Christmas

I ate too much.

More photos

Making a dive for the try line at Henley

I am pretty excited about something. Perhaps the free drinks?

Touch club 25th anniversary dinner - medal winners


Go-go gadget arms!

Touch days

Here's a picture of me running around last night. We won 7-2 but we should have done much better. How long is my hair getting! Better sort that out I think. There are more pictures - beach touch ones. Sunday was the big event and we had poeple diving all over the sand all morning. It all went pretty well and even the weather was perfect, not too hot but not raining. Unfortunately I got a little bit sunburnt on my chest, the only place i forgot to reapply. Just goes to show how well that sunscreen works.

Last night after touch I made a batch of gingerbread biscuits. They look pretty cute, all Christmas shapes. I bought a baking tray and it came with all these cutters. I also bought a sieve and a rolling pin so now I am pretty close to done for kitchen stuff. Tonight I am going to ice them. The gingerbread recipe needs some work though I think - it isn't tasty enough. I'm going to have a look on the web for something with more omphf.

This weekend I am catching up on some housework and planning on cleaning out all the crap from my wardrobe and getting rid of it. There isn't really much in there, but there is stuff I don't wear. I am down to about 5 outfits for work which go on rotation and it's getting a bit boring! Friday night is the work dinner - too bad it's cold or it could have been another occasion for my new dress. I am still allowed to call it new even though I have already worn it.

Tomorrow I am paying the desposit for my flights to The World. It's very exciting. My friend is joining me for 6 weeks of it and she is hyping me up too. She's back in Adelaide soon so we're going to start making some concrete plans for Machu Picchu etc. Just think; next year the blog will actually be worth reading cos I'll be in South America!! More photos soon...

I have been cruising along the last few weeks. The days at work seem to take forever but they also add up to a week fairly quickly so that now it is only 3 weeks until I go on holidays! I have been looking at my finances and trying to decide if I really want to spend $6300 on flights for my trip next year. I really have no choice unless I cut out South America altogether. No thanks! So I have cut a few weeks off the itinerary and found some people to stay with so I can save a few pennies in the expensive countries. I have been doing a bit of research trying to find the cheapest and best value Machu Picchu trek and Spanish classes. There are a lot of choices out there.

This week has been a bit lonely since I haven't been able to talk to my normal chat buddy. I suppose in some way it is good because it reminds that I shouldn't rely on one person too much because they can quite easily just stop being around whenever they like. And do. I have started doing my Christmas shopping finally and am making good progress so far. Every day at lunch I wander up and down Runde Mall and see the shoppers growing in numbers, by the time I finish work in a few weeks it's going to be packed out there.

Tomato plant update: still growing. Masses of green toms everywhere.
Eggpant update: still growing. Plenty of flowers but no fruit so far. Hurryup!! Although I had better start looking for recipes using eggplants before they start arriving otherwise they'll all go to waste. I don't think I want to waste them making babaganoush or whatever that nasty shit was MM and I were trying to make last year. When batch 2 is still festy it's time to stop wasting vegies.

Monday again

The weekends go by way too fast! Today there isn't much to do at work so I am looking for Christmas presents on the web. It's hard to decide what to get people this year. The pageant was on Saturday. Kind of crazy how far out from Christmas they have it, but I guess they want to spur the credit cards into action. I avoided the busy sections of town and cycled out to Rundle St to look for a dress. I tried on a few, but nothing really great jumped off the racks. After an hour of that I was pretty much done. I contemplated pushing on to Rundle Mall but by then the pageant goers were starting to stream through and I couldn't be bothered. I walk up and down Rundle Mall every lunch break so doing it on the weekend isn't exactly fun.

What I did do on the weekend that I don't do everyday is assemble a trampoline! It was fun! Fairly straight-forward too, except these days there is way too much safety netting and crap all over them. After Generation Y is the Cotton Wool Gen I suppose. MM's dog now has a great deal of shade for the summer too, although she will have to learn not to walk under the tramp when someone's bouncing on it!

On Saturday I hung around in a hammock. It made me seasick :( But aside from that, it was very relaxing!

some stuff

Long time no blog. I haven't been very busy, that's kind of the problem. Nothing to report. Situation normal. Touch has started up again. I am learning to referee this season. It's exhausting, physically and mentally, all those decisions! It's not too bad though, the lower grades are pretty slow so I don't have to leg it to keep up with the play. But by the time my game comes around at 8 I am not exactly fresh. Our team has a lot of referees in it so that's going to be the story all season I think.

I have an engagement party to attend in a few weeks so I have been tempting myself with visits to dress shops. Not very sensible given that Christmas is just around the corner and 5 weeks of unpaid leave looms... For at least some of that time I will be in Canberra chilling out. The rest hasn't been decided yet.

Yesterday was a stupid horse race. I was asked to come to work with some kind of frippery in my hair. As if I own such a thing. Needless to say I did not participate in the event. I am not sure why horses running is so fascinating. Perhaps the fact that you have to lay some money on the line in order to summon up any kind of interest in it is evidence enough that it is a dull event. The only good thing to come out of the day was the left over Tim Tams.

This weekend I did exactly what I had planned to do. I went to the markets early on Saturday morning and picked up ingredients for dinner that night. Burritos! I rode up to watch 4 increasingly sweaty men chase a small rubber ball around and swing racquets very quickly right near each other's heads for half an hour. Then I rode home and discovered I had locked myself out of the house (not planned), so I rode into town and grabbed my brother's keys and then rode to a birthday BBQ in the park. It was hot and I was ill-prepared for the park. I had no drinks, I had nothing to sit on, I had no suncream. I got burnt. I left early in order to meet my friend and head to the beach. A much better option. The water was cold but it was generally pleasant down there. I did not get any more burnt :)

I went home again, I cooked up some burritos. My dad came over and he and my brother ate aforementioned burritos and talked about such topics as why dad is 10 seconds slower around the race track now than 10 years ago, why join the army and how much we eat for lunch. Hmmm. Then I watched some shitty TV and went to bed. Saturday achieved.

Even though I did everything I wanted to do, there were other places I would rather have been.

An evening out

The touch club end of season dinner was on Saturday night. I had a very good time. I drank too much, danced too much and tipped too much water on people. Sorry about that. But why shouldn't I? I think I need to get out more often though since it was all too much like a special treat and the night went so quickly. The food was actually good this year, although frankly the shitty cupcakes for dessert were less than impressive. The guys had done a great job decorating the place with all the old club shirts hanging from the ceiling. There were way too many speeches though. Boring speeches. No one was in the mood to sit and listen to someone drone on about how they established the club. There were heaps of awards to be given out too so they ended up vitually talking all night! I got a little medal for my efforts in the women's team: most improved. That was nice. As MM was quick to point out, it means I am a little less shit than I used to be.

Now we have three weeks, or perhaps only 2, before the summer season starts. It never ends.

Bike status

Still in shop.

Not happy.

Too many appointments

Somewhat unsurprisingly my women's touch team lost the Grand Final yesterday despite coming through the minor rounds undefeated. We played at 4pm and it was all a little bit lacklustre. Personally I seemed to be suffering from some kind of lethargy when faced with physical activity. I blame this on my 2 week hiatis from cycling due to my holiday and my bike having been in the shop all last week. :( I need my bike back quick! It is going to cost me a fortune because I have to get new tyres and brake pads, and apparently I need a new chain for some reason... It does sound pretty creaky down there.

Meanwhile I am trying to set myself up with a doctor's appointment. All the doctors near me seem to operate only during business hours which makes it very difficult. If I miss an hour of work to see the doctor then I lose an hour of pay plus I have to pay for the consultation because none of them bulk bill. It gets very expensive. My bulk billing doctor is far far and away beyond where I can cycle (supposing I will even have a bicycle anytime soon). Why can't doctors operate when everyone is NOT at work? Hairdressers do it. I can get my hair cut easier than I can see a doctor. And I am. On Wednesday I am getting my hair chopped off.

