I can't express how good I feel about having my old friend in my life.
I feel anchored.
After the shedding of "friends" earlier this year, it's incredibly nice to have this guy back in my life.
In other news, gastro has taken out the peeps I was doing xmas with so probs will go to section 8 for lunch tomorrow and see who else is hanging around.
Who knows what could happen...
My mum loved Christmas. And any celebration really. Half my tea towels and things are old Christmas themed ones from the surplus she would buy. And every year EVERYONE got a present - kids, grandkids, in laws. We were not rich and I dunno how she did it but she did. I'm talking a big extended family here. And when we were little we had presents on Christmas Eve (after mass š) and a big party. Then she would back it up with lunch for everyone Christmas day.
That all changed a bit when she got old and sick and we could share the load, but the presents continued. When she got too old to shop she would research and buy things online through the year.
She died a few years ago now in November and there were so many pre-bought presents ready in the cupboard that we were able to package them all up and give everyone something from mum/grandma that year as a surprise.
So if you are sad or your family was crap, this is your permission to go buy (or cook or do) yourself something nice, from my mum. She would love it. ā„ļøāØ
Nawww. This is beautiful. It's made me weepy because my Nana was the same. She used to collect presents throughout the year and always had something under the tree for the ring-ins.
God bless the ones that are no longer with us and taught us well. š
Thankyou for sharing this memory with us š„²
Pecan pie success. Very happy. One is already in the fridge and this one is about to join it.
That looks too good to eat!
Everyone gets a gift lol
Edit:
The sunflower one is a rebound ramp in my house, strategically placed on a corner of the cat race track.
Sheeba says Merry Christmas. š
Toby says "Hi Sheeba. Look what they do to us for their own amusement".
Merry Christmas Eve for those that celebrate tonight.
Can't sleep. Boyo had a near nasty on the way home, had to drift out of a speeding head on. If fuckwits could stay off the road please!
hugs
I do it every Christmas eve: a big cleanup. Dusted, vacuumed, cleaned windowsills, threw stuff out, fluffed up floor mats, rearranged stuff, had a few tinnies of kirin hyok lemon periodically. I always figure that, aside from cooking Christmas lunch, absolutely fuck all else is being done over the next couple of days. It feels like new years already straight after Christmas for me for some reason, and I like to feel like I've cleaned š¤·š¼āāļø Also I watched this post where a woman cleaned a house that had an absolutely horrific cockroach infestation and my reaction to it was physical lol.
Well, that wasn't as early as I would've liked, but... I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
... With work - now to grab some onions and garlic and then tackle the doom pile of dishes then cook up two dishes and wash that up. And clean the house and pack. It's looking doable though!
e: first frog swallowed - submitted fooking fine appeal in the nick of time. Now to brave the shops for the aromatics...
e2: shop items acquired. The tension is palpable out there. Glad to be out of it.
e3: dishes all washed and kitchen cleaned ready for cooking... but I am le tired (and hungry), and if I have a little nap, I will probably not fire ze missiles. Okay, I think I'll just eat dinner first and let it sit for a bit as I'm flagging quite badly. But I'll put all the ingredients out so I don't completely sink into the couch
e4: one dish made. Slowly but surely. Have not had dinner yet. Would become too sleepy otherwise. Now to make the next one... hardest part is making the mustard seed and green chilli and garlic paste with desiccated coconut. I'll do it now and the rest is easy enough... Can't wait to sit down and eat dinner tho
Well Hans has reached the bottom of the advent calendar which can only mean one thing: Die Hard is going on tonight and Die Hard jumper shall be worn tomorrow.
Bit green tonight.
And, tomorrow's plans cancelled due to other people's covid. Is it terrible that I'm not sad? I'll eat pavlova in my pjs and have champagne for breaky, sounds like a pretty good time.
I bought a kinder surprise and got a little moo deng. So cute!
My neighbours are having a party, and everyone sounds very happy. There is karaoke and much laughter.
I love when neighbours have parties, it's nice that people are happy and having fun. š
On beach. Sky pretty.
