Mark O’Meara: the blog

Retro Cupcake by kylie lambert (Le Cupcake-Australia)

As part of getting ready for Leila’s birthday party I made the cupcakes. I felt like these were simple enough for me since there were only three steps and three ingredients.

They went so well that I made the fairy cookies as well and, while not perfect, they turned out ok.

I was encouraged by all of this. I figure that when I am home I like a little something to do and I like to eat sweet things. Happily baking satisfies both of these reasonably inexpensively. So yesterday I made an apple crumble and this morning I have made some more cupcakes. Quite aside from the fresh goodies it is also nice to have the smell of baking in the house.

Of course of this means I am eating more sweet things that I should but you can’t win them all.

Lesson for the day - simple recipes are good for the simply minded.

MELBOURNE has made a clear statement about climate change. The city centre recorded a 10.1% drop in energy use during Earth Hour, and organisers estimate almost 2 million residents heeded the call to switch off.

The Age: national, world, business, entertainment, sport and technology news from Melbourne’s leading newspaper.

During Earth Hour I quietly stuck my head out the door to see if the street lights were out or if any of the nearby houses were dark. The street lights were on as usual and the houses I could see had normal lights on. Nicky wondered if we lived in an inner suburb if the street would look darker but I was not so sure. Looking at the news now 10% isn’t nothing but it’s still a pretty small drop.

All the same we spent our hour in candlelight and it didn’t do us any harm. Of course once the hour was up we put the telly back on but we did manage to have only one light on.

Lesson for the day - sometimes you have to be happy with what you can manage on a first try.

My acoustic guitar. Part II by Kenya the Duck Toller - James Charron

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I can’t tell if you’re a lesbian
by the clothes you wear
or by your doc martens
or from the cut of your hair

I can’t tell if you’re a lesbian
by your acoustic guitar
by your kd lang records
or from the brand of your car

I can’t tell if you’re a lesbian
‘cos you didn’t look my way
could be I’m not so handsome
but I think I’d rather think that you were gay
I’d rather think that you were gay

book list in my moleskine by grouchiosa

As young men and teenagers do, I went through a stage of reading spy books notably those by Alistar MacLean, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and even the odd Jeffrey Archer.

We did a clean out of excess fiction a couple of years ago and only kept those books we think we will really read again. Needless to say nothing from the authors above remains.

A quick examination of the remaining books suggests that about seventy percent of what I really like is written by less than a dozen authors and they are:

Douglas Adams
Ben Elton
Bill Bryson
Raymond Chandler
Umberto Eco
J.K. Rowling
Stephen Fry
Nick Hornby
Alexander McCall Smith
Jennifer Weiner
Shane Maloney

Looking at the list it is all pretty populist stuff but then it is what it is. I make no apologies for the fact that I am not intellectual (despite wearing glasses and having precious little hair) and that I value being entertained pretty highly in a book.

Lesson for the day - empirical data can be quite telling.

Down Down Down by MarkOMeara

It’s been a pretty rainy day but it was looking and feeling warm enough as Finn, Leila and I headed out for the park. Finn played, I helped and Leila smiled.

Then the first big fat raindrop fell. Despite my best efforts in pushing the walker quickly and Finn’s best efforts in standing on the skateboard and clinging on for dear life we were all quite damp by the time we got home four minutes later.

Lesson for the day - it is better to have parked and soaked.

Another billboard of boring young white people by deadrichmond

I guess this site is on the rise since I have heard about it from two directions now.

It is imperative that white people know how to host a good dinner party as they will be expected to do it well into retirement.

Stuff White People Like

Lesson for the day - while there is ignorance is stereotypes there is humour as well.

Earth Hour by Opus104 (mostly away)

Tonight is the much anticipated Earth Hour where people in various cities, including this one, will turn of lights and other non essential electrical stuff for 60 minutes.

Not that this will mean any less coal is burned since the power plants, to my understanding anyway, will run all the same. But as a symbol of the need the chew less electricity each and every day I think it’s worth taking part in.

Of course, having been to university, I am mildly suspicious of environmentally aware men with beards suggesting that we turn off all the lights and “just see what happens”. Twenty years ago it meant they got to have sex with all the pretty hippy chicks and, while these women were never going to have sex with me, the cheapness of the ploy annoyed me then and makes me ever so slightly suspicious even now.

But I think I can be grown up enough to put my suspicions and sexual frustrations aside for an hour to turn out the lights and see what does happen next.

Lesson for the day - turning off might just be the first step to tuning in.

we put in an offer on a place in werribee on thursday night, which has been verbally accepted by the vendors.

we just need their signature on the dotted line and we’re the owners of our first home.

quite a surreal experience.

Kristen » we’re not in west footscray anymore, toto

Lesson for the day - it’s a bit exciting when other people head west.

Mon-Fri 2.20pm
repeated Mon-Thu 11.20pm

On Billy Bragg’s new CD, Mr. Love and Justice, the highly political singer/songwriter, who bridges the commitment and idealism of folk with the bluntness of punk, brings us a set of finely understated songs about love, sacrifice and justice.

The Planet - 27 March 2008 - Billy Bragg

Coin Laundry by A Super Fabulist

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I met you in the laundromatte
our clothes into together to dry
we sorted them out his from hers
a moment all fluffy and dry
a moment all fluffy and dry

talked out what we read thought and did
sussed out if each other had kids
i asked you dinner that night
good morning, good evening, goodbye
good morning, good evening, goodbye

ate some dinner, drank some wine
talked of numbers and I gave you mine
we talked, we laughed and we cried
said some things true, sometimes we lied.
said some things true and we lied.

I looked for you at the laundry
I waited for you to call me
but you had hung me out to dry
good morning, good evening, goodbye
good morning, good evening, goodbye