I can see why humans and cats have stuck together over time. In winter they act, quite conveniently, like a hot water bottle that you don’t need to fill up. They snuggle up to you and help keep you really warm.

The only problem is that often Fritz doesn’t want to sit near me, he wants to sit on me. He used to just sit on my legs. Recently, however, he’s taken to jumping up on my body, rather than the couch, and making himself comfortable. First it was my legs, now he jumps right onto my stomach. Although I appreciate the warmth and cuddles, this also entails him prodding his little feet into me while he circles round a few times trying to get his seating angle just right. I know, I’m a wuss, but he’s a reasonably heavy cat, and it’s bloody painful at times!

He is growing up to be a very cute cat though, and much more inclined to come and seek cuddles than he did before. He seems to do as he’s told more as well, and actually seems to listen to the ‘Stay’ command now when we open doors.

Now, if only I could train him to give back rubs and clean the house…

Today I finished ‘The Music of Dunes’ by Mike Williams (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2006). It was hard to put down and overall a total pleasure to read. I have to say though, everything I’ve read so far by Western Australian authors I’ve loved. I’m so impressed - our writers are producing some damn tasty fiction. But this book in particular, it really nourished the soul. It’s also one of the few books I’ve read lately that has had a happy ending.

If I wrote a book I’d want it to be like this. Well crafted, effortless to read. Full of beautiful imagery, emotion, a bit of philosophy, good humor, good music, good food. It gives value to the simplest but the best things in life. It was nice to read a story about characters who value the same stuff in life that I do. I also loved all the references to familiar music, musicians, and artworks. The adventures (or lack thereof) of Queen Anne (the protagonist’s cat) were hilarious, and the quiet companionship she provides really resonated.

So to update:

So far (in this challenge) I’ve read…

1. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K. Dick
3. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
4. Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
5. In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
6. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
7. Paradise - Abdulrazak Gurnah
8. Gilgamesh - Joan London
9. Careless - Deborah Robertson
10. Milk and Honey - Elizabeth Jolley
11. The Music of Dunes - Mike Williams

Now I’ll finish reading:

The Well - Elizabeth Jolley (probably tomorrow if I’m so inclined - I’m about 2/3 way through - been a bit lazy lately and still haven’t knocked it off)

…Then I’ll return all my books to the library on Monday (oops - they’re overdue a few days) and hire some more. So I’ll post another update then on what I’m reading.

I hope to hire ‘Old Jazz’ by Mike Williams, which apparently precedes ‘The Music of Dunes’ and is linked to it.. or at least the protagonist is the same guy. I really enjoyed reading Ondaatje’s ‘In the Skin of a Lion’ and then ‘The English Patient’, so I was excited to find out that there was another part to ‘The Music of Dunes’. If I can find a copy of ‘Old Jazz’ at the library I’ll be reading them back to front, but oh well.

As I said in my last post, I have started reading:

White Noise - Don DeLilo (about 1/3 through)

No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan - Robert Shelton (about 1/3 through)

Come In Spinner - Dymphna Cusack & Florence James(about 1/4 through)

but I’ll see how I feel on Monday, and decide then whether to pick one of these back up, or to start on a library book instead.

Anyhow, cheerio for now.

I can’t stand this woman. And her teeth scare me

Over at librarything I’ve started up a book challenge for myself - to read 50 books by the end of the year. This is completely unrealistic. I tend to be someone who values quality over quantity when it comes to books. But hey, I’ll probably get to 30 if I’m lucky. It’s not that I don’t have the time. I kind of just get distracted and start reading magazines or blogs and websites instead… I also have a bad habit of starting to read books, getting halfway through, getting distracted and eventually putting them back on the shelf or taking them back to the library.

So it’s unlikely that I’ll get to 50 books. But I guess it doesn’t really matter. The main reason I set the goal was mostly to keep myself reading something. The place I’m working right now doesn’t require me to do any reading or writing, and I’m afraid of losing my mind by not using it. It’s funny, too, that when you aren’t in a particularly stimulating environment, when you do read something you really suck it in like it has some kind of nourishment you need. I’ve always studied up to this point, so reading has been more a necessary chore than a pleasurable activity. So yeah. Anyway..

