Wednesday, November 20, 2019

20 November 2008

Archie: Didn't you get to do enough cooking on Woody Island?

Max: A girl's cooking is NEVER done! :)

Archie: Give me a scullery maid and I'd have to agree with you. I just hate washing up, especially when others do nothing to help and then expect to be able to eat it all.

Max: I would KILL for my own personal scullery maid! That would be awesome. My life is minionless at the moment without a scullery maid. I reckon Robbie would make a very fetching scullery maid ... :)

Archie: Oh, how divine an idea :) I hope she won't mind. No the person I wish demoted to the position of scullery maid has a reputation at odds with the job. And she'd only ever wash up once in a blue moon rather than when it was required of her.

Max: N'ah, I reckon she'd do it if I have RA as the Kitchen Boy - they would have to sleep in the cinders together under the roasting meat. That'll get her on board.

Archie: i think you'd have more luck with DL as the kitchen boy. I think he's a fave at the moment because of Life. And if he's your servant  ...

Max: DL to get Arthur as a maid, RA to get Robbie as a maid. Maybe Arthur to get Robbie as a maid and DL and RA can be my 'bedmates'. Yeeeeeees.

Archie: But how much work are they likely to do with RA or DL or even FP in the kitchen with them?

Max: There will be shenanigans for sure, but I think both Arthur and Robbie would understand which side their bread is buttered (because otherwise, that is all the food they are getting) and put in the hours in the suds :)

Archie: you have such faith … but then you'd have more chance of getting them to work than I ever would.

Max: I have an 'I Run The Kitchen' attitude now, so you may be right. My mother has started saying things like 'well, we better get out of the kitchen because MAX is in there and SHE likes things cooked THIS way.' I am quite a bit less accommodating now I have had a taste of running a kitchen. The Queen Bee has finally shown up for 2008! :)

Archie: *tsk* *tsk* the real test will be in the kitchen with me. Is the Queen B getting too big for her boots? And is she here to stay? I'm quite prepared to demote you to second cook should it prove necessary. :)

Max: Well, I think we shall have to find out eh? When it comes to extreme cooking and running a kitchen, I think my week of catering sets me up as stiff competition ...

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

19 November 2013

Going to dinner with two Coalition Voters and Supporters who are related to me this week. The topics of conversation I will raise will be Asylum Seekers and Climate Change. It will probably be horrific

Friend: Good luck!

Three years of talking to Coalition Supporters and Voters to help them work through their shame that they were taken in by Coalition Policies is going to be hard but necessary work to ensure this Government gets kicked out at the next election

Friend: It just gets worse and worse and worse … And we're only a week in :(
Max: If you had told me two weeks ago what he would do last week, I would have told you to re-write your script, because no one, not even him, could be so very, very awful
But we know what we have to do - we have to talk to the people that support the Government and change their minds. My parents are not going to like being around me for the next three years ... but I can't stand silent and put myself on the wrong side of history
Friend: Yeah there may/may not be some reflection in my next show... And then I think it's time I dusted off my copies of boal!

There is something about the Australian Government at the moment that reminds me of all the governments of history that are held up as the worst of the worst. Except with this Government, people I actually know voted for them, and still support them to my face.

This action, and many other actions of this Goverment, is regressive. But this is the reality of being politically progressive and not having the guts to talk to the Coalition Supporters and Voters about their support of the Government and their fear of admitting they supported and voted for a Government that has turned out to be evil.

The people who support this Government are alive, still supporting them and they are people you know. They are the people that need to be talked to, over and over and over again by progressives until they understand that they must not support evil because they are scared of admitting they were taken in by Coalition Policy.

Talk to the Coalition Supports and Voters you know, without fear, for three years, or this madness continues.

19 November 2007

DEAN

Hola miss, I meant to mail u last week to thank u for brightening up my lunch hour!! :) what do u think about breaking your no-drinks ban and going out for a drink (ethanol influenced) soon???!!

x

Ps. Actually, that's unfair, u don't have to drink if u don't want to...

MAX

'Twas my pleasure, as always. I enjoy thinking aloud to you, you always have such a great perspective on things. I will be up for a drink, let's make it a watering hole with plenty of people to laugh at hmmmm? And thank you for being the first person in a very long time to be thoughtful enough to say I don't HAVE to drink! You would be surprised how many people don't think to remember. Not this weekend, but next ... mayhaps a Friday night? We could go stalking Lawyers or something ... :)

I am working at the Medical Board of Western Australia for a week and all the Med graduates are coming through to register. Fresh, young meat. Trying not to get itchy fingers :) How was your weekend?

DEAN

next friday night sounds like a very good idea :)

maybe perth, like one of the drinks strip along hay/ murray street, or the subi hotel? :)

oh yeah ... and my lil brother may be one of those med graduates. he starts at sir charles gardner 2008, but he wont be coming through for awhile ... haha ... you're terrible, muriel!! :)  easy, tiger :)

x

19 November 2004

There are weeks when nothing much happens and weeks when each day is a MINI adventure – these last few weeks was definitely brought to you by the letters G and R and the number 8 … a great time had by all!

Friday 12 November

I went to another Avanti party at which many things happened:
- the English architects finally cracked out of their shells and beamed when they saw me. They are such funny creatures
- I acquired more bad dancing Germans to go out clubbing with
- Teddy was left in doubt as to my intentions and I left him at the end of the night with no satisfaction but a certain glazed look on his face that may have been caused by thoughts of sex. Sometimes I am as subtle as a train wreck and it WORKS! :)

Saturday 13 November

I was at one of the most famous clubs in London, Tiger Tiger, for Tom's birthday bash;

I put on layers and layers of Elizabeth Arden makeup and looked rather foxy. M and M were so impressed they got out the camera to capture the amazing transformation. When I got to Tiger Tiger I went hoarse from growling "Move the FUCK along, mate" to the men that glanced at me and decided I was too pretty to let go past. I hate meat markets! Tiger Tiger was vast and an impressive pickup joint but I am just too old for that kind of stuff. Tom and I stumbled out the door at 2am and Sister and Wifey had just arrived to start their night. So Tom went home and us three hung out in Leicester Square – Sister and Wifey eating hamburgers and me fending off a group of remarkably determined Indian boys.

