Bianca Jagoe | Illustration + Design
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Toes and Typewriters


^ Artwork by Jordan Clarke.

Well, today I made a little journey to Sydney (two trains and a bus there and back) to pick up a typewriter I bought for $10 on Ebay (well $9.95 really, as the guy tried to give me my 5c change). I left at 11.30am and returned at 7pm and just about all of that time was spent travelling! Argh. I wish I could have spent the day doing fun things in Sydney, like walking around The Rocks or going to Luna Park or the Botanical Gardens or the Zoo - I haven't visited any of those places in years. Sydney generally frightens me, but it has some nice spots. C rode to the shops this morning before I left and made me a packed lunch to take, ahaha. It was so cute (and tasty) and included a cute note.

Today's outfit - I'm winking atchu!;

^ Including my favourite dangly leaf earrings made by Faiza, a bow headband, new op-shop found red circle necklace, 'Holiday Knitting Bag' from markets in Tasmania, high waisted belted skirt I bought on my birthday last year plus the two clothing purchases I made yesterday - Witchery strapless singlet (it's really long and looks like an old fashioned bathing suit) and Expression cardigan = $8.

After catching two trains, I got on a bus which took me to the general area where I was picking up the typewriter and I found the house and knocked on the door repeatedly to no answer, so I decided to find a place to sit and eat my lunch. I sat uncomfortably on a pine barrier around a reserve and drank my juice box and ate my sandwiches and fruit and then I noticed that an old couple whose house was across the road were observing me and kind of giggling (I was basically sitting in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by busy roads sipping a juice box). I laughed too. Then they waved, and I waved back and then I left. Eventually a car drove in the driveway I was waiting at to pick up the typewriter and they were a funny old couple. I think they were Russian, judging by their accents, and the husband really was just the perfect picture of a burly old Russian man. I wish I could have drawn him, he had a rather marvellous face about twice the size of mine with great drooping bags under his eyes, a waddle when he walked and a huge hearty laugh. He told me his wife was born in China, and when I looked surprised (she had a Russian accent and didn't look Chinese) he said "Jesus was born in a stable and he wasn't a horse!", a joke that sounded like it had been told many times, and he laughed. They invited me in and gave me a drink, then asked me a whole lot of questions about where I was from and what my parents did and what I wanted the old typewriter for and then they gave me a lift to the train station, ha. On the train I watched an old Japanese woman fold bits of crumpled paper into origami and observed disgusted and fascinated as an old man cleaned his dentures. I saw a man meditating and two old men who appeared to be twins sitting together not talking and looking sombre who had just come from a funeral (they had funeral programs in their pockets). The rest of the trip was spent watching 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist' on my iPod (I just found a program to convert tv and movie to an iPod friendly format) and wasn't as impressed as I'd hoped to be, though there are moments of really good dialogue and their relationship imitated real life well in its awkwardness. Regardless, the music was good and it made the long trip fly by.

I'm going to Office Works tomorrow to search for typewriter ribbon as the one that's in there at the moment isn't very inky and is from 1968! It's a simple, easy to use old typewriter and it will be fine for just writing letters and playing around with (C loves the sound already, not) but once we've moved I'd love to be able to start collecting a few more flashy ones;


^ This picture also shows what my toes are (or were) doing and fits with My Teacups In Peony's Feet-Love post.



^ I'm pretty cut up about the lack of exclamation mark - I never realised how often I use that nifty bit of punctuation until I started typing on this thing.



Yesterday I went to run some errands and came back quite a bit poorer after purchasing two new items of red clothing from an op-shop, some stamps, rolls of paper and labels from the newsagents and pills and then Manneh took me to the mall and I bought some cute (extremely pricey) items from Kikki-K. Oh boy, it was hard not to spend a LOT of money there. Here are my meagre purchases;


^ A new fine-tipped gel ink pen (like the one that just ran out that Megan gave me in her giveaway), three types of tape and some brown paper covered with buttons = about $15, eep!

When I got home on Tuesday I was sitting at my computer and I heard this little screaming noise and looked around to see one of our cats sitting patiently and calmly in the kitchen doorway with a tiny live mouse in her mouth that she didn't seem to quite know what to do with. She wouldn't move until everyone in the house had come to see her catch and I think she really thought she'd be praised for catching it and protecting our house from it, but instead I just yelled at her a lot. She took it outside and let it go and it just sat there on its side, so she propped it back up with her paws and tried to push it away, to make it run away so she could catch it again. We watched on for a few moments and she played with her 'toy' until I couldn't stand it and had to catch her and put her inside. Later I let her back outside and she followed its scent trail and found it in seconds so I grabbed her again and she sat at the door meowing for hours and looking genuinely very pissed off at me. I think she might have caught it in our pumpkin patch. C kept saying things like 'It's nature's way", but I had to intervene and play god;


^ Don't worry, as far as I'm aware the mouse survived the ordeal with only a few scratches.

Well, in lieu of my new found typewriter ownership I thought I'd clog up this post with a whole bunch of photers of typewriters! Enjoy!


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Drinking: Preshafruit Apple & Strawberry Juice
Eating: Fried eggs on toast with sweet chilli sauce