stop this train
I wanna get off
And go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
Cause now I see I will never stop this train

Other side of the fence

Today I went to Swinburne's career fair, as an 'employer'. Just a little bit different. Myself and another one of last years grads, the ever exuberant Darren went with our graduate manager to promote the ATO graduate program. I've never talked so much in my entire life. About an hour in I thought I was going to lose my voice! I think I managed to talk a few people into applying and in the end it was just like being back at EB selling stuff. A few of the students I talked to I could just pick will get in. They just LOOK like grads!

It's also cool because they've decided this year to put an ex-grad on the interview panel, so hopefully I get to sit in on one. I also had a poke around the career fair but decided to stay put in my public service shell. Some cool sounding grad programs though. Vic Roads sounded good, and masterfoods as usual.

That was my Friday anyway, oh and they also had cakes and pastries from Brunetti's. UNBELIEVABLE!! I cannot get over how good it was. I had what I now know to be a 'coffee mignon' - profiterole filled with coffee custard. But not just your average custard. This stuff just melted out of the profiterole.

Even better thats who they have cater for our graduate program graduation!! Can't wait!!

- Jen

It's not apples.

bruisedApple
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

I am sick to death of spending time carefully selecting nice, unbruised, firm apples in the supermarket only to get to the checkout and have the checkout guy/chick literally throw them into the bag.

The man always says I need to put them last, that way they will definitely get put on top. Unlike the last time when they got put in the same bag as cans.

His reasoning sounded logical so today I even held onto the apples until the girl had got through all the heavy things. Put them down last waaay at the back. What happens? Girl opens new bag (oops left my recyclers at home) leans down, picks up apples, THROWS them into the bag (with a lovely resounding smack as they hit the bottom) THEN throws a BUNCH of bananas on top.

I got very red in the face and angry. But I didn't say anything. Is it seriously going to make a difference? I tried another time by being nice and saying before hand 'do you mind being gentle with the fruit' 'yeah sure' what happens? smack smack the apples get thrown into the bag.

The reason WHY I'm so angry? I HATE squishy apples. Seriously I might try and eat around the bad bit but if I buy apples and they're bruised when I get them home, I usually won't eat them.

..thats about the end of my apple rant.

Maybe its time to start walking five minutes to safeway instead of 30 seconds to coles?

Mop it, mop it real good

kittenats!
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

I just had a fantastic idea. It was as I was changing the kitty litter - something we only do about once a week..the rest of the time we just scoop the poop (relax its fine and it doesn't stink). Anyway it was as I was doing this that the bag I was putting the litter bag into split, emptying a weeks worth of pee stained litter all over the kitchen floor (much to the amusement of the cats).

I decided, after cleaning up the mess that I'd have to vacumn and mop the floor. So I ended up doing the whole house, which is what you do when you are related to my mother.

I was emptying the mop bucket into the bath in the hope it might clean the bath a little bit (hey I'm 50% my dad too) and had the great idea of..get this. USING THE MOP TO CLEAN THE BATH! With a little bit of warm tap water I also cleaned the mop! The bath has never been so clean. Keep in mind we have one of those mops with the material bits on it..not a flat sponge one. Sorry, I'm not very clued in on mop terminology.

I really should submit this to the womens weekly and collect some money because I am sure this is one of those $50 good idea things they have.

I have probably shaved twenty minutes off the time it takes to clean your bath. No longer do you need a scrubbing brush and your knees! Or nudity! (or if you're modest your swimmers).

I eagerly await your thankyou emails.

- Jen

A magnetic personality

MRI
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

Saturday I had the MRI on my knee, Prahran wasn't too hard to get to and I will admit I like that part of town just a little bit.

It only took twenty minutes out of my day but I'm pretty sure it took more than that off my life. If I thought I was scared of vacumn cleaners then the noise that contraption made was like being stuck inside an ENORMOUS vacumn cleaner. This was with my head not being even all the way in it. Lets hope I never have to have one done on my head.

I had one of the jjj hottest 100 cd's to listen to although Missy Higgins wasn't much of a help.

Afterwards we spent the afternoon wandering around the city with Ben and Rel and ended up having lunch at a place in chinatown. You could practically see the salmonella on the plate. Not to mention the place seemed to be some kind of shrine to Deng Xiaoping ex-leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Also, the service was awful.
Pity because the lady out the front hijacking pedestrians was so charming too....

