1000 posts, holidaying, three-in-one

Before I launch in to today's post, I've only just noticed that yesterday's post was my 1000th! HAPPY 1000TH BLOG POST TO ME! 

Now back to usual programming...I'm off to Brisbane! I arranged my leave from work this morning and then booked my flights and accommodation straight away. Got a pretty good deal too. I'll be in Brisbane's (hopefully) sunnier climes from 22-28 July. Now to plan!

Part of me feels I shouldn't be spending money on a holiday given I'm trying to boost my savings with a shopping ban, but I did only challenge myself to stop buying shoes, clothes and accessories, not spending money on everything. Plus science says spending money on experiences increases happiness more than buying things, and I'm all about the pursuit of happiness. 

I will possibly cross three things off my Things to Do List with this visit - visiting Brisbane (which I thought was on my list, but it wasn't. Of course I added it just so I can cross it off) and hopefully meeting my longtime online friends, Victoria and Gillian. We've 'known' each other since our Myspace days - possibly as long as 10 years! - but have never met in real life, so that would be splendid indeed. 

I had a delicious Reuben sandwich for lunch today. A bit naughty since it was glutenous and carbalicious, but I'm hoping the sauerkraut will compensate...except that they also threw in a very generous handful of pretzels and I had to eat them because pretzels. They also gave me a complimentary Mentos to see to the sauerkraut breath. Thoughtful! All that and I was able to buy it online and have it delivered to reception at my work (the perks of working in a very large office tower). I bought it from Mason Dixon, if any locals are curious. 

List nerdery, inner child and cute robots

Swooshy clouds yesterday

I spent all afternoon today hiding from the heat and completing a job that has been on my to-do list for months: reviewing and revising my list of 101 Things to Do Before I'm 40 (which is 525 days away. Eep.)

Yes, I've reached the point of listoholism where my to-do list includes updating my lists. Goodness. I'm so glad I've finished it though, because I hate having tasks on a list that keep getting carried over and over and over. Often that's a sign that the thing probably isn't worth doing and should be struck off the list, but not this task. 

It's been over two years since I started my 101/40 list and although my dedication to it waxes and wanes, I think it has enhanced my life and I enjoy doing it. I only put off the review/revision for so long because I knew it would be time consuming and I am rather lazy (despite perhaps appearing otherwise merely by having such a list). 

I decided to update the list because my priorities and interests have changed since I started it, and my commitment to quite a few of the initial goals on the list had diminished or disappeared altogether.  I'm hoping the overhaul will renew my motivation for it.

Today's review and revision also gave me a clear picture of what I've achieved.  I've crossed 28 things off the list so far, which doesn't seem like much progress in two years, but I have crossed off the number one thing, which was to take my first overseas trip. And, in any case,  (cliche alert) it's about the journey, not the destination. It's about making life more meaningful and fun; not about robotically achieving and crossing off goals (as much as I love the crossing off bit).

I should also add that many of the goals are ongoing - for example buying myself flowers or getting a massage once a month - so I'm going have a crossing off frenzy on 9 July 2012!

Indulging my inner child. Yet again

I bought myself some coloured pens. Pink, purple and blue ones. Yes, the back-to-school display at the supermarket got to me again. I didn't need them;  I just wanted them.

I also bought some wee robots from etsy.com. Is this not the cutest robot ever? Completely frivolous, but adorable (perfectly summed up in the shop's slogan: Things U never knew you needed until today). I can't wait for them to arrive. 

Boring but satisfying

The last golden rays of the day outside my window

I've had a quiet, but very productive weekend at home.  I spring cleaned my bedroom and organised my wardrobe, and I've just finished backing up, categorising (and subcategorising!) nearly a year's worth of photos. Whew. It feels good.

Of course I had a to-do list and I've taken pleasure in crossing each task off. I even added one job after I'd done it, just so I could cross it off. Yes, I know.  

So far, I've completed 12 of 20 tasks. I won't get to all of them by the end of today, but I feel pretty satisfied with my efforts.

During my bedroom clean out, I found a lot of old family and personal memorabilia - letters, cards, photos and the like that I haven't looked at in ages. I didn't have time to read them, but I'm looking forward to sitting down one day soon to go through it all.

More productive than my old job...

I was very productive on the first day of my week off* between jobs. Of course, I have a to-do list and I have enjoyed crossing stuff off it, especially two of the least appealing jobs - defrosting the fridge and cleaning out the pantry. I'm feeling very pleased with my frostless freezer and orderly pantry.

