If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?

Exam results day can be stressful enough, but this year our uni decided to be just a little bit cheeky and release them a day early. Not wanting to be held in suspense, obviously I peeked and was quite utterly delighted. Never have I been more relived that I had not failed anything, and more to the point, that I had done very well. $ 10 000 dollars of my parents hard earned money  I feel has been well spent on my learning.

And so it is, that I survived another year of education, and am able to taste the sweetness of freedom and summer that will swirl around me for the next 2 months.  I must say, that living on sloppy food, cheap alcohol in happy hour and 4 hours a night of sleep has grown tiresome as it presumably would for many uni kids. I am ready for a break, however slight, to reinvigorate my enthusiasm for life. Today was what I would like to term a "wandering" day. These are the days where there is absolutely nothing left to do, so you just wander. I ran, I read, I slept, I bothered to make nice food for breakfast lunch and dinner, and best of all, I was without the slightest worry in the world. These are such rare days. There's always an assignment to be done, events to be organized, a sibling needing to be driven somewhere outside of town, a parent hassling for things to be cleaned or an emotional problem of some kind waiting  to be solved. Not today though. Everything seemed to slide from under me, leaving me floating on a cloud of my own. A happy, puffy, fluffy white cloud of my own. No one spoke to me, no one looked at me, no one came near me. It was like being in a wonderland of contentedness. And it was just so lovely. actually made me think of Alice in wonderland, with her quirky friends and the fact that all along, it was her very own, over active imagination. I'm not on LSD, but I can definitely see how Lewis Carroll would have been able to escape to such places and create such intensely imaginative worlds out of sweet nothingness.

I would love to continue this trend but these days are rare. Tomorrow I will go back to my normal life, I will go to work, I will yell at extremely annoying children (and adults who are slightly less annoying but much stupider)  and I will come home from work feeling like I have been hit by a bus, as is always the way. I will probably be required to clean my room and I will most likely wind up having to do some sort of organizational activity towards our family get together this weekend. Through it all, though, I will smile a little because it will be the first day of summer, and a little when I remember all the things that didn't happen today. For now, I am going to continue reading I think. Because I can. And there is nothing in the world that really needs my attention just at the moment.

Fast food or slow food?

I am a foodie. There's no doubt about it. I live for my breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  I have been brought up in a household where food is seen as something exquisite. Antipasto platters for lunch on weekends, extravagantly custom built school lunches and a different cultures cuisine every night for dinner. In fact tonight is indian. Last night was italian. The night before that was mexican and on the weekend we had greek.

I adore going to restaurants and trying out all the dishes on the menu and I get extremely excited by the prospect of events at which there will be delicious food. I love how food at a good eatery is presented in a way that is so divine and so pretty on the plate that the taste becomes part of the over arching experience of tasting such food. This kind of food is affectionately known as "slow food" by people such as myself.

What I am a little sick of, is the amount of fast food that throws itself at you. There are so many burger chains and fast delivery pizza shops that it is often more difficult to eat fast food, having so much to chose from (despite the fact that it all tastes much the same). Just this week, McDonalds was accused of making a new burger (The Double Angry Angus) that was double the daily fat intake! Something with that many calories can't be good for you. The problem is when people eat such things on a regular basis. McDonalds, Burger King, Hungry Jacks... it's all the same.

I find myself increasingly avoiding fast food. I have upped my salad intake and honestly, I feel so much healthier for it. Not that I ever ate a terribly large amount of the stuff, but seriously, it's an issue in Australia that really needs to be addressed. The obesity crisis is worsening and fast foods such as Angry Angus are one of the main reasons why.

In a moment of weakness...

In a slight moment of weakness today, I realized that after such an action packed, emotion fueled, adrenaline rush of a year, being left with nothing to do, all of a sudden has led to boredom. Boredom often leads to insecurity and depression. This leads to more boredom because then you can't be bothered to do anything other than sit there feeling sorry for yourself.  Moral here is basically, don't let yourself get bored. If there is no boredom, then everything is okay. So... I've decided to take up cliff diving. And no, not because it was featured in New Moon, but because it is an actual sport, sponsored by red bull and because it is just absolutely awesome.  Check it out at http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/World-Series/Cliffdiving-Page/001238874343857

Global Warming- A response to todays sunday morning with Macca (ABC Radio)

Because it's me and I missed my alarm again this morning, I was unable to call the ABC radio morning show with Macca when he was discussing global warming without being late for work. There is however, a couple of things I would have said and I will say them here.

So Macca said that as a journalist it was his job to be skeptical about  global warming. He also wondered how primary children who can hardly read and write could possibly know anything about the subject. These two comments infuriated me. It made me realize how incredibly ignorant human beings actually are, and why they will eventually meet their demise at their own hands. I agree that as of yet, the signs are not visible unless you look for them, but Macca... do you really think that all the carbon emissions are good for the planet? Did you notice that today was 43 degrees in NSW... in November? Do you notice that the Great Barrier Reef is dying and will be gone in 20 years if temperatures continue to rise? Do you know that the glaciers are all melting all over the world? (See picture above if you don't believe me) Were you also aware of the increased skin cancer rates, despite the increased sun protection methods? What about rising sea levels?  I mean, for fucks sake mate, do you not think that all this stuff, that I can rattle off the top of my head, is a little odd? A little messed up?