We were all exhausted when we got home and after our stomachs had settled from ice cream and suspicious chinese food, I whipped up some teriyaki beef, followed by a pudding the boys had gone and got from the supermarket.

I know - a packet mix. Still, as seemingly simple as a packet mix is I somehow managed to mix my fingers. Yes, thats right. My fingers - in - the mixer. Not fun. But no blood! It was more of a shock. Normally I'm pretty careful to check its switched off before taking it apart. I did end up with a kitchen full of pudding mix though, and my shirt was pretty colourful too.

Sunday was spent eating hot cross buns and consuming an un-godly amount of Max Brenners. Usually we're pretty good and just have a hot chocolate and some of the strawberreis you dip in the chocolate. Well strawberries I dip in the chocolate. The man finds its much easier if you actually use your tongue to lick out the chocolate pot. Who would have thought? Yesterday though the man had a chocolate mousse as well, which I might add he got halfway through eating and realised the 'bowl' he was eating out of was actually chocolate too. He has since sworn off chocolate forever. I give him until this afternoon.

This morning I hit the gym and got the trainer there to show me how to lift free-weights instead of the machines which I don't really trust. I lift free weights in my super circuit classes but don't have much time to make sure I'm doing it properly.

RSVPs are going well for the engagement party...with no-one actually saying they aren't going to come (yet). Still two more invites to get sent out (my bad) I should really do that today.

Anyway, I'm rambling.

- Jen

Our nation's capital - part two

Saturday the man nipped out with the boys (George, Baz and Joely) while liz and I ..hung out.

Besides becoming incredibly frustrated with the stupidity of optus world staff both at the woden and civic stores (if any of you read this - you're probably high on my list of stupidest sales people I've ever encountered). Liz needed her phone repaired and all of the replacement phones in Canberra were out. So she had to relinquish her phone and therefore contact with the outside world. But hey, Optus kindly offered ring her when the phone was fixed. 'On what phone'????

I stepped in with what I thought was a good suggestion - what about email??? Nope, can't do email - but we can text message. The circle continued.

Once we had some lunch - greasy food ahoy - I had a kangaroo burger that I thought was passable. Again, I made the mistake of forgetting that if I don't do something, other people don't either. It's been a long time since I had butter on something, and white bread too!

That night we headed over to meet up with the boys for George's housewarming/many different party excuses party where we proceeded to have a great time. The weather was great, the company was good. The boys were particularly...chatty as I think they'd been drinking for most of the afternoon.

Then tequila was mentioned. Now despite it having come out of my nose the first time I drank it- I love the stuff. So team tequila was formed and many shots were had. Despite having plenty of fun there...the canberrararians (say it out loud!) wanted to go out - so out...five of us went.

The rest is in the sheep story...

Next morning nine am, I'm woken by liz who is in a mad rush to get to the markets to sell her baby clothes. We made it in on time and although feeling slightly worse for wear I had a pretty good time. We sold a lot too which is pretty cool. I also purchased some ethiopian spices and such so I'll post about how that meal goes later this week.

After pizza and a movie (jarhead - blech!) we hopped onto a plane and headed home to some very well fed and well looked after kittenats.

I had today (monday) off as well and have spent it..doing not much at all. I feel pretty well rested though (I even took another day off the gym). Also made an appointment for the MRI which actually costs $270 not $250 and isn't claimable through medicare/ health insurance because the machine isn't covered under any rebates. Apparently though if I wanted to go to one that was, I'd have to go and see a specialist instead of a sports G.P ($100), then the MRI costs about $500, $200 which I might get back. Its a lot more hassle and at best the same price so...I'll just have to bear it. It's not like we can't afford it but when you pay for private health insurance that you never use...it'd be nice to get something for it.

- Jen

Dance to the sheeplight

sheeps!
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse.

The title of this post is taken from the lyrics of a song that has nothing to do with sheep. However several hours of tequila drinking and the decision by three of us that we were not walking ANY FURTHER, in the middle of Canberra on Saturday night left us standing next to some sheep. Not actual sheep..but sheep...statues.

We were also mumbling the words to that fonzerelli song 'moonlight party'..and so it ended up being about sheep.

Boy were the other two (Liz 'n' Joely) happy when they came back to find, Baz, Trent and myself parked on these sheep singing about dancing in the sheeplight. With the addition of our own 'doof doof' and 'oonce oonces'...I think it went something like 'blah blah blah-blah blah dance in the sheeplight doof doof oonce doof doof oonce'.


- Fo' shizzle my nizzle.