Limpets and Penguins

Teaser Tuesday 100608

2010-06-08T02:03:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

5.3.21.01.002: Once allocated, postcodes are permanent, and for life.

pg. 79

I discovered this book via someone's teaser tuesday and I am glad I added it to my reading list. I really enjoyed it - unfortunately the sequels are not due out for at least some years. :( I tried to buy the first book in another series by this author...but to no avail!! But this book was a lot of fun.

Teaser tuesday 100601

2010-06-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

"I've heard that before" I tell her. "I'm sure the Congolese heard it every day for a hundred years while they had to forbear the Belgians. Now they finally get a fighting chance, and we're sitting here watching it get born dead...."
pg. 476.

I loved this book - I couldn't put it down. It was one of those books which makes you angry and also makes you rethink how you treat people and the assumptions you make. I highly recommend it!!!

Sorry

2010-05-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not been around. Just had an ultra hectic week - so tired and exhausted. Hopefully shall catch up on everyone's blogs this weekend and write a post of my own.

On an excited note ...

I got a first class honours :) (well..i was told this informally..but still!!!) so I shall have a

Bachelor of Science (Advanced) (Honours First Class)!!

Yay

Seven Deadly Sins!

2010-05-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by E. at Whining at the World

Sloth - how do you relax?

With a bath and a book. Or with a book of pixel problems (a type of logic problem).

Gluttony - What can't you get enough of, even though it's bad for you?

Cheese (and crackers). Salsa and cornchips.

Greed - What do you get greedy for?

For more books! And time with my boyfriend!!

Envy - What makes you green?

At the moment - people who have had already had their honours consensus meeting and know how they went! Otherwise...my grandparents who get to travel around australia all the time!

Lust - What does it for you?

Ummm...long eyelashes. In terms of if I could have anyone...David Tennant in Doctor Who...Richard Armitage (when in North and South..and I am actually kinda liking him in Robin Hood at the moment) and the phantom of the Opera. So I guess..what really does do it for me is confidence and someone who is skilled at something and gets exitable about it!

Pride - What are you inordinately proud of?

Me handing in my honours project on time. And for lasting over 6 and a half months without my boyfreind (yay..half way point).

Wrath (Anger) - What makes you cranky?

Injustice. SO angry I sometimes cry. In a more trivial light..people who are always late.

So to pass it on...
well...basically most people who regulary comment on this blog have either been tagged for this meme or I have recently tagged for something else...so anyone can do it!!!

Teaser Tuesday 100518

2010-05-17T23:22:00.001-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I have a bed made of Buttermilk Pancakes by Jaclyn Moriarty

"It's just that we all agreed on this, okay? It's no offence or anything. See we just decided things are kind of different now we're in Year 7, and you have to kind of like make the tough decisions? If you're going to survive. And we think you're not kind of right for survival. okay?"

pg 73 -74

This book is set in Sydney - so a big plus for me there. I love reading this book ..probably the fifth time I have read it. It is quirky, easy to read and funny, everyone should check it out :)

A guest post

2010-05-17T01:55:00.000-07:00

Today I am guest posting about my favourite books at A study in contradictions..so go check it out!

My photoshoot

2010-05-15T23:36:00.000-07:00

I thought I would just post up some of the photos from my recent photoshoot with SF Marler Photography. No laughing! I thought I would do some book reading ones (since I am such a book nerd) and some pretty ones...

What is everyone's favourite? Also, since everyone has been posting photos of themselves without makeup I thought I would add the note that I am sans makeup aside from a tiny bit of mascara..

Simple pleasures

2010-05-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Ages ago E. from Whining at the World awarded me the Beautiful Blogger award so now I am finally getting round to it!!!

The rules are as follows
1. Thank and link to the person that gave you the award
2. Pass the award along to 7-9-15- however many bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
3. Contact said Blogs and let them know they’ve won
4. State 7 things about yourself

So I am going to list 7 simple pleasures of mine which I have been aprecciating recently.

* Lying on the grass looking up at the sky on a brilliant sunny autumn day. I love looking at the trees as they silloute with the sky.

* Riding home on the bus across the harbour bridge. I love the view, no matter if it is afternoon with a sunset or nightime with the opera house lit up. I feel so priveldged to see this view every day.

* Arriving at my beautiful field site. I love it when I am just arriving there and there is the endless ocean on one side (seriously an enormous area of horizon) and the beautiful blue ocean and rocks in the bay which is my site. Sometimes I just want to leap in for a swim but I can't!

* Having a bath with all the windows closed and no air thing going - I love the steaminess!

www.studiohousecards.com/MicheleWright.html

* Getting in to bed just after a hot bath and the feeling of the sheets on my skin

* Reading - anywhere!

* The pleasure of getting a phone call from someone you love!

Ok...to pass it on...most people will have already received this..but ah well.

Dar from Satisfy my soul
Nichol from Possible Thunderstorms
Mrs P from A study in contradictions
Pink Patent Mary Janes
Psych Babbler at Over cups of coffee

Since I have some awards I needed to give back...don't feel left out now because you might get one of those!!!

Teaser Tuesday 100511

2010-05-10T21:27:00.001-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Two large glasses of decant claret in the middle of the day were not part of the Major's usual schedule. He had to admit that they imparted a rosy air to a luncheon that would otherwise have been stilted.

pg. 192

This book was quite enjoyable, easy to read and kind of sweet. It was good to be reminded of somethings. This book was also recommended for those who enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Teaser tuesday 100504 and reflections

2010-05-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The piper's son by Melina Marchetta

If you think I've forgotten anything about that night, you, most gorgeous girl, are labouring under a great misapprehension. I remember everything. I remember your petticoat...slip..whatever the hell it's called, and you let me take it off. You made me close my eyes and that was even more of a turn-on.

pg. 309.

I absolutely loved this book!!! The whole book is infused with a sadness. At first I was a bit nervous to read it as I really love most of M. Marchetta's books but once I started it was just great - just like her other books. So easy to read, so moving. I think "On the jellicoe road" is still my favourite though - but that is partly because it improves on reading. This book is ones of those you stay up late cause you don't want to put it down.

I also love how it is set in Sydney, though not in the supurbs/area where I live but I have visited this area many a time. It lends the book a kind of familarity, makes it easier to relate to. This book is maybe for an older age bracket then that which presides it (Saving Francessca - i also really like this book)and it is filled with characters my age.

The story rings so true. Though I have never experienced a level of grief or guilt like those in the book - how they react and deal with things feels true. I cried a lot during this book. Even on the bus when surrounded by a bunch of strangers.

This book is definently worth a return visit :)

postscript - i just read this and it makes the book sound really sad. but it actually isn't all that sad - there are heaps of parts where you just laugh and smile. It is just a moving experience and you can you read it on more than once level

My first post!

2010-05-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

I have recently been tagged with heaps of thing recently so I am trying to catch up but I thought I would just do this one today! Jacintah from Live more now tagged me to repost my first ever post! THis is what you are meant to do..

What I want you to do is repost your very first blog post. I want to see how things are different now, if you write differently, if you write about the same topic, if you did a “hi this is why I’m blogging” sort of post or if you just got straight into it.

Then I want you to tag five people to do the same.

So here goes!

"Why limpets and penguins?" posted on 10th November 2009

Limpets are what I am studying. What are they? They are kind of like flattened snails which live down on the rocks at the beach. Most people think they don't move but they do...just very slowly. I personally think they are pretty cool. When something attacks them they clamp down and to cool down they mushroom up - lifting their shell off the ground. As this is my honours year I predict I am going to get pretty obssessed with them. Even start having crazy dreams!

Penguins? Well apart from the fact that they are pretty cute - especially baby emperer penguins - my boyfriend is shortly to depart for Antartica for a year - so they represent him. Just need to convince him to start his own blog. So expect to see lots of pictures of them :)

So this is going to be the year of Limpets and Penguins for me.

I don't think I write differently. After finishing my honours I think I am slightly more obsessed with limpets! I am even going to a world congress on molluscs in July! (yay...but will post more about that another time!) And I did have crazy dreams about them.

Anyway..five people...most of the people who follow me seem to have done this so hopefully no overlaps

Mrs P. from a study in contradictions
Nichol from Possible Thunderstorms (my boyfriends blog!)
Melissa from Sugar Coat It
Miss Carly from everyone want this
The Fat Chick

I have heaps of exciting purchases to show everyone so hopefully will get time to do that tomorrow...but tomorrow I am having a photoshoot! Yay!!!

My recent cooking attempts

2010-04-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of days I have attempted to do some cooking.

On Sunday I was having some friends over for a picnic and I really wanted to show I was capable of cooking so I decided to bake a cake. Now, I have this recipe for the birthday cake my mum always made me every year so I thought I would give that a go. All seemed to go well at first - the mixture tasted right. But then...I put it in the oven. The recipe said medium oven for 35-40 minutes...and since I had no idea what temperature was medium I just selected around 150 degrees. The cake...did not rise. I used self raising flour by the way so it should have. And it seemed to take ages to bake. In the end my cake was 1 cm in height! It tasted great though and I ate 75% of the cake myself over 3 days!

