Monday, July 31, 2006

Religion

Ok. Ms Fits mentioned it first, but I am totally hijacking her idea.

The census is on next week, and I think it's time we in Australia had a new religion: BLOGGING. That's right people. Show how much you care. When you fill in your religion on your form, write blogging.

That's it people. Spread the word.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Finally.

It's about FUCKING time.... that's all i can say.

Friday, July 28, 2006

lurve in a cup

I absolutely, totally, utterly and completely adore coffee. I used to hate it: when I was in year 12 at school, the trendy thing to do was to drink coffee in the year 12 common room. It was a privilege to have it there, so you were SO not cool if you didn’t take advantage of it… I, however, drank milo at recess. I didn’t like coffee.

Somewhere along the line though, “going for coffee” turned from having hot chocolates into actually drinking real coffee. Now I am in love with it. It’s not that I am addicted to it, or can’t live without it. I don’t NEED it to get started in the morning. No, I just like the taste.

I can completely sympathise with people who don’t like coffee at all (there aren’t many of you around…even my dear eldest sister drinks a very weak latte occasionally), but I absolutely can’t understand people who put sugar in their coffee. It makes the coffee taste like sweet milk, instead of the beautiful, rich but not too bitter taste. Don’t get me wrong, I love sweet things, but not coffee. Or tea for that matter.

So without further ado, here is the list of things I used not to like, but now find myself regularly partaking of:

Coffee
Tea
Red wine
Alcohol in which you can taste the alcohol
Brussell sprouts (not regularly, but I do like them a lot more than I used to)


And the things that I still don’t like, but would like to like, but can’t stand the thought of:

Seafood.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

To go or not to go?

I love Australia. I particularly love Melbourne. I wrestle often with myself about being a very “home” person: not necessarily being IN my home… but being near it, or at least HAVING a home! However I also love to travel. I am completely enamoured with the idea of living overseas for a couple of years; Travelling around, living out of a pack, meeting 26 million different types of people. Part of me though, knows that I couldn’t do it for any length of time. At least, not by myself, and not unless I was staying in the one place for at least a large part of the time…

I lived in Canada for nearly 4 months…after the first month (2 weeks of travelling around and 2 weeks of looking for a house!), I was settled and living in the one house. I liked that, really I did. The thing is, by the time I came home, I was really ready to come home, but after I’d been home for a few days, I was ready to go back again. I wonder how long I would have lasted if I’d actually decided to stay for a year as I wanted to after the first month, instead of caving to pressure from my parents and coming home to go back to uni.

So I ponder the future… will I be content with going overseas for a few weeks each year, a month at the most? Or will I get to 40 and wish that I’d done the backpacking around Europe for a year bizzo? Is it better to do a trip every year for 3 weeks or a month, and keep working and earning money and working towards “grown-up” things like a house and my career? Am I missing out on an important rite of passage? Or is it just something that’s fun to do if you can?

NB This was all provoked by the Jetstar sale (this time at least!)…$450 return to Thailand. Do I want to go there for a cheap week? Do I want to go back to Japan and spend my entire savings on another 3 weeks skiing? Do I want to save up all my leave and go overseas for a couple of months at the end of next year? I don’t know. I just don’t know.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

it's all about someone else... for once.

Today i am not doing a proper post. I am going to direct you towards some loverly people who all write much better than I do, whose blogs i used to enjoy reading every day without fail, who inspire, humour me and entertain me. Unfortunately, due to my current state of employ (and the fact that whilst at work i have recently had to do a rather inordinate amount actual work) have been unable to enjoy them every day. Therefore, to make up for the fact that I can't love them QUITE so much as I'd like to, I would like you all to love them more. Thankyou for making up for my deficiencies, dear friends.

www.pathofmostresistance.blogspot.com
www.fullyfunctionalandroid.blogspot.com
www.richardwatts.blogspot.com
www.melbgirltakeonthings.blogspot.com
www.sublime-ation.blogspot.com
www.thekevinbaconexperiment.blogspot.com
www.keepitfoolish.blogspot.com
www.rumblingkeithy.blogspot.com
www.reasonsyouwillhateme.blogspot.com
www.tv-is-my-life.blogspot.com (including the genius Big Blogger... did I mention I'm a star?)

Thankyou, that is all.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

That's not me. That is.

