Confession: I didn't take my photo for "Blue" - the topic from Tuesday (it's Friday Saturday) - until Thursday. I can explain.
My intention was to use the topic to talk about and show our startlingly large shared collection of Fruit of the Loom t-shirts, and then discuss how Mike's mother started to (selectively, with strong opinions) share the collection, and the range of lovely shades of blue contained within and my own strong opinions on those shades. (E.g., Powder blue is never allowed to be worn outside of the home unless as swimwear, much to Mike's sadness.)
But instead, Mike was full of beans (not to blame him), and we drove to Busselton to eat at the reopened Grace of India... which gets an uncharacteristic mention by name because we waited for 25 minutes for someone to take our order. Only when the man in charge took the order of a couple that came in after us then went behind the desk to mess with papers there - at length - did Mike actually become pissed off enough to leave. (Yes: Mike. Pissed off. It's only January and he's already used up half of his traditional twice-a-year quota. Me, by that point I was willing to wait to see how bad it could get.)
No big loss: the prices were kind of oddly high anyway, and so we ended up going to the established Indian place directly across the street, with the resolve to never betray their sweet malai kofta and deliciously onion-y paneer masala again.
The drive back was full of stars across the Milky Way, and once home I kept reminding myself to take the t-shirt photo, but it was dark and I was tired and zonk zonk zzzz midnight came before I knew it.
The same thing kind of happened the next day. "It's not too late, really," I thought. We went out. I took that day's photo at the grocery store for the topic of "Nice":
"Blossom Nougat" ice cream? Sounds delicious: rose-scented ice cream, nougat, roasted almonds, and cherry. I didn't get any, but it's only a matter of time (despite a punctuation and a usage error on the label, which I only point out as a member of the global English teacher job security taskforce). (Per the bylaws, doing so is not a dick move if the product is commercial enough to appreciate the heads-up.) (Not that I'm contacting the company, since not everyone is aware of that bylaw.)
And speaking of time, after an afternoon nap and a movie, the clock had run out again.
"Well, poo balls." (An unfortunate favourite expression.)
Now what? I'd failed, hadn't I? Too much time had passed. I'd have to do a monthly photo challenge all over again to meet my new year's resolution. True, part of me was thinking of doing that anyway, since it's been so fun this month, but to have to because I failed in my first attempt... grumble.
The next day - now we're up to Thursday - we went to a different grocery store. (Because sometimes the chocolate we were able to ignore on the first trip haunts us throughout the night.) And then I saw it. The reason to wait for "Blue":
This is a cake - a "mudcake," of course, because one never sees a chocolate cake in an Australian grocery store that isn't a mudcake - made to celebrate Australia Day this weekend.
"What kind of Southern Cross is that?" asked Mike.
"Where's Tasmania?" I wondered, feeling somewhat secure in my understanding of Oz geography.
"It's there" - Mike jabbed at the lower right corner of what I now noticed was a distorted bit of the mainland - "Someone didn't know how to render the Bass Strait. Just drizzle some chocolate across, people!"
(As an American, I do have to give props for their attempt to render Tasmania at all. Am I right, Alaska and Hawaii?)
This cake fits "Blue" not just because of the flag-matching colours, but because of something in Aussie culture known as "True Blue." Here's a definition from the Australian National Dictionary Centre's page:
"True Blue has widened into a synonym for dinkum or dinky-di, or for its variants fair dinkum and (earlier) straight dinkum."
Oh sure, explains everything.
More from that page: "[example redacted] Here, true-blue is a synonym for the adjective Australian or Aussie. Again, in 1989, the Observer (Narrogin) reports: '[She] became a "true blue" during a naturalisation ceremony'. Here, true blue is a noun meaning an Australian."
Alas, the term is politically charged for some who feel that a phrase referring to all the beloved culture of modern Australia must therefore be a slight against all of the Aboriginal culture that was ignored or rejected (or worse) by colonists.
Being just a lowly visa applicant, I choose to see the best in everyone, and think of "true blue" as a sort of Australia imagined by Epcot, with huggable koalas for all.
The next day (which is now two days ago because I'm slow this week), the topic was "Bedtime."
As I snapped photos with my phone during our sunset romp along the shoreline, I thought, "This won't count. I'll have to photograph something else for the topic later."
And then a big wave came.
And it was bedtime for the electronic gate opener in Mike's pocket.
(My World of Warcraft keychain authenticator survived. Nature is trying to tell me something about how I should use my newfound ability to sit?)
But it was all good. (Other than the gate opener. Um.)
(He isn't distracted by thought of replacing the gate opener. Really, he isn't. He says.)
So good that instead of taking the next day's photo late, I took it early. (Topic: "My Place")
I'm pretty sure I know my place, and that place is on the tranquil edge of the world.
(Okay, it's that or a long story about how driving out the next day to take the planned photo didn't work. Tell you what. I can see that you're a fine gentleman/lady who has no tolerance for foolishness, and I respect your interest in keeping this photo challenge on the up and up, so let me tell you what I'll do. Today's topic is "A Taste of Summer/Winter." How about both? Two for the price of one? Everyone's happy!)
