NaBloPoMo: day 28

I can't wear my earphones in my left ear at the moment because my piercing is tender. The left ear bud must have known it was going to be out of a job because it stopped working a few days ago. 

I walked half way home after work and the tram arrived just as I got to the tram stop. Perfect timing.

I have only 15 working days left for the year. I'm flying up to mum's for Christmas on 24 December and coming back on the 30th to spend New Year's Eve with Luke before returning to work on 4 January. We'll do our annual road trip later in January or February when he can take leave. We want to go back to the Blue Mountains since it was cold and wet with almost zero visibility when we passed through in January.  

   

NaBloPoMo: day 9

Bridge graffiti 

The sunshine was lovely and warm this morning while I waited for the tram. I almost wouldn't have minded if the tram had been delayed, but it wasn't. 

I spent most of my work day archiving old files. It's kind of boring, but it's also satisfying to clear out the clutter and to reclaim all of the lever arch folders, bulldog clips and paper clips that had been sitting around on shelves doing nothing.  If I had my way I'd clear out a lot more junk, but my boss is a bit of a hoarder. 

I refilled the pepper grinder at dinner time tonight and we had exactly the right amount of  peppercorns in the pantry to fill it to the top. 

New stuff, compliments, coincidence

My recent online purchase arrived today. No, not shoes or clothes! Books! Books are totally allowed. I got a couple of Meghan Daum essay collections: Unspeakable and Selfish, Shall and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen writers on the decision not to have kids. 

They arrived in a large, square tough bag, making a flat lump in the middle of it. It looked like a giant piece of ravioli.

I wore a new cardigan today...new in that I bought it last year but only wore it for the first time today (certainly not new since my shopping ban started on 1 June). Several people complimented me on it, particularly the colour (royal blue). 

After work I walked for a block or two along Flinders Street behind a woman in a beige coat and cropped pants (I mainly noticed the cropped pants because I thought she must have cold ankles). I went into a supermarket and bought a few things then caught the tram. When I got off the tram at my stop, she got off at the same time! It's not the first time a coincidence like that has happened, sometimes on the way to work, sometimes on the way home. 

Surprisingly good mood, appreciation, coincidence

I went in to work for a few hours today to finish off some end-of-month billing. Not only did going to work on my day off not make me cross, I was in a great mood. Bizarre! I did get to have a sleep in, and I enjoyed soaking up some warmth from the sun on my way into the office, so I suppose that helped. 

My boss left me a note on top of the bills. When I first saw the blue note paper poking out of the manila folder I groaned inwardly thinking it was going to be a page of annoying handwritten edits, but no.  It's nice to be appreciated. 

This appeared in my Facebook timeline on day 2 of my shopping ban, courtesy of Grandiloquent Word of the Day. Quite the coincidence. Not that I considered my urge to shop to be obsessive or  uncontrollable.  

  

November: day 16 and 17

Pretty flowers outside the Melbourne Town Hall 

I got out of the lift on my floor yesterday and a man I didn't know exited at the same time. He went left and I went right, but then I remembered I wanted to go to the kitchen in the other direction, so I did an about-face...only to find he'd turned around and was heading back the other way too! We chuckled as we crossed paths.  

I didn't find the nine-letter word (and I can't remember what it was - something I'd never heard of, I think to do with the anatomy of a flower?), but I found something better. No, 'octopusis' isn't a word...

***

Only 25 working days until I'm on leave for Christmas. I can't believe I only started the countdown yesterday.  

Day 25: Complimented, pink roses everywhere, leftovers

A man at work in dapper navy pin-striped trousers and a matching waistcoast complimented me on my colour co-ordinated outfit today...except I was just leaving for home and was wearing my far-from-new gym shoes which matched the turquoise top I was wearing under a dress. Sneakers and dress. Not my best look. Oh well. A compliment is a compliment. 

We had berry cheesecake for afternoon tea for a solicitor's birthday. Yummy. She was sent bright pink roses to the office by a friend. They perfectly matched the pink flowers on her patterned shirt. 

