In My Absence

Holy guacamole, I've been busy.

What have I been doing?

I moved house. I am now the proud tenant of a very tiny bedsit, which despite it turning out to have many flaws (of which we shall explore in further posts), is all mine.

What you see below is my spacious, open plan kitchen. And when I say spacious, you know I really mean it literally has no cupboards or a pantry.

(These pics are how the place was the day I moved in. I've since changed things around a bit.)

*My orange benchtop brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like...Wtf is that?*

I can't help but feel that when the last tenant left the cow door stopper she was quietly glad to be rid of the creepy little thing

I may have mentioned previously, the last tenant was kind enough to leave the flat fully furnished. I took over responsibility of the furniture and thank goodness I could get rid of some of it, because alot was broken. Drawers without casters, a smashed glass door in the buffet, no biggie. Especially since I didnt have to pay a cent for it. But there were some real doozies.

The sight you are beholding in the second pic is of my sweeping, airy loungeroom. I say airy, because its not really sealed. I put on a candle the other day and the wind blew it out from outside.

That's my little flat! Tiny, tiny, tiny.

I have an outdoor toilet. You read correctly.

Calm down, it's not one of those drop pits you may have witnessed on long bushwalks or Scout camps.

But it does have a ridiculously cold concrete floor, and sometimes in the mornings I roll around in bed trying to ignore my screaming bladder because its so cold, and I look furtively around the room at all vessels big enough to hold my pee before finally deciding that is disgusting, giving up and doing that weird GOTTA PEE hobble/hop to the bathroom.

I'm classy like that.

Also, my place came free with a hideous shower curtain.

Living solo is a new challenge. Turns out, cooking for one is a whole lot of effort. You know whats easier? Eating hommus and cheese at 9pm in your undies watching Gossip Girl. Uh.... not that I would know what that's like. I was purely speculating.

Also, in a case of last person EVER to jump on the bandwagon, I have started watching Gossip Girl. Oh no, not at the most recent season with all of you with foxtel, but I have been renting the seasons from my local Ye Olde Video Ezy. How reminiscent, how hipster.

The reason for this is that the antenna at my abode is..atrocious. Not quite sure that the issue is there, but I can only get reception for Channel 28. I am exceptionally up to date on Russian news, despite my lack of comprehension on what the dickens its all about. I've also seen enough world movies (aka thinly veiled dirty flicks) to last me a while.

So Gossip Girl Season 1 & 2 and Greys Anatomy Season 1 & 2 have become my new friends. Even so much so that I watch episodes late into the night and wake up thinking, 'Is there enough time to watch GG whilst I eat my breakfast?!'

A problem, I haz one.

But Chuck and Blair! She said I love you! He didnt! He left her stranded in Europe! She started dating a Lord! He FINALLY said it back!

Don't you dare tell me what's happening in the most recent series-I have been so close to peeking at IMDB so many times for future Chuck/Blair shenanigans, but so far have resisted.

Shall keep you updated on the happenings in my crazy little flat.

Handbag Desperation

Oh gosh, I want this bag so badly.

PROS

- It's the perfect size

- It's made of pony hair and leather, and I don't own anything made from pony hair!
- Could always do with more leather.
- It's in a perfect shade for autumn
- Wouldn't I look jaunty and sassy flouncing around uni with this baby
- It's on sale! $50 off!
- It's the same colour as my hair. Matchy-matchy.
- I could pat my handbag because it has real hair on it. I can't pat any of my other handbags.

CONS

- I can't really afford it.
- I've already bought 3 handbags in the last month
- I have another Country Road bag on layby yet to be picked up
- Where on earth am I going to keep it? Running low on bag storage. Or I was, 6 handbags ago.
- Isn't it  bit creepy to pat your handbag?!
- Is this really a handbag I could wear for years?
- It's not really big enough for any of my uni stuff?
- How do they even get the hair from the pony, or should I not ask?

Thoughts/Opinions/Discuss.

Exams on a Public Holiday

Are they entirely necessary?!

I'm off for three hours answering questions on ecology and the environment. After that, I don't give a crap what a primary producer or parasitoid is, and I certainly have no inclination to worry about the population density of herbivores in the savannah.

Boo hoo, whinge, whine.

Trenery/End of Trimester

Settle down people, I'm not pregnant. Although, I would feel better about my recent holiday weight gain if I atleast had a baby to blame it on! Food baby does not count.

