blog.olya

when we were in italy, one of my most favourite moments was toward the end of our trip. we were in the italian rivierra, in an area called cinque terre. tim was napping, it was sunset time and happy hour on beach. a wonderful small place where we got coffees and drinks previously was serving free snacks on the bar (which i didn’t realize until i asked how much was it to try). i got a glass of prosecco, and they were so kind as to give me a small bowl of coconut. i have never thought coconut is tasty. apparently, that’s cause i never considered trying it.

i’m been jonesing for some fresh coconut since we came back. “strangely” enough its hard to find in canada, so i’m not sure when i’ll get this one sated. at least is pomegranate season…

this chair, called the coconut chair, brought the memory back. in case you’re curious, the chair costs an insane $3,700 or so. i think i’ll find my coconut faster than i’ll even get to see this one in real life.

we drank red wine. and ate mashed potatoes with chicken. yummy!

also; spent an insane amount of money in sephora - but giddiness guaranteed for next year. how much would you pay for that pleasure?

its been a good day! more full of exciting events than the average day, at least if we discount the re no vation period.

today i:
got 2 good marks back!
saw the miracle of birth for the first time! (i managed to shut my eyes in all previous occurrences - this time it was a video about cognitive development and they just THREW IT OUT THERE before i could do anything!)
realized that i am addicted beyond belief to renovating. and decorating. and looking at renovating and decorating. and that doing this makes me feel SO HAPPY.
realized that i love coffee!
had the cat jump onto my lamp voluntarily and then purring. i’m not a big fan of cats, and that was still pretty awesome. (i like this cat - but i love my dog!)

recently i:
have improved my cooking skills through osmosis of living with tim (i made roasted chicken! and then roasted potatoes! and then very decent roasted vegetables from a frozen batch, which was the best surprise!)
dressed pretty on the few warmish days that weather threw in (I. LOVE. SKIRTS.)
completed an insanely large renovation of many parts of the apartment (see links above).

in negative news:
i keep missing appointments, assignments, deadlines in my head
my sleep schedule is all messed up and i hate it
addicted to coffee! NOOOO i’m up to 2 cups a day regularly now. argh!
am almost always cold
haven’t shot enough (outside of pretty apartment pictures)

BUT I STILL GOT SOLID Bs ON TWO TESTS THAT I DIDN’T EXPECT TO GET THEM ON. in other words, it was nice.
(one of the tests had 4 questions. i knew after i walked out that i must have gotten a 0 on one of those questions because i completely had no clue what experiment to write about, and so wrote about the absolutely, completely, totally, absurdly (!!) different unrelated and incorrect experiment. i got the other 3 questions perfect. YAY! the other was was chinese philosophy, which is lets just say wasn’t the best idea of a class to take as easy.)

who knew i’d ever enjoy the company of a cat that much!

i made poached pears today. i keep forgetting to buy an orange to experiment with this, but essentially its 3 simple steps:

1. peel and core the pears while…
2. half a cup of sugar, 2 cups red wine, 1 cup water (more wine?), 3-5 cloves are coming to a simmer
3. simmer pears in liquid until desired consistency and color reached with lid on
(4 optional: to get a thick sauce to pour over the pears, simmer half the time with the lid off. or something like that. i just wing it, and it works.)

tasty, easy, and little effort, other than the peeling and coring, but i can live with that for the high class style of eating a poached pear off a tiny white plate.

Lawrence is doing well. cuddling on the couch is normal, he is sleeping ON the couch now, has a favorite chair (director’s chair), and rubs up against our legs regularly. he still bites and scratches in play, which makes me look like i climbed over chicken wire. but its a small sacrifice to waking up to a cat nuzzling at your chest!

also, i got an ear infection day before my first exam. i’m not really considering it luck as its (a) hassle (b) an extra exam to write at the end of the year, ruining my brilliant plan of having 3 exams per semester and graduating with 8 half credits (due to a full year movie course).

tim and i were reading the latest LCBO food & drink journal today, and we were talking about one particular ad. the ad showed how much difference the paint can make, where as they actually have not only repainted the room but changed the bed, side tables, added a headboard, absolutely new matching modern set of linens, side lamps, a huge vintage/art deco ish poster instead of the smallish awkwardly framed smaller ones, a new white armchair… and of course they want us to think a $30 can of paint did all that.

regardless.

the poster in particular caught my eye. so i did some brave ebaying, and now i’m drooling over these:

WORLD´S FAIR CHICAGO OLD - POSTER.
ROSSLI CIGARS OLD AD - POSTER.
LOVE this one SO much: POWDER PUFF NUDE GIRL ITALIAN VINTAGE POSTER!
MELE ITALIAN SHOPPING FASHION - great shapes, colors (!)
these are small, but would look fantastic in a kitchen area: 2 VINTAGE ITALIAN KITCHEN PASTA CHEF SPAGHETTI POSTERS

maybe i can shoot something closer to this. but i like the abstractness of that style of drawing! (this picture is not mine:)