No go to Goa... again

I thought that at this point I would be sunning myself on an Indian beach, perhaps partaking of a fruity chilled alcoholic libation as well. To my complete and utter frustration and annoyance I am actually back at work only one week after my foiled attempt to leave the country. If we rewind to last Friday, picture a very excited me, arranging items to pack on my bed before skipping off for drinks at the Grace with a friend who had popped into town for the weekend. I am in such a good mood that I give only a slightly scornful look to the clearly very inebriated man who feels it is his duty to tell me I am "very cute" and order myself a pint of Pale. My friend rocks up and we are jumping around all over the place wondering what I will be doing, smelling, eating, drinking, experiencing in 48 hours when I touch down in Mumbai. Then I get an sms from my travelling companion, hereafter known as Bloody Idiot Passport Loser (BIPL); "Please tell me you have my passport".

Oh shit. My stomach dropped, my smiley face did too and a very long evening of waiting for hear from the passport searcher ensued. Needless to say, my evening at the Grace was ruined, and, as it eventuated, so was my holiday. After a sleepless night the BIPL turned up at mine, still passport-less with a look of utter devastation on his little face. At that point I was still quite pissed off and tearful about the whole thing. I could not believe this was happening after all the bloody planning and having already postponed the trip once before due to visa issues. We searched BIPL's house to no avail. We had to ring up the travel agent and cancel our tickets. Luckily they will refund it all except the deposit of $250 each.

At that point the concept of simply not having a holiday at all was beyond contemplation so we booked tickets to Melbourne instead. The remainder of the day was spent in quiet frustration and reflection on the utter stupidity of the whole thing. Sunday we went to Melbourne and by Monday we had decided on a new course of action: skiing! Calling work to tell them I'd be back a week early was the worst part. I was really looking forward to 2 weeks off.

But we did have a good time at Falls Creek. There was plenty of snow when we arrived, but it was the tail end of the season and by the third day there really wasn't much left. We had perfect weather though, blue skies everyday. The first day I spent catching up to where I left off last time we went skiing but by the last day I was heading down the blue runs and looking a bit less like a plastic action doll coming down the hill (I think). Tell you what though, walking around in those stupid ski boots really gave me the shits! Not comfy at all. The place we stayed at was pretty low quality, but they did have a cooked breakfast included which was keeping me happy. I managed to keep myself fairly warm and not too many prangs much to the disappointment of BIPL. There weren't too many people around either which was good, no lines for the ski lift etc. The last day the lift nearest our accommodation was closed due to melted snow so we had to trek to the next one with all our clobber on. Pretty tiring stuff.

We drove back to Melbourne on Thursday arvo and ended up staying in a Formulae 1 hotel and gto to see some live police action! I completely missed it, but apparently when we first arrived there was a guy being led out of the place in handcuffs and all these cops with blue gloves on. Not sure what the deal was, but the hotel sure felt like the kind of place where you wouldn't be surprised to be neighbouring a druggie. We were incredibly (and perhaps a little pathetically) excited to be within walking distance of a K-mart so my hunt for some Dunlop KT-26 Osakas could continue. Alas, no luck :( Friday morning was enlivened by a drive through Mebourne to return the hire car followed by a time consuming hunt for accommodation. We had forgotten about the footy grand final and all the backpackers close to Southern Cross Station were full. We ended up staying in a noisy but quaint place on Chapel St which had these fabulous full length windows which you could step through onto the balcony.

Had the best gnocchi ever at Pizza Piazza. I should perhaps add a caveat on that by mentioning that I have probably eaten gnocchi 3 times in my whole life so being the best is probably not hard! BIPL had a haircut (finally) and I contemplated doing the same, but chickened out when I saw the guy in charge of the scissors. Scary.

Melbourne is just such a mix of hip, stylish and bogan, bum. I have never seen so many people taking to themselves maniacally as I have over there. Do we not have that many crazy people in Adelaide, or are they just quieter about it?

Book review

Only 2 days until my trip! Very excited, but hiding it well I think. It is pretty hard to maintain excitement when faced with whole days of desk sitting with little or no stimulation. I am beginning to think I should have thought about what to pack a little earlier. A slight list is being written today - may need to do a little shopping. Yesterday I cashed in my Unibooks voucher (received for taking the time to tell the uni how crap I thought they were at 'administration') and grabbed myself a couple of volumes for inflight entertainment. I am loathe to take them though because they are new books with nice uncrumpled pages and sharp corners. When they come back they will undoubtedly be dogeared and bent to some extent. I like to look after my books.

I am currently reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - just to get into the Indian spirit of things. I am not enjoying it much. I am still reading, but slowly and almost reluctantly. How on earth did this book win the Booker prize? Not only win it, but win the Booker of the Bookers? I find it plodding and self-aware and a little patronising. There's something a little creepy about the narrator telling a story about himself in the third person - particularly when you know the whole time that he is talking about himself. I guess the self-involved aspect is made more prominent than usual by the fact that the main character repeatedly claims his presence in the world alone is the cause of all these happenings around him. I think we are all aware that we all contribute and shape the world around us to a certain extent, his involvement in it all is just more direct.

Some visuals

The cake I made for a certain three-year-old...

Mum and Keith at mine for Matin's birthday dinner.

Martin's birthday cake, made by mum. Beanie Boy thought it was yummy.

Mum's gardening fork, she was going to test it on Keith...

Show Day - some questions

Why are woodcutters always so fat? Why do they always wear unflattering white pants? Why does the guy on Block 1 always win despite a massive handicap? Why do people eat Dagwood Dogs? Why is it OK to use prams as a battering ram? Why are the women who breed dogs for show all the same amount of rotund? Why do these same women have to wear ugly suits circa 1950? Why are baby pigs cute but grown pigs ugly? Why do show rides cost $7? Why does the Bertie Beetle showbag have only 3 Bertie Beetles in it? Why does it seem like a good idea to buy the Whizz Fizz showbag every year? Why aren't there more free wine tastings??

I spent about 3.5 hours at the show yesterday. It was pretty crowded. I was with my friend and her baby so I was reluctantly involved in the frustration that is maneuvering prams through crowded areas. There is literally nowhere you can stand with a pram that you are not in the way. One good thing though; you can use it to carry all your crap. I watched some woodcutting, that was OK, but they take too long to clear the wood away after the chop. I need action! I got a new showbag - usually I just get Freddo, but this year I splurged on a Dairy Farmers one, it was pretty good value and now I have a fridge full of cheeses and creams and etc. Seemed healthier too!

The new Goyder Pavilion is just what you might expect - a pavilion. It did have a very nice parents room though - microwave and all. Pity it was packed to the gills though. Trouble with being a parent is you are constantly having to put up with other people's children in order to bring up your own. The little dude did a pretty good job though and there were few tears during the day. Slept through sideshow alley - quite an achievement given that my ears were ringing!

I didn't go on any rides or try any sideshows, just looked at animals and ate some nachos. Good to see a wider variety of food this year - something for vegetarians and those of us who do not believe that Dagwood Dogs are food. Nabbed some free tasters here and there but didn't find any wine tasting :( The Show really does have something for everyone and it means something different to you as you get older. I used to just care about the rides and the junk food and the showbags. Now I actually look at some of the exhibitions. I am not yet old enough to appreciate cake making, crafts or flowers though... I get to see the fireworks from my bathroom every night which is kind of fun. And the weather has been uncharacteristically great this year. Bring on the 24 degrees of warmth expected on Saturday!!!

An unexpected visitor

My friend from Naracoorte is here! Her husband had to fly to Queensland to attend a funeral so she is in Adelaide until he gets back. Yay for me, that means we can catch up tonight. Not hurray for the funeral though - a suicide of someone our own age. Not surprising given the character, but still sad.

