pre-travel and pre-birthday saturday shopping

Today did not start out like a normal Saturday.

I mean I did all my usual stuff when I got up, and Ma messaged me as she was leaving her place to say that she had something she needed me to come down and carry up... which again, isn't overly unusual. I actually thought it was going to be my suitcase, but when I got down there it turned out to be the box for her printer which was weird... and she was being all cagey about what was in the box.

And there was a very good reason for that. I managed to get "it's a cake" out of her, but that was it. Now we don't do cakes on birthdays... mostly because it's usually just me and her so a whole cake is a bit of a waste, but also because, you know, it's cake... and while I'm a fiend for sugar, cake isn't usually one of those things I gravitate towards.

Anyway, I get it upstairs, get the cake box out of the box it's in and then open up the lid...

This is what I'm confronted with...

40th birthday cake40th birthday cake

40th birthday cake40th birthday cake
Just in case you're unsure, that's a cake... supposedly a mud cake according to Ma... but it's a CAKE! I don't think I could say a damn thing for about five minutes other than "Holy fucking shit".

It's a digital SLR, in cake form. And even more than that... it's MY digital SLR, right down to the fact that I have a Crumpler wrist strap on it rather than a regular neck strap. It's even for the exact same texture of my camera, and all the buttons and whatnot. I think it's also about twice the size of the actual camera.

The cake is by Nicole from Charmed Creations Cakes... and it's somebody that Ma knows through her work. Clearly Ma has been plotting this for a while because when I asked how they got the details of the strap right, she admitted that she'd taken a bunch of photos of my camera while I was down there at Christmas. I was off in the bathroom and there she was, snapping a bunch of photos of my SLR... cheeky little monkey.

And taking a look at the Facebook page, Nicole does a lot of really amazing work... she's even won the cake decorating category at the Royal Adelaide Show a couple of times.

I can't get over how amazing it is, to be honest... every time I look at it I'm just blown away all over again.

(And as a later addendum, I finally gave in and cut the cake up on Sunday evening only to discover that the red base that the camera is on is actually icing... I'd figured it was paper or card or something, because that's what it felt like, but no, it's icing! Amazing! Also the cake tastes incredible... so rich and moist... loving it!)

Anyway, once I was able to actually form words other than "holy fucking shit" we headed off to the supermarket.

Since we're only going to be around for about half of the week, the trip was something of a low-key affair... I didn't need all that much fresh stuff, but there were a few other bits and pieces that I picked up since they won't come to any harm while we're away.

Once we were done with that, we headed over to Target for a bit of a wander and to both pick up some new socks before our trip. I really don't know why it's so hard for Target to keep their homebrand white crew sport socks in stock... but I think I've had trouble with getting hold of them the last couple of times. I mean they're really good socks, which is why I buy them (plus they're cheap), so that's fairly annoying.

I was also checking out the Lego aisle (it's like a reflex action at the moment... there's nothing that I actually want, I just check every time), and decided to treat myself to one of the new Lego Chima Legend Beast sets as an early birthday present (an early 40th birthday present, just so we're clear). I decided on the eagle, but the gorilla and the wolf looked pretty good too (the wolf actually looks better in photos of the actual model than it does on the box which is unfortunate). I'm not sure if I'm going to put it together now or wait until we get back, but the box looks pretty good on my shelf for now.

After that we came back here and after I marvelled at my cake again for a bit I unpacked everything and we tried to work out what to do with the remainder of the day.

In the end we decided to head off to IKEA to take back the black RIBBA frames I bought the other week and swap them for the white ones which will work better for what I want to do with them. I also wanted to get a some cheap frames for the couple of Macbeth posters that I managed to liberate at various times (one from the UATG version and the other from The Bunker Trilogy version)... sadly both of the posters are bigger than standard sizes (or at least bigger than standard IKEA poster sizes) so I ended up having to get frames a size larger... hopefully that'll work okay in the spots I want to put them. I'd also been playing around in Photoshop and cut a version of one of my images from a long time ago into three separate images so I wanted to get one of those three-in-one frames for that. The only downside is that it's in a spot where I only really see it when I'm leaving the house, but it still looks pretty good.

Other than that there were a couple of bits and pieces (a glass teapot for making iced tea specifically, but it'll work for hot tea too... or just as a general glass jug) and then called it a day.

We did double back around to grab some food from the restaurant (always a better idea in theory than practice, although their onion rings aren't bad) and then stopped off at Bunnings... that was really only supposed to be for some more hooks and things, but I wanted to have a look at paint and stain for my bedside table.

Let me just say that the project I have in mind would probably work a lot better if I already had any of the supplies necessary. But I'm also thinking that with the money it cost for the dresser, the paint, the stain and the varnish I may have been able to find a more expensive table. On the upside, it'll be something I've made myself and if I need another one I'll already have the supplies (hopefully, I didn't buy very big containers) to do it. I just hope I don't completely screw it up.

So it's been a pretty good day overall... but I still can't get over that damn cake!

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