Thanks to everyone who supported me and donated this year. The hunger itself was pretty manageable, but I didn’t expect the massive headache that went along with it. My various food addictions are stronger than I thought! I made the mistake of having a big night out with my co-workers Friday night and then I stayed up way too late watching the royal wedding. Hangovers are hard to dispel without a good greasy fry-up (especially when your better half is eating one in front of you). Saturday night was the worst. Sunday morning I felt pretty good, actually, but by the time 3:00 rolled around I was literally drooling. We headed to Glebe and ended up at Cafe Otto, where my plan to eat spaghetti faded in the face of their massive hamburgers (complete with beetroot, bacon, and a fried egg). It was positively orgasmic. Anyway, the Snook helped me make a little film to document the whole Famine experience. I don’t know if it’s just lingering starvation euphoria but I think it’s the funniest thing ever. Enjoy!

PS – What’s up with me and the ‘thumbs-up’? I do it in every shot! I really had no idea. Do I do that all the time? It makes me look like an idiot!

Harry is hot.

Status Update: Twenty-two hours down. I’ve got a headache (mostly from the hunger, although the hangover from last night didn’t help). I’ve watched five hours of I, Claudius and knitted two stripes on a scarf. I’m going insaaaaaaaaaane.

That’s it! Final meal is completed. The Famine will run from 11pm Friday til 3pm Sunday. Here we go…

Holy crap. I just walked around my office getting final pledges for the Famine and managed to raise another $130! Thank you so much to everyone who’s sponsored me. I’m just about to head off for my final meal, and the forty-hour countdown will start immediately afterwards. There’s still time to pledge if you’re feeling generous! I’ll probably spend the bulk of the weekend sitting on my ass and knitting (to conserve energy, of course), so you should be able to watch my hunger pangs live on CouchCam.

Movable Type has changed its licensing and pricing structure and it looks like the shite has really hit the fan. I’ll admit to a small feeling of smugness at having run my own custom-built system for three years now.

Hooray! It looks like CBS has already committed to a sixth season of The Amazing Race before the fifth has even aired. I can’t wait…

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.