Luke and I had the leftover corned beef for dinner. Still good.  

Televisual ESP, cheesy, musical inspiration

Yesterday evening, for reasons I know not, I felt an urge to re-watch Amelie. A little later on I was flicking through the channels and there it was, showing on SBS One. Is it one of those movies that gets shown every two months, like the Back to the Future movies on commercial TV?  It was about half way through, so I didn't watch it then, but I will soon.

Cheesy

Luke bought some marinated artichokes during the week which didn't end up getting used, but I didn't want them to go to waste (they came from the deli, not out of a jar). This morning a recipe popped up on Pinterest using marinated artichokes - a baked chicken dish with garlic, tomatoes, cheese and basil - so I made it for dinner (with some added spinach). It was so quick and easy to make, and very tasty. Is it possible for anything topped with golden, slightly crispy cheese to not be tasty? It was perfect Sunday night fare. 

Musical inspiration

I haven't bought any new music in months and was lacking inspiration, so I asked Twitter for suggestions. Jane (Gleeful reader, logophile and writer of the Six Degrees of Sir Thomas Urquhart blog) suggested this song, which I like very much, and not just because it has our name in it. 

The song was performed and filmed for Radio National and was on a playlist of 39 songs and interviews uploaded to Youtube by the broadcaster. I spent most of the afternoon listening to and watching them - such a wide variety of performers, most of whom were completely new to me. I liked Paul McDermott and his band singing Slow Ride, the work of Tuba Skinny and Moriarty, Gordon Webster and Friends with Every Day I Got the Blues, and watching RN Drive host Waleed Aly trying to play the kazoo, using a kazoo made by the world's only kazoo museum. (Can you believe that? Only one!) 

A few other Twitter people made suggestions too, but I haven't looked them up yet. Feeling much more inspired now. 

Close encounters, the joy of reduplication and being helpful

My extra long weekend is drawing to a close, but it's been a good one. I've left it too late to write a post about our Gippsland adventure tonight, but I'll share a quick pic.

On a whim, we stopped at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne on the outskirts of Melbourne on our way home. The gardens feature large tracts of fairly untouched native bushland. At the start of a walking track there was a sign warning of snakes. I secretly thought, "Ooh, I hope we see one", and we did! It was sunning itself on the path and we got within about 1.5 metres of it. No, I wasn't scared. 

  

I think it was a young brown snake (considered the second most venomous land snake in Australia). It stayed where it was for about 20 seconds, then turned and slithered into the undergrowth. A few metres along we saw a bandicoot, which at first I thought was a rat.

It calmly toddled off into the undergrowth after spotting us too. Hopefully it didn't encounter the nearby snake...or hopefully it did? A snake's gotta eat after all. Circle of life and all that.  

I'll tell you about the rest of our trip soon - and post the photos from my ghost hunting excursion too. 

In the meantime...

I finished reading Let's Bring Back...The Lost Language Edition last night. I didn't think many of the words and phrases really were lost, which is perhaps due to the author being American and me Australian, but I still enjoyed the book. 

Other favourites:

* womblecropped - a state of wretchedness or humiliation

* wiffle-woffles - down in the dumps 

I will now have to choose between mubblefubbles and wiffle-woffles next time I wish to convey that I'm in low spirits. 

I've noticed while reading the book that I have a fondness for words created through reduplication - that is, words created by repeating parts of a word. There are three kinds of reduplication: rhyming (mubblefubbles), exact (bling-bling) and ablaut, in which the vowel is changed, such as in wiffle-woffles and more common words like zig-zag, ding-dong and wishy-washy. I'm not fussed about exact reduplication, but I do get a kick out of the rhyming and ablaut kinds. There are lists of all kinds here. 

I knew there was a term for these word forms, but I couldn't remember it, so I asked google. Fortunately, 'words like willy nilly rhyming' produced the desired result.  