*Max, Sister and Wifey in line for a hamburger*

*Group of Indian guys spot Max*

1st Boy: Hi, I'm Sexy, what's your name?

Max: Sheila

2nd Boy: Hi Sheila, I'm Dead Sexy.

*Sheila, Sister and Wifey walk outside*

*Sexy and Dead Sexy follow (btw these names are the ones they gave themselves, no relation to their actual looks)*

Sexy: Sheila, will you go out with me?

Sheila: No

Dead Sexy: Girls, why won't she go out with Sexy? Who are you girls anyway?

Sister: Sara

Wifey: Matthew

*Sexy and Dead Sexy do not bat an eyelid. They continue bantering, I continue to refuse my admirers*

*Sexy Beast and Scrooge, their friends, arrive. Scrooge has a comb-over. Sexy Beast is damn fine*

*Sheila, Sara and Matthew perk up at Sexy Beast's arrival*

*Sexy renews his attentions to Sheila*

Sexy: Can I have your number?

Sheila: No

Sexy: Can I give you my number?

Sheila: No.

*repeat many more times and rinse*

Sheila (after about 20 minutes of being a complete bitch): Well, guys, we have to go. Thanks for the entertainment.

*Sheila shakes hands with Sexy and Sexy Beast*

Sexy: PLEASE TAKE MY NUMBER!

Sheila: No

Sexy Beast (smiling confidently and smoothly as he leans down from his broad-shouldered height and flashes bright green eyes with lush black lashes): So, can *I* have your number.

*Sheila is tempted but feels the satisfaction of refusing will outweigh the potential pleasure of being caught*

Sheila: Nup.

Great night :)

THEN we were entertained by a group of very pretty but excessively drunk Spanish boys who decided that I had beer in my bag that I had to share immediately.

Right then boys. We ran away :)

Sunday 14 November

I went to the Natural History Museum to watch a young, nerdy but rather hot Fish Curator with lovely hands talk about fishy stuff, saw the very awesome Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition complete with action shot of a baby penguin pooing (gotta love that penguin fixation – photo available on application to your correspondent) and finished off the day with 8 friends in an empty cinema to watch our own private viewing of a film on the Iraqi war.

Monday 15 November

I went to the National Film Theatre to indulge in a black and white classic, The Women, with bitchiness the agenda for the film and the immortal line 'There is a name for you ladies – but it is not used in polite society outside the kennel.'

Tuesday 16 November

Wifey scored free tickets to the dress rehearsal of the English National Orchestra and so we rocked up with men in tow. The men were my darling friend Joel, whom I turned down in Year 12 to go out with *cough* Colin Barnet's son *cough*, and his mate Simon who is currently going out with Wifey since Joel and I introduced them five weeks ago during Joel's first stay in London. Joel had only got in from Geneva two hours before so he was feeling very cosmopolitan. The opera itself was in English, was spectacularly staged and really, REALLY raunchy! The lead female was totally naked on stage for about 20 seconds in FULL VIEW and the chorus seriously got it on with each other all over the stage at one point! It was shocking, it was titillating and it was everything I wasn't expecting from Opera! :)

Wednesday 17 November

I went down to Wimbledon to have more birthday celebrations with Tom (her real birthday) and was lucky enough to be sitting next to two young English strippers on the train who were comparing breast implant scars ...

Friday 19 November

Moss had a last-minute ticket to see Amy Winehouse at the Brixton Academy and so I got to catch her last night. For a 19-year-old who debuted to huge acclaim 12 months ago, Amy was a great show. I don't know if you guys have had any of her singles over there, but she has an amazing Jazz voice and is nowhere near as pretty as you expect most pop starlets to be. She has a huge nose, nice boobs and amazing legs – so she strutted onto the stage in a TINY sky blue baby doll dress and all the guys in the audience nearly spontaneously combusted! She was an incredibly engaging performer, combining genuine talent with the amazing ability to sing each song as if it still meant the world to her; being able to dance badly and merely make you feel that you just happened to be in her bedroom while she was singing her favourite song and dancing dorkily.

Monday, November 18, 2019

18 November 2010

Max is rugging up for Hogwarts tonight

Cousin's Husband: I thought we were at Hogwarts last night?! :D

Max: Oh GAWD, good call, but it was HOTwarts last night ...

Cousin's Husband: Oh nice play on words … I'm impressed! BUT … just how hot are warts really? seriously?

Max: More like if you touched one of the hot kids, you'd get warts. Whether that is normal warts or magical warts depends on the strength of the 'paedophile' spell on the kid ...

Cousin's Husband: I felt dirty just being there ... people kept asking me how I grew facial hair

Max: I kept on being mistaken for the Teacher in charge of the school outing ...

Cousin's Husband: Must have been the naughty teacher's outfit you were wearing

Max: And I do think that ONLY wearing your beard was slightly inappropriate, though that one girl liked what you had done with the ... carpet ...

18 November 2009

Max would like to have someone rubbed out before Friday

Friend: i know a guy who knows a guy who might know a guy ...

Archie: I'd like to take the rare opportunity to be the good angel sitting on your right shoulder and return the advice you've often offered me: Karma's a bitch

Max: Friend, I need to talk to him
Archie, not for me, for someone else. Also - Croquembouche on Masterchef next week! eeee!

Elbow: We are planning *clap* we, we are planning *clap* we are planning!

Friend: i’ll ask for his number ...

Elbow: Thanks friend who I don't know ... or do I? You're helping me out greatly. After this, we shall be the greatest of friends

Max: He is a god-fearing man who is obviously fine with bending certain commandments for justice. We salute you, my Friend ...

Friend: bend commandments? i thought you just needed an eraser. the guy just works at a stationery store ...

Archie: you're not trying to rub out your younger sister are you?... though I wholeheartedly agree with the general principle

Max: Actually, both Elbow and I agree that we must dispose of this person with extreme prejudice. So an eraser may just be for starters ...

