Lunch for the Easily Amused
Despite my occasionally high-faluting language and pretense at being slightly learned and intellectual, I am ultimately one of those people amused by simple things. Shiny things, funny things, and even occasionally *gasp* puns can make me giggle. Today, it was my lunch that did it; luckily, it was tasty and filling as well as amusing, and it seemed to get my coworkers curious too.
I figured I’d sign up for this Tiffin thing I’d seen around. Occasionally I could see the little guy on the trike riding around with his box of lunches from my window and I always wanted to know how it worked. Tiffins, for those not in the know, is a system of delivering hot lunches designed in India. And knowing that I’d probably be buying my lunch for the next few weeks due to a busy after-work schedule, I thought I might give it a try; after all, it was going to end up cheaper for me than buying my lunch at the canteen or at the take-away places nearby and it sounded like a pretty good deal.
I signed up yesterday, and today, midday on the dot, I got the call from reception to say my lunch had arrived. And my lunch was cute! This little pastel yellow stack of containers sitting on the counter downstairs, looking more like something out of a children’s playset than lunch, was waiting patiently for me when I arrived. So up I went to our tea room, got the crossword from the paper (’cause I’m a nerd and a compulsive one at that), and tried to work out how to undo this lunchstack. Wasn’t as easy as it looks, but let’s face it, twist tops and unscrewables have always been my nemesis; but in the end, I did beat it and came upon a naan, a yellow dahl with spinach, a kofta manchurian type thing (very spicy!) and some rice. My work colleagues, upon seeing me with my crossword and my lunch all neatly laid out, were convinced I had gone to all that effort to prepare a feast and found it really funny when I told them what it was. And feast it was, as I couldn’t finish it, but I suspect I may have been given a large serve instead of the small I ordered. Either way, it was filling, tasty, and kept me going through to my bellydance class this evening (and it was tribal intro. Tribal intro = a lot of hard work!).
But the best part? When I was washing up afterwards I could hear all this rattling and found another compartment under the rice – inside was a little baby spoon!
Ahhh, cute lunch!
But lunch aside, it’s been a pretty busy weekend for me. My concert at Carni went really well, and I got to spend the weekend playing dress-ups which was great. I haven’t done that in so long! Saturday I got to don my new gothic lolita stuff for a friend’s birthday drinks . . . sure it was just at a local bar, but I haven’t had an excuse to goth up in ages. And for Sunday night, I got a new top, new hip scarf (or “jingle skirt”, as I like to call them), and new “bellydance bling” – a huge silvery neckpiece with matching earrings – from the OMEDA market in Preston. (Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I’m doing bellydance is an excuse to dress up, but then I realise it’s not just that.) The main drawback was I pretty much just haemorrhaged money throughout the weekend, and money I couldn’t really afford to lose, but hell, I don’t get to scrub up very often and it was a nice change from looking like a dag like I do most days.
Anyway, the Hafla . . . it went really well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun (including my cheer squad!). It was pretty relaxed and by all accounts my group did really well, even though I don’t think I did my best and I kept blanking out at times forgetting what comes next. People were clapping along through out dance so that was really encouraging. It was also great to see other dancers, including the Underbelly Tribal Fusion Troupe (um, drool . . . I want to dance like that!) and DrumDance were fantastic. They were even playing/dancing in 7/4 (or 7/8?) – how cool! I’m a sucker for irregular time signatures.
Anyway, the whole night was a fantastic ego-boost and I’m keen to keep dancing. I grew up surrounded by ballet and girls who were really, really good at it (i.e., my sister), so knowing that I’m actually good at any form of dance is a huge achievement for me, considering I’ve always been typecast in the role of the fatter, weirder, ungraceful older sister role (and for good reason!). If I can scrape together any pictures people have taken of the night I’ll post them here, otherwise you’ll have to take my word for it – it was a fun night.
Time for an update
I haven’t updated for a while so I’m going to go on a little ramble . . . I’m bored, and probably by the end of reading this, you will be too. Ahh, togetherness!