Fat glee

I had a gleeful moment at the supermarket today. As I waited at the deli, a customer  asked the deli worker if she had goose or duck fat. She didn't, but said there might be some in the meat section. I said I'd just seen duck fat in the butter section - coincidentally the first time I'd ever noticed it. It was obviously in my destiny to help a stranger acquire the fat of poultry today. The man thanked me and wandered off. 

I passed him in the butter aisle looking for it, but it wasn't there. I said maybe it was in the meat section after all and I'd have a look. He said not to worry and wandered off again. The meat section was only in the next aisle, so I got it and gave it to him. He was very thankful.

A small thing, but it made me smile. Never let it be said that I would stand idly by and watch someone leave a shop without their duck fat. 

Recognised, cool change, mania

Still no Sydney update - I have to tell you about something else that happened on burger and gelati (burgelati?) night. After I left the shop with my blood orange and chocolate gelati and sat down at a table outside, a woman in the shop stopped Luke on his way out to ask if I was the owner of the Girl in Melbourne blog. He answered in the affirmative and then relayed this to me straight away. I was a little bit thrilled. I've been recognised! 

Then after she had finished her gelati, the woman came over to say hello herself! Her name is Brooke. She said she's a lurker at GiM. If you're lurking here too, Brooke, hello! You made my day. 

The weather in Melbourne was very cooperative today. The cool change came through in the afternoon, sending the temperature plummeting 10 degrees to 27 in 10 minutes, which allowed Luke and I to walk in comfort to Bridge Road. I think we're going to have to start planning our route to Grill'd and Fritz now because it's becoming harder to find 'new' streets. So soon! 

We didn't see much new this evening...oh, wait - we saw two nuns of Daughters of Divine Zeal on Church Street. The street name's not a coincidence - the imposing St Ignatius church sits high on the hill opposite the hostel run by the Daughters. I can't comment on how zealous they were. We didn't get close enough.

I also patted a friendly Russian blue cat that was sitting on the front porch of a blue house. I think his humans like blue. 

And I spotted this old sign on the back of the building Grill'd occupies. 

It says 'coke depot' on the upper right, but I can't make out the rest. Something ending in 'ggs' on the left maybe? 

When we were walking through Gosch's Paddock on our way home, there were dozens of bats flying overhead on their way to feast at the Botanic Gardens. I see them most nights - sometimes one or two flying right past our window - but I don't often see so many.  

My invention of burgelati above reminded me that I've recently come to suspect I have some kind of sickness characterised by a mania for making up portmanteau words. I can't help it. I just do it without thinking. For example, every time I see the 7Eleven ad for their Frozen Coke, inside my head I scream, 'FROKE! Just call it FROKE!' It's not a bad affliction. I quite enjoy it. Maybe I'll start a blog called Portmantopia... 

An obscure coincidence

Hello and happy new year! OK, it's not so new now. I started writing this a week ago, but got side-tracked by laptop dramas which involved losing nearly a year's worth of photos (and my temper). Fortunately I managed to recover the photos (and regain my composure).

 

I'll give you a full report of my Sydney adventures soon, but before I get around to that, I have another one of those freaky little coincidences to share. 

 

While I was on holidays I read The Lost Art of Walking, which included a (somewhat mocking) chapter on psychogeography, a concept completely new to me even though the practice isn't.

 

Last Thursday evening Luke and I brought forward our regular Friday night burgers and gelati date and I picked up a copy of Frankie magazine to read while eating my meal.  While flicking quickly through it, I thought I saw the word 'psychogeography' zip past my eyeballs. 'No, surely not!' I thought. 'That would be far too great a coincidence.'

