Hair Burn

So I went back to blonde on the weekend. Overall I am very happy with the colour and style, but there is no denying that the condition of my hair went from shiny and smooth to dry and frizzy. Does anyone know a good conditioning treatment for post-peroxide dryness? Or is it something I just have to live with?

JM Coetzee

I know the man won a Nobel Prize and two Bookers, but I don't like his work. Does anyone else find that he is waving his flag of intellectual superiority through his writing? I have to admit I've only read two of his books: Disgrace (just finished it) and Elizabeth Costello, but I haven't enjoyed either. His characters are pretentious, his writing is affected and his tone is moralizing.
This is what Wikipedia says about him:

"Coetzee is a man of almost monkish self-discipline and dedication. He does not drink, smoke or eat meat. He cycles vast distances to keep fit and spends at least an hour at his writing-desk each morning, seven days a week. A colleague who has worked with him for more than a decade claims to have seen him laugh just once. An acquaintance has attended several dinner parties where Coetzee has uttered not a single word."

Which makes perfect sense. What a kill-joy.

Children are cruel

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24439939-661,00.html

http://www.theage.com.au/world/russian-children-bash-kangaroo-to-death-20081024-57ku.html

I never did anything like that when I was a kid. My main occupation was sewing clothes for my dolls. But then my brother was much more destructive (although never with living creatures).

I wonder how my friends who have children (namely Zoya and Denya) feel when they read articles like that. That child must be bad? He/she must have bad parents? He/she didn’t really understand the ramifications of what they were doing?

This is why I feel so lucky to live in Australia

http://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-still-land-of-the-fair-go-20081021-55mv.html

The weekend Highlights

Another nice weekend... Saturday was 29C. I can't wait for summer - it's a health issue really! I am officially very low on my vitamin D (blood test confirmed what I already knew).

Riding our bikes from kensington (where Tim lives) to Oakleigh (where I live)
.. because I forgot something at home. And we wanted to go for a bike ride anyway, so it was killing 2 birds with one stone. I have done the ride once before - with getting lost multiple times along the way it took me 3 hrs. With Tim (and hence without getting lost) it took us 2 hours, and that's with being delayed by Southbank crowds as well! So I think I am definitely getting faster. I wasn't up for a return trip though - we took the train back.

An advance birthday dinner - Shoya

http://www.shoyamelbourne.com/

No Shabu Shabu or Sukiyaki at this place - very modern Japanese degustation menu. Think waggyu beef, sushimi in a bowl of solid ice, grilled eel with salmon caviar topped off with truffle, green tee panacotta with sea urchin cheesecake... you get the idea. The food ranged with outstanding to very good, and we had the place virtually to ourselves, which resulted in great service. Not sure what it would be like on a busy Saturday night.

So, to sum up, the last two "really nice" places I've been too - Rockpool and The Pressclub did not live up to my expectations (which were perahps too high). This place hit the spot.

House De-Anting

for about six months now, my first task upon coming home was to kill ants. Despite repeated assassination attempts, they have refused to leave my kitchen. I guess when you have a large family of 5-6 million, a few thousand brothers and sisters is just collateral damage.

My dad seemed to think that they were only coming in because it was cold and that as soon as the earth warmed up they would go away (???). I didn't think that's how it worked but who was I to dispute him?

The ants knew they were onto a good thing cold or warm, so we ended up having the house and garden professionally sprayed. Seems to be working so far - thank god! As someone who grew up in the roach-infested former Soviet Union buildings, I have an eternal disgust for all creepy-crawly creatures.

Weekday relaxing....

So happy in the last two days - I sneaked off from work at a reasonable time (6-6.30pm). Work & life has been so crazy it has been ages since I was able to just chill for a few hours.

On Monday I started and finished a book (Jane Hamilton "Map of the World"). The book will not be one of my favourites, but it was great having the time to read it.

On Tuesday watched the first episode of Underbelly. For those of you overseas, which seems to be most of you, Underbelly is a TV series based on the gangland war in Melbourne:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underbelly_(TV_series)

It wasn't screening in Victoria because it contained events that were the subject of upcoming criminal trials. Even now some of the series will not show as that wouldn't be fair to the accused. But ofcourse that wouldn’t stop a prolific downloader like myself!

I found it surprisingly good and quite shocking. These people go went to the same places I go (Lygon Street, Errol Street) and do the same things I do (live their life with family and friends). But periodically they bash & kill these friends as well as innocent bystanders. The violence comes as such as shock because this isn't NYPD or something completely removed from me, it's actually happening where I live. It’s this whole “other” side of life to which I am usually completely oblivious. And it's all true. Definitely recommended: www.torrentz.com