Yet Another Public Holiday

A new state-wide public holiday is coming up soon in Victoria, Australia. Unfortunately, its announcement wasn't met with the excitement and undying gratitude of the public that the Government probably expected. Grand Final Friday falls on 2nd October, the Friday before the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final. Yes, it's a holiday devoted to sport, and it's not our first one!

Picture source.
Objections to the new holiday came from various sources. Traders were not happy as they would have to pay their staff double-time wages, and business would drop the same way it does for other public holidays. Politicians from opposing parties called it a cynical grab for votes. Even the AFL weren't happy. You see, that day is reserved for the traditional Grand Final Friday parade through the city. Normally, city workers on their lunchbreaks make up a fair proportion of the audience and without them, the Grand Final Friday parade could be a fizzer.

And why am I putting "Grand Final Friday" in capital letters anyway, when it wasn't even a thing until a couple of months ago?!

Many others thought it was all a bit pointless, really. We already have enough holidays devoted to sectarian religions, racist colonialism and flimsy excuses for drinking and gambling. Not everyone likes football. Why add another holiday that will possibly only serve to divide the community?

Picture source.
The only one who seems to be pleased that there's a new public holiday is the downtrodden footy fan on the street. Despite our laidback image, Australia ranks near the bottom of the world when it comes to public holidays, with 9 national holidays per year, and 1 to 2 extra state-wide holidays per state. I'm certainly not saying that we don't need an extra holiday! To date, in the state of Victoria, there's been a big gap between holidays in Winter. Queen's Birthday is at the start of June. Melbourne Cup day, a statewide holiday and the other sport-related holiday that I referred to earlier, is in November. That's five whole months of Winter grind to get through betwen public holidays. It's been a source of public commiseration for years. So a new holiday that breaks the drought is very welcome, but we already have one based around sport -- perhaps we could have thought of something different?

Picture source.
As I mentioned, most of the other states in Australia have 1 or 2 state-wide public holidays a year as well, but none of them are sport-related. The ACT has Family & Community Day. Western Australia has Western Australia Day. Not very original, but at least it's something everyone can relate to. South Australia has Proclamation Day, though it falls the day after Boxing Day so I think they're just trying to get an extra day at Christmas! Northern Territory has Picnic Day. Picnic Day! What a wondrous thing! Not only does it celebrate picnics, but it also celebrates the freeing of indentured labourers. That's a holiday everyone can get behind.

Whether you like football or not, we have a new public holiday. I'm sure everyone will spend it doing things they enjoy, whether sport-related or not, so who am I to complain? All I know is, I have a three-day weekend coming up, it's Spring and life is good.

Picture source.

101 Things In 1,001 Days

The Spring air must be making me feel enthusiastic, because I decided follow the lead of Kathryn of I Don't Know Much But I'm Learning, and start a 101 Things In 1,001 Days list. Either that, or I'm completely batty. I already have a 1,001 Things To Do Before I Die list, which I downloaded and then modified parts to suit my interests. I've completed a grand total of 381. It sounds like a lot, but the first 50 or so involved things like holding someone's hand and opening a bank account, so they were crossed off automatically! Many of the rest involve travel to various places in the world, so I'll just have to be patient for those. Other items are things I won't be able to do until I'm older, like retiring. At least ... I hope I'll be able to retire one day...

You may notice that I arranged the items on the list by subject in Dewey Decimal order.
I'm such a nerd.

I also already have one of those lists of *0 Things To Do By Age *0 .(Ha, did you think you would find out my age that easily?). I started this one a bit late at age *6 and had to fudge it a little bit because several years later I still haven't done three-quarters of them!

Go overseas again is definitely on the list.
Yet another list of things to do seems a bit rash, but I just can't help myself. I'm a list maker at heart. Having a few lists of different lengths instead of just one massively long one keeps my motivation higher. Plus, a lot of the items were things I was going to do anyway, but now I can have the satisfaction of crossing them off a list! I also cheated just the teensiest bit and backdated it by one day so I could add a new restaurant I'd been to the day before.

I've posted the list here, and there's a link to the page in the tab just underneath the header, so you can check up on my progress at any time.

Maybe I'll finish unpacking all of my books.
I don't have quite this many though!

How I Kondo-ed My Emails

I accidentally deleted the post I was going to post today, so I wrote this instead!

