get involved

http://www.fieldofwomen.org.au/

public transport woes

last night i went into the city for 2 occasions. first i went to a houe warming in kew, and then a birthday party at bridie o'reileys in lt collins st.

i am sure the public transport system is against me.

first of all, the trains were cancelled between box hill and burnley so we had to get on a bus. the girls sitting in the train on the seats near me were having a lot of trouble with that concept. they could get the fact that they still could get home from the city, they just needed to get on the bus again.

going by bus put an extra 30 mins on the trip. they did supply a bus that went directly to burnley but i wanted to get off at glenferrie so i had to take the stopping all stations model.

anyways, on the bus i ran into a friend of mine so i had someone to chat to. then i got off at glenferrie to catch the tram down to kew.

i got the tram after buying some drinks but it only went as far as cotham rd corner cause they were doing some major digging up of the road all through kew junction. my friend had just said, catch the tram down without remembering to tell me, and a lot of other people who were at te party that not even cars were being allowed through to his street.

i finally got there, after a lot of walking. and then i couldnt find his house! granted i cant blame public transport for this issue, but lets try anyway.

i actualy knocked on someone elses door before i got to his apartment. it was a brand new place and i hadnt really thought that people my age could afford a place like that so i had discounted it before even trying. but it was, and it was very nice inside. i wish i had a place like that

getting back into the city was going to be hard too. i had no idea where the trams were starting from so i managed to convince someone to drive me to the first tram stop we saw, but it wasnt going to be that easy. i managed to get a lift all the way into the city!

coming home i got a lift too so i didnt have to tackle the public transport again. and anyway, we got home around 2am so i missed the last train.

fashion show

next friday i have been convinced by my grandma to be part of their charity fashion show at "inner wheel" (like rotary but for women)

so yesterday morning at 9.30am i drove up to monbulk to get fitted. i had only gotten home from work at 12.30am on friday night so when i finally woke up at 8.45 and looked at the clock i was it a bit of a rush. it takes over 30 mins to get to monbulk and i made it, just.

the clothes that i have to wear are probably not my choice of fashion, but the show is aimed at older ladies. so i will have to grin and bear it. oh well.

so if anyone wants to come along, the tickets are $10 and its up in wandin.

it looked innocent enough

working in at southbank this morning meant that i had to fiind some lunch down in the food court.

i often eat at Think Asia, and today i decided to try a new dish there as i usually just get mee goreng everytime

it looked innocent enough in the picture. it was called nasi lemak. anything with nasi in the name is usually pretty good. it had rice, topped with what looked like onion, chicken drumsticks, some veggies and an egg

when i got it, the rice tasted like a coconut rice pudding. the fried stuff in top was actually some kind of dried fish. the veggies were pickeled. the egg and chicken were the only normal items on the plate

but after the shock had worn off, and i had mixed everything on my plate into one big pile of food, it didnt taste that bad

but i must say, it isnt that easy to eat chicken drumsticks with chopsticks...

looking for interesting weekend activities

spurred on by kate, i am on the lookout for interesting things to do on weekends which dont involve going to smokey pubs and nightclubs.

her idea of a winery tour was quashed for the fact that it is too expenisve ($85 is pretty steep for us uni students)

so does anyone have any good ideas? good day drips out of melbourne? different activities that dont cost an arm and a leg

i would like to go sailing or surfing. but alas they are really summer things and now winter is upon us

so please put any suggestions in the comments

thanks

sydney at 5am

well i wanst actually in sydney at 5am, but that is what time i had to wake up this morning in order to get to sydney in time for a 10am meeting.

i never want to wake up at 5am again. its way way to early for me. and i am not so good at being quite so creaping around the house trying not to wake anyone up was a bit of a challenge.

but i made it to my bosses house by 6am and we were at the airport by 6.30.

valet parking is a treat. you just drive up to the airport. they take your car. they clean it inside and out and then give it back to you when you want to leave.

another treat is the qantas club. all you can eat breakfast (sadly i had eaten at home), express checkin and a comfy place to sit while waiting

for some reason we were checked on to an international flight so this added to the waking up early factor. if it were domestic i could have slept in at least another 30 mins..

anyways, meetings in sydney were succesfull. we managed to squeeze in 4 seperate meetings. and a quick sight see through the qv building and the domain park.

then back to the airport, qantas lounge again for food and free drinks :)
and then home again home again jigy jig jig. at least the plane on the way up there was international so we got screens to watch tv on, but the one home was a standrd domestic cattle class. with crappy food. but they did play some trop fest movies on the overhead tvs.

