Earlier this week, Viennese flickr users Christine und David Schmitt (cheesy42) shared this photo of an oriental small-clawed otter having a snack.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
Having a peeved moment after a dude waiter spent the evening rolling his eyes at me and mocking me. It was a bit frog in the pot, in that it started small and slowly dawned on me.
I think, not having asked him, that it was because I ordered for myself and my boyfriend, and disregarded something my boyfriend said. Apart from the fact that its not exactly beyond my silly little woman brain to manage placing an order for dinner, I did this because we’re in Italy, and my partner doesn’t speak any Italian. He can’t order, and accidentally answered the affirmative to a dish he didn’t want (he’s vegan and he accidentally tried to order a yoghurt thing). Unfortunately my italian doesn’t yet cover telling someone to fuck off.
Mostly, I’m bothered that I didn’t do anything to fix it. I just froze a bit and wanted to get out of there. Sigh.
Hoping everyone who wanted to managed to avoid the cup!
@Keira, what a pompous git that waiter appears to be. I think you’d better address that gap in your Italian vocabulary sharpish – sounds like it could come in handy!
I am trying to ignore a small but persistent feeling of approaching doom. There have been two sudden deaths in my outer circle recently, one a teacher at my son’s school and the other [my] work related and I can’t shake that superstition that these things happen in threes and that it is getting closer. Maybe more sleep would help.
{hugs} if you want them, Mindy.
Thank you TT, and a gentle virtual neck rub if you want it. Hope you and your neck can come to an entente cordiale soon.
Maybe this asteroid will not miss us next week after all, Mindy – then both my neck and your sense of dread will have nothing more to worry about.
Wow, that waiter sounds like a raging knob!! I hate that – I tend to kind of freeze too and think of all the possible snappy replies later. 😦
Oh – I hope you get a nice clear run of things Mindy and that sense of dread passes.
Ha – hopefully things will resolve themselves without the assistance of an asteroid tigtog!! Though on the other hand I wouldn’t need to finish these essays and exams, so that’d be a plus! 🙂
After miniFP and I have been off sick most of the week I went back to work on Friday to find my boss acting like a petulant bastard (passive aggressive ‘punishment’ for me daring to take sick-leave etc). Finding myself wiped out today.
Our garden/yard is taking quite some wresting and is not quite yet in submission – clearing out behind the shed has been an ongoing process – about four foot deep on two sides of building materials, weeds, (SPIDERS), leaf litter and years of compost – we need to clear it a/ because it’s a fire hazard, b/ because it’s a haven for some of the WEIRDEST looking spiders I’ve ever seen and c/ because we need to seal off the shed so the water doesn’t sheet in and so we can buy a mower etc for the rest of the yard. Anyway – mission accomplished today. TBO’s been a Trojan, finishing off what we started together this morning while I studied.
Another bushwalk, and BEER. Dinner is made by my stepdaughter, and I’m about to shower and flop for the evening! Ahh weekends!
Have got my hands on a copy of the BBC’s Desperate Romantics, and am enjoying the extreme squee factor of the delicious Aidan Turner (although the character he plays in all-around vile), and all the bodice-ripping, tortured artist, period schtick. Feel like a fool for not knowing about Lizzie Siddel (who came up when we were talking about Ophelia). Am a bit bummed that they seem to be so fixated on the men that there may be no Christina Rossetti appearing.
@Keira: Sorry to hear about that.
@Mindy: I’m really sorry to hear about your doomish feelings. I can empathise – had a rough round of those recently myself. It’s so awful and distracting!
[TW: weight issues, body policing, body & self image issues, struggle with societal rubbish about women’s bodies.]
Does anyone have any advice for combating the feeling and messages that, in my current state, I’m not svelte enough to wear clothing that does not fall under the heading of “pants”?
I’d like to wear shorts, skirts and dresses during the coming Sunpocalypse here in Melbourne, but I keep thinking that I should wait until I can fit into a smaller size again. I keep thinking that my size disqualifies me from dressing the way I *want* – that I should endeavour to hide myself and dress how I *should*.
Staircase wit – because you think of it on the stairs, afterwards. I read somewhre that Oscar Wilde coined the phrase, but I have not verified. It is a skill of mine, though.
Hope you enjoy your flop, doubleantendre, sounds like you earned it!
Mindy, I hope the Doom goes away to threaten elsewhere. Hopefully an elsewhere without inhabitants.
The doctor has prescribed me enough pills to make me rattle when I walk, but I’m starting to feel much better.
Perla – I find that when I start feeling that way a cruise round the fatshionista tumblrs ( no comments) can really help.
@Aphie: Thanks for the suggestion. Who knows, I might break down my longstanding resistance to colours outside the black/blue/purple/red scheme I always stick to!
Perla, you might want to spend some time with Megan over at Craft is the New Black, who is a woman of ample dimensions who takes great joy in putting up a “Friday frock” each week.
Personally, and with my patriarchy-compliance fascinator on, I would have thought that dresses are exactly what one does go for when one is feeling not-svelte, because a feminine bottom in a lovely skirt is one of the world’s true delights.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I am starting to get a grip.
