hobbies

I have a new one.  Well, can you count 10 months as new?  It still feels novel, so I'm saying yes. 
I am a postcrosser.  I can't quite remember how I discovered Postcrossing, probably from another blog.  Have you heard of it?  I think it's just wonderful.  For the uninitiated, how it works is:  you sign up, are given the address of a user at random.  You send them a postcard.  Once they receive said postcard, a different random user will be allocated your address, and you will receive a postcard at random.  In fact their motto is:

“send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person in the world!”

I've never been outside of Australia, so perhaps for the non-traveller, Postcrossing offers a little taste of the unknown. 

So far I have received 67 postcards, plus a few extra from private swaps (being unregistered swaps facilitated through Postcrossing, but not counted toward your totals).

This is so far my favourite card.  Isn't it just fantastic?  I love the propaganda-style endoresment of electricity.  Who'd have thunk it! I think it's an advertising card of some kind, from Russia.  It says on the front, I am told, 'feeling energy'.

In fact, I adore all the cards I receive from Russia.  Good thing Russia boasts the most amount of postcrossers eh?

Some of the messages written (or in the following case, printed) on the cards are just fantastic.  This one is from a South Korean postcrosser:

Another super cool thing I love are the stamps from different countries!

I'm starting to amass a collection of blank postcards, so that I have a decent stock from which to draw each recipient's postcard from.  I even found an Ansett one in a St Kilda newsagent!

I like to put interesting stamps on my outgoing postcards too.  Look at that seagull-chip one!  I don't think it gets more Australian than that!

Are you a postcrosser?  If not, why not??  I think it's a lovely, stress-free, slow paced hobby.  It takes very little time and money to get started, but it does get quite addictive once you start receiving those postcards!

If you are a postcrosser, wanna swap?  Find me on Postcrossing here.

Linking to-  What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict)

cuteness update

Yo yo yo, it's Caturday y'all.

Sometimes during the day A will send me what we call 'cuteness updates', being pictures of The Kitten being cute.  This one in particular really needed to be shared. 

Oh, and I saw this in MX this week.  Yes, I do Me-ouch.

Also, happy Australia Day :)

the usual suspects

the commuter project, aka Sailor's Delight.  All I can say is that it is growing, but slowly.


You might (or not, whatevs) also be interested to know that this is the first time ever I have had red toenails.  Oh I feel so pretty!!

the special request, aka a moose!  At least the beginnings of one.  I don't know about you, but whenever I get a request to make something, I get a case of the warm & fuzzies. Aww you think my skills are good enough??  This one is for a friend of a Chris, who gave said Chris this christmas card one year.  Said Chris liked the card very much, so Mr Moose will be a follow up gift.  This one will differ from the pattern as the requestor specifically wants googly eyes.  That just means this moose will be much awesomer. 

Trust me, that's its head. 

the skiller upper, aka Venus, my first go at tunisian crochet.  Ok ok, So I am halfway through row 2, but I am excited about this one!  It took me a couple of gos to get going, but now I think I have the hang of it.  It seems slow though, and using a 5.5mm hook with laceweight yarn feels weird and clumsy, but I'm sure I'll warm to it.  I know I said I might be using other yarn for this, but that's another story. 

I have yet to learn how to take photos true to colour.  fhaw;ghawjkhasbcv

the nearly FOs, a bunch of things almost ready to be gifted, bar a few buttons, ribbons, and blocking.  I also tend not to snip all my ends off post-weaving-in until after blocking.  Anyone else do this?  I don't know if I got this anywhere, but I like to think that blocking might 'set' the yarn, so that when I snip the tails off they won't go poking out anywhere.  Is that a 'thing' or did I pull that out of my arse?

And there we have it!

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

Running

I dedicate this post to my fitness guru, secretary, crochet biatch and wonderful friend, Rhonda.



Fitness and I have never seen eye to eye.  We have had a very strained, on-again-off-again relationship, dating back to high school where I would forge my mother's signature to get out of every second class of P.E.  (Seriously, I would be on my period every second day).  I would always promptly tell my mother what I had done when I got home, and she would laugh.  Not that I blame her in any way for my attitude, I just don't think it was ever my thing.  I was much more interested in book learning than running around in my leisure time. 

