Did someone say dinner party?

The long weekend comes with extra time to relax or in one's case, to renovate.

So it was time to finally get the paint brush and roller out to finish off the dining room. So white paint in hand we hit the dining room and in what seemed like no time the dining room suddenly felt inviting:

It comes around but once a year

So this weekend, like many others one was quite excited by the prospect of a long weekend! And like many home owners, one made a special trip to the big Bunnings in Innaloo, some call it a cultural experiment, some call it taking one's life into one's own hands, but I call it escaping the grand final!

So we hit up Bunnings, got a towel rail and a hand towel holder.

And so now the Bathroom looks a little like this:

Bolli & Burgers

This is up there with my idea of a perfect night - Bollinger and a Burger from Flipside.

Why on earth would you mix a burger and a bubble I hear you ask, well this is why:

Unfortunately, the rock didn't come to visit because it was off singing with our girls Edz and B.

But they were busy singing the (now) ironic 'if you liked it then you shuda put a ring on it' so we'll have to get more Bolli now!

They say lightning never strikes twice, but lucky for me, lighting does strike twice and here they are and what a difference they make from what was here before.

I'm super dooper happy with them and think they look absolutely awesome.

Adding to the excitement is the fact that both of these babies has a dimmer attached so I can adjust the lighting to fit the mood. I'd forgotten how good dimmer switches are having lived without them for quite a while. Now I have them in both the living and dining room.

Next task: get the dining table into the dining room. Bring on the long weekend!

Ladies of Perth - Step up to the plate

So the men of Perth have copped a bit of a battering this week, but ladies, you also need to address something..

All to often I am being attacked by the open toe stocking squadron. This is unacceptable. If you can see your toes in the shoes, they aren't winter shoes and whacking on a pair of stockings isn't going to change that.

All it does is make you look from a distance like you have some kind of toe eating fungus.

Picture (Window) Perfect

So since this weekend got off to a cracking start one has been quite productive and here's some proof:

Before:




During:




After:

Beautiful glossy, white window frames! They've hit one's bedroom and coming soon to a kitchen, bathroom and living room in a flat of one's own.

One Rocks Saturday Mornings!

One is most proud of oneself this Saturday morning. While the SO went off to Kings Park to do some crazy exercise, one had a tight Achilles and decided to stay at aflatofonesown rather than go running.

Since then one has accomplished:

1. Washing the sheets;
2. Having a shower;
   
3. Drinking a cup of Green Tea;
4. Making the bed; and
5. Publishing 3 posts!

Very good for 8.14am on a Saturday.

Off to breakfast and paint shopping now!

A sad tale...

This is a sad post, for it starts here:
How did one end up with a pair of broken Tom Ford TF5013 B5 glasses I hear you ask?

• Was one playing some kind of contact sport: No
• Did one have a Newnsey style public incident: No
• Was one in a car accident and smash one's glasses on the windscreen: No

Picture this: One is sitting in a conference room with Senior Partner tele-proofing a witness (who was in a much more exotic location), typing up some notes as one went along. One is sitting directly across the table from Senior Partner. All of a sudden one hears the slightest crack, it could have been a key on the keyboard, but then the Tom Fords just fall right off one's face.

Senior Partner looks at one as if to say 'what the' (although to be hones one can't really see the full facial expression because he no longer has the benefit of optical assistance). One shrugs his shoulders and the tele-proofing continues.

Luckily one had been to booty camp that morning so had trusty gym glasses in gym bag in the office so one wasn't blind for long.

Thinking, these Tom Fords are only eighteen months old, one trots off to the Optometrist to politely ask if the TF5013s can be sent back and fixed.

Pompous optometrist: 'Oh no, they're out of warranty, I can order you a new pair though'
One: 'Really, they were quite expensive and it appears something internal was faulty'
PO: 'Well, i can send them off, but it will take eight weeks and you have to put a deposit on any repairs they may do of $400'
One: 'I think I might have a look for new glasses, thanks'

So I walked off in my trusty gym glasses, feeling a little depleted and not quite myself and started the hunt for new frames, something that before TF5013 B5 came into one's life was an annual pilgrimage but since TF5013 came along one has been a one frame man. After trying on what feels like about 100 pairs and never finding something quite right, one thought, EBay is one's friend. surely for less than the cost of repairs one can get a whole new pair, slip in lenses from broken TF5013 B5 and one will be happy as a clam.

EBay search conducted. Result: 0.