I'm still reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and working through the exercises. In my research, I noticed a couple of tidiers who added their computer and/or electronic life to their list of categories to tidy up. Initially, I didn't think of adding this to my list, but for some strange reason, I suddenly decided to Kondo my email account this weekend.

I wish this was my kitty!
THE STATE OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNT BEFOREHAND

I've had my email account for a long time, over 15 years. In that time, I've received a lot of emails! I thought I had set up a smart system for dealing with them. I have folders for different types of emails and I set up 'rules' for them. For example, all emails from knitting and crochet newsletters that I subscribe to went straight to my 'Crafts' folder. Ditto for recipe newsletters and emails from Etsy. I had folders for storing things like receipt emails from Paypal. Emails I wanted to read or action straight away stayed in the Inbox. I also had various deletion rules set up such as "delete emails from __ after 3 days".

I thought I had it all sorted out. But when I had a really good look at my email account, I realised it was a mess. I had a folder called 'To Read Soon' which had emails from 2007 in it! Some of the folders had over 2,000 emails in them! Despite regular attempts to clear my inbox out, I had trouble keeping it under 500 emails. Some of them were over 5 years old. This system was clearly not working.

WHAT I DID TO CLEAR IT OUT

* I deleted all of the rules -- all 150 of them! That way, all of the emails come straight to my inbox -- there's nowhere for them to hide. I can decide then and there if I want to read them or not. There were a lot of rules pertaining to newsletters I don't subscribe to anymore, so it was good to clear those out as well. Also, I don't get to check my email that often anymore, so I might have been missing out on some that are set to be deleted after 3 days.

* I deleted a lot of old emails. That newsletter about Virtual Libraries from 10 years ago? I'm not sure that's going to be so relevant anymore. I deleted those without even looking at them. The 100 unread emails I still had from Etsy Success which I subscribed to when I had my Etsy shop? The one which I closed down in 2008? All gone.

* I deleted any paypal receipt emails or purchase confirmations that were more than a year old. I then combined this folder with the one where I keep my website signup confirmations and other similar useful emails. I might need to go through this folder manually so that I don't accidentally delete anything important.

* I unsubscribed to a lot of other newsletters that I'm not interested in anymore, either. I unsubscribed to Fine Cooking newsletter because, even though I like collecting recipes, I have a backlog of over 2,000 emails from them, and that's enough recipes for anyone! I'm still thinking about whether to delete many of the older ones without looking at them.

* I amalgamated some of the folders and renamed them to make things more streamlined and less ambiguous. For example, instead of 'Crafts', I have 'Craft Courses' and 'Art Courses'. Now that the craft emails are coming directly to my inbox, I'll either read or delete them straight away. If they relate to an e-course I've signed up to, then I'll move them to the folder. Hopefully this will make me think about which emails to save instead of automatically saving all of them.

I deleted nearly 3,000 emails this weekend, but I still have a long way to go.

MY PLEDGE

* Just like Marie Kondo's rule that your house tidy-up must be finished within 6 months, I want to have my email tidied within that time also. I will spend half an hour a week tidying my email account until it's in tip-top shape!

* If there are still any unread newsletters after 6 months, well, they just weren't meant to be read. If I find that old newsletters are sitting in my inbox or other folders unread, I will delete them and consider unsubscribing.

* I guess "Inbox Zero" is the ultimate, but I'm a bit too daunted to make that one of my goals at this stage!


All photos today are from Pinterest.

Chanrio >> Sanrio Character Creator!

I'm home sick from work today, but I thought I'd share this Chanrio Creator that I've been having fun with this week.
Note: I was not able to use the site with Firefox, but had success with Chrome.

The most important instructions are in English as well as Japanese, and I had no trouble figuring it out, but if you need extra help there's a tutorial here.

With my first Chanrio I went the Kawaii route, then tried Mori with my second one:

As you can see, there weren't too many Mori options -- my look is still more Kawaii than Mori! Kawaii was my first love though, and I've been pondering lately how the two could be combined. It's a slight shame that there's no option for red hair, otherwise they'd look more like me, but if you're a kimono fan, there are many to choose from -- you'll be in heaven!

In other news, my Marie Kondo book arrived yesterday and I've started reading it. She's a very interesting person!

