Saturday 28 February 2009

ARGH!!

I need to have a shower because I've just gotten back from the gym all gross and sweaty, but I can't because there are about 10 people I do not know sitting outside my room, and I am only wearing a towel. GRRRRRR!

Wednesday 25 February 2009

I need therapy

That's another one of those "things I'll get when I have a proper job and don't have to worry about money."

Tuesday 24 February 2009

It's a Deep Burn

I am in pain upon pain upon pain. It hurts all over.... but mainly in my upper arms and chest.

Emma and I went to the gym last night.

The guy at the desk suggested we do a circuit class. I suggest we punch him in the ovaries. First, I think you need a certain level of fitness to do that class, a level of fitness I DO NOT HAVE.

So today, the pain.

Also, I don't think it helped that after the class I went out for coffee with Mike and had dinner there, and the "healthiest" thing the cafe had on offer was a caesar salad... and cake. Lol!

The coffee so late didn't help me, and I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep for a long time after that. Then the lawn people decided that 8 am was a good time to have really loud machinery going right outside my bedroom, especially since I had the windows open due to the hot weather. Thanks for that guys! And thanks for chatting really loudly to each other whenever there was blessed silence from the mowers. No, really, thank you!

So the bad sleep led to Sarah wearing her cranky face all day (thank god it was my day off... although, why do the mower people always come on my days off, when I can finally get a sleep in?), and a three hour nap this afternoon. Doh! I hate having my sleeping patterns so out of whack.

I went to the uni today to hand in my application for exchange (WOOT!) and speak to my course convenor about my order of classes. She was very helpful and led me to a group called the Germania Club in Warners Bay. First, it's fucking called "Germania". I thought no one called it that except me! Second, they do language classes, so I've called to ask for rates.

On another note about the exchange, I just realised today that the class list they sent me for classes in English is for this semester, not next semester, which is when I'll be going. That won't be released until July. So I have to email and find out what I do about that.

So not looking forward to uni next week. I don't want to have to do actual work!

Monday 23 February 2009

Disney, bitches!

In order to be highly unoriginal and steal Michael's thunder, I'm making a post about my top 5 Disney songs. Oooooh yeah.

5. Part of Your World - The Little Mermaid. Many a good time was had in Mrs. Lowry's maths class after lunch singing this song. I kind of get why she hated me now.



4. Journey to the Past - Anastasia. Technically not a Disney song, but technically, you can kiss my ass. The song rocks, even though it will forever have tainted memories for me due to a music assessment task back in year 11 when Marietta was supposed to be playing this on the piano and I was supposed to be singing and she got one chord in and gave up. Grrrrrr.



I think part of why I love Anastasia so much is Dimitri... it's wrong to think a cartoon character's hot, isn't it?



3. Beauty and the Beast, but not the movie version, the Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. Why? Definately for the "oh, oh, OOOOOOHHHH"s that lead to the keychange at 2:14, but also because who the eff is Peabo Bryson??? He turns up to sing A Whole New World and Beauty and the Beast for the Disney soundtracks, but have you ever heard from him again? No, and that's how it should be. - I can't embed it due to copyright or something. Grrr with me now.

2. Reflection - Mulan. Freaking love this movie. It was a toss between this song and Make a Man Out of You, which is funner, but this is a good belt-out-in-the-car-when-no-one's-listening-of-if-you're-in-the-car-with-the-girls-on-a-road-trip. That's a lot of hyphenated words, but this song is a lot of hyphenated AWESOME. Doesn't make sense? That's not what your mum told me last night. Burn. But not really, cos that didn't make sense either. Erm... let's go to number one, yeah?



1. A Whole New World - Aladdin. Obviously he's the hottest Disney character (I totally swooned when I met him at Tokyo Disneyland - the guy playing him looked exactly the same), and it's the funnest song. It's also awesome for belting out on roadtrips.

Thursday 19 February 2009

Obviously, it's meant to be!

So I've been stressing out lately about this exchange. Not the exchange itself, just my lack of information and the slow responses of the people at uni and at Dortmund. I even had a dream the other night that the reason they were so slow in responding to me is that they had decided that I was too immature to go and they were going to deny me (the whole way through the dream I was saying, "But I haven't even had a chance to apply yet!")

Today, finally, I have responses - both an application form (finally) and a list of courses. And, in what shows me that this is meant to be, the uni has a new course for this semester called
Australian Literature and Culture-
This course aims to introduce students to the history of, and key authors in, Australian literature. The focus will not only be on white Australian literature, but also Aboriginal literature and that of a variety of migrant groups. The course will also consider other media, such as film, television and the fine arts, in order to offer as broad a perspective as possible on what constitutes Australian culture. The following novels will be studied during the semester: Doris Pilkington’s Rabbit Proof Fence and Peter Carey’s Bliss. Other texts and articles will be available in a reader.

So glad things are finally underway.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Torn

I totally want a travel buddy now. Grrr. I just think that two months is an awfully long time to be alone, and I'm thinking about all the fun I had travelling with Emma, Lara and Judith... although all three did have to put up with my crankiness when I didn't get enough sleep, which, when travelling is often...

