Passing Time - Boggle

Juz and I looove playing Boggle, it's the latest obsession.  I like to think I'm the Boggle Queen.  Probably cause I bet Sir Justin in 9/10 matches haha.  I've always really been into any kind of word game (except Scrabble augh) because I'm a bit of a reader and I think I have a pretty sweet vocabulary.  Sometimes I totally see words in spanish and german in there too, but I'm not allowed to write them :P

The highest score I've gotten playing with Justin is 54 points I think.. it's because he keeps looking for made up words hoping he'll catch me out (we have a dictionary, but it almost makes it worse because of the amount of ridiculous words that DO exist).  Meanwhile I pull out long words and get 2-3 points more per word.  There's strategy to it :P

Going Vegetarian

I've been thinking about doing this for a while.  We have a couple of friends that are vegetarian and vegan, I've always been particularly struck with the idea of not eating animals, because I think it's not necessary when we can live without meat and I found the growing number of people choosing not to eat meat a sign that it was becoming easier to be able to do just that.  Last time I tried, I found that there weren't any good substitutes in terms of taste and availability, and it just wasn't the right time because I was still living at home and couldn't really ask my family to change everything just so my needs could be met.

A vegan put me onto some great websites that just have the most scrumptious looking food - all completely vegan!  I swear if we didn't have the biggest piece of crap oven in our flat I'd be in there trying every recipe on these websites.  Go here to be blown away (but maybe stay away if you're allergic to green things):  VeganYumYum and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Also for anyone interested I found these two websites particularly helpful:  The Vegetarian Society and The Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland.  But there's heaps of resources around for how to cook, where to shop and a practical information about staying healthy on a vegetarian/vegan diet.

I started today by buying tofu and doing my first vegetarian shop - needless to say it was vegetables, fruits and beans galore!  I look forward to trying out some new tricks :)

My BFF Rachel

Rachel has been my best friend every since senior high school, although we had met before that in junior high school.  She's one of the few friends from school I still regularly see, so it's been really cool to be able to stay in touch.

That's us in grade 12 five years ago.  See I think it's fair to use a totally goofy photo of her because she seriously always posed hilariously.  Plus I look like douche haha.  In those five years we've done completely different things with our lives, but I feel that our differences are more strengths than weaknesses the majority of the time.  She's married to her high school sweetheart Michael - who is the loveliest man (just like my Jus-Jus).  I was a bridesmaid at her wedding, which was beautiful (and she'll definitely be bridesmaid at mine!).

She's awesome because I can always be honest with her and talk to her about pretty much anything.  She's been through so much and has to be one of the strongest woman I know, so I really look up to her. This year she became a mum to a wonderful little boy named Cameron.  So far I've learnt so much from her, she has to be the most organised and well researched mother I know - I will definitely be coming to her for advice some day!  And Cameron is lovely.. he makes me all gooey because he always has the sweetest smiles for me - I love being his Aunt Schmil Schmil :D

Things might have changed for both of us, but we still pretty much do the same ol' thing.  We like the same stupid movies and tv shows, she always makes me laugh with how well she remembers hilarious one-liners.  And her husband likes the same silly video games as me, so I feel I got a good deal by the two of them marrying each other (Cause you know it's totally about me).  However we seem to be migrating more towards the baby and toy sections at the shops - which is totally cool by me even if I do get very very misty-eyed looking at all the cute stuff.  Xx

My Favourites: Anchorman

Now look, lets get one thing straight from the get-go:  I am not a drama/action/fantasy type of movie girl.  I like not having to think, I reserve that energy for other things and being entertained is my biggest concern when it comes to movies.  So I absolutely love movies with hilarious one-liners and that are frankly a little on the 'stupid' side.  And Anchorman is that movie.  I have seen this.. I.. I don't even know how many times and I still find myself dying while watching it.  

It's so full of win in my eyes - the lines are just completely memorable and the storyline is just so ridiculous that I can't help but love it.  I mean, the main character even plays jazz flute - WITH FLAME!

