ANTS

Our house has been invaded by ants.

Now, I find ants pretty fascinating, so my tolerance for having them around is pretty high. But after last night, I'm over them. You see, the problem isn't so much the ants, as it is that Marshall doesn't believe me about how to get rid of them.

First, he thinks the ants are after sugar. This is not so. We are both sugar maniacs and those ants haven't gotten into any of our food. This is not because we are so brilliant at ant proofing our food; it is because the ants aren't interested in our food. Early on I speculated that they are meat ants and that they will eventually tire of our meat-free house and move on.

After a bit, Marshall decided it was time to bring out the Ant-Rid. At first I was open to this. We put little dabs on the countertop and watched the ants swarm it. Apparently, the point of this stuff is that it gives them a belly ache and they go away. I eventually started to notice that there weren't very many ants...UNTIL we put out some Ant-Rid. I do not know where they come from or how they get there so fast, but suddenly there will be hundreds of them, climbing on top of each other to get at the stuff. This struck me as odd.

Yesterday morning, I noticed that the Ant-Rid spots had dried up...and then I noticed that the ants were climbing on the Ant-Rid bottle, trying to get in! So I scrubbed the counter of any Ant-Rid residue and left Marshall a note to let him know the Ant-Rid was contributing to the problem.

Last night when I got home Marshall had a friend over, making music (that's not a metaphor, though 'music' depends on your tolerance levels for trance). They had gotten pizza, one veg, one meat. And suddenly, miraculously, our kitchen was filled with thousands of ants! Way more than we had previously seen. After his friend left, I triumphantly pointed to the pizzas and said "they're after meat!" But, apparently the ants had gone for Marshall's veg pizza as well, which apparently rules out my theory (no, let's not consider the possibility that Mama's pizzas veg pizza might not be as vegetarian as previously thought!) And the Ant-Rid? "Haha! Ant-Crack!" He did agree to put the drops outside of the house and on the floor, instead of on the kitchen counter.

BUT THEN! He was up and off this morning way before I woke up. But what did I find when woke up? Two fresh dots of Ant-Rid on the kitchen counter, swarmed by a gillion ants.

The best way to get rid of ants, and it even says this on the Ant-Rid bottle, is to remove whatever it is they are after. I'm hiding that bottle!

Weekend in Monbulk

Last weekend I went out to Monbulk and stayed with my friend Lizzie. I had a wonderful time relaxing in the hills, watching movies, going for walks, talking to birds, and playing robots with her son.

There's been a lot of rain out in Monbulk lately, and as we drove up to Lizzie's house, we spotted a beautiful rainbow.

Lizzie's property was very green, with a lush garden full of beautiful plants and colourful flowers.

On Friday evening, Lucius and I had a great time playing robots together and working on a dinosaur puzzle. Then he was off to bed and the grown-ups had dinner and watched a movie.

Saturday afternoon Lizzie and I drove down to some of the neighbouring towns and had the most devine vanilla slice in Victoria at Cooks Corner Cafe in Kallista. It was amazing! Afterwards, since the rain had stopped, we decided to go on the Lyrebird walk, which goes through the beautiful forest and ends up at a bird sanctuary...though we didn't see any lyre birds.

The birds were great! We didn't buy any seed, but they still came up and checked us out. I picked up some of the seeds on the ground and managed to get a couple of cockatoos to come over and eat from my hand...which then resulted in them chewing on my fingers.

The rest of the weekend we spent lounging around at Lizzie's place, watching movies, cooking and chatting. On Sunday we had a wonder around the property, which is on a hill. Lucius came with us and was our adverturous protector.

We had to leave quite early (for me) on Monday morning to get Lucius to school and Andrew to work. I shocked a view people at uni when I showed up before 10am. But, before I said goodbye to Monbulk, I had breakfast with a king parrot.

When Bad Things Happen to Good Plans

Life is an adventure, and sometimes, no matter how much we plan, things go off course. When this happens, it's what we make of it that matter most.

Last night I met up with a friend for drinks and a movie. We went to see Ponyo, which was quite lovely and just a touch bizzare. We saw it at the Nova, which is on Lygon St. I frequently meet up with friends on Lygon St, so I was not concerned about how I would get home after the movie. I figured I'd take the tram up to Moreland Rd and catch a bus the rest of the way home. The other option was to take a tram back into the city, and catch my regular tram home.

