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).