 

I paged through more slowly and guess what? There was a little story on psychogeography! It was headed: The art of psychogeography or how to make fartarsing about seem legitimate and intellectual. Ha! (No, I did not rip the page out of the magazine or nick the whole thing.) The story, by Eleanor Robertson, reads: 

Travelling through human environments, especially cities, is usually a means to an end. Anything else is variously known as 'dawdling', 'wasting time' and ' for god's sake would you stop fartarsing about'. In 1955 social theorist Guy Debord legitimised the practice of fartarsing about as a meaningful and valuable activity called 'psychogeography'. Actively encouraging aimless daydreamy wandering, it turns urban spaces into objects of wonder, rather than simply points between A and B.

The idea of familiar cities as something to savour originated in 19th century France with the flaneur, or wanderer, a concept that really got going in critic Walter Benjamin's analysis of poet Charles Baudelaire. The flaneur is a social and literary archetype: a privileged intellectual man who, instead of working for a wage, uses his wealth to bunk off employment in favour of strolling  the streets of Paris. The flaneur is an observer, someone who experiences urbanity for its own sake. He doesn't hurry through the streets and passageways; he enjoys being in them on purpose. 

Psychogeography is best thought of as bushwalking in cities. Bushwalking is satisfying because nature is beautiful, and with attention and some luck, you can experience a bunch of cool things happening...The same is true for cities, with  buildings and architecture creating the landscape, and people creating the interest and drama. After laying dormant for half a century, psychogeography is becoming popular again, mainly because having a smartphone makes it easier and less stressful  to amble about without getting seriously disoriented....

Part of psychogeography is trying to alter your perception of what's around you in order to appreciate the historical dimensions of where you are. Ivan Chtcheglov, Guy Debord's friend and collaborator in revolutionary project Situationist International, said:  "All cities are geological; you cannot take three steps without encountering ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends. We move within a closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us toward the past."  Or in less airy-fairy terms: what landmarks are around you? Who built them and why? what are they trying to tell you about your city?
 

Another part of psychogeography is the idea of leisure for its own sake. The Situationist International was heavily into seeking experiences "outside capital" - a Marxist way of saying that society doesn't really provide for our need to play and explore because we're all too busy  working. Most of our human-made environments and the activities we consider 'normal' to perform there, are centred around either making money or spending it. "Radical leisure" uses those places for pure fun, gaining enjoyment from a place without being productive in the economic sense of the word. 

So what does this all mean to you? ...go for a walk!... Pretend you're a tourist in your own city or suburb. Pay attention to what you see and how you feel about it. What's unexpected? Watch people around you, interacting with the landscape in different ways. And remember to take pictures...

 

Can I call myself a psychogeographer, do you think? It'd be nice to be a flaneur and spend my days strolling about observing stuff, but sadly I'm lacking the wealth to enable a life of bunking off employment. Sigh. 

A timely post

You won't be surprised to hear I have other word fixations apart from the ones I wrote about the other day - the SH sounds and OUGH words. I also have a thing about words relating to time -   the time of day and to periods of time. 

I think this fixation started with vespertine, meaning of or relating to evening or dusk, often applied to creatures active at sundown. It's one of my favourite words, just because I like the way it sounds. I once followed someone on Twitter solely because her Twitter handle was Vespertine.

Then I started to notice other unusual words relating to the time of day or periods of time, but foolishly failed to make a list. It took me ages last night to compile this list of time-related words (yes, it was a wild night in for me).  Even if nobody reads this, I'm pleased to have finally written all this stuff down for myself.

The list

Crepuscular - relates to twilight, most commonly referring to animals active at dawn or dusk.

Matutinal (or matinal) - the opposite of vespertine, relating to dawn, again most commonly in relation to the habits of animals.  

Cathemeral - neither one nor the other - irregularly active at any time of night or day, according to prevailing circumstances. 

Nocturnal - I think you all know this one. 

Noctivagant - going about in the night, night wandering.

Diurnal - active during the day; something that can be done in one day, happens on a daily basis, or lasts only one day.

Quotidian - of or relating to every day; daily; ordinary or everyday. I like this word because in its latter sense it describes the opposite of what it is: it's an unusual and uncommon word that describes the opposite.

Hemerine - also means of or relating to a day or daily.

