oblivious or polite?

Ok, I’m getting a bit of a complex here. Last night I dyed my hair chocolate brown, which is very different from the dark blondes and copper blondes it’s been for many years.

You’d think that people would notice a change that big, but it’s pushing midday and not one person has said anything. Its not like I’ve been hiding in my office either – I’ve interacted with dozens of people this morning.

So my question is this: Are people really that oblivious, or is it so bad that they politely don’t want to mention it?

progress update

For those of you are wondering, here is a progress update on The Boy’s resolutions. There has been one wee setback - he has decided to defer the start of the alcohol-free one until after the World Cup. He isn’t doing too bad on the added sugar and coffee ones though, as far as I know. He’s been good at home, anyway (although work could be a different story).

sleep deprived

I think sleep deprivation could do The Boy in before the World Cup is over. It’s not just the fact that the games are in the early hours of the morning that’s the problem. Unfortunately, if Brazil is playing, he can’t sleep the night before. Brazil played (and won) at 3 am yesterday, and he would be lucky to have had an hour of sleep in total before or after the game. He was in bed by 8 pm last night and slept like a rock until the alarm went off this morning.

The real bugger for me is this: when he can’t sleep, neither can I. I don’t even like soccer, but I’m nearly as sleep deprived as he is. July 10 can’t come quickly enough.

a bit mean

I bought The Boy a present on Saturday which, considering the promises he made last week, was probably a bit mean. Remember promise number 3? The “I won’t drink more than 4 cups of coffee per week” one? Yes, I got him an espresso machine… In my own defence, I was at the Sunbeam factory clearance, and they had an incredible special on them. And he does love it.

Besides, if you’re only allowed 4 cups per week, they should at least be good ones, right?

bad business

I spent my Sunday afternoon at the Bride & Groom Show with my future sister in law, my mum and one of the other bridesmaids. I have to ask – how can there be so much ugly stuff out there specifically designed for a day that is supposed to be so beautiful?? Some of it was just horrific.

Anyway, we went to one of the seminars presented by a hair & beauty company, who shall remain nameless. The presentation was good – the models were well done and the guy talking was fantastic, with some really excellent points.

Since he had been so good, we popped in to their “pamper zone” to see about getting a sample make-up done by them. They could squeeze in an appointment for The Bride & I, which we thought would be great. The girl I got wasn’t bad – she did a good job of the eye make up, although the lippie wasn’t so flash.

Unfortunately, The Bride wasn’t so lucky. She got an absolute dipstick. Tell me this – would any makeup artist with half a brain, having been told that the bride (who is blonde) is wearing baby pink, proceed to do an eye makeup so dark and black that it honestly looked like she’d been punched in the eye? For a wedding? It was so bad that The Bride asked her to take it off and try something else. Well, she did. It was a little better, but still very dark and black, and a pretty rough job. By that time, though, we just wanted to get out of there.

As it turns out, some of the people they had working in their makeover area were only students. It seems to me like very bad business practice to have inexperienced and, in some cases, incompetent makeup artists demonstrating for you at a show like that. We came out of the seminar feeling good about this company, but after that makeover we wouldn’t have them do the wedding makeup if you paid us. Very foolish on their part.

a shaky start

Last night The Boy made a few very bold pledges, which I’m personally sure he will regret very soon. I’d like to clarify that these are promises he made to himself – they weren’t demanded by me in any way, shape or form.

He said that he was going to:
1. Eat no sugar until February 2007 (meaning adding no sugar to his coffee, no cake, sweets etc).
2. Drink no alcohol until February 2007.
3. Drink no more than 4 cups of coffee per week until February 2007.

I’ve seen him go alcohol-free for a couple of months before, so I don’t think that is really the difficult promise (although there is still the rest of the World Cup, his birthday, Xmas and New Year to get through before February 2007).

The real problem will be the coffee. This is a guy who drinks 4-5 cups per day (at least one of which is usually a 4 shot flat white) saying he can reduce to 4 cups per week. Hmmm… no, sorry Boy, I don’t think so. Especially when you’re already on your 2nd cup today, and its only 11 am.

buying for boys is hard…

Buying presents for guys is 1000% harder than buying for girls, don’t you think? At least it is if you’re not buying on an unlimited budget, and especially if you’re buying for a friend not a partner.

The things guys like seem to be a lot more expensive, on average – ‘big boy toys’ like x-boxes, phones, playstations, car stuff etc. Anything cheaper that they want, they tend to go out and buy straight away (even when it’s right before their birthday, which is incredibly frustrating). You can always go with the old standby – alcohol – but for milestone birthdays like 21, 30, 40, 50 etc, its nice to give a keeper present, not something that’ll probably be gone by the end of the night.

Don’t get me wrong here – I’m not saying that girls don’t like expensive things too. Of course we do. But there are more options in various price ranges for us – jewellery, homewares, clothes etc, that don’t always have to be expensive. Can you imagine the look on a guy’s face if you gave him a platter for his birthday??