As my boyfriend is in Antartica they don't have a lot of fresh produce, including yoghart. So they make their own yoghart using Easiyo. Since he liked the yoghart so much - and got really excited about it - he decided to buy me a easiyo youghart maker and lots of yoghart making supplies. SO finally on Monday night I made the yoghart. And so far it seems I have succedded. The yoghart tastes and looks like normal yoghart and last night I made some tzakiki dip using it. The dip is a bit stronger than I am used to but is tasty enough :)

So yay - I have kind of managed to succed in some cooking.

I hate my laptop!

2010-04-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

My laptop has been having power problems again! I hate my laptop and its power problems. Have not been able to use it since last Tuesday (currently sneaking on to my mum's beautiful lap top). I will probably have to buy a whole new power supply thing - again! At the moment I am just trying to replace the faulty plug in my universal adaptor power thing but the stupid company is not getting back to me! Rant!

I will attempt to post tomorrow. I have so many posts stored up in my head - just need the energy and the motivation to do them!

For the past week I have been watching a hell of a lot of chick flicks but today I went in to uni as I am now bored of just resting! Yes - I am such a nerd - going to uni after I have handed in my honours thesis and asking for more!

Teaser Tuesday

2010-04-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons

Sadie had never thought of a house as a living thing before - it was a thing, which one filled with other things, like furniture and books. Yet the walls were painted with limewash so that the stone could breath and at night the house did feel almost alive, with its creaking and the sounds of the stream, trickling, trickling.

pg. 79

So far I am finding the book really sweet. It was recommened to be liked by those who enjoyed "The Guensey Potato Peel and Literary Society" and as I enjoyed that I thought I would give it a try. And again, it is easy to read and an interesting story.

For those who read last week's teaser from Requim for a Wren - I finished that book. I really liked it and the ending was both sad and moving.

It is finished!!!

2010-04-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

Today I handed in my honours thesis. All four bound copies of it. Am so over it by this point - but hello my free time (well...until I get a job). Unfortunately my celebration plans have to had be curtailed as yesterday I came down with a horrible flu type thing. Only 3 hours of sleep last as I was so clogged up :(

Sigh.

But I did reward myself with an icecream (it was very hot) and an hours worth of book shopping!

My plans are
- get a massage
- borrow some dvds
- sleep
- catch up with friends and family
- buy some much needed clothes!!

The easter show, arrivals in the post and a book review

2010-04-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

Since it is sooo noisy at the moment in my building at uni (noisy renovations) I thought I would write a quick post :)

The easter show

On Sunday afternoon me and a few friends went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. We had so much fun. Firstly we went to the big food dome and spent an hour tasting free samples and looking at the regional food displays! I love the dawn of agriculture one and some of the vegetables were enormous. I ended up buying some feta stuffed olives and marinated feta stuffed peppers - so tasty. We also bought some oysters to eat there - freshly prepared as a special treat.

Then we moved on to the arts and crafts section and looked at all the sewing and food competition entries. I love the sugar art stuff! So amazing. I once tried to do some but failed dismally.

By this time it was after five!!! So some of us went to look at the animals (I wanted to see the woodchopping but it was over). so we looked at the goats (some enormous and a bit scary), the pigs (which my friends adore) and lots of cows (which I like). Then we watched the final of the polo (nsw lost) and ate dinner whilst listening to some live music in this little area before heading home. Overall lots of fun!

Arrivals in the post

In the past week I have recieved two book parcels in the post! Yay! Both of these were birthday gifts from my brother

* Elegance of the hedgehog - i really want to read this book

* Shades of grey - after reading a teaser tuesday of this I thought I would give it a go.

I love the feel of new books - so much excitement and anticipation

Book review of The True Story of Butterfish by Nick Earls

I said I would let everyone know how I found this book so now I am! I said at first that it was hard to get into but it did improve slightly - though not too much. The book went somewhere completely different then where I expected it to go from the blurb and first part of it. And I found it didn't really go too far anywhere - like I got close to the end and I was suprised that I was near the end as it felt like nothing much had happened. Aside from this, the prose of the book was easy to read and not overly descriptive. I am not sure if I would recommened this to other people or try another book by the author but will consider further.

Anyone read anything great recently?

Teaser tuesday 100413

2010-04-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Requim for a wren by Nevil Shute

There were no civilian boats or yachts afloat upon the south coast at that tume, but the river was full of landing craft, box-like, grey, painted things of steel with ramps to let down at the bow, with diesel engines thumping away inside them to charge batteries as they lay moored bow and stern to the buoys, with white ensigns drooping at the stern, with bored ratings fishing over the side and staring at us as we threaded our way past.

pg 69-70

I love how that sentence paints a picture so nicely. At first I struggled to get into this book but now I am really enjoying it. I have read "A town like Alice" by this author previously and really liked so I thought I would give another one of his a try. It is not the most "exciting" book but it is has a nice flow to it and it is interesting - showing a very different time realistically (or so I believe).

My absence

2010-04-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry I havn't been round much this week! I have been busy writing up my honours thesis which is due on the 20th of April so am pretty worn out from so much typing, stress and lack of sleep. WIll try and post more tomorrow :)

Teaser Tuesday - 100406

2010-04-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The True Story of Butterfish by Nick Earls

Kate Winter, custodian of the house of slamming doors and duelling stereos, ex-partner of the piano-owning man who was Annaliese's father.

I wanted my privacy.

pg. 31.

I finished reading The time traveller's wife for the second time (which i love!!!) this morning so I have only just started this book. So far it is ok - hopefully it will grow on me a bit more :)

My beautiful easter hamper

2010-04-03T21:07:00.000-07:00

My boyfriend organised to have a box of easter treats sent to me for easter :) Very exciting. So instead of the normal foil wrapped eggs and bunnies I got these artisitc looking chocolate eggs. Aren't they beautiful. :)Also included - though you can't really see them are gold painted charamel filled easter eggs - I ate some of them today and they are delicious :)

Hot Cross Buns and Easter

2010-04-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hot Cross Buns have to be my favourite part of easter. I can eat a pack a day they are so tasty. I also like the chocolate ones (the ones with chocolate chips instead of sultanas) but the normal one are still my favourite. Yesterday my mum made some fresh ones and I ate all eight of hem over the course of the evening!!! They were my dinner!

I love the smell
I love the hotness
I love peeling the cross off

http://z.about.com/d/britishfood/1/0/A/-/-/-/hotxbuns.jpg

What is your favourite thing about easter?

2010-04-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished reading Too much happiness - which I really enjoyed as it made me think - and the last short story in it (it was not that short though - 60 pages) was really great. It was centred around a women mathematician and novel writer from the late 19th Century. As in - a real person.

But now on to something a bit more light hearted! I am finally round to reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger again! Yay!

I really enjoyed this book the first time I read it. Actually the first first time I read it (or part of it) was when I was handed one of those sampler books of the first chapter or so of it...and I thought "this sounds good" but I didn't read it for years later!!

It is so easy to read and a beautiful and very sweet story. Anyway - if you havn't read it I really recommend it :) (And i think it is better than her current book "Her fearful symmetry).

Four Things

2010-03-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

I stole this off Corinne from A day in the life. Join in if you would like :)

Four jobs I've had:

Customer Service Representative in a call centre for Pizza Hut
Market Researcher over the phone (yes...calling people up and asking for their opinions)
Cleaner for a shop
Waitress in a German Restaurant (4 shifts)

Four movies I can watch over and over:

Never Been Kissed
Phantom of the Opera
Beauty and the Beast
Howl's Moving Castle

Four places I've lived:

I have always lived in Sydney...

Four TV Shows I love:

Seachange
North and South - it is a telemovie
Yes Minister/Primeminister
Eagle: A crime odyssey

Four places I've been to on holiday:

Northern Australia - The Kimberely's in Western Australia and the top end in the Northern Territory to be more exact
Tasmania
Germany
Czech Republic

Four of my favourite dishes:

Nachos
Mushroom Korma with Rice
My boyfriend's mussel and calamari soup
Calamari and Chips!

Four sites I visit daily:

Sydney Morning Herald
Hotmail
Facebook
Australian Antartic Division

Four places I would rather be right now:

Swimming in Manning Gorge, Western Australia
Reading a book camping at Myall Lakes
Lieing in a bath at home
Driving in a car(being a passenger) through Gregory National Park, Northern Territory

My recent book purchases

2010-03-30T19:34:00.001-07:00

As promised..these are the books I purchased on Monday!!!

For Christmas I was given a $100 gift voucher from Angus and Robertson. My purchases were as follows

* THe lovely Bones by Alice Sebold- after so many good comments about this book i thought it was about time I read it :)

* I have a bed made of buttermilk pancakes by Jaclyn Moriarty - I absolutely love this book!! Read it so many times. It has quirky bits, is really easy to read and an interesting fun story.

