The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Izzie is such a sad snailish serpent.

Had hoped to post a bit more this month but still a bit distracted.

In spite of being an Ex Catholic, I was still a bit sad about the recent demise of Pope Francis. Easter Monday, what perfect timing for a Pope to depart this mortal coil.

I didn't watch the funeral since it was on during day time here.

But I did follow the whole Conclave drama.
I do have a soft spot for smells, bells and rituals even if it is a sausage fest on steroids.


I don't know what to make of Leo. It's a brilliant name and that's a wierd thing for a card carrying Slytherin to say.

Leo XIV and Louis XIV are so similar sounding so I guess that makes him the Sun Pope.

He certainly ticks the boxes of pastoral and administrative experience but I do get a vibe of smugness from the pictures I've seen so far.
The cat who's got the cream.

I also learnt that Robert Harris wrote "Conclave" the book the movie is based on.
He's not Morris West but a damned sight more grounded than Dan Brown.

In personal news, I finally bit the bullet and booked my flight to Amsterdam.
The city has its 750th anniversary on 27th October so that was the obvious choice.

I will definitely be on the trail of the VOC again and I'm especially looking forward to visiting the Hermetic Library in their new location.

It was one of the highly of my last visit over 10 years ago

I will be there for all of October with a few days each side in September and November.

So glad my sister has such good taste in cities.


I'd love to visit Lübeck and Prague again but I'm not going to be too ambitious

I guess it's time to dust off my Duolingo Dutch.

I got stuck with pesky prepositions.
It certainly helps to speak both English and German.


It's so so true that half the fun of a holiday is looking forward to it.

I also need to find a Plant Mama to water the weeds while I'm away.

My green fingered neighbour is now renting out her house so I now need to think outside the box especially since Petunia is no longer around.


I'm off now. Got a bit of Duo to do.

The month is nearly over so I finally find 5 minutes to slink by.


Still not turned on the Big Mac to do a proper post


I finally got to visit my mother's grave on Good Friday
Last time I visited was Christmas which with a max temperature of 24 Celsius was the mildest in 40 years.
And probably the next 40 too

Sadly, her anniversary in March was closer to 42 than 24. So it's been a long long time between visits.

As well as visiting my mother, I also like to start a new book when I visit the graveyard.

One of the workers at the shop asked me last month to keep an eye out for the book "Roadside Picnic" because he's getting nostalgic to have a physical copy of his all time favourite book.

(I'd asked if it was connected to the Andrei Tarkovsky movie "Stalker"
That went on forever and nothing much seemed to happen)

I said, well of course I want to read it first.

Ask and you shall receive. The very same book turned up last week on one of my days off

He asked if au wanted to read it over Easter so that's the book I took to the graveyard


It was definitely very Uncanny Valley.
A pre internet Soviet science fiction novel set in mid west small town USA was most weird indeed
But even weirder was the Chernobyl vibe from a book written in the 1970s


It turned out, just like in the movie, not much happens, but the whole idea of aliens visiting earth then just moving on completely oblivious to the existence of puny humans just made this serpent smile


I definitely suspect that this book was inspiration for The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy.
It also reminds me of the movie District 9 with the difference that the aliens run out of fuel so they can't leave

Like Panem, the Zones are a world that I just love to visit over and over again.

And Petunia can come along too. In spirit.

Another 39 degree day in the Wild West of Oz

Still not back at the old Big Mac since it doesnt like getting its circuits sizzled

Lots of fun shows at the Fringe Festival but I would sure hate to be a performer especially acrobats or burlesque strip tease artists.
They must all be melting.


Tomorrow I am off to a Boylesque show.

And now Im off to the serpent sack for a snooze

It's Fringe Festival time here in the Wild West.
The time of year when flying your Freak flag is almost obligatory.

As usual, I plan for this annual event as if I were invading Poland.

First task is to fill the treasure chest ready for raids in November.
That's when the official program is released and Fringe Friends get a few weeks to sneak peak and feast on juicy Freak Snacks.

Since anticipation is just as much fun as the shows, it adds an extra level of enjoyment.

But the biggest perks are the 30% discount on many shows along with skipping the queue.

So then it's a guessing game of picking shows that are most likely to be popular & getting in early.

But I was not expecting the heat wave from Hell to hit town on Day 3 instead of half way through the festival like it usually does.


So there I was with shows lined up for Wednesday & Thursday just gone which were both best 40 Celsius & disgustingly humid.

Both venues had air conditioning but getting to them was like running the gauntlet.

If I hadn't already booked & paid, I would have stayed at home.

It turns out that's exactly what a lot of people did.

In my 12 years of Fringe bingeing, I have never been to shows after 7pm on Wednesdays or Thursdays with only 30 people in the audience.

I had a 3 seat cocktail table all to myself for 3 of the 4 shows.

What was so sad, the performers work their butts off to put on shows & it's always hotter on stage than on the floor.

On Friday night I got Rush Tix for a show in an outdoor venue.

The show got delayed because it rained.

I could get not imagine what it would have been like the previous nights when the humidity was high & it never got below 28 Celsius during the night

It also meant that the festival gardens are not as enticing as usual for lurking & lingering unless you are in one of the gorgeous air-conditioned Spiegeltents.


The last time there was such a nasty heatwave here was the Christmas of 2021. A whole week of max 40+ days and min 30 nights.

Next week we have another string of 38-40 degree days.

I was only thinking 2 weeks ago about this being the mildest summer since I came to Oz in 1993.

The Gods laugh when serpents praise the weather.

It's been a strange day.

Spent the afternoon at my favourite old lunatic asylum at a free concert.

It was a surprisingly mild and breezy day for January.