Recently however, we've been getting to know each other properly, fitness and I.  I, especially, have realised that fitness, when all is said and done, is actually really good.  Go figure.  What I'm trying to be is a runner. 

First up, I haven't done this alone.  Rhonda has been my trainer, and with her guidance and encouragement I have been able to achieve more than I ever thought possible.  I'm starting to really enjoy running, and it's all because of her :) 

I've been running now since around September.  It toom me about 8 weeks to be able to run 5 kilometers.  1 week less than that popular couch to 5k thing that is so fashionable.  I've wanted to blog about it for a while now, but I didn't think it would be very interesting.  I've changed my mind because it's interesting to me, so to hell with it.  Anyway, I'm collecting my thoughts here today and thought I might share what I'm learning about running.

It's hard

This is probably obvious, and in some ways I always knew it to be true, but thinking about how hard something is and knowing how hard something is are two different things.  After every work out with Rhonda, I am done.  Totally spent.  Out of breath, covered in sweat.  (Rhonda meanwhile doesn't even need a shower!).  I still get really anxious right before I head out for a 'long run' (read: 5km), I guess because I know it's going to be difficult.  I said to Rhonda one day that I can't wait until it gets eaiser.  Her response: "it's always going to be hard, because you'll always be pushing yourself to get better."  Yipes.  I do think I'm getting more used to it and ready for the challenge, but it's a long road.

People do not judge you

This was a big one for me for quite some time.  I was worried about people looking at my red face, seeing how puffed out I was, making judgements about my pitiful level of fitness.  You know what?  No one fucking cares.  In fact, it's the opposite.  Your friends will be interested in your progress and extremely supportive.  Who'd have guessed right?  The judgements they do make are based on your awesomeness.  I've had random comments from people saying 'hey saw you out there'! or, 'you're getting quite athletic' because we always run into each other in the change rooms.  And those comments are totally welcome. 

It's heaps better outside

Treadmill = so boring!  5km on the treadmills feels like an eternity more than outside.  Outside is just gorgeous, and you can literally see how far you've run.  You get the bonus added feelings of accomplishment for running up a difficult hill, and feeling like a runner with all the other lunchtime running enthusiasts.  Although, I haven't been a runner in winter yet, so we'll see how my feelings are in 6 months!

It makes you feel good

Good, inside and out.  The feeling of accomplishment and pride are probably the best things I've gotten out of this new fitness kick.  When you start to build up and improve your own personal best you are amazed, astounded and just so so happy with what you are able to achieve.  Also, those endorphins are probably helping to make me feel happy!  Remember, exercising gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t kill people!

It's possible

This was the biggest shock.  I can run people.  Wow.  Just wow.  At the moment I can run 5km.  Do you know how far that is?  FAR.  I am so very very proud of myself and am looking forward to doing more.  I am totally confident that by March I will be running 14km, and will be able to complete the Run for the Kids.  Stay tuned.

Thank you again Rhonda, you really can't know how amazingly inspirational you are to me <3

P.S.  Sorry for all the mushy inspirational quotes, but in the context of fitness I find them so relevant.  Plus I like them so STFU!

P.P.S.  I have a fitness board called Get f**king motivated on Pinterest. 

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: AJ's Café Terrace

Wow, this review has been sitting in my drafts for a while waiting for me to finish it up.  So, without further ado, our eggs benny experience at AJ's...

Dining Date: 21 November 2012

Location: AJ's Café Terrace
45 William St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Ph: 03 9614 1489

AJ's is a nice little no-fuss cafe.  They have a sandwich and hot food bar for lunch, and luckily for us, hot breakfasts too.  They also have ample outdoors seating, out of the way of the street which can be annoying at times.

