Sorry, lame joke…
But I’m sure I can be forgiven as I did, in fact, buy 4 chairs at that Scandinavian emporium for the budget furniture shopper…
Now, it’s possible that a single girl, living alone could well manage without a table and chairs. I mean, I have a desk that is totally functional for working on as and when the couch is unsuitable, and I can always sit out in the garden at the (yes, slightly wobbly) garden chairs and table, so why should I bother with a table and chairs, when I could have done what the previous tenants had done and put in a 2nd sofa where my table and chairs live?
Because of cards.
Me and the girls [actually, we play with a boy at the moment… know any girls who want to play?] still get together to play 500 about once a fortnight and we haven’t been able to play at my house because I didn’t have a table and chairs for playing at… So, apart from the expense of food and bubbles every time I host the game, this pastime has cost me around $300.
And it’s so totally worth it.

After a bit of a musical couple of weeks I’ve been musing on the eclectic nature of my music collection…
I have to say I’ve been loving on iTunes a bit much lately. For all it’s faults it is an easy way of getting the music I like guilt free. I think its only problem is that it’s too easy… I end up spending too much money…
Anyway, here’s a bit of a look at what’s on the play list.
You’ve Got to Laugh – Nik Kershaw.
Now, stop laughing (if you remember him at all). He’s actually a bloody good songwriter. I loved him in the eighties, and my first boyfriend and I spent hours listening to Human Racing.
On vinyl.
I was reintroduced to his more recent recordings at college in a critiquing class. The song was ‘Fiction’ the album ’15 minutes’ and it remains one of my favourites. This new album is equally cleverly written and my fav song on that is the ‘dirty old man song’ (not its real name… actually it’s called ‘She Could be the One’.) I’ve had it on repeat for days…
So Long, So Wrong – Alison Krauss and Union Station.
So, we go from pop to bluegrass… now, I’m not a country fan… seriously… twang and syrupy sentimentality are outré in my book. However, my friend Curt introduced me to these guys in 97 when I was over in the UK on a visit and it is wonderful. It marries spirituality with a stunning voice, actually the appeal for me is Alison’s voice… that fiddles and banjos are in my collection at all is a bit of a surprise… Still, having an open mind to it has meant hours of pleasure listening to a lot of the stuff she’s done. You may remember ‘Down to the River to Pray’ from the Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack. Alison leads an a capella choir in the most stunning way… I’m planning on doing that track at a recital we’re planning this year…
Billy Joel – 12 Gardens. This one is easy to add, it’s the album that buddies with the concert I went to a few weeks, back. It’s fantastic. All my favourite BJ songs and some that are older than me but are now new favourites. Let’s face it, the guy might be a lech but he knows how to write a song. And he sure knows how to work a crowd. This last concert will go down as one of my favourites, the album helps cement that.
Songbird – Eva Cassidy.
Tragically one of the best female voices I’ve ever heard. Much is made of her early death but I’ve never been moved by a song so much as I was when I heard ‘Over the Rainbow’ and that was before I ever heard her story.
The Lion King Soundtrack – Various Artists.
I’ve seen the show twice. Love it still. I am a HUGE fan of African rhythms and harmonies and this album has both in spades. While I’m talking about African music I should add Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the list, and I’ve a wonderful compilation of music that a girlfriend made for me. (Not exactly guilt free that list… still a great collection of all kinds of african artists…)
Artists… If I keep going album by album we’d be here forever…
The Boys – Ok, I’ll put a few in here. John Mayer, Gavin deGraw., Josh Pyke. Great songwriters (are you sensing a theme?). Unique voices. Not over produced. Something a little other than mainstream…
The Girls… Well. I’ve mentioned Eva, but she really is in a class all her own… I’ll add Beverley Craven, I’ve been listening to her for years, and actually Curt introduced me to her too… I bought 2 of her albums when I was last in the UK because, again, till the advent of iTunes I couldn’t get her here… Norah Jones, more great songs… Then there’s Diana Krall… I’m a bit of a jazz fiend, love great female jazz vocalists… Ella, Sarah, Nina… all of them… Diana’s a bit more modern and supplements them nicely. I have to mention local girl Beth Anderson. Now, she may be young chick with an attitude but she writes excellent songs… you can find her here.
The bands…Coldplay, Keane, Crowded House. Love them all… again, they write great songs. Songs that say more than I love you… or worse still I want to f**** you… Brilliant.
Then there’s the Jazz… Jamie Cullum, Incognito, Harry Connick Jr. Miles Davis… this list is endless…
And I have to get back to my cleaning…