To spur myself on more I think I’ll post up my progress here on the blog, too.

Here is what I’ve read so far this year (pretty dismal effort, but the plus side is I enjoyed all of them):

1. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Phillip K. Dick
3. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
4. Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
5. In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
6. The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
7. Paradise - Abdulrazak Gurnah
8. Gilgamesh - Joan London
9. Careless - Deborah Robertson
10. Milk and Honey - Elizabeth Jolly

Now I’m reading:

11. The Well - Elizabeth Jolley (about 2/3 way through)
12. The Music of Dunes - Mike Williams (about 1/4 through)

And on-and-off I’m reading:

White Noise - Don DeLilo (about 1/3 through)
No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan - Robert Shelton (about 1/3 through)
Come In Spinner - Dymphna Cusack (about 1/4 through)

As you can probably see, my taste in books varies. I love post-colonial fiction and Australian fiction, and also really enjoy speculative fiction and some biographies. The theme that tends to tie the books I read together is generally that they’re quite gritty, realistic, confronting, and bare the ugly but profound bits of life. A lot of what I’ve been reading lately is stuff recommended while I was at uni, but now that I’ve nearly read most of them I’ve started to venture out to the local library. I mainly pick anything that has a ‘Premier’s Book Award’ or ‘National Book Award’ or similar sticker on the front. I also often pick books because they have an interesting cover or title.

If you know of a book that you think I might like, tell me! I’m always looking for more titles to add to my ‘to read’ list.

I couldn’t manage to get a shot of the sky outside, through the window,
without capturing the reflection of the light shades inside!
Kind of looks like there’s lanterns in the trees

It is forecast rain for the rest of the week. Which I usually don’t mind. However, today, I had to run some errands and get some groceries. I was wearing shoes like this. The rain was so heavy that it was flooding the sides of the road, and gushing down the carpark (the shopping centre is on a hill). Walking to the shops, my shoes got full of water. So I squish squishy squeek squished all through the shops. On the way back home I got even more wet, struggling to hold a huge umbrella and bags of shopping at the same time.

So I don’t mind rain, but I have to say, it sure can make you feel a bit cold, squishy, and miserable at times. It does make getting home a lot nicer though. Everything seems warmer, dryer and happier.

I wonder where the preoccupation with sticking stuff to fridges came from?

Our fridge is decorated with a calendar, a poem, some random magnets from businesses and the like who have given us their magnets, and other semi-important household stuff that we got from the local council.

Oh, and the must-have, very standard ’slogan magnet’ which reveals a little something of the fridge-owner’s personality. Mine was given to me by my Mum. It’s a picture of a pig, with the words ‘I’m not messy, I’m creative!’ written on it. She gave me this when I lived at home and my bedroom was a constant mess, but it was kind of useless then because I didn’t have anything in my room that was magnetic that I could stick it to. So when I first got a fridge and unpacked all my belongings in my newly rented house, it suddenly became useful.

Alas, that moment has now passed, because now I have a fridge covered in crap - none of which I actually look at much, other than to rearrange the magnets occasionally, or to re-stick the calender when a magnet comes lose and it falls off.

I do like the poem though. And the mini magnetic versions of Pink Floyd cover art.

What does your fridge look like? Pics welcome!

Both of these brands of instant drinking chocolate are on special at Coles at the moment, though the ‘La Bella’ brand (~$4) is about $1 or so more expensive than the Cadbury brand (~$3). Earlier this week I bought the La Bella one, but today I saw the Cadbury was on special too so I thought I’d try that as well and compare them.

After trying both brands, the only conclusion I’ve come to is that both are in need of improvement. La Bella is better for its chocolatey-ness, but you have to use a fair bit and it doesn’t have much sweetness, so I ended up adding some sugar (which I find annoying because I don’t want to have to do any work - I just want to put it in the cup and have it taste good - not have to adjust the sweetness myself).

