The Rewards of Patience
17/01/2013 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaNot been slinking much in Cyberia lately or rather devoting most time there to Hogwarts homework. The old Hermione Granger incarnation is well and truly dead, buried and cremated. This emerald serpent is much more of a plodder lately. But the advent of a new year is a good opportunity to catch up.
Last night was supposed to be dedicated to the big “Think Again” catch up. Everyone else is at week seven and I’m way way behind still watching video lectures for week 4. In spite of having an extra 30 hours a week to play with which really is the next best thing to having one’s own personal Time Turner, still slacking and procrastinating
Ages ago adopted the rule that 8-9pm at least has to be dedicated to squiggling or watching video lectures and no playing with the Portkey to Cyberia until after 9pm. This worked very well for Nanowrimo and proved to be a habit well worth continuing. Invariably it’s possible to get so engrossed in squiggling or watching strange enigmatic fish on whiteboards that I end up voluntarily doing overtime. That is also the thinking behind the ‘toss ten things’ house keeping routine
But last night decided to cheat and go online first. Did the usual thing of checking the serpent owleries only to find news of an extended version of last year’s fascinating “Introduction to Mathematical Thinking’ course which did not get the attention it deserved due to other distractions.
It included links to a bunch of youtube videos. What was amazing was that at no stage did the play button show stuff faster than the usually sucky ISP could grab it. So instead of catching up on logic and truth tables presented by a boring old fart failing at trying to be funny, ended up glued to the screen while a twinkle eyed maths professor talked about the invention and uses of calculus and then about the origins of probability theory for an hour and forty minutes. Would have watched his lecture about Fibonacci and the golden ratio too but something had to be on a go slow and that was it.
You would think that a lecturer walking around in a room with a bunch of black boards and the odd slide or two would be as boring as hell. But Keith Devlin could talk about the grass growing and make it fascinating
But back to the mundane stuff that was supposed to be the main story. Visited downtown Dursleyville on Saturday and it was as hot as hell. First port of call was to check on the progress of a new cafe in a gorgeous old building that was supposed to have opened on Monday 17th December. It didn’t. The sign in the window tantalizingly declared that it was opening soon but with no indication of when. On Saturday they finally revealed the day and the hour. This time it would be Monday 14th. And this time it looked like they really would be ready.
Ever since visiting these buildings as part of the heritage festival back in November had been patiently waiting for this place to open. The cafe is on the first floor of an old building next to the mysteriously titled Muse Bureau and the whole building - Moana Chambers has a distinctive feeling of being like something out of Kafka or Orwell. Maybe Winston Smith could be seen typing away at his desk in the Bureau.
It's the sort of place you could just walk by without ever noticing but a tiny detour down an nondescript drab corridor reveals a mysterious world from bygone days. It's like being transported back to the 1920s
The emerald green coffee cups, small busts of Greek philosophers, the globe on a table and assorted dusty books along with the art deco feel of the place and the spooky old balcony just oozed the sort of atmosphere perfect for serpent squiggling
Plan A was to stay in this cafe if it had actually opened and Plan B was to go over to the Muse Cafe over the bridge and order the usual big fat pot of tea. But it was as hot as hell and not suitable weather for sitting in their gorgeous garden so just slinked about in the airconditioned shops instead. Figured it might be interesting to see if any of the decent diaries were included in the countless Stock Take Sales of the Century that both major department stores were proclaiming
These two hours of plodding around the shops provided the perfect reminder why ‘retail therapy’ is not a preferred serpent option for amusement and entertainment. Aside from the fact that the sales are usually devoted to stuff like shoes, scarves, perfume and clothes rather than useful things like books and pretty pens. And there was not a single cent off any of the diaries in either of the stores.
One section was devoted to Debden day planner refills at exorbitant prices and of course the Filofaxes and assorted copy cats and the odd Moleskine or two. Got to thinking that there was tons of this stuff some ten years ago. The advent of the smart phone must have made pretty much of it completely redundant.
The other department store was just as bad. No reductions on diaries although they did have a one day only 40% reduction on their rather limited selection of books. Most of these were coffee table food porn and cookery books and some very large hard back copies of the “50 Shades of Grey” series. There was one gardening book “The Thrifty Gardener- building the garden you want with whatever you got” Was a bad bad serpent and gave in to temptation.