* Dreaming of Amelia by Jaclyn Moriarty - This is a book aimed at a younger audience than the above. Most of the books Jaclyn Moriarty had written are aimed at the young adult market - the most well known being Feeling Sorry for Celia. And again..has quirky bits to it - accroding to the blurb the story is told through the gothic fiction elective of an HSC english exam (HSC is the set of exams you do in your final year of school in NSW, Australia). Looks like fun :)

* I also bought two Manga comics that I had read when in early high school and enjoyed. I was disappointed thouhg because they had reversed the comics so they read like normal engligh novels instead of the back to front nature of manga comics.

As Angus and Robertson did not have Elegance of the Hedgehog I decided to go find it in Borders which is ten times bigger. They had sold out :( :( :( so instead I bought

* The poisonwood bible by Barbara Kingsolver - I bought this as I had really liked The Lacuna and had heard that this book is pretty good too :)

What does everyone think?

Teaser Tuesday - 300310

2010-03-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro

What I Know in Myself is my own Evil. THat is the secret of my comfort.

pg. 23 (Dimensions).

This book is a collection of short stories and the ones I have read so far are quite good. Most of them are easy to read and make you think. The stories are about complex people so that makes them interesting and none of them have the traditional "happy happy" style endings or anything like that. They are actually kind of unsettling in some ways. Definently not a book to read if you need a cheer up.

Off to the bookshop...;

2010-03-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

I am off to the bookshop...which always excites me. My grandfather gave me a $100 gift voucher for christmas so I am off to spend that. Have some books already mind including

* Elegance of the hedgehog (or whatever it is called). I wasn't going to buy this book until I read a review and teaser tuesday of it which made it sound pretty good :)

* The lovely bones

* Shades of Grey - read an interesting teaser of it

Does anyone have any suggestions?? Or opinions of the above books (Yay vs nay?)

Tell me fellow bibliophiles!!!!

Lovesong by Alex Miller

2010-03-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

I featured Lovesong by Alex Miller on my Teaser Tuesday post this week and i thought I would give a very quick review/opinion of the book.

The book was very easy to read - I finished it in a day - and I just wanted to keep reading it to find out what happened. It is an interesting story which makes you think about the choices we make and how things can go wrong in a relationship. Also about the nature of storytelling. In a way it is quite a concise book - doesn't waffle on for ages - which is good in this age of busyness. I plan on reading more by this author.

Has anyone else read this book? And if so what did you think?

My hands

2010-03-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

At the moment it was not that easy to type. You see I have where my skin on my fingers and palms gets covered in tiny little blisters which get bigger and are sooo itchy and then painful and eventually the skin goes scaly and peels off. Very ugly..but at least not contagious.

I visited a doctor a month ago at uni and they gave me some cream...but it got worse so I went back to another doctor at uni and they just said "put more cream on" and I am like wahhh!! Clearly the cream is not working! So eventually last Thursday I went to my family Doctor and she was great. TOld me why she thought i had what I had (diagnosis wise) and wrote out a step by step plan of acton.

The most annoying thing it involves is putting special cream on the affected areas, wrapping them in wet/damp cotton wool and then wrapping them in gladwrap or putting vinyl glovs on top. SOOOOO difficult. And then at night my hands get so itchy and I cannot sleep.

I am seriously sick of this!! It makes it hard to type and the lack of sleep is getting to me! My thesis is due in less than a month so I am getting more stressed..which i think leads to my hands getting worse!!!

Sigh. I just want them to get better :(

Teaser Tuesday - 100323

2010-03-22T20:04:00.001-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Lovesong by Alex Miller

Sabiha set the glasses down on the table in front of the couch. "I don't care. I hope he never comes back.;

pg. 56

I have only just started reading this book and so far I am finding it easy to read and fairly enjoyable. Will post an update when I have read more :)

Reflections inspired by "The Lacuna"

2010-03-21T23:36:00.001-07:00

Some of you may remember that "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver featured in my Teaser Tuesday last tuesday. Well on the bus home today I finished reading it. It made me reflect on a number of issues.

Firstly - how unfair the world and the society is sometimes. The end of the book is set in post world war 2 America where the anti-communism view was taking off. It really frustrates me how biasist and cruel people can be and how bad the system can get. I really hate injustice. And how people just twist words - especially the media - just get to the answer they want. It must have been a frightening time to live in.

And following on from this - the media. This book illustrates how bad the media can be in terms of portraying the truth. Here is a quote I liked

" They had no wish to tell what a man has done with his life. That would require honest witness. THe simpler thing is to state what he has been called".

Grrr.

The problem is - how can you know what is true if you havn't experienced it first hand. If you don't rely on the media you could try relying on what aquaintances to tell you - and there problem with that is that either you get very limited information (if you just go by what they have experienced) or the information is even more inaccurate because of the whole chinese whisper affect.

Or you could just rely on nothing at all which is even worse - because I think knowing about the world is important and lack of knowledge breeds ignoranace and prejudice of other people and their situations.

I think sometimes i take what I read too much at face value

How much do you trust what you read/hear? How do you deal with this dilema?

Something which bothers me..

2010-03-21T02:22:00.000-07:00

FOr the past four months at least I seem to get the same questions asked of me all the time...

How is Nichol?? (my boyfriend who is in Antartica for 13 months)

How are your finding it without him???

Now though these questions are asked with the best intentions - I find it very hard to answer them.

Firstly - it makes me feel that all I am defined by is my relationship with him - which is defintly not so. And though it might sound all sweet and all to say I think of him all the time - that isn't so. I am my own person and though I miss him terribly, it isn't like I am completely fallen apart (though sometimes I do feel like that).

Secondly, it is hard to explain how I truly feel about him being away. It is very complex and most of the time the context people ask me these questions is not appropriate for anything long.

Thirdly, I am asked both of these questions ALL THE TIME. By the same people.

Oh...and there is also the "so when does he get back?" question. And then I have to say 1st of December and then deal with their reaction to that. Sigh. Sometimes reality is very hard to deal with.

Now don't get me wrong - it is nice to be asked how I am coping...just i guess I want people to realise that it isn't easy for me to answer and it is hard if people are always asking.

I don't know how to tell some people that i would rather them not ask all the time and to explain why.

99 Things

2010-03-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

I stole this off Mrs P who stole it off someone else.

The idea is...here is a list of 99 things you could have done. Copy, paste, bold the ones you have done, and post. Ta-da!

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to DisneyWorld

8. Climbed a mountain - more than one - Cradle Mountain in Tasmania definently a highlight to climb

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Got a tattoo

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

WoW. That was fun! YOu should try it :)

I have done 37 of the item on the list :)

Teaser Tuesday 100316

2010-03-16T00:46:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

In the Kitchen the stores burn hotter than the stove. Perpetua says Senora Frida went up to San Miguel Regla yesteday, on the excuse that she needed to give some money to the Landeros family for taking Lev in their house.

pg. 179

I am really enjoying this book. It is set partly in Mexico and partly in the US and follow the life of a boy/man from the 1930s. It is written kind of a like a diary but better (and I love when books are written in a quirky manner). :)

Some advise please...

2010-03-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Next Saturday I have a photoshoot with SF Marler Photography (I won a discount for it :) yay!) and i am wondering how i should dress up for it. I want to do something a bit unusual but I don't know what.

I have had a photoshoot before - my friends gave me one as a present once - so I thought I would do something a bit different. But I don't know!

So I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions?

Teaser Tuesday - 100302

2010-03-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The lost life by Steven Carroll

Instead of just undressing in front of each other, which they have never done, they would be bathing together. Bathing is good like that, gives you a reason, she thinks, as she tamps along just a bit behind.

pg. 4

I just started reading this book today and am just about finished it. It is easy to read and quite interesting. This is one of the books my mum gave me for Christmas and is signed by the author :). It is set in 1934 in England and tells the story of two sets of lovers.

Why is the world conspiring against me and my field work

2010-02-28T23:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings everyone. So Sunday I had field work all planned to do. Get to my field site at 12 and hopefully leave by 6.30. I wake up and there is a tsunami warning to keep away from all coastal areas. I think "screw that" - I am going. I NEED to do this experiment (this is my second attempt at this particular experiment as the rain last time caused me to lose 75 percent of the labels I had glued to the rocks!!!). So after calming my mum and the friends i had roped in to help me and telling them that "No, the tsunami will not affect us" we headed off.

All seemed to be going well - though cloudier than I would have liked. No tsunami at all. The height of the water seemed the same as usual.

But then...thunder and lighting...literally. After the last area had been painted with paint stripper it started to rain!!!! I nearly cried with frustration. I needed the paint stripper to dry and go away before I could finish the last part of my experiment and with the rain there was no chance of that. So i tried as best I could to remove the remaining paint stripper but I fear (alas) that my experiment will be confounded (as in not work properly).

http://www.eontarionow.com/images/Rain.jpg

Second time in a fortnight!!!

On a good note - I have now written 34 pages (just of text) of my thesis. The limit for my honours thesis is 75 pages (not including figures, tables, graphs, references). So yay!!! Nearly half way there!!!!

