Easter Sunday, early

Here is what you do not do if you've had a crying-in-the-toilets kind of a day

You DO NOT attempt to take a picture of yourself with your new haircut after you've had a glass of wine. It will end badly and you will feel sad; I took a lot of pictures, and none of them made me look even slightly human. It's OK though, my new haircut is the same as my old haircut, so it's not like there's much to see. As an additional tip: don't read a book that isn't Twilight at the hairdresser. Reading a book in the hairdresser's will make them make fun of you. I know this because hairdressers are not very bright and they tend to forget that mirrors reflect things so that, even though I'm facing away from you, I can still see you  behind me whispering to your little friend and pretending to open a book, while looking terribly amused.

What you could do instead of punching a size 6 bleached blonde high school drop out in the face is take the ferry home and stand outside, even though it's cold and rainy. It will make you feel much better about the world in general. Especially when you see some backpackers get splashed by a huge wave.

I've lived in Sydney for long enough now that I suppose it counts as being my entire life, but I still get a thrill out of going across on the ferry, especially when it goes through the heads and the sea is especially rough, as it was today. There's something so soothing about being out on the open water, away from crowds of people and traffic. Does anyone know how to get a job as a ferry captain? I'd even be first mate for a while, if necessary. They must be the happiest guys alive.

BTW, I'm quitting my job soon, so there will probably be fewer of these whiny posts and more posts about cake and monkeys. Actually, how can I combine those two things into a career? Monkey baker (as in baking for monkeys, not baking monkeys)! Perfect!

Back in my day we had to make our own entertainment

We have a new BBQ, hooray! And a box and some packaging to play with!

from the opera house

Mum and I went and saw In the Next Room on Sunday, and it was completely and utterly wonderful and I do mean to post about it eventually. But I'm lazy and I'm knackered, so for today I'm just going to post some pictures I took from the Opera House restaurant near the Playhouse, where we had a perfectly adequate meal before the play (Pssst. I'm being polite. It was fucking awful, but it was worth it for the view). I was playing around with the different settings, and I'm quite pleased with them.

What a pretty place I live in

Last week we were in Manly for our anniversary dinner. It had rained all day, but by the time we got to there the sun had come out and the beach looked absolutely beautiful. Gosh but we're lucky to live here.

I'm not sure if this is brilliant or a reflection of the decadence of our society

but this is my new favourite thing to look at. It's a tumblr called Things Organised Neatly, and it's pictures of (can you guess yet?) things that have been organised neatly. 

Have you had a stressful day? Feel as if your life is spinning out of control as you hurtle headlong into a quarter-life crisis (oh sweet Jesus, I'm another year older and I still don't speak French, or have a drivers license, or understand how to use Facebook)? 

Take the time to peruse some pictures of carrots that have been lined up symmetrically, or at the contents of someone's handbag that have been soothingly arranged by size.

Breathe in. Breathe out. It will all be OK.

Things I saw this week

I love you with all of my sole...get it?

The most exciting thing to happen to us this week was finding this stick insect in the kitchen. It was pretty big. It made me think of the old joke 'what's brown and sticky?'*, which makes me think of the time we tried to tell that joke to a Portuguese guy who didn't speak great English. I really wish I could have those thirty  minutes of my life back. Turns out puns don't translate well.

Caption: Landscape with Enraged Ox. It certainly is. I got in trouble for taking this picture at the art gallery of NSW. What is it with me and gallery attendants?

*A stick

Self indulgent Sunday/Monday: last days in London

I've got a few bits and bobs to post about our last couple of weeks in England, which I'll get to eventually. In the meantime, these are just a couple of pictures from our last day in London when we went to the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The last couple of pictures are a few random gee-gaws that caught my eye in the course of our perusing. The cow is from Egypt, and I believe it is about 3,000 years old, and I just liked it because it seems like the sort of thing you could quite easily see in a homewares store today, and I like the idea that I have in common with someone from thousands of years ago a love of cow-themed decor. The monkey thing is from Central America, and I don't really remember anything about it other than the fact that Jo had to physically restrain me from sticking it under my coat and taking it home. God I want that monkey thing.Why is life so unfair?

Self indulgent Sunday: Henley on Thames pictures