Curry Royal

Going to Ireland & Scotland! It's official, first a one week coach tour (Lord grant me patience) in Ireland, then a week on my own in Scotland. The tour is called Kerry Royal (which my mom mispronounces on a regular basis, see title of post), will be doing the Waterford-Blarney-Killarney Super Tourist route. Whatever, I intend to spend the whole time gorging on gut-busting Irish breakfasts, soaking in Guiness fumes and being a lazy pig while the bus trundles us around from place to place. I am the ideal tourist. I kid.

Then hopefully up to Belfast, then across to Edinburgh and Glasgow for the 2nd week. Hopefully will be able to see my ex-Nova peeps who live there now. Also, as a big Alexander McCall Smith fan, am interested to see if Edinburgh is at all like how he describes it. No Bruce please.

Other news:
- There is a whole family of foxes (foxen?) living next door! They have a den with 2 convenient exits, and regularly hop the fence to play in our yard. There are 6 or 7 babies (so cute that I could die) and a foxy mama who guards them while they try to eat each other. I'm not sure what my neighbours have planned for them, but they're sort of big for Animal Control to bundle in sacks and take away. Anyway, they are hilarious and beautiful and I love watching them, but it's not my yard they've dug up, so what I think doesn't matter.

- Damn you TTC! While I don't rely on it anymore to get to school/work, I used to and I will again soon, so I really feel for all those stranded commuters. It's one thing for service to be cancelled due to weather or emergency situations, but it stinks when it's because Bob Kinnear is being a prick. There are probably lots of TTC workers who didn't agree with the walk-off (35% I suppose), and the union has the right to strike for a better contract, but I've had too many experiences with jerk drivers and awful TTC service to be truly sympathetic. Anyway, my opinion doesn't matter but this space is for my ranting so there.

- I've been reading Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, and after reading the Very Secret Diaries and some of her other work, am rather disappointed. Many elements seem to be salvaged from her unpublished online stories, Gary Stu abounds, and some of the names just plain make me giggle (Infernal Conversion! Consarnit.) but it's picking up during the second book, so am hoping book 3 is better. Again, who cares about my opinion anyway?

- Have just finished two slices of extremely fudgy ice cream cake (my counsins' combined birthday dessert). Am now in mild pain and am starting to believe that ice cream cake is not as wonderful as I previously thought. But no one else is having this problem so maybe I am mistaken.

Conclusion: My opinion has no bearing on the actual functioning of the world. This is probably for the best since what I think often only makes sense to me E.g. Mushrooms -- in my eyes, they are disgustingly and freakishly uniform, and I hate to eat them unless they are cooked into an unrecognizable pulp. Aren't you glad I'm not the queen of everything?

Disturbing

- The sticker on my McApplePie: "MUST USE BY 3:28PM, 4/14/2008." I only have an hour and a half to "use" it. Will it explode if I miss the deadline? Clearly, this pie was meant for Jack Bauer, and Jack Bauer alone.

- Return of the Jedi: oh, precocious Ewoks and their wacky defensive highjinks! But they're only cute until you realize that they are, in fact, gleefully smashing Stormtrooper skulls into hamburger meat with pointy rocks.

- Gordon Korman grew up! Impossible.

- Mushrooms

I couldn't take the pink anymore

So I cribbed a theme from Kuler. This will probably change again soon.

Too bad I can't do the same with my paisley-printed bedroom; this is the wallpaper that was here when we moved to this house, and it's too mah faan to change it. Bad: I dislike burgundy with a passion. Good: nice and dark at night.

My parents' home decor philosophy is to paint all the walls one shade of neutral, and carpet all the floors in another shade of neutral, so that when the time comes to sell the house, potential buyers will be impressed by the spaciousness of the rooms, and how easy it will be to repaint the walls when they move in (only five tablespoons of primer needed!) At least, that's what my mom keeps saying.

So I kind of like my tacky paisley room. And if anyone wants a comfortable ecru home, (with one eyeball rash of a bedroom), you know where to look.

(Hey, it's been a slow day, I have literally been staring at the walls, and was suddenly struck by the weirdness of all these blobby swirls. Man, I hate amoeba.)

Tweet

I woke up this morning to the sound of cardinal song; there's one (or more?) that's been in the neighbourhood for years. Very flashy, very cheeky, very red. The Ferrari of birds. Or maybe the Yaris of birds. Whatever.

Anyway, I realized that for over a year, (the duration of my stay in Japan plus this incredibly long winter), I didn't hear a single chirp. Youme Town always had artificial , pseudo-jungle sounds playing at the entrances, complete with waterfall sounds (lots of kids running into the mall and then straight for the bathroom) but I never heard anything from any real bird while I was living in Kumamoto.

It was really nice to hear it again today, made me giddy for warm weather and sunny days in my hometown. Of course, it's supposed to rain all day and get 10 degrees colder tomorrow, but that's not important. Today, and right now, I'm excited about summer plans of travelling, seeing old friends, and generally having fun before I go back to school.

(Ah yes, I'm starting at Centennial's Book & Magazine Publishing program in September; gonna learn to make books like a pro, and not like I did before, with glue oozing into my papercuts, cannibalizing magazines for pictures, snapping all my needles trying to sew signatures together and scrounging for cardboard to use for covers. And copyediting and layout and stuff.)