Although it can be done, finding a nice present for a reasonable price (that the person will actually like and use) usually takes a lot more searching for boys than girls.

lifestyle change anyone?

A friend of mine, who lives in Sydney, made an announcement yesterday which floored us all. She has quit her job and is going to join her man, who has been working in the Solomon Islands since January. Wow – Solomon Islands, huh? That’ll be a change of pace, to say the least (and no, Boy, this doesn’t mean I’ll change my mind about us moving to Kodiak Island).

The company he works for provides a house, complete with generator, 6 foot fence and security guard. Yes, generator and security guard.

You go, girl. Have fun – can’t wait to see the new blog.

complimentary, my butt

I really think that Hoyts so-called complimentary movies passes are a major con. I was given two Hoyts passes recently, which can also be used at VillageSkyCity in Queen St only. Of the 14 movies that are potentially on show tonight at our local multiplex, 7 of them are “no complimentaries”. The 7 that we could use the passes for have all been out for weeks, at least (in fact, one of the 7 has been showing since 30 March!). Four of them we’ve already seen and the other 3 we have no real desire to see.

New release movies are almost always “no complimentaries” for at least 2 weeks, and it can be close to a month for big movies. So really, “complimentary” movie passes are only good for people who hardly ever go to the movies, and who don’t mind waiting for weeks after release to see films.

Personally, I think it’s a con to trap the uninitiated. You get people coming along planning to see a particular new movie, only to find that the passes can’t be used. By then, they’ve been looking forward to seeing that specific film, and end up paying to go. Well done, Hoyts, you’ve just forced the poor punter to pay out cash & have to come back again to use their passes! It’s not like the vast majority of movie passes haven’t been paid for by somebody – there very few truly complimentary movie passes floating around out there – so why not just accept them for everything? Shame on you, Hoyts.

how to strike terror into a man’s heart

Just because I took an evil delight in deliberately striking terror into The Boy’s heart last night, does that mean I’m a bad person? Ok, so maybe I am, but it was fun!

I was writing a few things into our calendar last night, and reminded The Boy that I’d be out on Sunday. When he asked what I was up to, I said “I’m going to the Bride & Groom Show, and I’m going to come home with loads of great ideas”. The look of baffled terror on his face was priceless – it was every bit as good a reaction as I’d hoped for. Once I’d stopped rolling around the floor laughing, I relented and told him that I was going with my future sister-in-law to get ideas for her, not me.

Bride & Groom Show Entry: $15
Brunch with the bride & mum beforehand: $25
The look on The Boy’s face: priceless

she shopped, I dropped

I have to hand it to mum – she is a shopping machine.

This Mother’s Day she wanted clothes, and the deal was that we’d go shopping together so she could try on and choose for herself. Being the busy social butterfly she is, and not helped by the fact that she works Saturdays, we’d been having a bit of trouble finding a Sunday she could do. Yesterday afternoon she finally managed to squeeze in a bit of time for me (between brunch with the girls and dinner out with dad). I think the “well, you obviously don’t want a present this year” noises I’d started making finally convinced her.

Basically we spent over 2 hours in one store, trying on half the stock and considering options. It was the kind of store where when they have a half price sale (which they were), they’re just expensive instead of a ludicrous price, but they do have some beautiful clothes. After a lot of trying on and negotiation over exactly what I was going to cover and what she had to get herself, plus a quick phone call to dad, mum walked out of the store with 6 new items of clothing. She was rapt – I was just exhausted!

and they say women are impulse shoppers…

The Boy and I usually go to the supermarket every 2 weeks or so to do the bulk of our shopping. He doesn’t particularly enjoy going to the supermarket, but neither do I and I generally refuse to suffer it alone.

Last night I did go alone, though. The Boy had a late meeting and I thought I may as well get it over with (plus, he’d be home in time to help carry the bags in). One thing I did notice as I was going through the check out was the much smaller number of “impulse” buys. No chocolate, no beef jerky, no magazines etc. And I should probably point out that these are never things that he will share – these are his personal treats. The only impulse buy, without him along, was some wine that was on sale (which both of us drink).

So there you go – proof that men are just as bad, if not worse, at impulse shopping. Mind you, that doesn’t mean he’s going to get out of going to the supermarket with me from now on. It might cost a little more when he comes along, but at least I’m not navigating the madness by myself.

go brazil!

Brazil winning their first match in this World Cup must have put The Boy in a good mood. When I got home from work last night he was waiting with a glass of wine for me, and announced that he was taking me out to dinner and a movie.

Of course I was always hoping that Brazil would win, as a good girlfriend should, but it looks like I now have an added incentive to cheer for them…

wasted time

The Boy and I went to the movies last Friday night with a couple of friends. After a bit of debate, we decided to see The Omen. I left the theatre afterwards wondering why they’d bothered with the remake. There weren’t really a lot of whizz-bang effects or changes. It was an almost word for word remake of the original, with just a few minor differences (mainly to update it with new technology, like digital cameras and email).