So it would be incredibly selfish of me to inflict myself upon anyone.

I really do enjoy travelling by myself, except for eating out. That's annoying. The only solo travel I've done though is New York for 4 days and San Francisco for 3 days. I don't think that counts.

Monday 16 February 2009

Weird

For a day in which I did nothing but sit at my computer (how awkward!) surprisingly I managed to accomplish quite a lot. Mostly in the way of cleaning, but that's a major effort for me!

I managed to halve my magazine pile on my desk (and took the old pile three steps into the lounge room and placed them on the bookshelf), threw out a bunch of old shopping bags that have been sitting on the ground doing nothing, but I thought they were too pretty to throw out, put up my wall planner and even added some dates (the census date isn't until March 31, so that means I won't get my scholarship money until well into April), registered for tutorials and got the ones I wanted, checked to see whether the bag my auntie bought me for uni actually fit my books (it does - it's perfetto!), vacuumed, dusted, cleaned out my fridge, and even managed to watch The Duchess.

All in all, I'd call today a success!

Sunday 15 February 2009

Rude Awakenings

Woke up to something good and something bad.



Bad: Something crawling over my face. I have a feeling it was a spider. My true fear is that it was a cockroach, but I don't think so - you'd notice. I've decided that it was a mozzie, and I saved myself from the destruction it was going to cause me (I still have scars from the last round of mozzie bites I had). Whatever it was, I just slapped my face and killed it and woke myself up at the same it, didn't check what was in my hand, and threw it away. One less insect ruining my life.


Good: message on my phone from Lara. I had vague memories of hearing it come through early this morning, but I had the good sense to not be woken by it. The message was about how she's at a basketball game with a bunch of Americans so she is all nostalgic, therefore missing me (naturally), and wondering if I'll be going on exchange or needing her to send me money. The last time I spoke to her was after the big fight with my mum about the $100, so that's why she asked. I told her no. I'm fine. She's too cute.



Speaking of mum, I also haven't heard from her since the $100 incident either. Bitch.



I'm up super early (8am) to go to a travel expo this morning before work. Lord knows how much I loves me a travel expo! Brochures are my favourites.



Last night, because we were all dateless ho-bags, Michael, Bec and I hung out. We found this awesome burger place we'd never seen before on our way to get some crappy takeout and struck gold. It's called Grill'd and apparently they're a chain (it reminds me of Nando's, only not Portuguese). So yum, and it had vegan options for Bec. Must go back there again.



Then we went back to Bec's place and hung out and ate lollies and drank passion pop. Good times.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

Blegh

I have no idea what's wrong with me. Or even if anything is wrong with me. I feel kind of sick, but I don't feel sick, but I feel like I'm going to throw up, but I don't feel like I'm going to throw up, but I feel ill. Everytime I eat something, for about 3 hours afterwards I feel nauseated.

Very frustrating.

Nothing new today. I'm planning to finally finish Love in the Time of Cholera tonight. It's taken me so bloody long - I'm loving it, and really enjoying reading it, but it's so dense that I'll go for days without reading it because I know how much hard work it is, and I won't start a new book because I know just how easy it is for me to forget about the original book. But I will finish it tonight and then read a fluffy romance that will require no thought whatsoever.

Bliss.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

>>insert Marge Simpson-style grumble here<<

Why hold an information session if you aren't going to provide any information???

I went to the exchange meeting today to find out what my next step in the process is. It didn't really give that much help, but it did point me in the direction of where to go next. Only, when I got there (in this case, the exchange Blackboard site (for non-Newcastlers, this is where students access individual course info and discussion boards etc.)), the information for my university wasn't there. Good-o. So I've emailed them going, "Erm, what do I do?" Response: they're hoping to get a response from Dortmund.

I just want everything DONE.

So horrible

I'm watching Today (Sunrise is my regular pick, but only for light entertainment, not news) and cannot believe the death toll from these fires. It's over 170 people.

I'm going to get off my ass today and take that bag of clothes I've had sitting in the sun room to the Salvos.

Sunday 8 February 2009

Why I heart Rosie and hate Elizabeth

OH!

And to cap off a wonderful weekend - finding out that Air Supply are going to be in concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Opera House in May. I saw it in the newspaper and then Dan called from work to let me know about it. I told him he can get me tickets for my birthday. We shall see.

I love Air Supply without any irony. Their songs remind me of when my mum used to love us kids and when times were good and worry free.

FAB weekend, darling!

Just got back from a wonderful weekend. Seriously, not one bad moment, and even though I was sleep deprived the entire time, there was so moment where I was cranky. Loves it.



Friday night - finished work, drove down to Sydney, gave Nan her bin that I purchased with love and lack of funds. She took one look at it and was like, "But we have a bin." "Yes Nan, but your bin is broken." "Oh no, it's perfect. I don't have to lift a lid to push the newspaper into the bin." **Crickets** Grrr. There was no convincing her, so the broken bin continues to be used, and the new one sits there looking lovely and clean. We then went grocery shopping to pick up a couple of things for her birthday morning tea the next day.