There's action.. there's even an epic fight scene.. here we have the weather man holding his weapon of choice:

"Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident." - Brick Tamland

There's even a bit of heavy drama scenes in the movie.. Here Ron Burgundy expresses feelings of grief and despair as his world falls apart:

"I'm in a glass case of emotion!" - Ron Burgundy

Ron Mueck Exhibition

Justin and I have been interested at seeing this exhibition at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art for a while.  So on this beautiful sunny day we took a ride on the citycat and decided to see what all the fuss was about.

My goodness it was really something.  This artist makes sculptures out of a variety of synthetic materials, mostly polyester resin, fibreglass and silicone.  The crazy thing is not just their size (which Justin demonstrates above, but Mueck also does small/to scale sculptures) but the unbelievable amount of detail on the sculptures.  Each hair is put in individually to have the appearance of hair growing (this includes stubble and body hair) and each tiny detail is painted on painstakingly.  The result is really amazing.

Watch this video about the pregnant woman sculpture, it shows some of the processes that led to the completion of the sculpture and shows some of the other sculptures.  NB: You need to be registered with Youtube to prove you're over 18 to watch it, but if you aren't just start here ;)

Bye Bye Hamilton!

Well today we left Hamilton Island.  Boarded my first Virgin plane - way better than Jetstar, I guess you get what you pay for teehee.  This time I had TV so the trip went sooo much faster, but still no food :(
Special of today:  A look back at the biggest WTF moment on this trip, proudly brought to you by the King of WTF - Justin.

Okay backstory:  There's this place on the island that sells sculptures and stuff for tourists.  Anyway out front they have some epic statues of different things.  Justin (who is obsessed with aliens and what not)  noticed this little alien dude hanging off the back of some chiselling ancient dude!  Naturally he couldn't resist capturing the moment and frankly I dont know who's scarier in this photo out of the three of them.   The alien may just take the prize because of the anal probe he's holding in his hand.. EW!

Whitehaven Beach

Today we took a tour to the beautiful Whitehaven Beach.  It was a great trip with Fantasea off Hamilton Island, they served us lunch and afternoon tea which was yumm-o.  The scenery was fantastic on the way to Whitehaven and it just got even better once we landed.

As you can see the water is just unbelievably beautiful and clear.. the sand is so so fine and pristine.  Unfortunately it was a tad bit windy, so it made it hard to read or even lie on the beach without being covered in a fine blanket after 10 minutes!  Justin and his dad gave the metal detector's a swing with no luck - can't win them all I guess.

This is me giving the underwater camera a go (it's my housemate's camera, so I was super paranoid about dropping it in the water!).  If anything is a testament to how much wind there was, it's my hair right there.. outrageous!

This is Justin with a starfish he found in the water.  The photo doesn't show it, but this guy had really really bright red, nasty looking spikes on him.  It was really cool seeing such a big one up close and in the wild!  (The starfish of course, not Justin).  

I wish I could say the trip back was as nice as the trip to Whitehaven, but the wind really picked up and it suddenly become Hurlsville for me (I'm not great with boats that are moving around a lot).  But all in all I really loved Whitehaven and would love to go back there in the summer sometime. :)

Bird Invasion on Hamilton Island

It started with one little cockatoo.  I was eating my sandwich on the balcony of the lovely apartment we were staying at on Hamilton Island when it flew onto the edge of the balcony in front of me.  This cockatoo (who I would end up calling Bungy because of his mangled foot) looked at me expectantly and I thought 'Ah what the hell' and gave him some of my bread.  He took it very carefully and ate in a very dapper fashion.

Next thing I know Bungy jumps on the table, scaring the crap out of me and just when I think he's crossed boundaries he jumps right on my knee and gives me a long hard look with his head tilted towards me.  We would soon find out Bungy wasn't the only overly friendly bird on the island!

This is Justin's dad feeding Bungy nuts.  He would always take food very gently and get very very close, but he wouldn't let you touch him.

This is a kookaburra I found outside our door.  He was literally about 30cm away from me and the camera was about 10cm away from him when I took the photo.  Amazing how tame these birds have become.

And this is what happens when chips get left out on the balcony!  There are about 6-8 lorikeets you CAN'T see in this picture!  Boy were they loud!  