i finally got in to my house at 10pm. thats a long time since i left at 5.30 this morning.

but all in all a good first ever business trip. and back in the office at 9am. you wouldnt think that i am actually a full time uni student would you. i had to miss a whole days classes today (2 lectures and 2 tuts) to make this trip but oh well, experience. and the lectures probably were not that exciting anyway. at least this way i got to eat airline food....

an msn game

This was the message i recieved from a person i know on my list

face it, we all know that there is at least one person on our MSN list that we want to fucK . So lets play the "Lets fucK Game". The rules are simple. If you want to fucK the person who sends it to you, you reply to them with "lets fucK ". The twist is that you have to send the message to everyone on your buddy list and see who sends you bacK the message "lets fucK ". Good LucK

interesting, but not my type of game.

the trials of becoming a JET

to become a JET you have to undergo a medical exam. this involves the ordinary things like blood pressure and eye sight check, but also the dredded urine test and a chest xray too.

did you kow it costs $91 to get a chest xray at epworth? i got sooo lost on the way to the xray department. there was a sign that said xrays. so i went there. and they looked at me like i was an idiot and said

"you have to go to level 3, dir"

so off i went to level 3 and proceeded to get more lost. i ended having to ask some nurse for directions and she was very nice and said that many people get lost with the directions given from downstairs, so it wasnt just me

so 5 mins later i got my chest xray over and done with and i was on my way. luckily i dont have to pay it up front and i can take the invoice to medicare to pay it there. there is seriously a lack of bulk billing doctors these days too. my normal doctor back home will only bulk bill for people with health care cards. at least i am still a student at swinny so i can bulk bill at the health centre there.

however, it looks like i am healthy enough to go on my trip. all i have to do now is send off my forms to say i accept and then i will find out where exactly i am going sometime in may....

i cant wait!

the only way to get a laugh is to set your hair on fire

last night i went and saw my final free comedy festival show, Evan Jones - the amazing half man half bullshit tour.

i was supposed to go on friday nigt but i was so tired after work and all that pub crawling i cancelled. i hate cancelling on people but i felt in might fall asleep in the show. instead i stayed at home and watched the shittiest movie on TV, a soppy love story involving Kevin Costner - i should have known better...

anyways, last night i asked our new exchange student, Anne from Germany, who moved in on friday, to come along.

It was at a bar called Altitude off Russell St in a dirty laneway, very Croft Institue-esk. It took ages to find a car park. we ended parking on the otherside of treasury gardens in landsdowne st. walking through the park we were only attacked by possums. very cute actually.

the bar itself was very dodgy. anne described it as looking a bit like a brothel. but how would she know? the funny thing was that when we arrived the bar was still closed. the show was supposed to have started at 7.30 and even then the comediean himself was still waiting outside in the lane to be let in

so as i said, it wasnt very funny. he started the show about 4 times, all in different way. and the end was similar, he found 4 different ways to finish the show. there was not much in the middle...

the only funny park was when he set his hair on fire. i have already forgotten all the other parts cause they were so unfunny.

luckily it was free. it was one of those shows you wouldnt want to pay to go see. but i have gotten a good deal out of this comedy festival this year. i think i got about 8 sets of free tickets. and saw 6 of those shows. its got to be some kind of record.

mac coolness

if you use mac messenger and ITunes, it automatically updates your nickname to show everyone what song you are listening to at the time.

cool eh?

(pub) crawled into the office today

i am working in at the office today. my boss still hasnt arrived at it is 11.30

i have been at work for exactly 2.5 hours and i have achieved prety much nothing today. but at least i can say that i have done more work that the other girl who i work with. seriously, i dont think she has done anything in teh last 3 weeks and we have a huge project due in a week or so...

but my lack of workiness today is due to the fact i went out on a pub crawl last night till all hours of the morning and slept on a friends bean bag (not teh most comfortable way to spend an evening)

the day started with a small amount of work..
then i went up to worri yallok to get my hair cut. and i went all out. i now am sporting a short style with light and dark foils all through it. i was a bit worried leaving my cousin hairdresser to her own devices cause last time she turned my hair pink, but i can gladly say it looks very cool. accoridng to kate it makes me look younger. and i did get carded at every pub along the pub crawl so maybe it is true.

anyways, came home, avaioded a few wet weather car accidents (a car on its side, a huge-arse tractor with a flat tyre), did limited amounts of work and then drove into hawthorn in time for dinner at the gov. i left my car out the front of kristy's, checking to make sure i wasnt in a permit zone, and went and scoffed a large chicken parma.

the crawl was starting at 7.30. everyone turned up but we had to wiat for ages till we could go cause they just had to "make sure" noone was left behind. there was probably around 20 on the bus at this stage.

the bus only had an AM radio. so we made our own music.

