RIP J.D. Salinger

With love and squalor.

January 1, 1919 - January 27, 2010

anxiety #618 - loose threads

In my day to day work, I constantly encounter new challenges. I have recently been sewing new lemel catchers for jewellery workbenches. There are about 50 to make, and I think I became the in-house seamstress because I remember how to thread a sewing machine, from my year seven home economics class. Although I do have a sewing machine at home, it doesn't work and I keep it mostly for sentimental reasons.

My lemel catchers are slowly coming together, but I realised what's slowing me down: loose threads. Whenever I get to the end of a seam, I have an obsessive compulsive need to tie a double knot. It's as though there's a danger that without a knotted end, the entire thing would unravel, zigzagging back and forth like a knitted sweater in a cartoon.

I'm sure that people who sew on production lines aren't always stopping to tie knots, but I guess their skills, equipment and confidence are far greater than mine. Slowly, slowly, I keep sewing and tying my knots.

Coming soon: Why don't they make see through bobbin cases, so I can prepare myself for when it's about to run out?

This post dedicated to Mrs Rogers, my year 7 home ec teacher.

I can still make great library bags.

reasons to be cheerful - the bricks of waikiki

Waikiki is full of great buildings, decorated with great bricks.

This is an apartment pool surrounded by feature bricks, palm trees and hibiscus bushes.

'

The apartment building above, facing onto the Ala Wai canal, is delightful, but nothing beats the Waikiki Skyliner.

amazing architecture - hawai'i

Above is a little apartment building on Kanekapolei St, Waikiki, three floors high, joined by a zigzagging exterior staircase.

And this is Uncle Billy's motel, on Alii Dr in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island. Fantastic mid-century modern building, but Bobby, our bus driver, warned that if you stay there, you sleep with your mouth shut. Apparently they have a roach problem...

reasons to be cheerful - cyprus club bricks

I've never been inside the Cyprus club, but I am often hypnotised by their wall...

58 Stanmore Rd, Stanmore

anxiety #242 - how do you eat a lobster?

I should probably start by letting you know that I've never actually eaten part of a lobster, let alone a whole one, and it's not because I'm too gripped by fear to give it a go. I've just never had the opportunity. It does, however, seem an incredibly daunting meal.

Firstly, I'm hesitant about any food that is so messy to eat, grown adults need to wear bibs. Is it really such a slippery hazard? If I order a whole lobster, will I really be given a bib? I'm generally a pretty neat eater, not one of those people who flick spaghetti sauce on their shirt or drip melty icecream from a cone. Surely I don't need to wear a bib... do I?

The tomalley (the dirty lobster liver) makes me a little nervous, because of the possibility that it could be contaminated with mercury. I understand, however, that despite the fact some consider it a delicacy, I can just avoid it. Unless it's in disguise, there's not too much drama there.

Most of all I'd have trouble shaking the constant nagging feeling that I'd missed a bit. Nature made lobsters so their delicious goodness would be tricky to get at, and there are lots of little trapped bits that a beginner could overlook. After all the build up to actually eating a lobster, did I end up getting into all the legs? What about the little bits in the tail flippers? It would be just too sad to leave the table thinking maybe I'd left my first ever lobster half eaten. Why even try to eat a lobster if I'm going to leave any behind? Is is possible to employ some kind of lobster-eating coach?

So many unanswered questions. So much uncertainty. If you are also worried about eating lobster, help is available at this informative website...

reasons to be cheerful - footpath gardens

The neighbours might complain and the council threaten to remove them, but I like footpath gardens. They have a nostalgia for when people actually knew their neighbours, when homes weren't restricted by their front gates.
It seems like a nice street to live in.