- learned not to fly in the middle of the day
Because it always ends up being delayed. I spent five hours sitting around Glasgow Airport on the way out and had time for dinner and dessert on the way back, my flights were so damn late. The key is to take the first flight of the day, which is why my sister booked herself a 5am service. - ate a hell of a lot of Asian food
This I totally did not expect. I had century egg porridge, mee pok tah, spicy Sichuan fish stew (水煮鱼片), tofu salad (老虎菜), dry-fried beans (干煸四季豆), roti prata, sashimi (gigantor slices), dough sticks (油条), beef sandwiches (肉夹末), chye tow kueh (carrot cake), xiao long bao (小笼包), various soy products (豆水 and 豆花), and probably more but I forget. My cousin told me that the Chinese food has got much more varied since the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese immigrated en masse. - bought those Fluevog shoes I was talking about
Oh yeah. The surprise was my sister and cousin paid for them as my wedding present. Haha. Motorcycle-type boots and slightly fetish-y shoes for a wedding present. How totally excellent. - had lots of lovely long talks with my aunt, cousin, and sister
I’m the baby of the family (on this side, not counting the sprogs), so this is the first time I’ve heard many of these anecdotes, from relatives I haven’t met up with for ages. I also met an uncle I haven’t seen in years. He’s the spitting image of his dad. Heh. - met the man Kevin McCloud would die for
My cousin’s boyfriend, Steve, is the handiest DIY-er I have ever met. I spent my first day in Canada marvelling over his house, and I mistook his double garage as the neighbour’s house, it’s that good. This man has done it all (he is Bob the Builder in real life, I swear) and owns every power tool known to man. Plus he rides a motorcycle. And he’s got a Jag. - misplaced my backpack
Well, the airline did. I’ve been lucky and have not my luggage not appear on the carousel for two decades or so; I suppose my time has come. That doesn’t mean I’m not distressed — my new Volcom cardigan is in there.
This Canadian holiday I…
The joy of Fluevog
I’m a shoe freak. I also keep my favourites till well after they have collapsed and died (unless Neil talks me into throwing them out). I bought a pair of Supervogs back in 2000, and excepting the soles that I had to replace, they are still on the go. So John Fluevog makes me happy.
And so this trip to Canada will have to include a visit to the local Fluevog store, because I want these shoes. They’re a bit fetish but perfectly normal at the same time. I like the double-duty.
And these ones. They’re smarted-up motorcycle boots. Grrrrowwwllll!
Let’s see if I have to make yet more space again for yet another couple more pairs of shoes. Plus they’re not exactly cheap. You get what you pay for, right?
The only search result
I’m not sure which is more disturbing, getting a site visit from someone on Google for “moderately farty bum”, or the fact that my site is the only result.
Workhouses are good
Given that I know people who laughed at Neil for looking for a job instead of sitting on his backside at home, claiming the dole, I sure as hell would support a ‘work for the dole’-type scheme. Companies are all evil blah blah blah. Companies do not have morals, they aren’t people. If it’s profitable to be civic-minded, they will be.
An ode to lard
Nothing contributes more joy, satisfaction, high blood pressure, and heart disease than junk food, and none more so than pork rinds (crackling). I’ve never made a secret of my love for the wholly un-nutritious, but the dietary compulsion for Mr Porky is a totally new thing.
Indeed, I have eaten the fried lard one occasionally gets in bowls of mee pok and with guzzlingly gut-busting gusto, and I remember crunching on some crackling off some roast pork back in my uni days (which are growing terrifyingly distant, whaddaya mean I graduated last century?), but deep fried pig fat and skin, dipped in salt? Phwoar.
I’ve been really bad lately, consuming a full bag over a 24-hour period (even my conscience and intestines cannae cope with eating it all in one sitting), at least once a week. I blame Neil, who I allege is trying to mitigate his excessive consumption of Magnum ice creams by deflecting my Singaporean shame rays back at me. He encourages my purchasing of Mr. Porky whenever we’re at the Co-Op — that’s how devious the man is.
The really freaky thing is I don’t even particularly like how pork rinds taste. Like all the people with self-imposed diet and lifestyle problems, I just cannae help it. My brain says, Eat fresh food; but my stomach says, Crisps and soda and pork rinds, please.
iPhone 2.0 ad that niggles me
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until last weekend — the very slick Apple ad for the iPhone 2.0 seems to (not very subtly) imply that those who rushed in to buy the first version have been totally ripped off by Apple, given the short period of time between releases (my cousin’s iPhone 1.0 is only four months old, and he’s an Apple freak). We looked at phones recently; while touchpad phones look good (Neil likes a Samsung we saw), I still love the Treos.
This weekend I…
- mainly did a bunch of DIY
To be more precise, I helped out. We hung lining paper on the hallway upstairs, and it’s quite amazing what some light-coloured paper will do to lift the mood. We’re almost done, but there are some extremely tricky bits as the upstairs is a loft conversion and so I’m a bit worried that Neil will fall and hurt himself (he jokes that I’ll return and find him in a decomposing heap at the bottom of the stairs) as I’m going away next week. - realised how much I haven’t done about going away
I still have to get a hold of Canadian dollars for my holiday this week, and although I think I’m organised (I have a list and everything), I suspect I’m not. I’m really looking forward to seeing my family this week, and so I have certainly not been in the mood to do anything but wish I was already on holiday. - saw the rings
Neil’s picked up our wedding rings, which I had almost (but not quite) forgotten about. This site has mostly been a wedding-planning-news-free zone (because going on and on about something this low-key and self-obsessed is boring), and now all the things that need to be done have been done. All I’m worried about is the guests having expectations of a traditional wedding when I basically want it to be seen as a regular weekend with a short civil ceremony in the afternoon (especially since I’ve always been an advocate of the Vegas quickie). - watched a few movies on the teevee
Two stick in my mind: Omen II, where it appears that any direct or extremely indirect human threat to young Damien was dispatched fairly ruthlessly, and makes me wonder if the Devil was so omnipotent and omniscient, why did his (clearly quite powerful as well) followers have to worry so much about us puny humans? Damien was perfectly capable of defending himself from anyone. And he sure embraced the “I am the son of the Devil” idea pretty quickly. The other one was Batman Begins, which was broadcast on Sky One last night. I love Christian Bale and want him to bear my children, but I still think Michael Keaton was the best Batman / Bruce Wayne, because he looks more like a crazy rich guy than the other actors ever did. I am pissed that The Dark Knight starts its run here while I am away. Neil thinks the make up used for Heath Ledger’s Joker looks remarkably like that of The Crow.
Glasgow East by-election debate on Sunday
The UK’s becoming more and more American. Now abortion is a big issue in a by-election? I watched the debate on Scotland’s Politics Show yesterday — another piece of evidence of the Americanisation of UK politics is the SNP candidate (John Mason) kept saying how popular Alex Salmond is, which, to me, indicates that he thinks Alex Salmond is more likely to win the election for John Mason than John Mason.