So decided to take a chance that the Moana cafe would actually be opening on Monday and figured it is not every day that a half decent cafe has its first day of trading. So would go there first before returning to the intended schedule of visiting the old art centre in Fremantle followed by the evening class at the Dharmapala Buddhist Centre
It was as spooky as ever taking the rickety bockety elevator and wondering what was hiding behind the maze of dead end doors on the second floor. The cafe is actually on the first floor but peeking around upstairs just provides an extra opportunity to soak up the atmosphere before descending the dusty ancient staircase to the Muse Bureau and the cafe itself
It’s a vegetarian friendly cafe on the food front but there was little to choose from on the first day. There were not many customers at all except friends and relatives of the new owners. They were most curious to ask any unfamiliar faces how they had gotten to hear of the place.
It was a sticky muggy day so it was not as nice sitting on the balcony as it was back in November. Also had to be clock watching in order to take advantage of the two hours on the bus ticket.
Got to the old lunatic asylum later than intended. By then it had cooled down a bit and a breeze was coming in so it was gorgeous sitting out in the garden. But the real purpose of the visit was to see an exhibition closing on Sunday and to see if it was worth coming back for a second longer look
Figured it might be nice to peek in the gift store since they had a sale on and often have gorgeous hand bound note books. Not like you need any when you got at least six or more sitting in the drawers gathering dust. But just an ickle peek
Nearly died laughing on seeing the sign “2013 diaries and calendars 50% off”
So finally did indulge in a little black Moleskine model - the ones that the art gallery and department stores were too mean to have on discount. It seemed strange that there was only a $3 difference between the A6 and A5 which was twice the size. But figured that bigger is not always better. A diary that gets too heavy to carry around soon gets abandoned in the bottom of some drawer somewhere
Even at half price could not justify such indulgence but long before the old toad and her minions appeared on the scene had decided that 2013 being a reincarnation of 2002 was worthy of a decadent diary. And to acquire it in that particular location makes it even more special.
It will be interesting to see if it survives the year without falling to pieces like last year’s $3 cheapie from the Reject Store. They are all made in China these days regardless of the name on the cover so it will be interesting to see if some diaries are more equal than others
One thing that will need to be added to the ‘to do’ list is to catch up with all the emails and letters owed to various people. Sometimes having all the time in the world means that it is just much too easy to waste it
Last night was supposed to be dedicated to the big “Think Again” catch up. Everyone else is at week seven and I’m way way behind still watching video lectures for week 4. In spite of having an extra 30 hours a week to play with which really is the next best thing to having one’s own personal Time Turner, still slacking and procrastinating
Ages ago adopted the rule that 8-9pm at least has to be dedicated to squiggling or watching video lectures and no playing with the Portkey to Cyberia until after 9pm. This worked very well for Nanowrimo and proved to be a habit well worth continuing. Invariably it’s possible to get so engrossed in squiggling or watching strange enigmatic fish on whiteboards that I end up voluntarily doing overtime. That is also the thinking behind the ‘toss ten things’ house keeping routine
But last night decided to cheat and go online first. Did the usual thing of checking the serpent owleries only to find news of an extended version of last year’s fascinating “Introduction to Mathematical Thinking’ course which did not get the attention it deserved due to other distractions.
It included links to a bunch of youtube videos. What was amazing was that at no stage did the play button show stuff faster than the usually sucky ISP could grab it. So instead of catching up on logic and truth tables presented by a boring old fart failing at trying to be funny, ended up glued to the screen while a twinkle eyed maths professor talked about the invention and uses of calculus and then about the origins of probability theory for an hour and forty minutes. Would have watched his lecture about Fibonacci and the golden ratio too but something had to be on a go slow and that was it.
You would think that a lecturer walking around in a room with a bunch of black boards and the odd slide or two would be as boring as hell. But Keith Devlin could talk about the grass growing and make it fascinating
But back to the mundane stuff that was supposed to be the main story. Visited downtown Dursleyville on Saturday and it was as hot as hell. First port of call was to check on the progress of a new cafe in a gorgeous old building that was supposed to have opened on Monday 17th December. It didn’t. The sign in the window tantalizingly declared that it was opening soon but with no indication of when. On Saturday they finally revealed the day and the hour. This time it would be Monday 14th. And this time it looked like they really would be ready.