Pettiskirt Princess - I want this skirt

2010-02-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

Through my browing of fan pages on facebook I discovered Pettiskirt Princess. Originally they just sold kids skirts but now they also sell adults/teen sized skirts. And I really would love to have this skirt. Isn't it gorgeous!

Unfortunately can't justify spending $50 on a skirt at the moment as I have no job. Hurry up May!!!

Here is another cute one but currently they don't do this style in adult :(

My neice and nephew

2010-02-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

As I am feeling pretty sick today and was working hard with uni stuff from 8.30 till about an hour ago I am not going to post much today - just some photos me and my boyfriend took in October of Kaia and Bo, my nephew and niece (well technically my boyfriend's...)

Teaser tuesday - 100223

2010-02-22T23:55:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

"This cannot hold", said he, and his fishy face fingers grew rigid, as they sometimes did when he became animated. "No, no, do not desire it; for when the romantic refinements of a young mind are obliged to give way, how frequently are they succedded by such opinions as are but too common, and too dangerous! I speak form experience."

pg. 60

I was slightly doubtful of how much I would enjoy this book at first but I have been pleasantly suprised. Once you get into it it isn't too bad at all :)

After honours

2010-02-20T18:31:00.001-08:00

At the moment I am trying to sort out what to do after I finish honours in April. My current plan in terms of further study is to start my phd in 2011. My boyfriend returns to Australia begining of December this year so I don't want to be tied up with anything when he gets back. So that leaves me with around six months. Hypothetically I should get some sort of job - but what... Should I put in some effort and try and get a biology related job?

I really have a craving at the moment to go overseas. Maybe I could be an au pair? I can speak a bit of german - studied it for 4 years in high school. I can't think of any other jobs I could do overseas. I could also au pair in New Zealand which would be pretty cool. OR maybe work someone else in Australia - like up north (since I love it up there). I just feel that I need to get out of Sydney for a bit. Out of my comfort zone.

Has anyone got any suggestions or knowledge in this area???

Things which arrived in the post this week

2010-02-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

Two beautiful books arrived in the post for me this week. And as you know I love recieiving post (well...when it is delivered and they don't lose it...see here).

First up miss carly sent me this beautiful notebook to record my exercise, food eating habits and weight loss etc :)

And secondly I won this absolutely gorgeous book held on Mrs P's blog - A study in Contradictions. It is full of photos of hearts in different forms.

Here is my favourite photo (well one of them). Note all the limpets and barnicles in the background!!!

Thanks so much miss carly and Mrs P.!!!

Teaser tuesday - 100216

2010-02-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Eats, shoots and leaves by Lynne Truss.

This book I am reading for uni - and I was pleasantly suprised!!! It is all about punctuation - I learnt a little bit and it was a good brush up. It made me laugh so many times. Hard to choose a good teaser from it. But here goes

" Singular possessive instead of plural possessive (a list of misuse of apostrophes)

Pupil's entrance (on a very selective school, presumably)
Adult learner's week (lucky him)"

" Unintential sense from unmarked possessive:
Dicks in tray (try not to think about it)
New members welcome drink (doubtless true)."

pg 50-51

The above examples of bad punctuation really made me laugh.

Next week I will be reading fiction again so don't give up on me yet!!!

My last few days

2010-02-13T00:22:00.001-08:00

Thought I would update everyone with what I have been up to.

Thursday

I spent most of the day doing field work with my limpets :) A friend of mine came with me so that was great. She even managed to asleep on hard, bumpy rocks. I managed to make my watch tan even worse. It has faded a bit now but the photo below should give you the gist of it!

Afternoon was spent drinking tea, having a chinse massage (much needed - crouching over limpets sure makes you back sore) and perusing book stores :)

Friday

Most of friday was me getting frustrated with the post office. When I got home on Thursday evening I had one of those notes to go pick up a parcel at the post office. So I dutifully went up 9 friday morning. But somehow the had lost my parcel!!! So frustrating! I waited there for an hour whilst they searched for it. At ten they told me the guy who might know where it is comes in at 12 so they will call me at one. So home i go...1? no call. So at 2 I call and yes they have found it. It was still in the truck or something!!! :(

I had a farewell thing at uni at 4. Eating and drinking in a lab - such a disregard for OH & S. By 6.30 everyone had left though apart from me, a phd student and my supervisor. By 7 even my supervisor had left. Talk about a lame party :( But Me and the phd student endeed up staying to 9.30 finishing off some of the alcohol and chatting and ranting about biology - so not a completely wasted evening!

By the time I was walking home from the bus stop it was raining so heavily I got soaked completely in 30 seconds. After crossing the road I couldn't get back on to the footpath as the water was so deep. Even in the middle of the road it was up to my ankles!!!

Saturday

Yesterday I opened my valentines/4 year aniversery present from my boyfriend - wasn't sure when would get a chance to talk today. He gave me a pandora charm bracelet :) :) So sweet of him. The charms he gave me were a snake, a turtle and an owl. Suitable for a biologist I reckon.

So anyone been doing anything nice this weekend ???

The Winter Olympics - Vancouver 2010

2010-02-09T17:14:00.001-08:00

I am really excited about the upcoming Winter Olympics. I absolutely love watching both the Summer and Winter Olympic games on tv, though unfortuantely Vancouver is quite a difference time wise.

Unfortunately I am in the middle of studying and typing up my thesis. Sigh.

Australia is quite naturally not the best at winter sports. No snow ...but this year we have quite a few medal hopes. These are in the Men's moguls (Gold Medal Favourite Dale Begg-Smith), Women's aerials (Another chance for a gold here with Lydia Lassila) and Women's short track skating (Tatiana BORODULINA). So i will be especially keeping my eyes on these events.

I also love the mascots they have!!! So cute.

Go here and you can check out cute images on the map of Vancouver. Or go to the website for more cute images!!

That one looks like a yeti or something :)

Teaser Tuesday - 100209

2010-02-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The Riverbones by Andrew Westoll

The next day, Kevin went with the men across the river and deep into the jungle to the Balingsoela cemetery.

Then I came here and found the coolest, most sweestest place in the world.

pg 85

This is a non-fiction book by a former biologist about his time in Suriname. Suriname is a very small country in South America with the largest area of pristine rainforest left on earth. It is troubled by the conflict and struggle between the environmental and huminatarian concerns and the economic needs of the nation - and the book is about this. So far this book is suprisingly captivating - and makes me feel frustrated at the world and its corruptness. The book is named for the dead rainforest trees sticking out of a dam - formed by the flooding of a very large area of rainforest.

My recent guy obsession

2010-02-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Since seeing an episode of Dr Who recently I have developed a bit of a thing for David Tennant. Seriousoly - he is just so cute as the Doctor. I love it when he puts his glasses on. And the Doctor is such a nerd!

As a result of suddenly finding him ultra cute I have watched every single episode of Doctor Who with him in it. Thats three series and lots of specials :)

And I love both his accent in the show and his real accent.

Sigh - So here are some more pictures of him - who could resist!And yes i know he is 16 years my senior :(

Who is your current off limits hot/cute guy?

My week of early get ups

2010-02-04T12:54:00.000-08:00

This week I have been trying to leave the house earlier then what I have been doing recently (at 8.55). I have been trying to leave by 7.55 - i know...this isn't very early. But so far with my alarm set at 7....i have only managed to do it twice this week. The other times i have used the snozze botton a bit too much or just failed alltogether.

I don't know what is wrong with me :( :( I am just so sleepy these past couple of weeks :(

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8eW7PlmG_mU/RzJ1WAkrNHI/AAAAAAAAARA/sSt_TapYRgQ/s400/sleep.jpg

Teaser Tuesday 100202

2010-02-03T02:41:00.000-08:00

Jacinta from Live life now started to do this week and I really like the idea - except i forgot to do it last night...but ah well.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The winner stand alone by Paulo Coelho pg 171

It can destroy careers, marriages and Christian values and blind both the wise and the ignorant

The Superclass, everyone's dream, a world without shadows or darkness, where 'Yes' is the only possible answer to any request.

My friend gave this to me for my birthday and I have nearly finished. It is quite enjoyable. My eddition is printed in India which is slightly unusual

Giveaways

2010-02-03T01:16:00.001-08:00

So many people are having giveaways at the moment - so I thought I would give everyone an opportunity to compete with me to win them.

Firstly, at Litte Sooti. A giveaway of three dinosaur soft toys. So cute. I so want to win this one! Check it out.

Next at Snobnicky. A kind of mystery giveaway - with clues. I always love a lucky dip!

Lastly at A study in contradictions. A book on love. It looks really pretty

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1146/788566153_28b635c03f.jpg

Good luck everyone

My primary school

2010-01-31T21:11:00.000-08:00

Since there is so much going on in the media at the moment in regards to schools etc and Jacintah at live life now inspired me...i thought i would dedicate a post to me and my primary school(s).