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It's been 6 years since I boarded a plane, the last time was to get on a very long flight back to Australia from Germany when I was 16.  Today I boarded my first Jetstar flight to Hamilton Island!  The actual flight was pretty non-eventful (No TV and no food will do that) but once we got near the island we got some sweet views of the islands around.

Once we landed on the island, I was thrilled to find out that we go our own sweet little golf buggy to drive around the island on - hell yeah!  Courtesy of our 5km an hour buggy somehow making it to the highest point by road on the island here is a shot of the Hamilton Island waters.

                                        

Final Assignment!

So I handed in my last assignment for the semester today!  I'm okay with the fact that it was probably the biggest piece of fail I've written so far - BUT I will pass which.. is sometimes all you can ask for ><.

Good timing for the assignment actually since tomorrow morning I'll be bothering a plane to Hamilton Island - ahhhh assignment stress free on holiday - WOOT!

Passing Time - Pictionary

When I met Justin I was thrilled to find someone that loves playing board games.  I'd been dying to play quite a few games for a while and over time we've collected a couple of different games.  Unfortunately most games aren't friendly for under four people, which for now is a bit of a hard task.  For example, Pictionary.  It's a game played in pairs, where one player has to guess what the other player is drawing (it's written on a card the drawer picks up) and they have three minutes to convey their message through drawings.  Our solution to not having anyone else to play with is to have 'practice runs' where we pick a card and draw something for the other to guess.  Today I'm presenting you with two of our masterpieces:

Now I know what you're thinking... 

What the hell is that?  Why is it's mouth so big?  Is it an animal?  But wait, it's only got either two legs and a tail or three legs?  Why does it appear to be floating.. wait is it a ghost?

These are all valid guesses.. It may surprise you to learn that this is my Justin's interpretation of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.  Furthermore it may surprise you that I somehow managed to see that and guess the answer which was Alice in Wonderland.  It's not the first miracle I've performed, I managed to get Little Red Riding Hood out of two lines and a mini-tunnel.  Or at least that's what it probably looked like to everyone else!

I wish I could boast that my other half was as skilled as I am at the art of reading min-  I mean deciphering pictographs.  Despite my best efforts to be an artist, sometimes we're just not on the same page.  Take the above picture - the category is Action and the answer is Ouch.  You're thinking holy crap, that's pretty hard to draw, but I do see where you were going with this Silvia.. why.. it's a man holding his sore knee!  Thanks, I know you were totally thinking that.  My darling partner?  Somehow he was fixated on thinking that this was a pregnant woman (A one-legged woman at that).  A pregnant woman with a leg sticking out of her non-existent belly.. wait.. it must be labour! LABOUR! LABOUR! I think I died of laughter afterwards.. 

My Rattikins: Creamy

We bought Miss Creamy with Coco, they are sisters from the same litter.  Justin named her, it's quite cute I asked him to say the first thing he thought of when he looked at her and he said 'Creamy'.  She's my little butterball, the biggest and roundest of the three!  She will always be on the scene at feeding time.

This is my first picture of Creamy and Coco.  She instantly became the alpha of the pair and maintained this position when we introduced Muffin.  Despite her dominance on the inside of a cage, she is painfully shy and will often squeeze herself into tiny corners, while Coco will explore freely and uninhibited.  

Creamy is a tough cookie.  She is the hardest to get out of her cage and the hardest to wash or nail trim.  However, her weakness for food guarantees that she can be persuaded by some kind of currency!

Here she is sitting on Auntie Sian's shoulder :)  She might prefer small spaces, but she is also happy to sit on your shoulder and press into your neck for security.

Here she is playing with her sister Coco, in my make-shift felt bowl.  It's a really easy little playground for anyone who has rats, they like being able to hide in it and move around in the soft materials.  Despite being sisters it's cute how different the two of them are, and how well they compliment each other's interests and objectives.  Coco likes to be challenged and Creamy likes to eat, so any food we leave in the gaps gets pulled out by Coco for all the rats.  Coco likes to rip up things and Creamy enjoys making nests, so sometimes you will see Coco creating the materials for Creamy to work with - they are quite the pair of workers!