Every year I buy my kid the same thing. Big jar of Nutella and money in her bank account. Too easy.
I bought mine some vinyl this year. Taylor Swift, 21 Pilots, and Phoebe Bridgers.
The kid emails us a Christmas wish list power point presentation lol.
Kids are the age where it's clothes and gift cards for clothes. Wife is always perfume and some clothes, for me it's whiskey and clothes.
Are we basic? Yes. Are we happy? Also yes.
Basic is good. They get to spend time with their friends shopping and shit while mum and dad are busy.
Just had a $2.95 125g ALDI camembert 'wheel', which is really good and amazing value. Now I'm in my armchair drinking scotch and playing games. Comfy
Airport not as bad as I expected. But the carparkā¦. Wow what a shit show. Mrs asked me what they were building at a construction side, I told her a big gold plated hand giving the middle finger to their customers.
Done for the day.
I will now proceed to candy my nuts.
Oh man you gotta laugh. The Mrs has given us food poisoning. Yep, second time in a week! Made it to the in-laws but I suspect thatās gonna screw me for tomorrowās big car ride. We will see.
The stuff for the community pantry got delivered and there looks to be a decent amount of food there (even though Woolies is still an absolute rip).
Groceries ramble
I picked a rare $2 delivery slot and deliberately shopped generic basics, things that would really fill you up and stretch a dollar, all the things my broken stomach canāt eatā¦ (jealous)
Looks good though. I didnāt get boxed cereal because I thought the bags of quick oats would give more bang for a buck. Should still be ok for a kids breakfast if they have cinnamon and an appleā¦ or even just add the jam and some of the long life milk
I overspent my limit a bit and wonāt get this much next time, this was just for Christmas. I wonāt be able to afford this regularly. But maybe next time I might get some cheap Hoytās spice sachets. Like cinnamon and Italian herbs. And maybe some tinned apple or jars of apple sauce. More jam.
Ā
Edit: My zucchini plants are still being stoopid. I have four plants but they keep sending up male flowers completely out of sync with the female flowers.
Garden ramble
I have ten male flowers saved in the fridge for hand pollination and they just sent up 2 more. Yet the females are still just barely appearing now and also some are browning and dropping off before they even flower.
I know they send up male flowers first and copiously but this is getting ridiculous. Females have been appearing and one or two have set fruit so I hoped the ratio would get a tiny bit less wild.
Maybe theyāre stressed. I water them but it has been hot, they donāt have any mulch, and theyāre in 30 cm plastic pots that might be a bit too small because thatās what I scavenged for free off the kerb :/ The potting mix is cheap too. Some of it is for tomatoes and veg but itās mixed with general potting mix and both are the cheapest sold.
I have some 20 gallon grow bags coming because Big Dubya had 5 for $30 with free postageā¦ but thatās still not enough for the large amount I want to plant to donate produce.
Iām really hard up for bigger pots. Seeds and potting mix are expensive but large pots are often out of my budget.
And itās physically exhausting to the point I can spend days in bed after doing something mildly physical.
Ā
After this I need to stop fkn spending so much. And doing so much.
Just trying to stop things here feeling so hopeless and bleak
I know I'm not really relevant to this at all, but thanks Melba. You're a good egg, and I'm sure you've made a lot of people happy, or at the very least made their Christmas and new year time a bit easier
@StudChud@aussie.zone I seem to have cracked the Zooper Dooper code:
So the old magic ones with the lady robot have streamlined their design, too. But they still have the classic ones like lemonade and Jaffa
"Aussie flavours" Zooper doopers seem to have been fully discontinued, but we're essentially a mix of the best of both magic and normal ones after the redesign
The magic ones are still around and can apparently be bought at any super IGA as well as a handful of non super ones. If my store is open, I might go down there today and see if I can find them cause I realllllly want my lemonade Zooper doopers :(
As for just lemonade Zooper doopers and no others, they aren't sold at Coles or Woolies for some reason, but also seems to be sold at super IGAs and also on Catch. But the price on Catch is $17 for a 24 pack ($7 at IGA, would be about $6 if they were at colesworth, and probably under $5 in the good old days)
E: the magic ones seem to be for sale at Foodworks too. They come up on Doordash from Foodworks that offer ir
Merry Christmas Eve. Itās a fun time for some but not everyone is in the same position. It can also be a time of strained family interactions, loneliness, stress, etc. So I just wanted to say that whatever your Christmas is like, hope you survive it ok.
