A Crepe a Day

I'm sitting in the food court at Australia on Collins, eating my spicy noodles and taking advantage of the free wireless interweb. It's been an interesting experience living in a new house that is as yet unequipped with ADSL. I feel I've grown as a person. I've watched more TV, read more of my book, taken longer showers, and last night spent a romantic evening with myself, a cup of tea, and the pile of promotional mail and local gazettes that had accumulated on the kitchen table. What I haven't managed to do however, is face the stomach-turning task of Unpacking Boxes of Miscellaneous Ephemera. Could I not just burn it all and then deal with the consequences later? Surely I can be reissued copies of all my old tax return statements, university reports, pet vaccination cards, letter from ex-boyfriends and 3 year old birthday cards that were particularly heartfelt.
I've also just lived through another bout of Easter and have a residual chocolate addiction which no amount of Nutella crepes from Aix Creperie (see below) are able to cure.
Although, maybe one more will be the clincher. In fact, I'm off to try that now. And perhaps a little more of The Age Cryptic Crossword - another addiction I'm having difficulty shaking.

Boxelder Bugs - fun for all the family

As I type this there is one on the lip of my coffee mug. Another one's traipsing across the table. They used to repulse me but I'm starting to find myself strangely amused by them. They are Boxelder bugs, and 2008 is year 10 in their 10 year population explosion cycle.
Until a few months ago when they started popping up all around my house, I didn't even know these little black & orange fellas existed. But after doing a little research and finding out that they are pretty much harmless, I've taken it upon myself to carefully pick up any I find inside the house and gently throw them at my bug-phobic boyfriend. It's great fun.
Continuing my Boxelder research tonight, I came upon a forum for victims of the Boxelder bugs and have just spent the last hour unable to tear myself away. Here, for your pleasure, is a selection of my favourite comments.

weeks says:

My 18 month old boy picks them up all the time. He crushes them between his fingers, he eats them, laughs when they crawl on his arm. He tries to hug them but more often than not his head smashes them. ;) It's great entertainment and he's never gotten sick from them. They are harmless! (I’d be more concerned about the fact that my 18 month-old son was, in fact, a spider.)

SG says:

I live in the Portland. In October, we see 100,000s of them on our house. It's like a Hitchcock scene - the house literally swarms with them. Regardless that they don't bite, it's still an insanely gross experience. I'm a guy ... a big burly, guys guy. I ate worms and bugs as a kid to gross out the girls. I served in the USMC. I've seen war time. Yet, they gross me out big time. You ever have hundreds of them crawling all over you, swarming in your nose, your eyes, in your ears? You open a window and 20 minutes later, you’ve got a hundred of them in your bedroom. For some reason, they love the back of my neck. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up with them crawling on the back of my neck. I've gone to work, been sitting at my desk, and then one crawls up on my neck - it had hitchhiked a ride with me to work, then crawled on my neck. I was having sex with my wife once, and she had 3 of them on her legs. We can't have guests over because it's just plain disgusting, and your friends, no matter how much you explain it's just a bug infestation, nothing to do with your hygiene, they all think you’re a sick S.O.B. and won't come by any more. Ever have one crawl across your dinner plate? I'm not making any of these up.
I will kill them. I will decimate them. I will murder every last one of these bastards. Blow torches, chemicals, soap sprays - I don't care what it takes, I will eradicate them at the first signs. This is war. Not one I'm going to lose.

Anonymous says:

I've been in my house 3 years and every fall it's the same thing. This year has been the worst. I was at the theatre a few weeks ago and I felt something crawling on my face. Yep. It was a box elder bug. At work, all of a sudden, they're dive bombing my head. I know they are MINE, stowing away in my coat, clothes, hair, something, following me EVERYWHERE.
I've taken to naming them, and talking to them. I don't even vacuum them up anymore. I now stash empty Aquafina bottles in every room, and scoop up the bugs to keep as pets. They stay alive in there for DAYS AND DAYS. Then I watch them lie on their backs and kick while they fight for their last breaths. This one was actually rolling a dead bug over and over with his feet, like a circus performer. It was awesome.
I think I might be going slightly insane.

Dr. John says:

…it is, undeniably, somewhat satisfying to stomp them.

I agree!

Street style - Addicted to TV

Dress by TV.
This lovely lady also informed me that the TV store in Prahran (2a Cecil pl) is having a Sale this weekend, which is where you'd find me if I wasn't moving house this weekend and hadn't just joined a gym, but more on that another time.

I am upset because...

... last night I went to the closing party for the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (aka fashion week) held by Oyster Magazine and took stacks of photos of the beautiful, creative, drunk and desperate. Today I connected my camera to upload the photos and, to my great chagrin, found that my CF card had inexplicably wiped itself and left the data storage business.

I apologise to all the people who posed for me who've already gone out and bought tickets to my blog. Your dignity will be returned to you post haste.

The Girl loves HolyJuan

If you're not reading this guy's blog, then I really don't know what to do with you.

Street style - How it should be done

It's fashion week and the streets are being overrun with the tall, the thin, the over-dressed, the chic, the self-important, the awe-struck, the flamboyant, and occasionally, the divine.

Case in point...


When I asked this lady (because she most certainly is a lady) if I could take her picture, her first response was not a shy "Um, ok" or suspicious "What for?", but a very sincere and simple "Thank you". I melted right then and there (so much so that the photo came out a little fuzzy, for which I earnestly apologise).

Street style - Cool Customer(s)

I don't have much to say about these girls except that they were immaculately put together and extremely sweet. They were also very shy so rather than ask them to step outside and pose in the alleyway amongst the lunchtime crowds (like I usually do), I took the challenge of poor indoor lighting and snapped them before they had time to reconsider.