I did have quite a fabulous weekend. Just pottered around doing my own thing, it was great. Last night I was at MM's place feeding his crazy dog. She is pretty nuts when she hasn't been out for a while. Almost pulled my arm out of its socket plenty of times on the way to the park. Usually she doesn't go on the leash but I am not happy with her running around all over the road while I am looking after her. If she gets hit while I am supposed to be taking care of her then I am in trouble. MM has this wonderful contraption that allows you to throw the ball really far and also not have to touch it cos you can pick it up with the claw thingy. Whattie lost her ball about 5 times, she kept running in the wrong direction and missing where it landed. I puffed her out good and proper though and on the way home she walked at my side the whole time!

There is a James Bond theme happening on a Foxtel channel at the moment so I watched Dr No for the first time. Missed a bit of it due to a phone call from the unexpected visitor and other distractions, but I saw enough of it to know that it was hilarious. They made some many little errors in the film, you have to wonder if anyone involved in its making ever saw the final cut. Still not on board with the whole Sean Connery thing - what exactly is supposed to be attractive about him? He's seedy looking. Always seems like he's been 2 days without a shower and you wouldn't want to get stuck in a lift with him.

Saturday afternoon I made a lemon meringue pie. It was huge! The filling was too big for the pie crust and it ended up spilling over. Have to get a bigger pie dish then I guess...

There are worse problems.

Hablo poco castellano!

I am slowly learning Spanish at the WEA. There are heaps of people in the class which makes things a little slow. There are a few who cannot get past not understanding words. Why do people need to know the 'meaning' all the time? Translation is not currency exchange, there are no exact equivalents in many cases. Learning a language is all about not understanding every word, you have to just embrace it and savour the chance to pay attention to other mediums of communication.

I think tonight I am making a lemon meringue pie. It's been on the cards for a while. Although, I am pretty tired so I might just go to bed. Buenas noches!

Straw bale housing

It's the latest crazy idea to be floated by me - and I am liking it. Instead of living in a horrendous brick thing that is too hot in summer and too cold in winter, why not live in a house that is not only environmentally friendly but also maintains its temperature without resorting to heating and cooling? There is nothing that is not cool about straw baled houses; from the ultra wide walls that create fantastic wide window stills to the fact that straw rendered walls are so ridiculously fire resistant compared to 'normal' houses. If you get straw walls obviously this decreases the cost of the house, but not by much since you still have to pay for labour and the roof, fittings, plumbing and electrical etc. But think of the savings to be made on heating and cooling! Anyway, just an idea for if I win the lottery because I can't afford land either unless I want to live in the middle of nowhere.

And I don't.

One turtle

Yesterday I assembled a turtle shaped cake for a birthday party. It was a pretty crap looking turtle, but apparently recognisable as such by three-year-olds. I cooked the shell in a glass bowl and unfortunately it took forever to cook right through and the outer shell was very dry and the middle was very dense. But the feet tasted good because they were made out of cupcakes. I have to say though, I am really sick of beating butter and sugar together! I also ate way too much butter when 'taste testing' and this week I think I need a detox - just fresh fruit and vegies for me.

On Friday night the wine and cheese at the art opening turned into a few more wines at the Treasury and on to the Grace Emily for beers. Felt more than a little under the weather on Saturday morning and was missing my sunnies. Unfortunately it didn't stay sunny for long and I got drenched for the second week in a row on my home from Pilates class. I did get to have a nice sleep in on Saturday and Sunday morning though. Sunday I was supposed to be going to training, but all the wind and rain outside the bedroom window soon put me off that idea! Instead, I lazed around, took the mutt for a walk and the began the car borrowing saga. Since I had to go home and assemble a turtle and also get back to my house after the party, I was borrowing MM's car. One of the many, but the only one that is currently ready to drive. We noticed the front driver's side tyre was looking very flat so took it to the servo to pump it up and then found the massive nail embedded in it. Yay! Then it started pissing down so we sat in the car out the front of his house and ran through all the different options for how to get around this. My taking any other car would have involved an hour's preparation which neither of us really had, or I would have to give up on the cake and add to the hassles by getting MM to drop me home after the party. Or, what if we changed the tyre?? MM wasn't sure whether he had a jack or not - turns out the boot was full of them! I have never seen so many options for jacking up a car. Tyre change took a matter of minutes and off I went.

Everytime I borrow a car and go for a drive these days it just reminds me how crap it is to be on the road. Nobody can do the speed limit, nobody can check their blind spots and nobody can use an indicator for its actual purpose. I think I will stick to my bicycle, it is much more stress-free!

It's the weekend again! yay. Another busy one lined up. I have cheese and wine at the Art Gallery tonight, breakfast at the markets tomorrow morning, Pilates at midday, cake baking all afternoon ( and some well overdue shopping and washing to be done), dinner and movie Saturday night, training Sunday, followed by lunch, turtle cake construction and icing in the arvo followed by a 3 year old's party on Sunday night. Phew.

Looking forward to the cheese and wine :)

A fair amount of rain

Another week of cancelled touch games due to the weather. I am pretty annoyed about this. The whole point of playing sport is that it provides you with regular exercise and a reason to get out of the house of an evening. Now, every time the skies open the fields go underwater and my games get postponed. I am not sure what the absorption rating of the grounds are in park 17 but they must be somewhat similar to those cheap nasty 'paper' napkins you receive at certain fast food places. A few hours of drizzle and puddles form! Grrr

Last night was my first Spanish lesson at the WEA. It was fun. The teacher is this little old Chilean man who seems to be something of an aspiring thespian. Right from the start he was speaking only in Spanish which I was very grateful for. He talked about the Spanish langauge and where in Spain it comes from, or which dialect it is based upon, and a bit about South America. Then, much to some people's relief and my disappointment, he started explaining himself in English. Meh, he quickly dropped back into Spanish/Castilian though :) So we went through introducing ourselves and then the Spanish pronunciation of the alphabet. There are about 25 people in the class so it's a bit slow, but hopefully things will pick up. Hasta la proxima semana!

Mixer Shopping

On Saturday I went to my first Pilates class at the WEA Centre. I was very excited because I thought I was actually going to get some exercise. Wrong. The woman running the class spent the first 45 minutes talking about the history of Pilates, her experience with it and all kinds of boring stuff like that. Then we spent the last 15 minutes figuring out where our diaphragms are. I am sure it may have been useful for the middle aged women who look like they aren't sure where their lungs are, let along their diaphragm, but I think I'm across my breathing apparatus. It was pretty tedious. Hopefully next week we'll actually get into some Pilates!

Following my class I rode home in the rain, got completely soaked and wondered what the hell happened to the sunshine I was promised in the weather forecast on Friday. Sulked inside for the rest of the afternoon cos I couldn't do my washing or go for a walk like I intended. Still haven't done my washing. Sunday was pretty busy for me, had to return a DVD early then head to training, then bookclub, then Nachos cooked by MM. Unfortunately our bookclub host had also cooked up some Nachos and I was not very hungry at all by the time I got to MM's place. Oh well, more for him I guess! He didn't even bother making guacamole though so just as well I wasn't hungry ;)

I had half a lamington for dessert. Homemade lamingtons - this is what a spent my Friday night doing. They are very messy things to create! I was considering putting some jam and cream in them too but that would have been five times the mess. Making the cake also decided the issue of whether or not to invest in a mixer. 40 minutes spent beating butter and sugar tends to sway one in favour of some electrical assistance. The mixture was supposed to double according to the recipe, but my arm ran out at the "sugar dissolved" stage and I just used it like that. The cake was OK, but fluffiness would definitely be improved by further beating. So now I am in the market for a mixer. Wonder what Ebay has to offer in this respect?..

Lentil pot

Last night i discovered that when a recipe calls for a 400g can of brown lentils you cannot use 400g of uncanned brown lentils. I now have the lentilest soup in the world. There are a few vegies in there somewhere I'm sure, but mostly I am looking at a pot of brown stuff. Appetizing much? Smells good though!