I was very lucky where I grew up. Growing up on the North Shore you just assumed that all the primary schools were great.I spent Kindi to Year 4 at Lane Cove West Primary - which luckily was just up the street. This school was quite small - maximum one class per year, often ending up with composite classes. We had a big oval (well seemed enormous to me) and the toilets weren't too bad.

Reflecting back I can't really remember what we learnt in primary school

* basic arithmetic
* how to read and write
* was there anything else??

I just seem to recall doing a lot of reading - which i still love to this day. Our second year teacher tried to teach us greek which was great.

I remember the old computers with those weird games which tried to help you learn maths. I had a great nerdy computer partner so those games were a breeze.

We had drama classes - lots of singing and dancing around.

We used to play hiding games around the old toilet blocks (our toilet blocks were always changing) and the library. The AV room was always so nice and cold.

We had a school band which was made up of a clarinetist, a violenist, a flutist and about 15 people on percussion/keyboard. I remember walking up to the local plaza and me and my violin friend (i played the clarinet) swapped instruments to carry up. Good for me cause a violin is lighter than a clarinet.

History lessons seemed to consist of painting historical figures.

What do you remember about primary school?

Kaia and the trumpet

2010-01-29T15:47:00.000-08:00

Last sunday I spent the afternoon at Manly Oval watching my boyfriend's brother's cricket match with his family. As Kaia, my nephew of sorts, was getting restless I decided to take him for a walk. For those who don't know Kaia is Daria's (from Three little birds) 2.5 year child and he is pretty cute but very naughty sometimes.

Anyway, we were walking along, playing in the dirt and looking at the trees when someone played the trumpet. Then without prompting he picks up this pine needle type thing and starts playing it like a trumpet. Well...making trumpeting noises with it put to his mouth! How cute and clever is that!!! I was amazed.

Sigh. He was so cute on sunday. He would ask to hold my hand when we were down steep hills and singing songs. And playing in the dirt. Though for some reason he has now taken to calling me Dorothy - as in Dorothy the dinosaur from the wiggles!!!

I don't know if I want him to grow up too much more!

Where is Daria?

2010-01-26T02:22:00.001-08:00

Hi - thought I would just let everyone know who also reads Daria's blog Three Little Birds that she has been absent not because she hates you or anything...but her computer has been broken for over a month. Hopefully it will all sort out soon. That computer has given her nothing but trouble

Lemonade Stand Award

2010-01-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts recently passed on the Lemonade Stand Award to me :) How exciting

The award is given to bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

So I am going to pass it on to

Psych Babbler
E.
Jacintah
Pinkpatentmaryjane
Darnonymous

Hope everyone is having a great day. It is a bit gloomy here :(

A visit to my indian friend's house

2010-01-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

On Friday my friend arrived home from India and Europe. So of course she gives me a call to come round :)And as usual she feeds me up with tasty indian food :) I love going to her house for this very reason. My usual favourite is something called chaat. So tasty but hard to explain. But on Friday she introduced me to a new dish. It has this kind of steamed bread/cake stuff which you heat up and pour some sauce on it. The sauce is kind of spicy with a lemony taste. It is also good with yoghurt (in my opinion).

I wish I could cook like that. When she comes to my house I cannot feed her such tasty food.

Do you enjoy visiting your friends to taste their dishes? What is your favourite cuisine?

Music, Me and my Emotions

2010-01-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was listening/watching to the last song on the "Sectionals" episode of Glee..I know I know...it is "My life would suck without you" and I cried my heart out listening to it..about 10 times I listened to it in a row. I guess it just brought up the sadness in me. Not that it is that sad a song or anything. But it was cathartic in a way. It is good to cry. And then to cheer myself up I listened to Defying gravity and some other songs. :) Music does that to me. Really tugs on my emotions. Think Titanic - I cried for ten minutes last time just cause of "my heart will go on"!

Sigh. I know what I will fall asleep with in my head

Sweet dreams everyone

Sorry for my absence

2010-01-20T13:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry for my absence from posting these past couple of days. Been really busy with uni work and family stuff :) My honours supervisor read some of the stuff I had typed up and said he was impressed so yay!!! I always get so nervous when people read my writting - well not my rambling writting but things that count.

My day is again going to be filled with trying to write about limpets. Joy :P

Has anyone got anything planned for the pseudo long weekend? I am hopefully going to go watch some cricket, go to symphony in the domain with some friends and have a family do on the tuesday. And of course listen to triple j's hottest 100 :)

I will write a proper post later today i hope

Post cards

2010-01-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts has invited fellow mums to participate in a postcard exchange so I thought I would join in and extend it to non-mums like myself. Cause face it - isn't getting something in the mail which isn't a bill pretty exciting?

Mari-Ann suggests that it is a great way to teach children about geography and the world and the idea is to send a postcard showing features of where you live.

If anyone wants to exchange a postcard with me (whether a mum or non-mum), leave me a comment and we can sort something out. For those who live in Sydney I have some postcards from other parts of Australia if you would prefer one of the them - they are from my trip driving from Cairns to Broome and back via Alice Springs and the Simpson desert.

Let me know and also go check at Mari-Ann's blog if you want to participate as she lives in Bermuda and how cool would it be to get a postcard from there!

A giveaway I want to win and my weight loss

2010-01-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

The daily marker is having a cool giveaway. You could win all this so go check it out :) Pretty cool eh?

Last week's weight - 59
This week -57
Loss - 2 Kg
OVerall loss - 3Kg

yay. Definently need to do more exercise so i can achieve my getting fit goal

My hot water system

2010-01-15T03:28:00.001-08:00

For most of my life we have had a solar hot water system. Now this is great for the environment and most of the time works fine - no problems with hot water. Except for overcast days. Like today. Now we also have offpeak hotwater electricity for days like this - so you can flick a switch on those days but you will only get power to heat up the water during off peak hours i.e. in the evening.

Sigh

So this evening I started pouring myself a bath but no and behold no hot water and the switch hadn't been flicked. So now I have to wait for half an hour or so. And I love really really hot baths.

Silly hot water system

picture from http://www.emc.cmich.edu

T2 and why I love my friends

2010-01-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went tea shopping at T2. For a long time I have been a fan of this shop. Ever since a friend of mine took some turkish apple stuff on a duke of edinborough hike back in high school :).

Anyway, a good friend of mine works at the one at macquarie centre so I enlisted her in helping me pick out some great teas. And she was fantastic - knew everything about all the teas!!! And there is at least 100 different ones!!! And when I was like "I want some Japanese" - she is like...try this one. Sigh - love her.

As I couldn't choose between all the great teas - I bought five. They all smell so nice. I got

- Getaway geisha - a green tea with a pina colada twist
- red green dreamy - fruity rooibas tea ( i really liked red fancy fruit and this one also smells good) - apparantly good hot and cold
- red green vanilla - similar to the previous but vanillary, more relaxing and smooth :)
- Creme brulle - a black tea so one you can have with milk - charamally
- and another green tea whose name i have temporally forgotten - it is japanese

don't they all sound so tasty?? What is everyone's favourite type of tea? I love making iced teas in summer.

Cute brands/companies i have recently discovered

2010-01-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

Recently through facebook, blogs, madeit and etsy I have discovered some really cute brands/products I thought I would share with you

Firstly, pocketcarnival. They make really cute cards, gift tags, coin purses, bags, pencil cases and artwork. So far I have purchased some cards, a coin purse and a pencil case. The patterns are adorable. I especially like the new bettle/bug range.

pictures by pocketcarnival

Check them out at http://www.madeit.com.au/storecatalog.asp?userid=779 or their blog http://pocketcarnival.blogspot.com/

Next we have Little Bird Decor. I first discovered them on Little Sooti. They make really nice wall decals as well as hair accessories. They have recently opened a website www.littlebirddecor.com.au Here are some of my favourites

photos by Little Bird Decor

You can also check them out on madeit and facebook. Join their fan page to win prizes :)

And lastly (I could go on forever), Incy Wincy Bows. They make really cute bows and hair clips. Not too expensive. I love all the bugs ones, and you can get them to custom make colour etc.

pictures by Incy Wincy Bows

favourite photos of 09 part 2

2010-01-12T20:23:00.001-08:00

This is part 2 of my previous post :) I thought I would post my favourite non-me photos since I love taking photos. So hard to pick them!!!

This is of my of my best friends, Deepa, at her 21st birthday. I like it cause it really captures her and she doesn't know I am taking it so it so natural.

I took this whilst canoeing in Lawn Hill National Park. This national park is beautiful though we visited not long after lots of flooding there so lots of big palms had been knocked down. But the red cliffs contrasting with the creek/river are so nice. And there is a mini waterfall and you can also go swimming (and bushwalking of course. Lawn Hill is in the North West of Queensland.

My boyfriend took this whilst we were completing an overnight bushwalk in Purnurlulu National Park,Western Australia. The beehive formations are also called the Bungle Bungles. It was a great overnight walk (apart from the trudging through sand.