Individual ratings:
Tanya:  7/10

Base: English muffins!  yaaaaayyyyy
Eggs:  Yep yep, good good.
Sauce:  I think it was that pre-made stuff, but still tasty.
Ham:  Bacon:  mmmm bacon.  Ham is traditional, but bacon is forever.
Price:  A steal at $10.90
Coffee:  Quite good, I ordered seconds.
Service:  Excellent.  Very friendly couple own and operate this eatery. 
Overall comment:  An enjoyable experience, solid fare at a no-frills eatery. 

Apart from the service, we witnessed a super cute exchange between one of the owners (a Chinese man) and a tradie who was erecting some new umbrellas. 

The tradie said to the mans wife (also owner I believe):  "Tell him (the husband) to get his tools, he needs his tools."

Owner/wife (jokingly): "What?  Are you going to pay me for my translation services?  You're working for Chinese people, you should speak Chinese!!"

It was super cute!!

Let's eat! 

Lil sis:  8/10 We ventured to my local AJ's, I have been here many a time but never for breakfast. What keeps me coming back is the owner, a Asian lady who is one of the sweetest people you may ever meet. The breakfast itself was standard but delicious very similar to KCL's another cafe on my side of the city (see our review here.) Eggs weren't the best but the sauce wins for me and there was lots of it! It came with bacon too and I really enjoyed that. Because of the service and cute little Asian lady I give AJ's Eggs Benny a 8/10 :)

And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter? 7.5 out of 10 Benedicts!

Make sure you check out my map and the Eggs Benny Leaderboard to see the other eggs benny locations lil sis and I have checked out.

Nov-Dec Movies

Slowly returning to my usual scheduled programming.  I had a fairly dramatic December, but I'm trying to get my life back together.  For the purposes of this post that means watching a lot of movies and telling you about them :)

Some of the movies I've watched these last couple of months...

Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Whedon really cannot do any wrong.  I luff you Whedon!!!  This a pretty cool horror movie, with a cool unexpected (at least to me) twist.  Do you also hate those people who reckon they 'knew' the twist was coming?  Fuck youse guys, I enjoyed it and I didn't guess it.  Congratulations on being such a buzz kill. 

The Sapphires (2012)
Chris O'Dowd is just adorable.  He does a similar character here to that he did in Bridesmaids.  Plus there is great music, and Deborah Mailman, who we know is amazing.  And Aussie cinema.  Straya! All reasons you should watch this movie.  Much better than I expected, and I expected it to be good.

This is Star Sapphire.  I couldn't think of a cool picture to put here. 

The Quest (1996)
JCVD what are you doing?  JCVC, stahp.  I watched this with a couple of other JCVD fans, and had high hopes.  The beginning of the movie was interesting (JCVD has a mime?  Yes please.)  But it quickly deteriorated into a puddle of drivel.  What have you done JCVD what have you done??  I won't bother listing all the plot holes, there are just too many.  The movie looks good, you can see a lot of money here, but the story is just stupid.  No crafty pic for this movie, oh no you need to see Jean-Claude as a mime!

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
What a great movie!  It really surprises me when I find a great movie full of great people in it that I had previously been completely ignorant of.  This movie is super funny, and definitely worth a look if you like those spoof type movies.  Plus, PAUL RUDD.

The Ten (2007)
Moar Paul Rudd?  Oh, here have The Ten.  Ten short stories based on the ten commandments, that are just oh-so-wrong.  Good flick! (Same director as Wet Hot American Summer, and similarly wacky).

The World According to Garp (1982)
What the what Robin Williams?  Seriously, what?  This is a weird fucking movie with a fucking weird ending.  Good, but weird.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Another supremely weird movie!  I just saw this for the first time, somehow managed to escape all the crazy hype when it came out.  Anyway, it was way too long and just weird.  I'm not a huge BP fan, so this film just didn't have that much appeal for me.

The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Ok, cheating a bit because I couldn't actually get through this movie.  It was just so freaking boring.  I don't remember the others being so boring, but this one was.  All that I took home from this was that Edward Norton was trying to hide some shit, and Jeremy Renner was being sneaky sneaky.  And it had  Evy from The Mummy in it.  Man, now I feel like watching The Mummy.