Visa Round 2

Played my game of touch in the fog last night. It was pretty damn cold out there. We all had little steam clouds following us around. We did win, but didn't really play tremendously. Bring on summer! At least it gets me out of the house though. Not having a heater is pretty crap when you're just trying to watch TV. I need a few layers of clothing and a blanket - but even that's not enough at a certain point. The best thing is to just keep moving around. So I've been doing quite a bit of cooking lately - it keeps me warm while the oven's on and then cleaning up afterwards keeps me warm too. By then it's bed time and bring on the hot water bottle! Having a shower has become perilous due to my inabiity to leave the warmth once I'm in. It's not always this cold in Adelaide is it?

I posted off my visa application for India again last week. This time we are definitely going! In typical beaurocratic fashion, the instructions for how to apply for a visa are completely contradictory and confusing. MM and I both went to the same webpage and came out with completely different ideas of what we needed to do. I sent one photo and a reply paid evelope, he sent two photos and a $16 fee for courier return. We'll see who is correct! The thing that shits me about it is that they are completely unaccountable for the service they provide. If they change the rules on you you just have to cop it because they are not a shop or a business, you have no recourse with them. The Indian consulate isnt so bad because at least you can call them and speak to a person, but the British consulate is by far the worst. You cannot call them unless you are willing to give them your credit card details and pay $10 plus $2 a minute! You just have to makes guesses at what they really mean on their ludicrously complex application forms and leave yourself 6 months to accommodate the 3 re-applications you will no doubt have to submit because you dared to misunderstand their "clear" instructions. I really wish we could get the ACCC onto those people.

Friday

I'm going to the movies today. It will be the last of my free tickets. I think I will see the new Batman one. It seems to have been well received and I want to see what all the fuss is about. Plus, it's one of those movies you need to see on the big screen with all the surround sound stuff going on. Remember when surround sound came out? Man alive that was exciting. The introduction of surround sound into cinemas was the only reason Twister made any money in Australia.

Tonight I am going out for dinner and drinks with my friend from Norway. We do well together when drunk. I plan on drinking a glass of water between each glass of wine this time. Like I always do. Tomorrow I was planning to ride my bike down to MM's place and assist with fun house stuff. I like painting. But it's going to rain apparently. Why does it have to rain on the weekend? If it rains I will be stuck at my house so will read the rest of my book. I read some Zola before, Therese Raquin, but I am enjoying this one better, even though it is possibly even more pessimistic. La Terre is all about Frenchies in a particular small village. They all live off the land and behave somewhat like monkeys - just running around screaming at each other and taking each other's women. It is refreshing though, to read something written with such honesty from that time - most of the stories I have read until now have been of the romantic variety, i.e. Austen, Bronte, Colette. I like the naturalist view, as depressing as it is, because that's reality really.

In 30 minutes I am going out for a free lunch. Free stuff always tastes better so I am very excited. And hungry :)

New shoes

As the title of this post might suggest, I bought new shoes! I decided to have a look on ebay the other day after hearing about a few great purchases people have made recently. I have coveted a pair of Birkenstocks for a long time but at about $140 I am not about to fork out. I happened across a pair in my size for $80 so put in a bid. Very exciting. The bidding stopped at 3pm on Saturday and I was very excited to see I was the winner! Well, winner is not the best word since you do still actually have to pay for the item. I went round and picked them up yesterday after work and they are a perfect fit! So ebay is my new best friend.

Masters calls

Moohaha, I just received my last assignment grade back from uni and it was EXCELLENT >_<

Very excited, since I also actually really enjoyed that subject too. Hopefully I will receive the actual assignment back with comments too. I think they do these things just to make you want to keep studying when you've finally finished. It does make me think that if I could just find something I wanted to look into as much as my last assignment I could just about pull off the Master thesis. It's only 18,000 words after all, and if you add together all the words I wrote in one semester this year for all the assignments across all subjects it would be... about 20,000! So 18,000 is a piece of piss really...

Can you tell I am in two minds about this?

The negativo side contains;

• Increased HECS debt. Already painfully high. Eek
• Yet another delay on saving money for travelling next year - can't work full-time and write a thesis unless I want to destroy all human relations for 4 months.
• Stress factor

Yes, not quite enough positives there really. It's a lot of time and expense just for what is really simply an exercise in self-aggrandisement.

one green man

On Saturday night I went to a party thrown by a fellow student from my linguistics course. The host was a bloke from Saudi Arabia who I would describe as something of a 'social networker'. He is very eager to make new friends and is always inviting people to have coffee with him. I should have no problem with this, only it serves to highlight my immediate suspicion of and tendancy to automatically repulse those who go to great lengths to establish friendship. Whenever he has asked me for coffee I immediately start making excuses, even though quite often I do have half an hour to spare. I feel bad about it because this is what internationals moan about; that the locals don't want to mix with them. I would want to chat to him, but I don't want to go by myself with him on anything that could be interpreted at later stages as a date. Discussing this issue with my Norwegian friend, who I had no trouble getting to know, we decided the problem was caused by the boy-girl thing. Had a girly Saudi asked me for coffee I would have been much more likely to have said yes.

So is it an indicator of a raging arrogance on my part that has me believe that a boy would only ask me for coffee because he wants to make a move? Or is it a justified reaction given that our behaviour is shaped by experience and clearly there has been a pattern established in the past whereby an invitation to coffee does not simply mean coffee. Perhaps some from each basket? Anyway, after persisting in asking people out for coffee all semester this friend seeking man has decided to invite everyone round for a party. He consulted me in class on the matter of how to throw a party in Australia. Just as well he asked because it seems like parties in Saudi Arabia are quite different. He refused to just sit down and talk to us all night, a symptom of his upbringing where the hosts do not sit down while entertaining. No matter how often we told him we had enough food/drink/music, he was never satisfied that we were enjoying ourselves. The result of all this questioning and concern about our activities and enjoyment level was that our attention was drawn constantly to the function itself rather than just being able to enjoy the siutuation. I actually did rather enjoy myself - there were plenty of boys of middle eastern origin there with stories about their homeland to talk to, there was heaps of chocolate (!), there was wine that H and I brought with us. Aside from being asked if I was really enjoying myself every 15 minutes it was a pleasant evening. The best part was when the neighbour came over. A baby faced Indian man with carefully crafted hair, vast sparkling eyes and fingers full of emerald and gold rings broke onto set and assumed centre stage to announce his presence and introduce himself with much ado. Clearly accustomed to a more refined audience, he was alarmed when his Queen's English was mocked. The words 'natty' and 'dapper' jump into my head when trying to describe this man - I think his immaculate clothing probably cost more than my life is worth. It seems his family is ridiculously wealthy and all have rather important jobs in India, or for India and that leaves him with plenty of leisure time for things like adorning his fingers with sparkles. He really was something to behold - but not for the reasons I think he would appreciate!

Oh so bored

At work we had a party for some international students who have finished their Diplomas and for a couple of recent birthdays. I ate too much fruit and now my tummy hurts. Ohno. The strawberries were really yummy though, what is it strawberry season or something? I took a handful of snacks for later on as well... Sneaky.

It's been pretty slow at work recently. I am supposed to be working on an assessment module for a new course we are offering soon but somehow having heaps of time for it makes me less motivated to do it. Interesting. I've basically been spending my time looking up soup recipes (found some really good ones and made potato and leek soup last week and tomato soup this week) and ways to travel around the world without hoards of cash. I'm the expert on budget travel now.

Turkish delight.

Yum.

Cake Monster

Here's a picture of me eating cake in Vietnam. It was a big cake and someone had to make an effort.

