Beauty blurb – March 2012

I’m a beauty junkie in thought if not in deed – being of considerable desires, but almost non-existent budget!  However if I save up and budget extra carefully I can sometimes, sometimes not, wring out a hundred dollars or so per month for “play money””.

Much strategic planning goes into distribution of said funds, but it tends to go on books or make up.  Budget-wise, my skin care requirements are “must haves”.  My routine is pretty basic, I use one jar of product [eg, “night cream”] at a time until used up, and I don’t use luxe brands [*le sigh*].  Body care products are purchased at the very high-end Ligne de Prix [aka “Priceline” in bastardised French, heh].

Here’s a few bits n pieces I’ve bought over the last couple of months. I’m really pleased with them which = definite re-purchase and / or add to collection.

Sitrep = Mar 2012

Okay okay so it’s been a while.  I’ve been somewhat busy – well,  occupied anyway! – and I’m trying to get out of my penchant for writing War And Peace length blog posts  [NB:  I said trying . . . it might take a while before I figure this out] so here is a bullet-point summary :-

The joys of November

Herewith the usual humble cringing puppy-dog eyes apologies for the last fortnight silence: yep, I’ve been having a bit of a crap time [read: seriously scary and horrible and agonising pain episodes], spending WAY too much time in bed writhing and screaming in pain, and just feeling fundamentally vile because all I have in my gut is loads of heavy duty drugs and maybe an apple or so and it is churning around in a most disconcerting manner. Meantime the weather has been totally weird, humid and stormy then cold and fine then stormy again then hot then sudden rains . . . No wonder my body is writing outraged letters of complaint to the Chief Editor. Bleh.

HOWEVER.

November has really been pretty spectacular IF you overlook all the shite stuff, which I will proceed to do.

First off, books began arriving in the mail in dribbles and drabbles, from The Book Depository, and Fountain Books in Virginia, USA, and also from Paul Kidby / Sir Terry Pratchett. MEGA-W0000000000T!!!

I do have a major beef with The Book Depository, with their system of packaging up one book at a time instead of the whole lot or even a few in one corrugated cardboard envelope. I mean, presumably someone somewhere is trudging around a warehouse with an electronic pad thingy and a trolley, putting my order together. Why the fuck can they not be a wee bit more organised? ARGH. Okay so it’s about shipping costs blah blah blah but . . . It is an insult to my greenie leftie femmo bitch self over such a waste of materials.

Watching; Listening [30 October 2011]

Watching:

Pirates Of The Caribbean:  On Stranger Tides  [BLU-RAY]

American Dad:  Season 5

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Listening to:

Laura Marling  -–  I Speak Because I Can

Fave tracks  –-  Hope In The Air;  Goodbye England  [Covered In Snow]

Stornoway  -–  Beachcomber’s Windowsill

Fave tracks  —  Zorbing; I Saw You Blink

Coldplay  —  Mylo Xyloto

We only bought the CD a couple of days ago, but I’m enjoying it enormously so far.  Better than Viva La Vida which did not grab me at all.  Chris Martin’s voice has really matured, the tone and timbre have got much more depth, yet he can still go very light and high;  a pretty good range for a “rock” singer.  There’s a lot of Celtic-y themes which obviously I like, but there’s also a lot of electronic and U2-ish thrashy guitar.  Very eclectic, which again I like.

Fave track so far  —  Paradise

Fairy floss

Well, given the last post was kinda heavy – and there will be other “heavy” posts to come as I bare my soul a little bit –  I figure a bit of light relief is called for, a little levity, something light-hearted.

Yep, time to talk politics.

JUST KIDDING !!!  Feck I worked for State politics for several years and it was terribly dispiriting to an idealistic kid [yeah, at 21+ I was still definitely a kid].

My gorgeous friend K started her own blog up again – The Pink Powderpuff – a few weeks ago and has been posting about the most gorgeous goodies in make up, skin care, and candles which are her passion.  K is totally pink-obsessed, and her alter ego is Miss Piggy, so don’t mess with her!  Pink feather boas and karate chops rule!

Ungoodhealth 01

Taking such a long break from blogging was not something I wanted to do. Circumstances forced it upon me, as I’ve said before, because of health issues blah-di-blah. It’s also why I’m posting so often now – and drafting, making notes and planning other posts – because I can.

This is actually very difficult for me to write about. My personal bête noir, my health. I don’t like talking about it for so many reasons, the main ones being:

• it is pretty fecking boring;
• it’s difficult trying to explain it without sounding like I’m feeling all sorry for myself, whingeing and whining, no matter how factual I try to be;
• I’m a very private and introverted person, and it’s kind of been drilled into me [via my rather oppressive upbringing, and various unpleasant life experiences] not to divulge or share such information – let alone talk about my feelings; and
• the medical issues are kind of complicated.