Ever since visiting these buildings as part of the heritage festival back in November had been patiently waiting for this place to open. The cafe is on the first floor of an old building next to the mysteriously titled Muse Bureau and the whole building - Moana Chambers has a distinctive feeling of being like something out of Kafka or Orwell. Maybe Winston Smith could be seen typing away at his desk in the Bureau.
It's the sort of place you could just walk by without ever noticing but a tiny detour down an nondescript drab corridor reveals a mysterious world from bygone days. It's like being transported back to the 1920s
The emerald green coffee cups, small busts of Greek philosophers, the globe on a table and assorted dusty books along with the art deco feel of the place and the spooky old balcony just oozed the sort of atmosphere perfect for serpent squiggling
Plan A was to stay in this cafe if it had actually opened and Plan B was to go over to the Muse Cafe over the bridge and order the usual big fat pot of tea. But it was as hot as hell and not suitable weather for sitting in their gorgeous garden so just slinked about in the airconditioned shops instead. Figured it might be interesting to see if any of the decent diaries were included in the countless Stock Take Sales of the Century that both major department stores were proclaiming
These two hours of plodding around the shops provided the perfect reminder why ‘retail therapy’ is not a preferred serpent option for amusement and entertainment. Aside from the fact that the sales are usually devoted to stuff like shoes, scarves, perfume and clothes rather than useful things like books and pretty pens. And there was not a single cent off any of the diaries in either of the stores.
One section was devoted to Debden day planner refills at exorbitant prices and of course the Filofaxes and assorted copy cats and the odd Moleskine or two. Got to thinking that there was tons of this stuff some ten years ago. The advent of the smart phone must have made pretty much of it completely redundant.
The other department store was just as bad. No reductions on diaries although they did have a one day only 40% reduction on their rather limited selection of books. Most of these were coffee table food porn and cookery books and some very large hard back copies of the “50 Shades of Grey” series. There was one gardening book “The Thrifty Gardener- building the garden you want with whatever you got” Was a bad bad serpent and gave in to temptation.
So decided to take a chance that the Moana cafe would actually be opening on Monday and figured it is not every day that a half decent cafe has its first day of trading. So would go there first before returning to the intended schedule of visiting the old art centre in Fremantle followed by the evening class at the Dharmapala Buddhist Centre
It was as spooky as ever taking the rickety bockety elevator and wondering what was hiding behind the maze of dead end doors on the second floor. The cafe is actually on the first floor but peeking around upstairs just provides an extra opportunity to soak up the atmosphere before descending the dusty ancient staircase to the Muse Bureau and the cafe itself
It’s a vegetarian friendly cafe on the food front but there was little to choose from on the first day. There were not many customers at all except friends and relatives of the new owners. They were most curious to ask any unfamiliar faces how they had gotten to hear of the place.
It was a sticky muggy day so it was not as nice sitting on the balcony as it was back in November. Also had to be clock watching in order to take advantage of the two hours on the bus ticket.
Got to the old lunatic asylum later than intended. By then it had cooled down a bit and a breeze was coming in so it was gorgeous sitting out in the garden. But the real purpose of the visit was to see an exhibition closing on Sunday and to see if it was worth coming back for a second longer look
Figured it might be nice to peek in the gift store since they had a sale on and often have gorgeous hand bound note books. Not like you need any when you got at least six or more sitting in the drawers gathering dust. But just an ickle peek
Nearly died laughing on seeing the sign “2013 diaries and calendars 50% off”
So finally did indulge in a little black Moleskine model - the ones that the art gallery and department stores were too mean to have on discount. It seemed strange that there was only a $3 difference between the A6 and A5 which was twice the size. But figured that bigger is not always better. A diary that gets too heavy to carry around soon gets abandoned in the bottom of some drawer somewhere
Even at half price could not justify such indulgence but long before the old toad and her minions appeared on the scene had decided that 2013 being a reincarnation of 2002 was worthy of a decadent diary. And to acquire it in that particular location makes it even more special.
It will be interesting to see if it survives the year without falling to pieces like last year’s $3 cheapie from the Reject Store. They are all made in China these days regardless of the name on the cover so it will be interesting to see if some diaries are more equal than others
One thing that will need to be added to the ‘to do’ list is to catch up with all the emails and letters owed to various people. Sometimes having all the time in the world means that it is just much too easy to waste it