This is of Bitter Springs near Mataranka, Northern Territory. These are thermal springs though not the hottest by any means. The great thing about these ones is the colour of the water (cause of the mineral content) and you can get in at one point and because there is a current you can glide down for a bit, you can then get out at another entry point/mini wharf thing or at this bridge where there is a ladder going down into the matter.

my favourite photo of 2009

2010-01-12T16:23:00.001-08:00

miss carly recently tagged me for my favourite photo of the year.

So here it is

This is me snorkelling in the great barrier reef near port douglas. My boyfriend took this with his new camera (waterproof, drop proof etc). I think it captures me doing something i love - looking at animals :)

This picture is from 2007 and was from a photoshoot given to me as a present from my friends - a weird present to give me. Shows me looking good - but not looking like me.

now to tag people
nichol
daria
pinkpatentmaryjane
jacintah
e.
chatterbox
psych babbler

:)

Little Sooti - go join

2010-01-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Everyone should go check out Little Sooti. This great blog is always having giveaways and is having another one when they reach 100 followers. They feature really cute products on their blogs. Their latest post is about a mermaid birthday party - so adorable.

Visitors in the front garden

2010-01-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

We had some friendly tawny frog mouth visitors in our front garden the other day. And they didn't want to move but sat there for hours yawning and preening.I love seeing wildlife up close :)

Sydney Festival First Night + Photos

2010-01-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the Sydney Festival First Night. Crazy stuff going on.

First we went to this quirky japanese restaurant near the entartianment centre where you order off a screen not through a waiter. Heaps of fun. And then you can tell the progress of your order - if it is ready and coming towards you or if it is still being made. We ordered lots of tasty things - takoyaki balls (octopus), octopus pancake, weird deep fried cheese, sushi rolls, tempura vegies, sushi roulette (one is completely filled with wasabi and you can't tell which) and deep fried tofu amongst other things. I can't remember the name of the place but is near cold rock and you go up stairs.

Then we went and looked at stuff in hyde park - cool lights, smoke machines, music, acrobats and an enormous balloon which changed colour.

Photos of me and my friends below :) (I'm the one in the purple dress)

Everyone should have a think of going next year :) Though it was very crowded.

Weigh In Week 1

2010-01-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this yesterday on here

Starting weight 60kg
Today's weight 59kg
Loss - 1 kg

But this might just be natural variation. And i also had a chocolate icecream milkshake - damn that peer pressure.

I havn't done much on the exercise front this week so next week i will start in earnest.

Check out how others are going at the new us

Music

2010-01-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

One thing I am really greatful to my parents for is my letting/making me take music lessons and learning how to read music. To me reading music is the most natural thing in the world. Not being able to read music would be as strange to me as not being able to read. And though I no longer play my clarinet (unfortunatetly) i can still sit at the piano and have tinkle. I am even more greatful for my brother learning music cause he can still just sit at the piano and play properly. Wonderful to have live music in the house :) :)

Music is a pretty important thing for me. In all my favourite disney movies - the music is what i am watching for. I love musicals. I love christmas hymms (the old ones). I can't even fall asleep at night listening to music as I get into to much!

How does role does music play in your life?

Ten things

2010-01-06T17:32:00.000-08:00

miss carly tagged me to do this little ten things thingy-ma-bob. and then tag ten others. hmm...exciting?

Well.

Ten things that make me happy.

1. Books - they are my lifeline. They let me escape to other worlds and into my head - good for when things get tough. Also my audio books/dramatisations. Always there when i am having trouble getting to sleep.

2. Walking home at night. I love walking home at night from the bus stop. I love the emptyness and they way the street lights light up everything. I take mental photographs of it all.

3. Baths. I am definetly a bath girl not a shower girl. I love to lie in the bath...very hot bath..and read. I never fill the bath up first but sit in it while it is being filled up

4. Cricket on the radio - best thing ever :)and pretty funny to listen to

5. Camping. With my boyfriend. I love being outside the city and see beautiful places. And eating tasty food. I love to just sit in a chair in the afternoon reading and eating yummy food/hor devours.

6. Planning holidays. Before we did our last big trip (Cairns to Broome) I spent like a year researching. Not booking things or anything like that. Just reading about it all. I think I would make a really good holiday planner :P

7. Getting something in the post - apart from bills/uni stuff. It is always so exciting. And i have been getting quite a lot recently - things i have bought, cards, exciting presents :)

8. My limpets :) when they cooperate and do what i want them to do

9. Beautiful things made from wood. I love the smell, the texture and the shapes. Especialy australian wood

10. Getting a phone call from a friend :) Makes me feel special

Now for ten people

sigh

Daria
Psych babbler
Pinkpatentmaryjane
E.
Jacintah
Melissa at Sugar Coat it
Nichol
Andrea
Lizzie
Vicki

Books i have read recently

2010-01-05T19:57:00.000-08:00

I am slowly but surely making my way through the enormous pile of new books I have been given recently. I thought I would share a few comments on my recent reads.

The Children's book by A. S. Byatt

This book I found quite slow going at first and it is quite a long book, so patience is needed. It follows the lives of agroup of friends/family and their children as they grow up and how everything falls apart.

A week in december by Sebastian Faulks

This books is easy to read, fast past and interwines the stories of a large number of characters in London. Makes you think about the result of technology and todays world. How we often focus on money.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I am only half way through this book but am thoroughly enjoying it. It is also easy to read, though long (over 600 pages). It is set in England from around 1500 to 1535 and focus on Thomas Cromwell, Henvy VI, Anne Bolyen and other people from that period. It focuses on the political situation at that time and the split from Rome. It was the winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2009. I am finding it very interesting and they kindly have a list of characters in front and some family trees so you can more easily keep track of everybody.

Award - You are my sunshine

2010-01-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

I have been awarded the "You are my sunshine" award by both E from http://whiningattheworld.blogspot.comand Vicki from http://lifeandothermusings.blogspot.com. It is to acknowledge those that have a blog and spend endless hours ensuring that other blogger's get feedback on their blogs by leaving comments, adding themselves as a follower or dropping by just to let you know there are people out there.

I am so excited to get this award. I love recieving comments. I franticaly check my inbox each other minute to check if someone has commented! It feels nice to know that others experience similar things to me or can relate to what i say.

Now to pass it on...apart from passing it back to E. and Vicki

DarNonymous from http://darnonymous.blogspot.com. She always comments on my blog...and always giving me support on her own.

Pinkpatentmaryjane from http://pinkpatentmaryjanes.blogspot.com. Apart from being so nice to comment on my own blog - she always replies to the comments on her own blog too!!

Miss carly from http://everyonewantsthis.blogspot.com/ is also a friendly commenter on my blog

Psychbabbler from http://www.overacuppacoffee.com.

Jacintah from http://livemorenow.wordpress.com

Sorry about the lack of proper linking. Can't seem to get the hang of it.

And thanks to everyone else who comments on or visits my blog :)

Making my get fit and lose weight challenge more concrete

2010-01-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

For a while I have been trying to get fitter and lose some weight ...at least 5kgs.

My aims are
* to easily be able to fit into ALL my size 8 and 10 clothes
* to be able to jog the entire length of my jogging route and then extend it
* to lose 5 kgs in 3 months

I am joing Miss Carly and others in this challenge. Check everyone out at our blog "The new us" at http://journeytothenewus.blogspot.com/

I will post how i go on here and on there. Feel free to join me and everyone else there

New Zealand

2010-01-01T21:58:00.000-08:00

The following are a selection of photos from my holiday in New Zealand. They include Rotaroa, my nephrew and niece, and around piha.

Did you know...

2010-01-01T17:39:00.000-08:00

...that you can slice your finger open with palette knives?? Well..you can. I have several cuts on my fingers from using a knife to try and remove limpets from rocks. Limpets hold themselves very tightly to rocks. Not like sea snails who fall off at the slightest touch. Anyway, palette knives are just like really blunt bread and butter knives I think ,..so i was suprised to cut myself using one.

Has anyone else discovered anyone previous unknown dangerous objects in their house?

My New Years Eve

2009-12-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone - hope it is great - not too boring but not too difficult also.

My nye was packed - and not entirely in a good way. I started off by going to the post office ...but my local one was closed. Which i think is stupid since it wasn't even a public holiday!! So i had to hop back on the bus to a new supurb where the line in the post office was huge. Sigh. Then I had to go to my field site in La Parouse - cue a long bus ride and walk. And to top it off none of my limpets were where they were supposed to be.

Finally I got to do something new years eve-y. Meet up with friends for a picnic evening watching the fireworks. For me though - I don't really enjoy waiting hours (7 in total this year) in a cramped area, on a rug covered in damp patches of spilt vodca just to watch fireworks. But I did enjoy spending time with friends. And eating. Ate 3/4 of a packet of cornchips with salsa :) And drinking experimental punch. Had strawberry and cream tisane mixed with kiwi vodka and other things. Interesting. Finally got home at 3. Long trip home on the train - but at least we had a seat the entire way.

How was everyone's nye?

I am back and Christmas

2009-12-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone just letting you know that I am back ...yay...maybe...