I got me some presents down at the post office today – Ebay is a dangerous thing. I finally found somewhere that sells Gothic Lolita stuff in *real people* sizes. You don’t know how happy that makes me (albeit on a completely superficial and smug level). In fact, most of my clothes shopping is now done on Ebay, to the point where I now keep a tape measure by the computer. People who know me know that shopping for clothes is one of my pet hates – there is nothing worse than trying to squeeze into something that’s tagged L or 16 that’s really a size 12, dealing with the harsh lights and blaring music and the over-manicured teenage stickfigures that look you up and down like you’re morbidly obese before telling you they don’t think they have anything in your size. It just leaves me feeling bitter, miserable and full of self-loathing, and no one should ever have to feel like that in their own skin. And the places that actually have interesting clothes that fit me? There is no way I could afford them or justify the expenditure. I’ve found stuff on Ebay for $25 – $40 I would have paid $100 or more in the shops. Fuck that.
So yeah, I got clothes and I also got tea. Tea is my one main weakness and one of the few things I will actually splash out on. There is very little else that beats the feeling you get with the first mouthful of a well-brewed, good cup of tea (leaf, not bag). That sounds like some kind of cheesy promotional slogan for some teahouse, but it’s so true. No matter how shit I’m feeling, it really does make me feel a more human. In my pursuit of this addiction, I currently have around 30 different varieties of tea in stock at the moment, black, green, rooibos and herbal; today I got Earl Grey & Cream (Earl Grey with vanilla and caramel – really, really nice), honey and ginger black tea, a black tea blend for work (Bren’s Blend – supposedly an afternoon tea with bergamot, but I haven’t tried it yet), and refreshed my Refresh tea (a herbal tea with lemongrass, mint, and a few other things. Really good for waking up!). I’d love another cup now but I know it’ll keep me up. I’ve been so good and made it to work on time two days in a row now (shame about the sickie I chucked on Monday but I needed it).
Speaking of work, we’ve been invaded by Triffids. Well, not really. Plastic plants/trees, but they way they are moving around our building they may as well be. It started yesterday when one plastic ornamental tree was found in the lifts: this was stolen by one of our bosses and placed at one of our senior sergeant’s desks. Every time you’d look into his office to see if he was there, you were confronted by this tree at his computer. Things got a little crazier by late afternoon, when someone rang our reception doorbell. Any humans in the vicinity must have already been devoured, because one of the plastic Triffids was up against our reception door, blocking access to the office with one lurking ominously behind it in the lift lobby. Whoever rang our bell was not to be seen.
It all escalated today. It had to; I was bored. The lurking tree from the lift lobby had been moved into our reception area – it now has a scary face (courtesy of PowerPoint’s drawing objects) sitting in its foliage right at eye level, ready to eat/greet any visitors to our office. I put that on after the majority of the office had gone home so I’m keen to see how long it will be before anyone notices.
But the crowning glory is the plastic plant that was glaring in our doors after everyone had left yesterday; by today, it had found its way back into the lifts and had been riding them to the amusement of all for most of the day. I thought it was lonely, so I gave it a sign – again, courtesy of PowerPoint – that read “Hi! I’m a plant and I am lost. Will you be my friend?” This kept us giggling for a few minutes, but then we started to realise how lax the security is in our building: this plant had been sneaking around the building (probably eating people) for two whole days without a security pass! That had to be fixed . . . and again crappy Power Point graphics saved the day. Now, the tree was Detective Senior Constable Will O’Tree from the Special Branch, complete with official lanyard and barcode so he could get through the security scanners (I forgot to put the police logo on there or give him a registered number, but oh well. He did get a crappy clip-art tree identity photo, though!). He kept riding the lifts, eating people for a few more hours after that (his victims obviously lulled by his identity pass) but sadly he had moved on by lunch time. Who knows where he might be lurking now?
And so, on that note . . . sleep tight, children 
EDIT: Some weird blog search engine thing just pinged me with this, ah, paraphrased extract on this entry it’s posted.
“I finally found somewhere that sells Gothic … bitter, miserable and full of self-loathing. … Really good for waking up!). I’d love another”
I don’t know what sort of summery algorithm programmy thing they’re using, but they completely missed the triffids out! Although, in a way it’s almost like Dadaist poetry or something. “Gothic bitter: The beer that’ll make you feel miserable and full of self-loathing” Thank goodness I’ve finally found somewhere that sells that beer! I just had one and it’s really woken me up but god, I could really go another on right now . . . hehehe