My August

August was a month of two halves for me. As I mentioned last month, I had the first two weeks off for a 'staycation' or as I preferred to call it, a 'home-iday'. Far from the excited frenzy of crafting and home renovations that I pictured in my fevered brain, I actually spent most of it sitting around playing computer games. Week 1 was to be our relaxing week, and Week 2 our going-out week, but I developed a bad cold at the start of Week 2 and spent most of it sleeping and playing more computer games. Almost everything that I did, I've already posted about! So this month's update might be a little sparse.

What I've been growing ...
Remember last year when I grew sweet potato cuttings? This is my harvest. I left it too late to dig them up and most of them were rotten. Oops. I'll try to be more prompt next year.

What I've been seeing ...
I took Husband to the Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium, as he'd never been there before and my last visit was many years ago. The fish and other marine creatures were truly beautiful. The photos don't do justice to them at all.

There was a particularly fun new room where you can colour an outline on a piece of paper, scan it in, and it will appear on the giant projector screen. There were 8 different types of sea life to choose from, and on the screen they behave just like the real animals. My fish swam back and forth in a school with the other children's fish, whereas Husband's jellyfish blobbed along the bottom.

What I've been playing ...
I started playing a new ipod game called Dragon Vale. It's a cute little game where you have a theme park which doubles as a dragon breeding facility. The aim is to breed adorable little dragons together to create new hybrids and collect all the different varieties. Husband has been playing it for a while, and I've been bombarding him with questions about it: "Is it worthwhile having lots of decorations?" "Should I buy the Colosseum or save up for a larger breeding cave?"

What else I've been doing ...
A relatively new tradition where I list all the other stuff I did last month, relevant or not...

made congee for the first time ~ discovered Celebrity Chef China ~ got halfway through organising my makeups ~ did parts 2 and 3 of the art journalling course ~ went to the art gallery ~ did my first painting on canvas ~ made puffy crackers ~ found a floating island in The Blockheads ~ walked to the duck pond again ~ made roast potatoes ~ went to a board game day where I played many new games and a 9-year-old taught me how to make Rainbow Loom bracelets on my fingers ~ found a Gem Tree in The Blockheads ~ pruned the roses ~ made a Shaun the Sheep costume ~ made a decision to look after my health better ~ refreshed my favourites list on Etsy ~ bought a vintage haori on Etsy ~ walked an extremely long way to get to lunch with a friend ~ went to 2 birthday parties ~ wrote several blog posts ~ read a paper on the records continuum ~ bought a new plant friend ~ fertilised the fruit trees and roses ~ baked scones which came out more like rock cakes ~ picked oranges from my tree ~ baked cupcakes for Cupcake Day

7 Things I Love About Melbourne -- Part 1

Today is Melbourne Day. I'm embarrassed to admit I only found out about this anniversary for the first time this year. Obviously if a Melbournophile such as me hasn't heard of it, then it needs promoting, so I thought I'd assist by writing this post.

My home town of Melbourne was founded on 30th August 1835. It was one of the wealthiest cities in the world during the 1850s gold rush, the capital of Australia from 1901 to 1927, and continues to be the capital of art, good coffee and the sophisticated wearing of black today. In honour of Melbourne Day, I'm going to look at the things I love best about my hometown Melbourne.

I've decided to split this post into two because it was getting so long! While I was compiling it, Museum Victoria also announced a new online image collection, so there are even more pictures than I had originally planned. Today I'll be looking at the history and physical features that make Melbourne stand out.

IT'S NERD CENTRAL

Melbourne was founded in 1835 by a group of settlers led by John Batman. Yes, you read that correctly ... my hometown was founded by Batman. Rationally, I know that it's a complete coincidence -- the surname Batman actually means friend of Bart (short for St. Bartholomew). Even though I'm not a huge superhero fan, it still makes me smile every time I think about it. Consequently, there are many roads, parks and even a train station named Batman.

A meme only a Melbournian history nerd would get.
I used this meme generator.

Picture source.

Picture source.
The layout of the city centre appeals to the maths nerd and orderliness nerd in me, too. The grid layout of the streets, designed by Robert Hoddle in 1837, is exactly 1 mile long and half a mile wide. Each city block is exactly 1 acre. Many of the streets, once they leave the CBD, travel in a dead-straight line for kilometres and kilometres. Others, just to be contrary, bend at a 45-degree angle and continue on from there.