We had a couple of beers before the movie, and, thinking it would be a pretty quick commute home, I decided I could live without hitting up the bathroom before I caught my tram. I'd just missed the tram I needed, so it was a bit of a wait for the next one. I got to my stop at 9:20pm and looked at the bus schedule to see how long I'd have to wait. The next bus wouldn't be coming until Saturday morning! It was at this point that I started to regret my decision not to use the bathroom at the theatre.

I was about 3km away from my house, which is a walk I'm quite used to, but isn't exactly a desirable distance to walk when you have to pee. I called Marshall to see if by some miracle he was home on a Friday night. He was not. My friend Gillian lives very near to where I had found myself stranded, and I thought about calling her, or just turning up on her doorstep, but decided against it. I didn't think it would be fair to ask her to drive me home, so I forged on without contacting her. This turned out to be a smart move, I'll get to that in a moment.

Now I'm certainly not opposed to finding a good bush to relieve myself in, but the street I was walking down was too open and well lit for that. Faced with the option of wandering down side streets trying to find a dark place to pee or continuing on and hoping for the best, I decided to hope for the best. The 3km I had to walk is on a hill, and let me tell you, was I ever glad it was downhill all the way home! I made it, and was humbly reminded of the life rule to never pass a toilet by.

This morning, I got a very unexpected call from my friend Gillian. It turns out the previous evening she had gone to a friend's house for dinner, and when she went to leave she realized she'd left her keys at uni. She ended up spending the night at her friend's place, and borrowing her friend's car today so she could get a spare key from her landlord. She wanted to go to the office to pick up her keys, but her keys to the office were IN the office... So, Gillian came by my place and we headed into the city and were able to successfully retrieve her keys from our office.

It seems to just be one of those weekends where things go pair shaped. But, it hasn't stopped us from having a good time.

Tradition

Last week it was my birthday. I am now a whooping 27 years old. I had celebrated my 26th by going to see The Burlesque Hour with a group of friends, mostly people from uni. This year I wanted to do something different. This year I wanted to start a tradition.

I've been in Melbourne for a year and a half now and I am quite settled here. I know the city fairly well, but am still exploring and learning new things about it. I have a developed a good, solid group of friends, even if they are still mostly friends from uni. I am starting to meet new people and expand my social circle. So this year felt like the perfect time to start a new tradition that I look forward to developing for many years to come.

This year, I celebrated by throwing a Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

I have been collecting assorted tea saucers for some time now, and made the trip out to Daylesford in July to complete my discordent set of 13. I borrowed tea cups from Kirsty, and over the coming year I will be searching out bizarre ones to purchase for parties years to come. I picked up 2 tea pots from the Vic Market, so if you ever come over to my place you can have a proper cuppa.

I filled the house with fresh and fake flowers, including these lovely daffodils that bloomed beautifully in their Womaton vase (another great Daylseford find). And I baked and baked and baked. Banana and chocolate muffins, rasberry and pear honey cake, seaseme tofu cubes with a dipping sauce, and leek and zuchini fritters.

I purchased all sorts of fruits (strawberries, pinapple, dried apricots, pear, passion fruit, mangsteen, grapes) and cheese and crackers and wasabi peas and M&Ms and Hello Pandas and even fortune cookies (though I put those in an obscure location and no one noticed them).

We had an Andy Warhol colouring book, along with a few obscure zines I had purchased a few years back in San Francisco that turned out to be a pretty good laugh.

There was 9 of us in total, which was a good number. My house is pretty small, and any more of us would have made it difficult for anyone to move around. It was a lovely mix of people and conversation flowed easily. Lots of food was ate; wine, champaign and tea were drank. Sugar rushes ended in sugar crashes and everyone went home feeling whimsically fulfilled.

What a great way to start a new year!

It's Not Worth The Risk

Sometimes a commercial just really gets to you...

Last month was Railway Crossing Safety Awareness month here in Victoria. The following add encouraged us not to race through railway crossings as the safety gaurds come down.





