25 August 2008

Let them in

Just a quick one after spending a week in the Croatian "riveriera". Let 'em in to the EU! C'mon guys , they're lovely. Mr B and me and and Agent Orange met up last week in the coastal town of trieste, italy. We hired a dark blue work horse of a station wagon, subsequently dubbed 'Viduka' and proceeded to drive to Dubrovnik over 2 days, passing through Hvar on the way. coming back up the coast to the north we made a side foray into Mostar, Bosnia, and were overwhemled by the beauty of the old mediaevel city and entertained by a 7 piece gypsy fusion band in a cave in the middle of town. It was only the next day in daylight that we saw the bullet holes, shrapnel scaring and the ruined buildings.

driving back up the coast we visited bol on the island of Brac and Slano where we hired a boat and swam int he adriatic. Now we have met up with mr and mrs bizarro senior to show them a bit more of the old world. fotos to follow.

9 August 2008

Torn

Hey those with feed readers, sorry if you thought that title might refer to some personal tortured tale of woe and heartache from me. It is actually about Natalie Imbruglia. And earache.

The neighbour downstairs and directly behind us has been playing "Torn" by our Natalie, on repeat for at least 2 hours. She was playing it many times yesterday, too. And on Wednesday when I was working in my bedroom office all afternoon with the balcony door open. When I close the door I can't hear it through the double glazing. But it's quite muggy at the moment and it's nicer to have the breeze. This week, fresh air seems to come accompanied by endless repetition of "I'm all out of faith / This is how I feel / I'm cold and I am shamed / Lying naked on the floor .... " wafting in as well.

She was definitely home this morning, she kept coming into the yard to trim hedges, to empty buckets. etc. Her yard is so close I could spit into it from my first floor balcony. But I couldn't quite work up the courage to talk to her. Kind of a tricky one. See I've got no problem with music, I don't care about the volume, I JUST WANT TO HEAR A DIFFERENT SONG. Currently I've wimped out. But if it goes on another couple of days, maybe I'll have to resort to a passive aggressive note. Perhaps I should give her a new cd.

They're terrible lyrics, really. I've always thought that the word "torn" in the song was just an angsty metaphor for being heartbroken. But for me, it's always conjured up images of what happens in a difficult birth (and now it will for you too...) - just an unfortunate lyric choice by an inexperienced pop star. Now I've seen them written down, she could be singing about a rape, almost.

Anyway, not the kind of thing you want to hear over and over and over. Biz and I have discussed possible explanations of the repetitive sound track:
- she' s left it on to make it seem like someone's home and is actually out, unknowingly creating a neighbour torture device (sadly - no, I've seen her)
- she's had a break up and is wallowing (but like, wouldn't just one night on the red wine with Nat be enough? Come on, three days!? )
- she's learning the song for a karaoke competition (ever heard of the internet?)
- she's deaf and doesn't know it's on repeat. (hmmmm)
- it was the sample song that came with her new ipod, and she just really wants to play it and doesn't know how to get new tracks on there. (a bit far fetched, perhaps)
- she's lonely and just wants some music as company (a. no-one's that lonely, and b. we have a thing called TV and radio for that)
- she just really likes that song, and she's eastern european and doesn't really undertstand the lyric anyway.

Signing off, confused, sharing the joys of high density living. Bee.

7 August 2008

Some websites

I've been having an annoying moment, where I know for certain someone told me a funny story on the the weekend, and I clearly remember saying "that's going on my blog!" but have no clue what the actual story was about. I guess drinking at least a bottle of prosecco before 6 pm will do that. Prosecco? Its a cheap dry fizzy white wine. Also called frizzante. Like what you drank in year 11. The euros love that shit.

It was gay day on Saturday by the way. When the whole of Amsterdam goes out to line the Prinsengracht and camp it up. Yay. I had pancake brunch in one canal-side flat, immediately followed by bbq lunch at another and watched the parade with some boyz from London and some work colleagues from the shall-remain-unnamed NGO I was working for. Then back at ours for more drinks, plus grilled chicken, then a trip to visit a street party at the homomonument in pouring rain, then a very studenty party in the red-light district, hosted by a fellow named Boo. Ah, Amsterdam.

So to compensate for lack of humorous anecdotes, here are some sites I've been visiting recently.

Passive Aggressive Notes Warning - time wasting alert ahead!
Mother Jones Lefty-yankie current affairs that aren't too hysterical
Hollow Men (to watch the shows online, scarily accurate)
Flycheapo (handy index of what airlines fly in and out of what airports)
Via Michelin (put in origin and destination, and voila it spits out directions and travel times)

4 August 2008

Imaginary husband corral

(an occasional series)

Older readers may recall my collection of imaginary husbands. Triple J's Richard Kingmill was in it a few years back. David Tennant is a newer recruit (but he has a very busy schedule of imaginary wives these days), I could probably be tempted to cheat on David and Richard with Russel Brand, though, only because he looks like a cross between David Bowie and my first boyfriend, and he's cheekier than both. But an older, more abiding and somewhat secret passion of mine has been for Brendan Fraser. I can sense the real Mr B slapping his forehead at this, saying "Jesus, not that Fraser again... enough! - It's just brendan-brendan-brendan around here at the moment." But BF is kinda goofy and knowing somehow at the same time, eminently watchable, and I'd even go and see him in the Mummy, and put up with the "fog of special effects" as described in this article and interview with the Guardian. But, having read it just now he now seems, well, kind of nuts, too.

Joss Wheedon rides again

Been missing the special buffy-eque use of language? That unique Joss Whedon touch of adjectivising a noun (now don't get all piratey on me people...)? Well he did an online musical. Click here:



You might enjoy it, Aussie nerd-grrrls.