About an hour ago I got tears in my eyes, and was suddenly overcome by sadness. I was thinking about my dearest companion, Toby. Now don’t start thinking I’ve gone and found myself a boyfriend. No, Toby is my dog. He has been living with my Grandpa for 6 months while we were in various stages of moving, living in an apartment, and putting finishing touches (ie a back yard and a front fence) on our new house. I miss Toby desperately. He is a fluffy little hug ball, and he is the person I turn to when I don’t want to talk to anyone but I want someone to understand. Sometimes I just long to be understood.

I was talking with a relatively new but already very good friend yesterday, telling him about some problems I had with someone at work, who said something that caused me to burst into tears on the spot. Apparently, this was surprising. He was under the impression that I’m not the kind of person who bursts into tears, but rather makes a smart-arse retort, and gets on with my life without letting much affect me. I guess, to be fair, this is the side of me he’s seen. Really, this is the side of me that most people ever see. A tough exterior covering a sensitive soul, my mum says, and we all know mums are never wrong… right people?

Funnily enough though, I cry at the drop of a hat, and I’m one of THE most sensitive people I know. At times I get incredibly angry, and frustrated, and deeply, deeply depressed. I get lonely, I’m defiant, I can be hyperactive. I’ve cried for a week solid, and I’ve been high as a kite for 3 weeks straight. I get excited, I get involved, I love, I hate. I’m passionate, I’m hilarious. Oh, and I’m modest. But that’s me. I am who I am, and I don’t know if there will ever be one person in the world who understands all of that in me, but I’m not about to change for someone else.

a genius lives and a star in the making

Bevis is a genius.











And i'm a star. I'm like TOTALLY going to be on Neighbours after this.

Monday, July 24, 2006

ohhh harro! good to see you again brog-readers (come on people... Team America... get with the programme!).

Well i'm back. It's unfortunate, but it's true.

Actually, i'm feeling quite good about being back at work. Had I been talking about it at 7.30 this morning when I got to work however, you might well have heard quite a different story. I'm feeling quite alive and bizzy-bee for the moment though. I had a fantastic week. Not much snow at all, which was a shame, but there was an extreme quantity of frivolity and misbehaving.

This week I:
-did my first ever sudoku... i quite like them I've decided, but not enough so that I would spend my spare time doing them instead of reading or sleeping. I am closer to understanding the current world-wide obsession with them though.
-realised just why some men have such unrealistic expectations of women and their appearance and attitude. The guys i was staying with bought a copy of FHM's 100th issue, which had the top 100 of just about everything ever discussed in the magazine. Prior to this I have never really been a woman who yabbers on about objectification and guy's attitudes towards women etc, but this opened my eyes. The women in there are stunning, but the way they are talked to, and talked about (which is of course encouraged by the interviewees) is astounding. I was actually shocked. I know that it's not going to change anything, but it was as disgusting as it was amusing. Needless to say I didn't point this out to the boys (they wouldn't have listened, so why waste my breath?!)
-played dodge-the-nuffy. 6 lifts open, 26 million beginners, none of whom had control of their chosen snow sliding equipment, but who obviously felt compenent enough to launch themselves down a slippery slope.
-broke one of my poles. i was quite sad. my 2000 yen pair from Japow, that i bought LAST time i broke a pole!
-actually spent a day of my snow holiday in beechworth, which was lovely. I went to a second hand bookshop, went to the salvos and bought some BRILLIANT tapes for my car (I haven't installed my stereo from the Bogan Beast yet), and of course went to the famous bakery.
-didn't sleep a whole lot
-heard many renditions of "i'm ronereeeeee" over our two-way radios! I feel sorry for anyone on the lift with any of our group!

oh dear. I'd better get back to the massive mountain of work that seems to have appeared while i've been gone... i love holidays, but now i need another one to recover!!!

Friday, July 14, 2006

farewell (temporarily at least)

I've been in such a fantasmagorically brilliant mood all day. Who knows why?



...





...




Anybody?





...




Ok. i'll give you a hint. It's because as of 6.45 this evening, I don't have to work for 9 days.




Ok. so that wasn't really a hint, that was more giving you the answer.

yep, That's right. 9 WHOLE days off. I'm going away for 7 of them. There's not much snow, so i can't say i'm going skiing, but it sounds just wrong to say i'm going drinking for a week, however realistic this is! I intend to spend much time drinking myself silly, relaxing, and re-learning to ski well switch (backwards), and do more little tricks.