Well, today I saw railway crossing safety reach a new level. It's not a long walk from the train platform to the footpath where I can cross the tracks, but lets say it takes about a minute to reach from when I get off the train. And by this time, the train is long gone and the crossing gaurds are up, indicating that it is now safe for cars to continue along their way.

I came home during peak hour today, and when I crossed over the tracks I noticed that there was quite a lot of cars backed up along what is normally a busy but not backed up road. Since all the cars on my side of the road were grid locked, I walked through them into the middle of the road, looked to see if any more cars were coming, and suddenly realized something:

On both sides of the road, the front cars stopped at the railway crossing had remained stopped well after the train had left the station. What was even more bizzare was the fact that no one was honking at them to move it along. In fact, it wasn't until myself and another pedestrian crossed the road doing double takes of this bizarre traffic situation that the other drivers started to notice something was wrong and got on their horns.

Some things are worth waiting for indeed!

Sunny Winter Days

This year Melbourne has enjoyed a fairly mild winter. We could do with more rain, and there have been some very cold nights, but on the whole, it has been a lovely winter. The kind of winter I can sign up for experiencing year after year.

This past week I have been housesitting for friends who are vacationing in Cairns. Their house is in the south, and since I live in the north I don't know this part of the city very well. This afternoon I decided to go for a wander down to the beach. I walked along the boardwalk, then along the beach, being careful not to step in the jellyfish that had washed up along the shore.

Even though I have been here for a year and a half now, this was only my second time going to the beach in Melbourne. The first time I went during the heat wave and ended up with sun stroke, so I have been reluctant to return. But today, while the sun was out, it was still cool for me to actually enjoy my walk along the beach.

After having satified myself with the beach, I decided to wander back, taking a different route than I had come by. Fortunately I was not in any hurry to get back, as I ended up walking in the opposite direction from my friend's house.

I like to explore, and taking a wrong turn can often lead you to some interesting places. I try not to be so concerned about the destination when I set off wandering. After all, you can't be lost if you know where you are. And I knew that I had just walked through Elsternwick Park and was walking along the bike path beside the canal, since my friend's house is near the canal.

Eventually, I came across a train station. It wasn't a train station I was familiar with, but fortunately it was on the train line I needed. It turns out I had walked 2 stations further down the line from my friend's place. I desided it was time to get myself on a train and home!

I'm taking care of my friend's cats, Jack and Floyd, as well. The boys were happy to have me back home and I gave them both a brush as they came out back to play. Then I got myself an afternoon snack and went to sit in the sun on the front porch. I opened the door so the cats could join me. Floyd was quick to come and sit with me.

I was reading a book when Jack decided to join us. I looked up to see what Floyd was up to and noticed a ginger fuzzball on the other side of the front gate! The little sneak! When I opened the gate to get him he knew he'd been naughty and came running right back into the front yard. After that, he didn't try to escape again.

Now that the day is cooling off we are all snuggled up in the house. Tomorrow I plan to go exploring the markets at this end of the city during the day, and in the evening I'll be baking muffins as Lizzie's prize for winning our hair growing competition. She beat me by 2.5cm.

Until next time...

Psychic Colour Waves

In the time I have lived in Melbourne I have become aware of a strange fashion phenomenon that commonly occurs amongs this city's residents. I call it: Melbourne's Colour of the Day.

Melbourne is a very fashion conscious city to begin with, and it appears that the fashionistas of this city have developed a sixth sense for spotting trends and taking them up....on the same day. I usually notice this because a disporportionate number of unrelated people will be wearing the same colour schemes, or a particular style or accessory. Yesterday's esoteric fashion phenomenon: orange stockings.

I haven't quite caught on to the psychic wardrobe transmissions that are forcasting themselves throughout this city yet, and I'm not sure if I want to. I like that Melbourne has this vibe where people wake up and just know that today is the day to wear their orange stockings, but I'd rather retain what's left of my sense of fashion individuality. I don't have any delusions of having a totally individual sense of style -- I may not have caught on to the exact day that I should be wearing my orange stockings, but I do have orange stockings. As much as I love this city and want to be a part of it, sometimes I enjoy getting to be on the outside, looking in.