Tim Tam Goodness

Hey sunshines,

Miss Steph just told me that results are up if you want to check them out. I got what I expected so that's good. Good luck!

Okay, so instead we're thinking Freestyle at Emporium in the Valley at 8. If you're coming it'd be great if you could send an e-mail so we have a good idea of numbers.

High fives to you all!

ronaldraygun gave me D. Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterwards, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

1. dogs

2. dancing around my room with the door shut and the music up really loud

3. Darren Lockyer

4. Dumas' novels

5. driving

6. Donnie Darko

7. dad

8. daisies

9. drinks

10. dessert

Okay, so since most of us are a little short on cash at the moment, the plan now is for dessert. Dessert, you say? This isn't an ordinary dessert. Saucy. Chocolate. Pudding.

Freestyle Rosalie
Wednesday.

I still need to sort out a time but these things take time.

Jen

I had brunch today with a friend who's leaving for China to have fun with stool samples for a couple of months. Yay biology! The weather was perfect and their house is opposite UQ, on the river. They even have their own jetty! It was also fantastic to do something unrelated to uni. I've been cranky and sullen and really taciturn lately so sorry guys!

This does bring me to my next point. I've been wanting to go to Green Papaya for ages and I've heard fantastic things about both the restaurant and its owner so once we're on the other side of these exams we should definitely get into the Vietnamese spirit. It'll be hard to top the movies we saw last time but we can always try....

In other exciting news, pinky_pi is going to teach me how to knit. I have crazy yarn and everything! Ooh, crafty goodness.

So, after stressing out this evening about an honours project that never gets done, I decided some stres-relief is in order. Dinner (and I'm thinking curry, sweet curry or some Belgian Beer Bar goodness) and drinkies next weekend. Those in favour vote 'aye'.

I have some advice for those getting PT sessions. When your trainer asks if you want to "go harder" this session resist the temptation to say, "Oh yeah. Why not?" The worst thing was the three flights of stairs between the weights room and the ladies and then another flight to the entrance. I staggered back to uni, at 4.30, looking like a tragic alcoholic. Ah, the stares. The disgust.

Today was, possibly, the best of the year. Dancing to Janet Jackson. Life doesn't get any better. It's a dance for a boy and a girl so don't worry, kids. If you're good, you too can share the awesomeness.

is, for a change, sunny. And warm. So warm that they called it a heatwave. Two days ago they upgraded the heat-health warning to "Level 3: Heatwave". It's the level below "Level 4: The Apocalypse". It's reached a maximum of 31 degrees.... Admittedly, in London it got up to 38 but it's still pretty funny!

So, highlights so far include seeing green mince for sale in a supermarket (which explains why British food is so goddamn tasty), throwing up outside the University Club because I had food poisoning (which, given that they sell green mince in shops, isn't really that surprising) and the lovely, lovely people. Oh, and watching England lose their match against Portugal and the reading the papers afterward. Priceless!

I also got to watch the State of Origin, although drinking in the morning is a little debaucherous. I'll also, of course, be watching the Bledisloe match on Saturday, which I guess makes me one of those Aussies. You know, the ones who hang out in Aussie pubs and say things like "yeah, mate" and "awse". Wait....

As well as being, well, a place for me to ramble, this is also a duty-free call. If anyone wants anything, let me know and I'll get it on the way back, provided it's not too heavy ... or too illegal.

I have an honours project ... two days before flying out. It can't top chlamydia though so I had to drown my sorrows with coffee, caramel and cream tart and tom yum. Oh, and dance demonstrations in a skirt in the mall. Gotta get ready for that next battle....

Ooh, soccer tonight.

There's a girl who's interests say that she likes group theory ... and group sex. Probably not the most common combination.

I just saw this guy from LA dance and it was awesome. He does chorey for people like my bro Kanye and ... other famous hip-hop people. Yeah. One of these days it'll be me dancing with Beyonce. Like, when I'm eighty. And I have a walking stick.

I was so close to saying my mood was predatory. Can you see it?

because you know I love them.

Tess has a reprieve until Friday. The vet wanted us to try ramping up our medication before, well, you know. A part of me wishes we didn't keep going because it means the worst, for me, is yet to come and the anxious waiting is getting me down. But if she can live, without being in pain or discomfort, then it's worth it for her and that's what's important. Thanks for all the hugs and support!

Well, to top off a series of wonderful events which stem from being way too tired, I've lost my little flashy. I even drove back to uni to see if it was still in the lab.

Lost: 1 plastic flash drive, coated in silver paint to make it look classy. Last seen getting cosy with the USB port in the back-right computer in the level 5 lab. Answers to "flashy". Reward for information (with the reward being killer-hugs, free Merlo food/coffee and hero-worshipping).

I guess at least I copied my 481 assignment to my laptop on Friday. But a lot of the work I've done for Sean is gone....

Hopefully someone's more honest than the laptop person and it's been handed in.

Okay, so I don't normally write on my LJ. And I don't often voice my confused mix of liberal and conservative political views. But I was reading Amnesty's "the human rights defender" and a couple of things annoyed me enough to write about them.

1. Incorrect training for police equipped with Taser guns. Pow! Pow! Hell, yeah! Tasers (the guns which give people an electric shock) are awesome fun. Except when they kill people. The guns themselves aren't really the problem. I think people underestimate the damage they cause and use them in inappropriate situations:

"An 82-year-old man (in America) was shocked with a Taser gun for urinating in a car park and not heeding the calls of the police to approach them. The man had dementia."


2. The U.S. extraordinary rendition policy. The CIA has been using private aircraft operators, as well as front companies, to abduct people and send them to prisons overseas or to CIA "black sites". The number of rendition victims "is likely to be in the hundreds." What really made me mad was the torture and imprisonment of people without, it seems, much evidence to suggest that they were even involved in terrorist activities.

On a happier note, the mid-year honours talks were very well done. My favourite moment: "that R_0 value is really crazy."

I love trees that turn yummy shades of yellow and burgandy at Easter. I love little sheep with their black socks and those cows with their big, gorgeous eyes. I even love lush, rolling hills. But give me another friggin' winding road through another rolling hill and I might just lose it. We drove for about 8 hours through those hills, battling pitch blackness, fog, icy coldness and insane NZ drivers who take those 100 km/h signs literally, regardless of the steepness of the slope or the sharpness of the turn.

On a much brighter note (because, despite my whinging, I'm loving this holiday) today was the first time I saw cows line up for milking. Single file, of their own accord! Apparently they even know which order to get into. It was hilarious and so very cute.

Speaking of cute and funny, I saw my first sheep-shag of the trip. Sheep with sheep, I mean. However, I think this was the pimply, fumbling teenager of the sheep world. He tried to mount this poor sheep and fell off. Oh, funny.

There was something people forgot to tell me about Rotorua in those glossy brochures though. Seriously, no one ever tells you that it smells like one permanent fart. I should have known that something was up when I went past the Sulphur City Motel. Yum.

Okay, so it took me a good half an hour to get this whole LJ thing going. Give me chalk and blackboards any day....

So, off to NZ tomorrow which should be great. I'm the type of person who thinks sitting in a car in the middle of summer is "tropical". Michelan man jumpers here we come. Have a nice Easter and say hi to the Easter bunny.