As one of my favourite slinking spots, I took the opportunity to bring a picnic and a bright shiny spooky book ( Courtesy of Catness)

Gone are the days when the little shop stocked lovely diaries, planners & journals, let alone have them in sale at 30%

So just as well I no longer rely on their sales for my fix of productivity porn.

So far so good with my new years resolutions which are actually more like a bunch of tiny habits.


The true test will be the next lot of 40 degree days and the start of the Fringe festival 2 weeks from now.

Another bright shiny new year.

A big one for this slinking creature with even more reasons than usual to feast on productivity porn

Last Christmas I finally tidied & decluttered the nicest of the 5 writing desks in the Lair.

But sadly I slacked off and in no time it once again became a repository of all sorts of stationery related odds and ends.

But since then I have done the "Buried in Treasures" workshops for clutter bugs and either found or bought some gorgeous leather bound notebooks & a 2025 Goal Digger planner.

So I did another desk blitz and even made a point of actually sitting there this morning & squiggling.

Today it was with a boring felt tipped pen but tomorrow I will be trying out a gorgeous glass pen & a pretty quill.

I literally was buried in Treasures. So many that I'd even forgotten about them.

There is something magical about turning over a new leaf in a brand new planner full of possibilities.

And 4 weeks from now on Wednesday 29th the year will get even more magical for emerald serpents such as Izzie.


A whole 12 months of snaky celebrations.
I've waited 12 years for the Year of the Snake.

It's that time of the year again.

I'm lurking outside at the Lair since it's a beautiful cool evening after a lovely mild day. But the house hasn't got the memo yet. It still thinks it's 43.4 Celsius.

That's what the mercury hit yesterday. And not too far off the day before.

In spite of having all the doors open , it's proving difficult to get a decent bit of ventilation.

That's the problem with houses made of brick

For the first day or 2 of a heatwave they are cooler inside than out but then after about 3 days of it, it's le living in a pizza oven.

At least we are lucky to have a string of 25s for Christmas Day itself.

But I'm still a bit brain dead from the last few days.

I will wait till tomorrow to get my little Christmas picnic organised.

I can sit in the garden in the light instead of the stuffy dining room

I might even indulge in a bit of reading before hitting the road around midday.

Meanwhile, over in Grinchville, dear old Vernon Dursley will be busy thinking of excuses why his dreadful daughter isn't visiting.

I'd much rather spend the day at the graveyard in the company of my dead mother than endure the miserable living Grinch.

I'm slowly starting to slink here a little more often.


Just survived a wicked week of sizzling summer and spent most of it feeling like a brain dead maggot even only 30 minutes after jumping out of the shower.

It started last Monday, peaked with a 40 degree day on Wednesday (40 Celsius) followed by miserable soul sapping muggy weather until Saturday when it was back to mild mid 20s and beautiful cool breezes.

I felt like I finally got my brain back and my mojo too.


It's been wonderfully mild ever since but it's back to the 40s on Sunday.

So I guess I'll stay curled up in the serpent sack with the fan turned up to 5.

I must live in the only house on the street without air conditioning.
But thankfully, the trees I planted 20 years ago usually compensate for that.

Certainly the only one with no car. Most the others have at least 3 these days.

I just hope it's not more of the same for Christmas Day.

This serpent is getting in early with New Year's Resolutions.

I've been spending so much time gaming Duolingo's latest evil seemingly random triple points rewards schemes & pottering amongst the weeds.

While the planting season is well and truly over, I'm still tempted by the countless critters on Death Row at the plant nursery where I volunteer on Fridays.

No venomous tentáculas but lots of lovely snake vines ( Hibbertia Scandens) and hakeas.

All the years of planting are paying off as the Lair is now full of leafy munchies for all my feathered friends.

I even have little baskets of twigs, hair and straw for them to use for making nests


It's just as well that I'm a loopy leaf lady rather than a crazy cat Lady as rescuing weeds from doom is a lot cheaper and easier than having a house with a dozen cats

This snailish serpent posts memes 4 weeks after everyone else



1. What is your favourite food?

Bread. The real crusty stuff made with organic unbleached flour and served with my other favorites

Cheese, butter and peanut butter (the crunchy stuff made of 100% Oz peanuts & a bit of salt. You can tell because the oil floats on top)

2. What is your favourite food preparation method?

Roast, grilled or fried.

Especially garlic, potatoes and cauliflower


3. What is your favourite cuisine or style of cooking?

I have SO many.

Mainly Mediterranean, Malaysian, Mexican and Japanese.

Mexican minus the chili because I love all the other ingredients. Especially corn & avocados

Same with Malaysian.

It's a bit if a cheat since it's a fusion of Indonesian, Indian and Chinese cuisines.

I'm especially find of dhal, deep fried tofu or tempeh and anything with satay sauce.

Japanese - I consider to be summer munchies since so much of the best things are served cold.

We are lucky in Oz to have places like Sushi Hub and Saka.
Sushi is mainstream here rather than exclusive & extremely expensive.

Also, it was a Japanese scientist who came up with the concept of Umami.
The savoury flavour from Heaven & the one I am most addicted to.


4. Do you have any dietary restrictions and if so what are they?

I am diabetic. I happen to hate sugar & sweet things in general. But it's no free pass since carbs also get converted to sugar & I absolutely love bread and pasta

I'm technically a vegetarian because my rule is that I only eat meat or fish if I've killed it myself.


5. If you could introduce the whole world to one ingredient to improve their culinary experience, what would that be and why?

Only 1?

I'm greedy

My list includes pesto, pine nuts, peanut butter and freshly ground black pepper.

I'd pick the pepper as it's the most practical.

Pesto needs to be refrigerated & has a habit of leaking everywhere.
Pine nuts are expensive & it's almost impossible to get the Italian ones now. Chinese crap has flooded the market

But proper pepper ground beef s are portable. I even add a twist to coffee or Chai