God fucking dammit fuck

Eerrrrggghhhh. Late to the party this morning. We had some excitement opposite me in our street last night - 3 am firetrucks and cop cars. Cops carefully saying nothing, but the firetrucks were all hooked up to the water supply, and lots of firies everywhere in gas masks. The houses opposite and me and my next door neighbours all got woken up and asked to leave for a safe space up the street. Presumably a gas problem/leak of some sort I reckon as no smell of fire. After an hour or so they let us back home and the trucks packed up and left. PSA: Oodies and ugg boots are fantastic for evacs of this sort - pocket holds all sorts of things and very very warm. They did offer us blankets but I didn't need one with the oodie.

I've accidentally learned to play piano.

So, I use a keyboard to play melodies on my PC to make songs. Usually playing one finger on each hand, like how some people type lol

Tonight I wasn't really thinking, just noodling away and realised I can play with all fingers on both hands!

Still awkward, but it blew me away.

Edit: later in the evening, I was listening to something I'd recorded on my phone. This is how Gibson felt about the noise:

I am now at a point where I have lived more of my life in the 21st century than the 20th.

I knew it had to be close to that point and was thinking I should have a "half life" party to celebrate the occassion, but apparently it was nearly 2 months ago so I missed it.

Saw a woman at the butcher spend $250 dollars on wagyu steak, and bought another 2 kilos of lamb cutlets. Not everyone is feeling the pinch!

I hate that feeling of the blues when you have no reason to feel that way...

I was visited by a new fren :)

Apparently it visits our yard every few months. I fed it some ham and it stayed for a while then walked to the fence gate, meowed, then walked off down the footpath

It has gorgeous eyes

I am over the worst of the cold but pretty fatigued and have a lovely hacking cough.. I am getting really depressed about the state of my home though - haven't had the energy to tidy/clean/cook much or generally adult all week.

So give me your best tips for focusing and moving and cleaning when you don't feel like it!

(and I will rest but the mental health impact of the clutter is bigger than the physical illness plus I think moving will help clear the snots)

Day 14 of the chilli ferment.

Pretty sure I'm not going to get botulism with this one go me.

Booooo. My landlord wants me to take off all my plants from the balcony because apparently a crack (that was already there long before I moved in) has gotten worse. Fair enough because they want to get it fixed. But it's a lot of plants to lug down two sets of stairs, and then across and up another two to put in the common area...

I don't know how long they will take to get the balcony fixed - in the meantime, watering and maintaining these plants is going to be a pain and a half. I absolutely can't be carting water from my unit to the common area so I'll have to use the communal tap 🤷‍♀️

What I'm worried about the most is if they say I can't put any plants back on at all. I'll be absolutely fuming if that's the case. Let's hope they'll be reasonable. I know they've appreciated seeing the veggies and flowers on it and I know several of my neighbours have appreciated them too.

Trying not to spiral into negative thinking and assume they'll up the rent after this fix as well >_< mustn't jump to conclusions...

It's such a cold night.

Stay warm everyone.

Yesterday was Lucha Fantastica day and we absolutely loved it! It was at Collingwood town hall and we got there early, so first we went around the corner to Raphs for a coffee and snack, a nice tiny cafe that Mr P said did a great moussaka.

The kids could get right up close to the wrestling ring and my eldest (the keen wrestling fan of the family) was particularly enthralled. He was very interested in inspecting the setup of the ring and how it was put together. I never thought I'd spend a Saturday enthusiastically cheering a wrestling man dressed as a giant taco but there I was. Captain Chipotle chugged Valentina chilli sauce from the bottle. Chico was a crowd favourite, throwing lollies into the crowd throughout the show. I hear during the later adults show it's tequila getting poured into the crowd ringside. One dude was wrestling dressed as an alien 😂 Mr P was happy there was Mexican beer and a margarita which was surprisingly strong, it really slapped. It was the kind of light hearted entertainment I'd been missing. At the end they had a couple of pinatas for the kids to have a crack at (some of those kids were swinging for Australia lol). An all round excellent day.

I managed to potter around and get the house respectable. Tidied, clothes away, dishes washed, light vacuum. Need to wipe down the bathroom but I will do that when I have a shower.

Took all day because of an accidental naptime - the sun was streaming in on the bed and I had no choice but to be a cat.

Also what a gorgeous day out there.

The cold is finally gone. Can't wait to do some physical activity tomorrow. It's been almost two weeks between injuries and being sick.

I need my happy chemicals stat!

Also, bedtime 😴 goodnight everyone!

It's taken me a while to get here, but I'm sat in front of the computer now about to research shit I need to get done for this trip. Sun streaming in the windows, Nujabes' Modal Soul playing, looking forward to work this coming week. Trying my best to channel the good feels, which I can't seem to hold onto very well...

Walked to Moon for some cruller treats and stopped at Eddy gardens for some dog watching on the way home. Surely this makes up for rotting in bed all day yesterday?

Testing out a double walled travel mug with some off.

Found it in the cupboard when I was looking for some stuff and was still amazed it was wrapped out.

I might regret making a coffee this late in the day but I must test this out!

@Seagoon_ Wanted to head out today, but ended up staying in.

Still have a blocked nose and want to rest up.

I'll do some grocery shopping a bit later, but otherwise I'm staying in and resting up...

More roast fennel adventures! Today I made a "creamy" base of broad beans with finely chopped celery, leek, and a couple of chillies sweated for 10 minutes. Then threw in some roast garlic that was in the oven with the fennel, finely chopped fresh rosemary and some dried oregano and thyme, plus stock powder. Then blended it all together (thinned out with copious amounts of pasta water), and threw in the roast fennel, a tin of tuna, a handful of nutritional yeast, and finally some cooked risoni/orzo pasta. Topped it off with some fresh chopped parsley.

An interesting mix of textures and maybe orzo wasn't the right choice (will it all congeal into a slab tomorrow?), but certainly tastes alright. If I had some capers or olives for a bit of extra briney bite, this would be 👌🏽

e: I also bumped into some friends in the shops, got invited around for a spot of tea, that was extremely wholesome and lovely :)

People who do this shit should get eaten https://www.domain.com.au/news/200m-project-australias-most-expensive-ever-residential-build-chittering-western-australia-1281253/

Having spent a lot of time recently on Facebook groups about retirement and superannuation I think I can safely say about 60% of the content consists of three posts:

1. It's not fair that I'm not eligible for the aged pension and getting free money from the government just because I worked hard to have lots of money
2. How can I get rid of some of the money I saved up to qualify for the Aged Pension and get me some of that sweeet free government money
3. It's terrible how many people are so entitled to think they should get the Aged Pension instead of working to support themselves

These three posts in multiple variations are on repeat multiple times a day, and always filled with comments arguing about who should be entitled to what. I'd be willing to support a Universal Basic Income being introduced just to get rid of all these tediously repetitive arguments!

I would also like to tell all of the people asking for advice on their self managed super funds that if you have to ask for advice on Facebook about how to manage it you should not have a self managed super fund.