Rants - the good...and the bad

Howdy buccaneers. I'm back :)

Man. It has been a looooooooong couple of weeks. How long you ask? This long:

RAWR. Thanks for the demo Gary.

I've discovered that in times of mental or emotional 'duress' (for lack of a better word at the mo) I have absolutely no desire to blog. "Why" I hear you ask? "Surely, a problem shared is a problem halved Bruce?" Somewhat true folks. In my experience though, (in certain instances) as good as the intentions of all parties' are, the 'sharing' bit can also perpetuate and give 'legs' to a problem. And then, before you can say any monosyllabic F-words, there's that mountain again - amazing how they spring up from such tiny mole hills!

"Om, nom, nom!"
I just love this absurd little picture!

When TGA and I first put our heads together and came up with the whole blog idea/adventure, one of our absolute non-negotiables was to make this little corner of cyberspace a positive, warm and happy little rant cubby house.

And yes, for those of you who are new to the Joys of Rant, before you ask, Good Rants do exist. These are the type that spurt (or spout) forth uncontrollably because you've encountered either:

a) Supreme awesomeness somewhere out there in the world (e.g. good service in a bank or government department - rare but it does happen!)...or,

b) The complete opposite (e.g. seeing that numpty Tony Abbott in budgie smugglers. 'Nuff said. Not awesome. Also, the inane uselessness of every single Kardashian. WTF are they about?! Again, not awesome but definitely a Good Rant situation)...

...and you just HAVE to share that moment/thought with somebody!
Note: catharsis + coffee + friend-with-ears = Good Rant to the power of double rainbows squared (...or something to that effect).

...Then there are the Bad Rants. These are typically mood deflating, energy-zapping, vampiric-on-my-good-nature type rants.

Examples?

Hmmm, a couple of front-of-mind pearlers just jumped up and screeched "pick me, pick me!"...however will refrain as don't want to indulge them or my Bad Rant-y tendencies. Again, I say, it's been a loooooong couple of weeks folks...

I'll say this much though, you'll recognise a Bad Rant by the way it makes your insides feel. Yes, I'm talking physically. You might experience any or all of these common symptoms:

• A churn-sy tummy
• You feel a bit 'dirty' for airing your grievances
• Guilt for dominating conversation with all and sundry about such an inane topic. You've morphed into the dreaded Monologuer(*shudder*)
• Deep in your heart you know you're being petty or unnecessarily bitchy
• Self loathing due to all of the above
• You rant, you rave and you curse and you still don't feel anywhere close to finishing (the verbal equivalent of Wonka's gobstoppers)...

In the wise sing-song la-la-la-ing of Lambchop:

The feelings discussed above can occur at any time once you find yourself orbitting around a Bad Rant. This can be whilst contemplating the rant, mid rant or in the quiet space after the rant has been aired. Admittedly, hard to recognise before it gets an airing but your gut will tell you it's in motion...the tricky part is stopping. That Bad Rant gravitational pull is quite seductive...like coffee, hard to stop once you have one. It's taken me nigh on 2 weeks to stop this recent dip...sort of...still a work in progress...! (c'mon Belinda Carlisle! Find me my happy pants! Heaven IS a place on earth! Leave a light on for happy me dammit!)

So in short, Bad Rants are banned here in the SOGS space :)

...funny, now I seem to be ranting about ranting. *sigh*. Did I mention it's been a long couple of weeks??!! haha!

Despite subtley making fun of TGA's grumpy funk a few weeks ago (mmm, yum! Humble pie!), I do admit I have found her idea of a pictorial collection of happy moments a great way of slowly lifting myself out of my own Trough of Blerh.

Behold! Here are my recent "calm blue ocean, woooosssahhhhh...." moments :)

Enjoy - thanks for dropping by!

Pearl Cafe (yes, we went back!). Goan spicey avo and mozzarella salad on toast.
Chilli and lime juice filled in the gaps - great way to start a gray morning!