Biduous - lasting for two days.

Hebdomadal - weekly. 

Acronychal -  also means something happening in the evening or at nightfall, but primarily refers to a star that rises or sets at the same time as the sun. 

Cosmical - also comes from astronomy, this time relating to a star that rises or sets at sunrise.  

Heliacal - another word about the patterns of stars, this time a star first seen to rise or set at sunrise or sunset after a period when the event was invisible because it was too close to the sun. Probably won't be slipping that one into conversation.  

Yestreen - yesterday night. Why use two words when you can use one? 

Meridian -  relating to noon, which obviously gives us AM (ante meridiam) and PM (post meridiam).

Pridian -  relating to the previous day

Ultradian - refers to cycles of physiological activity which recur with a period shorter than one day but longer than one hour.

Circadian - refers to physiological occurring approximately every 24 hours, or the rhythm of such activity.

Hodiernal - pertaining to the present day (from the Latin hodie for 'today').

Hesternal - of yesterday’s standing or date.

Crastin - an obsolete English word meaning 'the day after', which you will recognise from 'procrastinate', which means put off to the next day. I read in The Horologicon of a word meaning to put of to the day after tomorrow, but I don't remember what it was and I'm too lazy to go and look for it now.

While I was doing my research (also known as 'googling'), I noted another word  relating to time - panychous - but didn't  write down the meaning. Obviously I can't remember it because of the brain trouble. So I went to look it up again tonight and now Google is pretending there's no such word. It returns one result which is part of someone's email address. Maybe I should email this person and ask them what it means? I even looked it up in a proper dictionary (the paper one), and it's not there. If you know what it means, please let me know. 

Sheets to the wind

Today while wandering aimlessly in the city, I went into the shop at the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square. I picked up a hip flask* to have a closer look at the words etched on it. At the exact moment I read the words "three sheets to the wind" (i.e. very drunk), The Audreys playing on my iPod sang, "sheets to the wind". It's remarkable how often this sort of lyrical coincidence happens to me. 

(* no, I'm not contemplating sneaking liquor into my office or anything like that. Sometimes it would be handy not to have to take a whole bottle of gin with me when I go to a barbecue or whatever.)

Etymologicon lovers unite!

Another Jane who lives in Melbourne found my blog while looking for fellow lovers of The Etymologicon! Honestly, I'm starting to think there should be a fan club. Jane also reminded me that I've forgotten to visit the author's website, Inky Fool. What an oversight. I know what I'll be doing this weekend...

You know what else is good about today? It's Friday, that's what. Only about 15 hours until my creaky body is on that massage table. 

Warm, coincidence, two, many

It was a very chilly walk home tonight. I donned my furry earmuffs for the first time this winter, as well as gloves and scarf. I rarely wear a scarf when I'm walking because I usually warm quickly and end up carrying it in my bag most of the way. But tonight I wore it the whole way home...home to my nice, cosy flat.  Aaaaaaah. After more than seven years living here, I still don't take my warm flat for granted (the heating is on all the time in winter and it's free. Not so great for the environment, but I have no control over it. I try to shrink my ecological footprint in other ways in an attempt to compensate). 

I got an email from a friend and Gleeful reader who is also currently reading The Etymologicon! What a coincidence!  She is also loving it. I told you it's good, didn't I?

I saw two Nankeen Night Herons on the walk home tonight. So there actually is more than one of them. 

Speaking of more than one bird, have a look at this video of a Chinese farmer taking his flock of ducks for a walk ('flock' doesn't seem to be an appropriate collective noun for birds on foot, rather than on the wing). I've never seen so many ducks in one place! They're very well behaved. 

Foys, matching, spoilt for choice

I saw this old sign quite a while ago, but had to wait for the trees to lose their leaves for a clearer shot. 

Foys was one of Australia's earliest department stores. The Melbourne store was on Bourke Street, I think where Target is now, but I'm not sure. I found a photo of the store from 1957, but can't pinpoint the location. The sign is just around the corner on Swanston Street, on the side of Curtin House. 