Kate claimed on her blog that she didnt have a great time, but i beg to differ. yeah the pubs were kinda sucky. and some of the people on the crawl were a bit, dare i say, bogan.

we started at frostbites, then to depot, then to limerick arms and then publicity.

it did seem that everytime we moved to the next place the place we were just leaving was finally warming up and then when we arrived at the next place it was dead empty.

what is with r&b music anyway... its not my thing. i was quite disappointed that the depot dj wouildnt play us any rock. i am not sure that i agree with kate's request of "its raining men" though

the night finsihed at publicity, a new bar/club in the city. then it was home to kristy's for a bit of shut eye. i had to make sure i was out of teh house by 8am cause thats when the park i had my car in turned back into a permit zone.

breakfast down at southbank and then into work. for some reason today the reception girls brought around muffins and strawberries to all the offices. why couldnt they have done this when i worked in here by myself for 2 weeks back in feb?

i am not as tired as i thought i would be for the sleep that i got, but i wouldnt mind going home some time soon. i left my jacket on the bus so kate thankfully picked it up for me and i gotta go get it from her around lunch time.

oh well, i best get back to work. my boss should eb coming in soonish and i shoudl have accomplished something. at least i will have more to show that the other girl who i am sure is going to pawn some of my work of as her own.

guess where i am going!

i got the golden letter in the mail this arvo. i was in the city in a meeting and mum was at home. she called me up too see if i wanted her to open it or not but i decided i better do it myself

so when i finally got home at 6pm after working and tutoring and sitting on the train for an hour i was suitably sick of waiting.

the letter was quite ambiguous, but it did say that i have been selected for the short list for teh JET program, and i all i have to do now is send in my acceptance and i am pretty much in.

it still all hinges on a "contracting organization" accepting my application, but it is very rare for this not to happen apparently, accoridng to the letter

i still dont know excactly where i will be going, could be anywhere in japan, i will find out in may. whats another month in the grand scheme of things. i have only been waiting since decemember!

I called katie and she has been accepted too! yey. i will more likely be going over on the same plane as her and attending orientation together in tokyo.

i cant wait. now at least i dont have to thing about those blasted grad program applications anymore :)

now it is time to go back to celebtrating and stop blogging. mum cracked out a bottle on wine and we proceeded to drink it all. apparently katie's mum cried when she told her. my mum seems to be used to me jetting off every now and again.

a trip to the western 'burbs

last night i went to a party in laverton.

i should have to say much more than that for you to get a picture in your mind about what it was like, but actually it was a very funny evening

the trip started at 7pm when i picked katie up from blackburn and we drove over. gosh there are a lot of bad smells along the road to lavvo. i think there is a tannery or something on princes hwy.

we finally got there about 45mins later and the party was starting to get into swing. by the end of the night there were probably about 15 people at different stages.

the night started with drinking and waiting for a few more people to turn up. when they did we played that board game that everyone gave me for my birthday "sexdrive" again and actually played it according to the rules this time. its not as hard as we had originally thought, but takes too long to play it real, next time we will make up our own rules again

more people turned up, kate, erin, james and co arrived from a free drinks escapade in at the spy lounge, more shots and beer were drunk. some of kate and co went home, left james behind cause he needed a lift off me to get home in the morning, some more beer was drunk, many people were drunk....

people in lavvo are strange. but fun (c.f. beer bongs)

i stayed the night on the couch and woke up around 9am. luckily for me i didnt have a hangover like some. min went back to bed at one point. we all sat around talking till around about 11 when i decided i really needed some breaky.

so james and katie and i drove to williamstown to find a place with all day breakfast menu. i had some great Turkish eggs and freshly squeezed orange juice. then we went for a walk along the foreshore in the hot summer sun. 30-somthing in april? what is going on!

then the drive home through the city was hell (footy traffic) but i finally dropped katie and james off at their respective houses around 2pm and i got home about 2.30. just was 3 mins too slow to miss the crazy rain that attacked my area of melbourne. i will have to get my stuff out of my car later when the rain dies down.

from 30 degrees to crazy rain and whirlwinds. what an interesting night and day.

got apple? got viking?