I'm talking end of Trimester at uni. Deakin are special like that- we have trimesters instead of semesters. In all of the brochures they talk this up like 'Get your degree quicker at Deakin! Do a summer trimester!' but it's fuck all usefullness if your course doesnt offer any units in the summer trimester.

Anywho.

It's almost the end of Trimester 1 for the year. It also marks the end of my first complete year at uni! I did things the wonky way and started the Bachelor of Primary Education mid year 2011, essentially turning a 4 year degree into a 4 and a half year degree because they changed the course structure at the beginning of 2012. It feels like I still have foreeeever to go!

So to celebrate (read: I randomly felt like shopping and am using this event as an excuse) I have purchased the following from Trenery- (and when I say bought I mean put on lay-buy with the minimum deposit, because I'm a poor uni student)


Erika Ostrich Embossed Tote from Trenery


I love a good bag, and my reasoning on this one is-

• I don't have any brown bags
• I don't have any bags big enough to fit all of my uni books
• This bag will match my brown or black leather boots for winter
• I wanted it

The ostrich leather is very soft.This bag is not my usual taste, I am generally a fan of black everything. Time to branch out, and lets face it, this is much less drastic than bungee jumping.

I did have to stop myself from purchasing the following-



Zig Zag Scarf from Trenery

Basket Weave Scarf from Trenery

It's funny- the unit I despised all trimester (Analysing Childrens Literature) is the one I have received the best marks in and have decided to continue on with as an elective. The marks I earnt didnt come easy, and I was really forced to sharpen my essay writing skills for my tough tutor.

But for now....it's holiday time.

Did I mention I am going on a cruise to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand? I am.

My niece turned 18 in March, so 3 of my sisters and myself are all celebrating with her and going cruising for a week. Only a little trip, but am feeling very lucky to be going on it, especially since Ive barely unpacked from Japan.

Not bad for an end of uni reward, hey?

x

I'm kreativ, this is evidence.

Thankyou to the ever wonderful Ms Jelena, who has awarded me with the Kreativ Blogger award.
Why should you visit Ms Jelena's blog? She is very funny, posts much more regularly than I do, and knows her way around a manicure. Occasionally she also posts photos of hot shirtless men, which I dont complain about. (I'm sure her page views just went WAY up with that information, lol)


In order to receive this award I must share 7 little facts about myself. Didn't you know nothing in life is free? :)


1. When I was 9, my Mum took me to the local park with her friends and their kids. This park is pure magic- there are lakes and geese, ducks and pelicans. (I still get really into it when I go there now, 15 years later) Mum gave me about 3 slices of bread and told me to wait near the lake whilst she hurried the other kids along. (In hindsight Mum- good one, I could have drowned. Can you call DOCS retrospectively?)
I didnt know quite what the bread was for, but being the fat kid I was, I was hungry. Besides- isnt that what bread was for, eating?
Mum came back with the other kids having promised them they would all get a turn to feed the ducklings. She stopped short and everyone stares at me, with narrow eyes, and I can tell my Mum is embarassed. Her friend (who incidentally is a major bitch) gets super hysterical and tells me that there will be no feeding of the ducks now because I have ruined it, and now all the little duckies will have to go to bed without any dinner and might get sick!
Because I was 9, I believed her and the whole night lay awake thinking about the poor ducks that were going to die all because I have an unnatural obsession with white bread!

2. I am a recent Kindle owner and CANNOT.STOP.BUYING.BOOKS.
This might be ok if I was limiting them to the ebook variety, but I havent let up my habit of buying books and turning up at garage sales early in the morn with a deranged look on my face in the pursuit of musty literature.

3. Uni makes me feel really old (at ripe old age of 24). I went to uni determined to not be 'that' mature aged student who knows all the answers and wants to share them, but seriously, as a MA student when a tutor is in front of the class and the 18yos are leaving her hanging, they will ALWAYS call on me. And my favourite is when you are assigned a group for a project and the 18yo's look at me expectantly, like I have got it all figured out and they can coast by and receive a HD by just being in my group. GAHH. Rant over.

4. I have the travel bug well and truly. Any tips on how to get my boyfriend to come with me this time, and preferably think it was his own idea?

5. I just joined a gym, for the 7,582,231 time in my life. They say 7 million, five hundred and eighty-two thousand, two hundred and thirty one times a charm, don't they? I'll celebrate when I actually attend.