I went to the hairdresser again today to get my blue highlights touched up in a few places. The salon manager and I were wearing matching outfits (except I wasn't wearing a plastic apron). She and the other hairdresser make me laugh. My highlights are more of a royal blue than turquoise now. 

Luke and I dropped into The Book Grocer in the city this afternoon. I bought The Superior Person's Second Book of Words by Peter Rowler, which, according to the inside cover blurb, will unquestionably establish me as the most interesting person at any dinner party.  I hope it won't matter if I read the second book before the first.  I also bought a biography of Samuel Johnson (the "dictionary dude" as I described him).  

I'm nearly finished reading my current book....which one to read next...

There were globe artichokes in the fresh produce section at the supermarket today. I held one up and pretended to be an Olympic torch bearer and the Statue of Liberty. 

The sky aglow at sunset tonight, as seen from my window

'

Bag ladies, beanie girl, autumn colour

St Peter's Anglican Church, corner

 Albert & Gisborne Streets 

I've had my Cybertart Grrrrrrr bag for a few years now and I've never seen anyone else with the same bag. But today I met a woman who also owns it - a radiologist, who interrupted her spiel about when my results will be available to say she has the same bag. 

I saw a little girl today wearing a beanie and dark-rimmed nerdy glasses. Very cute. 

I walked home through the Fitzroy Gardens tonight. Although it was almost dark, I could see beautiful autumn colours through the gloom  - deep red foliage on the trees and carpets of russet leaves on the ground. I've made a mental note to go there on the weekend to take photos.  

Tickets, chance meetings, tiny fish

I got my tickets to see Jack White. Yay! Only three months until the show...


I bumped into two people from my old job today. One on the way to work and one at lunch time.

Tonight walking home I saw a white-faced heron stalking along the banks of the Yarra hunting for its dinner. It caught a tiny little fish. 

I read the other day that Judy Blume's book Tiger Eyes is being made into a movie. Like a lot of girls in the 70s and 80s, I loved her books and Tiger Eyes was my favourite. 

Action, coincidence, change

Today I took steps to fix a situation that has been making me unhappy and cranky for a couple of months. It's amazing how much better I feel after doing something, instead of just moaning about it. 

I rang someone today whom I haven't spoken to in well over a year and she said she was just about to give me a call. What a coincidence! 

I walked home a different way after work - through the Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens and around the base of the MCG.  I haven't done that for ages. 

Fluttering, beat me to it, day off

I saw a butterfly fluttering by the window of the kitchen on the 44th floor of my building this afternoon.

I picked up my phone to text Luke today and there was a message from him sitting there waiting for my attention.

I have a day off work Friday. Gotta love a four-day week.

Nick of time, Mexican, Bess

Phew, it's not midnight yet! I was lying in bed then suddenly remembered I hadn't posted today.

I had delicious nachos and lemon margaritas at Mexicali Rose in Richmond tonight. Yum (except for the margarita that was very salty and had to be returned).

Luke and saw a greyhound on Swan Street after dinner. I like greyhounds. We had one as a pet when I was a kid. Bess was a lovely, placid dog. Coincidentally, now I think about it, we were walking past a restaurant called Bess when we saw the greyhound. It stopped near the open door of Bess as if it had got a whiff of something good.

It's the weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend! 

I knew there must have been a reason I bought that CD. And gherkins.

I went to the movies tonight with an old friend I haven't seen in a while. We saw Crazy Stupid Love with Steve Carell, which was entertaining and quite sweet. There was a really cool song in one scene and I made a mental note to google it when I got home. I googled it - it's by The Dead Weather and it's  on a CD that I own, but never listen to. I might give it another spin.

I've eaten nearly a whole jar of gherkins this weekend. I've just got a thing for them right now (no, I'm not with child). They go very well with cream cheese, ham and lots of cracked pepper. Yum.