Cadbury’s is Ok - you use less, but it has a sweetness that, if not used wisely, could be sickly. And it’s not very chocolatey compared to La Bella.

My solution so far is to put a spoonful of each brand in a cup. Top with hotwater, stir, and add milk.

My longer term goal is to try the other brands of drinking chocolate and see which is better. I think Vittoria might be better, but at ~$8 a pop it’s pretty pricey. Granted, the container is about twice the size of the brands I’ve bought so far, but I’d hope it was good for that kind of price. Anyone tried it?

I’ve noticed recently that when I go shopping I end up spending more time trying to choose flavours of food for my cat than I do for myself. The choice is overwhelming. When I didn’t own a cat I assumed all cat food was stinky stuff with sardines in jelly, or miscellaneous cubes of meat in a gravy-like goo. Now the stuff doesn’t smell too bad at all (as far as cat food goes) and comes in flavours like ‘Seafood and Chicken Mornay’, ‘Fine Salmon Mousse’, ‘Tuna Fillets and Whole Prawns in Seafood Sauce’, ‘Tender Lamb Morsels’, ‘Turkey Morsels in Mousse’, and so on. The other day I even spotted one that had ‘Foigras’ in the title!

At first I thought they were all probably the same kind of thing but just in different forms and textures. But there does seem to be differences in flavour between them all. Some Fritz loves, some he won’t touch.

When we first got Fritz we researched what was the best thing to feed him and everyone recommended food brands that are stocked at pet stores (Hills Science Diet, Advance, Royal Canin, etc.). Although these are supposed to be healthier than supermarket varieties, the price is just ridiculous. And as much as I love my cat, I refuse to spend more on his food than I would on my own.

Ironically, too, I’ve tried feeding him the more expensive food and he doesn’t touch it. His favourite food is the Dine wet food range, especially the mornays. For dry food he loves the Optimum range, but he also surprisingly chows down ‘You’ll Love Coles’ dry cat food (in the orange packet). When he was a kitten we gave him wet & dry food from the Whiskers Kitten range, but he’s gone off Whiskers since. We also occasionally cook him up some fresh meat so he has something warm to eat - we just put it in a bowl and microwave it. Which was a bit of a mistake actually, because now when we microwave anything containing meat he catches a whiff of the aromas and runs over, sits patiently, eyeing you off, waiting to be fed.

Ah, it’s a cats life!

…it’s not a good idea to cut your hair shorter in winter. It’s cold!!!

It will probably come as a surprise to people out there who have noticed the heavy meat content on this blog, but once upon a time we were actually vegetarian. I was vegetarian for about 6+ years, while the other became vegetarian when he met me - for a couple of years or so. We even tried being vegan for a year. When I was vego I used to eat stuff like this all the time. It’s simple but very yummy, and quite healthy. Here’s what you’ll need to make it, and how. Serves one ravenous person, or two hungry people.

Ingredients

Bread, sliced
Cottage cheese
Lettuce leaves
1 regular can of baked beans
2 field mushrooms, sliced into medium-sized pieces
6 grape tomatoes, sliced in half (you could use cherry tomatoes instead, or even a normal sized tomato diced)
a little olive oil for frying

Method

1. Put some olive oil in a pan, and fry the sliced mushrooms until nicely cooked. You want them heated through to the point they aren’t raw anymore, but not overcooked so they shrink and get really small & dark. You want some juicyness to burst out when you bite into them.
2. Add the tin of beans to the pan and stir.
3. When the beans have heated through, turn down the heat to low, and add the sliced tomatoes & stir through. Stir occasionally and allow tomatoes to heat through & soften a little.
4. Meanwhile, toast some slices of bread. When done, put them on a plate and spread with cottage cheese.
5. Rinse some lettuce leaves, drain, and place on top of the bread.
6. Give the bean mixture a stir, then spoon onto the lettuce.
7. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!