6. The first ever concert I went to was to see Good Charlotte at Festival Hall when I was 16. I begged my older sister to take me, or else my olds wouldnt let me go. I wore my best baby punk outfit (you bet your ass there were safety pins and a studded belt) and to this day I wouldn't object to a Madden brothers sandwhch. I later moved on to more hardcore punk tastes, but kept my secret attraction to the twins. Benji's my personal flavour, but I wouldnt kick either of them out of the bed.

7. I lost a friend last year- (she's still alive, that sounded weird- like she had passed on or I left her on top of my car and drove off, losing her) because she got fake engaged- YES. She was eloping to Vegas, so I threw her a Vegas themed hens party, organised gifts from myself and others, took the day off work to pamper her, and turns out she was never getting married and or engaged at all.

I havent tagged anyone- this is an open tagfest. Want this award? Take it! Go on, you know you want to.
Except for you George, you've had enough. (And now the duckies will go hungry!!!)


Evidently i'm delirious, and not fit for blogging. 

One of those cliched 'Year In Review' posts

Yup, 2011 has disappeared. I may be one of the last people in the world to realise this fact, except for those currently in comas, and WOW will they be shocked when they wake up.  (I'm sorry- comas arent funny. Commas, now they sometimes are, when, placed, hilariously. That was not one of those times )



I dont count Jan 1st as a 'real' day. Technically its that one day that my resolutions should kick in, I should bound out of bed, powered by my motivation to my new goals.


The reality is that I awoke on Jan 1st, and groaned. Then sighed. Then rolled over and did a complicated move of groaning and sighing, hoping to incite some feelings of sympathy from my long-suffering boyfriend, Billosaurus Rex. (Yes, I actually call him that.   Patly because it involves his name, and partly because sometimes he is kind of a big oaf, clueless with an iPhone and remotes, and has tiny arms in comparison to the rest of his giant, smaller dinosaur eating body. I kid, I kid.)

                                                                                                                       Source: How Stuff Works with a little detail drawn on!

In my mind, he was looking at me thinking, 'You are the love of my life, I just want to care for you and fluff the pillows around your precious head, and how do you feel about freshly squeezed juice of my home grown fruit?'

In reality, he was assessing the rumpled, hair matted, eyelash extensions half hanging off, maybe slightly drooling, clammy mess.

Finally, after a good 5 minutes of more poorly acted groaning and sighing (An Oscar winner, unfortunately, I will never be), he finally exclaimed 'Alright!! I'll go get you hotcakes! Geez.'

And thats why Jan 1st isnt a 'real' day. I am not equipped to function on that day. And, I gobble hotcakes like a frantic evil gremlin.

So, here I am, finally admitting 2011 is over. Lets take a minute to create a musical montage of the year that was. (You will have to provide your own music, gosh, I cant do everything around here.)

Imperative, Integral and other Important sounding words Events that happened in 2011-

• Billosaurus Rex and I had our first Valentines Day together. It wasnt that momentous. I would even say it was heinously disappointing. Better luck next year, eh.

• Sadly, our family lost a member. Auntie Kassie (really my great aunt) lived a long, fulfilling and happy life, reaching the grand old age of 96. I wish she could have gotten to 100, to receive her long awaited telgraph from the queen- she was a royalist through and through. She was also a self made woman, never had children, and was a true feminist. Im really proud that she was my Auntie.

• I made a huge leap career-wise, and began studying as a mature aged student at uni, full-time. This was a massive decision, one that affects my work (now part-time), my future (hopefully at the end of this I'll be a primary school teacher!), my lifestyle (Im broke), my relationship and friendships (I barely have time for human functions let alone catching up) and my sanity. (I dont have any.)

• I got a promotion at work. Woo for now being responsible for others!

• My sister got pregnant, after thinking she could no longer have children!

• One of my closest friends, K, got married to the most perfect man in the world for her. They met 4 years ago at 5am in a nightclub when were all under the weather, they went home with each other, and casually saw each other a few more times *cough shag buddies cough*,  when she fell pregnant! He stuck around, they bought a house and a business, planned and had another beautiful kidlet, and now are married! I truly believe there is no perfect track or pathway to your great love.

• I saw an amazingly accurate psychic, B. She is phenomenal- everything she said has come to fruition, and although I was a sceptic initially, I know have complete faith in her.

Is that all I did in a whole year? I'm sure there was more. TBH I kind of cant be assed thinking back, lets move to the future of 2012!