Please don't miss me too much even though I promise not to post until next monday. Well actually that's not true... i am taking my laptop, and may well post. That's assuming of course, that i'm not too busy sleeping, relaxing, and just generally having fun.

So wish me luck on my 5 hour long drive after 12 hours of work, i'm pretty sure i should still be alive by midnight.

adieu my friends, see you in a week.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

B.East

Well... i've decided that since my terrible, awful, shocking track record of saying I'm going to turn up to trivia at the Brunswick East on Tuesday nights and having not once yet showed up, I'm going to stop saying that I'm going to attend. That way, when I do unexpectedly arrive one day*, everybody will be so shocked that they fall off their chairs (whether by shock or drunkenness some combination of each matters neither here nor there), and will shower me with hugs and kisses** in their gratitude that I have chosen to grace them with my presence.

Tuesdays are just a TERRIBLE day for me... but eventually I'll make it. This i will promise (just not when).

Sincere apologies for keeping you all guessing, it doesn't mean i love you any less.

*This will not be next week, because I will be far far away on a week's well-deserved (in my opinion) holiday.
**MsKP you still owe me a dirty disco pash

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

100 (and 3) posts

For once I want to be the car crash, not always just the traffic jam.

In other news, I recently passed the 100 post milestone. I didn't even really notice it at the time... i'd just like to say thanks a bunch to everyone who reads, and a HUGE big bunch to everyone who comments... you guys can change my day :)

Monday, July 10, 2006

I.Am.Not.Stupid.

There is an irritating little man who is acting as a sales consultant at my work at the moment. He is probably a nice guy, he just has a terrible affliction: he talks down to everyone. He doesn't just talk down to me, he talks down to everybody here. We are paying a fortune for the privilege of being spoken to like we're morons. I'm not happy about it.

Never mind that the guy ABSOLUTELY does not understand my role here, and seems to think I have countless hours spare to do his whim.
Never mind that I can't do most of the things he asks me to do because i just dont' have the technical knowledge (hey, I wasn't hired for my engineering know-how).
Never mind that he charges us for every minute he spends on the phone to us and talking to us.
Never mind that he is prone just to show up, or call and want to while away the hours on the phone (I'm sure he's just getting his months billable hours up).
When it comes down to it, i don't really care about all of that. I care that he treats me like I'm stupid because i'm young, and i'm a woman. I want to thump him and his bushy eyebrows into the ground and THEN ask him how he likes his coffee.

Friday, July 07, 2006

They make it for me.

One of the ski forums i regularly visit has a thread where everybody has posted their favourite photos from the last few years. Some of them are absolutely amazing... there are so many talented photographers out there, and in my mind, there is no better subject to photograph. Looking at them has made me somewhat wistful though. It made me realise something I hadn't ever really thought about before.

I adore skiing, as anybody who has been within 10 feet of me in the last 5 years (and even most people that haven't) knows. However, the more I do it, the more I realise that it's not ONLY the freedom I feel when I'm out on a snow covered mountain, with nothing to do but point down and fly.

Skiing represents some of the best, happiest, most fun-filled moments, days, weeks and months of my life. Many of those times are due to who I was with: people who have the ability to turn a completely shitty situation into something hilarious.

A few years ago, on my first day of a week's skiing, I fell quite bizarrely and, i'm still not quite sure, but I managed to crack my sternum with my own knees. I was driven by one awesome chick down to the hospital. The doctor knew there was no point in telling me not to ski, so he instead issued me with some panadol and a severe warning to be careful. The rest of the week was spent in enormous amounts of pain, not because it hurt to breathe or move, but because my beautiful friends took it upon themselves to try to make me laugh. Continuously. Now anyone who has ever broken a rib, or heaven forbid cracked their sternum will know, laughing (next to coughing and sneezing) is one of THE most painful activities in which you can partake. However, what I remember from that week is this: heh heh heh heh owwwwwwww. I remember the laughing, and that they tried to make me laugh. I remember everybody taking special care of me, that they woudln't let me cook or wash any dishes, that they wouldn't let me carry my own skis up the millions of stairs to our lodge. I remember that they cared. That i had an awesome week, despite at times being hardly able to move.

People like this are hard to come by. And to be able to enjoy their company in an environment like that, is a blessing indeed, even for an aetheist.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

It's a goddamn famine.

