Leisurelander » mice on toast (fur and all) http://www.leisurelander.com I see the world in a coffee cup and when I drink it down there I go Sat, 07 Aug 2010 09:16:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The return of the ghost of mice on toast http://www.leisurelander.com/2009/07/the-return-of-the-ghost-of-mice-on-toast/ http://www.leisurelander.com/2009/07/the-return-of-the-ghost-of-mice-on-toast/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:49:54 +0000 Lynn http://www.leisurelander.com/?p=68 Henry the cat has taken to sleeping on my bed at night – something I have been heartily encouraging ever since I noticed the mouse scurrying across my room the other night.  Given what we know about mice on toast and my lack of income, this probably isn’t such a bad thing, as it’s always good to have a backup source of protein.  And since I am renting the room from a local slumlord named Ernie, who looks like Ernie of Bert &, I think it’s a pretty standard thing.  But otherwise, I’m really enjoying the place; the housemates are nice, there’s a gas stove, and it’s close to absolutely everything.  Also, I finally have internet at home!  I’m actually splitting a mobile wireless usb thing with one of my housemates, which I wasn’t too keen on at first, but after a week sitting just outside Borders & leeching off their free wifi (too cheap to buy a coffee) I reconsidered.

Despite all that time on stolen internet, I’ve not yet managed to land a job.  Even registering with agencies seems to be insanely difficult here.  It doesn’t help that all the advertising work is in Sydney – which I knew, of course, and still decided to come here.  I’ve only been looking for a few days, however, and am not too worried.  There has to be a typist job with my name on it somewhere in this city!  And I am registered with one agency already so it’s certainly not hopeless.

Apart from looking for a job, I’ve mostly just been exploring the area and volunteering with the film fest.  There’s a bunch of cool graffiti up in Fitzroy, which is the neighborhood next door to me, so a friend and I headed over to have a look on Thursday.  I really like the area – reminds me a bit of Capitol Hill – and the graffiti gave me a great excuse for a facedown:


waspy facedown, originally uploaded by lynnith.

Thursday night I went to pub trivia downtown with some of the work visa folk, which was fairly unremarkable except that it was run by a guy who looked like David Bowie with a euro-mullet and who was much too amused by one team’s name of “Quiz On Your Face” and additionally I came in second place in a beer drinking competition, putting my country to shame.

Pictures, if you’re interested, are on my Flickr of my various wanderings and my moderately slummy homelife.

]]> http://www.leisurelander.com/2009/07/the-return-of-the-ghost-of-mice-on-toast/feed/ 0 Excuse me, is this seat saved? http://www.leisurelander.com/2009/07/excuse-me-is-this-seat-saved/ http://www.leisurelander.com/2009/07/excuse-me-is-this-seat-saved/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:30:36 +0000 Lynn http://www.leisurelander.com/?p=56 This weekend, I headed out to LA proper to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ declaration of American independence.  Saturday was spent with my friend Leah, who moved to Burbank from Seattle in February.  She took me to a bbq/pool party in a place hilariously named “Valley Village” (really?), put on by an old childhood friend of hers she hadn’t seen since she was 5 or 6.  It was good fun – until someone put their foot through a skylight…  After that, we headed over to Santa Monica to roam the beach and watch folks set off fireworks.  It was pretty:


santa monica beach on the 4th, originally uploaded by lynnith.

On Sunday, I met up with my friend Joyce, who I worked with back in the day at Cannes Lions in London.  I can always count on her for an interesting collection of LA sights & food, and Sunday was no exception.  We started the day with brunch, and then headed over to the Museum of Jurassic Technology.  I heartily recommend the museum for anybody who enjoys the extremely weird – it’s devoted to the fringe and features such exhibits as Garden of Eden on Wheels: Collections from Los Angeles mobile home and trailer parks.  We also learned that eating two mice on toast, fur and all, will cure incontinence.  After we conquered the museum, we walked up one of LA’s foothills for a view of the city and lots of off-leash dogs.  None of them were in the same class as Seattle dogs though!  Shameful.  We finished off the day with shaved ices from Milk & some excellent Thai food.

Then it was Monday, and time for Steffi and I to take our classiest roadtrip ever – a pilgrimmage to the Salton Sea and more importantly, Salvation Mountain.  The mountain is built around a hill about 3 miles outside of Niland, a dusty little town with delicious Mexican food.  It’s actually still a work in progress – Leonard Knight, its creator, works and lives there and has done so for the past 25+ years.  Here he is at the mountain:

the man & his mountain, originally uploaded by lynnith.

The whole thing was pretty surreal, and after our little tour we both decided we’d been saved.  And what better way to celebrate being saved than to head up to Palm Springs and gamble for Jesus?  Turns out, Steffi’s in much better spiritual shape than me – she netted out $150 while I only won $25…

Later today I’m headed to the airport – hopefully my pilot isn’t one of the Michael Jackson funeral lottery winners and I’ll be Australia-bound at 9:30 tonight.  I land at 9:30 in the AM on Thursday; the next time I blog, I shall be in the FUTURE!

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