@Perla – I don’t know how if the City Chic stores are in Melbourne, or if you’d want to shop there but I like them because the mannequins are a larger size than the ones that most stores use (i.e. more like real women) and their sales assistants are all larger ladies, who look fabulous. I find it good to see confident women in nice fashionable clothes including short skirts and shorts. They have all been incredibly nice as well which always helps. I am not in anyway affiliated with them, but they certainly know how to build brand loyalty. My experiences with them have been so good that I will be going back, despite initially thinking that they were too ‘young’ for me. (I’m 38).
@Tigtog – that asteroid story is actually really cool in a geeky kind of way. I wonder if it will be visible in the sky?
Doubleantendre, thanks for using “raging nob” in the same post as the word Trojan, as I went searching for Ursula Vernon on deviant art, and now have a mental image of a giant, lubricated, latex clad wooden horse releasing thousands of disembodied phalloi wearing little bronze horse hair crested helmets, running on spindly little legs and screaming “FOR HELEN!” as they scurry about. I’ll be giggling for hours.
Thanks Orlando and Mindy. I haven’t been excited about clothes shopping in a long time, but I look forward to it now! I just have to work on shifting my thinking about the weight I’ve gained. I rather like being a size or two more taba,* but the “rules” and “What will strangers/family members think?” thought patterns are hard to shake.
*Sometimes, the little Tagalog and Waray I know just sounds better than the English translation!
Glad I could assist @YetAnotherMatt! 🙂
Cool! the #mencallmethings thing got a mention in the MSM! As fairly supportive of the point of the tag!
And while the first comment is horrendous, the next few are pretty good!
Sorry for all the exclamation marks. I’m just so surprised when the MSM points to misogyny, names it and says it is wrong. Sad that I’m surprised. But nice to have a pleasant surprise once in a while. (Would be better if the MSM could call it out in, say, comments sections etc on a day-to-day basis…)
I saw that too Jo Tamar, and I understand the exclamation point party! I read a few of the comments and was quite heartened to see that most were somewhat reasonable (I didn’t tempt ‘fate’ however and click the link to ‘see all comments’).
Oh and a hearty ME TOOOO to the wishing they’d call misogyny and other bigotry out on a day to day basis in the comments sections.
@Jo, had the same response (and doubleantandre, I too decided to quit while I was ahead on the comments). But I notice that the piece went up at 3pm and now, by 8pm, they have already closed comments. I can make a guess at what that means.
Must remember that it is easier to get a new haircut to match glasses than it is to get glasses to match a new haircut.
@Mindy, that new haircut sounds…intimidating.
@Mindy – I got confused there. Does that mean you bought/are trying to buy glasses to go with a new haircut which don’t go with other haircuts? Or that you got a haircut which…nope, I’ve gone cross-eyed. I HATE hair cuts – I have fine, dry, curly and frizzy hair which grows very slowly and whenever I ask for ‘just a bit off’ I end up with a semi-short cut. Which suits me not so much – or for a short period of time before it becomes an awkward length. And I’ve had some go horribly wrong! Like curly-triangle-on-my-head wrong causing the boy behind me in school to ask if I could get another haircut as he couldn’t see the blackboard.
The saga with the convenor of my course saying that my emails to another student over a quiz continues – he reported it to the Dean, and after waiting a long time I asked the Dean of Students to check in for me. He did that on Monday and lo and behold yesterday get a letter from the Dean of Law (27 days AFTER the report) which kind of says ‘Oh…it’s not really serious and he’s said there was no intention on your behalf, and it *could* constitute ‘deception’ and we take it seriously and students can be expelled from the university, blah blah, I’m not following this up but we’ll just put this letter on your permanent record shall we’. Except that this means I should disclose the letter to the Supreme Court when seeking admission to practise, something I do not want to do given I do not beleieve I have done anything wrong whatsoever.
Have written an email to the Dean of Students to point out that the Supreme Court has discretion to hear matters where there has been a breach of natural justice (in terms of the uni responding within time frames etc) and it can dismiss complaints/findings. Along with all the (multiple) other reasons why the whole thing is b/s. Let’s wait and see how that goes before I let my bosses off the leash.
@doubleantandre
Sorry I knew what I was talking about – some time ago I was choosing new glasses and tried on a ‘funky’ pair and decided that someone much more stylish than me would wear those glasses and went for a more straightforward pair. Now a couple of months later I have been to the hairdresser and told her to make it short, which she duly did, so I have a somewhat ‘funky’ haircut but straightforward glasses. I am not going to get the funky glasses as it seems a bit silly to spend $300 or so on another pair of new glasses, whereas if I had got the funky glasses to begin with I could have had the hair cut for under $50.
The thing with the Lecturer and the Dean sounds weird. If it is no big deal and they don’t think anything really went on then there should be no reason to put it on your record. Seems a strange thing to do. I won’t give you spurious advice, I will only offer my support for whatever you choose to do.
@Tigtog, going by the number of compliments I received today about my haircut (one colleague told me I look 10 years younger, I think she was exaggerating/being kind) it is something that I should have tried earlier. The longer I live with it the more I like it.
Watching The Slap. Thinking we’re not about to get any lingering shots of Manolis in the bath.
@orlando, I just caught that episode (we recorded it). I was relieved that the bathroom episode ended unexpectedly non-tragically after your comment.