Friend in London: Bargain deal for friends. Only £500. Send cheque + details by post. Delivery 1-week maximum

18 November 2009

There is a long story and a short story ...

The short story is that I did my Honours Thesis in 2007 and it killed my ability to write without referencing each sentence :(

The long story is that I only ever wrote from life, usually when it was boring. I now have a frantically exciting life and writing about it bores me because it is a pretty specific lifestyle ...

I am a theatrical agent now and I spend three nights a week in the theatre and at showbiz parties. It sounds exciting, but only for me, retelling the stories of the endless partying is a cross between bragging and name-dropping, so I don't like to do it

I am starting an exercise though to get back into writing - it will not be nearly as political as it got before my thesis, but hopefully it will warm up and be interesting

18 November 2005

No one can escape me on google …

I have had a rather entertaining P&O Ports week – I emailed my old boss Mike (CEO of the North American Operations of P&O Ports, including newly devastated New Orleans) and he got back to me in only three days! I am so chuffed that he was able to get to my email so quickly.

And then, in a completely unrelated incident, I was talking to our PR firm’s Senior Consultant and it turns out that he went to school with another one of the Jolly Hockey Sticks P&O Corporate Lawyers (although Campbell Mason, the lawyer in question, is actually Australian). I had to sit down I was so amused that one cannot escape anyone, and I have only lived in two cities in my short life and already I have cross-continental contacts. I had better keep behaving well and doing sterling jobs eh?

And last, but certainly not least, this same PR Consultant, Richard by name, paid me two compliments yesterday that are making me feel far more confident that I am on the right track. About ten minutes into his talk to Jim and I, he turned to Jim and asked why he was there as I seemed to have everything under control. THEN, later in his meeting with me, I was showing him my twelve-month forward planning, he told me he had never seen a Marketing Co-Coordinator with such a long view. I was surprised and told him I would have assumed you only got anywhere with some forward planning, but he assured me that looking ahead and integrating opportunities to maximise promotional potential was, in his experience, unique to me.

*phew* I keep on feeling confident that my ideas are good, but with no external mentorship, I have not yet had my suspicions confirmed. I sleep a little better now!

Saturday, November 16, 2019

16 November 2004

Anyway, on to nicer things! All my bosses are away (hence the continuous emailing!) I am going to the movies. *max scrounges around for more happy stuff* I am alive, I am warm, I have chocolate.
I will get sleep tonight.

that's about it folks.

oooh! I have no more pressure on me to write that story! :-P

Here is a little one for the afternoon ...

Once upon a time, there was a Christmas light. This Christmas light had been lighting up Regent Street for four years, the first year as blue light, the second and third as a white light and the fourth year as a red light. As a red light, it sat in the far bottom-right corner of the first rank of lights off Oxford Circus. Each day this light did its thing and while adding to the sum total of the constellations of Regent Street, it also cheered one dour Australian girl who had never been so miserable in her entire life, seeing as she was used to being stupidly happy ALL the time and not just three times a week.

This red Christmas light is a friggin legend.

THE END

I am super super bored so I am going to tell you a juicy bit of Max gossip! :) *bet you CAN'T wait!*

anyway - my little English friend Sam (inappropriate outfit at my party and dislike of anyone getting more male attention than her etc) sent me a break-up email about the time I confronted her with the three times she stepped in to effectively 'steal' the guys that were talking to me. It was a surprisingly amusing email for a few reasons -

#1 She was afraid it would be difficult for me to read and that I would hate her for writing it. *grin* sorry dear, you lost me long before this! She thought that since I brought it up that it offended me, even though I patiently explained at the time that I just wanted her to see her actions from someone else's eyes.

#2 She 'didn't really want to tell me' but each guy, after coming up to chat me up, confided in her that they were now more attracted to her. Oh NO! And to think that I would rather chew off my own arm than even talk to some stupid, ugly drunk Englishman who thought she was attractive! *retch*

#3 She outlined my faults which were - too loud, too talkative, too judgemental and too rigid. *phew* I am so glad to see that she is documenting such numerous and debilitating defects, seeing as anything she finds pitiable, I am naturally proud of!

#4 I sent her a rather cold reply and I am rid of the last friend in London that does not share my moral code, with surprisingly little inconvenience to myself. In fact, she probably thinks she broke it off herself ...

And so that is the end of that little saga. It is really sad because when there are no men around and Sam is not the wriggling, giggling and pandering to the men in the area, she is really lovely. It is just that her moral code is practically the polar opposite of mine and I am determined not to surround myself with people with dangerous or offensive moral codes!

Pip and Sam were my experiments in trying to be friends with people that did things I object to morally and how they failed!

It is one of the reasons I absolutely treasure you and Sister and Wifey - I am not alone in being an outspoken, intelligent woman that refuses to be stupid and submissive. It is a lonely road isn't it, my dear? And not many men are strong enough to walk it!

Friday, November 15, 2019

15 November 2005

Hey Jim - I hear you have an email in the making for me ... send it through! Send it through! This is my email to you ...

The Epershand Epistle

My overheated yet undercooked thoughts for this week.

Vellum & Purple:

I am reading Terry Pratchett's 'Night Watch' and the book has me mesmerised with each page, above and beyond Pratchett's usual ability to ensorcel his reader, because the theme of this book caresses every bruise on my heart. Night Watch has our hero, Sam Vimes, now the Commander of Ankh-Morpork's Night Watch, thrown back in time to take up the role of mentor and inspiration to his younger and greener self during his first days enlisted in the Night Watch.

Pratchett is a visceral writer, his jokes are so good your appreciation rises from inside you to meet the humour streaming into your brain and the humanity of his characters is enveloping. Vimes especially is driven by a bone-deep understanding of humans and their frailties, so when you read a novel about Vimes, you find the endless permutations of your life reflected on the page.

'Night Watch' is Vimes given the chance to BE the person that shaped his younger self, to BE the person that sees all the characters of his future life moving inevitably towards the people he knows they will be. It is a bittersweet read for me because it is like I have gone back in time also, coming back to my place of two years ago and finding myself trying to unpick the impression I left behind and resew myself, as I am now, into the fabric. At first, I did this with aggressive slices and steel staples, but now I am trying to do it with little nicks and invisible silken stitches.

