a day in the life of...

Scented nail polish has to be one of the strangest inventions of recent time. The concept of scented nail polish seems like a good one, until you realise that standing around and randomly sniffing your fingers makes you look like a fetishist and a pervert.

Enjoyed my token shift at The World of Books; it's always nice when the customers behave. My new shoes have given me blisters on the bottom of my toes (I didn't even realise you could get blisters there) and my promo shirt has given me a rash but I have come to the conclusion I am a firm lover of blue eyes. Jailbait had the day off, which was probably a good thing, but I got to have a lovely catch up with A. We're planning a proper social event involving beer (or cider) in the next few weeks. Excellent.

Tomorrow brings the Day Job and I really must pull my socks up and stop procrastinating there. I seem to work at only one of two levels - completely stressed out by the immense pressure that threatens to doom us all, or cruising at a level of laziness that really shouldn't be legal. School and university were the same. Perhaps I should spend my procrastinating hours doing something useful like tidying my emails or desk. I don't think it's healthy to discover a fermenting kiwi fruit where I spend 38 hours of my week.

Reality Bites: Why this movie will always rock

It is the quintessential early 90s movie. I may have only been a kid when this movie came out, but I grew up around Gen Xers thanks to my sister and I will always relate more to them than my own generation. The feel, themes, characters and soundtrack to this movie sum up the early 90s perfectly, just as The Spice Girls are the mascots for the late 90s.

Troy Dyer. If Reality Bites is the quintessential Gen X movie then Troy Dyer is the posterboy for Grunge. He "lives off creeds and mottos", can't hold a job, is a philosopher and musician and finds the 9-5 world a depressing place. He is still relevant to how so many graduates feel today, 15 years on.

Lainey. Oh Lainey, there's a bit of you in all of us. So ambitious and intelligent, yet life doesn't meet your expectations. How could I have known when I loved this movie at 10, that at 23 I would be going through the same things she did? "All you have to be at the age of 23 is yourself."

My Sharona. God. This scene. It is perfect in its pointless, happy, stoned, careless way. A generation of young adults went to 7/11s and danced to My Sharona after this scene. When I die, I don't want there to be a montage of photos of me. I want there to be a montage of awesome movie scenes and this would be front and centre. 

vanity

I have been indulging in retail therapy. Probably not the best idea considering my paycheque is being cut in half soon, but I simply love the fashion trends at the moment, especially the higher-waisted pants. They cut a more flattering figure than the low-cut style. Latest buys:

Navy peacoat [Jeanswest]Khaki-coloured skinny leg pants (fit like a glove!) [Jeanswest] Wedge ankle boots [Wittner]

White scarf [Jeanswest]

(I am ignoring the fact that I have $100 remaining on my credit card. Hands are firmly over ears when this is mentioned.)

Perfume du jour is Vera Wang Princess and eyeshadow is Natio mineral eyeshadow in Subtle Glamour.

In publishing-related news, I am potentially starting an internship with a travel magazine this week. However, they have been less than straightforward through the whole process so I am currently considering just cancelling on them. I don't think it's acceptable to not let someone know if they are interning until the week they start.

"Honey, the only thing you have to be by the age of 23 is yourself"

I know a lot of people who are getting married this year. If I was one of them, these would be some of my plans (NB: I know some girls that keep entire albums of wedding dreams, a la Muriel's Wedding. I think one self-indulgent blog post is all right by those standards).

Engagement ring would be white gold with one diamond in the centre and two pink diamonds framing it.


Dress would be Grace Kelly by Maggie Sottero

Bridesmaids would wear a dress similar to this, either in gold or deep wine:

And the bridal lingerie would be similar to this by Elle Macpherson:

The wedding would be held in a country location, like Daylesford, in autumn, at a historical venue with gorgeous views. The theme would be classic romance with ivory and black tones. It would be a small, intimate affair with less than 100 guests. The bridal waltz would be to an old fashioned love song.

Okay, now that is out of my system I should return to a sane human being shortly.

