all consuming

There’s an ad on at the moment that never fails to make me angry.

“We’re a nation of consumers… and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Like hell there’s not. Plus the ad is for a credit card that will supposedly make you spend smarter. So long as you’re spending. It almost spoils my joy in watching Dynasty online for free. And it makes me want to stop buying things.

I need to work on that.

bulgaria, here i come

So a friend is moving to Bulgaria next week. No, she isn't being deported - it's a fulbright thing.

Before leaving she took the opportunity today to cash in all her coins. Over cocktails she described putting her coins into the machine that told her (via printout) that she had $77.20 worth of coins.

The best bit? She received an exact breakdown.

If you don't make an effort to spend those coins sometime you too could end up with:

925 pennies
120 nickels
212 dimes
159 quarters and
1 one dollar coin.

What scares me, though, is that isn't even a month's worth of my coffee budget. It comes close, but.

the bitch

Yesterday morning I had coffee with one of my mentors. A certain friend would ask the question "is he sixty?", and in this case the answer is "yes, and then some." Discussing the general pattern of my life at present, I mentioned that I did Honours part time so I could work up to thirty hours a week still, because my cat refused to support me. I was most impressed when he looked at me, paused and then said, "The bitch," with "bitch" falling exactly at the right moment, with a great downbeat.

She may refuse to pay rent, but the one thing I will say in her favour is that recently Scout has started to spoon me when she curls up in my bed. I wake with her cat face and paws nuzzled into my back.

glamour

A recent issue of Vogue Australia has a list of 50 ways to glamourise your life. One suggestion is to "Have your stationery personalised". Apparently "it's no surprise that Tiffany & Co.'s chic stationery with tissue-lined envelopes, P.O.A., has a lengthy waitlist". Call me crazy, but if you've got your name on a waitlist at Tiffany & Co., I'm guessing you don't need this list from Vogue Australia (R.R.P. $7.95).