Lately.
I bought two gorgeous black cardigans in the preparations for the World of Mild Brisbane Winters. This was a shopping expedition of the most purposeful kind: the one where the exact item is in your mind and nothing short of a perfect copy of said item will suffice. It was Target who provided me with the soft, preppy-looking plain black cardigan I was after, along with some super-sized belted cable-knit cardigan which I decided on the spot that I also Must Have. And during a 30% off sale, it was more than easy to convince me that the cuddly cardigan belonged with me, right now.
Then the Brisbane weather decided that it wasn’t quite autumn yet, and promptly delivered two 34°C days in a row, prompting me to stare forlornly at my two as-yet unworn cardigans while I sweated slightly. I was robbed of my instant cardigan gratification. I mean, I could’ve worn them in the heat, but really.
Things that are far cooler than stupid Brisbane weather: penguins. You knew it all along, didn’t you? Penguins are the animal du jour; move over dolphins. This just proves that occasionally as trends come around, I too can be cool for a short while. I should point out that March of the Penguins was finally released in Australia, to much squeaking and delight around the house, and around the cinema that we saw it in. I would’ve clapped after every time a penguin did something cute, if the kids down the end of our row wouldn’t have thought of me as entirely juvenile. But the baby penguin just fell over! Please won’t you let me clap!
I think it should be pretty clear to anybody within thinking distance of me that I think penguins are kind of cute. I do have a problem, though. Every time I try and imitate the sound a penguin makes, they always end up resembling ducks. Wakwakwakwakwakwak.
(I belong to all those stupid penguins above. Two of them even make noises. The rest I make noises for. You can guess which ones produce their own sounds, and I guarantee that neither of them make ridiculous duck-like sounds. One of them needs a wash.)
Things that are not cool, or cute: my day surgery, which totally sucked the joy out of my Easter Holidays. The procedure itself was only half an hour long, but boy the waiting. Every time another nurse asked me how I was, I replied “bored”. Four and a half hours waiting in your gown and slippers is enough to make anyone bored, and eventually even the Bill Bryson book I was reading got boring. Throwing up after the anaesthetic wore off was totally not cool, and definitely not cute (but apparently all too common for my procedure).
The upshot of day surgery was having mum look after me, with on-demand home-cooked meals and beverages. I think she was running an outpatient respite centre, as both dad and I were resting up due to hospital procedures during the week. Recuperation included a shitload of sleep, big bowls of home-made pea and ham soup, watching Carl Barron on DVD and listening to their bird twitter away. (It is more fun than it sounds; they taught the bird to say their phone number, lest it flies away. I shit you not.)