This weekend I did heaps of things. It was the first essay-free weekend I've had for a while so I decided to stack it full of things I hadn't done in a while. Didn't quite get to the markets, but did catch up with a friend on Saturday lunch, went out for dinner on Saturday night, went to touch training and took some photos for the flyer, then headed up to see my family. Yay for MM, he lent me his scooter so I didn't have to take the bus (bicylce still being repaired). Saturday morning I went to the Vocational Language Learning Centre to enquire about learning Spanish there. They charge about as much as 2 return tickets to Spain just for a 100 hour course. Think I'll just look for something else. Their language teaching methods are not exactly inspired either, if I wanted to learn a language by sitting in front of a computer I would just buy an online package for 100th the price. I had a free tour of the place and if I already wasn't put off, the demo where I had to sit at a computer with a headset on and listen to someone say 'esta es una casa' 5 times with 2 second intervals between each word really turn me away. No one speaks as slowly as that so what is the point of teaching me that slowly? Certainly no one speaks Spanish that slowly!!

So the search for Spanish classes continues. The problem is they are all either way too short - only 10 weeks, or they cost too much, or they don't start until next year. Boo.

A Scandal

One of my co-workers was fired for misappropriating business documents. Ohno. We've had a problem with internet usage being depleted very quickly in the last month. We thought it was one of the students, turns out it was one of the staff! She had been getting course materials off the server and emailing them to herself. She also emailed herself copies of Diploma certificates from the archives. I assume she intends to replace their names with her own and get a job based on her 'Diploma of Business Management' or whatever else she took. Dodgy. We can't really do anything about it unless a future employer calls us asking to verify the details - which they wouldn't unless they already suspected something.

Bit creepy to think that someone you work with has just been sneaking around stealing things the whole time. People are crap.

Other people's travels

I have been reading the blog of a friend of mine who is travelling in South Ameria. I am not sure when I was last so jealous. Perhaps never. Money is ever so boring, but I sure wish I had some now so I could go travelling! She has been all over the place, sleeping in mud huts with no electricity, no running water, no toilets! She has been learning Spanish in a variety of countries and climbing gorgeous mountain peaks while battling altitude sickness. It all sounds so challenging but divine. I'm glad to be hearing all about it now though, it is motivating me to put those extra dollars away for next year...

Almost gone baby gone

Today I handed up my final uni assignment. Ah, relief. But I know that this time next week I will be bored, so I am looking for something else to do instead. The end of assignments means the end of leaving my bike out the front of the Napier building at the uni too - a good thing because apparently it's a high crime area. Well, everyone who rides a bike expects it to be coveted by some low life at some stage, I am just glad that they didn't manage to walk away with my bike. They had a good attempt though, used bolt cutters or something to try and get through the bike chain. Luckily for me, even cheap bike locks are surprisingly resistant and they were not able to take my lovely Orbea. I thought something was amiss when I came downstairs and my bike was facing a different direction to what I had tied it up in. When I tried to unlock it I saw all the marks on the plastic coated chain. They had mangled the lock so much that I couldn't turn it. I was off to the uni campus security office to get help when I spotted a security dude walking down the stairs towards Napier. When I told him that "someone had attempted to steal my bike." He was all, "Who, where? Let's get em!!" And looked extremely excited indeed and equally disappointed when I told him that this had happened possibly hours ago. He helped me unlock the bike and even offered to escort me off the campus! I said I was fine since it seemed they were more after the bike than me... I thanked him and he replied, "Oh no, it's a pleasure to be of service." I got the feeling that this was the most exciting thing that had happened to him at work for a long long time.

My torch-bearing saviour left and I sorted my panniers out on the racks, went to take off and then realised that the back tyre was locked up. Upon closer inspection it seemed that some damage had been inflicted upon my bike, the gear shifter railing thingo had been twisted against the back tyre thus preventing movement. :( I couldn't budge it back at all so I had to call my bro to pick me and the bike up in his car. The bike just squeezed in, but I had no chance of fitting in there too so I caught the tram home. BONUS, I did get a free tram ride though! The ticket dude never gets down to my end of the tram before my stop. So now I have a broken bike, therefore no transport. A very annoying situation. Without my bike I am very much housebound. My very lovely friend has pulled a bike out of his shed for me to use in the meantime, but for now that is still at his place and I have places to be!

To the shitstabbers who broke my bike I say this; if you can't even steal a bicycle successfully then you truly are talentless and lazy and perhaps it's time to consider suicide, although given your attempt at thievery even this may prove too difficult for you.

Today I bought two pairs of gloves and a beanie. That should keep me warm!

Aluminium Adventures

Last weekend I spent 14 hours bouncing around in a beat up Series 3 longwheel base Landrover. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Having never really experience the luxury of travelling long distances in new cars, the rattling and engine noise that prevents speaking wasn't such a problem. Plenty of landscape to look at, didn't see much wildlife though - aside from the flat variety. Picking up the Landy in the first place was quite an adventure. We hired a car at Melbourne airport and headed out to Bayswater, 25km or so out of the city. It was quite a hectic affair finding our way out there with some dodgy map reading going on from the passenger seat I had a chance to practice my ueys. On the way back into the city following the Landy was even worse. I had no idea where I was going and kept losing the Landy (as if that were possible) due to cars cutting in between us and the constant merging and diverging of traffic between one and two lanes on Toorak Rd. Then he got some lights that I missed and it was all over. Driving: do not miss it.

Once we were on the open road it was a steady 80kmph for us, any faster and the thing would have rattled apart. It was all sweet until some wanker decided that we were driving so slowly purely to piss him off and tailgated us for the entire 4 minutes he was stuck behind us before taking the time while he was overtaking us to raise his middle finger and yell obscenities. And people wonder how a straight stretch of road can pose so many risks. With idiots like this on the road you have to wonder why more people don't die. We can only hope that a speed trap got him at some point. Seriously, did he not just take one look at the car and understand?

So, next weekend, I think a bit of peace and quiet is in order. Too many travels and too much money flying out of my purse. This saturday and sunday I will be at uni all weekend writing my essay. My very last essay ever. Until next time.

Hammock Jo

Images of Vietnam

The colourful displays of fruit at the market.

Here we are!

Roola, AKA The Negotiator bargains hard for some new thongs.

Latchy wearing his Hooray for Carrots T-shirt. He did bring carrots to Vietnam.

Wearing some kind of national get-up. No idea who I am supposed to be.

Interviewed out

Yesterday I had a four hour long ordeal at the hands of graduate recruitment interviewers. First I had to spend 45 minutes figuring out how to set up a week long management course based on some random memos they gave me and a collection of train and taxi fare information. Then I had to complete another set of online verbal and numerical tests. The kind where you get given a chart that talks about share prices and boring things like that and you get asked to determine which year had the greatest share price/profit ratio or some such inane thing. Having not encountered such things as ratios since year 10 maths a long time ago, it was all a bit of a struggle. The calculator sure got a work out! Then there was the panel interview. Three of them sat there and read the questions off a piece of paper and then diligently wrote down every word I said. The questions were so boring, and not all that different from the ones I had to respond to in the initial online application. I left feeling pretty drained and about as confident of receiving a place as I am about winning the lottery next week - given that I don't buy tickets.

After that was over I rode across town for another interview, this one much less confronting. It's at a premedical specialist school, run by a Korean bloke who clearly is quite desperate because he is willing to put me on despite the fact that I have no experience teaching ESL writing. It's good for me because it's experience, but frankly, as one of his students I would be concerned. I was a bit excited because it is extra cash, but in the end it's not that much money so now I am just doing it for 'the experience' - and also because now that uni is over I have nothing to do with myself in the evenings.

This weekend I am going to Melbourne to pick up a car and drive it back to Adelaide. The car in question is a 1983 Landrover. At least, I think it is. The point is, it's really big and tough, it's a real four wheel drive, it has a canopy and random seats in the back since it is ex-military. Less convenience than novelty factor really. MM and I hit upon the idea of getting one a few months ago and have been searching Ebay ever since for a goodie. I like the idea that I can just hose it out every now and then and it's way too impractical to actually use on a regular basis, it's just for those rainy night trips in the middle of winter when cycling really isn't that safe. And given that MM lives so freaking far away, having a car is becoming a convenience that feels like a necessity. BUT, I still maintain my cycling status, not least of which beacuse the Landy is not technically mine since I am way too poor to pay for it and the petrol to power it.