The Little Mermaid (1989)
Disney is my crutch.  I will choose Disney over chocolate 9 times out of 10.  It just does so much more for making me feel better.  TLM is my favourite Disney movie eva.

Tangled (2010)
More Disney therapy.  Really love this movie, maybe because it is so similar to TLM.  When I first saw this at the cinema, I took my then 6 year old niece.  During the scene where Flynn and Rapunzel are in the boat singing to each other, she leaned over and said "You and A should do that".  D'awwwww!

Bambi (1942)
Believe it or not, I had never seen this before.  So, finally got around to it.  It's a pretty enough movie, but probably won't have a high rotation for me.  I'm sorry, it just doesn't have a princess.

The Avengers (2012)
Have watched this about four time snow and it still doesn't get old.  At the moment my favourite line is "It seems to run on some form of electricity" from Cap.  Here's a cool video, bringing us back to how awesome Whedon is.  Hadn't seen it before?  You're welcome.

Looper (2012)
A movie that I was all eh about after watching the trailer, but found it surprisingly awesome.  Time travel!  Paradoxes!  Oww my brain!  JGL's make up looked a bit freaky at times, but his Bruce Willis impersonation was quite good.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Never forget how fucking funny Monty Python are.  Never ever.  Love this movie. So wrong but oh so right.  Particularly love the headmaster teaching sex-ed, Eric Idle's galaxy song and of course the vomiting man.  It's only wafer thin!! 

Paranorman (2012)
Super great movie!  Especially loved all the little horror movie references (his ringtone lol). Really loved how the horror themes were presented for the kiddies throughout this movie.

Frankenweenie (2012)
Tim Burton is actually ok when he gives his movies a bit of structure.  Lately he's been allowed to run wild and (I've found) his movies are just too chatotic.  I liked this one, but it comes in third after Nightmare and Corpse Bride.  And what's with calling all of your characters Victor?  Seriously, are there no other names that would be appropriate?  Still good to watch though.

The Hunger Games (2012)
I don't think I can criticise this one, or I'll get murdered right?  LOL the internet loves this movie.  I like it, though I think I've mentioned before it's no new concept:  watch Battle Royale people!  Still, the execution was enjoyable.  I've read the books also, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle books 2 and 3 on film.

Dredd (2012)
I was mesmerised by Karl Urban's constant frowny mouth in this movie.  Dredd has some serious anger issues.  But this movie friggin kicked ass!!  The violence was so over-the-top that it really pushed all the right buttons for me.  Cartoonish and fast paced, a new fave movie for me!  Plus Sarah Connor is in it, extra coolio!

Also, here is Karl Urban posing with a child chosplaying Dredd.  My new hero. 

Punisher:  War Zone (2008)
Recommended to me by A as a comparable movie to Dredd, due to the extreme levels of violence.   A good watch if you are that way inclined.  Also, Ray Stevenson, who I became a fan of from his excellent appearance in Dexter.

Yes, this is a hybrid punisher/hello kitty decal.  

Les Miserables (2012)

Oh yeah I saw this the other day.  I've never seen the stage production, but have the soundtrack and am familiar with, and love, the music.  Also a big fan of the Liam Neeson version.  It was good to see how the musical works (just listening to the music, sometimes I wasn't sure who was singing) but was surprised that my sentiments towards the music reflected my reaction to the movie:  love the first Act, bored by the second Act.  Once the movie is no longer focussed on Valjean, I lost interest.  Hugh Jackman was great, Russell Crow was a weird choice and Anne Hathaway was breathtaking.  It was definitely a film you have to see at the movies, but I still prefer the 1998 version. 

Yes, that is les mis inspired yarn.  Deal with it. 

And my stand out movie for dec-jan?

Dredd!  Very closely followed by The Meaning of Life :)

New Year Resolutions

It has to be done doesn't it?

Rather than being specific about all the things I'm going to do, how much weight I'm going to lose, how far I'm going to run, how much I'm going to crochet, all the new things I'm going to learn, I resolve, for 2013, to do my best to be happy and healthy.

That is all.

Happy New Year

xox