It is a difficult read for me also because I have stepped back into family life and been lucky, or unlucky, enough to be the new broom that has been able to sweep some nasty things out of the family closet. Each time Vimes tries to toughen up his younger self, teach him to be tougher so he can survive to become the man he is supposed to be, I think of my forceful manhandling of my parents and my siblings so they have to look at the mess they created in the last two years, trying to drag them through the eye-opening thought processes that travelling forced me into.

Once again, Pratchett has written a book that will, I suspect, mean almost too much to me.

Glockenspiel & Gallery:

I have been listening to a mix CD that Kate gave me when I left London, and particularly enjoying a song about coffee and cigarettes. The coffee shops of Perth are the only social perk that I missed in London, but now that I live in the middle of one of the nicest coffee strips in Perth, I find that coffees (well, hot chocolate for me) should be accompanied by fine conversation, and fine conversation is something I have a serious shortage of at the moment!

The learned conservation of my London friends can easily be aligned with the image of cigarettes. Cigarettes (and far-ranging topics of conversation) are discouraged or banned from most Australian clubs and pubs, are regarded as anti-social and detrimental to your (social) health, are habits that most travellers from Europe come back with and are cultivated by only the most dedicated of 'cool' people back home.

Thus I sit in a coffee shop, nursing my sinful iced-chocolate-double-ice-cream-no-ice and I wish I could share this little slice of conversation-inducing heaven with a hard-smoking Cockney Sparrow, my favourite Evangelical, or any of the other invigorating (and not necessarily chain-smoking) friends that live in the Town with No Coffee Shops.

Take & Cut:

If you haven't yet seen Elizabethtown and were intending to see it, don't. If you want to see how good the movie could have been, watch the trailer! It was trying to be Garden State, but it was scratched from the race barely 20 minutes in. It isn't even tragically bad, it is just a pretty, floppy-haired nothing, and that was just Orlando and Kirsten. There were no engaging characters AT ALL and even Susan Sarandon couldn't save the movie, though she nearly tried. No, I can't quite believe I have spent any time writing about it; I really should have stopped at the first sentence.

The only good thing about seeing the movie? The quote 'I'm going to miss your lips, and everything attached to them.' Cute, but not cute enough I'm afraid.

The movie I did enjoy was 'The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill', which was so good the theatre was sniffling and clearing their throats at the plights of parrots!

Philglass & Swigott:

I spent the last week on an incredibly indulgent run of End to End Eating Engagements, of which the majority of the dining was conducted at the superb restaurant on Cottesloe Beach, The Blue Duck. The Blue Duck is situated a mere 20m from the breaking waves and sits next to the Cottesloe Surf Club, so my three hour Saturday breakfast and my four hour Sunday lunch was spent inhaling fabulous food at not inconsiderable prices while dreamily letting my sunglasses track the bronzed bodies of the male surf lifesavers bustle around the beach in front of us.

Saturday breakfast was especially enjoyable as it was graced by genuine top totty in 'The Body', a young man who stopped the conversation of the entire balcony as he went past, and so entranced our table at the end closest to the surf club, that the lifesaver on duty started laughing at our stunned ogling. Quite embarrassing that!

Eighty & Daze:

I have an MSN friend, Jakob, a frighteningly intelligent 19-year-old Croatian who constantly humbles me with his wide-ranging world political knowledge. Our first conversation was such a success because he was able to tell me more about the treatment of Australian Aborigines than I had learnt at an Australian University.

The other day he recommended me the New Perspectives Quarterly to read, and I am here to recommend it to you … read, learn, and marvel!

http://digitalnpq.org/

And if you don't trust Jakob and I, trust the peer reviews …

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0893-7850&site=1

Old & New & Borrowed & Blue:

I have always been a very lucky little girl, which meant I was always relentlessly optimistic, I had a grand total of 30 seconds depression a year and I cried maybe twice a year if I was lucky, usually at the end of a favourite book. The world just never gave me reason to cry …

The other day I discovered an endless supply of ready-to-shed bitter tears, and they appeared because I started researching what charity work my company could be involved with. I started looking at the websites of all the charities I could find and as tales of abuse followed tales of sickness followed tales of disaster, the screen started blurring as I lost control of my usually sunny emotions and I just started crying at my desk. And the tears lasted for hours and even days now as I try to continue to do the research I needed to do.

I puzzled over this strange loss of control on the part of my more light-hearted side and finally came to the conclusion that my experience of poverty, sickness and helplessness has changed drastically since I left Perth. Firstly it is the irrefutable fact that I have seen hardship and suffering close up now, from the local beggars in London to the slums of Istanbul. I have seen it with my own eyes and now when I read about problems, it is personal for me.

Even more importantly I have seen just how bloody big the world is and how difficult it is to change and stuck a million miles from anywhere in Perth I fully understand how little I can do to help things along. When you are in the centre of it you can make a decision to do small things that help immediately. When you are far away you can only do things that rarely ever show you a tangible result.

I wait ... :)

15 November 2004

dying of the cold

Morning sweetie

You know the way I sounded this morning? Well, if you looked at my soul at the moment it would look like I sounded. I am in a great black hole of boredom and tiredness, disillusionment and loneliness. It is like I have forgotten what it is like to be happy all the time. Sometimes I listen to the complaints, bitching, derogatory and cynical comments spilling out of my mouth and I swear that I am not the person I used to be and I want to scream and cry.

I just want to go home. I want to sit in sunlight on the beach, watch unbearably happy people and know that there is nothing standing between my heart and that of those that love me but warm, brown skin.

I cannot imagine how I am going to fare this winter. I am being really bolshie about doing things I love now, I refuse to mix with people that annoy me (the Fi and Kim sagas have reached their conclusions) and I am consciously trying to get that mischievous sense of enjoying everything back. But this place sucks it ALL out of me.

Why do I have to leave my heart all black and blue to keep my mind happy? I am not sure I am the sacrificial kind I think, I cannot neglect one part of my soul for the other. I am tired, I need some sunlight and I need a goddamn hug.

