Prangster in Chicago

Rules are meant to be broken

So I did it.

I broke down and I shopped. We foolishly went to the Boxing Day, post-Christmas sales and I ended up buying two things.

Okay fine, it was three.

(Some of you may recall my pipe dream not to buy anything in Sydney for six months. Then when I got here, I went ahead and bought a bunch of stuff on eBay, which I thought was perfectly fine since the goods were coming from outside of Sydney. Actually now that I think about it, I bought the Entourage Season 2 DVD from a store, but that doesn't count since I'd wanted to get that back in Taipei anyway. Oh god, I think I have a sickness.)

So the three of us (Mum, Dad and I) didn't bother going to the main stores in the city, we just went to Chatswood. But even so, it was absolutely nuts. It's been more than a few years since I've been in Sydney over Christmas, and frankly, I was unprepared.

People must go psychotic couped up indoors over Christmas with their families -- all that eating, napping and lamenting the shit presents they got. So everyone breaks out of their cages like prison -- no, mental institution -- escapees on Boxing Day morning so they can throw cash at the shops just to feel occupied. That's the only explanation I can come up with. Looking back on that dark period, I feel so grateful that we subscribed to more pay-TV channels on Christmas Day, otherwise I believe we would have been in much worse shape.

Anyway, so the main storyline is this: I got a pair of jeans. (The sub-plot: I also got a cheapo dress that day I'm just meh about.) I think jeans are the only item worth lining up at the changing rooms for during sales periods. Jeans can be so ridiculously expensive these days and in Taiwan, the sizes are so freaking tiny. It's near impossible to buy jeans there cause girls in Taipei have figures the shape of pencils. Or maybe just the replacement lead in mechanical pencils. In Sydney, they at least cater to women who resemble erasers and mini Maglites.

The third and final purchase I made yesterday. I met up with Simone in the city for dinner and a movie. We saw The Holiday -- and it's crap. I was more entertained by the scarf I was wearing. So I got to the city a bit early and ended up buying a black dress I don't know if I'll ever wear. I really like it, but I own a lot of clothes I like, but never end up wearing. It's so stupid. The bad news is both dresses need a bit of alteration and I only finally altered pants I've had for five years while I was staying at Christine's place last month.

So like I said, the main story of this post is this: I went shopping and bought a pair of jeans.

Here's hoping for bigger news in 2007!

It's Christmas already

Even though my family doesn't really celebrate the Christmas holiday, I got two fantastic presents this year. The first was a perfect pavlova from Janice's sister, Janet. She's really an excellent baker. The second was waking up to more channels on our Foxtel pay-TV subscription, thanks to Dad's persistent nagging. And so the three of us spent Christmas day in our new apartment, eating pavlova and watching Rick Stein on the Lifestyle Channel, before retreating to some festive nap-taking. Throw in a few Kit Kats (which I'll do right after I post this) and it's been a good Christmas overall.

I hope you had a stress-free and happy holiday wherever you are! Or if you're in Taipei, I hope it was a low-key day at the office :(

News from the toiletries aisle

The other day I bought a bottle of shower gel. (Don't worry, this post isn't an account of my recent supermarket trip.) The shower gel I picked was called "Palmolive Skin Essentials Pure Cashmere Shower Cream"..."with cashmere extracts". Or more precisely, it contains "extracts of 100% natural cashmere", otherwise known as "hydrolyzed keratin".

The funny thing is I picked it without taking the name literally at all. I simply reacted to the idea of cashmere in the shower, as if I'd be lathering on a fluffy, ridiculously soft cashmere jumper, possibly in a v-neck, which would then stay on invisibly for the rest of the day, all snuggly and stuff, in the same way we're supposed to believe our toothpastes work around the clock fighting plaque and protecting our gums in our sleep. But then I got home and saw that it's real cashmere in there. Real "hydrolyzed keratin".

So I guess theoretically -- and possibly nanotechnologically -- if companies can put cashmere into shower gel, it will be no time at all before there's cashmere toilet paper -- or toilet cashmere. And cashmere shampoo and conditioner. And cashmere shaving cream. And cashmere tampons. In fact, I look forward to the day toilet cashmere is introduced because then Kleenex Cottonelle would be exposed as the big marketing lie that it is, since there's no cotton in there, only virgin wood fibres. (I read it on their FAQ.) Having said that though, Cottonelle is probably one of the smartest names ever. It's like the Lexus of toilet paper. Bravo, Cottonelle.

Drooooooool...

Janice, Jess, Lucy and I picked up this fantastic-looking pavlova from The Cheesecake Shop on the way to Mona's BBQ on Sunday. It was a relaxing arvo. Mona's fiancé, John, fired up the barbecue and Mona made a great spread of salads, pastas and other nibblies. After eating, we played the Singstar karaoke game on Playstation since it was so hot outside. All us girls were shy about singing though, since we didn't know the other people at the BBQ and none of us had had any drinks. For hours, the rest of the group kept badgering us to sing. Finally after some people left, Jess and I sang a few duets together. Then, almost inevitably, Jess turned into Beyoncé and I was relegated to the position of Kelly Rowland or that third Destiny's Child whose name no one really knows or cares about. But that was okay because I got to eat pavlova, and that was the main reason I was there anyway. Just kidding.