See, I have several different disorders / diseases, and each one by itself can have a major detrimental impact on a person’s physical health and quality of life. In my case they have a cumulative effect, intertwining and snowballing all the “original” symptoms and issues.

Help somebody

Brenna Yovanoff is one of my favourite new-found writers. I have always loved the Fantasy and Urban Fantasy genres, and I enjoy the YA entries into that pool.  There are probably a couple of blurbs / reviews of Urban Fantasy / YA books on this blog. My Books Wish List has kind of exploded recently . . . and the price of books in Australia is ridiculous!  [Riddikulus! even]

Brenna is part of the Merry Sisters Of Fate group with Tessa Gratton and Maggie Stiefvater. It was via my somewhat fan-girly love of Maggie S. that I discovered Brenna and Tessa, was captivated by their writing, and overcame my long-time dislike of short stories in the process!  I have since ordered books by Brenna – The Replacement, and The Space Between is being published in November – and Tessa’s Blood Magic.  I can’t wait to get my fuzzy little paws on them, along with Maggie’s just-released The Scorpio Races.  Truly an embarrassment of riches! There will be blurbs [and going by my recent BookDep order – see previous post – and others in the queue, there will be LOTS of blurbs].

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Anyways, this is actually an entry for a contest for Brenna’s new book The Space Between, about Daphne, the daughter of fallen angel Lucifer and demon Lilith, who leaves  her home in the city of Pandemonium [in what is essentially Hell] to rescue her brother Obie who has somehow gone missing whilst doing good works on Earth.  One of the main themes of The Space Between, says Brenna, is “helping people who just aren’t in a position to help themselves.”

The contest then is “ . . . to tell a Good Samaritan story; when someone helped you, and they didn’t have to; or maybe, when you helped someone when you could tell they needed it . . . ”

I could just outline what Tux does for me every single day, especially the really, really, REALLY bad days, but I’d rather not, for this.  Instead I give a very little story, no drama, maybe everyone has done the same, maybe it is trivial,; yet it was something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, and even if it’s a small thing it still is meaningful and important.

More booksesss

LOTS more booksesss . . .

Wheeeee!!!  I finally finally finally made my  long awaited Book Depository Order . It’s a mite overdue [like three months] due to annoying things like medical bills, and the electricity dying dramatically on a weekend, and the various house / plumbing leaks needing urgent professional attention, and work to be done on the roof and blah blah blah less important expenditure than BOOKS!

As with everything I have long long lists of books I need, divided into genre, then sub-categorised into priority, and so on.  Some time I’ll post it up for you so you can laugh at me some more.  Look, I like lists, and making lists, and especially crossing things off lists, okay???

[ Viz a viz the latter:  in one of my previous lives as an admin assistant*, at especially boring times I would write out “To Do” lists of jobs I had already done just for the simple satisfaction – and time-suck involved – of crossing them off.   I bet I’m not the only person to have at least felt like doing this. ]

[ * I have also had past lives working in politics, medicine, and marine environment research, and etc.  The marine environment research job was my absolute favourite, my dream job, utter utter bliss with the best work-mates EVER, so of course it was the one that was cut by the fucktards in Canberra.  Yup, devastating.  I’m not talking about the “etc.”, it was so grim and appalling you’d want to gouge out your own eyes to stop reading about it. ]

Listed priorities aside,  “How I Feel At The Time” does affect the ordering process.  Hence the ratio of mind-improving Non Fiction books to YA / Urban Fantasy is perhaps not as it could be  – or maybe that IS as it should be.  YA / Urban Fantasy is incredibly entertaining, while even the best neurology / genetics / physiology books are, well, kinda dry and not the sort to keep you up turning page after breathless page til 0300 unless one is cramming for an exam.

Regression ???

[  On feeling like I’m becoming younger, more naïve, losing myself . . . YES !!!  Time travel exists! ]

I turned 42 some months back – yep, I am middle-aged [no grey hairs and hardly any wrinkles yet though].  I don’t feel it;  but then, who really does feel their precise chronological age?  Ask any 78 year old woman how old she feels, and she’ll say 26.  Albeit 26 with a bad hip and a bunch of metal pins in her spine, and maybe a few life lessons learned, but still my mum M  —  I mean that woman still feels 26 in her core self.

I would have said 26 too – with a super-sizing of back pain and life lessons!

However . . .

DIOR, Stila

For my birthday my parents, brothers, and in-laws gave me money and gift cards to spend – very specifically – on fun stuff for myself.  “Fun stuff” being girly stuff like make up and skin care.  I was really excited and keen to get shopping as there were a number of items – as always! – on  one of my exhaustive lists . . . but Life [with a capital P for pain, and H for health shite] got in the way.

Last week was the first time I’d managed to get into town [well, out of bed, dressed, made up, and into town] for weeks and fecking weeks, and I had a few definite items in mind;  lines of attack if you like heh.