Then I did what all lawyers do when one cannot find an answer - turned to Google
and one's dear friend returned 2640 results. With light in one's heart one commenced the task of sifting through the chaff and came across a little optometrist shop on 5th Avenue NYC called CoolFrames.com

The rest is (a quick) history, one ordered a new pair of TF5013 B5s and expected a 21 day turn around. Oh no, not at all it seems. One's friends at CoolFrames dispatched TF5013 B5 the very next day, the US Postal Service then sent one updates as one's babies were on their journey home, International Dispatch; Arrived abroad, Australia 10.28am; Into Foreign Customs 10.32am; Out of Foreign Customs 12.26am; At Foreign Delivery Unit 6.01am; Delivered Abroad, 11.24am and one's heart leaped with joy, one's hand grabbed the phone, called the mail room and had the parcel brought up urgently.

And that is how one ended up here:


Strangely, one cannot quite explain the psychological effect of having frames that one loves has had. It is like a part of one has returned and the world is right again.

Step by Step

Yesterday I had a visit from Jeff the tiler. Jeff was spot on time at 7.45am, but Jeff claimed to have 'drunk some dodgy beer' the night before...

Now in all my years of experience, never has 'dodgy' beer been encountered. Not even by the beer swilling trio of Dodd, Fluff and Chee so I of course said 'dodgy beer or dodgy amounts of beer, I think there's a difference Jeff' poor Jeff looked a bit sunken and then came up with 'oh maybe it was the chili mussels then'. Now this was a clever strategic play by Jeff, but I of course encountered the 'it wasn't the booze, it was the food' move by none other than Dodd after a uni ball back in about 2000 so I just gave Jeff a knowing glance and said 'lucky you don't need to use a jack hammer today then!' and we were off and racing on the home straight towards a finished kitchen.

So here are the 'work in progress' shots:

Bathroom Blitz

So this is what the kitchen came with:

and this is what I have now! The difference some simple white makes still amazes me and yes, that is Aesop hand wash and hand balm...

Men of Perth: PLEASE...

There are two things that I cannot, do not and will never accept:
1. Pants that are too short; and
2. Brown shoes with black pants.

In recent days walking to and from the bus, my eyes have been assaulted by too many instances of short pants and blending of the colour families. Unacceptable.

Now if gent in question was terribly dressed, I could view him simply as visual pollution. However this is not the case both the cut of the suit and nice shoe indicate that this gent indeed has taste or has a girlfriend with taste. Now unless she was off at NYC Fashion Week I cannot understand why he walked out of the house wearing this combination.




As if this visual assault on my fashion senses was not enough today, I got whacked by this on the way home.

Now yes this fellow has managed to put on the right shoe/pant combination. BUT how short are those pants!?!? Can you even still call them pants, they're almost 3/4 length pants and I refuse to believe that even Myer is selling 3/4 suit pants for men.

Plus before you think, maybe he didn't realise, let me tell you this: it was cold today and Perth is one of the windiest cities in the world. His ankles must be freezing and not just part of his ankle - the whole darn thing was without any pant protection from the weather!

OK, so gents, two things to remember:
1. Black pants and brown shoes are not friends; and
2. Pants should stop just around the join of the leather upper and sole of your shoes.

One step at a time

Tonight I met Jeff the tiler. Jeff is coming to tile my splashback on either Friday or Monday. Very exciting!

A Kitchen (almost) complete

Well I have been tardy in this post, but yes indeed the Kitchen is almost finished, there's just the tiling to go.

And so here are a couple of progress pictures for you all.

Now I'm late for a comedy show so I'll finish this later

enex100

So on Sunday we popped into the city to pick up a wedding gift being the King of weddings that one is. Unfortunately the list was at Myer, which is not to one's store, because after all there's no other store like David Jones.

But I digress, so one found oneself in the city and decided to pop into the new enex100 which has been open for a couple of weeks now. Well it has many things that one loves, like Calibre but there is also a brand spanking new Woolworths.

Which resulted in me doing the groceries on a Sunday - now this is progress Perth, hurry up and extend retail trading hours!

How things change

I must apologise, I have neglected you my bloggettes, but I am back and how things have changed...

I vividly remember when my fav former office neighbour and Moroccan travel buddy Bookie introduced me to the joy that is a kosher bagel with butter, Vegemite and cream cheese. Now I cannot recall if I went off-piste by adding the butter or not, but its beside the point. A Vegemite and cream cheese bagel is one of life's greatest joys.

So imagine my surprise when I went to Woolies on Sunday (which is worthy of a whole other blog entry) and found 'new Vegemite' which lists its ingredients as 'Yeast extract and cream cheese' oi, I almost needed a schloof after the excitement passed.

SO of course I purchased the 'new Vegemite' and tonight have sampled it. It has a consistency somewhere between cream cheese and Vegemite (perhaps not unsurprisingly).

Now I would never sit down with a tub of cream cheese and a jar of Vegemite and eat them with a spoon, but its somehow creamier and more delicious when its all processed and popped in a little jar. I could and most likely will eat this with a spoon at some stage and I'm not afraid to admit it.