december 31, 2003
[]
happy new year!
(yes, i know i should be doing "social" stuff, but i am at mike's house... and he does have his server living underneath his kitchen table so i'm not the biggest geek here.)
my house is tidy and clean, ready to bring the new year in.
ace.
pipstar @ 11:14 PM | link | Comments: *
december 30, 2003
blue canary in the outlet by the light switch
i don't normally buy myself stuff with the intention of singing They Might Be Giants' songs about the items recently purchased, but i made an exception today.
i was 70% through creating an Illustrator vector image of the birdhouse in question when the software shut down. so i took a photo instead.
pipstar @ 03:01 PM | link | Comments: *
december 29, 2003
dress ups
i went into town with the intention of just looking. but i returned home with a dress (almost perfect), three tops (two practical and one cool), bathers, sunglasses and other assorted stuff...
i think that i'll have to make a Semi Lifelike Pippa Paper Doll™!
pipstar @ 07:39 PM | link | Comments: *
december 26, 2003
tiger tiger
in the past three days i worked twice at the florist, twice at the organic store and i ended up with free food and lovely free flowers.
i made a platter of cold rolls and went to christmas eve dinner at mum's and ate good food and received lovely gifts.
i made vegetarian lasagne (roast pumpkin, spinach and mushrooms) for my brother and roasted vegetables and turkey for everyone else at the Official Christmas Day Dinner . i set the table and used my free flowers to good effect.
i only panicked once when extra family members arrived at the same time as my grandma's taxi home, but overall i think that my first hosting of a christmas meal went well.
i also drank banana smoothies and played with my new gadget many times.
i also had two or three more of these deja vuish dizzy spells.
from an email: it's like i see something ( a website, a photograph, a flash of video) which makes me feel really overcome... sad and sick and just plain freaked out. and then i get a super strong wave of nausea and feel really faint. and that freaks me out some more and then i feel like i'm about to fall on the floor and cry.
understandably, i'm not too happy about these spells, but i am happy with this picture that i drew last night with the graphire tablet.
pipstar @ 01:05 AM | link | Comments: **
december 25, 2003
ta da!
pipstar @ 11:50 PM | link | Comments: *
december 25, 2003
guess what?
and make a snowflake is super fun... [via not martha]
here's one i made earlier!
pipstar @ 08:48 PM | link | Comments:
december 22, 2003
fan girl
there are certain websites and online communities that i completely respect. and there are certain individuals heavily involved in these communities who i respect as well.
so it's lovely when they notice what you do. like this.
pipstar @ 06:00 PM | link | Comments:
december 22, 2003
bags of fun
i am exhausted...
apart from a few very brief jobs that i had as a teenager, my work has never been physical, it's largely involved sitting in front of a computer or talking to other people sitting in front of computers.
so my body is reacting very strongly to lifting and lugging, snipping and serving, weighing and washing. yet my time seems more valuably spent than many of the hours i've spent in front of computers precisely moving text 5 pixels to the left, or developing database backends for websites. i can immediately see a change to the product or service i'm providing.
but i will get bored very soon, and i want to fall asleep right now.
however, tonight i am going to bake two more batches of cookies, clean up the kitchen in preparation for christmas day and hopefully i'll finish most of the presents i am making.
and i've got super tidying up to do and present wrapping and fitting food into the fridge and freezer...
have i mentioned yet that i'm cooking the Official Christmas Day Dinner for my dad, grandma, brothers, aunt and cousin? all by myself? and providing a vegetarian option?
excuse me, i need some coffee and a supremely detailed list of things to do.
pipstar @ 05:50 PM | link | Comments: *
december 21, 2003
merry christmas
i made You a Christmas card.
pipstar @ 02:08 PM | link | Comments: *
december 18, 2003
absence makes the heart grow fonder
forgive me for not posting, but i suddenly have not one, but two new jobs.
both jobs are so much fun as i get to work with some of my favourite things: people, food and flowers.
and here i am with one of my favourite people, Aliese, who just happens to be playing with her band Hello Minnesota at the Adelaide Big Day Out!
pipstar @ 12:35 PM | link | Comments: ***
december 12, 2003
buck 65
rocks.
pipstar @ 12:53 PM | link | Comments: **
december 12, 2003
[this is a memory]
A photo of my great uncle Richmond is the 20000th mirror project entry!
That's also my 10th mirror project submission!