*grr*

Thursday, November 14, 2019

14 November 2012

Max has heard from the Italians regarding cooking offal; what about the Persians and the Greeks?

Wifey: The answer is yes! We cook all sort of intestines and internal organs and -a bit more disturbingly for me- testicles!

Wifey: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magiritsa

Wifey: http://kalofagas.ca/2010/04/07/kokoretsi-κοκορέτσι/

Greek in London: Oh gosh no idea! I'm vegetarian :)

Greek in Perth: I don't do offal. I'm still of the belief that offal is awful! If anyone thinks they can change my mind, however, I am willing for that challenge. I know the Greeks like pan fried chicken liver...I think it's awful. This is as far as my knowledge on offal goes lol

Max: So glad you used the Awful Offal line. I have been waiting, waiting ...

Max and Archie would like to cook brain, tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, tripe, tail, trotters, cheek, sweetbreads and blood - who has recipes they are willing to share?

Southern Italian: Find the recipe for Nduja! Ohhhh and make Trippa Alla fiorentina....

Southern Italian: And black pudding! And trotters boiled until soft and then finished in a sticky dark sauce. And poach the tongue then slice it and grill it! SO MANY CHOICES

Moses: A pie!

Max: Southern Italian you are brilliant. I will be going to your Dad! He'd be able to get me a sheep's head right?

Southern Italian: Easily. And ask him for recipes! Or ask Uncle in the front of the shop!

Northern Italian: As a vegetarian I am horrified but as an Italian I am impressed!

I have a number of good recipes from my Nonna's cookbook … let me know if you want 'Budino di Cervella' (Brain Souffle), 'Budellini di Agnello alla Lombardia" (Lamb's intestines Lombardian style), 'Coratella di Capretto' (Baby Goat Offal, Hunter style), 'Spezzatino di Interiora' (Tripe and Sweetbread Stew) … my god there are so many tripe recipes

Northern Italian: Omg I just found a recipe using donkey meat and snails …

Northern Italian: Seriously there is not one but two different Donkey Stew recipes, WHY?!?

Max: Send them through my dear! Also, we are being environmentally friendly and using ALL of the animal that has been killed

Northern Italian: Okay I will message you *after* I finish eating my ricotta and salad dinner. Feeling a little queasy right now lol

Max: You are an amazing brave vegetarian! :-)

Northern Italian: Out of all those recipes the only one I've consumed would be 'sanguinaccio' - it was actually really nice, that was years ago though!

Max: They are amazing recipes, and thank you SO MUCH for translating them for us. The chocolate blood pudding looks incredible!

Southern Italian: omg max can you email them to me too???

Northern Italian: I'll translate more this week, seriously I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the ol' family tripe recipe collection :P

14 November 2006

TO ASH, CHE, ELBOW, GERRY, JOEY, ROBBIE, TOM

*Right* ... so, Friday is all sorted then!

I may have mentioned *cough* that I was going to the West End for drinks with family and friends this Friday night to the young man. Actually, I only wrote 'Friday, essays handed in, West End, Brother, Friends, Drinking.'

What was his reply? Which pubs he would be in on Friday, approximately what times, the NAMES of who he was going with AND he asked if he was going to have to stay out of my way because of how much of an idiot he was to Romeo.

So girls, Friday night, I think you will all most likely get to meet the young man.

Your holy mission, however, is this:

The group picks the pub - I *NEVER* get to say 'We should go' because the young man is not there.

You girls pinch me if I survey the door too much!

And when he arrives, as is inevitable he will at some point during the night, I MUST NOT STIR ONE FOOT TO MEET THE ENEMY! If you see me even *twitch* in the direction of a tall, attractive brunet that looks like all those photos you have seen, PLEASE lean over and latch onto my arm for grim death.

If indeed he does arrive and decides to come over, the grilling is ALL yours, girls! :)

And that is about the size and the shape of it.

Off to try and pretend I care about a whole lot of things at work, when I really, REALLY don't.

Monday, November 11, 2019

11 November 2006

Notice of Intention

Wifey, Sister - thank you for lending me your ears this afternoon.

It is incredibly important to me that you both heard what I decided today because you two have seen me reach my dreams (a visa) and seen it taken away from me the next day. In London you met the Max that was living the life she wanted, you saw me free and powerful and able to reach my almost impossible goals through sheer will and work.

I was re-reading my diary the other day and I found an entry where I recorded that you, Sister, told me in no uncertain terms that you just knew I was going to get a visa. And you were right, so right.

And Wifey, I cannot adequately describe the pleasure your marriage to your husband brings to me, that night you two first met was such an extraordinary meeting of otherwise separate people that resulted in something beautiful. That I was able to start off such a string of events is an incredible treasure in my heart.

In an extraordinary convergence of fate I have in my sight exactly what I want in life, and I am going to take it, no faltering, no mistakes.

And I will be inspired by my wifey and my sister as I reach out because I know that the person you know is capable of anything she puts her mind to.

On a lighter note, my GOD the boy is incredibly hot! :) On Monday he came in to see me and as he left he thought of something else he needed to say and came running back up the corridor towards me. Seeing that incredible body moving towards me at that loping footballer's run was truly an awesome sight! *grin* Sometimes I wonder how I could have POSSIBLY been good enough to be rewarded with him. I think some forms got mixed up in the Man Allocation Office ...

Not that I am complaining!

much distracted love

11 November 2005

M

Hey there. Here we go.

Your quick-she's-back-let's-get-her-hitched story gave me a chuckle.

a) because I'm distanced from it and
b) cos I know you'll be able to handle it, even if you're finding it difficult at times.

Those new guys sound pretty nice. I'm waiting for more info, when you're ready to tell me.

I've been going close to my limits most days recently. Work-wise, business-wise and personally. I've been doing daily goal setting and as such I'm seeing continual improvement just happen, almost by magic.

On the weekend I went to a painting and tarot workshop. I found it interesting. (who'd have thought *I'd* say that hey?) Basically we pulled a tarot card and that was our theme. We then started fingerpainting on huge 2x2 meter pages and then used those paintings to see what comes up.