So... I've just been reading about the Purple Patch. I'd never heard of this phenomenon before... surprising really, since I've been experiencing one.

So apparently it's either feast or famine... the trouble is... i don't have any shortage of guys who WOULD sleep with me... I've just got to the point where I don't want just any guy. I don't want random pashes and casual sex... i want a relationship.

Are my standards too high? Is there such thing as a guy who will ever meet my standards AND likes me back? Should I lower my standards?

I have a terrible habit of becoming so friendly with guys i "like," that we go way beyond the point where anything could ever happen between us, because we're such good "mates." I know that everybody says the best relationships are based on friendships, but I'm just not the sort of person that can start something like that. Which leaves me in a terribly awfully horribly difficult position... don't be TOO friendly (which is entirely against my nature), so as not to ruin my chances of being able to make a move there, OR be doomed to a life of wonderful mates and friendships with guys (most of my friends are guys), and be the eternally single girl.

NB. i know it's not all as terrible as this... i'm just feeling the loneliness at the moment. I mean, i just got an email about erectile solutions, and there's not even anybody I can have a "not needed here" joke with.

so sad.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Normalcy. Or lack of it.

I work a lot. Really. A lot. I recently realised that from Sunday night until Friday night, I usually do absolutely nothing social. I start work at 8am, I finish work at 8.30pm, I go to the gym, I go home and I go to bed. I’m a very social person, but I struggle even to find time to talk to my friends during the week… unless it involves msn during the day at work!

This made me wonder. Is this normal? Going out on a school night is just impossible for me these days. I feel like I’m getting old. I’m 22 ferchrissake. TWENTY.TWO.YEARS.OLD. Not forty. I should be able to roll in to bed at 3 or 4am and get up at 7 and go to work and be ok. Shouldn’t I? I mean, I used to do it. A LOT. Too much probably, but lots of people I know who are my age and older do it all the time. They go out, they party, they go to work.

I guess the thing these days is that I’m not just working in a retail store with a bunch of people I’m friends with. I don’t just have to rock up to a uni lecture for a couple of hours and pretend to look like I’m awake. I have a “proper” job, in a “proper” office, and I have to do “proper” work and I work 12 or 13 hour days. Every day of the week. That’s right, EVERY DAY. So perhaps it’s not normal that I don’t go out, but I’ve never really much cared for being normal.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

I never really MEANT to disappear...

OH MY GOD. why didn't anybody tell me the earth was flat. I fell off the edge and it took me over a week to get back!!! Well. I’ve been absent for a fair while now. Crazy busy – ridiculous amounts of work, plus extra teaching for this music festival. It was really quite an honour to be asked to teach – I was by far the youngest and I’m quite sure the most inexperienced teacher there out of about 120 teachers. Hard work, keeping groups of 5 and 6 year olds interested in what you want them to do, plus pleasing their parents! PLUS trying to fit in a normal number of 9-5 job work hours also. Concerts and dinners at night, and this was supposed to be my easy week of no teaching during school holidays!!

Well the biggest news I have is probably that I bought a car – a Honda CRV. I’ll put up some pictures of him when I get him, which will probably (fingers crossed hopefully) be this afternoon. Yippeeeeee. It’s bizarre – my best friend bought the same car on the same day, so we’ll be twins. Oh wait, I already have a twin. Hmm.

I’m glad that school is back now, I’ll have some regular money again, and I’m back into a routine. I really suffer when I have different things happening at different times every day.

I’m very excited because we have a new engineer at work, and he is 25. yes that’s right. TWENTY FIVE. As in LESS THAN FORTY. I am no longer the sole spring chicken in the office. He’s also been living with us for the last couple of weeks, and he’s fun to have around – not to mention easy on the eye. If anyone knows of any nice, relatively normal people who are looking for a house mate in Melbourne, somewhere nearish to the city, let me know. He’s been to look at quite a few places and either the people are freaks, or the houses are dumps.

Nothing particularly entertaining about this post, I’m well aware. Sincere apolomogies. I’ll try and do better tomorrow.

Oh and one last thing – would everyone please do a snow dance – I’m going to the snow for a week NEXT FRIDAY (yippee a whole week off work) and there is almost NO SNOW. What’s the deal? It’s officially almost the middle of winter. Do this for me PLEASE people? I promise I’ll love you forever, and there may well be a slightly inappropriate Christmas card coming your way.