1948 map of the Melbourne CBD (at the top) and surrounds,
as issued to new migrants. Picture source.

A view of the CBD from the north in 1948. Picture source.

Early Morning: Collins Street, looking east towards the top end.
And then there's the tram nerds....

THE TRAMS

Melbourne has the largest tram network in the world, and it's the only commercial tram network still operating in Australia (all of the others have shut down, but a few were later converted to tourist attractions). Melbourne's first tram line, opened in 1884, was horse-driven, and the network has gone through cable and electric versions over the years.

Cable Tram. High Street, Northcote. c. 1890s. Picture source.
In the early 20th century, rapid expansion of the city led to entrepreneurs building private tram lines to entice land buyers, helping to ensure a widespread network. While many tram networks throughout the world were closed down in the 1970s, supporters of Melbourne's system won out and it remained open. Programmes to build line extensions and upgrade stops have been implemented recently, so it looks like Melbourne's trams will be around for a long time yet!

The E-class tram: your "Next Generation Tram".
I have loved trams ever since I saw the comedy caper film Malcolm when I was ten years old. The film's main character is a socially awkward kind of guy (he reminded me of myself) who is obsessed with trams.

Malcolm.
When I moved out of home to go to University in the city, I finally had a chance to ride on them, and I took every opportunity I could!

Aside from the fact that trams are an instantly recognisable symbol of Melbourne, there's just a different feeling to riding on a tram. It's hard to explain. Perhaps because there are less people than on a train, and everyone is on a single carriage, there's more of a sense of camaraderie. Because trams travel along roads, there's a chance to observe the people and life of the city as it goes past. This is vastly different to trains, where you mostly see people's graffiti-covered back fences by the side of the track. It's also fun to find out what sort of tram you'll be travelling on when it pulls up at the stop: an ultra-sleek modern model, or a 1920s Red Rattler.
(Well, technically, these days most lines have the same model of tram running on them consistently, and the Red Rattlers are only used in the CBD as a free service for tourists, but I still love seeing them!)

Early electric tram. Camberwell. 1930s. Picture Source.

W Class Tram, aka the Red Rattler. Picture source.

Old trams, new stop: this upgraded stop at the corner of
Collins and Elizabeth streets was only re-opened a few months ago.

THE WEATHER

According to the boffins at the Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne's notoriously changeable weather is due to its location at the head of Port Phillip Bay, where cool sea breezes mix with warm continental air. A common phrase to describe our climate is "four seasons in one day". Crowded House even wrote a song about it.

Think this is just another meme? This really does happen!
Picture source.
I can confirm that this is accurate. Actually, "four seasons in half an hour" is more accurate! I'm not kidding about this: the sky will be bright and clear, then suddenly dark clouds will move in and it will pour rain. Within 15 minutes, the clouds will have moved on and it's sunny again. It can pour rain all day in the middle of Summer, and there can be sunny short-sleeve weather in the middle of Winter. I feel sorry for those poor boffins! The head of the Bureau of Meteorology recently retired, and he wrote this cute article on Melbourne's weather as a parting gift.

Rain map showing a thunderstorm hitting Melbourne,
Summer 2003. Picture source.

Lightning hits 120 Collins Street, Spring 1994. Picture source.

You can't let the weather stop you from getting on with life.
Summer 2010. Picture source.

I couldn't resist adding this one, from
a reader-created series of fake movie posters. Picture source.
To quote the Crowded House song, "doesn't pay to make predictions", but living in Melbourne, I've learned that it pays to be prepared. I carry an umbrella and sunglasses in my bag every day of the year. I put on sunscreen every morning without fail, not just because beauty experts recommend it, but because the middle of Winter is just as likely to be sunny as rainy. Melbourne does have semi-predictable weather however, otherwise I suppose the Bureau would have given up years ago! Which brings me to my next section...


THE SEASONS

You might think from the above section that Melbourne's weather is crazily unpredictable all year round. Melbourne does have seasons though -- distinct enough to be noticeable, but not so extreme as to cause much inconvenience. Thunderstorms herald Spring. Summer is hot, but not humid, and the changeable weather means there are usually never more than a few 35oC (95oF) days in a row. Autumns are mild and hazy, and Winters, though quite cold, have nearly as many sunny days as rainy.

