February 2012

Hello? Hello? Why do you keep calling?

Right now I’ve got Heart is a Beating Drum by The Kills as the ring tone on my phone.

But at the moment it’s also in my playlist, so whenever it comes on during work I think somebody is calling me, and I’m disappointed when I discover that it’s actually in fact a phone call. #FirstWorldProblems.

Traditions I’m not aware of are…

Is this whole women get to propose on February 29th hullaballoo a known thing in Canada? Is it just something I’ve buried my head in the sand and ignored? Or possibly just forgotten about?

Although I was here in Ireland four years ago, so I should remember that last occurrence at least. I suppose nobody proposed to me, so maybe I can be forgiven for not marking it in my memory as anything special. Unless somebody did propose to me and I’ve forgotten that as well. If so, I’m sorry about that.

Calamari Wrestler vs Crab Goal Keeper

Here is quite a good blog article on the bbc website that sorta rambles on about the shady underside of the British underworld, but ends in a discussion about Japanese sea life sport movies such as Calamari Wrestler and Crab Goal Keeper. So while there may (or may not) have been some serious fraud, it was apparently all worth it.

The verdict is in

When you leave your car in for servicing, and it comes back with the radio tuned to a station not in your list of preset stations, rest assured that you have been judged and found wanting.

meat + bread.

This weekend was a food projet weekend. Andrew made meat in the form of sausages and bacon and I baked homemade spelt bread.

I tried an easy bread recipe from Home Made, a cute little cookbook by Amsterdamian Yvette van Boven. She is an illustrator, food stylist and runs a restaurant in Amsterdam. She makes amazing paper cut outs and has cute illustrated recipes.

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£260 of Fosters please

I spent the year 2000 working in Australia (or at least part of it). They have some forced pension scheme there that’s run through private companies which I paid money into way back when, sorta the equivalent of the CPP plan in Canada. Now obviously I’ve left the country never to return (or at least never to live in again) so in theory I can claim that money back, and Lonnie tried to get me to do just that a few years back, and even went so far as to send me the last statements he had of my accounts (as they were getting sent to his address). It got awkward, so I gave up, but I was going through old paperwork recently and found the documents and decided to give it aother punt. And it seems to be working! The lady on the phone says she’s sending me the documents. My $400 in 2004 has now grown to $560, there’s a 30% tax hit because it was tax free income initially, and the exchange rate is around 0.67, which should in the end mean I get about £260.

Which I will spend on beer. It seems only fitting.

The return of Egypt

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Recently the display of ancient Egypt in the Ashmolean was closed for refirbishment. The display is now open and it is a great use of space bringing out things that I’ve not seen before, like these chaps…

Indoor camping!

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The tent is enormous when you see it inside.

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