Talking Tacos

Feeling considerably better today. Went along Sydney Rd looking for a good, inexpensive secondhand ceramic teapot and also some luggage for Shantoozy. She wants a good piece of luggage with wheels. I'm happy with my daggy big old cardboard suitcase from the Sixties with the plastic handle snapped off and a new one just screwed right on in there, buddy! Hay, I just thought: maybe I could screw some wheels onto it, too. Hmm.

Was able to do some writing work today, too, which was relieving. I hate it when I let too much time elapse between writing and yet do I hate it even more when I'm willing and raring to work but am physically unable? Grr.

Had tacos for dinner tonight. The U.S.A. style. The Australian style. Brittle corn crisp shells filled with lettuce, tomato and (in our instance, fake) mince meat, spiced, and topped with salsa. Nice. Now, there are many TV advertisements that annoy but one of the stupidest would have to be almost all of them actually, but relevant to this bitch is the one where the prospective diners are all in befuddlement and complaining that the crisp taco shells won't stand up on their middles, that is the curved end where the shell is folded. They even try the ol' nails-in-the-tabletop routine to try and create a stand for the shell but, lo and behold, any nails that you might try for this device shall invariably buckle and bend and wind up just being useless defacement to Mom's fine veneer mealtime surface. So, thank our lucky stars, for they (i.e.: some company or other) have now released taco shells that are flat along the curved side. Well, gee-whizz, Mom, that is sooooo much of an advancement over SIMPLY LAYING THE DANG THINGS ON THEIR SIDES AND FILLING THEM AND EATING THEM THAT WAY!!!!!!! Grr.

Anyway, I shall now watch a fillum. On DVD. With NO advertisements!

Games Fever

Forget that last one I wrote about – this current virus is ‘hardcore’ as they say on the streets when discussing viral infections, as you know. I support the supposition that the Commonwealth Games is providing elite pathogens from every country in the Commonwealth to try their vile sport on my home turf, that's the body of S. Gregory Hedgehog.

Shantoozy got it Sunday morning, in the wee hours. Couldn’t stop sporadically vomiting, etc. Then I got it, Tuesday morning, wee hours. A wrenching stomach expulsion of violent force. Locum came soon after and gave me an injection to stop the vomiting but, arghh, the agony of that night, trying to get to sleep, my body aching horrifically! I’ve been sweating it out since; had feverish images of Eisenhower and Stalin and Hitler in my brain; a mammoth headache yesterday but that’s gone now and hopefully won’t come back. I couldn’t even really watch ‘The Simpsons’ last night and I’ve got to be pretty dang ill for that to happen.

No work on ‘Envelope’ since. I’ve got to get an extension on the uni. assignment due tomorrow. I certainly can’t keep reading the Ernest Hemingway book. It’s very difficult to get things done when your body accepts viruses so often, and on top of all the other ailments!

Today I am feeling somewhat better, and hence this lil' blog post, but it’s still a struggle to get through each hour. Well, that’s an improvement from each second. But, what the hay, I just have to see it through and get done what I can when I can, I suppose.

A Fresh One

I think I’m going to change the story I’m currently working on into a stage play. It’s just a short piece. I think it should work nicely in that medium. Or maybe a short film script. Hmm, I’ll have to think more on this, actually. The title at the moment is ‘Envelope’; that may change but I don’t think it will. (Yet, will it? The envelope please…) (Yeah, yeah, pathetic, I know, but guess what? I’m getting sick again! Just about over the virus I’d been suffering with and now along comes a fresh one. So, my punning ain’t up to its usual lowbrow standards, I’m afraid.)

Shantoozy and I have both been sick, as a matter of fact. And this has sucked because when you are sick, you want your partner to be there for you. Brothers and sisters, let us recall what Jerry Seinfeld said,

‘For me, the best part of a relationship is when you’re sick. And the best time to be sick is in a relationship.

If I have to get married, you know all those vows, “For richer or for poorer, for better or for worse …”

All I need is the sickness part. That to me is the most important one. “Do you take this man in sickness?” The rest of the time go out, have a ball, do whatever you want – but if I get the sniffles, you’d better be there.’

(from ‘SeinLanguage’ by Jerry Seinfeld, p.22 1993 Bantam Books, U.S.A.)

The Trickiest Animal

My sleeping pattern is really fucked at the moment. So, why am I up drinking coffee at 1:11AM when I should be trying to catch up on sleep? Because I need to calm down a bit but I need the energy to do stuff to take my mind off things - organisational or artistic stuff is good for me at these moments - as well as to get my mind thinking a little better so as to better ponder certain life problematics. Besides, I quite possibly wouldn't fall asleep soon even if I tried because my body clock is set to keep me awake at this hour.

I had a fight with a good friend earlier. I hate this sort of thing. We'd agreed he should come around for coffee and to discuss our problems. For various reasons, our communication has become very stilted lately and he came here looking for warfare, unfortunately, which was not a productive exploit and he wound up leaving abruptly, in anger. I think we have both been somewhat too self-centred in the analysis of our current problem and need to broaden our minds and hearts to a clearer understanding of the other's point of view and so arrive at a truer, more accurate and objective perception of the situation. We seem to be able to sort these kinds of problems out and so I am confident that this shall be no exception. Well, I hope. It is certainly a complex issue and will require some hard work.

We human beings are tricky animals. I like the idea of having a good, sturdy doll around - a passive, inanimate humanoid pal to rely on for comfort and support when the unpredictable flesh-and-blood humans all become too baffling. I think it can be therapeutic as well as a kind of innocent fun, which is something far too under-appreciated in hardboiled 21st Century societies. I have a pop-rocker friend who told me he wants to be buried with his Alfred E. Neuman doll. I can understand the comfort he must derive from such a thought.

Hey! Look out! Here's an human being now...



A most beautiful specimen, i'n'it?

'Pop In' Goes The Weasel

Shantoozy and I celebrated our 8th anniversary the other day. We went over to Hissy Kitty’s, where she laid on a luscious gourmet feast and there were brainwave alterations and laughter. I showed some Chaplin routines on DVD and Hissy seemed duly impressed, I think. Shantoozy is a convert from way back, of course.

I started uni. this week. Just the one subject this semester – easing my way back into the academic world – Drama. The seminar is held in a building like old Hollywood screenwriters’ bungalows. I am the eldest student of my group. Not that I find my return to studies an unpleasant experience, but already I am itching to get onto post-graduate study and, frankly, be rid of the high school like atmosphere of it.

I have a head cold. Have been sick for a couple of days now. ’Twas but a quick ‘pop in’ post. I’m going to watch an episode of the best new show I have discovered lately, the re-imagined ‘Battlestar Galactica’. Ta-ta for now.