Too bad it's not a long weekend because it would have been nice to stay longer in Melbourne than just one morning. As it is, breakfast in Brunswick St then on the road back home to Adelaide. Well, I can think of worse ways to spend the weekend!

Goodbye essay!

Feeling pretty good. Just finished my first major essay off and sent it to my lecturer. It is by no means a fantastic effort, but it will be plenty to pass me. Now I have 2 weeks to write the next one :) By the way, just got back from Sydney town last night! Spent three days hanging there with MM's bro in Newtown. I've never been to that area of Sydney before, it's pretty funky. I fit right in there with my toe sock and Birkenstocks. It's a good combo, I think I started a trend. I just really didn't want to have to take more than one pair of shoes on holiday with me. Too bad I'm not still in Vietnam :( No photos yet, gotta grab them off my travel companions. There are plenty though, way too many really. When you have a 2GB memory card you tend to go a bit mental. I brought home way too many souvenirs; a hat, a T-shirt (actually 2 Tshirts, one that I didn't want but got harassed into buying), a traditional Vietnamese pants/dress thingo and a dress I had made in Hoi An. It's hard getting things made, not only do you have to pick a pattern you think will suit you, but the fabric that you think will suit that pattern too. Very involved. Not sure if I am wild about the result, but I will wear it nonetheless.

Bit annoyed that I got trumped in the packing light department. I left with my little grey suitcase on wheels which is small enough to take aboard the plane. I hate checking in luggage. MM turns up with 2 huge bags that weigh an absolute ton each. The Negotiator rocked up with the Mother Ship as it became known, a vast thing about the size of the suitcase I took to Japan when I moved there. Unfortunately for me I was outdone at the last by Carrotman with his single backpack contaning nought more than 2 Bonds singlets, a pair of thongs, undies (I assume), a pair of pants, pair of shorts, a toothbrush, a camel coloured waffle pattern robe and a touch football. Now that is light travel.

Modest as I am, even I feel the need for more than 2 changes of shirt for a week long trip. Most hilarious was that throughout the trip he felt it necessary to shed the pants because they were weighing him down and left them in a hotel room! Clearly the footy and robe were just an attempt to fill up the backpack which would have looked suspiciously empty if not for those 2 voluminous items. Our light-travelling companion amused us further by purchasing and consuming during the flight to Ho Chi Minh a flask of whisky from duty-free. I wonder if he didn't have the right idea after all since he did spend the majority of his flight being pleasantly floppy headed while I was most uncomfortable despite the many distractions my Inflight Entertainment Unit attempted to give me. Why do they still insist on showing films where people mostly loiter in dark places and communicate in whispers? We're on an AEROPLANE, we can hardly hear ourselves think, let alone some bloke whispering in a dark alley on a tiny fingerprint smuged screen!

Anyway, aside from that, Jetstar was great. I love aeroplane food. Even if I'm asleep,which is tough to do on a plane, I will wake up to eat whatever they send me. All the little compartments with food in em are just way too tempting. It's like a little bento box.

Saigon Jo

It's the last day of my holiday in Vietnam and I am very sad to be going home. the week has gone way too quickly and there have been countless antics along the way. We started out this time last week searching for the hotel we had made a booking for over the internet. We found it, only to discover they had no rooms left, but they quickly sorted us out with a neighbouring hotel for the same price. Same same but different. Kinda the way things are around here. You certainly can't be in any kind of hurry. The second day we spent a good portion of our time sitting in travel agencies sorting out flights to Danang. After lunch I hit the sack for a long siesta but apparently our travel companion carried on bargaining and attemtping to drive the air ticket prices down and at one point had three different places booking tickets for us. Not surprisingly he was eventually told that there were no seats left. At one point there were possibly three Jos flying to Danang. In the end he got a very good deal for $2 more expensive than the original quote. But he enjoyed himself tremendously.

In Danang more trouble when we couldn't get on a train - all full apprently. So we spent a good 10 minutes nagging a taxi driver to get us to Hue on the cheap. He eventually relented, but only after the boys had hassled him for long enough to earn a punch from any driver in Oz. Yes, there are way too many details to go into here, but basically the trip has consisted of the three of us laughing at The Negotiators attempts to drive down prices everywhere we go. OK, i admit that sometimes it was getting on my nerves, especially when it was just a can of drink that was already only costing us 40 cents! But I have to say, overall, we all got along very well. Even though I was surrounded by 3 boys, I don't regret coming along! But one week is not long enough. I still haven't tried the breakfast staple, Pho or been in a ride on a cyclo. I did have a dress made in Hoi An though, and it remains to be seen whether that was worth while... I went diving in absolutely perfect conditions and saw some crazy fish, and got down to 30 metres.

But now it's home time :( I will definitely be back next year!

Silly government people

Tomorrow morning I fly to Vietnam. I am very excited. Too excited to study, which is a shame because that is exactly what I should be doing. Last time I went to Vietnam I had the most fantastic time. I'm hoping this trip will be just as fun. I have a list of places to visit, mostly eating and drinking holes! I want to try and get some clothes made over there, just to see if it's worth while. All I need to do before I leave is finish this essay. Hmm. Might go for lunch and see how I feel.

In other news, the APS has faulted again and granted me an interview for a Graduate Position in Canberra. What are they thinking? Anyway, now I have to study up on the department I suppose, they like it when you at least know who the current minister is! Not that I am at all intersted in moving to Canberra, too cold and miserable for me. Maybe they'll make a special provision and let me stay in Adelaide? Ha. Anyway, I have three hours of testing followed by an interview. That doesn't sound stressful at all does it? Now I am definitely going to shave my head again, don't want them to think they're getting someone who is happy to tow the line no matter what...

I'm going to Vietnam in 2 days!!!!

Extensions rock!

Last night my lecturer gave us an extenstion on our assignments because we are running behind schedule and he wants to give us an extra lecture which means that we can't be expected to complete the assignment on time. Oh yeah. It's not reducing my stress much at the moment because I still have the other trickier assignment to write before I go away, but at least when I get back things will be a bit more relaxed.

It's a boy!

My friend (who featured in a photo I posted a while ago from Disco Bowls) has had her baby! She had him at 1pm ish yesterday and they are all doing well. Very exciting stuff, will have to go and have a look at the kid soon I guess. I got them some clothes etc a few weeks ago so will wrap that up with a bottle of red for mum cos I think she really needs it after all those dry months! Good luck with the world little Luka.

In other baby matters; MM has decided to adopt some kittens that were born near his sister's place. He told me about them a while ago and decided to grab them on the weekend, thinking it might be nice for his little girl to have a cuddly pet. I'm thinking kittens like small fluffy things that are just cute and nothing much else. Turns out these things are pretty much fully grown now and have spent the first months of their lives just on the run outside. They are feral in other words. One was cowering in the laundry sink - apparently this was the knarly one, the other had jumped down behind the washing machine immediately after release from its cardboard box transporter and hadn't been seen since. When they tried to catch the knarly one at his sister's place it was practically climbing the walls and walking on the ceiling to esacpe them. Cuddly they are not. Maybe they'll settle in after a few weeks when they get used to people more, but for the moment all they do is hide in the laundry.

Today = Tightarse Tuesday so I am off to the flicks after uni tonight. Either gonna see Moliere or Gone Baby Gone I reckon. I've never been much of a movie buff, and lately I've found it really difficult to even drag myself along for things I would normally enjoy. Something about sitting in the dark wasting all that time. I guess it's just bcause I dont' really have time to waste at the moment. But it'll probably be a good thing to think about someone else's life for a while!