14206
14208
14404
14451
14615
15934
15936
15937
19014
pipstar @ 12:30 PM | link | Comments: **
december 11, 2003
soap and water
being a dirty minded girl will often lead to good things. such as winning $50 worth of tickets to shows at The Gov. when asked what the best thing about guy sebastian was i said something witty and rude and was rewarded for my efforts.
guy seems like a lovely boy, so i won't repeat what i said.
and the church are playing next week!
i can afford two tickets... who wants to come along?
pipstar @ 01:27 PM | link | Comments: *
december 09, 2003
yeah!
pipstar @ 02:47 PM | link | Comments: ****
december 06, 2003
pea on linen
pipstar @ 07:16 PM | link | Comments:
december 06, 2003
i ♥ this town
the other day i was talking with mark about reasons to move interstate or overseas. "adelaide", he said, "is too small a city to have miracles happen when you walk down the street."
well, maybe he didn't say that exactly, but it was something along those lines. and i have to agree, the unexpected is much harder to find here.
and leaving the house and spending time by yourself with just strangers around is near impossible. you will see someone you know and you will feel that you have to talk to them.
but usually, running into people you know can be a good thing. even if it stops you from getting important but boring stuff done, like today when i went to the market intending to buy food.
i ran into and had breakfast with sarah and aidan. i then walked 100m and was accosted by stubby. i'd only ever met him once, so at first i thought that he was an obsessed stalker or something. we chatted for half an hour about sunburnt irishmen and other stuff and i then walked another 100m. and ran into megan and adam, who suggested i meet up with them and nick for coffee. and while i was waiting for my coffee at lucia's, ellie and ianto came past and gave me a zine and some cake. and then i went home and helped nick layout his c.v. and his beautiful lady nom dropped past too.
today i may not have bought everything i needed from the market (chickpeas! how can i survive for more than 3 days without chickpeas?) and i ended up not looking for clothes and presents. but that's ok because i spent my saturday talking to completely ace people.
and i did buy a perfect loaf of bread and some tasty, tasty cheese, and my first mango of the season and tomatoes for tomato soup.
and nick said lovely things about my photos of a daisy photo and a dried up purplepoddedpea pod on linen
and i got lovely comments from chris r and brian
and i'm feeling so supported from the comments you all left about an earlier post.
and i had a supreme gossip fun-filled phone conversation with karah
and all in all it's been a glorious day
and i love this town and my life and i wish that i could give you all a hug.
pipstar @ 07:15 PM | link | Comments: ****
december 06, 2003
daisy
pipstar @ 07:15 PM | link | Comments:
december 06, 2003
window detail
pipstar @ 07:07 PM | link | Comments:
december 05, 2003
because plants are sexy
i've finally finished the roll of slide camera i had in my film, and i took it off to be cross-processed earlier this week.
there are some pictures from my party which i'll upload later, but here are some flowers for you to look at.
i've never cross-processed slide film before (this was in fact only the second roll of slide film i had ever used) and i've heard that the results are not guaranteed, so i was happy with the way the colours turned out.
pipstar @ 05:28 PM | link | Comments: ****
december 05, 2003
poppy
pipstar @ 05:11 PM | link | Comments:
december 05, 2003
bearded iris
pipstar @ 05:10 PM | link | Comments:
december 05, 2003
yesterdaytodayandtomorrow
pipstar @ 05:08 PM | link | Comments:
december 05, 2003
daisything
pipstar @ 05:07 PM | link | Comments:
december 04, 2003
and
i'm just about to go to yoga and i am freaking because i haven't been to a class for about 5 months.
but i'm also supremely excited.
and snap! crakk! are playing tonight and i'm going to go even though i'm tired already and i'll be doubly tired after yoga.
and earlier i had a deja vu-like experience and felt so weird and i couldn't even remember what i was remembering. was it a really good website or a dream? and i felt scared and sad.
i have to stop spending so much time on the computer.
pipstar @ 05:38 PM | link | Comments:
december 04, 2003
uh oh...
inspired by the feelings which were raised during the writing of my previous post i thought it would be a good idea to tell my mother how much i care about her.
so last night i told Mum how much i love her and how i felt sad because i didn't really get to know her mother Torchie before she misplaced her marbles and died.
and i gave Mum a hug. She went inside and i got in my car to drive away and i backed into her car.
whoops.
pipstar @ 05:34 PM | link | Comments:
december 02, 2003
memory chips
Throughout my childhood and teenage years, my family would drive to my paternal grandmother's house every Friday for a meal.
