School holidays. Took the kids to the zoo yesterday. Saw Nellie. Took some photos. Also, bought a 2024 Numbat calendar on clearance for the cute numbat photos in it for $2.

Warning: I may start randomly spamming cute numbat photos at the thread in the coming weeks.

Booked a short holiday and cruise for next month. My brain: “maybe I should work on my health and fitness leading up to that!” Also my brain: “eat fried potato. Now.”

… it was delicious.

After about two months of holding out for op-shops to have a muffin tray, bowls and large jars at a reasonable price, I've bought them all at bigW for about half of what the salvos were asking. One place wanted $10 ea for large used Moccona jars, ffs. Used jars should be 50c imo.

Gratitude time :)

I'm grateful for the meal prep I did yesterday, and also a sleep in.

Someone required a bath today due to a pootastrophe. He's still little under all that floof. Wasn't a fan of the hair-dryer but happy to have a sit in front of the fire. Thankful he is so placid, he didn't enjoy the process but it was just some grumbles.

I spent an hour after work last night completing (my least preferred) job application's third party test. Apparently I rank significantly higher than others of a relevant testing pool. Lovely. Next they want me to give them a four minute video response to some questions...

Meanwhile. My preferred job is cold-shouldering me after telling me I'd probably hear yesterday if I made it to the in-person interview. They are playing hard to get. I'm their best applicant I bet. But I'm still sad I haven't heard yet.

Morning all! Just woke up from a crazy dream where myself and four other unknown (to me) people were on the run in the States, which at one point involved stealing a heavily modded Chevy Wrangler from Donald Trump (he cried. He loved that car. Lots of people, the best people, said it was a great car). It was a comedy/drama kind of dream, very entertaining, and I did not want to wake up. Stupid bladder! In the dream we made a toilet pitstop and while I went I suddenly thought, "HEY, YOU'RE NOT DOING THAT IN REAL LIFE ARE YOU‽” and I suddenly awoke and I was! I haven't wet the bed in 40 years! I didn't wet the bed much, luckily, just my multilayered night attire. Very weird experience and a helluva way to end the dream I was enjoying.

w00t w00t brewery now on its own dedicated circuit and His Lordship can commence with the going of apeshitness.

Cat is fine, he's eaten, bit me, ran around, went to the loo, and is now yowling in the hallway because I closed the bedroom door to keep the heat in the living room.

I predict he will now run around a bit, eat some dry food, and have a snooze in the blanket nest I made for him on the couch.

Also, don't buy Friskies dry food. Twas what was causing Mickey to spew bile. He hasn't spewed or hucked once since I switched back to Fussy Cat Grain Free dry food. So, there you go lol. Told the vet that too, he said he'll note it for the future. :D

Getting the cat into the carrier was a task. Helped when I threw a towel on him and bundled him into it.

But the yowling on the tram had me cackling; had to get right up close and go "pss it's me I'm here" for him to stop. I think he was upset because my partner was holding him, and then left to the train when I got on the tram.

Now we're chilling in the waiting room. I expect Mickey will beat me up somewhat when we get home lol

I better stock up on the Berserk deluxe editions now Booktopia is closing down. They had them for the cheapest I've seen aside from second hand on marketplace

What have the Romans ever done for us?

They have provided the lazy inspiration for countless hours of low effort BBC documentaries.

Walking Roman Roads with Dan Jones. About Roman roads in the England. I thought it might be a little interesting. First he didn't walk it , he drove in a Range Rover, he said on account of the weather. He could have used a cart instead. 🙄 Then he visited every tiny museum along the way and looked at the easy stuff like swords.

Imagine how different it could have been. Dan could have suited up like a centurion with a 30 kg back pack and walked it like a Roman. Could have eaten Roman food. Talked about all the people of Roman times who used the roads, could have even "met" some re-enactors on the way to St Ives.

0.5 hobbits , he didn't even meet up with a Druid wizard on the way to Wales, which he could have. ( caveat, I fell asleep for two episodes )

Fog or low cloud has rolled in over Richmond. Outside air temp has gone from f**king cold to biting cold. Hands are burning after going out to buy a coffee. Wasn't like that when I got to work this morning at 9 am.

It’s fricken cold

There is a ghost on my stovetop.

Some oven dude came out to fix a burner a few days ago. He fixed the burner, but fucked another burner and igniter (sparky things).

On two of the burners, when you turn it down, then back up, all the igniters start sparking and doesn't stop. Very odd. turns out if one igniter isn't sparking, they all spark as a safety thing so there's no explosion.

Took some methylated spirits to the sparky things which helped but the big trick was re-sparking, so when they all start going off, just push one of the burners' dial and it stops. Never seen that before.

Oven dude was gonna hit me for a few hundred just to have another look even though he didn't do it right.

So, happy to get it going again without any more hassle.

Fuck that oven guy though.

The knockoff oodie has arrived, and even the S-M is huge on me. I'm skulking around the house like an evil wizard but it is warm.

(Before the oodie was a thing I had been thinking about sewing a monk style house robe out of blanket fabric. I should have done it and run for the patent office, become rich!)

Turned the heater on before I had a sleep in. I feel like shit...

Behold the puddle of fluff in front the of the heater

Even the vape shop in my dreams wasn't selling stuff anymore lol

Seven days until pay day, when i will probably be able to afford a new heater that can actually heat! The old 4 fin radiator struggles.

Ducked out today after I had lunch, sausage and bread with tomato sauce is so underrated.

Got a free drink from maccas then went to the supermarket to exchange a sauce I accidentally picked up and swapped it for the one I wanted for cooking later in the week.

It was cold and felt a little hazy out. Surprisingly there was so much traffic out there, almost like peak hour.

Back inside now all warm and almost time for a coffee.

Today is a write off I think. All I've achieved so far is eating three times for two meals and going back to bed at noon. Phone isn't usually allowed in bed, but I'm making an exception.

Can't even fall asleep, but it is warmer and more comfy

Cold enough that even my colleagues were wearing a puffer jacket indoors. I chickened out and drove in rather than walking because my fingers damn near fell off just in the few minutes between car and office. But my body is definitely feeling the effects of being sedentary :/ I'm going to try and walk in tomorrow for sure.

There's still a deluge of work coming through, but at least I'm not handling it solo - I can't wait for my other colleague to be back after the school hols so I can palm off some other stuff, sit down and improve some of these processes before the can gets kicked even further down the road into the next universe.

Thinking of making some pulled pork-style jackfruit now, for lunch tomorrow. Off I go into a rabbit hole of recipes.

-2.5. Brrrrrr

Back into making a Surviving Mars colony. Saw on Reddit that someone found coordinates for an absolutely massive crater map, so I'm building my colony in there. No colonists yet, just my drones setting everything up first, but damn have I found a great place to build a habitation dome; right next to rare metals, a vista, and two water deposits. Got some sick breakthough tech as well.

Tonight I am sewing up the patch work for the chair covers 🪑

Using a stick on picture hook. Picture is only 2.5 kg. I'm nonetheless saying my prayers and hoping this stays up in the long term 🙏😂.