Moon and money from Kevin

Tonight when I was walking through the park in the dark on the way home from the gym, I looked towards the city and saw a big, yellow sliver of a moon hanging above it. My photo doesn't really do it justice. But it was cool.


Let the stimulation begin!

Woohoo! I got my $900 from the Ruddster today! (For non-Aussies, the Federal Government, headed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, is giving cash hand-outs to people in an effort to stimulate the ailing economy.)

I am going to buy a new mattress, one of those ones with the big, fat pillowy tops. It will probably make it even harder to get out of bed in the morning, but hopefully I will feel better when I do. And in the interests of actually stimulating the economy, I'm planning to purchase an Australian-made mattress from a small business.

I'm also going to buy some bouncy new gym shoes since my old ones are getting too worn. They're only about 15 months old, but I do walk about 30 kms a week in them. I love new runners. Bouncy bouncy bouncy!

Coincidence

Tonight when I checked my bank balance to confirm the arrival of my $900, I noticed the balance of my account was almost exactly the same as the available credit on my credit card. The dollar amount was identical, and the cents only about 40 cents difference. Weirdly, that's the second time in the past week or so that that's happened.

Inflated

Has anyone else seen high profile Aussie comic Adam Hills' show Inflatable? I saw it on Sunday night - it was his Comedy Festival finale - and boy, am I glad I didn't miss out (thanks, Julian!). It was sensational. Definitely the best of the six shows I saw in this year's festival.

It often takes quite a lot to get me laughing my head off - I can find something very funny without necessarily wetting my pants over it - but it was impossible not to guffaw at Adam Hills (and his sign language intepreter. I now know how to sign dickhead and "F**k you! And f**k the lot of you!".)

I also think it's pretty impossible not to like the guy (unless you are a bitter and twisted misanthrope). He's just so affable and he's got such a positive energy about him - he literally bounced around on the stage at times and you can tell that he absolutely loves what he does - and the crowd loves him back. There was a lotta love in the Princess Theatre on Sunday night and he didn't want to leave the stage. He came back on stage to a standing ovation and said, "Ah bugger it! Let's just order pizza and hang out!". Yeah, OK!

It's probably no surprise I like him given he once had a show called Joymonger, which I only realised after starting this blog.

Not only was the show hilarious, it was also uplifting - Hill's message is that there are two kinds of people in life - those who "inflate" others and those who deflate them, and you can choose which type you are. Indeed.

Dream job

Can you imagine how exhiliarating it must be to be able to send an auditorium full of people of all ages into fits of laughter? I get a buzz from making a couple of friends crack up...imagine that feeling multiplied a hundred times or more?

And what an absolute joy being able to make a living from doing something that you love and that brings so much pleasure to other people. I suppose it's tempered to some extent by being away from home and family so much, and the downside of celebrity (like people expecting you to be funny 24/7) but still...

PS. Hills is heading off on a tour of other capital cities. Click the link to his myspace page in the first line for dates. Do yerself a favour!

The Return of Word Nerd

Finial on the Rose Pavilion in the Botanic Gardens

Remember I said I was engrossed in a book about some crazy American reading the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary? It took him a year to plough through the OED but I knocked over his book about it in a few days - or very late nights, to be precise. A vast difference to the last book I read which I chipped away at for months.

Anyway, here are my favourites of Ammon Shea's pet words listed Reading The OED:

Artolater: a worshipper of bread.

Antithalian: opposed to fun or festivity. A stick in the mud. Funny saying that....

Acnestis: the point of the back on animals between the shoulders and the lower back which cannot be reached to scratch. Or, in other words, the place where I am always itchy, dagnammit.

Adversperate: to approach evening. From the same root word as one of my new favourite words, vespertine, meaning twilight or dim or of animals that come out at dusk. As an aside, animals that come out before dawn or early in the morning are matutinal.

Aerumnous: full of trouble

All-overish: feeling an undefined sense of unwell that extends to the whole body. I used to use NQR (not quite right) to describe this feeling, but not anymore.

Bouffage: an enjoyable or satisfying meal. Try that one at your next dinner party. "Well, I must say, Barbara, that was a delightful bouffage."

Cachinator: one who laughs too loud or too long. Shea also lists grinagog - a person who is constantly grinning- and hypergelast - a person who will not stop laughing.

Fard: to apply cosmetics to hide blemishes. Says Shea: "I suspect there is a reason no one ever gets up from the table and says, 'Excuse me while I go to the ladies and fard'."

Gaum: to stare stupidly.

Jocoserious: half-joking and half serious. Obviously. I love that this sounds like a silly word someone made up but it's actually in the dictionary. Speaking of made up words, I may or may not have mentioned the word I made up to for something that's not quite blue and not quite purple - blurple. The other day a friend (Hello, Stephanie!) told me she saw blurple used in a catalogue to describe that very thing! One day I want to see blurple in the dictionary. Start using it, people!

