So this painting is the equivalent of those sponsored ads which appear in your Instagram or Facebook feed – you know the ones. The ads which say “we know you, we’ve been watching you stuff your face with food for the last 12 months, so here is an ad for more food”, or “we know you, we’ve noticed how much you love shopping and how many cat photos you’ve been liking, so here is an ad for a bodysuit with a picture of a cat on it” (and yes, I did buy it).
We came across this painting at The Olsen. We stayed there for one night over the Easter Break, courtesy of a travel gift voucher Louis received for his 30th birthday. The Olsen is part of the Art Series Hotel Group, and funnily enough, full of artwork by Dr John Olsen. And I mean full – it hangs in the lobby, the lifts, the hallways, is on the glass walls of the bathroom, and in our case, this particular painting was hanging above our bed.
A painting of cheese – above our bed. It was like they knew who I was. I may be the only person in history to have interpreted a painting of cheese as a sign that a night away was blessed from above.
I’m not entirely sure that a single night away was what our friends had in mind when they gave Louis the voucher. At the time of Louis’ 30th we had been together for over five years, and had never been on holiday together – maybe they thought it was the kick up the butt we needed to get ourselves organised and get away. In any case we managed to get ourselves to both New Zealand and Europe last year, without using the voucher. The day we arrived back in Australia from our second holiday, the gift voucher was expiring, and a single night away was all we could manage to organise. In the end it was exactly what we needed – Louis works from home and has been clocking up stupid crazy hours lately. A night away meant he couldn’t do any work for 24 hours or so, we got to spend some quality time together, and he got to rest a little. Just what we needed.
Speaking of resting, you may have noticed that I’ve taken a bit of an (unintentional) break from posting on the blog. The year certainly started with a bang – Louis and I took the photographs for two recipes over the New Year break. I posted one recipe, and then sat on the other. We took more recipe photographs in February, and still no more posts. All up, I currently have four recipes ready to be written, and still no posts.
I’ve realised that I can pump out recipes far quicker than the ‘stories’ which I’ve been including with them. Which has got me thinking, the whole purpose of the blog was to encourage me to come up with recipes which were suitable for Louis (i.e. vegetarian, Type 1 Diabetes). The stories were almost incidental. However the stories have ended up being very useful – writing them helps me clarify how I think about things in my head, and they have been educative for our family and friends.
The fact I was doing two very different things with each post, became evident after the January post. My mum complained that my rant left her in no mood to try the recipe I had posted. My Facebook friends were a little luckier, I had warned them that the post was Angry Vicki, to which a friend responded:
I confess. I opened the link and just scrolled down to the photo of Alexa. No regrets.
Then in February, Andy, who looks after our blog, sent me the below screenshot. I’m not good with the whole tech thing, but as far as I can tell, this is Google searches that led to our blog – look at number four.
And that’s when it all came together for me. People go on the internet for very specific reasons. If you’re looking for a recipe, all you really want is a recipe – you don’t necessarily want to read my 1600 word rant on morons who don’t know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes first; if you’re looking to educate yourself on diabetes, you aren’t necessarily looking to cook something afterwards; and if you’re looking for how to cook a ca- I can’t even bring myself to say it – suffice to say, if you’re #4 above – this is the not the blog for you.
So, with my newfound (slightly wide-eyed) understanding of the internet, I’m changing things up here on the blog. Posts will now fall into one of two streams: Recipes or Stories. Each month I’m aiming to post 2-3 recipes, and maybe one story. If you’re looking for pictures of Alexa, she will still be here, though I have also set up her own Instagram account, for those who really love furballs.
And that’s it – this was just a friendly little heads up on what is happening on this blog – the next recipe will be up next weekend. Oh, and a big thank you to Lisa, Dave, Kate, Olly, Tanya, George, Rhet, Karen, Mel, Duncan, Tara & Mark – your present to Louis was just perfect, and exactly what we needed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