Breakfast pizza. What more is there to say really?

Puppy and Little Poppet. Chaos and mayhem separated by a mere pane of glass.
Doesn't however stop the noise...

In times of need I turn to Sister Maria. One of a few of my favourite things.

Breakfast tarts! Homemade by TGA...
I suspect she tried to make them a bit healthy by chucking some peas in...we weren't fooled...

Have a great week everyone :)
x B

Moments of Happy

TGA was in an utterly FOUL mood for most of Thursday, Friday...this then flowed into the weekend (and not the fun bird kind either...tee hee...fowl..get it? Punny!).

From a safe distance it was suggested that maybe as a distraction from the endless ranting, perhaps she should go off and organise and/or sort something. Please. Anything. Does anything need cleaning? Surely some surface needs a good Jiff-ing?...

A quick scowl, final stomp of the foot...but off she beetled.

Quiet ensued.

The tumbleweeds peeked out from their hidey holes.

Now, the abode is fairly spotless at the moment (surprise) so both TB and I were quite curious to see how TGA's distraction would manifest...

Lo and behold, we found her squirreled away in front of the pooter having set herself the monstrous mission of categorising our burgeoning folders of digital photos. In the 'too-hard' basket for the rest of the household (and mankind me thinks), nothing works better than a seemingly impossible project which includes sorting, editing and putting things into chronological order (or alphabetical) to distract that one.

And so, a lot of mouse clicking and tap-tap-tappity-tapping of the keyboard later, she's simultaneously organised our photo-life as well as picture-fied herself out of her dark mind clouds.

So, for all ye non-believers - fact in action here - the perenially perky do have their grumpy pants days (and boy, do they fall way harder into scowly funks than the rest of the consistently and mildly-disgruntled population!). Keep this in your pocket for those days when you feel like utter shizer: take piccies of those little moments of joy, wonder and contentment in your life. It truly is the small things. Days like these - they have the power to keep the roof from caving in (literally and figuratively!).

I hope you enjoy TGA's random selection of recent happy accidents, victory-arms moments and internal smiles x B

Get Whale Soon...

Well hello there and happy first day of the 2nd half of the year. 2011 - flying fast!

My apologies for the cyber silence this week but I was off feeling terribly sorry for myself and was suffering from the dreaded Whale Flu (or, as TGA likes to scoff, an eye-roll worthy whale-like version of the cursed 'Man Flu'). She has no heart that one.

Ok, so yes, there may have been a bit of wailing and the occasional pectoral fin to the forehead. There may also been Oscar-worthy coughing/dying scenes renacted every hour...on the hour...

Was it life-threatening? Possibly. I sure as heck felt like death. AND, why would I try to feel better when I surely do not? As the Dalai Lama would say - "where's the mindfulness in that foooool?" (am adlibbing...and perhaps I've also morphed him with Mr T...c'mon, back me up here Your Holiness!). Go with the flow I say...and the flow this week wanted to build a fort and get waited on flipper and fin. Weehee! Forts!

Sadly, ours did not look anywhere near as hip as any of these ones (http://bit.ly/sH16m)... in fact, it was literally the duvet over TGA's knees and both of us cowering from the Melbourne chill within the confines of, oh, maybe a pocket of air about 40cm x 40cm x 40cm. The warm serenity lasted about 5 minutes until the wee poppet started started doing the whole claustrophic thing...and so, in a thrashing/flurry of pillows, sheets and demolished "fort", she made a frenzied beeline for fresh air (because, obviously we were at risk of suffocating...hmmm, not). I swear, there is a whole different world going on in her head. And, might I add, there was little-to-no waiting on flipper and fin either. Hmph.