Sea World

My last hurrah at Sea World today for the year I guess.  I love Sea World for the same reasons I love Underwater World - it's brilliant to see animals up close, I find fish and the mammals of the sea very interesting.

The polar bears are sooo cool!  I never knew that they weren't white, they are actually clear which is why it's really weird when you go there and see a brown bear!  They get reasonably white once they jump in the water though, and it's nice watching them play with a barrel or traffic cone.

There's an amazing aquarium section, where you can see fish, sharks and stingrays underwater.  My family all agreed that they could spend a long time just watching all the fish go about their day.  Also on the note of stingrays, there's an area where you can touch them and the baby stingray's are very cute.

These guys are the fairy penguins, unfortunately few of them were swimming.  I have gone there before and watched them all do formation laps up and down the pool.  I love these guys!  I seem to have an obsession with birds I think haha.

Finally the dolphin show is definitely worth watching, they've choreographed some amazing routines for the dolphins and it's a real thrill to watch.  Didn't see it this time, but we went a few months back and it was amazing.  Back when we went one the mothers was pregnant and didn't do tricks.  It's great, because I was watching the news a couple months ago and the baby had been born, so I felt really connected to the news story because I had seen the mother pregnant.  Story here.

Miss Un-Photogenic

If I ever entered the Miss World contest pretty sure they'd have to make up that prize title for me.  I seriously have issues featuring in photos.  Mostly because when I DO feature in them, I always always look terrible.  Here's a few of me avoiding the camera and looking terrible all at the same time :P

This is one is proudly brought to you by Coca Cola - real taste ... fake photo op.

This photo is one of the first taken in my (almost) two year relationship.. I couldn't even be photogenic in a romantic context!  (To be fair I'm pretty sure I was highly highly hungover at the time).

Mum

Ever since I moved out of home, I find that going home and spending time with my family is one of the nicest things I get to do.  I've also found that my mum and I have a better relationship - she's definitely my bestest friend in the whole wide world.

We're sometimes complete opposites.  She's crazy and lively, she has so much energy and laughs at everything.  I'm serious and quiet, I tend to be very inwards and reflective.  But in some ways I also notice mannerisms and actions that I've started doing that remind me of my mum - it's funny how we become our parents without even trying (or wanting!).

She's clever and very crafty - she has the capacity to master any craft or skill she sets her mind to.. she's a fantastic knitter, she creates wonderful masterpieces from quilling, she can paint glass and makes cards.  My mum cries in kids movies, she sings kids songs (and often gets the words wrong), she's taken care of and raised a few generations of Indian ring-necks and Alexanderines.

No matter how crappy my day has been or what is bothering me she always makes me laugh and often that's exactly what I need.  She likes the same stupid movies as me and she makes badly translated Spanish jokes that make me laugh at their ability to be SO very lost in translation.  I love my mum :)

Magazines

I have a serious confession to make - I am addicted to magazines.  But not only am I addicted to reading them, I am addicted to collecting them for 'future reference'.  Behold my pile collected since the last time I decided to throw out my growing pile:

I know it doesn't look THAT bad, but I did also leave out the house and bridal ones >.>  That would have made it look worse and I'm not about tarnishing my good name here.  I could justify it by saying that it's 'research' for my 'career'.. which is true, but mostly it's that I love how I can waste an entire afternoon to fashion and girly stuff and nobody can judge me for it.. ahh I do love fashion mag :3

Well it's time to do something about these piles that keep appearing every year - I'm going to start collecting and compiling all the stuff that I love out of these magazines and all the stuff that applies to me in one neat format for future reference.  Stay tuned!

Holidays - Moreton Island

My boyfriend and his father have an addiction - treasure hunting.  They won't see anyone about this 'gold fever' which is sometimes a good thing - because I score some pretty sweet trips out of their obsession.  Today's blog entry is about our trip to Moreton Island!

We caught the car ferry from Brisbane Harbour to Tangalooma Resort.  It's a great place, bit of trivia: one of the Scooby Doo films was filmed on the island!  All the places to stay are right on the beach, so it's literally like a 1 minute walk straight onto sand, wonderful! And of course you can always see the beautiful sunrise/sunset from your balcony.