[excised for privacy purposes]

Jesus! 11 massive paragraphs about women. Not how I intended this email, but the raw truth of what's going on in me *right now*.

I'm also seeing my businesses grow. More on that later - I have a singing lesson to go to, and a teacher to convert into a friend.

MAX

That was a bit epic, but I think you know what you are doing.

To me, she sounds Great, and Great is wonderful as long as you don't hurt Great when Perfect comes along. Great is the kind of person you want to make sure you look after, be very truthful with and Great is the partner you want to treat with the utmost respect when you leave her, because Great can also be the kind of ex-Great that you can be proud of.

As soon as you are treating her as less than Great you leave her because she is also the kind of person you don't want to mistreat, it is bad karma. If you start treating Great people badly, it can lead to nasty habits etc.

So I reckon bear those three things in mind, treat her well while you have her, treat her VERY well when you leave and leave as soon as you know you are not treating her as you should. Hopefully, when you find Perfect you will never need to keep those three things in mind!

And why am I saying THIS instead of the myriad of things I could say? Because I met my first ever boyfriend (before my best boyfriend, you would have met him at my Halloween Party) for lunch on Tuesday and was forcefully reminded that I have only gone out with men that I can be very proud of, that he and I are utterly perfect for each other bar the sexual chemistry, and that two of my three were Great in intellect and personality but only one of my three was Great in love. Thank god I treated them all as outlined above eh? While mistakes were made, at least I came out of it with three ex-Greats.

I wonder if the next Great will be along soon, or if it will be my Perfect.

And as for your questions about HOW, well, let's just agree that we will never know, all we can do is hope and treat everyone in the manner that you would like to effortlessly treat your Perfect, because then you will not miss your Perfect when she comes along.

M

Very true.

Your point about treating them as you should, or as with Perfect you will automatically do, rang loudly for me … and then you've also added to it. About doing things effortlessly, I'd been thinking that, but saw that seeing as that wasn't the case, it was an indication that she wasn't Perfect, therefore bad. You've given me words that changed this from a bad thing to a good thing. Nice work Bell.

Oh and I spoke with my singing teacher, and told her I'd be better with her as a friend, and she's ok with that. In fact it made things easier between us - probably tantamount to how we were both unconsciously putting pressure on ourselves with a relationship.

Sex, lust, romance, love. Such big things that affect us deeply to our core of who we are - and come from our core ...

Sunday, November 10, 2019

10 November 2010

Max thinks Dean will be happy to know that she has been having a really good week with the Chocolate Military ...

Dean: i hope this isn't what i think it is … or that is IS … details! (and PHOTOS) :) :) :) <3 <3 <3 xxox

Max: hahahaha, no, not as good as one would hope, but pleasant nevertheless! I just had to mention it seeing as the expression charmed me by itself, and when I was chatting to the lovely 'Soldiers' in question, it was just so perfect

Dean: ahahaahhaahahahahah
sweet kimchee pickles, i hope u didn't call them that. to their (sweet, chocolatey) faces

Max: No, worse! I was letting my mouth go on automatic as my brain was chanting 'don't call them chocolate military, don't call them anything silly, keep your eyes up.' It is a blessing and a curse that my brain and my mouth are so seldom actually connected to each other ...

Dean: AHAHAHA
"keep your eyes up"
hahaahhahahaaaahahahahahahaha
<3 <3 <3

Max: see, I am really good at eye-contact and just sharpening the old peripheral vision ... professional, you may say :)

Dean: i fcking LOVE it !!! hahaha!!
if only they taught us these life skills in school

Max: Methinks there is no learning of these skills darls, one is born with them or not at all! It is a skill I got from my Mum actually ...

Dean: all i got from my mum was a really fast walk :(

Dean: that sounds harsh. there are other things i scored too - but nothing of the "eyes above waist" skillset

Max: perhaps I will run a residential weekend, which will be spent on the beach sans sunglasses to teach these essential skills ...

Max: Also, dude, eyes above NECK! *tsk* see, that's where you are going wrong ...

Dean: AHAHAHAHAHA
my bad, my bad. what an amateur. Hahahahaha

Saturday, November 09, 2019

9 November 2007

*lol* AAAANNNNDDD I'm pretty sure it would take a minor miracle on my behalf to become taller, skinner, have bigger boobs, leopard print top, super tan and REALLY straight black hair! :P

I've seen him out and about and the girls he is with *shakes head* no, I think I shall forever be grinning lasciviously at him from a distance ... although my mother does like him! :)

Goddess Max knows her audience! Goddess Max goes to out on Saturdays and has to fend off 22-year-old emos ... my Saturday night at Amps was hilarious, nearly giving myself a heart attack when I tried to get rid of the 22-year-olds by saying I was closer to 27 than 26.

ARGH! When did I get this OLD? :) On the other hand, toyboys are so in right now and I just need to get over the stigma of snogging around my sister’s age ...

No, indeed, more horrifying things to do with boys have overtaken me since him, making him merely the start of a rather horrid pattern of six useless men, the last two I was able to spot a mile away and avoid neatly because I can now see them coming.

Ah, what can I say? I hope I have quashed all apparent attractions I may have for men who wish to muck around. Yes indeed. Those 22-year-olds are getting the 'settling down' vibe off me big time methinks.

Friday, November 08, 2019

8 November 2015

From: MAX
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014
To: vf@hotmail.com
Subject: Attractive

There you are then said Hermione in a superior tone They see the Grim and die of fright
you've one private email from buddy
Click here to view email

<vf@hotmail.com>
Fri, Aug 1, 2014
to MAX
RE: Attractive

This address does not accept emails from malicious and discontent spinsters.

MAX
Fri, Aug 1, 2014
to VF
So glad you saw it was a virus!

Hi V

I was watching the emails leave my sent mail in horror, so glad you knew it was a virus - why they are using Hermione as a quote is beyond me :(

Did you enjoy the IAS lecture I saw you at?

Max

MAX
Fri, Aug 1, 2014, 4:14 PM
to person whose email I opened to get the virus
The one TOTALLY AWESOME thing that came out of the hacking

OMG, you have to see what happened from that spam email debacle!!

