Sign excitement, toy store fun, crunchy only

I nearly peed my pants with excitement when I spotted this ghost sign in Armadale this afternoon. I had half an hour to kill so I wandered along High Street looking for old signs. I saw a few relatively unremarkable examples and then BAM! I spotted this brilliant Bournville cocoa sign. It's one of those extra special ghost signs which have been revealed to the world again temporarily by demolition works. 

We went to an ace toy store, Honeybee Toys, in nearby Malvern to buy Christmas presents for Luke's niece and nephews. We had fun playing with the the musical instruments and finger/hand puppets - they had tortoises, a hairy spider, a big brown bat, a little black bat, a bumble bee, and a T-Rex with hilariously feeble arms that were just flaps of fabric. We bought Space Hoppers and a music box. 

I'm addicted to peanut butter on toast at the moment. Thick, melty, delicious peanut butter. Crunchy only. 

Long weekend, wedding, no plans

Today is the first day of my 5-day long weekend. I had a sleep in and then a big bowl of fruit salad and yogurt for brunch at Book Talk Cafe in Richmond with Luke.  

Booktalk sells Sesame Street plush toys. There was Mr Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch, complete with trashcan,  and our favourite, The Count. Ah ah ah aaaaaah. 

Luke and I are heading to Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula for a wedding later this afternoon. I'm going to wear my new(ish) red shoes. I might wear my Alannah Hill black satin coat, but I'm not sure it will be warm enough. The official start of summer is only a month away, but it's a rather wintry spring day today. 

Apart from  seeing Henry Wagons and The Unwelcome Company on Monday night, I have nothing else planned. Plans are good, but I love not having plans too, and making things up as a I go along.

Oh, we might visit the St Kilda Cemetery tomorrow. Coz that's what we like to do for fun. I didn't even know there was a cemetery in St Kilda until a few weeks ago when it came up on a google search.  To my amusement, someone had posted a review of the cemetery on Google+. They gave it an overall rating of "excellent" and they listed "the graves" as the highlight of their visit. 

Robots, dinner for two and Next to Normal

My robots are here! So cute!

I'm cooking dinner for a friend tomorrow. I bought my provisions tonight and can't wait to throw them all together into a (hopefully) delicious meal.  It's so nice to have someone to feed instead of just myself (I've been eating a lot of cheese and tomato on toast so it will do me good to have a proper meal for a change too).

I found out today the hit Broadway show Next to Normal is coming to Melbourne next month. I'd never heard of it until my US friend J, who visited in September, played me the music in the car during our Great Ocean Road sojourn. It was fantastic - and extremely moving. I had to try really, really hard not to cry. I think I will need to take a box of tissues if the music alone had that effect on me.

Early adopter, solo flyer

A well manicured facade on Brighton Street, Richmond

I got a new toy today - an HTC Desire HD Android smartphone, which I think was only released in Australia yesterday. I'm not used to being such an early adopter. It's kind of exciting...but the phone is so advanced compared to my old one that it's a bit puzzling. Something else to get the hang of... at least I'm helping to stave off alzheimer's with all this learning.

I went to the movies on my own again today (to see Gainsbourg). I'm completely unfazed by it now. I've decided I'm going to push myself to cross my final flying solo frontier  - I'm going to go to a pub gig on my own...at some stage.

I saw my old osteopath today (to say hello, not for a treatment). He's been working one Saturday a month back at the same Melbourne clinic for the past few months, but today was the first time I've managed to cross paths with him. It was good to see him, albeit briefly.

Note fad and gay uncle giraffe

I wonder if Craig has started some sort of note-posting fad? Today I got to the tram stop to find the sign above taped to the shelter.

It's not very clear (I was rushing because the tram was about to take off) but it says -

"Hey You!! Have you done a random act of kindness today?? A young man called Ben has turned 24. He needs a friendly call or text to let him know that people actually do care. If you can spare a few cents, please send a short message to..."

I actually did sent a message, but Ben didn't reply. Oh well.

Fruity giraffe

I added another member to my little herd of wooden giraffe today. He's taller than the others, so at first I was thinking he could be father giraffe, but he's um...kinda fruity looking with his green and mauve legs and neck, so I decided he's the gay uncle instead. (Yes, he's also a little cross-eyed.)

Here they are -

Glee spotting and giraffe spotting

I found glee today. Literally. In the Target puzzle. If you want to find the nine-letter word yourself, avert your gaze now! The rest of you, scroll down.

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It's ideologue. Go, me! (OK, maybe that doesn't work in a blog, but don't say I didn't try.)

I found something else gleeful today too. See those giraffes below? I have been looking for these toys for months and today I found them at a cheapie shop on Chapel Street. Yay! I was walking past and just happened to see them in the window completely by chance!

Do you know what they are? I don't know what you call them, but the parts are strung onto string which is pulled taut and when you depress the button on the bottom, the tension eases and you can make the toy move - dance or collapse off to the side or just nod its head.

I already had one giraffe, sitting there on my mantelpiece which was given to me years ago. Recently for some reason - I can't remember why - I just got a hankering to give him some friends. Not necessarily fellow Giraffa camelopardalises (don't know if that's the plural, but I'm going with it), but certainly fellow jointed-wooden-toys-with-a button-on-the-bottom.

But I couldn't find them anywhere. Until today. There was a selection of different animals, and a clown and a few other things, but I decided to create a corps of giraffes (that's one of the collective nouns for giraffes, as well as herd and tower, supposedly).

Silly, but I'm very happy with my new toys. Look at their little, slightly demented faces! Here's the whole tower.

I think I'm going to give them names now. Thinking..... What do you think are good names for giraffes?

PS. No, the record breaking heat (46.6C/115.5F) hasn't addled my brain. It's usually addled.