The Wiley Coyotes

Boring Sunday

Ohno, same old story I'm afraid. I'm back at uni and under the gun with these 2 assignments. One of them I am not so worried about because it's right up my alley, but the other one is driving me nuts. It's all gone back to like last semester when I had to produce lesson plans and justify them with reference to all the crap that's written about learning. Boring boring boring. The other essay I get to choose anything I like so I've gone with an analysis and comparison of the Rudd and Nelson Sorry speeches. Plenty of material there alright!

Today was trials for touch footy. Bit of a laugh really, we just played a few scratchies and puffed ourselves out. Thankfully it didn't rain and afterwards there was a BBQ on with vego sausages too :) Just as well cos I forgot to bring my soup with me. We'll see what the results are later I guess.

Scones

Last night I walked home from uni after a very long and tedious lecture and decided I needed scones. They really are just the best straight out of the oven. They don't take very long to make either which is good cos I was fairly well ravenous. After listening to 3 hours worth of presentations about things I am not particularly interested in I was ready for bed. Thankfully it was the last such lecture and also the last time we would need to work with the bloody annoying mature age student who makes everything into a competition. It was actually quite funny last night because his favourite English college in London was the subject of a critique by another class member and he wasn't happy. He is constantly dropping the name of this college into his comments in class, as though it is supposed to be impressive. They had published an online grammar tutorial which our class mate deemed - "more useful than most but still boring". He was pratically choking on his own tongue when she said that. All through her presentation he felt the need to interrupt and make excuses for the things she was picking on as not up to scratch. "Oh, but they acknowledge in the home page that it is impossible to cover all that and so it seem lacking..." "Oh, but when they built the page they had so-and-so working there who..." There wasn't a pair of eyes that wasn't rolling in that classroom.

Best thing is, I got a better mark on my assignment than him! Of coures I "accidentally" let slip my grade. Moohahahaaaa

The Cold State

I spent my weekend in Melbourne with my mate from Canberra. It was cold, but it did not rain in the end so I wasn't justified in carrying around my brolly all day after all. Eventually I did leave it on a tram which was pretty much inevitable I guess. We stayed out very late on Friday night after arriving at our accommodation at around 11pm. Had a few cocktails, a couple of shots and chatted up a storm. On the way to the backpackers we were hassled relentlessly by drunk people who found my suitcase a beacon of irresistable proportions. One guy even lifted it up and started carrying it along with this look of wonder on his face, anyone would have thought he'd found the elixar of life! Eventually we made it though and settled into our dimly lit and over-heated room in the Greenhouse Backpackers on Little Flinders Lane. It's cute how all the main roads in Melbourne have a Little version running parallel.

Needless to say, we did not get up in time to take advantage of the free breakfast so headed out to see what we could find. There were some great little cafes right nearby so we had breaky there before jumping on a tram to check out St Kilda and find a certain anarchist restaurant. We sure did a lot of walking, but made up for it by eating too much... Had some Churros with chocolate dip at this crazy chocolate shop. We need some of those in Adelaide I reckon. Melbourne's shops and cafes are just way more adventurous with respect to design and decoration. The best places we found were tiny little holes with the "kitchen" (generally just a bench packed with ingredients and a microwave) right next to the tables, all operated by one person. Everything just feels more homey and welcoming than here where mostly you feel like you are eating in a fish bowl with glass all around and people looking in at you constantly. I guess Melbourne jsut feels more personal in general because it has a lot more street art hanging around. Everywhere you look you can find evidence of someone having tried to perk something up by painting it, or leaving their message. And I am not talking about graffiti.

Saturday arvo and we had hit the wall. We were well tired by the time we made it to Brunswick St and so headed for the first cosy cafe we could find and ordered a bottle of champers. Several hours and bottles of wine later and we were parked at the Vegie Cafe eating the most fabulous burritos and pizza ever. Seriously good food. Lucky for the the early start meant an early finish and we were home tucked up in bed not long after midnight. The ride home was when I lost my umbrella. All freaking day I carried it around, only to lose it at the last moment! Doh! Luckily it didn't rain on Sunday either so I didn't miss it much.

Sunday morning we had a bit of an early start and went for a walk along the river. There was some kind of charity walk/run on to raise money for breast cancer research so there were thousands of people dressed in pink everywhere. Then we remembered that it was mother's day. Spent a few minutes getting claustrophobic while trying to push through the crowds at a market. My mate found a souvenir for her housemates though; a mini cacti in a tiny pot with a magnet attached to it so you can stick it on the fridge. We had decided the day before that we would have cake for lunch, so we set off to find a place with good cake. There weren't nearly as many nice places as in St Kilda but we eventually found a piece of Toblerone cake that sufficed. Unfortunately that meant it was going home time for my friend so we walked down to the train station and parted ways. Now all I had to do was kill time which I managed quite well by seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall and eating at a Japanese restaurant. I was pretty tuckered out and went to bed at about 9pm.

The final excitement of the trip was yet to come though; this morning I awoke at 4am got ready to leave the backpackers and be on my way to catch the 5am bus to the airport for a 6:20 flight. Early. But not early enough - I forgot that my mobile was still on Adelaide time so I ended up missing the 5am bus and had to wait 30 minutes for the next one which made me late for check-in. I raced into the Tiger departure hall just as someone was yelling at a massive long line of people "Anyone else going to Adelaide?" Yep, that's me. She gave me a huge telling off for being late (7 minutes late she said, which I thought was pretty good all things considered) and said I was "lucky to be checked in at all". I didn't bother saying anything because as far as she's concerned late is late - whether by amusing mistake or because I am tardy by nature and wanted to piss her off. Anyway, I made it on my flight after all :) And now here I am, back at work just like i never left...

A wee holiday

I'm heading to Melbourne tonight! Gonna meet my long lost mate and have a great time! Not sure what we are going to do, but I imagine a fair bit of wine and yummy food will be on the agenda. The only thing I really want to do is head to an anarchist restaurant called Lentil As Anything. It operates on the assumption that people will pay what they think is fair for food they receive. If they can't afford to pay anything they don't, and they come back when they can. Sounds ludicrous, but it actually works. The only time they really struggle is when the corporates jump on the bandwagon and come and eat for free but then never come back for a second meal. Why is it alway the people who can msot afford to pay who don't?

And my friend's only desire is to visit the Art Gallery so I think we can cover both those in two days. Probably there will be some reluctant window shopping - Brunswick St always tempts the purse out of the bag though... Pretty certain I will be very very tired indeed on Monday!

Waiting

I really dislike waiting. Not all kinds of waiting - just the waits that have no end in sight, and come out of the blue. Like when you think something's going to happen and then it just randomly doesn't with no explanation or clue as to if it's simply delayed or cancelled. In fact nothing is surer to piss me off than to stand me up. It's basically the only time when I'm almost incapable of sticking to my general principle of calming down before "saying anything". Sometimes people have good reasons for standing you up; like if they died on their way to meeting you. Other times people have fairly good reasons; like if they're mobile phone went flat and they were stranded in their broken down car 10km from home. But most of the time people seem to have shit reasons, or even better, no reason at all! Shit reasons are the ones that blame other people. I just do not understand why so many people let other people, people who seem to have little respect and certainly no idea of what is reasonable, dictate the terms of their existence. Why are we scared of these people? But no reason at all reasons are the worst of all; "Sorry I'm late...". That's it? Being late is one of the rudest things I can think of because it imposes your own lack of time management skills on others. I don't care what you are doing with your life, just let it not affect my life too thanks. People pleasers are the worst at this, they are incapable of just saying "Actually, I don't have time to do that." So instead they piss you off by saying they can and then don't. I'd rather have the first person around, at least then I wouldn't spend longer than I care to recall as I currently do; waiting.

Milk and stuff

Got rained on big time this morning! It was wet wet wet an I was running late so no time to catch the bus. By the time I got to King William I was already pretty soggy, and then had to wait for the bloody lights forever because the firies had been called and turned all their lights green. The most annoying part is that they were more than likely going to a false alarm. It seems that almost everyday they come screaming down towards the uni - I have never seen any smoke...

