A Theory

I have a theory on the massive amounts of Plaid shirts that’s hitting the streets lately. I haven’t seen this much since watching Party of Five and maybe Empire Records.

I believe that when a recession or economic uncertainty hits the plaid comes out of the cupboards/designers heads and hits the streets with a vengeance. I don’t know why; maybe because it’s comforting, you don’t really need to iron a plaid shirt, and it looks good with jeans. I have nothing against it, I am wearing one now with my sweat pants!

I also think that some of the plaid obsession from the under 18’s comes from the Twilight movie and Rob Pattison (he apparently doesn’t like ‘RPattz’, and who can blame him?) just look at this page from Delias online store.

Long live Plaid!

Smug Alert weddings

First of all watch this South Park Clip

These days I’m finding it hard to read what a lot of people write in forums, be it on Ravelry or on general wedding websites (Weddingbee being the exception funnily enough) While I agree that spending the cost of a house on a wedding is ridiculous and completely insane I also think that having a budget, DIY, eco friendly wedding just for the sake of saying that you had one (cue fart smelling and Smug alert) is also insane.

A lot of forum posts are becoming a type of brag ‘look at what I managed to make out of lace, card and my oh so expensive Gocco machine!’ (and yes I realise that I post a lot of my wedding craft on here, but it’s mainly to show my mum who is in Europe) There are some genuine people out there who are doing their wedding their own way; be it DIY or big and expensive and they don’t apologize for it. But these genuine people seem to getting shot down, ignored and pointed at (and not in a friendly way) and even getting ‘shouted’ over with long paragraphs of their own stuff by the Smug brides in forums.

I left a group that had a lot of these Smug brides where I saw a lot of this behavior (I’d like to point out that it wasn’t towards me!) and no one said anything about it. A lot of them might not think that they had even done anything wrong… but that might just be cause they can’t see through the smug! They aren’t that interested in what you have to say, they just want the opportunity and audience to talk about themselves. I thought it would be a great opportunity to share some resources, ideas and DIY information but I was wrong.

Have any of you seen this type of behavior? What do you think about it?

I’m posting a lot today, sorry about that!

Little things

A lot of random little things going on here. The Archaeologist left this morning for another two weeks. Not too bad as at least it's only for two weeks not three this time.

We watched Insight on SBS last night. The debate was about the rights women have when giving birth here and comparing them to the rights in New Zealand. I think the overall point was that Midwives have more say in NZ whereas in Australia they are rarely used. Home birthing was also discussed (as well as cesareans) It costs $4,000 to have a home birth but only $20 to go to the hospital and have a Cesarean even if you don't need one. This doesn't seem fair to me. We also talked about why midwives are used to much in NZ and a friend of ours who recently had a 44 hour labour, apparently this was because a midwife doesn't get paid for anything unless she is there doing her thing when the baby gives birth. Our friend could have had an easier birth but because the midwife wouldn't get paid she wouldn't let them consult a doctor, telling them everything was going OK. Needless to say the next time they have a child they are coming over here to have it!

I bought myself a rotary cutter and mat to use with fabric and paper today. It will end up being really useful when making the wedding invitations and also in the future with fabric and any sewing I do. I will be spending the evening cutting out pictures and recipes from Magazines with it, making space on the bookshelves when we do a small clean up of the accumulated junk when he gets back in a few weeks.

We have also just heard that we will be getting our UK tax back. It will actually pay off our entire Credit Card bill! Hooray!! Add onto this the Tax that the Archaeologist will be getting back this year and that will pay for half my new Visa! Things are looking a lot better than we thought!

Edited to add: We had agreed that I could get a new iPod for my birthday (I have lost my first one) but we struck a deal that if I keep using his Mp3 player when my cell phone contract ends next year (2010) I can get myself an iPhone (as it has a phone and iPod player all in one)

This n That

We had another rental inspection today which we passed (though we apparently need to make the bathtub and sink in the bathroom whiter, which is hard when it's so old!) It's funny that they are so paranoid over here that they do inspections every 3 months, in the UK our landlord came over once to change the washing machine and then didn't come again until the moving out inspection and even then he was more worried that the stuff we had in a corner for friends to take would be gone than anything else! I suppose renters and landlords have different rights here.

Every morning I watch the French news on SBS, mainly to get some international news which features so little here (you would think Australia is the only country on Earth!) Apparently Jade Goody is dying from her cancer (I had no idea she even had cancer!) and is getting her last moments televised for lots of money that will go to her children. France 2 had little to say over the matter except that many English commentators are shocked.

Last night I made a fantastic veggie curry. I used Rogan Josh paste with onions, sweet potato, potato, spinach, tomatoes, corn and lentils. Huge whammy of goodness, along with popadums and cous-cous. Tonight it will be scotch steak (rib-eye) with mini zucchini.

We had a bottle of wine last night to celebrate, something new that we had never tried before. Unfortunately neither of us liked it very much and I felt ill all this morning from it. At least we know not to get that one again!

Old Freo cottages

I love going into Fremantle. The bus goes along South Street and the closer you get to Freo the older and nicer the houses get. Some are made with thick limestone and I can imagine how cool it must be inside in the summer! Others are made with wood panneling like in New England and often have roses and sunflowers growing outside to complete the look.

A lot of them have iron roofs, which makes me think that it must get really hot under there in the summer, but we have an iron roof and it's fine (it's the bricks outside that get really hot)

The best one I have seen so far is a little off South St and is on the way to the doctors, I managed to get a sneaky pic with my phone in between rain showers the other day.

I always wonder why you wouldn't build a house that looked like this if you were doing things from scratch. All those new suburb places that they are building and offering up for $360,000 with no deposit are nicer than some of the red brick 70's houses that are around but still, look at it, how sweet is that house?! Hopefully one day we will be in a house like that.