Quite honestly, I think I’d recommend getting the original out on dvd rather than going to see the new version.

definitely not cheating

Well, last night The Boy more than made up for last week’s toasted sandwich dinner. I got home from work to find him not only feeling 100% better, but putting the final touches on a big pot of made-from-scratch soup. Since homemade soup is one of my very favourite winter meals, he definitely got points off the scale for that lovely surprise.

literally powerless…

We don’t realise how reliant we are on electricity until it isn’t there, do we? The power went out in the city about 8.30 this morning, and didn’t come back on until 12.30 pm. We were all sitting around work griping about it, and realising how completely dependent we are on our computers. All the local cafes were out of action, as was our boiling water tap, so some of the caffeine addicts were getting pretty ugly, too.

The Boy is home sick today, and was completely gutted that he couldn’t even watch tv or play with his computer. I popped home earlier to check on him (since I work just over the street), and he was still sulking about it. He really isn’t the best patient in the world, poor baby. Oh well, at least the power is back now.

cheating?

So, if you’ve promised to cook dinner, is making toasted sandwiches cheating? I’m a little torn on this one. On one hand, you technically have provided food, which is what you promised to do. On the other hand, though, it isn’t really a “proper” dinner.

Yes, The Boy made toasted sandwiches for dinner last night. Ten points for keeping his promise, but minus 5 for execution…

go boy!

On Monday, The Boy promised me that he would cook Tuesday to Friday this week (I may have mentioned that he’d been a tad slack in this area lately…).

I must have looked a little sceptical, because he then asked, in ever so slightly offended tones, if I wanted it in writing. Of course I did, so there is now a little green sticky note in the kitchen bearing witness to his promise.

To give him credit, he has indeed cooked for the last two nights, which bodes well for him following it through to the end. Well done, babe – keep up the good work.

And for those who are wondering – yes, he can cook!

sacrilege!

Apparently there is a theme park in Japan currently hosting a tribute to ice cream. Ordinarily I’d think this was a great idea, since I must confess to considering ice cream a staple food group.

However, I read the list of flavours they were featuring with growing horror. As if flavours like soy sauce, wasabi and fish salad weren’t bad enough, it seems the top choice is cow tongue flavour. Yes, cow tongue flavour. This stomach-churning concoction is made with a mixture of vanilla and beef broth, with little red chunks of actual cow tongue.

I can’t even begin to describe how deeply wrong that is.

a harmless passion

I may tease The Boy about his addiction to football but, all in all, it’s a pretty harmless passion. I was just reading an article about Mark Inglis, the idiot (oops, did I say that out loud??) who recently returned from Everest. You know, the one whose climbing party left a fellow climber to die.

Imagine having a partner who, having already lost his legs mountain climbing, decides to give Everest a shot at him. This time he “only” lost a few fingertips, although there may be further damage to his leg stumps as well. Imagine being the partner of an extreme sportsman like that. Waiting for the call about whether he was alive or dead, and what condition he was in this time.

The Boy may come back with a few lumps & bumps from a football game, and may get up at all hours to watch Brazil play, but at least I don’t need to worry about whether he’ll die from it. Except for the possible heart attack risk if Brazil makes it to the World Cup final. I guess football isn’t so bad after all…

the ultimate winter comfort food

After the icy blasts we had this long weekend, there can be no doubt that winter has well and truly arrived. And along with winter temperatures comes winter comfort food. Usually a remnant of childhood, winter comfort food is whatever makes you feel warm, cosy and, of course, comforted on a nasty day.

For me, the ultimate is definitely homemade soup. The Boy and I beat the winter chill yesterday with a huge pot of it, with a bit of warm cheese bread on the side. What a great meal to warm up a cold, nasty evening.

how can it be so hard?

I was putting my black pants on this morning, and noticed that they really are getting a bit past it. You know what that means – its that time every woman dreads: time to go shopping for black pants.

Every woman’s-wear store you go in to, especially at this time of year, has black pants for sale, usually in at least 3 different styles. With that being the case, why is it so hard to find a pair you like, that fit well and are reasonably flattering?

I know I’m not alone in this – I work with loads of women, and most of them agree. How can buying something as seemingly easy as a pair of black pants be so hard?

run, forrest, run

The Boy and I finally saw the da Vinci Code last night. Although I thought the book was better, overall it’s a pretty well done movie.

The major drawback is how can you take the guy who played Forrest Gump seriously in a role as intellectual as Robert Langdon?

Every time Tom Hanks’ da Vinci Code character was deep in thought over some knotty code, he got that slightly vacant, puzzled look. It might make me a bad person, but all I could think was “run, Forrest, run!”… because that’s just who he looked like…