friday was a busy day

first of all i had to come home from the ben folds concert, and then after only 10 mins of being home i get a phone call from apple to say my laptop has finally arrived and i should come in and pick it up

start drive to city v1.0

i get in there, find a park only 1 min walk from the shop, get the laptop, pay for it on the credit card, drive to carlton, have lunch with kate, show off laptop to guys at consultel, drive home, play with new computer

i had won some more comedy festival tickets for a show in at fitztroy called Got Viking. I invited Liesl to come along and organised to meet her at ringwood station at 7pm

the train didnt come. big surprise. so start drive to city v2.0

parking in brunswick street is always a living hell, but finally after awhile we found a great park that wasnt "permit only" or 1 hour parking

the show wasnt going to start till 8.30 so we went for a little wander. i wanted to show liesl the bar called Zeltza cause it is soo cool with the tree inside the bar.

then it was time to go back, got a drink and settled down for the show. it was packed and sold out. there were people waiting for tickets even.

the show was very funny. a group of young people, i think from melbourne uni with a theatre and voice background. the story revloved around some vikings and some monks. the vikings wanted to ransack the monastry and there was a lot of funny stuff going on. i wont say too much, but i recommend it, couldnt stop laughing

then it was home again, dropped liesl off and went to bed. i had gotten an sms saying "come to the hawthorn" but by this point i was not in the mood for "start drive to city v3.0"

Ben Folds rocks

Last night i ventured into that quarter of melbourne where the hookers trawl the street and strange people ask you if you are a nurse, to catch the Ben Folds concert at the Prince of Wales.

I met up with Jules at Flinders St and we took the tram down St Kilda Rd. Gosh there were some weirdos on the tram but that is another story.

Arriving at the Prince at around 8.45, the support act was going to be playing from 9 till 10ish and ben folds was starting at 10.15 so we stopped off at the bar for a few drinks.

There were definately some people in there who knew how to have a good time. they were sitting in the window seats and had broght along their own JENGA set. drunken JENGA, why didnt i think of that? there should be JENGA bars all over melbourne. who needs snooker tables when you have JENGA? They invited us to play too but it was time to go in and see the show

THe Prince venue is pretty cool. all kind of layered so you can see the stage better. there were heaps of people. the show was sold out. Mat wanted to go too but he left it too late to buy tickets. By too late i mean he tried to get them yesterday. I dont want to say i told you so, but i did Matt

Drinks were crazily priced in there so it was lucky we had had a few in the other bar where they were a bit more reasonable.

The show kicked off at around 10.15 and he started off with a lot of his new stuff that hasnt been released yet. Which was cool and all but it was a bit hard to hear the words clearly. I would have liked to hear the new stuff first on CD so i could appreciate it better. But Ben folds is great no matter waht. i wish i could play the piano like that...

Next bracket was his more recent stuff, and then finally the old favourites. He got the crowd to make up the extra parts in songs like Army by standing on top of his piano and conducting us.

His new CD comes out this weekend so i think i had better buy it. It was very cool. THis is the first live show i have been to in so long. i dont know why i dont go more often.

After the show finished at around midnight we headed down to the Espy for a few more drinks and listened to the string quartet rock group play. Also pretty cool. matt why dont you play violin like that?

Then it was a taxi back to Jules and to sleep on the couch. That couch has served me well, but he has just found out he has to move out in the next 2 months cause the owners are selling up. Shame, but i am sure he will find something just as cool.

dont speak too soon

i just got off the phone with the Apple shop in the city.
My laptop had arrived (finally). I was almost going to give up on it.

Sadly i just got home from the city (was out on the town seeing the Ben Folds concert - see next post) so i am going to have to just go all the way back in again...

time bears no no fruit

i went into the apple shop on flinders st again today. it is now 27 days since i ordered my new ibook.

originally they told me it would be 10 days until i could walk out with a new laptop under my arm.

this is getting riduculous. and apparently there are people who have waited even longer and still dont have them yet

this is defintely not a good way to do business. i am almost ready to give up on apple altogther and buy an inferior computer because i am running out of patience.

i am trying to figure out what kind of demands i might be able to make to keep to happy while i wait. josh suggested i demand the most recent software which is only comig out this week. i was thinking on a more material wavelength and demand a new laptop bag, one of those krumpler ones would be nice...

uni is good to me

how am i going to survive in the real world when i graduate in July.
how will i deal with not being about to get free tickets for the melbourne comedy festival anymore

yes, i have won some more tickets. this time its to "Got Viking". so that makes 7 lots of double passes now.

Thank you swinburne. you make my social life interesting :)

From 'I do' to 'I won't'

An Article from today's Age
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/From-I-do-to-I-wont/2005/04/04/1112489417732.html

"Men don't even think it is a problem if they don't have sex with their wives," Mr Kim said. "They have pornography and the sex industry to take care of their needs, but their wives have nowhere to go. They just suffer in silence."

