Blah

I've had a really crap day today, so I'm going to do some dot points about nice things that have happened recently to try and jolly myself up:

-- I saw the Lambert Retrospective the weekend before last (I can't look at his name without an earworm starting up that goes Laaaaambert, the sheepish lion...). It's pretty good; pretty, and good. He was a KILLER draughtsman.

-- I've been to two good movies in the last fortnight:
1. The Dead Girl, which was excellent. It's a very feminist, female-centred (I think they can be separate but compatible terms) film. It raises a lot of questions, which still bother me in the night after a week.

2. Black Book, or Zwartboek. This is a very fun but gruelling and action-packed film with lots of Nazis and heros and plot twists. Do see it. I'm not into violent WWII movies, but this one had lovely shades of grey in its morals.

-- I had a scrummy lunch at Zoe's on Saturday, then a few hours later...

-- ... she and I (and Jethro) met Tigtog for tea at The Front, a gallery/cafe in Lyneham which is a better venue than Tilleys because it is
(a) friendlier
(b) cheaper
(c) funkier
(d) host to a Ukelele class on late saturday afternoons
Tigtog and her family were great fun, and thank you to them for still turning up in the abysmal weather. Jethro seemed to have a fun time, which meant Zoe got out of the house and her 4-yo cabin-fevered offsprung (singular offspring?) for a while.

-- I bought a compositor's table from a mate who had been storing his clamps in it for years and was cleaning out his workshop... all metal, with spaces for holding letterpress furniture and a big separate flat cast-iron tabletop, perfect for clamping up type. Of course, it weighs a f*ck of a lot, and it took four of us (me being the smallest and weakest) to carry it in two parts off the trailer and on to my front verandah. I don't have anywhere to put it until I can find a studio, so it's going to sit out the front under a bright green tarp for a year or so. The cats love it, especially in the afternoon when the metal heats up.

-- We bought a new carrom board at our favorite Indian supply shop in Belconnen. We already have a small version, and it's like a kid's size board, but we'd promised ourselves we'd get a full-size one some day. This one was on the wall of the shop, and the price on it was $105, which was about what the small one cost us. When we asked after it, we were told it was their display model and the last one, and they offered it to us for $90, including all the little pieces! You bet. When we brought it home we realised that it was four times bigger than our old board, and in fact big enough to be a dinner table for us (we have such a small house!). I need to take a photo of the thing to show you, but it's shoved under our bed until we can find a place to set up and play! One idea is to cart it down to our local and start playing it regularly there. We might attract some competitors!

-- I said I had a shitty day, but in fact it was just the afternoon. I honestly can't tell you why, because I'll get keelhauled if I do, but suffice to say that one day I'll get to say my bit. I sobbed all the way home in the car, poured a big glass of wine and pulled out BB's Nintendo DS and thrashed lots of pirates in the new Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End game. It's very cathartic. And then I got stuck. Does anyone out there know where I'm supposed to find the Grappling Hook?

-- So here I am. Bumblebee is away with his grandparents until tomorrow, and then he goes away with his dad on Friday for a week. I'm trying to get all the work I have to do done before he gets back, so that we can chill out together for the 3 days I get to see him, but I'm not succeeding. Sigh.

Maybe I'm premenstrual. But I'm in that kind of mood where if poor old BB suggested that, I'd bite his head off. Blah.