The girl below was super close friends with me for four weeks in 2010, then she disappeared from the face of the earth.

THEN I got the reply below to the spam ...

Now, she is either making a joke about the quote from Hermione, which wouldn't make a lot of sense ... or ...

SHE IS THROWING SHADE AT ME!!

And it delights me because I still don't know what happened for her to disappear, but obviously it is something I said about boyfriends (neither of us had one at the time, not that it mattered)

AND, she thinks she has insulted me, when she has actually complimented me. And backhand insulted herself by inferring that relationship status is something so important to her that it is open to insult.

MAX
"This address does not accept emails from malicious and discontent spinsters."
Nov 4, 2015
to VF

V - I just wanted to thank you for your excellent reply to this spam email!

The comment has gone on to become a rather fabulous story, and been used to elicit much amusement from my friends.

I have included some screenshots of its starring role in some jokes.

I hope you are having a wonderful day

Max

VF
Sun, Nov 8, 2015
to MAX

Wel it captured the spirit of the intended receipt well, obviously. Otherwise instead it would have to be worded that this email address doesn't accept spam from discontent women who do everything within their power to break up relationships and make accusations that have far-reaching consequences.

Obviously, your actions speak louder than words ever will and the fact you've had to reply nearly a year later proves a case in point to your unhappy life. Now, do fuck off.

MAX
Sun, Nov 8, 2015
to VF

V - have you mistaken me for someone else who actually knew you?

I can't imagine how I could have so much power in your life in less than a handful of meetings and no contact in five years. You literally didn't know me at all then and don't know me since … so why all this anger?

Have you talked to someone about this displacement of your own problems onto complete strangers from the past? It seems not conducive for your own ability to stay happy or healthy.

I hope you are able to find some peace with yourself, because I cannot imagine how your response to my clearly spam email after five years of no contact, and such a quick acquaintance of almost no depth, was warranted.

Although your response was turned to good use, and I have let you know that it continues to live on, so thank you, again, for excellent material!

hacked hacked <vf@hotmail.com>
Sun, Nov 8, 2015
to MAX

Claire, the question is why are you contacting someone whom you don't know and only met a handful of times from five years ago? Very odd and quite honestly  disturbing, hence the fuck off.

MAX
Nov 8, 2015
to hacked

Ah, but I didn't contact you, my love, you contacted me over a spam email.

I do have to ask though, what did I say that has such a strong hold over you after so long?

VF
Mon, Nov 9, 2015
to MAX
Re: "This address does not accept emails from malicious and discontent spinsters who attempt to subvert their palpable rage and indignation by continually harassing people they don't know. In such circumstances may one suggest online dating, perhaps?"

MAX
Mon, Nov 9, 2015, 7:53 AM
to VF
Now I think we are getting to the crux of the matter

V

This is very, very intriguing.

All I remember of our last meeting is that we discussed a man I didn't know in passing.

You presented all the pertinent details, and going on the fact that those were the details you told me (since I didn't know the dude), I put forward an opinion based on the facts you told me.

I don't remember the dude, the details or the opinion, I just know I never saw you again.

Until your reply to my spam email, I just assumed we had parted because of natural causes - I remember seeing you at UWA and saying hello because I was happy to see you.

The thing I found most intriguing about your reply to the email is that since you knew me for such a short time, and had not witnessed my life since then, your reply told me more about you than me.

You decided that you wanted to tell me the worst about myself, but you revealed what you hated most about yourself. You don't know my life now, so how could you craft a real insult?

Instead you crafted a really awesome sentence that was about you and some need you have for confession and cleansing.

Now, your replies have been REALLY clear that this is about men, partnerships and some kind of trust issues.

So, some questions:

1. Considering I didn't know the guy talked about, or any of your male friends, how did I affect them in regards to you?

2. Have I subsequently been involved with one of your male friends or partners since? If so, I did not know that they were your partner or friend.

3. If I have been involved with your partner, I can assure you that he was cheating on you, as all my partners are explicitly told I don't sleep with other women's partners unless that partner is with us.

I understand the pain of not having a monogamous male partner when you want one, I see it in my friends all the time, and I wish you well in finding what you want.

Essentially, why I loved your reply, and used it to great comic effect, is because being called a spinster is a great compliment to me, as I have always been and will alway be a spinster.

I am also non-monogamous, heteroflexible and I have a very well ordered and fulfilling sexual life that helps keep my successful writing career on track.

If the well-ordered sex life has hurt you unwittingly on my behalf I do apologise, but I try very hard to screen for cheaters.

All the best with everything going forward.

Max, spinster of the parish (it's a feature, not a bug!)



8 November 2006

THIS is how you do an Engineering Class ...

FRITZ

trollop! you have them eating out of your hand.

I was thinking of you two nights ago actually. I was watching the mummy, and realised finally who Rachael Weisz reminded me of ;-)

MAX

I prefer strumpet or lusty wench thanks. Well, that night I felt a lot like you must have felt when you first met me all those years ago - older, wiser, and so not going there!

Ooooooh, pretty compliment, that I will take with pleasure, thank you, sir. My favourite sayings of hers are:

I bet you're thinking, what's a place like me doing in a girl like this?
and
I'm a Librarian!

What a girl.

Yes, very pretty compliment - cheers.

FRITZ

how do you know when I met you I was "so not going there"? The presumption.

oh the presumption. maybe I thought I never stood a chance and was just protecting myself from rejection by not even trying.

;-P

Yes, she's quite a hottie. You two have the same smile and some similar mannerisms. you're welcome.

MAX

As if life COULDN'T get any more complicated - I went down Hampden Road today and I just *knew* I would see Fritz, because lately everything I expect to happen, bloody happens.

So, there he was. There we stood. There we chatted. I promised to send him an email - I sent him one with an attachment of photos of me and, oh, fifteen young men - that was the bottom email.

The rest is my direct statement technique trying to get out of him what he is after.

Yes, just when I needed the quiet.