I also took clothes and shoes to be repaired, and dropped a couple of jackets at the dry-cleaner, as well as doing the grocery shopping and laundry.

I've cooked a roast dinner and I have pear crumble in the oven. I could get used to this not working thing...

* Well, I hope it will only be a week off...

Giggling, list writing and manicuring

My friend sent me a video of her seven-month-old, Thomas, (one of my 'nephews') having a fit of giggles yesterday. It's impossible not to laugh along with him. He almost looks like he's putting it on, such is his enthusiasm. So cute and funny.  

I wrote a list of things to pack for my New York trip today. I wasn't feeling mentally ready for the trip, but now I feel a little more prepared. Love a good list.

I dislike having long fingernails, but I really like that fresh (DIY) manicured feeling.

Oooh! Oooh!

Cheeky bird in Botanic Gardens

Don't you love it when you randomly stumble across cool stuff on the internet that makes you go, "Oooh! Oooh!"? I do. It's not only finding the cool stuff that is pleasing - it's discovering it completely by chance. Doubly gleeful.

You may recall that I am compiling a list of 101 Things to Do Before I'm 40. I poached the idea from a someone on listography.com, who had posted her list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days but I gave it a little twist of my own. (I get 1281 days and counting....). I didn't give much thought to where she got the idea or if it was her idea, but I liked it.

On Twitter this morning I got a new follower and when I looked at her updates, I saw she'd posted a link to her own list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days. I went, "Oooh! Oooh!" and clicked the link, where I found her list but also a link to the site Day Zero, which is where the idea originated. People can join up and post their own list.

Not only am I pleased to learn of the provenance of the 101 Things list, I'm going to ransack the hell out of those lists for inspiration! You see, I'm only up to about 70 things and I'm struggling a little. Compiling the list is a project in itself!

Day Zero also has links to some other interesting, fun and worthwhile projects, including:

* Learning to Love You More, which is the idea of artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher.

"Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience."

* Gimme your Stuff, a cultural exchange project blog "where you can swap items of significance to your area with items from others around the world. A conduit for many an international cuisine to change hands. A place where you can trade a newspaper from South Africa, or a CD from Finland. A place where we take no responsibility for anything anyone else does. A place where we are changing the world with other people’s stuff".

* 365 Day Flickr Group, which is a Flickr community of nearly 12,000 people who post a self-portrait every day for 365 days.

* Post Secret, which is a blog that publishes the secrets of anonymous people who send them in on the back of a postcard.

Anyone feeling inspired? Have you stumbled across any cool sites by chance recently?

Holiday, sunset, baboon and moon

Before

Tomorrow is my last day of work for 2008. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I am flying up to visit my mother in the lovely seaside town of Port Macquarie next Wednesday with a suitcase of books in tow.

Fire in the sky

We had a beautiful sunset tonight. It snuck up on me when my back was turned. I stopped on the the bridge to take some pictures of the fluffy clouds overhead (obsessed, I tells ya) and when I turned back towards the city the clouds were tinged with pink. It quickly deepened to a fiery orange. I was in the right place and the right time.

For the bibliolistophiles

I stumbled across another great website the other day for bibliophiles (and list lovers) - Flashlight Worthy. It's a compilation of lists of recommended books across 53 categories, and you can also contribute your own lists. I haven't had a good look yet - something else to put on my holiday to-do list.

Baboon in my boudoir

I dreamt there was a baboon on my bed last night, which has today got me thinking what a funny word baboon is (and every time I type it, it comes out as "baboob").

Big moon rising

The moon is looking in my window as I type this. It looks a little filmy and fuzzy from the high clouds. Did you hear that tomorrow night there is going to be the largest full moon of the year? It will appear 12 per cent larger, in fact, because it will be closer to Earth and low on the horizon.

Fubsy, intaxication and tall bikes

I learnt a clutch of new words yesterday in an article in The Age about a collection of words that are verging on extinction due to lack of use. The people in charge of Collins Dictionary have placed them on a list of words that could be cut from the next edition unless they can find evidence of them being bandied about (outside articles about their endangerment).

My favourite is fubsy, which means short and stout ("I'm a little teapot fubsy....."?), and I like niddering (cowardly) and exuviate (to shed) and abstergent (cleansing or scouring).

And made up words!

Regular reader Victoria thoughtfully sent me a link to the latest contributions to the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational, which ask readers to take a real word, and alter it slightly to create a new word.