The weight debate

I'm going to slim down for the wedding next year and when I went grocery shopping today I decided to go into K Mart to just look around, I ended up getting a calorie counter book that has every kind of food listed and their calorie values (including Red Rooster and other completely Australian foods) They also have protein, calcium, and iron values, which after looking at I might not be getting the correct amount of iron I should be getting!

I will help you, and make you feel guilty...

The book should help both of us be more portion size aware and think about things before going the easy way when we are out for lunch. Sushi instead of Hungry Jacks!

One of the great things is that they have Ready Steady Cook here on Channel Ten, the host is a lot cheesier and more annoying than Ainsley but if they feature French chef Manu I can just about watch it as he takes the piss out of the host in that sly French way. His food is also good and he often goes on tirades about the 'Tasty' cheese they use here (It's a kind of cheddar type cheese that I think is only good enough to use on cheese toasties)

Australian food seems to me to be mostly fusion food (western mixed with Asian) they have a lot of fresh seafood, vegetables and fruit at their disposal so this choice makes sense. Thanks to all the people coming into the country there is a huge choice when it comes to restaurants, as for supermarkets you can find a lot of generic 'foreign' foods i.e. Old El Paso, Pataks curry pastes etc. You can sometimes find some variations on these at Delis. But what I miss most is gooey, smelly French cheese such as Epoisses and the like.

As it is I have been really happy and surprised at the variation of foods available here. Not having those 'luxury' goods at my disposal all the time is probably a good thing, making a trip home to France all the better!

All Things Wedding

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that the wedding industry is huge. These days there seems to be a very specific idea of the different elements that comprise a wedding:

Favours, save the dates, invitations, the bar, photographer, videographer (or both), hair, make-up, gifts for the wedding party, gifts for the parents, dresses, groomsmen outfits, bridesmaid outfits, photobooths, appetisers, food, reception venue, destination wedding, flowers, centrepieces, seating arrangements, colour theme, accessories for the bride, groom and wedding party, flower girls and ring bearers, I could go on, and on....

Source

And that's barely skimming the surface! There are wedding websites, blogs, magazines and wedding planners to think about too! No wonder they now sell cool wedding planner notebooks with inserts, stickers and directories... taking advantage of the cash that flows in the industry (and apparently you aren't really able to plan anything without one, I'm going to get a $2 dollar spiral notebook...)

The parting of cash happens even before the proposal. If you are lucky enough to know what your bride-to-be's taste are with rings then you can buy the engagement ring before the proposal then just get it re sized (if needed) after she says yes. If not, you go ring shopping together (I've been reading wedding blogs) this can quickly spiral out of control thanks to jewellers who throw terms such as 'cushion set' (I still don't know what that means!) and different diamond cuts (square, round, oval you name it they have it) also jutting in are the wedding magazines. Take the winter Martha Stewart Weddings for example, they have an entire page dedicated to this year's fashion statement 'candy colored rings' most of which look too heavy to keep on your finger and should you choose the third world adventure honeymoon you could expect to get your finger cut off! The cheapest on the page costs US$13,700, some prices aren't even listed and one costs $18 million (that's the pink cushion one)

We are sparkly and expensive! Source

Save the dates and invitations are keeping a thousand graphic designers afloat, or you can diy by buying a US$400 Gocco printer, adding to the multimillion dollar scrapbooking industry or using your own computer software and printer at home (while keeping fingers crossed)

Most brides tend to splurge on the photographer, which I can't blame them for. You want something that can be treasured for the rest of your life and if you hire someone who doesn't match your tastes then you will cringe every time you look at that album. They also splurge on the dress, designers like Vera Wang have made their career out of being the number one to go to if you want to have a 'real' wedding, and don't gain weight.... her dresses don't have seam allowance!

Funky wedding photo
Source

On a more positive note, many brides are now keeping their budget to well below the $10,000 mark, diy-ing flowers, dresses and favours. The wedding industry can be very overwhelming once you first enter it, but I think if you stay on top of what you do and don't want then it can't get out of control!

Chicken or choock whatever you call it, they love it!

One thing I have noticed since I arrived in Australia (4 months ago) is that they really do love their chicken. It took me pointing it out and counting how many chicken places there are to show the Archeologist this point.
Not that I have anything against chicken, I love it! Now let me run it through for you...

1. Red Rooster
Sorry to all the others but I think that this is the best one. They do roast chicken that you can buy whole or in bits, they also do burgers, fish, chips etc. Their selling point is that it's roasted for 50 mins and marinaded (drool..) they also promote that they are 100% Australian made and owned.Think of them as the MacDonalds of Chicken. They have some very funny commercials:



2. Choocks
Not as prelevant as number 1 but it tastes good. They give you a choice of either fried or roasted and can come as a full roast dinner (potatoes, gravy and peas)

3. Chicken Treat
Competes with number 1 but we feel that they roast the chicken for too long, making it drier and we also think that they must source their chickens from the midget chicken farms, they are so small! Their mascot is an obese wobbly chicken, which really says something:








4. KFC
Everyone knows KFC so I won't bother describing. They sponsor a lot of the Cricket here.

5. MacDonalds
Now I know what you're thinking "MacDonalds do burgers not just chicken!" but that's where you're wrong, they have just introduced a whole seperate side of the menu with chicken. You can choose either seared or crispy and with 5 different toppings I'd say that was a pretty big choice for chicken!

So, I know that's not exactly chicken crazy but they are more frequent on the highways than MacDonalds and when you go to the mall, KFC and Red Rooster have the longest queues. No one has yet managed to explain why the Australians love their chicken this much, but I'm not complaining! Nothing better than a roast chicken taken to the beach to watch the sun set!