And as for kids not knowing about it, well I really beg to differ. My mother teachers a year one class. I coach primary aged kids in various different sports. I can tell you, these kids not only know what's going on in terms of carbon emissions from cars and electricity etc, but they are already acting on it, and actively trying to stop it by turning of their bedroom lights, telling their parents to walk more often rather than drive and by planting more trees and tending to them both at home and at school in an attempt to (to quote one girl) "fix the world."

Macca, I think your statements this morning reflect your lack of integrity as a journalist and show that you clearly have not researched this issue. Actually, maybe you should try and do a bit of research, rather than announcing to the entire country that you do not believe in global warming and making everyone else skeptical and naive. I for one would like to be able to make it to old age, and unfortunately your generation is going to make that pretty hard if you don't do something about your past actions soon.

I am never listening to your show again.

Surprise!

Parties are just so much fun. Getting invited to a party always makes me feel so special. Even if I don't know anyone there, it means I get to dress up, put on some smashing shoes and stand around looking fabulous.

There are many kinds of parties. Children's parties are probably the most fun. They have face paint, clowns and pass the parcel. The cake is usually in some kind of wonderful shape, and there is lots and lots of candy. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are college parties. I can't really remember what happens at these.. I just know that there is usually lots and lots of very cheap champagne and wine. Dinner parties are always deliciously satisfying too, as these give you a chance to wear even higher shoes than regular parties considering all you need to do is sit down and look good. High class parties are supposedly charming too. Not that I would know, but imagine everyone worth knowing goes to these. There is a lot of expensive champagne and spirits, and you will probably get an awesome gift bag just for attending.

Look, the bottom line is, parties are an interesting social phenomena. In the name of research, I plan on attending as many as possible between now and when I die.

Skins

Welcome to my latest obsession. Perhaps better wording would actually be my rediscovered obsession. For about the 4th time, I am watching the early seasons of skins and I have to say, it is pretty excellent. It depicts the rebellious life I have always wanted, but obviously would never pursue, so it's kinda fun to watch it and just pretend. I know drugs and alcohol are not really "cool" but in this TV show, they are and I like it. It doesn't hold back, or conform to ratings, societal morals or what is acceptable in the eyes of parents. It basically says " Fuck you I can do whatever the hell I want and no one can stop me." You want to be a dancer? Fine. You want to be gay? Fine. You want to not be gay but experiment with it? Fine. You want to get fucked up every night even if it's a school night? Fine. You want to screw around? Fine. You want to sneak out, pop pills and never utter a word communicating only in facial expressions? Fine. You want to be anorexic? Fine, who is going to stop you. Who is going to judge you? Yeah, probably no one.

In our youth, we can abuse our bodies, survive on little sleep, and fuck things up, with a damn good excuse. Then we can leave it behind and get mature.

Don't you love it?

Creepy Crawlies... and why I feel liberated once they are dead

Everyone in my hallway should be hailing me. They should be chanting my name and kissing the ground that I walk on. They should be buying me chocolate and sending me flowers because I am a god damned hero. What have I done to deserve such treatment? Well let's just say I took care of a hairy, crawling, and probably poisonous problem. 

I dislike anything that is smaller than my hand and isn't cute and fuzzy. Spiders are something that many people can't deal with and honestly, I am surprised with my calculated courage. I managed to use half a can of insect killer and scream only twice at it's twitching body in the process of it's extermination. I did not run away and I only had a very small pang of guilt afterwards.

 I think the reason our (possibly deadly) spider stayed in the bathroom for so long, was because no one bothered to get rid of it. It invaded the shower and set up a mosquito death camp, and I have no doubt that if it had have known Hitler they would have got along like a house on fire because it seemed to be really enjoying its reign of terror. One person was heard to be announcing that "Its not hurting anyone" but funnily enough, that person was also seen to be sneaking back from the other shower block on a number of occasions.  Awkward.

The thing about living by yourself (and in this context what I mean by that is that mummy and daddy are no longer readily available to do your dirty work) is that you need to start taking responsibility. I hate the word. It genuinely annoys me that the one thing I have always wanted is independence and yet with that comes the one thing I have always hated and avoided wherever possible, that is responsibility. I think this experience has made me realize that after 3 months away from home, I can say that I am truly, almost independent. The fact that I had nightmares of giant spider eyes and couldn't shut my eyes without seeing it's twitching body was somewhat disturbing, but then again, the fact that I coped alone and didn't feel the need to call lifeline for advice on post traumatic syndrome tells me that I am completely liberated.

All in all, I think that killing arachnids is very beneficial to the chakra. I would highly recommend purchasing a can of mortein and learning to spray.  Start with something small, like mosquitos and flies, then work your way up to spiders. Once you've made it to spiders, you know you are probably ready to move out.

