I inadvertently listened to most of MSO’s performance Carmina Burrara yesterday live on ABC Classical while doing my taxes and was all “oh it’s THAT doomsday song!” And then all of yesterday arvo and today it’s been bugging me, where did I hear an English language parody of it, was it misheard lyrics, no it was simpler, was it an ad, what ad was it, what ad, was it the UK, was it here…

… and then it finally came to me out of nowhere this evening. I only knew it from Gruen as it aired before I moved to Australia, but the wave of nostalgia over LOTR and the excitement of videos on the internet came flooding back once I watched it and it sent me into a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole. Many of you probably know this one.

It’s a big ad, ve-ry big ad…

I’m grateful for gyoza!!! And for tram drivers that dgaf if you fare evade for a couple of stops. And for the tax return I did yesterday… and this little pack of Victorian grown hojicha that a colleague gave me.

I spent like $30 or $40 on a second hand Samsung microwave oven 3.5 years ago and I’ve been very happy with it, not entirely sure the pricier ones make much of a difference. Washing machines on the other hand, definitely go for quality. I was cheap and got a Beko one that’s okay but it does sometimes unstick itself from the floor and get rather violent even when I haven’t overloaded the thing.

Woah, that is a very good find indeed.

I didn’t make it to Fairfield, but I did go to Hawthorn and probably spent a bit more than I expected to - picked up frozen tempeh from Grand Laguna because few places have the proper stuff, splurged on some mapo tofu flavour packets (I don’t use doubanjiang enough to have it in my fridge), got some tofu to use and some to freeze (I hear it has a good texture when frozen and defrosted), bought a bougie Flinders lime, and… most excitingly of all…

…dropped $13.50 on a 30-pack of frozen Osaka Ohsho veggie gyoza from Japan. I cooked up 10 just now, but I have leftover oil in the pan and dipping sauce, so the only right thing to do here is make some more. What a travesty 😩

Happy birthday!! I’m glad you get to treat yourself a bit today after all you’ve been through. I hope you have a really relaxing day where even for a bit you can feel recharged and secure.

I’m surprised to hear that a portion of that community has turned towards the right wing.

I think even they don’t know it themselves. The podcast “Conspirituality” is pretty good at investigating this stuff, from what I hear. I think it’s a distinctly post-Trump thing that went into overdrive with Covid. Distrusting the lockdown and vaccine measures opened up huge swathes to hardcore rightwing communities that were ready to suck them in and provide them with a sense of community in a time of crisis overriding rational thought (which was unfortunately the basis of many hippie groups in the first place tbh).

Not subscribing to identity politics is also a hard one with progressive circles as you mentioned.

Every “scene” has its downside tbh, especially if you have a difficult past and/or are not white. It’s an everyday task to rewire the brain to allow moments of belonging and areas of common ground to sink in, vs the sometimes disproportionate amount of attention given to the moments of not-belonging. Hard to not be hyper vigilant and to trust. Trying to seek a community in that frame of mind is difficult…

There’s resting, where I legit don’t wake up till 8 or 9, which is fine. Then there’s scrolling on my phone til 12 which I don’t think is really resting … Especially not two days in a row. I don’t mean to overtire myself, but I’m also conscious of needing some baseline momentum for my physical and mental health… I do feel better and more capable of meaningful rest if I do things like wake up and go for a walk but I don’t often end up doing it.

15/50, ouch. No idea about sports.

I told myself after yesteday that I wasn’t going to lie around in bed all morning today, but what did I do - stay in bed until 12 on my phone despite how UTTERLY BEAUTIFUL it is outside.

Well alright. Can’t change the past; getting a load of laundry in while having a late cuppa and cake; once it’s out to dry I am going to walk to Fairfield (3.8km away) and back to get bulk wool wash and the tortillas I had been planning to make jackfruit tacos with.

Then home to do a whole bunch of cooking and an online catchup with an overseas friend.

I wonder if my lazing around so much on weekend mornings is due to the sheer amount of caffeine I have during the week. Brain needs to recover from all the adenosine receptors being flooded.

Ferociously hungry out of nowhere. Already had some jackfruit and cauliflower and two frozen fish fillets and I might end up having two more fillets. I kinda wish I had some chips in the freezer for days like today but it’s too cozy at home to bother going to the shops. Watching the first episode of The Gentlemen (tv series) but not really getting into it. Too much Guy Ritchie posturing vibes, lead actor is cardboard, and which idiot goes to a deal without a heavy? Eh, I’ll try one more episode

That’s really poor of your employer, surely one of the finance/payroll department’s biggest tasks is to ensure staff get their tax-related statements on time. I would’ve been so mad - thankfully it came through on time this year. I hear what you mean about the travel, I was looking through my past tax lodgments and one year I racked up thousands in claiming vehicle use for work travel, dunno whether it really worked out in the end with all the costs of maintenance and some expensive service items.

I’m keen to get something back before the end of this month if possible. It’s time for me to restore my savings balance to where it was near the end of last year before I quit my job. I’ll be due for a chat about my pay at my second job and going to negotiate as best I can…

Tax return lodged!! Of course my old employer’s income statement isn’t tax ready, they have ALWAYS been so slow at paying super, lodging tax details, etc. Meanwhile my current employers are on the ball - one is a huge org, the other a tiny firm, and they managed to get shit sorted. I didn’t bother waiting for the old guys, the sums correlate to my bank deposits. Hopefully it’s all in order, anticipating a decent chunk that I can put towards getting my car’s head unit replaced with one that does android auto.

There’s also small silver lining to my reduced employment over the last FY, should be getting $511 back as a tax offset. Overall, a huge relief vs my shockingly low tax refund last year of $250 or so

I can live without a dishwasher, oven, microwave, still don’t have a dryer, but the last thing I’d ever let go of is a washing machine. It’s a non-negotiable. life would be horrible without one

Grateful for my oodie and my warm merino socks, and for this absolutely rich and delightful chocolate cake left over from morning tea at work. A lovely pick me up while painstakingly working through all my deductions…

Was not trying to directly imply the quantity of psychoactive substances ingested to refuse the offer of free citrus ;)

Was still 8C outside at noon so it makes sense that I have been struggling to stay warm today. There’s a bit of sun now which is a relief. My poor toes need a hot water soak

In this cost of living crisis, they would have to have clinical brain damage not to take free lemons.

Oh, the mental health boost would be 1000000000000000000000000% there. But I know that on top of regular food I need to have an emergency fund for vet visits, etc, and just wondering if it’s a wise financial decision if I’ll be cutting my earnings (reducing my work hours) to study, not long after a period of already eating into my savings from unemployment and then travel and a car.

I also am not home a lot of the time and wonder if that’ll be good for the cat. At least having a WFH setup means that now even if I need to do a late day at work I can come home and finish off what’s needed and still feed kitty on time.

I will see what study leave options I can utilise at work to balance it all out. The truth is, on a single income, it’ll just take a rent hike to throw a lot of these plans in disarray. As much as I love cats I do not want to touch my savings again in order to afford having one…

For some reason I have Handel’s The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba in my head this morning and I just imagine… cats. Specifically, a glossy-maned cat of regal bearing sauntering into a room on an overhead ledge and looking down on us unworthy humans. I am a bit cat-starved. I have much more freedom to adopt a cat compared to past years, but wondering if it’s a good time when I might need to cut back on work for a year to finish my studies…