In this photo: 1) Lucy, who's six months pregnant, with Janice and Jess; 2) Lucy and Mona; 3) Jess belting out one her of many hits that afternoon. 

In the name of my blog

Jan told me a few days ago that this blog comes up second when you Google my name. I was really surprised. It can't have always been this high. I wonder how long this will last. And it comes up sixth if you Google prangster. (I did that one myself. I guess Janice wasn't that bored.) The only other prangster out there is a British toy plane or model. I'm not sure precisely what it is, but it sounds boring already.

Back to Googling me, I was surprised the blog came up so high because I took my full name off the blog a long time ago. Ironically, the reason I did it was so people (namely companies I sent my CV to) wouldn't find the blog by searching my name, and then see a photo of me leaping in the air like in a Lacoste ad.

So how can this be explained? Why does the blog come up second?

Did some K---- C---- die? Were their online identities stolen? Did they go bankrupt and have their computer equipment seized?

Or on the flip-side, have I somehow become more interesting? More important? Indeed, more K---- C----? I have no idea.

But perhaps attempting to pull a virtual balaclava over my blog was a mistake. Or phrased another way, perhaps failing to pull a virtual balaclava over my blog was a blessing. The Boston Globe published an article back in April this year declaring, Blogs "Essential" to a Good Career.

Yay! Or maybe they meant to be sarcastic with the inverted commas around "essential", in which case, booooo.

Dinner at Chow's

It took Jess and I two and a half freaking hours to drive into the city last night to meet Janice for peking duck dinner in The Rocks. The traffic was terminally bad. By the time we found a parking spot, our legs were jelly, our throats were dry from chatting and we were so damn hungry. We had a drink each in the pub downstairs before heading up to the restaurant, and then a bottle of champagne with dinner, so the three of us were pretty much drunk for the extent of the meal. Tired, lethargic-style drunk. Good thing the peking duck was really, really delicious. The salt and pepper squid was good too. I was so happy. I love peking duck. After eating, we sat in the car for a bit to sober up before the drive home and kick-off digestion. Today I'm totally not going out. Enough of driving. I'll just watch some House and eat cereal.

Long time no see

Some new characters today. And a photo, because November deserves one.

A friend from highschool has come back to Sydney after five years away, working and living in Seoul and then New York City. Jess flew in last Thursday and so four of us -- Janice, Jess, me and Lucy -- had a mini reunion last night at Lucy's apartment in Homebush. We all drove out to Lucy's since she's six months pregnant. Lucy is gorgeous and glowing. Very centered and relaxed. She showed us her wedding albums since she got married last year and only Jan was in town to represent. We talked about throwing her a baby shower in a few weeks. I think I'll make chocolate mousse, and Jess and I can bake cupcakes with blue icing on top. The night was really lovely. Lots of laughs. And even though we all still looked the same as our highschool days, something completely amazing and special is going to happen to Lucy soon, and for the whole night, Jess, Janice and I were just in absolute awe of that fact. I even felt a bit anxious driving with a pregnant Lucy sitting shotgun on the way to the Italian restaurant.

Carrying on from the themes of our conversations last night, I realized a startling statistic on the drive home. One hundred per cent of the people I socialize with in Sydney are in long term relationships. Yes, that's 100%. No one is single. Everyone from my cousin Christine to an old coworker to Janice's sister, Janet, who we watched Grey's Anatomy with on Friday night. Really, it's everyone. At first I was a little freaked out, like what are the chances of that? But now I think it's really, really nice. Everyone is perfect to be around. It's like having great picnic weather all the time.

About this photo: Took this one in Central Park in 2004.

She sleeps

The light is still on in her room, and it's 1:30am, so I'm pretty sure that my cousin Christine has slumped over on her keyboard and fallen asleep. I think I should go over and wake her up, get her into bed, especially if she hasn't taken off her contact lenses. But what if she's meditating? Or praying? Or on a romantic late-night phone call with her boyfriend? (She'll kill me for saying that.)

Alright, I better go over.

Oh, weird. She was awake. Lying in bed with her eyes half-open when I opened the door. Creepy. Creeeeeeeepy. Half asleep people are mega creepy. Except for Roger Federer. I bet he's totally cute when he's half asleep.

Freakish November

It's 10 days away from the official start of summer and the weather forecast predicted hail in Sydney this afternoon. It didn't happen, but all the frantic wind made Arthur, Christine's 13-year-old labrador (that's in human years), a bit unsettled, so I took him out for a short walk. Good old Arthur did a poo on the way back. I scooped it up with the spade and dropped the chunks into the plastic bag. Somehow he always times his poos so there are people approaching us on the footpath and they watch me as I'm bending down to scoop up his warm shit. It's so great.

Guess what, I cook delicious

Today I made a huge bowl of fresh tzatziki. It's the Greek yoghurt and cucumber dip. I learnt the recipe from some Greek friends years ago and today was the first time I tried it. And it's delicious. I should have made it ages ago! What the hell have I been doing?!

Here are the ingredients I used in the tzatziki:
- a tub of Greek yoghurt
- a cucumber sliced into short sticks
- the juice of half a lemon
- a teaspoon of sea salt
- a large garlic chopped up super fine
- a tablespoon of olive oil

It's so freaking easy. I'll make it back in Taipei too. It's good to eat on crackers or on toast. All garlicky and sour.