^ Clare Owen.
Listening to: The Ghost of Tom Joad - Junip
Eating: Sweet chilli eggs on buttery toast
I am sitting at my desk with my bare feet curled under myself shivering like crazy. I am a big fan of Winter but only when in a house with adequate heating. This house has no heating so I'm relying on many layers of clothing. Brrrrrrr.
Last night C, his friend Chris, my friend Paige and our housemate Manneh went bowling as a belated celebration for C's birthday last week. We all chose names from The Big Lebowski and the woman at the counter typing our names in seemed neither amused by our name choices or aware of the references; she wrote 'Jonny' instead of 'Donny'. As if work at a bowling alley and not know The Big Lebowski! I hadn't been bowling in about four years, and it showed. I came dead last in three out of three games, but I did get two strikes. Our house mate is self-proclaimedly 'very confident' and 'very competitive' (and might I add, NOT VERY MODEST) and he really rubbed in his winning of 2 of the 3 games - he even got the score printed out and taped it to his bedroom door. I decided to take my $100 camera instead of my $1000 camera and so about 1/3 of the photos from the evening actually came out, ha.
On C's actual birthday last week we went out for a big lunch together and then a big dinner and big desert with some family and at one of those food stops I had a soy banana, peanut butter and ice cream smoothie and it was probably the best beverage ever created. I ate an unbelievable amount that day. C ordered meagre, modest meals and I ordered huge ones with too many toppings - I think our food choices are pretty representational of our personalities.
On the weekend C and I caught two trains to the Blue Mountains to visit our friend Ash for his surprise birthday party. I'd never been there before - those mountains don't disappoint and they really are blue. I didn't get to take any photographs sadly, and we only spent a night there but it is such a beautiful part of the world and I can't wait to go back (hopefully at least once before we fly away). When we got to Ash's house, his girlfriend was rushing around preparing food for his arrival and C and I both picked up a book each from their extensive collection - of course he picked up a history book and I found a second volume of a book full of lists, something else that seemed to be typical of our personalities.
When we got home we'd spent a total of 12 hours on trains in less than two days! I'll miss trains in Tasmania, they don't have passenger rail and it is such a lovely way to travel.
The beautiful Blue Mountains - 1 2 3 4
Would you like to see some mail items that have been showing up in my mail box lately?
^ Darling miss Caiti of Pooftacular sent me a first letter containing a bundle of great old postcards and a wad of amazing old photographs. I am thinking of working them into some collages - so one of a kind.
^ I love Bree's mail art style - I can always tell which envelopes are hers. This one is beautiful. 
^ Amy in Brisbane sent me this very fitting red legged postcard. Love!
^ My little friend Min sent me this fabulously decorated Michael Cera (who she calls her boyfriend) themed envelope. Just lovely.
^ Lovely Justine sent me this pretty kitty envelope, which I believe also included these fabulous cards (I dropped a bundle of mail off my desk and all of the contents spilled out and I couldn't remember which things came from which envelopes!).
^ A lovely German lady called Astrid sent me this beautiful envelope containing an equally beautiful letter.
^ It was so good to hear from Julie again - I thought she'd dropped of the edge of the world! Her letter was so lovely and so uplifting.
^ An incredibly sweet letter from Felicia, I can't wait to write back!
^ My second letter from little Bella. Such a beautiful envelope and such beautiful things inside. Thank you B!
^ A gorgeously colourful envelope from Amy (who sent me the lovely red legs). Her letters are a delight.
^ Jenny sent me a bundle of red things a few months ago and upon writing back I had to ask her where her amazing writing paper came from. She wrote back this week and sent me the rest of her stash, saying that she got it about a dozen years ago from the Guggenheim Museum in New York and that she would have no idea where to find it now. I'm going to make scans of it and make some reproductions to use myself. Love it!
^ I read Stephanie's letter on the train on the way back from the mountains and it was such a good read.
Things I must do this week:
♡ Go to the Newcastle Art Gallery to see the Year 12 Art Express works.
♡ Go to the ear, nose & throat doctor. Fingers crossed he can fix me.
♡ Watch the first game of the World Cup with C on Thursday.