Due to my inability to remember things, halfway through shopping with Nan I remembered that, Oh, I was supposed to actually be at Nicole's house right now. Oops.



Got to Nicole's late, but that was perfect cos she's even worse at being punctual than I am (there goes my theory on Latino-time). She took me to a Vietnamese restaurant in Canleyvale (sp?) where I proceded to have my first (and last) tastes of jellyfish and oysters. I'm very proud of myself for finishing a whole strip of jellyfish, and TWO whole oysters... although it was sheer will power keeping the second one down. It's the texture. The taste was nothing to me - it was the biting in and chewing and...



Moving along, afterwards we had coffee and did more bitching/gossiping which is our specialty, carefully honed back in semester 2, 2004 in a class taught by a man we named Jesus who was in love with a boy named Eliot, who at 17, ensured that his thoughts were always of the deep variety (as evidenced by his frequent pauses for effect) and that his style was "intellectual-chic" with leather patches on his tweed jackets (in Penrith, in summer) and that his cigarettes were only ever rolled by himself. Good times. Love rehashing that class.



Saturday morning I was woken early by Lola to start making some of the bruschette and other finger foods for the neighbourly get-together. Everyone came and brought lots of food, so Nan decided that she was full and didn't want to be taken to the country club, so we were sitting in the loungeroom, bored, then Jonas and I decided to go to Castle Towers and then to check out his new apartment, which was great. It's just a tiny thing with one bedroom but he's used the space well. We got back to Nan's to find my Auntie Joan and cousin Carolina at the house. Auntie Joan had told Nan it was too hot to go out that day, so she would see her in a couple of weeks. Then she called her daughter who picked her up to take her to the country club to wait there and surprise Nan when we all got there. Surprise! Nan didn't go, so they waited there for over an hour before giving up and coming to the house.



Soon after I went to Em's and we then went to Anne's new appartment. I think I want to have her appartment's babies. The building complex has a pool, gym, kiosk, general store, and looks like a hotel inside. The appartment itself is huge, with a great big kitchen and good sized rooms. Ahh. Anne's flatmate is apparently a total bitch though, hasn't paid rent in 4 of the 5 weeks she's been living there, eats all Anne's food then throws it all up amongst other things, so I told Anne that if she needs someone to, I can be the one to bully her out of the house. Went out to Pancakes on the Rocks (but not the one at The Rocks) for dinner with Leesh, then picked up Zach and showed them the wonder that is the Fiddler. Ahh. It was a good night, but we were all such nannas so left at about 11:30.



Today was our annual pre-Christmas get-together that we couldn't actually do pre-Christmas so have finally had it. Good times. Spent the day eating, drinking, and swimming in Rachel's pool.



Then came back up to Newcastle to find that Lisa has moved out. So random.



And that's the end of my story.



Oh, I deleted the last post because I wrote it when I was really cranky (it was 6am. I don't like having proof that 6am really exists). Each to their own and all that.



Oh, and Jenni, I was thinking of you and your horrible move all weekend and hope it wasn't too hot for you.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

1000 books.

Currently going through The Guardian's 1000 Books Everyone Must Read. Of the books they've listed, these are how many I've read:

Science Fiction and Fantasy: 3
War & Travel: 2
State of the Nation Novels: 2
Family & Self: 3
Comedy: 1
Crime: 3
Love: 3

So that's 17/1000. Good work.

Monday 2 February 2009

Rollin' with my Homies

So I'm at home. Last night I got in at 8, then left at 8:30 to meet up with Nicole for coffee and to get our bitch on. It's what we do. Gotta love Castle Hill though - Coffee Club is under new management that obviously doesn't want any business because it was closed when we got there. I know it's a Sunday night but give me a break - this isn't the 50s. Open your store. So we had coffee at Eurolounge and, being the advanced, intelligent creature I am, I left my cardigan at home (it's summer and so hot - how was I to know there'd be a cool change) we had to leave very soon after. Another sign of weirdness, Eurolounge doesn't take EFTPOS for amounts under $15. >>insert Muttley's mumbling here<< So then we headed off to Pennant Hills and sat in Cafe Insomnia until it closed at 10:30. Stupid Hills District. Just because it's the bible belt doesn't mean that people only leave their houses to go to church on Sundays. They also go out for coffee, damn it!

Today was nice and breezy though. I wrote about 50 cheques for Nan and did a bunch of little chores around the house (me: who does this when I'm not here? Nan looking at me like I'm crazy: I wait for you) then went to Dural Country Club for lunch. I read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and was killed by the ending. WHY???

Now I'm just killing time. I'm going to cook dinner soon, hang out with Jonas a little and then Rachel's heading over when she finishes work for our regular Lame Movies Night (yes, capitals. This is an EVENT, people!). The only movie that I know for sure we are watching is the one we have been waiting for all year - there was almost as much hype in the lead-up to this film as there was for Goal 2 - THE LIBRARIAN 3!!! What will our dashing Librarian get up to this time, I wonder? Slaying dragons, finding the lost treasures of the forgotten hippos of the Himalayas?? Who can say? Well, I'll be able to say later on tonight. Oh yeah.