Simon's dating tips

This is how a friend of mine's friends figure a guy can pick up chicks

the guys were saying to be more arrogant with girls and u will get them

the guys reckon u should leer and check them out really obviously and then they will go for u.

i am not so sure about that!

more tests

English Genius You scored 85% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 93% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go! Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 18% on Beginner You scored higher than 74% on Intermediate You scored higher than 54% on Advanced You scored higher than 99% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

what kind of alcohol are you?

i should be studying, but alas i am taking online quizzes instead


Vodka


?? Which Alcoholic Drink Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

what was that step? you're going too fast!

whilst i might be fit (and a bit orange at the moment), i am not in the least coordinated.

today i tried what is called a "low impact" class at the gym. i slept in just that little bit too much to make it to the spin class at 9.15

anyways, this is the firs aerobics style class i have been to in many years. i normally stear clear of them, but i thought how am i going to get any better at coordination if i dont practice.

i can do the basic steps - grapevine, side taps, star jumps etc - but its when they put them together into a kind of regime that i get all over the place. i am tapping left when everyone else is going right. i am marching on the stop when people are doing complicated things i just dont get.

i dont know if i want to go back again. i discussed the fact that i am not so good at these things with a friend and he just laughed and said he always makes fun of the people who go the wrong way in these classes. but when i asked him if he had ever actually done it himself he hadnt so it made me feel a bit better.

but either way i think i better stick to spin classes and body balance. no real coordination required.

the problems with being fit

ever since i started riding i have had these permanent tan lines across my legs at the point where my bike shorts finish.

today i decided to try and do something about it. bring in the fake tan

now i smell funny and have orange legs. not the best look.
on top of that, it didnt get rid of the tan line at all!

i have a new cousin

At 7.30 this morning my Auntie Karen had a baby girl. She is named Alicia.

No-one else was home this morning so when i answered the phone silly me forgot to ask how heavy she was, apparently that is something you are supposed to ask.

Either way, i am off to visit her in hospital later this arvo. I am sure i will find out all that needs to be known then.

A new break up line please

After recent turns of events, it came to my mind to look up and see what other kinds of break up lines are out there in the world

Personally i have only heard a few, but each has been repeated over and over.

1. I am too busy for a relationship right now
2. I have been in relationships for too long and i want to try the single life
3. I still have feelings for my ex
4. etc etc etc, blah blah blah

At least now i have experienced the whole spectrum of break up scenarios too: break up in person, by phone, by sms, by msn etc

It is so time for something new

This site and this site have some interesting twists on the break up line personalities.

If you have some good ones to add that you have personally experienced, put them in the comments.

locational prejudice

there is a word for discrimiation against someones race, gender, sexual persuasion etc, but what is the word for when you are picked on because of the suburb you live in?

there is nothing wrong with the outer eastern suburbs. yes, it may take me 45 mins to get in to the city by train or car, yes, i might be in zone 3, but it is a very nice place to live and nice people live here.

so please stop picking on my suburb. at least i dont live in broady or footscray....

Comedy festival - free shows #5 and #6

well the winning spree continues

last night i went to see Tanya Lossano is a Trophy Wife and Wes Snelling in Geisha La-la.

Tanya Lossano was not the funniest person. As Kate described it from the night before, "It had its funny moments, but it was basically one bad joke drawn out for the whole show."

Wes Snelling was very funny though. It was at the Duckboard house on flinders lane, which is actually an RSL club. Seating was cabaret style with little tables. There were not that many people in the audience but i ran into someone i knew, a fellow swinny student with free tickets.

The show comprised of the main guy and two girls. THe plot revolved around a kind of cult called the "Geisha Lala" where he was the head "Gei" and this two girls were in training.

By the way "gei" = "Art" in japanese

but the best bit of the show was the audience particiation. mainly because it wasnt me that had to participate but James. From now on you can call him "Bruce". He couldnt believe his luck. within the space of the 1 hour show he had both "girls" and the head "gei" coming on to him.

But i think you had to be there to understand.

Anyway, it was a very daggy show, but very funny. where esle could you see 2 scantily clad women and a man dressed in a kimono?

i want my apple!

on the 10th of march i ordered an apple
nothing fancy, just an ordinary apple

i still dont have it!
how can it take 20 days + to get an apple

according to the greengrocer at the apple store in flinders st

"there is a global shortage of apples. australia only has a demand of around 2% of the apples so they are not first in the queue for new apples, japan and USA get first dibs"

that is not fair. i want my apple now. why should i have to wait?

they cant even tell me when it will be coming in. life is unfair.