OK, so the things I should be doing sometimes get superceeded by my need to be creative and the need to wish my littlest nephew a happy birthday… (particularly as I haven’t bought him his present yet…(oh, the shame)).
Big kisses gorgeous, see you at Christmastime!
Love Aunty D
And me? Well… I could never resist a challenge… Thanks Ali – this was fun!

So, about the birthday thing…
It was pants in parts – and good in parts… I’ll kick off with the good stuff…
Biggest Highlight? The visit from Kirk and JJ – they’re always a pleasure. Especially when the choice between me and a bippy* went my way… Gotta love that about them.
Then there was the stunning bouquet of gerberas from Miss Lisa which are sitting on my desk making the place look loved in.
Other Highlights? The call from Lil’ Sis and that the repsonse to my resultant tears was a proper motherly instruction to get some food into me and go for a walk to clear my head. As the Lil’ sis she doesn’t often get the chance to boss me around… it had been all day with no call from the fam, I was stuck at the office all day so when I finally hear from them it’s Niagra Falls…
The 7 messages on the phone when I got home, 2 from Pa, one each from the 2 sisters, a [nearly] tuneful one from Muvvy and 2 from Flick… Who was standing in the kitchen when she recorded them… One of which was done in a Chinese accent and went something like this… (please, no disrespect intended to Oriental readers)
“Hahrrow, this is Fong, ah of the Chinese Takeaway in Dee Why?
Ah yes… jast carring to make eh sure ah you hev a happy birthday?
Ok, yeah very good…”
Ah, Happy birfday to you”
“beep, beep, beep….”
Too bad there were lowlights…
One… the offer to change my role at the next big thing (in 2 weeks )from hospitality to photography did not go my way… and in fact may well have doubled my workload…
So on top of the fact that I am running a business, studying, working full time… now I’m responsible for running a team at the next big thing… and as previously mentioned… taking photos of the whole deal.
This team managing thing looks a lot like the it requires significant reference to the part of my world I escaped from 2 years ago…This doesn’t feel so good…
Number 2 was still being at work at 6.30 on my Birthday. Compounded further, by the fact I was only just leaving at 9.30pm.
Number 3 not nearly enough of the day was spent getting rid of the jobs that have been hanging over my head for 2 days… Consequently I definitely need to stop working on Thursdays… The whole going to class thing stuffs my workload around something fierce…
My family live in NZ which has a stupid rule wherein it costs a fortune to ring before 6pm… consequently, I only got to speak to two of them because I got bloody stuck at work.
Those who could tell I was having a shit time of it the evening patronisingly tried to butter me up with insincere jollying along. It nearly made me homicidal. Why do people do that? I think it is a far better thing to just nod and smile. Maybe to say “It’ll feel better tomorrow” But for goodness sake, if someone’s obviously distressed don’t try to make them feel better by saying…see? Isn’t this lovely… look it’s not so bad after all to be stuck here on your birthday…
P*ss Off… birthday happiness means friends and people who love you… not people who want you for your skills…
Ok, I can tell that if I keep writing I’ll only get worked up all over again… So I’ll leave it at that except to say hi to Miss Shelf who started reading yesterday… You know who you are… Welcome to Singular Scene where some days you may read more than you ever wanted to know…
Oh yeah, and to say Fangs to Flick for the fondue and bubbles party that was waiting for me when I got home, it totally made the day’s dramas seem like a series of non-events and meant I went to bed feeling like it actually was my birthay… Let’s face it, even if you have to wait till 9.30pm to celebrate it is better than not at all.
And by the way, for those who have been following the recent research…The squiff factor of bubbles is definitely better than margaritas but definitely not as good as red wine, I think Fi’s onto something… the weekend is nearing and my body seems to be gearing up for the alcoholic onslaught by increasing my tolerance….
Note to self…
Drink on Mondays – to heck with the rest of the week.
*bippy… short for biscuit… (cookie)