What I did on my weekend

Taking my lead from Kath at Red Current's post today:

Weekend: - 5 things

(Apart from what you already know about from Saturday's posts)

1. I bought a filing cabinet off eBay for a whopping $31.99 (happy happy), drove and picked it up within two hours of winning it (joy joy) and it is exactly what I was wanting (grey, old fashioned with shiny metal sticky out handles). Except for it was three drawers, not two. But at that price, who cares? Especially as I was expecting to have to drive to Sydney to get one at a reasonable price (please don't let me get started on the prices of old beaten up filing cabinets from places like Ex Govie and Recon here in Canberra, OK?). Even better I managed to get it upstairs and into the study last night all by myself *flexes muscles and wiggles eyebrows suggestively*. I feel like a real business owner now. I have a filing cabinet.

2 & 3. I had lots of good fortune - friend M came for dinner last night (pasta ($1.50 for 2 kilos from The Warehouse) with free yellow zucchini and baby tomatoes courtesy of R&G's garden) She brought with her a bag of shampoos, conditioners and moisturisers her skin decided it didn't like which I'm sure mine will. In return I gave her a lovely picture of white Chinese lanterns for her birthday which she liked very much. We drank wine from my $6 for 1 litre on special bottle and sat round feeling smug and frugal.

4. I drove Miss Daisy over 150 km yesterday for business related stuff. No wonder I was tired last night!

5. My eBay feedback hit 500 and my star changed to purple. Hey, I thought it was an exciting event!

Tonight I headed over to Manuka to use my free Kinky Boots tickets with friend K. Arrived early so managed to get some quality time in browsing through the local knitting shop and then my favorite bookshop in Canberra where I was excited to see new editions of Richard Scarry's "What do People do all Day?" (only the best kids book in the world in my opinion - what other book teaches three year olds basic economics, how paper is made, how a house is built and where electricity comes from all in one tome with hundreds of details to investigate AND Lowly Worm?)

But Oh No! the pictures! They must have lost the originals sometime in the past 40 years and reproduced them from an existing book because they were pale and washed out and very very disappointing. My tip? Track down the original 1968 edition which is also unexpurgated (Oh no, I quote Monty Python even when I don't mean to!)

I also saw a very cooly illustrated book by James Stimson called Thirteen O'Clock which made me want to rip the pictures out of it and hang them on my wall (especially the one of the girl in the window on the second excerpt),or, at the very least, buy it and send it to my sister as inspiration to start drawing again soon.

Plus I visited my "If I had a kazillion spare dollars" book on The Case Study Houses (only $400 if anyone fancies getting me a little something to mark my 40th...). They have a sample copy on their table for people to browse and I try to read one house every time I go there.

Oh, and you're wondering about the movie? Uplifting and fun. Sort of a cross between Spotswood and The Full Monty. No suprises, but sometimes those are the sorts of rides you want to go on. And, as usual, I'm such a doofus when it comes to recognising actors that it wasn't til the end I realised Charlie was played by Will from Secret Life of Us (Joel Edgerton).

Swap mystery number 4:

(Soundtrack: Blue States, Nothing Changes Under the Sun)

(PS: You may have noticed for someone who supposedly has a new oven the lack of mention of it in this post. That's because I don't have a new oven. I had a call from the Electrician who said he was in the middle of my front lawn and had just unpacked it (odd place to install an oven, I thought but didn't say anything). Anyway, turns out the oven was a bit, well, broken. So the old oven went back where it was and the electrician and the new oven wandered off into the noon light, hopefully to appear again sometime on Thursday. Just once I wish my life didn't run like a Mystery Shopper's nightmare and things worked out first time round)