Potentially human pathogenic acanthamoeba... ewww.

What I would have liked to have known about before swimming (for the first time in years) in an indoor heated pool today, where there were loud annoying children, people who were ridiculously slow swimmers taking up lap swimming lanes, and the chlorine was so strong that I now actually have a headache, are these wee little darlings- Human pathogenic Acanthamoeba.

Word on the grapevine, is that they can live in the heated water. After reading a swedish article about it, the abstract of which can be found at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WFH-4TY4715-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1082670553&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=4634eb99d74afe470a55b39c92caea91

I researched a little, and found that these things get into your central nervous system, crossing the blood brain barrier, and begin attacking connective tissue and causing irreversible destruction, which can be fatal within days. While this generally would only occur in people with immunodeficiencies and there have only ever been 400 cases reported, it did get me thinking about all the nasties that would potentially be lurking in such an unhygienic environment. I don't know how many times, I have had a stomach bug, or ear infections that were a result of swimming in tainted waters. I have had fungal infections on my feet from walking on pool decks and I have had green slime in my hair from chlorine build up. The bottom line is, indoor heated pools are not clean. I don't pretend to be a health expert, and i don't pretend to have researched this as properly as I perhaps should at some point in the future, but there is no way, that swimming in those places can be good for you.

Nothing beats a swim at the beach (as long as it isn't one where they are pumping out sewage from the plant next door) or a swim at an ocean water rock pool. It's cooler, its cleaner, it's more refreshing and it only ever leaves you feeling good.  It also is not home to potentially human pathogenic acanthamoeba.

Win!

A technological love affair.

Today was lovely. I am at home for the moment, and oh how nice it is to peer outside my window at the spectacular views and crawl into my comfy warm queen size bed and hide from all my worry :) Chilling out reading Novembers Australian Vogue, I came across an interesting article on technology. Essentially it is saying that there are many people are now not just running their lives through technology, but are being run by it.

For me, my day will consist of at least 1-5 hours on the internet, at least a quarter of that time will be on facebook. All my research is done on the internet, and in fact other to use the internet in the library, I have not been in there this year.  I have stopped writing in a diary and started blogging instead. I check my phone constantly and receive somewhere between 10-20 messages per day, not including emails. I listen to my ipod when I exercise in order to block everything else out, and I will listen to it whenever I go somewhere, whether it be to uni or the shops or even just for a walk.  There is no doubt about it. I am completely addicted. I also do not think I am anywhere near what would be considered an extreme technology junkie.

Road tripping around New Zealand at the beginning of this year, a lot of the time we spent in the car, was spent watching movies on our computers. When the batteries ran out, out came the nintendos. Who cares about the snow capped mountains or the beautiful clear watered lakes. Eye spy is dead.

  I only ever speak to some of my friends on MSN or facebook because I never really have time to see them in person and all my photos from the last 4 or so years are in a folder on my computer somewhere because why print them out when I can look at them anytime anyway?

All this really got me thinking, that this is just plain sad. What happened to reading a book? Going for a walk and listening to the birds and the bees? Being self motivated while running and not motivated by the presets blasting full volume at your ear drums? What happened to playing handball and going bike riding when you are bored as opposed to doing all that on a games console in the lounge chair? Surely people can't be enjoying this laziness?

Technology leaves me with a jumble of feelings. Sad, excited, curious, loved, bored... the list goes on. I appreciate the upsides, but perhaps I am just being a little old fashioned, despite my love affair with technology, in being able to see through the pixilated haze, and appreciate that my best life experiences so far have been so far from anything battery operated, that the only thing being turned on within coo-ee of anything in those moments, was me.

"Could this be the thin end of the wedge, the beginning of some futuristic dystopian nightmare where connectivity actually makes us less connected?"

I dare you to not check your email today, and to write a letter and post it. Go on. Do it. Could even be fun!

Where were you last night?

  

 

                                                                               

Night time is the happiest time of day for me. All the best bits seem to happen late at night. Whether it be walks on the beach after a bottle... or 2 of champagne, or late night park visits, or 1 am study sessions. (and by that I mean... one would start studying at 1am) or even just cosy up late night movies. Admit it, night time is just groovy.  Probably more dangerous. Definitely not as tragic as early morning starts.

One of the great things about being young, is that there is no such thing as bedtime.  Sometimes I will stay up till 3 am, drinking tea, and just staring at the complete darkness. The occasional car will go past, the occasional shout will be heard, but I always feel way cooler than everyone else because it seems I am the only person in the world who gets to be awake to notice any of these things.

Night time is a time for romance. It is a time for being happy and drunk and writing. It is a time for reading the best book you have ever picked up, it is a time for friends and fun and crazy games. There is nothing lovelier than cracking open some malibu, accepting defeat by freddo frogs, zoning out with a little Michael Bublé and doing some fancy cartwheels up a beach around a fire of glow sticks.

So... where were you last night?