Review: Warra Warra by John Scott

The residents of Warra Warra, a small regional town in country Australia, have their quiet lives turned upside down when a commercial passenger plane is the target of a terrorist attack. The plane crashes in the middle of town, killing all passengers on board and several townsfolk, leaving the community reeling. As the survivors attempt to piece their lives together without loved ones, strange things start to happen. The ghosts of those onboard the doomed flight have risen and, unable to return to their homes, seek to claim Warra Warra as their own. Slowly they begin to pick off the remaining residents one by one, in horrific and violent ways.

As somebody with an overactive imagination and prone to nightmares, I tend to avoid horror stories as much as possible. But I had to read Warra Warra for class and I’m so glad that I did because I was truly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. It sufficiently gave me the creeps and Scott is excellent at using the skill of simple statements. Some authors become lost in the beauty of language and their story suffers for it. But Scott manages to create this vivid and compelling image without an abundance of superfluous words. His stark writing style emulates the bleak setting of the remote country outback perfectly. While I could easily see where this story was headed, I still thoroughly enjoyed devouring it and I can see this making an excellent horror film.

If you feel like something different to read then I definitely recommend you give this story a go. It’s great to see an Australian author using quintessential Australian style in a way that still captivates instead of bores. Though perhaps you might want to skip it if you’re about to catch a flight…

4/5 stars

Review: The Last Letter From Your Lover - Jojo Moyes

Ellie Haworth is in her early thirties, a features writer for London's The Nation and is in love with a married man. Her life has become consumed by trying to dissect brief text messages from her lover. Her work is suffering because of her obsession and she is in very real danger of losing her job. Her boss has given her one last task to redeem herself: sift through countless random documents found in the paper's archives from forty years ago and write a story comparing life in the sixties to now. Amongst the papers, Ellie finds a passionate love letter and finds herself caught up in a story bigger than she could imagine.

Jennifer Stirling is a preened and perfect 60s housewife of a wealthy businessman who has just survived a horrible car accident, which has left her with holes in her memory and strained feelings towards her husband. One day she discovers a letter that reveals she has a secret lover and becomes consumed with rediscovering his identity.

I was surprised how much I loved this book. Moyes has managed to perfect the balance between bittersweet moments and romance to leave me utterly satisfied. Each chapter begins with a break-up message from varying generations and the difference in language (and lack of tact) is amusing. Sometimes, it's unbelievably satisfying to read a nice love story. The only criticism I have is that the book is poorly edited - frequent obvious typos make it seem like the book was edited with spell check. I'm not normally a person who would critique a book purely on typos, but these were too frequent to ignore. However, as someone with an editing background, I know this might not necessarily mean a sloppy editor but constraints on time and budgets. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to enjoy some light reading with heart.

4/5

banana muffins

As I've gotten older, I've found myself falling more in love with baking. There is this awesome sense of accomplishment when I've baked or cooked something new and it has turned out perfect. It makes up for all of the flops, mistakes and downright disasters (which don't happen too often, thankfully).

Today, I baked my traditional banana muffins but instead of using caster sugar, I tried out Equal Baking. I was worried it wouldn't taste quite right, or the texture would be off, but they turned out perfectly.

They don't look the same as they do when I use sugar, but they taste fantastic and smell delicious. They have no odd aftertaste either. Because I want to spread the love, this is the recipe:

Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 3/4 cup Equal Baking
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1/3 cup melted butter (approx 85 grams)

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and line muffin tin with cups. Mash bananas until almost completely smooth, then add Equal Baking and slightly beaten egg. Stir until combined. Combine the melted butter. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and stir until fully combined. Batter should be thick and almost sticky. Using a tablespoon, evenly divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups. Bake for 20min, or until springy when touched. Cool on wire rack. (I also like to coat the tops with melted butter and cinnamon sugar for extra flavour.)

The best part about Equal Baking is that it doesn't affect the consistency of things like sugar does, so if you like your treats to taste extra sweet you can add a little more!