Screw Mrs. Slocombe
Remember my last rant about Grace Brothers and how I swore that I was going to switch to David Jones instead? Well, I did. I’ve been thinking of getting a nice new dressy winter coat (since my black vinyl one is coated in mold) and I saw that DJ’s were having a big winter sale, so off I went after work tonight. I’d only ever been in the food court before so I ran into trouble early on. I had to call the Snook.

Me: Hey! I’m in DJ’s but all I see is men’s clothes! Where the heck is the lady stuff?
Him: You dork. It’s in their other store, diagonally across the street.
Me: Ohhhh! Now I get it.
Him: Why are you whispering?
Me: Because I didn’t want the Armani suit guys here to think I’m an idiot.

Anyway, I eventually found the Elizabeth Street store and made my way up to Level 3. I was greeted by a bewildering array of lovely wool coats in too many styles and colors to deal with. After wandering around cluelessly for ten minutes, a nice saleslady named Elaine asked if she could help. I showed her the style I liked but mentioned that it felt too narrow through the shoulders (because mine are pretty broad). She agreed and spent the next fifteen minutes fetching different styles and sizes for me to try. She was fantastic, giving me advice on which styles were flattering and what tailoring I might want to have done. I eventually ended up with a dreamy long black double-breasted wool and cashmere(!) coat. Original price $300, sale price $220. A little more than I expected to spend, but it looks fantastic on me and it’s really nice quality. I think I might have to write them a letter and tell them how Elaine’s excellent service has made a loyal David Jones shopper out of me. (I know the pic is crap, but it gives an idea of the basic style.)

Australian Word-of-the-Day: “skivvies”. Okay, so in America that word is slang for underwear, right? (It’s even in a Weezer song.) Well, I recently discovered during a particularly embarrassing office conversation that that’s not what it means here. Instead it merely refers to a thin turtleneck, like in this advert. So now you know.

The Infinite Cat Project. We’re so doing this with Dr. Amy Jones this weekend.

I was bored today, so there’s a new theme available! It’s bath time.

I had a much better session with the physiotherapist this week without any further disturbing personal revelations. She gave me some new exercises, some massage, and ultrasound treatment on my back. Ultrasound! Like for babies! That was a new experience. Apparently the sound waves aid healing and break up scar tissue or something. All I know is, I’m definitely a fan of warm goo. Goo it up, baby!

On one hand I’m a little annoyed that Australia has to wait an extra week for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban… but on the other hand, that’s an extra week for me to finish my Gryffindor scarf! (I’m going to do mine in the new style.)

The Silmarillion in 1000 Words. Bwa ha ha! I’ve never even been able to make it through that book but I thought that was hilarious. (Link courtesy of miftik.)

I was just standing at our local café waiting for my felafel roll when a flash of green caught my eye. “What’s this? Diet Coke… with Lime???” Dammit, why wasn’t I aware of this? I was counting down the arrival of Diet Coke with Vanilla for months, yet somehow they slipped this one right past me. (I knew Lime was out in the US, but based on the Vanilla experience I didn’t think we’d get it for at least another six months.) No commercials, no website, no advertising, nothing! How on earth were the Australian members of the cult of Diet Coke supposed to know about this? I probably drink more Diet Coke than anybody in a five-mile radius but I had to discover the new flavor in the cooler like the rest of the unwashed masses? Hmmmph.

Anyway, after ten seconds of mentally ranting at Coca-Cola Australia’s incompetent marketing team, I grabbed a bottle and headed back to the office for a taste test. I’ve been reading Max’s raves about it for ages so I expected to be blown away. Unfortunately… not so much. Meh. It was okay. There was still a hint of the “pledge-ness” that I disliked about the Lemon version. Also, like the Lemon it gave me a very “diet soda” aftertaste that I never get with regular Diet Coke (or the Vanilla flavor). It just didn’t change my life like I wanted it to. I’ll be sticking to the old standbys.

NOTE: Hmmm. Now that I think about it, that bottle wasn’t ice cold since they’d just recently stocked it. It was cool to start but towards the end it was basically room temperature. Could that have affected my experience? Is it better colder? Maybe I’ll give it a second chance…

I just realized all those links came from MetaFilter. This is what happens when I don’t visit for a while.

The Snook and I have a running joke that the reason he’s so skinny is a tapeworm. He calls this imaginary friend “Alphonse.” (This is apparently a reference to an earlier college joke between him and his mates, where they’d tease another guy about having one.) Today I sent him a link to “The Worm Within”, a first-person account of really having a tapeworm. *shudder* See, that‘s why I don’t eat steak tartare.