I will try and put photos of holiday/wedding up soon but at the moment this computer won't let me upload them!!!

I hope everyone had a great christmas. Present wise I am reasonably happy. My mum gave me tickets to two Bell Shakespheare Plays at the Opera House (we go every year). Twelth Night and something else. I really enjoyed Twelth Night last time I saw it performed. She also gave me some new books (I rely on her giving me books each year). They were as follows

* The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
* The Lost Life by Steven Carroll (and it autographed ...yay)
* Love Song by Alex Miller
* Too much happiness by Alice Munro

all of which look great.

I also got some cds, a glass lizard, bracelet, fudge and a calender from other relatives. And my boyfriend...Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and something which is arriving in the post but has been delayed...still not shipped yet :( :(

With my Dad's family we donate money to charity instead. So all up we donated $1100 to UNHCR so I am happy with that

My christmas day was spent very quietly (apart from the excited noises and present playing of Kaia (Daria's son)). just relaxing. Watched lots of tv. Played trivia.

Just letting you know...

2009-12-17T02:28:00.000-08:00

that i may not be on here in the blogosphere till after boxing day as I flying to New Zealand tomorrow morning...for Daria's (from Three Little Birds www.darnonymous.blogspot.com) wedding :) Rest assured I will put up pictures even if she doesn't!

Also...sorry for lack of photos recently. The current computer I am doesn't seem to allow me to post them :(

Computer shops are lame

2009-12-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

In a follow up to my previous post - I went to about 5 computer shops today to see if they could test my laptop cable thing by plugging it in to something

All i got was - we can't do that - you will have to bring in your laptop (que pay us lots of money)

or...that will cost you $10-$15...to plug a cable in???? No thank you. To me that is a rip off

So I still have got no where :( :(

My month of no luck with computers

2009-12-15T01:05:00.001-08:00

It seems that this month everything has gone wrong with my laptop and other computer related thingss.

Firstly, the cord connection on my external hard drive broke. This, though not necessarily the end of the world, upset me as it contains all the movies my boyfriend kindly put on there before he left. Fortunately I could just buy a new case for my external hardrive (~$30) and with a bit of help from my boyfriend over the phone managed to pull the original case apart and move the hard drive to the new case. Yay...return of movies.

But now to the more worrying issue. My laptop will now longer turn on. For a couple of weeks it has been getting worse and worse with having problems connecting it to a powersource...until i reached this point. The problem is most likely either that there is something wrong with the cable or with the connection in the laptop. I am seriously hoping that it is the former as then I will only have to fork out for a new cable and not an entirely new laptop!!!! Which obviously costs more money! And I have so much stuff on my laptop. Luckily I had backed up most of my uni stuff at uni :)

So how am I writting this when it would seem that this is at home hours...well i actually own to desktop mac computers so all is not lost. Though this computer is a bit slower ...and not so good at the internet...and drives me crazy sometimes...all is not lost thankfully.

Is anyone else being completely frustrated by computers at the moment??? Or is all the bad luck being funelled to me...

The evil sun

2009-12-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (Sunday) I was again out in the field (the rocky shore) studying my limpets. Now yesterday was very hot and sunny - so I dutifully suncreened up and did the whole reapply thing every couple of hours.

So i get home and around 8.30 I strip to have a bath...and what...what is that on my back???? My entire is back is bright red!!! Somehow the sneaky sun had sunburned my through my t-shirt!!!! Ok Ok...i was wearing a white t-shirt...but stilll...I never though the sun was into piercing through your clothes to get to your skin. I even have a bra strip of whiteness!!!! So when I go for a swim next time in my halter neck bikini...i will have this weird tan mark! (not that I care too much...)

Another lesson learnt...

Thanks for the award Dar

2009-12-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

Daria from Three Little Birds (http://www.darnonymous.blogspot.com/) (i havn't worked out how to do that properely) has awarded me an award!! Yay

As part of accepting the award I must post ten things which noone on blogsville knows...so here it goes

At high school i was the goalkeeper in indoor and outdoor hockey. And for the two years I played outdoor we won the comp one year and were runner up the following year (by overall goals throughout the season).
I used to play the clarinet - and got to travel to Europe (Austria, Germany, Czech republic, Slovak republic and Hungary) and China with the school band.
I love Iago from the play Othello. I think he is really cool and I love that he is so manipulative.
I love the phantom from the phantom of the opera. This may partly be because i love the music from that musical!!! As you can tell a pattern for loving fictional characters is forming.
Charles Darwin is my biologist hero
If I could travel to anywhere in the world I would choose the Galapagas Islands. This is partly because of Charles Darwin
I love Tintin comics. I also have the DVDs....I even did one of the comics as one of my supplementary texts (we got to choose some) for the HSC.
I cross-stich. I wish I could do it more often but it is expensive.
I hate sand. Very silly since I am currently a marine biologist who works on the intertidal region. (Well..doing my honours)
I am missing 4 adult teeth. I was born without the things to have them! So currently I have a tooth which is really a baby one with lots of filling material on it to make it look big, and a gap (not one of the front teeth but the next ones along) where I have a plastic tooth hanging from a plate. The other two, the baby teeth were pulled out and the gap closed. I will eventually have an inplant where the gap is.

Well, I should pass this award on but Daria has given it to basically all the blogs I read!!!! So i will need to think of an alternative plan.

A recommendation

2009-12-11T11:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havn't postedfor a while - been so busy and tired. And this is going to be a very brief post (but I am going to do a proper post v. soon).

A new lesson learnt (which is really so common sense I am stupid for falling into the trap).

Do not drink lots at uni/work christmas parties if you have to do field work the following morning.

I am finding it so difficult to get up and I need to be at La Parouse by 9.30..by public transport.

Saved by the cricket

2009-12-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

I normally don't mind work at all. Just sitting, typing up data, drifting in thought. But today - today I could barely sit up I was so tired. No idea why. Was just consumed with sleep.

Thankfully - the cricket was on today. Australia vs West Indies. 4th day. I love the cricket..and I love listening to it on the radio. So i sneakily went onto the internet and listened to online with my headphones plugged in.

Ahh...saved me from dying at work :)

Daniel Vettori - my favourite cricketer ...and yes he is a kiwi...but i think he is kind of cute :) and good at cricket :)

Does anyone else have to rely on outside forces to keep you sane at work?

Guily pleasures - Part 3

2009-12-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Books

I love to read. Every single day. Anywhere and everywhere. Here are some books I read when I want a cheering up or a relax or whatever.

Anything by Agatha Christie. I have read every single of one of her books! I think they are so clever. I even have about 20 of them as audio dramatasisations which I listen to at night before going to sleep. I really like the Dark is Rising sequence. I just find reading them very satisfying :)

Most things by orson scott card. Speaker for the dead is probably my favourite (the 2nd one in the Ender's game series). I also really like Ender's game, the rest of the ones in that series, The worthing saga. Pastwatch- Christopher Columbus the redemption, and Earthborn (5th in the Homecoming saga). I also like Maps in the mirror - I like how he talks about the stories in that and their inspiration etc.

I really like this book..and it improves on 2nd and third time reading. This is because when you first read it you are trying to work out what is happening etc...but the next time when you read everything is infused with the emotion of knowing the whole story.

Haha. And i like to read all the Harry Potter books. Except for the 5th one which annoys me!

Another book related guilty pleasure of mine is book stores ...every single time I go into one I can't help but buy something!! Very bad for the wallet.

Also in this category of cheery up books are ones by Isabelle Carmody, lord of the rings, Foundation series by Isacc Asimov and many more.

The books listed here do appear very childlike...but these are not my every day reading books...just ones I rely on having there when I need them.

Guilty Pleasures - Part Two

2009-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

DVDs

I love to lie in bed watching dvds on my laptop or mini dvd player. Here are a few i love/cheery up dvds.

Yes minister and Yes Primeminister. This english comedy always make me laugh. I love seeing Sir Humphrey not winning!! I have all 5 series on DVD

Seachange!!! I recently got given the complete box set of this tv show for my birthday. I love watchning this drama...never tire of it. I like reminiscing about bits in episodes.

Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat. I love this musical. We performed it at my school one year. I like to sing along to all the good songs. I also love Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar. I love the songs :)

North and South. I love watching this. It is a four part series and I watched it all again yesterday. One of the reasons why it is a favourite is because of the character played by Richard Armitage...so cute :) Every time I watch it I watch the last scence twice. And I like him and the series better than Darcy/Pride and Prejudice.

I also enjoy watching chick flicks..though some are quite dodgy!

Guilty pleasures - Part 1

2009-11-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

Food

I love eating. Here are some of my food guilty pleasures.

Eating an entire mini wheel of camembert cheese in one sitting.

Microwave popcorn - so unhealthy but so tasty

Smoked salmon - I can eat strips of this stuff by itself.

Coffee gelato

Glutinous rice balls (the onese filled with seasame)

And salsa and corn chips (I can eat an entire packet of corn chips with salsa in a city as my boyfriend found out to his loss).