Oh, and if that is not enough, I can feel in my BONES that An Old Crush will be wanting to catch up before he goes on the 16th. Friggin' bloody boys

CHE

I just had Jimbo get a bit hot under the collar. Fortunately, he calmed down faced with my implacable ignorance of it.

Me is confused. Did you two ever get it on? was it ever acknowledged/talked about? I haven't seen a Rachael movie, I couldn't say whether he tells the truth.

MAX

Oh, Bugger. I hate it when bosses get angry. Glad you sorted it out though.

Oh, since about 3 months after we met after he told me he knew I liked him and he would never go out with me, there was no further discussion and I dealt with it.

When I got home from London he pulled serious moves on me and I played it blissfully ignorant as if it was all the same as when I left.

He is escalating, he gets physically close - showing me martial arts 'moves' that require some serious groping, when I went to his gig he would get off the stage and sing to me (you should have seen the crusty groupies hate THAT move). And the compliments have been VERY, VERY prolific, even Elbow raises her eyebrows at them.

He is getting frustrated that I am taking his word of 2002 and not trying again. Men are SO predictable.

It's a pity that not trying again because ‘I know that he will be bad for me’ is interpreted now as playing hard to get. Sometimes 32-year-olds cannot keep their mind off jailbait I suppose.

My life is pathetically exciting at the moment. It's like old times, except with a more exhausted Max trying to get off the merry-go-round, but she just can't help herself.

MAX

And for the last five months I have been VERY careful not to let three men at ADI know how close I work to them - Carl, Fritz and Richard. For very good reasons - I can't have the past problems start up because it makes sense for us to meet up for lunch again. I just can't handle it, I really can't.

But I can feel the crash coming, I can feel that there is going to be something that will make life horrendously interesting very near in the future. I can just FEEL karma lining me up for interesting times.

And the weirdest thing is, I have been feeling it for the last two months and each time I expect an escalation, it arrives, and it arrives in style. It is like finally, I have enough experience to feel the currents that lie under the smooth surface of my social web in Perth. It is such a strange feeling, but I am glad I can see it for what it is, at least I have some warning this time.

I dunno, right now I feel a lot like I did when I first got back, that this town will crush me with the weight of the expectations of the people who know me. And no matter how reclusive I have been, even my much-reduced circle of friends is becoming problematic.

You should see the boys when they came in today to see me in dribs and drabs for the first time since last Wednesday - they all knew that I had seen them having a lot of fun - and MAN did they look sheepish. It was VERY, very amusing. Goran was in too, but he was with a group so I couldn't be especially nice to him because it would have been too obvious. But the more I hear about him, the more I wish I had turned him down with more grace than I did.

I have a lot to learn I guess.

Anyway, I am not sure I could pack ANY more adventures into today, but you know, there are still a few more hours before I go to bed. I dunno, I could still run into someone mortifyingly connected to me and top it all off nicely.

Actually, I make a bet now that before tomorrow morning there will be a long email in my inbox from Morgan, because Gidget and I have had some FASCINATING emails and chats today. She read my blog and was very impressed ... I REALLY do like her! :p

*blerg* that is me done for today - over-excited really.

MAX
Anyway, I am not sure I could pack ANY more adventures into today, but you know, there are still a few more hours before I go to bed. I dunno, I could still run into someone mortifyingly connected to me and top it all off nicely.
Yup, prophetic words. Stayed in the office until 9 and rang Elbow and was sending her photos of last Wednesday when she suddenly recognised one of the boys draped over me! It was a classmate of Timbon AND he used to go to Mass at the Cathedral each Sunday with us for years ... I am really quite entertained ... I knew he was vaguely familiar, it's just the last time I saw him he was about 15.

It is pretty mortifying now to see the photo of him kissing my cheek and to re-read the cheeky emails we have been exchanging since Wednesday (all above board needless to say, but certainly cheeky) and think that we are VERY old acquaintances. A brilliantly embarrassing end to an incredibly Perth day.

8 November 2004

This weekend I went to Paris again to help a friend celebrate her birthday and because her boyfriend was in America and there was a free bed. It was so nice to be back in such a short time – seeing her again, drinking on Rue du Lappe for two nights in a row, travelling metro lines that were now familiar and seeing the roofs, spires and statues that were so fresh last visit and seem homely the second time.

The visit was perhaps slightly better than the first one as I was not sick, I knew the ropes and I got to talk to and party with young people that knew Paris better than I did. Her friends were mostly English with a smattering of Vietnamese, Canadians Germans and Greeks, and they were all there for placements in their University language degrees. This was great, not only for the fact I again had translators for more effortless communication, but the company was well travelled and very intelligent.

On Friday we went to Versailles, spending an hour in the State Apartments and three hours in the gardens. The gardens were quite an adventure as we meandered in circles trying to see most the vast grounds. We spent an inordinate amount of time in the Queen's Hamlet – a custom-built village in the grounds with fantastically quaint houses, canals, bridges, vegetable gardens and fields. It was basically a full-scale dolls village and we were so enchanted we made grand plans to rent it out and have a dress-up weekend party. We miscalculated the time somewhat and had to head back across half the garden in the dusk and settling dark, which was a cold and dark journey that rewarded us with the spectacular sight of the palace illuminated for the night.

On Saturday we went shopping. Or rather I went shopping. There is only one purchase I can confirm and that was the completion of my holy mission for both my trips to Paris – the purchase of the ultimate pair of black boots. Photo attached. Aren't they LUVVERLY?

Saturday night was her party and we went out to a superb and fantastically cheap meal and then out to their local, Rue du Lappe for late-night drinks. We ended up in a funky, red velvet upholstered bar with a bar whose lights hung under lampshades of cymbals that were set swaying and chiming by bartenders with drumsticks. True to form, when in another country all together I was chatted up by a rather cute Irishman. Can't escape 'em.

Sunday all the Parisien attractions and museums were free, so we went to Musee D'Orsay and due to limited time we decided on the Impressionists and the Art Nouveau galleries. I got to stand in front of glowing Renoirs, halcyon Monets and walls covered in vibrant Toulouse-Lautrec sketches. The Art Nouveau galleries were filled with gorgeous furniture that was so gracefully shaped it looked more grown from than carved from the wood.