Swanston Street on a sunny Winter's day.
The indigenous Brambuk people of this area recognise six seasons. I found the Brambuk Calendar online a few years ago and, paying note to its cycle over the last couple of years, I do think this is true. It certainly seems to fit the Southern Australian climate better than the traditional 4 season model that we have inherited from Europe.

This version is from my personal calendar.
Our climate is warm enough to stimulate the double growing season that many in the Northern Hemisphere can only dream of. Some plants only flower in Winter when the rain is abundant, so we have colour nearly all year round. Southern Australia is quite a good place to be a gardener.

These geraniums in my garden just won't stop!
In my time I've seen heatwaves, torrential storms, flash floods, hail the size of tennis balls, the Great Dust Storm of 1983, a quadruple rainbow, many willy-willies, and a lenticular cloud. The only thing which I've never experienced living in Melbourne is snow.

The Great Dust Storm of 1983. Picture source.

Personally, Autumn is my favourite season. Picture source.

You don't have to go too far for snow, though.
Woodend, 70km from Melbourne, June 2007. Picture source.
Stay tuned next time for Part 2, in which I'll cover food, culture and more!

The KonMari Bandwagon

I'm sure almost everyone has heard of Kondo Marie and her innovative de-cluttering method by now. It's been all over the blogosphere for quite some time now. There are many, many, many articles out there which go into the method in more or less detail. In the last few days, it's captured my attention. As the second anniversary of buying our house approaches, it's been more on my mind that my house isn't the way I'd like it. In fact, much of my stuff isn't even unpacked yet! There's a story behind that, but I won't go onto it today.

Serene-looking Marie Kondo and her book.

When reading about Kondo Marie and her KonMari method, I have to admit that I was in two minds about it. I did go ahead and order the book, but in the meantime while I'm waiting for it to arrive, I thought I'd note my initial impressions of what I've read so far.

Not my house, but it could be!
Picture Source.

THINGS ABOUT THE METHOD THAT REPEL/MYSTIFY ME

* Minimalism. I've always had a lot of stuff. My family has always had a lot of stuff, and I grew up being used to that. We're not hoarders - we'll quite happily throw stuff away, and we like to have everything tidied away where possible. Admittedly though, that doesn't always work out in the bustle of everyday life.
* Working from items you're least attached to, to most. I think the concept is great, but Kondo suggests starting with clothes, then books, then other items. I'm very attached to my clothes and especially my books! I guess my concept of sentimentality is a little different to hers. If I haven't read a book, then I will not get rid of it.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE METHOD

* The main title of the book uses the words 'tidying up' rather than 'de-cluttering' or 'organising'. I've always had a resistance to those two words, but my brain can cope with tidying up.
* Kondo's method involves working by category rather than by room or area. For example, you need to collect together all of your clothes, no matter what room they are in, before you start deciding what to get rid of. That makes a lot of sense to me and appeals to my sense of completism.
* It's a one-shot prospect. Kondo says that if you follow her method faithfully, then you should only ever have to do it once - ever. In fact, she even says that once finished, you should give her book away, as you will no longer need it. I love that detail, as it shows that she is genuinely dedicated to her method. It sounds exciting but, to be honest, I'm a bit sceptical. I tend to buy a lot of stuff on impulse, which I then need to find spots for in the house. But I'm open to the possibility that this might change once I have a nice, tidy house.
* She's against buying elaborate storage systems, but she's big on putting things in boxes and trays. I do this a lot too, so it makes sense to me.
* She folds her t-shirts and socks the same way I do! We're folding twins!
* She acknowledges that people have trouble getting rid of things because they have emotional attachments or feelings of guilt associated with them. Her method turns traditional de-cluttering ideas on their head and looks at why we should keep things, rather than why we should throw them away.
* She has a spiritual way of looking at physical space and belongings, which I can relate to.

The beauty of socks.
Picture Source.

In the end, I decided to buy the book because I was intrigued by Kondo Marie as a person. She has been preoccupied with tidying and arranging physical space since the age of 5. She worked for many years in a Shinto shrine, where she became accustomed to thinking of physical space in a spiritual way. In some ways, she reminds me of myself. I've been known to spend an afternoon happily sorting hama beads into different colours, and can't wait for the day when I'll have time to get right into the compactus and get all those files properly sorted out.

Now ... when is that book going to arrive??