Bloody chilly today... I almost turned the heater on before I realized I now have to pay for it and decided more layers are considerably cheaper
Made both dishes! The yam curry is still reducing and looks more like yellow soup atm but here's my banana blossom fry with Maldive fish chips, whole spices (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon), chilli flakes, curry leaf, Pandan leaf, garlic, and caramelized onion. Plus a bit of turmeric powder, a hint of cumin and coriander powder, and a bit of sugar to round it off - finished off with a splodge of tamarind paste. There's a lot going on, I'm excited to see what it tastes like tomorrow.
it doesn't look like much though...
Dinner time with an episode of Blue Lights, then a final clean of dishes and kitchen, and I'll pack for my trip. Vacuuming can wait for tomorrow evening. Only other must do is drop off my spare keys at my friend's place down the road. Gosh, maybe everything won't be a mad rush āŗļø
weak voice
After weeks of procrastinating, I have set up the basics of my new phone...
Bob Katter-style face change
But I haven't got time for that because I CAN'T CHANGE THE ORDER OF THE NAVIGATION BUTTONS ANYMORE REEEEEEEEE
anyway at least my major messaging apps and tasks and alarms are on this, and adaway + iceraven + YouTube vanced. Goodnight
@StudChud@aussie.zone I have secured magic Zooper doopers. Bad news. They've been enshitified
Jaffa and banana flavours have been removed. It's still a 24 pack, but only 6 flavours instead of 8. The Strawberry and cream cluster flavour is now just strawberries and cream, but more of a pink instead of a dark pink. Solar sherbet is now orange sherbet. Galactic grape is now grape bubblegum. Jaffa Jetstream no longer exists. Toffee apple flavour has kinda been removed? Before it was a brown, now it's light green. Still called toffee apple though. Beaming banana has been removed. Lemonade launcher is now just lemonade (but still here!). Red comet has been replaced by red creamy soda
They're in the freezer rn. It's been, God, almost a decade since I last had these flavours so you're not getting a taste comparison. I'll let you know if any of them taste shit or not!
Can confirm they're at my local iga which is a medium sized one. Might be at you local one, or food works in a stretch
(Sorry, idk if you care, but you liked all my flavours so motivated me to go hunt these down... Your hatred of splices is unwarranted though!)
photo
I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow, and for those of us who struggle during this time, I hope you can find some peace ā¤ļø
Also if anyone here plays Destiny 2 please let me know because I'm desperate for a buddy to play with.
taking on melbourne airport today. Why the funk did I agree to this?!
Well I did it, I bought myself a Chrissy present and a mud cake š
My pressie to myself is a robo vacuum thingy since this house is about 90% carpet. Time will tell if it's either an invaluable addition, or a cheap piece of shit that'll shit itself and end up in landfill within 3 months (I went budget end, but slightly up from the cheapest)
(It won't arrive until the 27th though because holidays)
I canāt believe I was dumb enough that I still have to work today
Don we now, our gay apparel
Mine is just me naked though
Wait sorry. Got confused. Thatās the apparel I do gay things in, not my gay apparel.
I wearing a soft dressing gown with a big pointy hood , pompoms and a dalmatian print. Is that gay enough š
I might look around and see what places are open tomorrow. It will give us something to do because Christmas had generally been a slow and sometimes boring day for me in the past
Ffsā¦ I have socks that are still going after many years but Kmarget ones I havenāt had very long keep ripping at the toe.
I just sewed up the hole (using a lightbulb because I donāt have a wooden darning mushroom) and put it back on my foot. Not bothering to darn as the cheap fabric will likely just rip at the edge.
Iād knit my own but the materials are also getting expensive and shitty. Also I massively burned out on crafts over locky dās
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