Peter Alexander

I have two pairs of Peter Alexander pyjamas, both of which I bought on sale some years ago. My favourite of the two is my 'Breakfast Egg' pyjama set. When I did my Northern Exposure tour to Europe in 2005 I brought these pyjamas with me because I just couldn't face sleeping in my clothes for three months. I got a lot of comments from fellow hosteliers about how comfy they looked.

I've worn them out now, but I couldn't face throwing them out so I decided to do the enviro-friendly thing and turn them into rags.

The Peter Alexander story is a heartening, rags-to-riches one. Peter started the business at his mother's dining room table and now boasts a chain of stores in addition to his mail order and online business. And now, because of a pair of scissors, Peter Alexander is once again rags.

Supposed Gloucester Pregnancy 'Pact'

For those of you into more serious news, you may not have heard about the Gloucester pregnancy pact rumours. Gloucester is some small town in Massachusetts, USA (not the sizeable town in the UK) where the local high school has just recorded 17 teen pregnancies, far more than the usual three or four.

There are rumours that the teen mums-to-be made a 'pact' to get preggers at the same time and look after the kids as in some kind of commune situation but these are quite unsubstantiated.

Anyway, a report about the pregnancy spike caught my eye in the Saturday paper. Originally from Associated Press, the last paragraph reads:

Karlee's father, Michael Mitchell, 17, thinks he knows why the spike happened. "They were horny, it was a cold winter. It's boring around this town."

Mystery solved.

Confucius says

"Do you like my metaphor? I think it works on so many levels."
- Pinstripe Pants by Kid Confucius

The Big Apple

No, not New York but the new Apple Store in Sydney. The Apple frenzy was still alive and well on Sunday night (22nd June), when I snapped this pic, just a few days after opening.

I know it sounds strange, but I think I'll miss the mysterious scaffolding on the corner of King and George Streets. I never thought about what was behind that facade and totally missed the hype about the store due to the Sydney Film Festival.

The next two stores to open will be Chatswood Chase, which is one of my local shopping centres, and Chadstone in Melbourne. That is, a win for Gandel who own both those centres.

Still debating about whether to get an iPhone when it arrives.

The Good Fight

There's a moment in every tumultuous situation when you realise that whatever happens, you'll emerge unscathed. Someone may hate you, but that's okay because you realise, with oh so much clarity, that you don't care what they think.

I don't drive

... so I found this image quite funny. Look, I feel for people who have no option but to drive because there's no public transport (or what public transport there is sucks arse) but for all those people who find it merely 'inconvenient', they can pay what it's worth, which is actually more than they're charging so be thankful.

My worry is that since urban sprawl has eaten up metropolitan farmland, the follow-on effect will be that we pay more for food because it's so damn far to transport it from where the farms are now to where we live. The problem with that is, packaged food becomes more attractive because it's cheaper to transport due to its longer shelf life than fresh food and that's worse for the environment.

Orphaned

I hate when I go to a media event not knowing anyone and everyone is in little groups talking to each other. How do you break into a conversation to introduce yourself? Surely it's rude to hover around, waiting for a break in the conversation.

I found myself in a room of economists today. Journalists I can handle now that I'm a big girl, but economists I haven't had enough experience in. I was orphaned.

Barack Bin Laden?

A gaffe in the Sydney Morning Herald's 'News Review' section today...



Now if everyone could just give the Obama covers a rest until after the US elections, I'd be happy to read an Australian-focused publication again.

More about chocolate

One of the designers is leaving on Friday so I decided to make some cookies for her from the (American) chocolate recipe book that everyone pooled together and bought me for my birthday last month. (Also because I need to redeem myself for sending all my pages in late this issue, but that's a boring story).

Apart from having to convert all the measurements, everything went quite well so I now have a massive batch of 'Confetti Fudge Cookies' ready to share.

By volume, the three top ingredients of 'Confetti Fudge Cookies' are:
* Cooking chocolate
* M&Ms
* Cocoa powder

In other words:
* Chocolate
* Chocolate
* Chocolate

I think it is safe to say that 'The Everything Chocolate Cookbook' is not a tome for dieters.