Illness, moaning and short-lived fort attempts aside, it has been a relatively quiet week in the eating stakes photo-wise. That does not however mean that I did not partake in glorious feeds. Quite the contrary - TGA was just slack with the whole documenting of nosh. So, establishments and gastronomic highlights of this week include:

Mr Wolf
The spicy pork, tomato, mozzarella, sausage, pickled peppers, pancetta, fennel pizza. What's not to love??! Pizza-ry bliss. An eyes-closed dining moment.

Apparently, they also love kids at Mr Wolf so from 5-6pm it is kid-dining ANARCHY. They also provide colouring-in sheets and those chunky crayons for the little ones. Good on Karen Martini for creating such a hip, family friendly zone. As part of Little Poppet (LP) birthday festivities, this is where we found ourselves one night last weekend. Thank goodness birthdays are only once a year. Imagine Apocalypse-like mayhem. Now times that to the power of whatever the largest number EVER is. Infinity? Good enough.

I was clogged up with whale-flu phlegm so hardly heard a thing. TGA however said her ears were ringing from the noise even 2 days later. TGA and Tall Boy also managed to make a bottle of shiraz disappear in less time than you can colour in a giant frog too...

Pearl Cafe
A gorgeous sunny Melbourne day. A slow saunter down Church Street. A going-away lunch for one of TGA's work mates. Doesn't need an occasion though - will definitely be going back so piccies at some stage!

Highlight: warm,buttered, freshly baked baguette with proscuitto wrapped duck and pistachio terrine (it was Love with a capital 'L'), balsamic onion relish and red oak lettuce. Holy heck yes. Damn, I wish that girl had taken a piccie of this one. Soooooo good.

Honourable mention: the Breakfast Pizza. 2 of my favourite words mashed together. Love it. Oozy free-range eggs, crispy bacon, fresh basil and pesto with parmesan shavings. Epic food envy (someone else ordered it and I was being polite so did not get to taste).

Next time Gadget!

The Branch
Dark, candle-lit and cheap! Friends of TGA staying (yes, more visitors!) so off we toodled for another meal external to the abode.

Highlight: $15 lamb shanks (yes, plural! Will wonders never cease?!). Cooked PERFECTLY and the baa-like meat fell of the bone ever so lazily into the pool of viscous gravy below. The perfect side? Mash of course. The motley crew ordered 2 servings of shanks but the kitchen only had the 1 serve of mash left. What to do?! Side of chips of course :) In the wise words of Pac-man:

Teehee - "in my words" on the right :)

No politeness here either - got to be quick with this mob - got a good couple of whale-sized gob-fulls down before TB hoovered the lot. I wasn't the only whale to leave the bar that night. Quite a few rotund bellies waddling out of there.

Confession time
(no, not a bar - an actual confession):
I did get a little bit spoilt once this week (*sheepish*..."thanks TGA"). Whilst in the throes of a cold & flu medicated haze (thank you Lemsip - so lemon, comforty good - how could an addiction to you possibly be bad?!) combined with the post-traumatic "gaaahh, OMG - what was that?!!" of having a high octane 7 year old in the house, I gave an almighty stomp of the tail and demanded KFC. Yes. You heard me. KFC.

And you know, it was sooooo good. I believe TGA and TB call it "bad good". Hot & spicy to be sure. A rarity out East apparently.
"Back for a limited time only!"(so says the man on the idiot box...Oh no! Quick! To the drive-thru! Stat!). Strike while the fryer's hot and the "man-flu" allows me tantrum rights I suppose :)

So yeah, that was my hide-in-a-closet meal this week. And yes, I did feel a tiny bit dirty (and mildly queasy) afterwards...

Phew. Glad I got that food slumming confession off my chest. And you know, perhaps there's something to be said for a grease dose. Maybe it can cure what ails you (e.g. think of post booze kebabs / pizza / Maccas / non descript servo food etc) as am feeling a gajillion times better since the KFC accident. (not HEAPS better - *cough, splutter*...am sure I could stretch the whale-flu out a couple more days...)

Anyhoo, thanks again for dropping in :)

AND! Hooray it's Friday!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Eat well!

x B