Minnie (my grandma) made everything that we ate: a full on roast dinner (lamb, beef or chicken), a dessert (creme caramel or chocolate mousse) and little cakes with icing and candy decorations. Before Mum started controlling our junk food intake, my brothers and I would receive a substantial bag of mixed lollies. Every week.
As Minnie became less mobile we started bringing more of the food. Initially we'd bring a takeaway barbecued chicken, but as she got less mobile we started bringing more and more of the meal with us. We were the other Meals on Wheels.
Eventually the staff at the local chicken shop began to know our usual order: 1 large chicken, large chips, peas and gravy. We'd round that off with a frozen Sara Lee Danish and ice cream for dessert. I think that for about 7 years the meal was constant.
Pretty much everything became a constant. The conversation, the television shows, the smell of memory chips in the car, the fights between my brother and I on the way home.
"Mum, she's touching me!"
"He's looking out of my window!"
"She's breathing my air!"
"I'm way too old to be in this car! What if someone I know sees my with my family!"
After a while Mum always sat in the back with my youngest brother and I, while inevitably Nick would sit in the front. As he got older and weirder (later we realised that he'd developed drug induced schizophrenia) he persisted in having the window open, even in mid-winter. Whilst still wearing his jumper.
"Mum, I'm dying of cold... Can't you make him wind the window up?"
So it went on for years. As I got older I would catch the bus to Minnie's after Hanging Out In Town After School On A Friday Evening which saved me the teenage trauma of the car ride there. My parents separated when I was in first year uni and the delights of local bands and boys were far more exciting than regularly hanging out with Dad, my brothers and a 92 year old woman.
About three years ago my grandmother fell over and had to go hospital, then into a nursing home. There was no way that she was able to go on living in her house, so rather than the house being cleaned out and rented or sold, everything was kept the same and every Tuesday she has come back for lunch at her home.
:::...
Earlier this year her home became my home too. I moved in and took over one of the bedrooms and the drawing room. I threw out 8-year-old jars of chutney from the pantry and banished denture glue from the bathroom and the old lady smell from the house. I put up pictures of pretty naked ladies in the bathroom cabinet and Blu-Tacked postcards from my travels on the kitchen wall.
I unearthed old family photographs and Minnie’s wedding dress, used her original Mixmaster to beat cake batter and appropriated some of her accessories as my own. I now like floral printed fabrics and worry about young people breaking old furniture. I love the avocado green kitchen and the beautiful flowered tiles in the bathroom.
I am at an age when talking to my grandmother is no longer a chore and I’ve learnt so much from talking to her almost every Tuesday for the last year.
I know the name of her first love and that they “spooned” but never had sex. I know that she ended up marrying my grandfather who turned out to be a scoundrel… “He had sex with another woman, in the back of my car” and that she divorced him in an age when such a decision was a serious social error. She used to surf even though she couldn’t stand up on the board and that she loved to drive her cars very, very fast. She wanted to be an actress and a fashion designer and had a crush on Noel Coward.
She is 96 and can’t walk, but she tells me about one of the male nurses at her nursing home and how if she were younger she’d…
“The other night he picked me up to adjust my pillow and I gave him a kiss there, on his forehead, and he said ‘Mrs B….! do you even know my name?’ and I said ‘Well, no, at the moment I can’t remember!’ and he calls everyone at that place ‘Daaarling’…”
She also can be bossy and a snob and greedy and opinionated, but at 96 there’s probably not much else to do.
:::...
There is no doubt that Minnie is a creature of habit. Every Tuesday she arrives in an Access Cab and gets wheeled into the dining room. Every Tuesday she wants to eat cake before eating sandwiches even though she has diabetes. Every Tuesday she snaps at Toula the cleaning lady–carer, but apologises within a minute. Almost every Tuesday she eats too much and tells us she’s about to be sick. Every Tuesday she sleeps more than the week before and complains even louder when we move her from wheelchair to armchair.
The habits mean that we can see the changes more easily…
I think that most Tuesdays now, the effort and pain involved in being moved around is probably more than she can bear, but to not come one day would be to give up. And inevitably one Tuesday she just won't turn up.
:::...
© 2002 - 2007 Pippa Buchanan