Here is my selection of the winners -

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

5. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

6. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

7. Glibido: All talk and no action.

8. Arachnoleptic fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

9. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

10. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

(Hmmm...wondering if I should start a blog devoted to words...)

EDIT: Reader Julian, with his "Urban Legends Debunker" hat on, informs me that there is no such thing as the Mensa Invitational. The above list of words is from a weekly competition in Washington Post about 10 years ago called Style Invitational. No matter - it's new to me and they are still great words.

Listing

I am going a little silly at http://www.listography.com/frisky. It's kinda pointless, but I like it. I like looking at other people's lists too.

Silly bike update

First pennyfarthings and unicycles, now tall bikes. Walking home beside the river tonight a man zipped past me on a bike that must have been more than two metres tall. Two metres! The wheels were standard size, but the seat was atop a tall frame way above. People are odd, aren't they? And luckily the bridges along the river aren't low (although I'm sure I would laugh my head off if he smacked into one a la Wile E Coyote).

50 gleeful posts...and a great day out

This is my 50th Gleeful post. Hurrah! The glee-spotting and recording has been rewarding and fun - it has helped me to see and appreciate my world with fresh eyes and encouraged me to look for bright spots on gloomy days. So yay for that!

Of course, having people read it and take the time to comment makes it extra-special. I especially like it when someone says I put a smile on their face - that is surely one of the best simple pleasures in life - or shares their gleeful experiences with me. So, a heartfelt thank you to all of you. You make me gleeful.

Anyhoo, enough navel gazing.

Sunny Sunday

I've had a great day today. I enjoyed a delicious hot chocolate at a cafe on Spring Street in the city with my friend Anthony before we visited The Impermanent City exhibition at the City Museum in the beautiful Old Treasury building. The exhibition, subtitled "The rise and fall of Melbourne's skyline" features photographs and models of 11 notable buildings that have long been demolished, and their "ghosts" which can still be seen today.

My favourite was the Australian Building (above), which was the tallest building in the country when it was built in the late 1800s, and held the title of Melbourne's tallest building until 1957. Although described as 'the epitome of the architecture of Marvellous Melbourne', it was modernised in the 1940s and knocked down in the early 1980s. Parts of the side walls are still visible on the buildings that flanked it.

In the museum's gift shop, I picked up a copy of Walking Melbourne, a National Trust guide to the CBD's historic and architectural landmarks. I looked up one of my favourite buildings at 333 Collins Street and discovered it was narrowly saved from demolition in the 70s. What the????!

It's a comparatively unassuming building from the outside, but inside the ceiling is a jaw-droppingly stupendous ornate dome (below). The thought that it was slated for demolition almost hurts.

I'm looking forward to wandering the city with the guide (and camera) in hand. I might do that on my month off work at Christmas.

After that, Anthony and I walked to Little Collins Street to check out the remnant brick wall of workers' cottages that were featured in the above exhibition. The cottages were home to the city's poorest inhabitants but were knocked down in the 1890s. The wall fronting the street was spared and now forms the back wall of the garden of the exclusive Melbourne Club (the snooty men-only hang out of business bigwigs and politicians). You can still see on the wall where the windows were bricked in. We lamented that we'll never get into the garden to appreciate the full splendour of the massive elm trees whose lush canopies soar above the high brick perimeter walls.

List writers' delights

Then we visited Metropolis Books, which I'd never been to before. You won't find the latest Dan Brown best seller there - it's a collection of books on art, graphic design, architecture, photography, fashion, popular culture, film, music and the performing arts, plus a nice sprinkling of quirky reads. As an inveterate list writer, I was very tempted to buy Listography Journal - our Life in Lists. It's an illustrated "guided journal" for creating "a unique autobiography entirely in list form". You can compile lists on topics including greatest accomplishments, best friends, favorite food, guiltiest pleasures and greatest acts of kindness. Maybe next payday...

Oooh! I just discovered the author, New Yorker Lisa Nola, has a website at http://www.listography.com/ which enables you to create a database of lists on anything your listaholic heart desires! I can put my ever-expanding list of books to read on there! Cool bananas!

Then we went to JB Hi-Fi so I could buy the Dead Letter Chorus' debut album The August Magnificent. (I got too impatient waiting for it to hit iTunes.) I've only listened to it a couple of times, but it is indeed magnificent. One of the lead singers, Gabrielle Huber, has a gorgeous voice.

And all this under beautiful sunny skies....Aaaaaah.

How was your weekend?