Odds and ends

The One with the Dress
I made a dress. Yes people! I. Can. Sew. Oh alright, I cheated. It's basically like I. Can. Bake. but only with cake mixes. Remember how I tried on the Le Sac Dress in Oxford St but I was too cheap to pay AUD64 for a sack it didn't fit? Well I finally now found time to make it. The material (which was originally a size 10 Sussan skirt) itself I got from Salvos for AUD7. I then headed to Spotlight to get some ribbons (I just get lost in there with all the patterns, textures and colours. Ooh, and sequins! I'm like the fabric-loving version of a glutton in a cake shop). Unfortunately, I had no idea how long a yard was, and happily returned home, purchase scrunched up in my bag. To my horror, the limp little piece of ribbon could hardly encircle itself around my big fat head.

I made do with another sash at hand and unstitched the sides of the skirt, threaded the cloth through the waist and sewed it over. Thankfully, the dark fabric hid my hideous stitching. Then I put it on and drove over to Spotlight again to find proper ribbons. I entered the store at 4.58pm and the security lady barked, "Closing in two minutes!"

"Running! I'm running!" I ran. And bought 3 metres worth of black ribbon.

And that, is how I got this dress, which by the way, has invited four compliments so far.

The One with the Meat
X has this elderly lady client who absolutely adores him. I haven't met her because apparently, she is an Asian-basher, presumably with her walking stick. Every week without fail, X returns home from her place with wine and fruitcake (which I hate). So anyway, she goes to the surf club every Wednesday and buy AUD40 in raffles. And she won something like six months' supply in lamb, beef, sausages, chicken etc etc. She hardly touches meat, so it all came to us. The freezer is completely packed now.

We are doomed to be carnivores for the next half year. I had steak for dinner yesterday and a steak sandwich for breakfast and the one photographed is my steak sandwich lunch.

Guess what we're having for dinner?

The One with the Dust
Earlier in the week, a massive dust storm spread from the deserty bit of South Australia and hit most of the east coast. One minute the sky was blue and the next, it was like this. My colleagues choked and sneezed and rushed to seal the windows. I, having been conditioned by the annual Indonesian haze, was fine.

News reports say it's the worst dust storm ever, with 1 million tons of dust being circulated. The airports were closed and stuff. I had to drive home squinting.

The One with the Baby
We gathered at the Greentree's to celebrate Phoebe's first birthday. She happily mashed up her cake, which was pretty and pretty tasty by the way.

The bowl in the centre contains smoked oysters, which are YUM.

A real barbeque fire! Our host laughed when I did a Japanese (and of course, I got mistaken for one again by this nice Hongkie lady) and photographed it. I am so jakun.

The One with Funny Animals
Ghostsharks are like unicorns. Only the horn is a boner, not bone.

I ♥ dinosaurs.