Moreton Island is also home to a lovely lake called Blue Lagoon.  We had great success with the metal detectors there, I even found my first ring!  A lovely little silver ring with possibly a diamond in it - Very exciting!

But the coolest part was getting to feed the dolphins that come to feed every night at Tangalooma.  Our dolphin 'Echo' was really gentle and it was lovely to see them up close like that!

Day Walks in Brisbane - Apex Park

Today was my last day with my parents until we come back from out Hamilton Island trip (Wee!  8 days to go!).   Justin came to spend the day in the great area of Logan/Beaudesert, so we decided we'd go check out the new parklands they've made in Browns Plains - Apex Park.

From what I understand there's plains to extend the industrial park in that section so they are doing something similar to what they've done at Seventeen Mile Rocks and made a lot of the area next to it a parkland reserve.  So there's a big track going around a central lake/wetlands.  There's lots of nice trees and some wildlife - mostly birds from what I could see, despite a board saying there were heaps of different animals there.

This is my cute patootie demonstrating the walking track - for some reason it looks like I'm skipping, I can assure you I'm not..

And here Justin is making a normalish pose on the little bridge along the track.. kind of reminded us of the UQ St Lucia bridge in miniature!

Books - Love Our Way

So I've been doing lots of research for an assignment about adopting from overseas, which led me to a really great book written by a mother in Canberra that adopted 6 children from overseas.  It's called 'Love Our Way' and it's by Julia Rollings.  She adopted a baby from Korea, then another baby with a condition that made him blind, then a older pair of brothers from India that were abandoned by their father and their last adoption was a brother and sister from India.  It is these last two children Akil and Sabila, that are the chunk of the story because they were actually taken by their father and sold illegally, which meant that their mother never knew what happened to them.

Anyway it is a fantastic read - it really opens your eyes to how many children out there are in need of a family.  I've always thought about perhaps adopting at a later stage and reading this really helped me to understand some of the responsibilities and hard work that comes with the decision to adopt.  It was also a really heartwarming read and I found it equally intriguing and helpful for my current assignment.  Julia Rollings also has a blog that talks a bit about the events after the book which can be found here.

Movie World

So my ultra-cool parents bought me one of those VIP cards that let you into Movie World, Seaworld and Wet 'n' Wild any time until the end of June.  Dad took my sister Bianca and I to Movie World today so we could take advantage of our cards before they run out!  Didn't get to go on as many rides as I would have liked to because it was kind of busy this weekend and the Scooby-coaster broke down while we were waiting for it :(  But a highlight of my day was definitely seeing my dad and sister get totally drenched on the Wild Wild West (especially since it was freezing haha suckers!).  If you haven't see this ride in action it goes a little something like this:

Phase One:  Encourage family to go on ride.  Watch with anticipation as doors to large slope creak open.

Phase Two:  ??????

Phase Three:  Profit!  (Or in this case - very cold, wet and unimpressed younger sibling)

 

The Kitty Kats: Ninja

Before I left home I had two cats that used to be the little centers of my universe - Ninja and Samurai.  I couldn't take them with me when I moved in with Justin because we're not allowed cats or dogs and because my two little furballs had become such a member of my family that I couldn't take that away from them.  I'm happy when I go stay with my family because then I can see my two cats :3  This blog post is about Ninja:

He was bought at six weeks as a Siamese X.. I can guarantee you he is hardly a Siamese at all.  We think he might be cross Russian Blue because he has all the features with the imperfect yellow eyes and white chest tuft.  (But I don't care: In my eyes he is puuurrrrr-fect!).  He has the softest fur and my favourite thing about him are his 'white socks' which we're even cuter on his little kitten feet. >o.o<

I call him "The Prince" because he is a truly regal and sophisticated chap - he is also the master of his domain.  He has definitely loosened up a lot as he gets older (He is almost three years old).  My father is his favourite person in the whole world, followed by my mum now (but only because she feeds him and brushes him every day).  He goes by the name Mister Nin, Ninners and Ninjie.  Ninja has gone through about 12 collars - he absolutely hates them - but he has managed to keep his latest collar for quite a while now.  Funny, since it's a very girly Pink Panther collar with diamantes ;)