Others include:
olives
feta cheese
cheds (so good)
strawberries
marinated eggplant, mushroom etc
CAPERBERRIES (not capers...but caperberries..there is a difference)

These are just a small sample of my foody guilty pleasures

What food guilty pleasures do you have?

Yesterday

2009-11-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a mixed day

I got up at 6.30 to go to my field site (that is early for me!). My second bus was late (grrr) and the bus driver was sooo slow. Like 40 Km the entire journey! And there was this noisy creaking noise the entire trip which drove me crazy and prevented me from reading!

Then when I arrive there...I was late..and to make matters worse I must have misread the tidecharts or something because the water was higher than expected! So I hurriedly glued labels on the my limpets and took some measurements...Then I had a couple of hours to waste there...so decided to go for a swim :) :) I hadn't brought my swimmers so stripped to undies and t-shirt...and splashed in..And boy did it feel good!!!! No one else around just me and suprisingly clear ocean. So cool and refreshing. Thankfully there were no old ladies glaring down from me from the golf course above my field site :)

(This is not from yesterday but from my holiday in the Northern Territory...but I think it illustrates the clearness and refreshing nature of yesterday's swim)

Anyway...on the way back I home I discovered I had failed to bring a drink bottle. Very silly of me...really getting dehydrated after at least 4 hours in the sun. So when I get back to the city...I go the ATM to withdraw money to buy a bottle of water...and wait...what...you have reached your daily withdrawl limit...what...I havn't been near a bank or ATM today,..i have been in the middle of nowhere! So i go in...and yes...someone had taken/stolen $1600 from my bank account!!! And because it was done that day (yesterday/Thursday) I had to wait till today to start the formal fraud investiagtion (transactions don't show until the next day). Now $1600 is quite a lot for me so I was very upset.

But it is all sorted now. They said I will get my money back. Yay!!!

So a not so nice end to my day

Food in compartments

2009-11-25T02:44:00.000-08:00

I love having a meal with lots of little compartments. Like...japanese bento boxes. Sometimes when I am at work and i feel like a different meal to my usual sushi roll I will go to somewhere slightly more fancy and have one of these. Not the sushi bento boxes...but the really cool ones with a mini main meal and salad and sometimes a desserty thing and miso soup and yay!!!!

I also discovered on Little Sooti (http://littlesooti.blogspot.com/2009/11/dylans-candy-bar-new-york.html) a really cool lolly tacklebox by Dylans Candy Bar New York which was also pretty groovy.

Yum cha is also pretty kind in a compartmently way...lots of small little dishes.

Hmmm...i think I should do a cheese compartment dish someday for a picnic :)

Farewell holiday in Tassie

2009-11-22T22:28:00.000-08:00

Before my boyfriend left for Antartica we had a quick trip along the east coast of Tasmania. Some caravan parks are the biggest rip off. For example one place charged $25 a night...and then it was extra for the use of the bbqs...and (even worse) you had to pay extra for a hot shower!!! Even more ridiculuis is that we found parks in towns with free bbqs and at St Helens you could get free hot shows at the wharf area!!! Anyway, enjoy the pictures

Frecyinet National Park. We spent a peaceful morning here in a beach with no one else - eating fresh oysters and reading books.

An echidna scrambling away at the side of the road

Bay of fires. Beautiful beaches to wander around and no one much around though apparantly heaps busier in the peak season

Beautiful lichen coloured rocks

Me walking through temperate rainforest.

My Birthday

2009-11-19T16:29:00.001-08:00

My birthday was on sunday. Not the most exciting of birthdays. I spent the day cleaning before going to have a much needed back massage - soooo good. I did get some kind of unusual presents though

Blackwood chopping board - smells so nice and is really smooth and gorgeous looking. I love things made from native wood!

A sheet of unused skittle wrappers. From this place in India apparently

A bag made from unused chilli sauce wrappers. So groovy I thuk. Will save for a special day :)

Things I learnt this week...

2009-11-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

a) Birthdays are made good by having people to spend it with...This is the first year I have not been excited by my birthday's imminent approach (tomorrow/Sunday). Nothing planned. Probably just go to hang at home reading/movie watching or go to a NSW vs TAS cricket match by myself and take a book for back up. Part of the reason for this non-excitement is the lack of people to celebrate it. Most of my friends are all either studying for exams or out doing field work stuff. And my boyfriend is on a boat/in Antartica. Sigh.

b) Do not wear one of your favourite t-shirts when doing field work. Yesterday I was out supergluing tiny labels to my limpets. I was wearing this really cool t-shirt whilst doing it. And low and behold I got my special magnetic protractor glued to my t-shirt. You think I would have learnt by now

c) Make sure you bag is zipped properly up when there is food in it. Also a lesson I learnt yesterday whilst out in the field. I had this tasty pizza thing in my bag packed for lunch. I left my bag in a nice dry spot after getting all my gear out of it. I was in a rush so didnt really focus on making sure was all nicely zipped. I turn round and later and see my things sprawled everywhere and the topping of my pizza thing stolen by a silly bird. No lunch for me. Meant no food for from 10 till 5.30 when I got home.

Blame the supervisor - Progress report on honours

2009-11-09T11:37:00.001-08:00

from www.seashellsofnsw.org.au

Sigh. My first experiment was going great. I had collected my data - taken 600 measurements of limpets over 2 days and 3 "sites" - and it all looked pretty good - mostly. The data suggested that limpets DO face a particular direction - downwards.

So i go and talk to my honours supervisor and he says "maybe go out for a third day". So I dutifully go back and out and take another 300 measurements and then analyse my data. Ba baaaaa (that is the quiz incorrect noise). My data now has basically no nice pattern in it any longer! Which means I have to rethink my next experiment which I had already designed and was ready to go!

I am obvisously not 100% happy. But a struggle will only make me stronger/better * fingers crossed*

In need of a massage

2009-11-07T04:59:00.000-08:00

What I would really like is a personal massaging person.

Everytime I go out into the field I come back and the next day my back is so sore it is painful to move. This is because of the ultra ackward positions I have to get into to measure my limpets.

Now an alternative to going and paying for a massage every week woiuld be to buy ones of those massage machines - you know the ones you hold and they vibrate on your back type thing.

Except...

I can't stand the feeling of the machines vibrating in my hand. It drives me absolutely crazy.

So does anyone have any magical massaging advice?

Anyway that is my rant for today

City Vs. Country

2009-10-19T04:23:00.000-07:00

Living in the country is quiet and peacefull...Living in the country is fun

from playschool

For quite a while I have been thinking how great it would be to not live in the city. I would really love to live in a small rural town or on a property in the middle of nowwhere. The solitude I don't think would bother me - afterall I spend most of my free time at the moment reading, eating or surfing the internet - all of which you can do all by yourself. I just the love the atmosphere and community of many small towns. And many of the so called benefits of city living aren't really for me. Most people my age seem to spend their friday evenings clubbing and dancing - boring.

So what would i miss?

The wide range of food - you can get everything in the city - sushi, japanese bbq, yum cha, good indian, etc etc. Yes I could learn to cook things like this ...but I don;t think the quality or quantity would be up to scratch

Libraries! - I love going to the library. Free books!! If i didn't have the abundance of libraries I would be spending a heap on books. I go through 3 or 4 a week quite often. Sometimes more. But there are ways to get around this in the country- cheap books over the internet, second hand bookshops, friendly local libarians ord
ering things in for you.

Friends and family - I would miss everyone obviously. But i guess in this day and age so much is done over the internet or phone. And there is obviously letters.

So where would i go. I think Northen Australia is my current fantasy. I love the wet season - hot and wet at the same time. And the wildlife etc is great too. Not too crowded - lots of open spaces. And even good food in some places.

Sigh. I will have to wait a bit till I can venture on this particular journey. But it is nice to dream.

The pics on this post are ones I took whilst in the Northern territory and Western Australia. So beautiful up there!!!

The weather

2009-10-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else completely sick and tired of the weather where they are?

Well I am.

I wake up in the morning and it is beautiful and sunny, but as the day progresses it gets colder, and cloudier, and eventually wetter! This has been happening for at least a week, every single day, and it looks like it will continue for another week! Really annoying me! Escpecially as to study my poor little limpets I need fine weather! If it is storming I can't even go to my site really! Grrrr.

Why limpets and penguins?

2009-10-11T01:09:00.000-07:00

Limpets are what I am studying. What are they? They are kind of like flattened snails which live down on the rocks at the beach. Most people think they don't move but they do...just very slowly. I personally think they are pretty cool. When something attacks them they clamp down and to cool down they mushroom up - lifting their shell off the ground. As this is my honours year I predict I am going to get pretty obssessed with them. Even start having crazy dreams!

Penguins? Well apart from the fact that they are pretty cute - especially baby emperer penguins - my boyfriend is shortly to depart for Antartica for a year - so they represent him. Just need to convince him to start his own blog. So expect to see lots of pictures of them :)

So this is going to be the year of Limpets and Penguins for me.