This week I ran out of milk for my cereal so I've been using juice. It's actually not bad and I might continue - only problem is that without all that dairy in my tummy I get hungrier quicker. Being hungry makes it hard to concentrate on not killing my students when they ask me for the umpteenth time how to save to their flash drive. ARGH!!

Mr Right

Well this week just flew by. Back at work, back at uni and faffing around the house and next thing you know it's the weekend again.. Now I have to really get cracking on my final assignments for this semester because in only 4 weeks I am off to Vietnam! Groan. Re writing more essays that is, not about leaving the country! That's great fun :) This week we have to do a presentation about multimedia language learning courses so I've spent all morning looking up Spanish online language courses and discovered that you really do get what you pay for.
Unfortunately our groups for this particular course have been reassigned for the next 6 weeks and we have "acquired" a new member; the annoying mature age student. Oh man, are we in for a whole lot of trouble. He's been teaching English for years so seems to consider himself some sort of expert in the field and just spends his time fighting all the different methods that are introduced in the classroom. I wonder why he bothered paying for the course if he didn't want to learn anything new about language teaching? He just can't be wrong, and if he does start to be wrong, he simply changes the subject and picks on something else instead. Luckily the group work isn't worth much in regards to grades.

Obviously it is good to try and maintain a degree of objectivity in dealing with people's suggestions and ideas no matter whether you personally like them or not, but when the person has a seemingly deliberately grating personality it does make it very difficult. He wonders why he gets so much attitude from people when he can't say anything without somehow turning it into an example of how much better he is than everyone else. The only good thing I can say about him now is that when he pompously handed me his "business card" in class the other day it was chockablock full of that over-used font Papyrus. So another point to me (have I explained the Papyrus-spot Game? Basically MM and I get a point for every time we find Papyrus in use in the real world. Currently I am winning by about 18 points after finding 20 examples of Papyrus in Cairns).

Pics of Cairns+Pt Douglas

Here I am about to jump into the water again and do my snorkelling dive to prove that I can hold my breath underwater... I am already freezing cold at this point. I'm wearing only a stinger suit which, when soggy, does nothing to keep the heat in.

And now I am all kitted up in the scuba gear ready for a dive. It was HEAVY. This boat had no wetsuits so I was freezing even though the water was a pretty nice 27 degrees. Don't think I'll be doing much diving in SA where it's much colder...

Now this is more like it... The boat up at Pt Douglas provided wetsuits as well as stinger suits. When I got cold on my first dive they gave me an extra vest with a hood - then I was warm :)

This is the snake I very nearly trod on while walking next to a creek. It's all about getting close to nature aye!

View the world from inside a Moke. Driving around with the wind in your hair is pretty fun, I can see the attraction. But only on very warm days...

Mossman Gorge.

Crystal clear but very chilly. It took us a while to get in alright!

But once in it was lovely, we swam out to some rocks andmade like lizards in the sun, which didn't help when we had to get back into the water to return to shore!

There we are! Wearing our daggy matching T-shirts (the only clean thing left on the last day) which were gifted to us at breakfast in Pt Douglas by a promotions team. So I did end up with a souvenir after all.

A view of 4 Mile Beach from a lookout in Pt Douglas. We did walk the length of it and it is a long way on sand. Couldn't swim there though; stingers in the water :( It was pretty gusty down on the beach anyway and we spent most of our time in Pt Douglas inland at waterholes when swimming. Lovely little town though - watched plenty of rugby on the big screen at the pub. I can now tell the difference between League and Union. Ohno.

Moving to Queensland...

I am back from Cairns and Pt Doulgas and all things warm and wonderful. How cold and brown Adelaide seems in comparison. I spent 2 weeks having a fabulous time, got my dive license, wandered through the Daintree, saw the Great Barrier Reef, fanged around on scooters, went swimming in crytal clear waters in Mossman Gorge and drove with the wind in my (now very short) hair in a Moke! Besides that, plenty of sunning by the waters edge and eating icecream, drinking beer and generally doing things that are bad for my health. I did go for a walk along 4 mile beach though - which obviously is quite long. The diving was great fun, although I was freezing even in tropical waters. The second dive boat I went on last Thursday gave me a wetsuit though so that helped a lot!

Things I saw under water:
Sharks
Sea turtles
Clown fish
Leafy sea dragon
Lion fish
Sting rays
Sea cucumbers
Massive clams!
One of those nasty shellfish that kills you if you pick it up...

And many other things I don't know the name of! I have pictures, but they will have to wait until I am near a faster computer. Hehee, holidays are fun.

I'm in Cairns!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar :)

Daylight Savings

We all gained an extra hour's sleep last night. Hip hip hooray! Actually, I am using my extra hour to write essays with... Or to write this blog post, I'm not sure.

Yesterday I went to Harbourtown and looked for some cheap shirts for work. I also tried on a few sunnies cos I have lost my latest pair (again). When trying on sunnies I managed to poke myself right in the eye with the price tag attached to them. Ouch. At first I thought it was OK, but when I left the shop my eye just started weeping and wouldn't stop, I must have looked like a very distraught shopper. I did find some cheap shirts though so it was worth riding down there, even including the eye poke.

This time next week I will be in Cairns booking scuba diving courses and lolling on the beach (providing it's not raining). Yeah, bring that on.

70s Disco Bowling Jo

Me and my pregnant friend.

Goa a no go

To expand upon that which was briefly mentioned in a previous post; trip to India is off :( Yes, due to a whole bunch of red tape nonsense MM cannot get a visa before we leave because his passport is only valid for 4 months after we return rather than 6 months. Why on earth he needs 6 months validity for a 2 week trip is beyond me, but there you go. So now Goa and India and all things exciting have been postponed until September 20th. Aaaargh!!

Well, we couldn't very well doing nothing instead of trotting all over the world, so we are now heading to Cairns instead. It will neccessarily be a very tight trip $$ wise, but luckily all we really need is just a couple of weeks without circumstantial crap getting in way of spending time with each other. I'm getting excited about it, I am. Ijust have ten thousand words worth of essays to be writing before I leave in 10 days. EEkk. But, surprising myself, I did sit down yesterday at uni and write an entire essay. Obviously it's just the first draft, but the fact that all those words are out and on the page and just need toggling is very encouraging. It's fun to get things done quickly - all my classmates haven't even started writing it yet! I'll be rubbing that in alright ;)

India off

:( Yes, my trip to India has been postponed again. Man, when we finally get there it had better be the best holiday ever! This time we were all organised, had our vaccinations (at a cost of around $400), had our flights paid for, had excitement building, I had my visa... but MM can't get his. Gaaaaagh! So annoying. Apparently you need at least 6 months validity on your passport before they'll issue the visa, MM's passport runs out in less than 6 months. He can't get a new one issued before we go because he is a British

Visit from afar

I had some mates over from Japan! They were only here for one weekend, but we had a good time. They were a bit tired I think, but I forced them around Adelaide :) We went to Gorge Wildlife Park and held a koala and touched a snake. We wandered around the Central Markets and had brekky there. We walked through North Adelaide while I was getting more vaccinations for India (although they are now unneccessay: more on that saga later). We went out to the Red Ochre for dinner and ate kangaroo and emu, we went to Glenelg and had a lovely warm dip in the early evening. The following day we had a nice long lie in before heading into town to wander through the art gallary and down Rundle Mall. They flew back to Melbourne at about 2:30 and that was that! Very jam packed. Here are some pics:

New Hair

Last week sometime, or the week before maybe... Not sure when exactly, but at some point recently I cut my hair. It was Shave for a Cure Day and I wandered past a tent set up in Rundle Mall and thought, "Why not?" I don't think it looks too bad at all. And now I can get ready even faster in the mornings!! Honestly I am just loving it, no shampoo, no hair products, no hair dryer or straightener, it's just easy. Although now the weather's getting a bit colder I am realising I will need to get a few more beanies :)