Latibulate: to hide oneself in a corner.

Misdelight: pleasure in something wrong.

Mumpish: sullenly angry.

Nod-crafty: given to nodding the head with an air of great wisdom. In other words, looking smart without necessarily being so.

Onomatomania: vexation at having difficulty finding the right word.

Petrichor: The pleasant loamy smell of rain on the ground, especially after a long dry spell.

Ploiter: to work in an ineffective way.

Preantepenult: third from last. For when simple words won't do.

Psithurism: the whispering of leaves moved by wind. Pleasingly onomatopoeic.

Scrouge: anyone travelling on packed public transport such has we have in Melbourne will be able to use this word every day. It means to inconvenience or discomfort someone by pressing against them or standing too close.

Sialoquent: to spit while talking.

Tardiloquent: talking slowly. This describes a client at work very well.

Twi-thought: my head is full of these - it's a vague and indistinctive thought.

Unasinous: being equal to another in stupidity

And finally...

Vocabularian: a person who pays too much attention to words. What the? That's like having a word for someone who pays too much attention to breathing.

Oooh, clouds!

Taken from the Shrine of Remembrance

Metal Mickey and other gems

Does anyone remember that British TV show from the 80s called Metal Mickey? It popped into my head the other morning for some reason, although it took me a little while to recall the name. Wasn't quite as popular as The Goodies...

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, I found a video of the intro. Ring any bells? I remember the granny in the wheelchair often used to say, "It's m'knees"...but not much else.

Of course, as is often the case when you go hunting on YouTube for something, you find other cool stuff too. Like other TV shows from when you were a kid. The Wombles! I wish The Wombles would make a comeback so I could say and hear the word "wombles" more often. Considering the environmental theme of the show, it might not even seem too outdated.

And some more...













And finally, Basil Brush...

Two words

A crepuscular rower

Dictionary.com's Word of the Day offered up a couple of pearlers in the past few days.

Crepuscular - which means of, or pertaining to, or resembling twilight, dim. In zoology, it refers to animals that come out at dusk. To me it sounds like a word to describe a weepy or crusty sore, especially as the emphasis is on "pus". Ugly word for something pleasant.

There is a much more poetic word for it, which is a recent addition to my list of favourite words - vespertine. In fact, the dictionary.com entry for vespertine includes crepuscular in the definitition.

Quiddity - which means the essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing; a hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble; an eccentricity or an odd feature. I like that there is a distinctively peculiar word for a distinctive peculiarity.

I bought it

I ended up buying myself a copy of the 40th anniversary edition of Cookery the Australian Way, which I blogged about recently. It was quite expensive, but it's such a simple guide to all-round cooking that I am sure I will keep it forever.

I haven't had a good look through it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the seventh edition compares with my third edition from 1980, which was my high school text book. I have noticed that the recipe for golden syrup dumplings remains after being dropped in the fourth edition and reinstated in the next one. Must have been a public outcry. Quite rightly.

There's some anecdotes in the front from a few people, including some notable chefs, reminiscing about their CAW experiences. I had no idea it was viewed with such fondness by other people.

You got that?!

Walking through the Target Arcade in the city last night, my friend Anthony spotted this funny sign tacked to the front of a take-away food outlet called Health Conscious.

I love its many layers of amusement. Firstly, the y at the end of 'health'. What have they got against healthy unconscious people, huh? And do they actually refuse to serve people who are conscious but not healthy? How can you confidently spot someone who isn't health conscious? Have they established a standard of health consciousness one has to meet before being served? Perhaps a questionnaire to be completed before you get your lunch? Do you need to tell your server your BMI?

The use of capital letters on ONLY suggests they are quite cross with junk-food loving slobs and determined to turn them away. Were they exasperated by a steady stream of befuddled people asking for Mars Bars wrapped in bacon and fried in lard with a straight whisky and ciggie at 9.00am? Is this their equivalent of a 'No hawkers' or 'No change given for parking meters' sign that's stuck up in the hope of repelling time wasting nuisances? Like people with a hankering for hot chips?

And what if someone looks like they love junk food but has just decided to turn over a new lettuce leaf? Should they be spurned in their attempts to eat better? I think not! Lunch nazis!

I am tempted to go there on Monday and see if I can find any item of food available that I deem a little bit nutritionally dodgy, perhaps something that's not low enough in fat and salt. No, wait! I am going to go and ask for a Mars Bar wrapped in bacon and deep-fried in lard, a whisky and a ciggie, just to watch smoke come out their nostrils as they gesticulate wildy at the sign. Yes indeedy.